At the solemnization of the great
wedding of William, the second Earle of Pembroke, to one of the
co-heires of the Earle of Shrewsbury, here was an extraordinary shew;
at which time a great many of the nobility and gentry exercised, and
they had shields of pastboard painted with their devices and emblemes,
which were very pretty and ingenious. There are some of them hanging
in some houses at Wilton to this day but I did remember many more.
Most, or all of them, had relation to marriage. One, I remember, is a
man standing by a river's side angling, and takes up a rammes-horne:
the motto "Casus ubiq{ue} valet". - (Ovid de Arte Amandi.') Another
hath the picture of a ship at sea sinking in a storm, and a house on
fire; the motto "Tertia pestis abest"; meaning a wife. Another, a
shield covered with black velvet; the motto "Par nulla figura dolori".
This last is in the Arcadia, and I believe they were most of them
contrived by Sir Philip Sydney. Another was a hawke lett off the hand,
with her leashes hanging at her legges, which might hang her where'ere
she pitcht, and is an embleme of youth that is apt to be ensnared by
their own too plentifull estates.
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'Tis certain that the Earles of Pembroke were the most popular peers
in the West of England; but one might boldly say, in the whole
kingdome. The revenue of his family was, till about 1652, 16,000li.
per annum; but, with his offices and all, he had thirty thousand
pounds per annum, and, as the revenue was great, so the greatnesse of
his retinue and hospitality was answerable.
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