CHAPTER VIII. 1615--1618 LETTERS. A SOLDIER'S correspondence is generally a more truthful index to character than that of any other professional man. Soldiers generally write to the point and say what they mean. Their letters have not the grace and finish of the statesman, the diplomatist, or the professed man of letters, but they have an especial interest of their own which is not to be found in a civilian's letters; for between the soldier and the civilian is a great gulf fixed, and the latter cannot compete with the former on his own ground. In the olden days, letter writing was at a much higher pitch of perfection than it is now. Divest the letters of the 17th and 18th centuries of their flowery border of flattery and hyperbole, and you will find clever, courteous, and interesting epistles from people in every rank of life. Bad spelling and bad grammar (as we consider) may characterise these letters, but, with all their defects, how immeasurably superior to the flippant, brusque, and egotistical style of the average 19th century letter. Soldiers, as a rule, have been at all times averse to letter writing. Sir Francis Vere, the greatest captain of his time, never wrote more than he could possibly help. So difficult was his hand to decipher, that Sir Robert Cecil, when Secretary of State, and in the habit of receiving letters in every style of handwriting under the sun, told Vere how difficult he found it to decipher his letters, and we find Sir Francis employing an amanuensis when writing to the Secretary of State, "because he hears Cecil cannot read his hand readily." Sir Horace Vere wrote a still worse hand, and the few letters of his still extant, plainly show what an uncongenial employment letter writing was to him. Sir Edward Cecil, on the contrary, wrote a good straight hand, and has left many of his letters behind him, which, though not conspicuous for talent or surpassing interest, afford us curious and interesting information, both as regards Cecil's career and the profession to which he was so ardently devoted. Sir Edward Cecil spent the year 1615, and' most of the year 1616, at Utrecht, where his regiment had its headquarters. In the spring of 1615, we find him writing to William Camden, the great antiquary : "SIR, : SIR E. CECIL TO MR. W. CAMDEN. "I am bold to trouble you with a request, wherein I presume no man can so certainlly satisfie mee, unlesse it bee Sir Robert Cotton, whose understanding of antiquities and yours, are imparted one to the other. My request is to have the knowledge from you, or by your meanes from Sir Robert Cotton,2 who was the first cause of instituting the English march now in use with us, upon what reasons the old one was lost, and this found and received; and what other circumstances of persons, time, and place, you shall think pertinent to my satisfaccion herein. "You have power to command your owne recompense of mee any way I can be usefull to you in; which you may doe as much for my respect of your worth as for the benefitt I desire to make of you, so I rest "Your assured loving friend, "ED. CECYLL. 66 Utrecht, 17th of Apr., 1615."3 1 Vere to Cecil, Feb. 6, 1602-3.-S. P. Holland. 2 Sir Robert Cotton, the famous antiquary, was born 1570, and died at his house in Westminster, 1631. 3 Cottonian MSS., Julius. c. v. Camden returned the following answer :— "HONOURABLE Sir, "The proposition you make is out of the reach of my profession, and not of antiquity, but of late memory. By reason of Sir Robert Cotton's absence, I can impart nothing from him as yet, and for my own observation, it is very slender. Only, I remember that after Captain Morgan, in the year 1572, had first carried to Flushing 300 English, and had procured Sir Humfrey Gilbert to bring over more and to be colonel of the English there, a new military discipline was shortly after brought in; and the new march, by some that had served the Duke of Alva, and entertained especially by the important instance of Sir Roger Williams;1 although strong opposition was then against it by captain Pykeman, and after by captain Read, ancient leaders, and Sir William Pelham, who were scornfully termed, by the contrary party, Saint George's Souldados; and Sir John Smith, who had served under the constable Momorency, yea, and under d'Alva, encountred with his pen against the new discipline, and did write much which was never published. "This in haste, untill I may happen upon Sir R. Cotton, I thought good to impart to your lordship, whom I wish all happy success to the encrease and complement of your honour." 2 It was entirely owing to Sir Edward Cecil's representations to King Charles I., many years after the two foregoing letters were written, that the old English march, which had fallen into disuse, was revived. Walpole, in his memoir of Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, thus refers to this military march : "As we have few memoirs of this lord, I shall be excused for inserting a curious piece in which he was concerned. It is a warrant of Charles I. directing the revival of the old English march as it is still in use with the foot. The manuscript was found by the present Earl of Huntingdon in an old chest, and as the parchment 1 Sir Roger Williams, a gallant soldier of fortune, distinguished himself in the Low Countries and in France. Biron, Marshal of France, once saying, "That he did not like the march of the English drum, because it was so slow ;' Sir Roger, hearing him, sharply replied, "As slow as it is, yet it hath gone through all France." Quoted in Grose's Military Antiquities, ii. p. 44. Camden's Epistola, p. 351. has at one corner the arms of his lordship's predecessor, then living, the order was probably sent to all lords-lieutenants of counties.1 "(Signed) CHARLES REX. "Whereas the ancient custome of nations hath ever bene to use one certaine and constant forme of march in the warres, whereby to be distinguished one from another. And the march of this our English nation, so famous in all the honourable atchievements and glorious warres of this our kingdome in forraigne parts (being, by the approbation of strangers themselves, confessed and acknowledged the best of all marches) was, through the negligence and carlessness of drummers, and by long discontinuance, so altered and changed from the ancient gravitie and majestie thereof, as it was in danger utterly to have bene lost and forgotten. It pleased our late deare brother Prince Henry to revive and rectifie the same, by ordayning an establishment of one certaine measure which was beaten in his presence at Greenwich, anno 1610. In confirmation whereof, wee are graciously pleased, at the instance and humble sute of our right trusty and right well beloved cousin and counsellor, Edward viscount Wimbledon, to set down and ordaine this present establishment hereunder expressed. Willing and commanding all drummers within our kingdome of England and principalitie of Wales, exactly and precisely to observe the same, as well in this our kingdome as abroad in the service of any forraigne prince or state, without any addition or alteration whatsoever. To the end that so ancient, famous and commendable a custome may be preserved as a patterne and precedent to all posteritie. "Given at our palace of Westminster, the seventh day of February, in the seventh yeare of our raigne of England, Scotland, France and Ireland." 2 Walpole does not give the march itself, which is a very necessary adjunct to the preceding warrant, but Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, gives the measure in full, as follows: 1 A digest of this warrant is given in the "Analytical Index to the series of Records known as the Remembrancia, preserved among the Archives of the City of London, A.D. 1579-1664." p. 254 and note. 2 Royal and Noble Authors, ii. pp. 302-4. R RR pou R R pou tou pou R tou pou R poung potang Subscribed, Arundel and Surrey. "This is a true copie of the original, signed by his Majestie. "ED. NORGATE, Windsor." 1 "SIR, SIR EDWARD CECIL TO MR. THOMAS MURRAY.2 "I have by acquaintance observed a disposition in you worthie to make me of an opinion that yo' desire is, the Prince 1i. p. 229, note. 2 Thomas Murray, tutor to Prince Charles, was afterwards made provost of Eton. He died 1623. |