ressed by the Earl of Derwentwater to Lady Swinburne of
Capheaton, whom he styles his "cousin." The relationship between these
families originated in the marriage of Mrs. Lawson, daughter of Sir
William Fenwick of Meldon, after the death of her first husband, with
Francis, first Earl of Derwentwater, and grandfather of James Radcliffe,
and of his brothers. Mrs. Lawson's daughter, Isabel, married Sir John
Swinburne of Capheaton who was rescued from a singular fate by one of
the Radcliffe family. When a child, he was sent to a monastery in
France, where a member of that family accidentally saw him, and
observing that he resembled the Swinburnes in Northumberland, he
inquired his name, and how he came there? To these questions, the monks
answered that they knew not his name; a sum of money was sent annually
from England to defray his expenses; but of all other particulars they
were wholly ignorant. On investigating the matter, it was found,
however, that the child had been taught that his name was Swinburne; and
that circumstance, coupled with the mysterious disappearance of the heir
of that family from Northumberland induced the superior of the convent
to permit his return home, where he identified himself to be the son of
John Swinburne and of Jane Blount, by the description which he gave of
the marks of a cat, and of a punchbowl, which were still in the
house.[400] He was afterwards advanced by Charles the Second to the
dignity of a baronet.

To Mary, the daughter of Anthony Englefield, of Whiteknights, Berks, and
wife of Sir William Swinburne, of Capheaton, the son of that man whose
childhood has so romantic a story associated with it, the following
letters are addressed. Of these, the first is written by the celebrated
John Radcliffe, Physician to Queen Anne. Dr. Radcliffe was probably a
distant relation of the family, although no distinctive trace of that
connection appears: he was a native of Wakefield, near Yorkshire; but
when these letters were written, he had attained the highest eminence in
his profession that could be secured by one man; and was in the
possession of wealth which he eventually employed in the foundation of
the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford.[401] The "Mr. Radcliffe" to whom he
refers, and to whose malady his skill was called upon to administer, was
Colonel Thomas Radcliffe, the uncle of Lord Derwentwater: the patient
was at the time suffering from mental delusion, in consequence of a
fever.

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