Copy 1, Volume 1

A topographical history of Surrey / By Edward Wedlake Brayley, assisted by John Britton, and E. W. Brayley, jun. The geological section by Gideon Mantell. The illustrative department under the superintendence of Thomas Allom.

  • Edward William Brayley
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A topographical history of Surrey / By Edward Wedlake Brayley, assisted by John Britton, and E. W. Brayley, jun. The geological section by Gideon Mantell. The illustrative department under the superintendence of Thomas Allom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Geraldine; and that he bore away the palm of victory in every encounter. In connexion with this tale, we are further informed that when on his way to Florence, the Earl fell in with the learned Cor- nelius Agrippa [the algemist], who shewed him the image of his Geraldine, in a magic glass, “ sick, weeping on her bed, and resolved all into devout religion for the absence of her lord.”65 Wood appears to give full belief to this story; yet he disingenuously withholds all mention of the source from which he certainly derived it; and which, as was first noticed by Mr. Park, and has been addi- tionally elucidated by Dr. Nott, was a little romance written by Nash, and published in 1593, under the title of the History of Jack Wilton. In this piece of imaginative biography, which is too full of absurdities and anachronisms to require a serious refutation, Wilton describes himself as a page of the Earl of Surrey, accompanying him in his travels; and for awhile, and with his master’s acquiescence, assuming his habit and character. Dr. Nott, who considers Surrey’s attachment to have been real, though purely platonic, is of opinion that the Earl never went to Italy ; although his poetical taste appears to have been based on the best examples of Italian writers. The reversal of Attainder, and restoration in blood of the old Duke of Norfolk, in 1553, has been noticed already; and it was in conse- quence of this act of justice that Thomas, his grandson (the eldest son of the Poet Surrey), became capable of succeeding to the family estates and honours on his decease in August, 1554. At the corona- tion of Queen Mary, in the preceding October, this nobleman bore the title of Earl of Surrey; and he officiated in the ceremonies as Marshal of England, in right of his aged grandfather. Queen Elizabeth, in her first year, made him a knight of the Garter; and it is remarkable, that he was the first person who was so honoured by that princess; possibly from a sense of the injuries inflicted on his family by the late King, her father. During the early part of her reign, he was much employed in Scottish affairs; and, in 1561, was constituted Lieutenant-general in the north. He fully enjoyed the favour and confidence of her Majesty until seduced by ambition, and the shadowed perspective of a crown, he rashly engaged in the intrigues carried on by Spain and the Pope (Pius the Fifth), for the release of Mary, queen of Scots,—who was retained in England as a prisoner of state. Mary, after her escape from Lochleven castle, and the defeat of her 65 Athene Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 67 : edit. 1721. Sir Walter Scott has made an elegant use of this fiction, in the Minstrel’s Song, in the sixth canto of the Lay of the last Minstrel.
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