umstances worthy of mention. Viscount Montacute, (now written
Montagu,) a nobleman in much esteem with Elizabeth, though a zealous
catholic, solicited the honor of entertaining her at his seat of Coudray
near Midhurst; a mansion splendid enough to attract the curiosity and
admiration of a royal visitant. The manor of Midhurst, in which Coudray
is situated, had belonged during several ages to a branch of the potent
family of Bohun; thence it passed into possession of the Nevils, a race
second to none in England in the antiquity of its nobility and the
splendor of its alliances. It thus became a part of the vast inheritance
of Margaret countess of Salisbury, daughter of George duke of Clarence.
Coudray-house was the principal residence of this illustrious and
injured lady, and it was here that the discovery took place of those
papal bulls and emblematical banners which afforded a pretext to malice
and rapacity to arm themselves against the miserable remnant of her
days.

By the attainder of the countess, this with the rest of her estates
became forfeited to the crown; but the tyrant Henry was prevailed upon
to regrant it, in exchange for other lands, to the heirs of her
great-uncle John Nevil marquis Montagu. From an heir female of this
branch viscount Montagu, son of sir Anthony Brown master of the horse to
Henry VIII., derived it and his title, conferred by queen Mary. But to
the ancient mansion there had previously been substituted by his
half-brother the earl of Southampton, a costly structure decorated
internally with that profusion of homely art which displayed the wealth
and satisfied the taste of a courtier of Henry VIII. The building was as
usual quadrangular, with a great gate flanked by two towers in the
centre of the principal front. At the upper end of the hall stood a
buck, as large as life, carved in brown wood, bearing on his shoulder
the shield of England and under it that of Brown with, many quarterings:
ten other bucks, in various attitudes and of the size of life, were
planted at intervals. There was a parlour more elegantly adorned with
the works of Holbein and his scholars;--a chapel richly furnished;--a
long gallery painted with the twelve apostles;--and a corresponding one
hung with family pictures and with various old paintings on subjects
religious and military, brought from Battle Abbey, the spoils of which
had been assigned to sir Anthony Brown as that share of the general
plunder of the monast