and common plays to be 'condemned by ancient heathens, and much less to be tolerated among professors of the Christian religion,' ordains that all players should be taken to be rogues within the meaning of the statutes 39th of Elizabeth and 7th of James I.

August 14, 1886.

THE ORDERS OF TITYRE AND THE BUGLE.

MR. JAMES HORSEY, in an interesting extract from the Calendar of State Papers for 1625, has proved that a curious and by no means pleasant feature of the social life of the seventeenth century had spread so far as the Isle of Wight, remote as Newport then was from London. Lord Macaulay, in the well-known third chapter of his History, which describes the manners and customs of the English people in that seventeenth century, says (vol. i. p. 360) that it was a favourite amusement of dissolute young fellows to swagger by night about London, breaking windows, upsetting sedan chairs, beating quiet men, and molesting women. These midnight ruffians-Muns and Tityre Tus, as they were called in the reign of James I-were the successors of the swashbucklers of the sixteenth century. London, which now, thanks to the police system set on foot by the late Sir Robert Peel, is one of the most well-ordered cities in Europe, considering its vast size, was in the days of our ancestors a scene of disorder at night. When the twilight had deepened into darkness, the peaceful citizens been housed, and the throngs of links and torches given place to the solitary twinkling of the watchmen's lanterns, the time came for the taverns to disgorge their inmates. These sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine,' took possession of the lanes and corners of the streets. It was unsafe to walk in London after nine o'clock. The recruiting-ground for these disturbers of the public peace was Alsatia, or White Friars, which, in consequence of possessing the right of sanctuary, was a refuge for bullies, broken-down spendthrifts, and criminals of every

shade. The name of Alsatia was taken from Alsace in France, which was a seat of lawless warfare when King James's son-in-law was Prince Palatine. Sir Walter Scott, in his Fortunes of Nigel, has given a most graphic description of this rookery, taken from the dramas and popular literature of the day.

However innocent might be the origin of the members of the Order of the Bugle, their subsequent conduct, if we may judge from their friendly intercourse' with the Tityre Tus,' is no honour to the annals of the ancient borough of Newport, and that most respectable house of entertainment, the Bugle. The Tityre Tus took their name from the first line in Virgil's First Eclogue

'Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi.'

This scholarly allusion to the beautiful pastoral of the poet of Mantua only showed that these admirers of the shepherd Tityrus were what we should call 'loafers,' who preferred lounging under trees at their ease to the pursuits of honest industry. These brawlers went also under the name of Roaring Boys,' 'Bonaventors,' and 'Privadors,' names. pointing to piratical adventures on the Spanish Main. Very probably these five or six companions of Michael Constable, of West Raisen, Lincolnshire, who were supping at the Bugle, Newport, I. W., on their voyage to Spain, belonged to the company of the wild adventurers who were on the look-out for Spanish prizes. The race of these practical jokers, who in their furious pursuit of pleasure show a brutal incapacity for all true enjoyment, was perpetuated. The Tityre Tus gave place, says Lord Macaulay, to the Hectors, and the Hectors were succeeded by the Scourers. At a later period arose the Nickers, the Hawkubite, and the yet more dreaded name of Mohock. An account of these later Mohocks will be found in Numbers 324 and 327 of Addison's Spectator, written respectively by Sir Richard Steele and Eustace Budgell. It may be seen from his letters to Stella, that Dean Swift, while he was in London, was frequently in dread of being maimed, or even murdered, by these villainous Mohocks. The poet Gay also, in his Trivia, describes their outrages and indecent behaviour.

As the wise king says in the Book of Proverbs, 'Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than such a fool in his folly.' The love of mischief and practical joking is the wit of savages, and is an indication, not to be mistaken, of a nature to which the sight of human suffering and human degradation is an agreeable excitement. It is satisfactory to find that the ruffians who amused themselves with this horseplay sometimes met with condign punishment. The night watchmen and constables having so dangerous duties to perform were strict in enforcing them. Often one of these midnight roysterers was unceremoniously knocked on the head in brawling with the watch. To this result of a fray Osborne (First Fourteen Years of King James's Reign, in Lord Somer's Tracts, vol. ii.) refers, when he admonishes his son 'to give good words to the city guardians.' 'Many,' says he, 'being quick in memory, who out of scorn to be catechized by a constable have summed up their days at the end of a watchman's bill.'

It may be added that Canon Venables, in his Guide to the Isle of Wight, p. 67, says that the continuation of the High Street, Newport, known as the Castle Hotel,' was a sort of Alsatia, the privileged resort of the bad characters of the neighbourhood in the seventeenth century. Did the Order of the Bugle hold their meetings there? is a question which perhaps some Newport antiquary can answer, and on which Mr. Horsey's researches may throw light.

October 8, 1887.

EDWARD LORD CONWAY, CAPTAIN OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT AND CARISBROOKE CASTLE, A. D. 1625-1631.

I.

CLARENDON, at the commencement of his History of the Rebellion, sets before his readers in his accustomed sober majesty of style the literary portraits of the more dignified nobles, who, having survived the reign of the first Stuart

king, formed the Court of his son, Charles I. In this gallery of these dull, dreary, and respectable statesmen, Conway is dismissed with few words, and those not flattering. Speaking of Dudley Carleton, Clarendon says (vol. i. p. 113) that 'he was put into the place of Lord Conway, who for age and incapacity was at last removed from the secretary's office, which he had exercised for many years with notable insufficiency; so that King James was wont pleasantly to say 'that Steenie (the Duke of Buckingham) had given him two very proper servants; a secretary, who could neither write nor read; and a groom of his bed-chamber, who could not truss his points; Mr. Clark having but one hand.'

The publication of the Oglander Memoirs by Mr. W. H. Long enables this very meagre sketch of Conway to be considerably filled up. The writer of the life of Edward Viscount Conway in the Dictionary of National Biography, Mr. Thompson Cooper, F. S. A., does not appear to have been aware of the existence of the Memoirs of Sir John Oglander, as he omits all mention of the interesting particulars which the cavalier Knight of Nunwell supplies respecting the somewhat romantic career of Edward Conway. He belonged to the ancient Midland family of the Conways. His father, Sir John Conway, was the son and heir of Sir John Conway, knight-banneret of Arrow, Warwickshire, by Katherine, daughter of Sir Ralph Verney. Being a person of great skill in military affairs, John Conway was made Governor of Ostend on December 29, 1586, by Robert Earl of Leicester, who was then General of the English auxiliaries on behalf of the States of the United Provinces. For some reason he was made a prisoner, as appears from an original letter addressed by him to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated September 8, 1588, concerning his imprisonment and the uses which might be made of one Berney, a spy, who had great credit with the Prince of Parma. During his incarceration he wrote his Meditations and Prayers on his trencher with leathy pensel of leade.' These Meditations and Praiers gathered out of the Sacred Letters and virtuous writers, disposed in Fourme of the Alphabet of the Queene, her most excellent Maiesties Name; whereunto are added comfortable consolations (drawn out of the Latin) to afflicted

Mindes,' were printed by Henry Wykes and published in London, but undated. Another edition, also undated, was printed by William How. In July, 1590, Sir John Conway was licensed to return to Ostend, and the office of Governor of Ostend granted to Sir Henry Norreys. He died on October 4, 1663, and was buried at Arrow Church, where a monument with a Latin inscription was erected to his memory. By his wife, Ellen, or Eleanor, daughter of Sir Fulke Greville, of Beauchamps Court, Warwickshire, he had four sons-Fulke, Edward, John, and Thomas, and four daughters-Elizabeth, Katherine, Mary, and Frances.

Edward, the second son, afterwards the Governor of the Isle of Wight, was, so he told Oglander (Memoirs, p. 158), 'in his youth, as I have often heard him say, wild and never could endure his book, but ran away from school and went into the Low Countries to the wars, and lived long as a common soldier; afterwards, by his own endeavours (as certainly in his youth he was very valiant), he obtained a captain's place.'

Before the treaty of Verviers and the wreck of the second Armada had set the hands of Queen Elizabeth free from the struggle with Spain, for some time after the defeat of the first Armada the English military and naval forces were engaged in hostilities with England's formidable foe, Philip II. Early in June, 1596, a large English and Dutch fleet sailed from Plymouth, the chief commanders of which were Lord Howard of Effingham and the Earl of Essex. In this expedition Cadiz was captured and the coast of Spain ravaged, the fleet returning with vast booty to England in August. Edward Conway, who by this time had risen to the command of a regiment of foot, was knighted by Essex at the sack of Cadiz. The mischief done to the Spaniards was very great, and would probably have been much greater if the proposal of Essex to remain in Cadiz with the land force had been adopted. He had set at liberty some Moorish galley-slaves, and through them had opened a communication with the revolted Moors of the South of Spain, who, having been oppressed by Philip II on account of their Mussulman creed, were ready to join the invaders. In 1598 Philip II of Spain died. As the end of his dismal life drew near, he saw his