that the king presented him with a rich gold chain, value £140—a very large sum in those days.' Both sir Thomas and his lady were frequent residents in the court; but the child who was destined hereafter to share the throne of their royal master first saw the light at Kendal Castle, in Westmoreland, the time-honoured fortress which had been the hereditary seat of her ancestors from the days of its Norman founder, Ivo de Tallebois.

A crumbling relic of this stronghold of feudal greatness is still in existence, rising like a grey crown over the green hills of Kendal. It is situated on a lofty eminence, which commands a panoramic view of the town and the picturesque and ever verdant vale of the Kent, that clear and rapid stream, which, night and day sings an unwearied song, as it rushes over its rocky bed at the foot of the castle hill. The circular tower of the castle is the most considerable portion of the ruins; but there is a large enclosure of ivy-mantled walls remaining, with a few broken arches. These are now crowned with wild flowers, whose peaceful blossoms wave unnoted where the red cross banner of St. George once flaunted on tower and parapet of the sternly-guarded fortress, that for centuries was regarded as the most important defence of the town of Kendal and the adjacent country.

The warlike progenitors of Katharine had stern duties to perform at the period when the kings of Scotland held Cumberland of the English crown, and were perpetually harassing the northern counties with predatory expeditions. Before the auspicious era when the realms of England and Scotland were united under one sovereign, the lord of Kendal Castle, like his feudal neighbour of Sizergh, was compelled to furnish a numerous quota of men-at-arms for the service of the crown, and the protection of the border. The contingent con

1 See sir Thomas Parr's will in Testamenta Vetusta.

sisted of horse and foot, and, above all, of those bowmen, so renowned in border history and song-the Kendal archers. They are especially noted by the metrical chronicler of the battle of Flodden

"These are the bows of Kentdale bold,

Who fierce will fight and never flee."

Dame Maud Parr evinced a courageous disposition in venturing to choose Kendal Castle for the place of her accouchement, at a time when the northern counties were menaced with an invasion from the puissance and flower of Scotland, headed by their king in person. Sir Thomas Parr was, however, compelled to be on duty there with his warlike meinè, in readiness either to attend the summons of the lord warden of the marches, or to hold the fortress for the defence of the town and neighbourhood; and his lady, instead of remaining in the metropolis, or seeking a safer abiding place at Green's Norton, her own patrimonial domain, decided on sharing her husband's perils in the north, and there gave birth to Katharine. They had two other children, William, their son and heir, afterwards created earl of Essex and marquis of Northampton, and Anne, the wife of William Herbert, the natural son of the earl of Pembroke, to which dignity he was himself raised by Edward VI.

Sir Thomas Parr died in the year 1517, leaving his three infant children to the guardianship of his faithful widow, who is said to have been a lady of great prudence and wisdom, with a discreet care for the main chance.

The will of sir Thomas Parr is dated Nov. 7th, the 9th of Henry VIII. He bequeathed his body to be interred in Blackfriars' church, London. All his manors, lands, and tenements, he gave to his wife, dame Maud, during her life. He willed his daughters, Katharine and . Anne, to have eight hundred pounds between them, as

marriage portions, except they proved to be his heirs or his son's heirs, in which case that sum was to be laid out in copes and vestments, and given to the monks of Clairveaux, with a hundred pounds bestowed on the chantry of Kendal. He willed his son William to have his great chain, worth one hundred and forty pounds, which the king's grace gave him. He made Maud, his wife, and Dr. Tunstall, Master of the Rolls, his ex

ecutors.

Four hundred pounds, Katharine's moiety of the sum provided by her father for the nuptial portions of herself and her sister, would be scarcely equal to two thousand pounds in these days, and seems but an inadequate dowry for the daughters of parents so richly endowed with the gifts of fortune as sir Thomas and lady Parr. It was, however, all that was accorded to her who was hereafter to contract matrimony with the sovereign of the realm.

Sir Thomas Parr died in London, on the 11th of November, four days after the date of his will, in the parish of the Blackfriars, and there can be no doubt but he was interred in that church, according to his own request; yet, as lately as the year 1628, there is record of a tomb, bearing his effigies, name, and arms, in the chapel or family burying-place of the Parrs,' in the south choir of Kendal church.

This monument is thus described in Dr. Whittaker's History of Richmondshire:

"On a tomb a man in armour kneeling, on his breast two bars argent, within a bordure sable, for Parr, on his wife's breast quartering Greene and Mapleloft, and about it was written,

"Pray for the soul of Thomas Parr, knight, squire of the king's body, Henry 8th, master of his wards, who deceased the 11th day of Nov., in the 9th year of our said sovereign lord, at London, . . . . in the .... Fryers, as his tomb doth record.'

"In the window over this tomb was emblazoned the arms of Katharine's ancestor, sir William Parr, who married the heiress of Roos. The large black marble tomb still remaining in the Parr chapel is supposed to

It has been generally said, that Katharine Parr received a learned education from her father; but as she was only in her fifth year when he died, it must have been to the maternal wisdom of lady Parr that she was indebted for those mental acquirements which so eminently fitted her to adorn the exalted station to which she was afterwards raised. Katharine was gifted by nature with fine talents, and these were improved by the advantages of careful cultivation. She both read and wrote Latin with facility, possessed some knowledge of Greek, and was well versed in modern languages. How perfect a mistress she was of her own, the elegance and beauty of her devotional writings are a standing

monument.

"I have met with a passage concerning this queen," says Strype," in the margin of Bale's Centuries, in possession of a late friend of mine, Dr. Sampson, which shewed the greatness of her mind and the quickness of her wit, while she was yet a young child. Somebody skilled in prognostication, casting her nativity, said that she was born to sit in the highest seat of imperial majesty, having all the eminent stars and planets in her house. This she heard and took such notice of, that when her mother used sometimes to call her to work, she would reply

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My hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, and not spindles and needles."

This striking incident affords one among many instances in which the prediction of a brilliant destiny has

cover the remains of her grandfather, Sir William Parr, K.G., for it bears the paternal shield of Parr, quartered with Roos, Brus, and Fitzhugh, encircled with the garter.

"The ladies whose arms are engraven on this monument were all heiresses; therefore the property accumulated by these marriages of the heads of the family of Parr must have been considerable."

1 Strype's Mems., vol. ii., part 1, p. 206.

insured its own fulfilment, by its powerful influence on an energetic mind. It is also an exemplification at how precocious an age the germ of ambition may take root in the human heart. But, however disposed the little Katharine might have been to dispense with the performance of her tasks, under the idea of queening it hereafter, lady Parr was too wise a parent to allow vain dreams of royalty to unfit her child for the duties of the station of life in which she was born; and notwithstanding Katharine's early repugnance to touch a needle, her skill and industry in its use became so remarkable, that there are specimens of her embroidery at Sizergh Castle, which could scarcely have been surpassed by the far-famed stitcheries of the sisters of king Athelstan.

Dame Maud Parr proved herself well worthy of the confidence her husband had reposed in her, when he endowed her with a life interest in his large possessions. Though she had scarcely completed her twenty-second year at the time of his death, she never entered into a second marriage, but devoted herself entirely to the superintendence of her children's education, and the improvement of their patrimony. In the year 1524, she entered into a negotiation with her kinsman, lord Dacre, for a marriage between his grandson, the heir of lord Scroop, and her daughter Katharine, of which the particulars may be learned from some very curious letters preserved among the Scroop MSS.' The first is from dame Maude Parr to the lord Dacre, and refers to a personal conference she had had with his lordship at Greenwich, on the subject of this alliance:—

"Most honourable and my very good lord,

"I heartily commend me to you. Whereas it pleased you at your last being here to take pains in the matter in consideration of marriage

Quoted in Whittaker's History of Richmondshire.