ia Heron,
daughter of Thomas More, aged_ 20, and on Margaret's, _Margaret Roper_,
_daughter of Thomas More, aged_ 22.' (The best beloved, most
amiable, and most learned of Sir Thomas's daughters, who visited
him in the Tower and encouraged him to remain true to his
convictions, while her step-mother urged him to abjure his faith.
Margaret Roper intercepted her father on his return to the Tower
after his trial, and penetrating the circle of the Guards, hung on
his neck and bade him farewell. There is a tradition that she
caused her father's head to be stolen from the spike of the bridge
on which it was exposed, and, getting it preserved, kept it in a
casket. She and her husband, William Roper, wrote together the
biography of her father, Sir Thomas More.)

'Just by Mrs Roper sits Sir Thomas's lady in an elbow-chair (?), holding
a book open in her hands. About her neck she has a gold chain, with a
cross hanging to it before. On her left hand is a monkey chained, and
holding part of it with one paw and part of it with the other. Over her
head is written '_spouse of Thomas More, aged_ 57.'

(Dame Alice More, the second wife of Sir Thomas More, a foolish and
mean-spirited woman.)

'Behind her is a large arched window, in which is placed a flower-pot (a
vase) of flowers, and a couple of oranges. Behind the two ladies stands
Sir Thomas's fool, who, it seems, was bereft of his judgment by
distraction. He has his cap on, and in it are stuck a red and white
rose, and on the brim of it is a shield with a red cross on it, and a
sort of seal pendant. About his neck he wears a black string with a
cross hanging before him, and his left thumb is stuck in a broad
leathern girdle clasp'd about him. Over his head is written _Henry
Pattison, servant_ of Thomas More. At the entrance of the room where Sir
Thomas and his family are, stands a man in the portal who has in his
left hand a roll of papers or parchments with two seals appendant, as if
he was some way belonging to Sir Thomas as Lord Chancellor. Over his
head is written _Joannes Heresius, Thomae Mori famulus_. In another room
at some distance is seen through the door-case a man standing at a large
sleeved gown of a sea-green colour, and under it a garment of a
blossom-colour, holding a book open in his hands written or printed
in the black letter, and reading very earnestly in it. About the
middle of the room, over against Sir Thomas, hangs a clock with
strings and leaden weights