THE Gentleman's Magazine; For FEBRUARY 1755 The Life of WM CAVENDISH, ILLIAM CAVENDISH A In 1639 the troubles in Scotland began, and the king having affembled an army in the north, fet out foon after to command it in perfon. The earl not only received and entertained him on his journey at Walbeck, his country feat, with a magnificence and profufion which none at that time attempted to imitate, but advanced ten thousand pounds towards defraying the expence of the expedition, and raised a troop of horse earl of Devonshire, B confifting of 200 knights and gentle men, who ferved at their own expence, and were honoured with the title of the prince's troop. But there were fome who notwithstanding their duty to the king, and their profeffions of loyalty, che affiftance which the earl afforded, would rather have feen his majefty want was fo attentive to his education, and his abilities were fo great, that at an age when other young gentlemen are but beginning to learn, he had gained a deep and extenfive knowledge, not only of the languages, but of fcience. He had befides, a graceful perfon, and great elegance of manners. Thus accomplished, he appeared in the court of James the firft, and was foon diftinguished by his favour. At the creation of Henry prince of Wales in 1610, he was made knight of the Bath; and upon his acceffion to a large eftate at the death of his father in 1620, he was D created baron Ogle, and vifc. Mansfield. At the death of K. James the intereft of lord Mansfield rather increafed than diminished, and in the third year of Charles I. he was created earl of Newcaftle upon Tyne. The kindness of his prince drew upon him the envy of Buckingham, a rival favourite, which, however, though it made his attendance at court fets pleafing, did not fupplant him. The king indeed had great reafon to continue his friend, for he gave inconteftible proofs that he was a friend to the king, from whom he was fo far from deriving any advantages, befides the honour of his confidence, that the fervices required of him were fo expenfive as to plunge him very deep into debt, notwithstanding his eftate produced more than three and twenty thoufand pounds per ann. In 1638 he was appointed governor of the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I, who was then taken out of the hands of the women. E than that the earl fhould have obtained the honour by which this fervice diftinguished him, The earl commanded his noble vohantiers in perfon, and when he came near Berwick, he fent Sir Wm Carneby to the earl of Holland, then general of the horfe, to know where his troop thould march. Lord Holland anfwered, next after the troops of the general officers. Newcastle fent again to reprefent, that having the honour to march with the prince's colours, he thought he ought not to march under any officers of the field. The general repeated his order, and the earl, as the only remaining ex-.. pedient, took off the prince's colours, and marched with the naked ftaff. But the earl, though he thought it conve nient then to defift from farther altercation, yet, as foon as the fervice was over, he fent a challenge to the general, who appointed time and place, but though he had never before been fufpected to want courage, yet he found means to difclofe the matter to the king, who interpofed his authority, and G when the earl came to the place, he fourd not his adverfary, but his fecond, who acquainted him, that the general was abfent by the king's command. F As 52 Life of Wm Cavendish, Dicke of Newcastle As the general mifunderstanding between the king and the parliament increafed, his majesty's appointment of the earl to the tuition of his fon, was, among cther things, called in queftion. But the earl, to prevent any trouble which the deed, for his own they were intended; but he kept the troop which had bro't carl, and the irreparable injury of his own affairs in the north. BThe parliament were now fo exafperated against the earl, that in a proclamation of immunity to thofe who would forfake the king's intereft, they excepted him by name. But the earl, neither alienated by the king's retention of his men, nor intimidated by the refentment of the parliament, was, on the contrary, animated to purfue his purpose with yet greater vigour and activity by the difadvantages which would have induced almost every other man to relinquish it in defpair a his enemies by this refignation, he re-them, to the unspeakable-diftrefs of the tired to his country feat, that no pretence might be afforded of farther dif fatisfaction at his conduct, and continued in great privacy till he received exprefs orders from his majefty to repair to Hull. His obedience to the king was upon this occafon, as upon every other, zealous and implicit; for though he did not receive the meflage till midnight, and was diftant from Hull more than 40 miles, yet he fet out the fame hour, and with only three fervants, entered the place early the next morning. He immediately informed his majefty of his arrival by letter, and offered to fecure for him that important fortrefs, with all the magazines which it contained, but his majesty, inftead of accepting this offer, conmmanded him to obey whatever orders he fhould receive from the parliament. By the parliament he was foon ordered to attend the houfe, and he immediately obeyed. It is faid, that a defign was formed to impeach him, but his general character was fo E good that this defign was not executed. From his fervice in parliament he again retired to his feat in the country, as well to avoid all occafion of offence, as to fpare himself the pain of feeing the confufion at court every day increafe. But he was foon afterwards fent for by his majefty to York, where he was ordered to take upon him the command of Newcastle and the four adjacent counties, Northumberland, Cumberland, Wefimoreland, and Durham, Newcastle, who had been ufed to think nothing impoffible which the king ordered, immediately fet about to execute G this commiffion, though he had neither men, arms, ammunition, nor money; it was indeed important in proportion as it was difficult, for the king had not then a port open in the kingdom, and in three days more to fecure one would have been impoffible; the earl therefore without delay fet out, almoft alone, and by his own perfonal intereft fecured Newcafie, raifed a troop of 120 horfe, and a good regiment of foot, any fudden which defended him from attempt. He knew his own intereft to be fill great, he therefore applied to the king for authority to raife an army in the north; the king, who was well pleafed by the offer, and had nothing but a commiffion to give in reward of such fidelity and zeal, immediately appointed the carl commander in chief of the forces to be raifed in Lincoln, Nottingham, Lancafier, Chefer, Leicefler, Rutland, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Norfolk, Suffolk, Effex, and N. of Trent, with power to confer knighthood, coin money, and iffue fuch declarations as he fhould think fit. In lefs than three months after the date of this commiffion, the earl had an army of Sooo horfe, foot, and dragoons. With this force he marched into Yorkshire, and having defeated the enemy who oppofed him at PierceBridge, he advanced to York; where the governor prefented him with the keys, and whither many of the nobility reforted to compliment and affift him. Having placed a good garrifon in York, he proceeded to Tadeafter; and the parlia ment's forces either retreating as he advanced, or being fubdued in battle, left him in poffeffion of all the northern counties; whence he furnished the king with arms and ammunition, efcorted by choice troops, fome times to the number of 7000, which the king never. fuffered to return. For thefe important fervices, performed with an army which had not only been levied by his perfonal intereft, but principally maintained at de His Bravery, Defeat, and Escape: his private expence, the king created •him marquis of Newcastle, and in the preamble to the patent, all his fervices were particularly enumerated, with faitable encomiums. 1 B In the winter of this year the earl A marched into Derbyshire, and thence once more to Walbeck, his feat in Notfinghamshire; but in a very fhort time news was fent him, that the Scots were about to enter England; upon which he marched again into Yorkshire, with all poffible expedition. It was now become expedient to divide his force; he therefore fent Sir Thomas Glenham to Newcafle, left Lord Bellafize at Selby, and went himself into the bishoprick of Durham. But while he was fuccefsfully oppofing the Scots in Durham, Lord Bellefize was totally routed at Selby; fo that he haftened once more back into C Yorkshire, that he might, if poffible, preferve the city. In York he was foon befieged by three armies, and feveral attempts to take the city by ftorm having been made without fuccefs, the fiege was turned into, a blockade. At the end of three months the garrison was brought into great diftrefs for want of D provifions; but fuch was the influence of the marquis over his people, that it furmounted even the force of hunger, and they fubmitted to a regular but fcanty allowance, which being dealt out to them every day, preferved them from the extremity of famine, and enabled E them ftill to wait for the fuccours which were every day expected from the king. Thefe fuccours, after a tedious but unavoidable delay, at length arrived, under the command of Prince Rupert. But Rupert, whofe fucceffes were always fatal, not content with driving an army much fuperior to his own before him, F took it into his head that he would beat it. This imprudent refolution brought on the fatal battle of Marfion Moor, in which the royal party was totally defeated on the 2d of July 1644. Under this misfortune the marquis had only the mournful confolation of reflecting that the battle was fought without his confent, and in fpight of his remonStrances. He faw the king's affairs totally defperate, and having now no fervice in his power, all his money being exhaufted, and all his men cut off, he made the best of his way to Scarborough, and there, with a few of his principal officers, whofe affairs were equally defperate, he took fhipping for Hamburg, Some indeed have infinuated, that he should not have left the kingdom with H 53 fuch precipitation; it may be juftly replied, that it would otherwise have been impoffible to leave it at all; and furely no man who had fuffered fhipwreck was ever yet blamed for attempting to preferve his life, by laying hold of the plank that came first within his reach. After ftaying about fix months at Hambourgh, he went by fea to Amfterdam, and thence to Paris, with his wife a young lady, where they were fo diftreffed as to pawn even their cloaths for a dinner. From Paris he removed to Antwerp, that he might be somewhat nearer his country, where he refided many years in extreme penury, with this aggravation, that his enemies were not only poffeffing but ruining his eftate; befides receiving the annual rent, which was more than 20,000l. they cut down wood to the value of 45000l. more. They plundered and ruined all his houfes, fold his furniture, corn, cattle, horses, and deer; and having stripped his eftate every thing, even, to the . fences, they fold it for 5 years purchase. But during all thefe hardships, which continued 18 years, in which time he did not receive one fhilling of the produce of all his eftates, his fpirit was yet unbroken, and his forefight preferved him from defpair. He had predicted the civil war before it began, and he predicted the restoration as an infallible event, even when Cromwell was in the height of his fuccefs, in a book which he then wrote, and addrefled to Charles II. called, A treatise on government and the interest of Great Britain, with respect to the other porivers of Europe. The marquis, however, was one of the few who from themfelves derive dignity and honour, and whom fortune cannot make cheap by making poor. When he was without property, and without friends, a fugitive in a foreign country, and deemed a rebel by those who governed his own, he was treated by the princes, in whofe territories he lived, with the utmost distinction and refpect. When he entered the Spani dominions he was complimented with the keys of the cities he paffed through, that he might command the gates at his pleasure. He was vifited by Don John of Auftria, by many of the German princes, and more frequently by his royal mafter, who, in the midst of his fufferings invefted him with the order of the garter. At length time fulfilled his prediction, and recalled him to his country. He Hints concerning Roads. adly, Let all waggons draw with fix, ration, and was received with the indu-and carts with three horfes, for "tis not bitable and fpontaneous praife of univerfal joy. He was foon after conftituted chief justice in Eyre of the counties A north of Trent, and created Earl of Ogle and Duke of Newcastle. I From this time his life was retired, and he indulged his natural difpofition in pleasures of the literary kind. Some part of his time he employed in repairing his eftates fome part in breaking and managing horfes, and the reft in B tudy and compofition. He wrote the celebrated treatife on horfemanship, of which a moft elegant edition has been lately printed in this kingdom. Many poems, which, except thofe preferved among the poetry of his dutchefs, are loft, and four comedies; the Country Captain Variety; the Humourous Lovers; C and the Triumphant Widow or Medley of Humours. The Humourous Lovers was acted with great applaufe in 1677, and Shadwell tranferibed grea part of the Triumphant Widow into his Bury Fair. As he was himself a fcholar and a genius, he was the patron of learning and D wit. Ben Johnson was one of his firft favourites; a poet, Sir Wm Davenant was his lieutenant general; Parfon Hudfon, an able divine, was his feout-mafter, and Chillingworth his engineer. na Such were the fortunes, and fuch the character of Charles Cavendish, Duke of Newcafle, who died on Christmas-day, 1676, full of days and honour, in the 54th His intered with that of his dutchels under a fumptuous monument at the entrance of Westminster Abbey, of which a cut is annexed. 1-56. ov His titles defcended to his fon Henry, who was the laft heir-male of the fami- F ly, and died July 26, 1691. The title of Newcale in the line of Cavendish was then extinct, but the female iffue married into fome of the nobleft families in England. Mr URBAN, Harborough, Feb. 24. Tof the public roads is certainly HE amendment and prefervation G an object well worth the national attention, but the late act for broad wheels (tho' well intended) has fallen fhort of its intention, and has been productive of fome inconveniencies, for the removing of which, might not the following regulations be of fervice? xft. Let all carriages be reftricted to a certain weight by the engine, and let a public ftamp be affixed on the car. rage, denoting the weight of it. the number of horfes, but the weight of Three horfes dragging an heavy weight, the carriage which hurts the roads. will tear up the road with their feet, more than fix horfes drawing the fame weight; befides, the flower a carriage moves, the deeper it muft cut in. gdly. Let all waggons and carts, drawing on turnpike roads between the ft of October and the ift of May, be thod with a tire of fix inches, and be obliged, under a fmall penalty, to keep one uniform track or rut, unless occafionally turning out, to make way for another carriage. 4thly. If between the 1st of May and the aft of October, any perfon (not being a common ftage carrier) chufes to draw with more than fix horfes, let them he indulged in it on paying an extraordi-nary toll for at that time of the year they could not damage the roads much, and it would be of great fervice to the farmers to make up a team capable of poor, as it would enable the higgling drawing 30 or 40 hundred weight of coals at a time. Yours, &c. bidow st A Letter from R. Brooke, M. D. in MaryM.D. in London, with a whole Year's bland, dated Oct. 15, 1754, to J. Bevis, DEAR SIR, Journal of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. Itrical account of the weather for one year. As there was not a remarkable cold day last winter, nor a hot day the fucceeding fummer, our climate will will in any other account I may have appear more like yours than it probably the pleafure of tranfmitting to you. 'I have feen an account of the weather kept by a friend in Philadelphia, which agrees with mine. Have fent you an exact thermome I have many reafons that induce me to believe next winter will be very fevere with us: firft, it is an obfervation of the oldeft people among us, that the winter fucceeding a hard winter in Europe is very fevere here. Lord Verulam fomewhere fays, that many baws in the autumn denote a bard winter. The Indians fay, Many grapes in the fall, prefage the enfuing winter to be fevere; and now Hour woods, all over the province are loaded with wild grapes. Befides, we have had the wetteft fummer that is remembered by any man. Add to thefe another obfervation of LdVerulam. In his Hiftory |