HENRY PIERREPOINT, MARQUIS OF DORCHESTER, APPEARED but little in the character of an author, though he seems to have had as great foundation for being so, as any on the list. He studied ten or twelve hours a day for many years 2; was admitted a bencher of Gray's Inn, for his knowledge of the law; and fellow of the college of physicians, for his proficience in medicine and anatomy. He published "A Speech spoken in the House of Lords, concerning the Right of Bishops to sit in Parliament; May 21. 1641." "Another, concerning the Lawfulness and Conveniency of their intermeddling in temporal Affairs; May 24. 1641." 66 Speech to the Trained-bands of Nottinghamshire, at Newark; July 13. 1641." • Wood's Fasti, vol. ii. p.22. 3 [Dr. Lort says he left his library to this college, containing a remarkably good collection of civil law books; the catalogue of which has been published. Wood calls him the pride and glory of the college.] "Letter to John Lord Roos, February 25. 1659." This lord was son-in-law of the marquis, and was then prosecuting a divorce from his wife for adultery. Wood says, that this lord Roos (afterwards duke of Rutland), assisted by Samuel Butler, returned a buffoon answer; to which the marquis replied with another paper, entitled "The Reasons why the Marquis of Dorchester printed his Letter; together with his Answer to a printed Paper, called A true and perfect Copy of the Lord Roos his Answer to the Marquis of Dorchester's Letter." Wood adds, "He, the said marquis, hath, as it is probable, other things extant, or at least fit to be printed, which I have not yet seen.' [Henry, eldest son of the first, and, as he was usually called, "the good earl of Kingston"," was born in 1606, had his education in Emanuel college, Cambridge, and afterwards, says Wood, was a hard student, and esteemed a learned man; as being well [See a large account, touching the divorce between lord Roos and his lady, in the continuation of lord Clarendon's Life, vol. iii.] › Collins's Peerage, vol. ii. read in the fathers, schoolmen, casuists, the civil and common law, &c. On the breaking out of the civil war he adhered to Charles the first, attended him in his garrison at Oxford, and other places, as one of his privy-council; and for his services was created marquis of Dorchester, in 1645. He survived the usurpation, and died at his house in Charterhouseyard, London, December 8. 1680. Collins speaks of his lordship as a person of great learning, and generally esteemed. He also cites a remarkable dedication to lord Dorchester, before a small treatise printed in 1662, and entitled Judge Rumsey's Instructions to cleanse the Stomach, &c. The extract is curiously bombastic 6: "As Apollo among the planets, so we may say your lordship is among the peers; in the vast firmament of learning, you outshine them all. And understanding that among other scientifical speculations, your lordship hath been addicted to the study of physic (wherein you have made such an admirable progress, that you have attained not only the theory but the practice thereof) I am bold to dedicate this small piece to your lordship, wherein there are divers new Not less fantastical is the compliment of Herrick, which gave to his lordship a Medusean power of vision in his address to this ultimus heroum: As in "time past, when Cato the severe In reverence of his person, every one Stood as he had been turn'd from flesh to stone: E'ne so my numbers will astonisht be If but lookt on; struck dead, if scan'd by thee." physical experiments for the universal health of mankind; therefore I presume no discerning reader will adjudge this address to be improper." Sir Robert Stapylton undertook his version of Juvenal in obedience to the command of lord Dorchester, whom he thus panegyrises: "If my abilities could have reached the heights of my ambition, I would have dedicated, out of the learning of the Greeks and Romans, (wherein your lordship is so great a master) not my interpretation of another, but some worke that should have owned me for the author, and treated of such subjects as your lordship daily reads: but it shall be happinesse enough for me, after the learned authors of sciences, and commentators upon lawes, have taken up your more reserved time, if my author may entertain your hours of recreation; which I would not promise to myself, but that he delights with profit. For your lordship's divertisements are more serious then most men's studies; your very mirth being observations upon men and businesse, which your lordship knowes was the end that Juvenal aimed at.” Howel, in a remarkable letter to this nobleman, respecting the political character of queen Elizabeth, compliments him also as "a star of the first magnitude," and proceeds to say, "Your house may be called a true academy, and your head the capital of knowledge; or rather an exchequer, wherein there is a treasure enough to give pensions to all the wits of the times."7 7 Familiar Letters, p. 465. edit. 1737. Wood notices an elegy on this noble and generous marquis by John Crouch, some time his domestic servant; which being too large for insertion, he omitted; and which now perhaps will be sought in vain, as the marquis's publications have been. N. D., probably Dorman Newman, the publisher, inscribed an edition of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey to this marquis of Dorchester in 1667, and complimented him by saying, "True nobility and learning are the grand accomplishments, which make your honour outshine the most of your degree, in the cynosure of all arts and sciences, of which your lordship is so great a master and patron, that you despise not the addresses of the meanest endeavours."] 8 In the Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. xxxiv. there is a curious political relique from lord Dorchester, to sir. Robert Anstruther, dated Whitehall, Oct. 16. 1631. |