MEMOIRS, &c. CHAPTER I. FROM THE BIRTH OF MR. PHILIP SIDNEY IN 1554, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS TRAVELS IN 1572. No period of the English history is more richly adorned with examples of genuine worth, than the golden reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was the age of reviving literature, when men began to be esteemed according to their wisdom, It was distinguished by the great glory of the establishment of the reformation, and ennobled by an uncommon display of public and domestic virtue. Among those truly illustrious men, whose exalted characters contributed to the welfare of her government, the fame of Sir Philip Sidney shines forth with a splendour peculiarly attractive. He was born on the 29th day of November, 1554, at Penshurst, in the county of Kent. This place, pleasantly situated near B & the banks of the river Medway, was the ancient seat of Sir WE learn from Ben Jonson's description of Penshurst, that it was not embellished with works of touch or marble, with polished pillars or a roof of gold; that it had other and better marks of its excellency, in the fertility of its soil, the salubrity of its air, and its charming scenery of wood and water. No vestiges now remain of that venerable oak, which traditionary fame announces to have been planted on the birth of Sir Philip Sidney (2), in the Park at Penshurst: Then (1) Having been possessed by many noble and distinguished persons, it was at length forfeited to the crown by the attainder of Sir Ralph Fane, in the reign of Edward VI. (2) What Cicero said of the Marian oak, has been applied to this tree, which was called "the bear's oak;" in allusion probably to one of the coguizances of the Sidney family:-"manet vero et semper manebit: sata ením "Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport, "Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made "Beneath the broad beech, and the chesnut shade: "At his great birth, where all the Muses mot." Ben Jonson's Forest i THIS rural object hath not been omitted by Mr. Waller in his beautiful verses, written during his residence at this delightful seat: « Go, boy, and carve this passion on the bark Ir is asserted on the authority of Verstegan, that the family of the Sidneys or Sydnies (3), originally of French extraction, enim est ingenio, nullius autem agricolæ cultu stirps tam diuturna quam poetæ versu seminari potest." The oak was cut down in 1768. De Legibus, l. i. (3) The two letters i and y were used indiscriminately in the surnames of English families; as in Savile or Savyle, Nevile or Nevyle, Leicester or Leycester, In the sixteenth century the English language had no standard of extraction, came over into England about the reign of Henry II., to whom William de Sidney was chamberlain. The pride of noble descent is then only laudable, when it excites our endeavours to surpass others in every thing good and great; when it becomes an incentive to improve our moral and religious attainments. And, "as "nothing cheers the heart of greatness more, than the fair glory of illustrious ancestors," so he alone beautifies their escutcheon, who adds to the memorials of their worth, the lustre of his own achievements; who by his learning, his wisdom, and his virtue, secures renown to himself. SIR William Sidney, Knight Banneret, was chamberlain and steward of the household to Henry VIII. He is celebrated as one of the commanders who were present at the battle of Flodden (4), or Flouden, on the ninth day of September, 1515, when James IV. of Scotland was of correct orthography, and the same words were often written differently by the same persons, in different parts of the same work. Nay, the change was so common, as to occur not only in the same page, but in the same line, and an instance may be given of one word undergoing twenty-five variations in the same manuscript. (4) See "the Battle of Flodden." Part iii. Fit v.—ccxcvi. |