Welsh Journals

The Black Lord Herbert And his Book of Autobiography. By J. Kyrle Fletcher. LORD Herbert of Cherbury is the historical connecting link between the counties of Monmouth and Montgomery, because though he was Lord of Montgomery Castle and came of a famous family long settled in that county, yet his family had their roots in the county of Monmouth. His original Herbert ancestor was Sir Richard Herbert, of Coldbrook, near Abergavenny, one of the heroes of the Wars of the Roses. Also Lord Herbert himself, when he married his cousin, Mary Herbert of St. Julian's, Monmouthshire, went to live with her in the old mansion on the bank of the Usk River, which still stands, though lost to sight in a maze of modern dwellings. Sir Sydney Lee some time ago, in his critical life of Lord Herbert,* with which he preceded his edition of the famous Autobiography, went out of his way to cast the stones of his scorn upon our Welsh author, endeavouring to show him in the worst possible light, and to prove that he was a liar and a man without true affection for his friend. His great complaint seems to be that certain material facts dealing with the Life of Lord Herbert were left out by the noble author from sheer snobbishness, and in this and other minor details, he sees a certain guile and deceit. Starting to write the life of Lord Herbert with this mental attitude, Sir Sydney Lee was bound to see the worst in him, and I venture to think that he could not have properly understood either the author or the peculiar purpose of his book. Now Lord Herbert has all the qualities and the faults of the Celt. His bravery none but Sir Sydney Lee have ever attempted to discount. His boastfulness is, after all, but a natural part The edition of the Autobiography of Lord Herbert mentioned here is the late Sir Sydney Lee's edition with the life of the noble author, Spub- lished by Routledge. price 5/ This account or defence of Lord Herbert was written shortly before the recent death of Sir Sydney Lee, whlO will be long remembered for his splendid life of Shakespeare. Every lover of Welsh history will also be interested to learn that the Gregynog Press propose publishing the Auto- biography of Lord Herhert, and this should rival in interest the first edition which was published by Horace Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press, and is now one of those rare1 treasures which are eagerly fought for when they appear in the auction room, and usually go to swell some library in the United States. This new edition printed and illustrated in that distinctive manner which we now .associate with the Gregynog Precis should stimulate in- terest in Lord Herbert and his Autobiography which is a choice morsel of 17tih Oeatuiry Literature. of his training and his age. For though his life was for the most part spent at the Court of James I, and his later hopes fixed on Charles I, yet in his romantic outlook he belongs to that earlier swaggering age of Elizabeth. The fact that he devotes many pages of his book to the story of the glories of his race, may seem tedious to a cold Saxon writer, but the Celt finds in this but an echo of the earlier times, and it reminds him of those great pedigree rolls which are the pride and glory of many a Welsh squire as they trace his descent back to Kings and Princes of the Blood Royal. If ever a man had a fair right to boast of the glorious descent of his family from the heroes of old Wales, this was the man. One of the chief sins of omission laid to his charge is that Lord Herbert failed to mention his youthful step-father in his family relationship, but merely calls him Sir John Danvers. But one has to remember that this book was not written for the casual stranger, but was an intimate journal written for members of his own family, who would be fully aware of the rather curious relationship whereby the young knight became stepfather to a young man of his own age. A marriage which drew a poem from Donne, who was a great admirer of the widowed lady. We are all under a deep debt of gratitude to Lord Herbert, for has he not made the last days of the Court of Elizabeth stand out vividly for our instruction or entertainment. In the pages of his book he takes us through the maze of politics by which James the First managed to avoid being involved in the wars which threatened Europe. There is one particular saying of Lord Herbert's which Sir Sydney Lee has picked upon as a proof of his heartlessness; it is the saying, being then my dear friend." The remark occurs in his account of his walking in Whitehall when he was recovering from the ague, and hearing one Emerson speaking very disgraceful words of Sir Robert Harley, being then my dear friend." Upon which the noble lord, with his usual recklessness, shook Master Emerson by his long beard, and stepping aside, drew his sword, expecting Emerson to attack him, but instead he fled to the Lords of the Council. To most readers that saying. being then my dear friend," would have passed unnoticed, remem- bering that this is a middle-aged man writing of the exploits of his youth. Also, who of us keeps the same friends all through life, for often the friend of our wild youth is not the man we would call friend in our years of graver deliberation. Yet this has been picked out as a singular example of the shallow- ness and insincerity of Lord Herbert's character. Of course, he was a strange mixture, but all his mother's sons were, for they had in their veins the blood of their mother, the saintly poetic Margaret Newport, mingled with the fiery, im- pulsive blood of the fighting Herberts.