heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

272 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Hartley Coleridge says of him " Because he was an illiterate man
:
" it does not follow that he was an ignorant man. He might know many
"things well worthy of knowing without being able to write his name.
"
He might learn a great deal of astronomy by patient observation. He
" might know where each native flower on the hills was grown, what real
" qualities it
possessed, and what occult powers the fancies, the fears, or
" the wishes of men had ascribed to it. The haunts, habits, and instincts
" of animals, the notes of birds and their wondrous architecture, were to
"him instead of books; but, above all, he learned to know something of
"what man is in that condition to which the greater number of men are
" born, and to know himself better than he could have done in his
" hereditary sphere. And amidst such lovely surroundings and such con-
" genial society his life passed peacefully and blamelessly away, in strange
"contrast to
that of his father."
He was twice married, first to Anne, daughter of Sir John St. John ;
second, to Florence daughter of Henry Pudsey ; and he had one daughter,
and a son who succeeded to his title and estates, but not to his good
example.
Only twice did he leave the retirement he loved so well : once when
he led his men against the Scots when they invaded England, 1497 ;
and
again, when sixty years of age, he led a force of Craven yeomen to
on Flodden Field, 1513.
battle
In that engagement he had a principal command, and helped
materially to
turn the fortunes of the day.
"From Pennygent to Pendle Hill,
From Linton to Long Addingham,
And all that Craven coasts did till,
They with the lusty Clifford came.
All Staincliffe hundred went with him,
With striplings strong from Wharledale,
And all that Hauton hills did climb,
With Longstroth eke and Litton Dale,
Whose milk-fed fellows, fleshy bred,
Well brown'd, with sounding bows upbend.
All such as Horton Fells had fed
On Clifford's banner did attend."*
He survived the battle ten years, and died in 1523, aged seventy.
His place of sepulchre
is unknown. Let us believe that " all that was
" mortal
" of such a gentle and gallant man rests under the (now) turfclad
aisles of Bolton priory, amidst the streams and glades which he
loved so well.
*
From Afttrical History of FloiUen Field, said to have been written by Richard Jackson, schoolmaster,
of Ingleden, about fifty years after the battle.