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“Dublin, this 19th of July, 1634.

“My very good Lord,

[22] Strafford Letters, I. 274.

“Upon the whole matter my opinion is that attending upon the King two or three days journey after his going from Welbeck, you should yourself gently renew the motion to the King, as one resolved to take it only as a personal obligation from himself alone; and therefore if His Majesty should be induced to grant that you desire, which ariseth merely from a singleness of affection, you should receive it and value it, as the highest honour you can have in this world to be always near him. On the other side, if in his wisdom he should not conceive it fit, you should wholly acquiesce in his good pleasure, and beseech him to reckon you as a servant of his, ready to lay down your life, wherever he should be pleased to require it of you; and be sure to express it plainly, that if he in his grace toward you shall think good to take you so near him, it shall be your greatest comfort; but to have it by any other means or interposition, which might expect any of the obligation from His Majesty, it would in no degree be so acceptable unto you, that covet it not for any private bettering of your fortune, but merely as a mark of his respect and estimation of you, and that you might have the happiness to spend your life near that person, which you did not only reverence as your sovereign, but infinitely love and admire for his piety and wisdom....

“Your lordship’s most faithful and humble servant,

“Wentworth.”

BOLSOVER CASTLE

From Newcastle’s book on horsemanship

In the year 1634, an event took place which may have made Newcastle rather more hopeful of gaining his end about the Governorship.

The Duchess writes:—

“A year after His Return out of Scotland, He [the King] was pleased to send my Lord word, That Her Majesty the Queen was resolved to make a Progress into the Northern parts, desiring him to prepare the like Entertainment for Her, as he had formerly done for Him,”—no very moderate request—“which My Lord did, and endeavour’d for it with all possible Care and Industry, sparing nothing that might add splendor to that Feast, which both Their Majesties were pleased to honour with their Presence: Ben Jonson he employed in fitting such Scenes and Speeches as he could best devise;”—this was the masque entitled “Love’s Welcome at Bolsover,”—“and sent for all the Gentry of the Country to come and wait on their Majesties; and in short, did all that ever he could imagine, to render it Great, and worthy Their Royal Acceptance.

“This Entertainment he made at Bolsover-Castle, in Derbyshire, some five miles distant from Welbeck, and resigned Welbeck for Their Majesties Lodging; it cost him in all between Fourteen and Fifteen thousand pounds.”

Miss Strickland (Queens of England, VIII. 72) thought that this royal entertainment at Bolsover gained for Newcastle the Governorship of the Prince. “So much pleased,” she says, “were the royal pair with the literary taste of the earl and his royal hospitalities at Bolsover, that they agreed in the appointment of Newcastle, as governor to Charles, Prince of Wales.” But this is not very probable; for so long as two years later, Newcastle was very despondent about obtaining the appointment. He had gone to London, and his attempts to secure it had been so much talked about that he was reported to have succeeded. This report had even reached the ears of the King, and it is unlikely to have increased his chances of success.