And in the same connection there are some notes from Edward, Lord Dorset to Lord Middlesex, one written “this Thursday morning at 5 of the clock,” apologising for the “bad character” which Lord Middlesex must decipher—and indeed the writing is all but illegible—but he is obliged to write as he must go presently into Kent to dispose some bargains and sales.
No particular interest attaches to Richard Sackville, save that he translated _Le Cid_ into English verse and wrote a poem on Ben Jonson, but there are at Knole some memorandum books in his handwriting (between 1660 and 1670) which are worth quoting, I think, for the following illuminating extracts:
£ _s._ _d._ Henry Mattock, for scolding to extremity on Sunday without cause 0 0 3 William Loe, for running out of doors from Morning till Midnight without leave 0 2 0 Richard Meadowes, for being absent when my Lord came home late, and making a headless excuse 0 0 6 Henry Mattock, for not doing what he is bidden 0 1 0 And 3_d._ a day till he does from this day. Henry Mattock, for disposing of my cast linen without my order 0 0 3 Robert Verrell, for giving away my money 0 0 6 Henry Mattock, for speaking against going to Knole 0 0 6 Verrell to pay for not burning the brakes out of the Wilderness, 3_d._ per week out of his week’s wages of 5_s._ for forty-two weeks.
There are various other notes in the same books: Thomas Porter, going to Knole, was to have five shillings a week board-wages; and, judging from the following, Lord Dorset evidently could not wholly trust his memory unaided: “My French shot-bag; an hammer, and some playthings for Tom, a bone knife, etc. A great Iron chafing-dish, or a fire-pan to set it upon.” And again, “A silver porringer for little Tom.”
Old lead cast at Knole for the two turrets weighing 1500 lbs. Old lead cast for the cistern weighing 1200 lbs. Sold 13th Aug. 1662 to Edmund Giles and Edward Bourne the Advowson of the Rectory and Parsonage of Tooting in Surrey for an £100 and paid my wife.
_Nov. 14, 1671._ =Rec^d= of the Right Hon. RICHARD Earl of DORSET, in full of all wages bills and accounts whatsoever _from ye beginning of ye World to this day_ ye full sum of five pounds seven shillings and sixpence I say rec’d by _JOHN WALL GROVE_.