Lilley People in Literature. BY THE REV. PREBENDARY F. A. HIBBERT, M.A., LATELY RECTOR OF LILLEY. N later years most of the Rectors of Lilley appear to I have been mathematicians. Among such I have no claim to be included. But in my young days I learned Euclid, and remember that he began with definitions. I will follow his example. What is Lilley and what is Literature ? The Oxford Dictionary defines Literature as " the body of writings produced in general.' It goes on to give more restricted definitions, but if I am wise I shall content myself with this general one. Literature then is what has been written—a great thing. Lilley, on the other hand, is a very little thing. I expect most of you have never discovered it. That is natural, because it has not much of archaeological inter- est. The old church succumbed in 1870, and fifty years earlier a wealthy squire plastered over the old 16th century Manor House. But, after all, it is people who make history, not bricks and stones. So I speak of Lilley people; and when I speak of Lilley people who have figured in Literature I mean people who have lived at, or have been connected with, Lilley, who have left something in writing or about whom something has been written. If I can find anything that Lilley people have them- selves written, that will be especially to the point; par- ticularly if they have written anything which, as the Oxford Dictionary says, " has a claim to consideration on the ground of beauty of form' because that is really literature. Of course what I am going to do is to group some of the Lilley people round Literature, without interpreting either word too strictly. I am going to do a bit of Local History. Very early in every local History Book you come to Domesday Book. It is a trump card in the easy game of compilation. I think I should be justified if I quoted it, for it tells us about the people of Lilley and gives some LILLEY PEOPLE IN LITERATURE. 135 interesting facts. But Domesday Book, though it cer- tainly has " claims to consideration5 can hardly be said to have " beauty of form," so we will pass it by and come to real " Literature." We will start with Shakespeare. That is Literature without a doubt, even if your fellow-townsman wrote it. What has Shakespeare to say about any Lilley people? A good deal more than we should expect. The reason is because Lilley became an asset in the business of moneymaking which was the popular, or aristocratic, occupation when the Dark Ages gave place to the Age of Enlightenment, and several of Shakes- peare's Plays deal with those times. The Age of Enlightenment! In Tudor times people were eminently progressive, and many of them pro- gressed so far and so fast that we generally forget the base degrees by which they did ascend. They pro- gressed far beyond the old ideas of chivalry and Public Spirit and the rest of it. They progressed, again, far beyond those simple days when Christians were eaten by lions. Sir Thomas More, one of the unprogressive old fogies, said he saw sheep eating Christian men. It was true. For the new landlords were so bend on develop- ing their sheep-farms that they evicted their tenants from their own lands, and evicted also other people from theirs. This was called enclosing, and it meant turning the Commoners off the Commons. It was the work of the new Aristocracy. Let me introduce you to some of them who were concerned with Lilley. We read about them in Shakespeare, or the Chroniclers, and in their own writings. In the reign of Henry VII. two of the most eligible prizes in the marriage market were the co-heiresses of Lilley, Anne and Matilda Green. They were among the richest young ladies in England, so there was keen competition for them among the hungry swarm of for- tune-hunters. These were the New Aristocracy I spoke of. The old Aristocracy perished in the Wars of the Roses. It had been descended from great men. The new Aristocracy was descended from great scoundrels, and it made itself strong and glorious not from the Nor- man Conquest but from the English Pillage, which began with the commoners and went on to the Clergy. 136 ST. ALBANS AND HERTS ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In the history of the ancestors of the two Misses Green we see how the new men got their feet upon the rungs of the social ladder. The Greens started in the time of Edward II., and characteristically. When his reprobate Queen turned against her husband and ran off with Mortimer, she had among her backers a rising young lawyer named Henry Green. Finding him in such company we should expect him to be a scoundrel, and he was. He was once excommunicated. He rose to be Chief Justice, but was ultimately dismissed for peculation. But he had used his legal and judicial opportunities so well that he had got hold of estates all over the place. One was Lilley. He was one of the new type of landlords which was emerging—men who got estates not as homes but as speculations—living elsewhere on the rents of tenants of whom they knew nothing and cared less. That was the beginning of what is so evident to-day—the great part played by irresponsible wealth—many people living apart from the source of their income, with which all they have to do is to spend it. They have no idea how it comes, or whence. Of its duties, and the responsibilities it brings, they knew nothing. That, of course, is just paganism. Pagans act like pagans. Sir Henry Green had little sense of honour, and none of Public Spirit. He helped to overthrow Edward II. His son, another Henry, helped to overthrow Richard II., though in a different way. That is how he comes to figure in Shakespeare. He was one of the " Caterpillars of the Commonwealth " who incurred Shakespeare's scorn. In their blind self- confidence they despised Bolingbroke, the leader of the opposition, when they had secured his banishment. " Well, he is gone," says Green in the play, " and with him go these thoughts." Then, with incredible levity, they proceed to give him ample excuse for returning. When his father dies they seize his estates. To the amazing folly of giving Bolingbroke a popular excuse for returning they added the mistake of not opposing him. When he landed Richard was in Ireland, Green being one of the Council in charge of England during his absence. Bolingbroke's march was a continual triumph. Green describes it to the Queen— LILLEY PEOPLE IN LITERATURE. 137 " The banished Bolingbroke repeals himself, And with uplifted arms is safe arrived At Ravenspurg and, that is worse, The Lord Northumberland, his son young Henry Percy, The Lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby, With all their powerful friends, are fled to him. The Earl of Worcester Hath broke his staff, resigned his stewardship, And all the household servants fled with him To Bolingbroke." Then, when York, the Regent, confesses his inability to cope with the danger, Green's first thought is his own safety. " Our nearness to the King in love," he reminds his fellows, " Is near the hate of those love not the King." He realises he has backed the wrong horse— " Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly"— so he resolves to look after himself— " I will for refuge straight to Bristol Castle." There Holinshed says they " prepared to make resist- ance ; but when it would not prevail they were taken and brought forth bound as prisoners into the camp, before the Duke of Lancaster. On the morrow next ensuing they were arraigned before the constable and marshall, found guilty of treason, for misgoverning the King and Realm, and forthwith had their heads smit off." Shakes- peare makes a good scene of the incident. When Green, and Bushy, who had been Speaker of the Commons, are brought in prisoners, Bolingbroke addresses them sternly— " I will not vex your souls— Since presently your souls must part your bodies— With too much urging your pernicious lives, For it were no charity. Yet, to wash your blood From off my hands, here in the view of men I will unfold some causes of your deaths. You have misled a Prince, a royal King, A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, By you unhappied and disfigured clean. You have in manner, with your sinful hours, Made a divorce between his Queen and him, And stained the beauty of a fair Queen's cheeks With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs." Finally he describes the injuries done to himself, and his conclusion is, " This and much more, much more than twice all this Condemns you to the death." Only then does Shakespeare let Green show a spark of courage, and that is merely the touch of recklessness 138 ST. ALBANS AND HERTS ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. which traditionally marked court favourites. Marlow in his Edward II. had perhaps set the fashion. At any rate stage tradition required that men like Green should make their final exit with a scowl of defiance to the gallery. So Green folds his arms in the approved manner and strides off, hissing through his teeth— " My comfort is that heaven will take our souls And plague injustice with the pains of hell." Such is the end of the second Green who owned Lilley.