great family, at least fifty or
sixty men-servants, about his house, and I have been told by some who knew
the truth, that when there had been twenty-four pieces of beef put in a
morning into the pot, sometimes not one of them would be left for his own
dinner: for in those times, the idle-serving men were accustomed to have
their breakfast, and with such liberty as they would go into the kitchen,
and striking their daggers into the pot, take out the beef without the
cook's leave or privacy; yet he would laugh at this rather than be
displeased, saying, 'Would not the knaves leave me one piece for my own
dinner?' He never took a journey to London that he was not attended with
less than thirty, sometimes forty men-servants, though he went without his
lady. There was a great difference between him and his brother-in-law, the
Earl of Westmoreland; and, as I have heard upon this cause: That, after
the death of his sister, the Lady Anne, the Earl married the second
sister, Gascoigne's widow, which occasioned continual fighting and
scuffles between the Earl's men and Sir Richard's, when they met, whether
in London streets or elsewhere, which might be done with less danger of
life and bloodshed than in these succeeding ages; because they then fought
only with buckler and short sword, and it was counted unmannerly to make a
thrust.... This Sir Richard was possessed of a very great estate worth at
this day to the value of about L10,000 a year; ... He died in the sixty
third year of his age, at Roxby, ... and lies buried in the chancel of
Thornton church [the monument there to-day bears the effigy of a lady and
is nameless], of which he was patron, May 17th, 1599. He was tall of
stature and withal big and strong-made, having in his youth a very active,
able body, bold and stout; his hair and eyes black, and his complexion
brown, insomuch as he was called the great black Knight of the North;
though the word _great_ attributed to him not so much for his stature, as
power, and estate, and fortune. He was a wise man, and a great improver of
his estate, which might have prospered better with his posterity, had he
not been extra-ordinarily given to the love of women." There is
unfortunately nothing left above the ground of the manor house of Roxby,
the grass-covered site merely showing ridges and mounds where the
buildings stood. It is therefore impossible to obtain any idea of the
appearance of what must have been a very fine Tudor house.