Henry resembled that monarch in
his features, as Ben Jonson has truly recorded, though in a
complimentary verse, and as we may see by his picture, among the ancient
English ones at Dulwich College. Merlin, in a masque by Jonson,
addresses Prince Henry,

Yet rests that other thunderbolt of war,
Harry the Fifth; to whom in face you are
So like, as fate would have you so in worth.

A youth who perished in his eighteenth year has furnished the subject
of a volume, which even the deficient animation of its writer has not
deprived of attraction.[94] If the juvenile age of Prince Henry has
proved such a theme for our admiration, we may be curious to learn what
this extraordinary youth was even at an earlier period. Authentic
anecdotes of children are rare; a child has seldom a biographer by his
side. We have indeed been recently treated with "Anecdotes of Children,"
in the "Practical Education" of the literary family of the Edgeworths;
but we may presume that as Mr. Edgeworth delighted in pieces of curious
machinery in his house, these automatic infants, poets, and
metaphysicians, of whom afterwards we have heard no more, seem to have
resembled other automata, moving without any native impulse.

Prince Henry, at a very early age, not exceeding five years, evinced a
thoughtfulness of character, extraordinary in a child. Something in the
formation of this early character may be attributed to the Countess of
Mar. This lady had been the nurse of James I., and to her care the king
intrusted the prince. She is described in a manuscript of the times, as
"an ancient, virtuous, and severe lady, who was the prince's governess
from his cradle." At the age of five years the prince was consigned to
his tutor, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Adam Newton, a man of learning and
capacity, whom the prince at length chose for his secretary. The
severity of the old countess, and the strict discipline of his tutor,
were not received without affection and reverence; although not at times
without a shrewd excuse, or a turn of pleasantry, which latter faculty
the princely boy seems to have possessed in a very high degree.

The prince early attracted the attention and excited the hopes of those
who were about his person. A manuscript narrative has been preserved,
which was written by one who tells us, that he was "an attendant upon
the prince's person since he was under the age of three years, having
always diligently observed his disposition,