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Plate V.

John Saxby Labourer in Sis The Lee's Garden and Clinth of Hartwell parist

1730 of after By Mortimer

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men of talent of that day they appear to have been very friendly to the meritorious J. H. Mortimer, when he resided at Aylesbury. Among several excellent sketches of employés in the household by that artist, with their names and stations subjoined in Sir William Lee's autograph, one, a portrait of John Saxby,* struck me as such an impersonation of Swift's immortal P. P. "of this parish," that I could not but have a fac-simile engraven. (Plate V.)

Besides drawing and ornamental work, Lady Elizabeth was fond of her flower-garden, and indulged in poetry: some verses are already cited at page 42, and another specimen, written in a bower at St. Leonard's Hill, may be given in evidence:

This peaceful shade, this green-roof'd bower,
Great Maker! all are full of thee;

Thine is the bloom that decks the flower,
And thine the fruit that bends the tree.

As much creative goodness charms,

In these low shrubs that humble creep,

As in the oak, whose giant arms

Wave in the high romantic steep.

The bow'r, the shade, retir'd, serene,

The peaceful heart may much affect—

There God in every leaf is seen,

And man has leisure to reflect.

Her Ladyship's brother, the Earl of Harcourt, was also a man of taste and research; and a letter to Sir William is illustrative of his spirit of inquiry:

"One is very apt to suppose that others have the same tastes with one's self. And therefore as I took great pains to learn through what families the Manor of Nuneham Courtenay

* The name of Saxby no longer exists in the neighbourhood; but it had been long known on the estate. In the "plot" of 1661, already quoted, "Saxbies House" stands in an enclosure of one acre, two roods, and twenty-seven poles.

had passed, previous to its coming by purchase into mine, I naturally conclude that will not you be sorry to receive the enclosed particular and authentic account of Hartwell, by which you will see two circumstances not very common,-the one that it has been honoured by a royal visit, and the other, that it has regularly descended to you through heiresses, from the remote time of its first possessor, who I suppose obtained it at the Conquest. Whether these particulars be or be not unknown to you, you will, I am certain, excuse the trouble of this communication, for the motive that gave rise to it. Pray give my love to my sister, and accept that of Lady Harcourt united with mine to yourself."

To this Sir William-under the assumed signature of William de Hertewell -replied in the following terms, on the 24th of May, 1787:

DEAR LORD HARCOURT,-I am doubly obliged to you, for the pleasure of hearing from you, and for reviving the pleasing study of the History of Hartwell. Your anecdote of the royal visit to Sir Alexander, and the compliment annexed, is quite new to me, and was very flattering; the rest of your account agrees nearly with one in my possession, the compilation of B. Willis; but this makes no mention of Edmund or his daughters, and states only that Sir A. leaving no issue surviving, his sister, Eleanor, daughter of Michael Hampden, married to Sir T. Lee, of Moreton, became heiress to her father and brother. I think your account of Edmund's daughter is erroneous; for, Maria, daughter of Edmund, dyed in 1578, as appears by record, and had sepulture at Hartwell. You trace the possession I believe correctly to William de Hertewell; from him the ascent is through several of like style to John Earl of Moreton—afterwards King of England, Henry II.—to the Peverels, descendants of the Conqueror, to Aveline a Thane of King Edward's the Confessor," &c.

The document here alluded to has been printed, but I regret having been unable to find the original. Still the following maxims, apparently copied by him from an old morality-scheme, may be illustrative of his Lordship's bent:

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Sir William Lee died on the 6th of July, 1799, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, the fifth Baronet, who pursued a military life, and became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 16th or Queen's regiment of Light Dragoons, commanded by his uncle, Earl Harcourt. In that regiment Sir William Lee served several campaigns in Germany, during the late wars, with great credit; and afterwards exchanging into the 25th regiment of Light Dragoons, he went in May, 1800, to join that corps at Madras, where he died unmarried on the 7th of February, 1801.

He was succeeded by his brother, Sir George Lee, the sixth Baronet, who, having originally been destined for a physician, had applied himself with zeal and assiduity to the study of medicine both in London and Edinburgh. In the year 1792, however, he entered into holy orders, and was presented by his father to the rectory of Hartwell and vicarage of Stone; which preferments he vacated in 1803 for the rectory of South Repps, in the county of Norfolk. From thence he removed to the rectory of Water Stratford, in the county of Bucks, which he resigned on being presented to the rectory of Beachampton, in the same county, by the late Marquess of Buckingham, in the year 1815. Sir George died at this living on the 27th of September, 1827, having for some years divided his residence between Beachampton and Hartwell; and in him the male line of the first Baronet, and consequently the Baronetcy, became extinct. Sir George Lee was never married; but he employed the leisure afforded by a single life, the gifts of fortune, and cultivated intellectual powers, in the discharge of his professional duties, and in active beneficence

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