"But Heaven did presently find out

What with great care he could not do ;
'Twas well he was the coach gone out,

Or he might have been murdered too :
For they who did this 'squire kill

Would fear the blood of none to spill."

Sir John Reresby, the chief officer at the time of the London police, gives us in his Memoirs, a long account of this murder. He says that until all circumstances were fully known, it was believed by many that the assault upon Mr. Thynne had been really intended for the Duke of Monmouth, and that it was a scheme of the Court party to put him out of the way. There was, however, no foundation for this; though Reresby does admit that the King (Charles II.) was very anxious that Count Konigsmark should, if possible, get away out of the country. A reward of £200 was offered for his arrest, and he was taken by one Gibbons, an attendant of the Duke of Monmouth, as he was stepping in disguise aboard ship. Gibbons charged him with the murder, and added, that he had liked to have killed his master, the Duke. "No," answered the Count, "they would not have killed him." All four were put upon their trial, but by management the Count was acquitted. The Judges, Pemberton and North, would not allow the depositions previously taken before the Magistrate, to be read. Had this been done, the evidence would have directly criminated him. The other three were convicted, and executed in Pall Mall, the Duke of Monmouth attending the execution. Lieut. Stern protested that his was a hard case: that he had been deceived throughout; and that now he was going to die for the sake of a man (Count Konigsmark) whom he had never spoken to; for a lady whom he had never seen, and for a dead man whom he never had a view of! The Polander declared he only did what, as a soldier, he was bound to do; and as to Capt. Vratz, he treated it all very cavalierly. Evelyn mentions in his Memoirs (1.541) under date of 10th March, that Vratz went to execution like an undaunted hero, as one that had done a friendly office for that base coward, Konigsmark: he had only behaved like a gentleman, and did not value dying, of a rush. On the 24th March Evelyn went

to see the corpse "of that obstinate creature, Vratz," the King having permitted that his body should be transported to his own country, he being of good family, and one of the first embalmed by a particular art invented by one William Russell. The flesh was florid as if the person was sleeping. He had been dead now nearly fifteen days, and lay exposed in a very rich coffin lined with lead, too magnificent (says Evelyn) for so horrid a murderer.

In this affair, therefore, the most guilty was acquitted, the next most guilty (Vratz) was honourably interred, and the least offenders were hanged in chains; something like the New England law in Hudibras, where an useless innocent weaver is executed instead of an useful guilty cobbler. The Count had the worst cause, but the most money. His subsequent history was for a long time confounded with that of his brother Philip Christopher, who, on suspicion of being the lover of Sophia of Zell (afterwards Queen of George I.), was assassinated in 1694 in the palace at Hanover, and whose remains were found under the floor of the passage in which he had been despatched. But of Charles John Konigsmark, the murderer of Mr. Thynne, the end was this:-He entered the Venetian service, was sent into Greece as second in command of an expedition, and fell at the siege of Argos, August 29th, 1686, four years and a half after the murder. His position in society had suffered by that act, and he probably courted danger to redeem it; for at the time of the murder he had acknowledged that "it was a stain upon his blood, yet such as a good action in the wars, or a lodgment on the counterscarp, would easily wash out."

And now, what became of the fair Helen of this quarrel, the Lady Percy? In less than four months after Mr. Thynne's death she married a third husband, Charles Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset. She rose to great political importance at Court, and was the greatest favourite Queen Anne had. The Tories hated her. Dean Swift regarded her as his worst enemy, and in one of his fits of unscrupulous rage, was rash enough to circulate in the highest society some verses in which he more than insinuated that in her youth, she had been a party to the murder of Mr. Thynne. This he ventured to do in some severe lines called "The Windsor Prophecy,"

written in ancient style, and pretending to have been found in a grave at Windsor. Swift's offensive sarcasm was not lessened by his allusion to the colour of her Ladyship's hair, which happened to be red. After a few introductory lines the "Prophecy" proceeded thus:

"And, dear England, if ought I understand,
Beware of carrots from Northumberland.
Carrots sown Thynn a deep root may get,

If so they be in Somer-set:

Their Cunnings-mark thou: for I have been told,
They assassin when young, and poison when old."

These lines were never forgiven or forgotten, as Swift found to his cost. The Bishoprick of Hereford becoming vacant, his friends made every effort for him. The Duchess of Somerset flew to Court; and down upon her knees in an agony of tears, prayed the Queen to refuse. The Dean remained at St. Patrick's.

On Mr. Thynne's monument in the South aisle of the Choir of Westminster Abbey Church, there is a bas relief in white marble, representing the murder. It is engraved in Dart's history of Westminster Abbey. The monument was erected by Mr. Thynne's brother-in-law and executor, Thomas Hall, Esq., of Bradford.

Mr. Thynne having died without children, Longleat passed (in 1682) to his second cousin, Thomas Thynne, of Kempsford, in

1 Vol II. pp. 84 and 245.

2 The marriage of Mr. Thynne with the Lady Ogle has been questioned by some writers, who imagined that a Contract for a marriage only existed at the time of his death. The marriage, however, did take place, as is proved by reference to a curious legal report of the case in Parliament: Thomas Hall, of Bradford, and others, Executors of Mr. Thynne, against Mrs. Jane Potter. It appears that Mrs. Potter had been instrumental in promoting the marriage, and that during the courtship, Mr. Thynne had given her a bond, under penalty of £1000, to pay her £500 within ten days after his marriage with the Lady Ogle. fix years after Mr. Thynne's death, the Potters brought their action against the Executors, and, having proved the marriage, obtained a verdict for the £1000 penalty. However, after being carried about by lawyers from one court to another, the original verdict was set aside, on the ground that the bond had been for an unlawful consideration. (See "Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” vol. VI., p. 282. Cases in Parliament, Shower, fol. 76.) The history of the Lady Elizabeth Percy is given at considerable length in Craik's "Romance of the Peerage," vol. IV., p. 327, from which some of the above particulars have been taken.

Gloucestershire, who was immediately created Baron Thynne of Warminster, and first Viscount Weymouth. This nobleman held the property for thirty-two years, from 1682 to 1714; and from the chronicle of the alterations in the house, it appears that he had a considerable share in them. The domestic chapel was now finished. It was consecrated 19th August, 1684: the sermon (from 2 Chron. vii. 16.) being preached by Richard Roderick, B.D., of Christ Church, Oxford, and Vicar of Blandford Forum, Dorset; afterwards printed, with a dedication to his Lordship.

Large improvements, in the taste of the age, seem to have been made in the gardens. Indeed it would almost appear as if the first ornamental garden of any size was made at this time. The style adopted was the Dutch, introduced into England by William and Mary. Lord Weymouth laid out his ground according to the plan shown in the old engraving of the house by Kip: groves and long avenues, with vistas and artificial mounds, were planted; the original leat was widened at intervals into fish-ponds, all rigorously angular; flower beds were described in chequered and geometric figures; the very gooseberry and currant bushes in the kitchen garden drilled to grow in squares or parallelograms, trimmed up as stiff and stately as lords and ladies at the court of the Hague. From the front door of the house, a long raised terrace, on a level with the highest step, projected forward to the entrance gates.

Lord Weymouth had been, (about 1657) at a time when he had no prospect of succeeding to this estate, a student of Christ Church, Oxford, under Dr. Hammond and Dr. Fell. A biographical notice in the peerage speaks of him as a person of strict piety, honour, and integrity. Good qualities are unfortunately so indiscriminately bestowed in biographies, that the eye is apt to pass over them as matters of course. But we have the best ground for believing that in this instance the eulogy was well deserved. For, though we had no other and corroborative testimony to show what manner of spirit he was of, still we should perhaps be able to form a not very erroneous opinion, recollecting this one only thing. At the early age of eighteen or so, in the little world ever found within the precincts of an university, Mr. Thynne was the friend and companion of

Thomas Ken. This solitary fact gives at once complexion to the whole. If George Hooper, Francis Turner, (afterwards bishops,) and the chosen few of their college set, are known in English Church history as highly accomplished, resolute, simple-minded men; it is but natural to conclude that Mr. Thynne resembled them. He and Ken had gone up to Oxford about the year 1656; Ken probably, as poor students were wont to do, on foot; the other, it may be presumed, by some more aristocratic mode of conveyance. They found Oxford in a state of disorder. This sounds strange to modern ears, but it was the new reign of liberty of conscience. The Book of Common Prayer forbidden, Cromwell Chancellor, Dr. Owen the Vice-Chancellor, (a dignitary usually looked upon as the model of propriety,) "walking about like a young scholar, with his hair powdered, snake-bone band-strings," (whatever were they?) "with very large tassels, a huge set of ribbons pointed at his knees, Spanish leather boots with lawn tops, and his hat mostly cocked!" The Proctor, the very guardian of decorum, "was a boisterous fellow at cudgelling and foot-ball playing." I mention these things not for their own sake, but merely to enable you to conclude what the general state of affairs must have been, in the midst of which religious principle and sobriety of mind were left to find such nourishment as they could. No wonder that good men were amazed, and spake of these things one to another.

It does not appear what degree of intimacy was kept up between Ken and Thynne after leaving college. Interruptions even of closest friendship are not uncommon at a time of life when the paths of duty lead in different directions. Ken's professional occupations called him to Essex, Winchester, or the Isle of Wight. He was for some time a traveller in Italy; then became fixed as a chaplain to the Court in Holland; and in the very year in which Mr. Thynne unexpectedly succeeded to Longleat (1682), Ken was tossing about on the Morocco Seas as chaplain to the Tangiers fleet. In 1683 he was appointed to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells.

I need not recite at any length particulars from a biography now so well known through the labours of many admirers. It will be enough merely to remind you, and is in more immediate connexion