CHAPTER VII GORGES HOUSE A COMPARISON of Cecil's ground-plan with Kip's view shows that Gorges house, standing immediately to the south-west of the great house, was not in existence in 1597, so that it must have been built either by Lord Lincoln or by Sir Arthur Gorges himself. The former is more probable, as Gorges appears to have been settled in Chelsea not long after his marriage with Lincoln's daughter, through whom he acquired all the More estate, including the chapel, which he reserved to this house as above mentioned. He died in 1625. The two brasses affixed to the north wall of this chapel are all that now remains of his tomb, which was described by Bowack as “a monument raised about four feet from the ground, with the effigies of Sir Arthur, his lady, and three (sic) sons and five daughters, in brass plates fixed thereon, and the inscription : In obitum Illustrissimi viri Domini Arthuri Gorges Equitis Aurati Epicaedium Te deflent nati natae celeberrima conjux Lysons says that "no trace of this now remains"; and Faulkner makes the same observation. But in the letter quoted in my first chapter, describing the restoration which the Church was undergoing in 1832, Faulkner mentions the recovery of these two brasses from under the floor of the chapel; at which time, no doubt, they were placed in their present position. Upon the larger plate are engraved the effigies of Sir Arthur Gorges and his wife, kneeling on either side of a table, with their six sons and five daughters kneeling behind them. The knight and his eldest son are represented in half armour; the younger sons in doublets, cloaks, and loose breeches. On the smaller plate is engraved an achievement of arms, thus : Quarterly of 4, 1. Lozengy or and gules a chevron gules (Gorges, ancient). 2. Argent a whirlpool azure (Gorges). 3. Argent on a chief gules 3 bezants (Russell). 4. Sable 3 fusils in fess between 3 stage faces argent (Budockshead). Impaling argent 6 cross-crosslets fitchée sable 3, 2, and 1, on a chief azure 2 mullets or, pierced gules (Clinton). Crest. A greyhound's head. Sir Arthur was the third son of Sir William Gorges, Vice-Admiral of the Fleet, and Winifred, daughter and co-heiress of Roger Budockshead of South Budeaux, in Devonshire, and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne, of Modbury, in the same county. Dame Winifred Gorges was thus aunt to Sir Walter and Sir Carew Raleigh. Sir William's grandfather was Sir Edmund Gorges, of Wraxall, in Somersetshire, who married Anne, eldest daughter of Sir John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk. In 1584 Arthur Gorges married his first wife, Douglas, only child and heiress of Henry Howard, second Viscount Howard of Bindon, and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk. She died in 1590, barely two years after giving birth to her only child, Ambrosia, and her death was the occasion of Spenser's Elegy, "Daphnaida," which was published in the year following. "The occasion why I wrote the same," says Spenser in dedicating this poem to Helena, Marchioness of Northampton (wife of Sir Arthur's uncle, Sir Thomas Gorges), " was as well the great good fame which I heard of her deceased, as the particular goodwill which I beare unto her husband, Master Arthur Gorges, a lover of learning and vertue, SIR ARTHUR GORGES (d. 1625) AND HIS FAMILY From a (reversed) impression printed off the actual brass plate whose house as yore Ladiship by mariage hath honoured, so doe I find the name of them by many noble records to be of great antiquity in this Realme; and such as have ever borne themselves with honourable reputation to the world and unspotted loyaltie to their Prince and Country..." In this elegy Gorges is introduced as the shepherd Alcyon mourning for Daphne : "Alcyon he, the jollie Shepheard swaine That wont full merrilie to pipe and daunce, Daphne's last words are of Ambrosia : "Yet ere I goe, a pledge I leave with thee Of the late love the which betwixt us past, Thus, deare! adieu, whom I expect ere long.' So having said, away she softly past: Weep, Shepheard! weep, to make mine undersong." Alcyon appears again in "Colin Clout," amongst the bards, thus: "And there is sad Alcyon bent to mourne Though fit to frame an everlasting dittie; Whose gentle spight for Daphne's death doth tourne Ah! pensive boy, pursue that brave conceipt In thy sweet eglantine of merrifleure ; Lift up thy notes unto their wonted height, That may my muse and mates to murth allure." Sir Egerton Brydges, in the "Restituta," and Todd in his Life of Spenser, have bestowed some notice on Gorges, and have printed one or two slight pieces from his pen : but his only considerable works in verse are the translation of Lucan's " Pharsalia," published in 1614, but never reprinted, and a manuscript poem in Lord Ellesmere's library |