Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

94 FRANCIS BACON
Reformation. Some of them had been exiled (amongst them
Lady Anne's father, Sir Anthony Cooke), some even sent to the
block in the time of Qneen Mary. " In her own fierce repugnance
to the Italian creed she trained her sons," says Hepworth
Dixon. She may have made them intolerant to the errors
of the Roman creed, but she certainly did not make them so to
the believers themselves; for in after years Francis Bacon's
intercourse with and kindness to members of the Roman Catholic
church was a great cause of anxiety to his mothur, yet his
intimacy and correspondence with these friends continued to
the end of his life.
Little Francis was ten years old when he attracted the attention
of the Queen, and paid her his pretty compliment "
: How
old are you, my child V " I am just two years younger than
your Majesty's happy reign. " We see him in these early days,
a man amongst boys; now playing with the daisies and speedwells,
and now with the mace and seals ; cutting posies with
the gardener, or crowing after the pigeons, of which, his mother
tells us, he was fond, roast or in a pie. Every tale told of him
wins upon the imagination, whether he hunts for the echo in
St. James' Park, or eyes the jugglers and detects their tricks,
or lisps wise words to the Queen. 1
" At twelve years of age he was sent to Cambridge and entered
with his brother Anthony as fellow-commoner of Trinity
College, of which John Whitgift, afterwards Archibishop of Canterbury,
was then master. Repeated entries in Whitgift's
accounts prove the brothers to have been delicate children, and
the state of their health a continual cause of anxiety to their
mother, Lady Anne. Many of her letters are extant, and show
her, even to the end of her life, feeding them from her cellars
and her poultry yard, looking sharp after their pills and
'
confections,' sending them game from her own larder, and beer
from her own vats, lecturing them soundly on what they should
eat and drink, on their physic and blood-lettings, on how far
they might ride or walk, when safely take supper, and at what
l Rawley's Life of Bacon. Hep worth Dixon's Story of Bacon's Life.