eat
has been renowned. The Queen of James I. and the Prince Henry, on
their way to London, in 1603, were welcomed there in an
entertainment, memorable for a masque from the vigorous muse of Ben
Jonson (Ben Jonson's Works, vol. vi. p. 475). Charles I. was at
Althorp, in 1647, when he received the first intelligence of the
approach of those pursuers from whom he never escaped until his life
had been laid down upon the scaffold. In 1698, King William was
there for a week, and, according to Evelyn, was "mightily
entertained" (vol. ii. p. 50). At least one of the members of this
family was famous for hospitality of a different character. Evelyn
records that he used to dine with the Countess of Sunderland--the
title then borne by the Spencers--"when she invited _fire-eaters_,
stone-eaters, and opera-singers, after the fashion of the day" (vol.
i. pp. 458, 483, 579).

The family was early and constantly associated with literature.
Spencer, the poet, belonged to it, and to one of its members he has
dedicated his "Tears of the Muses." It was for Alice Spencer that
Milton is said to have written his "Arcades," and Sir John
Harrington has celebrated her memory by an epigram. The Sacharissa
of Waller was the Lady Dorothy Sidney, wife of the first Earl of
Sunderland, the third Lord Spencer, who perished fighting for King
Charles I. at Newbury. I do not dwell on the other associations of a
later day, as my object is simply to allude to those which existed
in the time of the Washingtons.

"The nobility of the Spencers has been illustrated and enriched by
the trophies of Marlborough; but I exhort them to consider the
'Fairy Queen' as the most precious jewel of their coronet." Thus
wrote Gibbon in his memoirs, and all must feel the beauty of the
passage. Perhaps it is not too much to say that this nobility may
claim another illustration from its ties of friendship and
neighborhood with the family of Washington. It cannot doubt that
hereafter the parish church of Brington will be often visited by our
countrymen, who will look with reverence upon a spot so closely
associated with American history.

I trust that this little sketch, suggested by what I saw at Althorp,
during a brief visit last autumn, will not seem irrelevant. Besides
my own personal impre