B OOKS.

MEMORABLE WOMEN OF THE PURITAN TIMES.*

WE do not know what precise reason dictated the change in Mr. Anderson's nomenclature from "ladies" in the case of the Reforma- tion and the Covenant to "women" in that of the Puritan times, but we certainly think the change a good one. In the peculiar de- partment of historical book-makieg which appears to be most con- genial to his tastes, there cannot be too much care taken to avoid anything which may confirm the impression with which most thought- ful readers will take up his volumes—that we have in them another of those nice lady-like books so popular of late years, in which it is attempted by a great ostentation of original manuscript authorities to conceal a gross ignorance of the ordinary facts of the period. Perhaps Mr. Anderson's present book may not bealtogether immacu- late in this respect, but it is only fair to say that it is a creditable specimen of the secondary class of historical biography. He has not, indeed, any pretensions to the character of an historical critic. Where the old authorities present him with materials, he usually accepts them without much inquiry or discrimination. Many old doubt- ful stories, the exploded gossip of the writers of that generation, are resuscitated in his pages without apparent suspicion of their worth- lessness, nor has he availed himself as he ought to have done of the corrections of matters of fact to be found in the latest publications. But his new matter is generally well chosen and interesting if not important, and there is quite enough of it to redeem his labours from the imputation of mere bookmaking, and to entitle him to be con- sidered a really industrious student of his subject.

By Women of the Puritan Times, Mr. Anderson means "Puritan Women" of those times, so that we must not expect to flint in his pages any account of the heroines of the Cavalier party, or, what would have been an admirable subject for a writer of greater grasp and insight, a comparison of the social characteristics of these two types of the Eng- lishwomen of that period. One or two of his present heroines are, it is true, ultimately or temporarily found on the side of the crown, but their essential Puritan characteristics remained with very little change under these altered circumstances. Mr. Anderson has, indeed, not entirely escaped from the common fault of writers on such subjects in endeavouring to compose a life for which there are really no materials in the proper sense of the term. Thus Mrs. Love's biography is literally confined to her exertions in behalf of her husband, the cele- brated minister Christopher Love, during the imprisonment which preceded his execution for treason to the Commonwealth. The life of Richard Baxter's wife is very little else than a life of her husband, with the difference of recording a little more carefully all the occasions on which his wife's name enters into our accounts of the events of his life. Lady Russell and Alice Lisle can hardly be said to belong to the "Puritan Times," for the only acts of their lives of any interest for us belong to a later period, and there is not in either of them much especially characteristic of Puritanism. One or two other biographies in these volumes are open to similar objections. The Cromwell family might with advantage have been grouped together, instead of being distributed over so many separate but not independent lives, and Cromwell's granddaughter, Mrs. Bendish, would have found a more appropriate place in connexion with this group than at the end of the volumes. The biographies which appear to us to realize most strictly the idea suggested by the book's title are those of Lady Vere,

* Memorable Women of the Puritan Times. By the Rev. James Anderson, Author of "Ladies of the Reformation," "Ladies of the Covenant," &c. Two volumes. London: Mackie and Son. Lady ady Harley, and Lady Ranelagh, and it is in these lives that we find the greatest evidence of independent and intelligent research on

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the part of the author. Lady Vere—whose maiden name was Mary Tracey—is remarkable not merely in herself, but as the mother of that Lady Fairfax, the 'wife of the Parliamentary general, who, if there is any truth in a rather doubtful story, made some disturbance in court on the occa- sion of the trial of King Charles I., and who is the subject of another of Mr. Anderson's biographies. Both mother and daughter appear to have been women of a commanding tone of mind, which, in the daughter's case at any rate, was not free from some acerbity of temper and narrowness of understanding. Lady Vere was the youngest of fifteen children ; she lost her mother (a Throckmorton) three days after her birth, and her father, Sir John Tracey, when she was only eight years old. She seems, however, to have been brought up carefully and with lodgment, and when about nineteen years of age was married to Mr. William Hobby, the son of Sir William Hobby, a privy councillor to Henry VIII. On his death, she married Sir Horatio Vere, the celebrated English commander in the Low Countries, who was subsequently created Baron Vere of Tilbury- i'ca.det of the noble House of Oxford. It was under the auspices of Lord Vere that many of the officers, on both sides in the civil war of England, received their military training. Lord Vere, however, was not only a brave and skilful general, and a strict disciplinarian, but an anticipator, in many respects, of the greater Puritan soldiers of the succeeding period. Happy in living before his genius was required to be turned against his own countrymen in a civil war, he descended to an honoured grave amidst the general applause of all parties, and his memory has come down to us untarnished by the usual calumny of envy and party strife. Lady Vere was a congenial companion to her husband, and the religious atmosphere of Holland probably in- fluenced both in the tone of their minds, and rendered their family a very different school for young soldiers of fortune from that pre- sented by the dissoluteness of most of the other "camps" of Europe at that time. The political position of Holland, menaced by ab- solute and Popish Spam, naturally swayed Lady Vere's political tendencies in the Puritan direction and confirmed the favourable im- pression which the severe simplicity of the Calvinistic Presbyte- rianism of Holland had made upon her mind. Lord Vere was after- wards appointed to a command in the _Palatinate in the cause of the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia, another link in the bond between his family and Puritan sympathies. Lady Vere showed great kindness to the wife of the celebrated Dr. John Burges, of Sutton Coldfield, an eminent divine, who had been appointed chaplain to the expedi- tion to Germany. The letters which passed between her ladyship and the learned divine on the occasion of the death of Mrs. Burges, as well as on that of some domestic losses in Lady Vere's own family, give ample illustration of her tone of mind at this period. During her residence in London, she attended the services of "John Daven- port, a noted Puritan," and minister of St. Stephen's, Coleman-street, and he became one of her principal correspondents on her return with her husband to the Hague. Davenport soon fell into trouble from the High Commission Court for nonconformity, and the correspcorrespond- encewith Lady Vere shows how she sympathized with and assisted him in his sufferings. There is something verlmanly and sensible in Davenport's explanations on this point : " The only cause," be writes, "of all my present sufferings is the alteration of my judgment in matters of conformity to the ceremonies established, whereby I cannot practice them as formerly I have done; wherein I do not cen- sure those that do conform (nay, I account many of them faithful and worthy instruments of God's glory, and I know that I did conform with as much inward peace, as now I do forbear: in both my up- rightness was the same, but my light different)."

Lady Vere had her own heavy sorrows. Both her sons by her first husband died prematurely—the eldest, a very promising young man' in his twenty-third year—and in 1635 she lost her second husband, who dropped down in an apoplectic fit at Sir Henry Vane's, in White- hall, "as he was calling for fresh salmon, and reaching out his plate to receive it." He left his widow amply provided for, and her friend W i and pro Davenport, then a refugee n Holland, hastened to offer religious consolation to her in a long letter, couched in a strain beyond the ordinary stamp of writings of that description. Soon after this death, negotiations commenced between old Lord Fairfax and Lady Vete for a marriage between his grandson and her daughter Anne. Young Fairfax hail served in the Low Countries under Lord Vere, who had been so much struck by his talents and high character that he had written to his grandfather proposing the match which was subsequently carried into effect. For a time, however, the coarse of true love did not run smooth. Lady Vere, besides being a thorough woman of the world in business matters, was formal and stately in her notions of courtship. Young Fairfax was naturally impetuous and proud. He received a repulse on the part of the elder lady which he construed to mean more than it really did. But matters at last were settled; the marriage took place, and Lady Vere—it is to be hoped with more judgment than some ladies in her position—took to study- ing the peculiarities of her son and his disposition, and giving her daughter corresponding advice. Poor young Fairfax must have had a trying time with his numerous parental monitors, and his own un- even temper and natural proud obstinacy, concealed under a reserved and rather saturnine gravity and silence. His grandfather was a domestic disciplinarian of the old school, with a strong appreciation of other people's faults, particularly his grandson's, a quiet contempt for his son's understanding, and an implicit belief in his own wisdom ; besides being very tenacious of the deference he conceived due to him. Matters must have been difficult to manage between him and the stately punctilious Lady Vere; but luckily Sir Ferdinando Fairfax, the inter- mediate generation, was of a very amiable conciliatory disposition, and notwithstanding his father's poor opinion of him, was possessed of con- siderable talent and much tact. He seems to have acted as concili- ator-general, and discoverer of excellent motives for everybody's con- duct. Immediately after the marriage, he has to explain to old Lord

i Fafax, who wishes to make the acquaintance of his grandson's wife at his country seat in Yorkshire, how Lady Vere wishes to detain the young couple a little longer with her during her journey to her widowed daughter in Norfolk, "which is not so much to show her son among her friends, as really to be better acquainted in several places with that humour of his she has but yet guessed at, and to endeavour the rectifying it, as also to instruct the wife in her appli- cations; for in truth, adds good Sir Ferdinando, "she is very tender of this child and affectionate to my son, and six weeks now is the longest she requires for their stay with her." The wedding, he adds, was more public than my lady intended. "I hope she (his new daughter) will prove a good wife; her affection to her husband, and demeanour in these few hours, promise well: the Lord give a bless- ing to these beginnings." Though Fairfax's character was peculiar, his qualities were all sterling, and the marriage proved throughout a very happy one. One of those severe fits of illness, however, to which the bridegroom was subject throughout his life, seized him not very long after his marriage, and when he was again a visitor at Lady Vere's. Her ladyship was evidently in her element here, and writes to Sir Ferdinand° careful bulletins of his son's health, and her own measures for his recovery. We will give her first letter, as a specimen of the correspondence of a Puritan mother-in-law in the higher ranks of society :

"Goon BROTHE11,—I had hope that my son and daughter should have been with you at the time appointed, but it hath pleased God to alter that we agreed upon ; for within two or three days after your going down, my son after a fit of the stone, fell into an ague, which hath held him ever since, with somewhat long fits each other day, the fits beginning with cold and then heat. Dr. Wright is very careful of him, and attends him every day, and saith he thinks the fits will not hold him long. I pray God bless the means for his recovery. I hope you believe that there shall be no care of mine wanting for his health, nor anything else for his contentment, for he is now to me as my own, which is argument enough to you to have that confidence in me. It is His will who is the wise disposer of all, to have it thus, and therein I desire to rest. My daughter, with watching and cold she got, is fallen into a fever, which is the more to her, because she hath never had any sickness. I trust God will sanctify His hand to them and me, that we may acknowledge Him in all. I entreat you to present my respective love to my Lord Fairfax, to whom I wish an increase of health and happiness. So I leave you to the protection of the Almighty, and ever rest your affectionate loving sister, "Many VEIL& "Hackney, 11th July."

Probably this illness had no small effect in opening the heart of the good lady to the merits of her new son, reviving, as it would, the memory of those whom she had lost, and whose place lie had now to supply. In a subsequent bulletin of his health, she says : "Dr. Wright is so careful of him as can be ; and myself have, with a great deal of affectionate care, done what I can to express my love to so deserving a son as is every way worthy of it, and very dear to me." Thomas Fairfax reciprocated this attachment (which was displayed on several occasions in mote than words), though his manner in addressing his mother-in-law is deferential and elaborately courteous rather than warmly affectionate : "But, Madam, I find myself so impressed to your ladyship by your favours, as I must leave the Scots' affair for others to inform your ladyship in, and acknowledge my particular obligations to your rood.ness for the care your ladyship was pleased to have of me this Journey, which, I thank God, I found no inconvenience by, and for those continual charges your ladyship is at for us and our little one, which is more than we can desire. For methinks I am far short of that service to your ladyship, as that your ladyship should benefit by it. Though I want that to deserve the favours of your ladyship, I will never be wanting to confess I hold more by obligation than merit the honour of being, Madam, your lady- ship's most obedient son and humble servant." This is a style of letter- wntin,g in the domestic circle, curiously in contrast with effusions under like circumstances in the present day.

We gather from a letter of the minister, John Davenport, at this period, that Lady Vere bad not ceased from her acts of kindness to the family of her old pastor. Davenport had emigrated to America, and become one of the founders of the colony and church of Newhaven, and his former patroness had shown great kindness to a child of his whom he had to leave behind for a time in England. Davenport gratefully ac- knowledges "your helpfulness to my little one in carrying him in yx.inr coach to Sir Theodore Mayenie" (the king's physician) for advice about his neck, and for your cost upon him in a coat, of which bounty and labour of your love my servant Ann hath made full report to us. The Lord recompense the same to your ladyship, and to your noble family an hundredfold." The civil war was a distressing event to Lady Vere in all respects, her daughters' husbands being ranged on different sides in the con- test; but her own sympathies, as may be supposed, were with the Parliament, and in 1643 a resolution passed the House of Com- mons bywhich she was appointed governess to the young Princes James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester, then in the hands of the Parliament. This appointment, for some cause, was never ratified by the Lords, or actually carried into effect. Perhaps, as Mr. Anderson suggests, Lady Vere's age may have led her to express a desire not to be entrusted with such a delicate charge, and so the matter was silently dropped. In the early part of theyear 1618, she again beard from John Davenport, who took the occasion of the return. to Eng- land of one of Lady Vere's old servants, who had been a member of his Newhaven congregation, to send a letter of inquiry and grateful acknowledgment, referring to the bearer for particulars of his condi- tion and prospects, which were both favourable. In 1652 Lady Vere sustained another domestic loss, in the death of one of her daughters, the wife of Lord Paulet. From this time she seems to have lived in the strict seclusion of private life, giving up her time to de- votion and works of charity. "Thrice every day,' says the divine who preached her funeral sermon, "she shut up herself for some hours in her closet, which was excellently furnished with pious books of practical divinity. Here she spent much precious time in reading the Holy Scriptures, and other good books, that might give her further light into them, and help to put more heat into that light she had obtained. Here she poured out her devoid soul-into such fer- yours of spirit in prayer as could not be hid (sometimes) from those her maidens whose occasions drew them at any time near her closet door." We have a pleasant glimpse of her from another pen, in these last days of her life. Lady Warwick, in her diary, has the following notices :

"July 27, 1668. My sister Ranelagh and I went to see my Lady Vere. All the way, both going and coming, we had a great deal of good discourse; and when we were at my Lady Veres, had with her much good discourse. She then told me that she had seen much of the world, being now above fourscore and seven years old, and that it was worth nothing, and that Christ was worth all." "July 26, 1671. I went with my sister Ranelagh to visit my pious Lady Vere. Going and coming in the coach, and whilst I was there, we had much good and profitable discourse, and I found much comfort to hear that good old disciple discourse: I returned not home till late."

This was the last year of her life. On the 25th of December, 1671, she expired, in the ninetieth or ninety-first year of her age. She was affectionately attended in her last illness by her daughter Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Clare. She lost her consciousness two days before her death : and the last words she was heard to utter before the lethargy came on, were, "How shall I do to be thankful? How shall I do to praise my God?"

She was celebrated after her death not merely in funeral sermons, but with "in memoriam" verses and anagrams, in all the quaint fashion of those days :

"The noble soul described here Was one to God and man most dear;

Who in devotion had no peer—

The great, good Lady Mary Vera."

We have preferred confining our notice of these volumes to a sum- mary of one of the lives contained in them. Others of the biogra- phies are more closely connected with the great public events of the time, but that of Lady Vere may be taken, with fair allowance for the inevitable effects of difference of character, as a tolerably exact type of the Puritan lady of the higher classes in that society which some writers have imagined to be only marked by clownish fana- ticism.