Gents Mag 1855 part 2 p.456
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Gentleman's Magazine 1855 part 2 p.456
there was not only a hand but a heart in it. What a jovial wooing must that have been when Seymour hurried down to Katharine's suburban palace on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and beneath the trees in the secluded garden there persuaded her that he had remained a bachelor for her sake, and induced her to consent to wed him, before her royal husband was well buried at Windsor! The lovers had to keep the matter secret for a good half-year. At the end of that time, weary, perhaps, of the little restraint which they were compelled to observe, Seymour addressed a note to the Princess Mary, praying for permission to wed with the queen-dowager. Mary replied with a fair admixture of dignity, satire, and good humour. She affected to believe that interference in such matters little became her as a maiden; presumed to imagine that Katharine herself might have too lively a recollection of whose spouse she had been, to care to wed with an inferior mate; and finally left the enamoured pair to follow their own inclinations, as she very well knew that had alrready done, with her blessing or good wishes upon any conclusion which they might honestly arrive at. The private marriage was soon after made public, and Seymour, with his fine person, heavy embroidery, and light head, had no further occasion to creep to the postern at Chelsea by sunrise, and leave it again, all his day's wooing completed, by seven o'clock P.M. The marriage was not a happy one; and the first trouble was about money. The Protector Somerset, brother of Seymour, withheld the ex-queen's jewels, and sub-let her lands, to the great disgust of the bridegroom, who, with marital complacency, looked upon these things as his own. Further, Katharine was made to feel her altered condition by the proud Duchess of Somerset, who refused any longer to bear the train of one who was now only her sister-in-law, wife of her husband's younger brother. The haughty duchess talked of teaching "Lady Seymour" better manners, and, in short, the two ladies kept up so unwearied a quarrel that all people prophesied that ill would come of it. The brothers themselves were at as bitter antagonism as their wives. It was not a very godly house which Katharine kept at Chelsea; but this circumstance was not exactly Katharine's fault. She had resident with her the Princess Elizabeth, then a lively young lady in her sixteenth year. At first, the ex-queen encouraged her husband to rather boisterous play with that by no means reluctant young lady. But she grew jealous as she found the play running to extremities which she had not contemplated. From romping in the garden, the admiral and Elizabeth got to romping and hiding in the house. Thus we hear of tickling-matches and a world of consequent laughter and screaming. Seymour grew so fond of this sport that he would rush into Elizabeth's sleeping-chamber ere she had risen, tickle her till she was speechless, and then kiss her to keep her from complaining. Occasionally she would conceal herself, or her attendants would remonstrate, whereupon he would revenge himself by chasing, tickling, and embracing the maids. Altogether, such a household was a scandal to Chelsea, and Katharine did well when she got rid of Elizabeth, and, with Lady Jane Grey in her company, went down to Gloucestershire to inhabit Sudeley Castle. Her chief occupations here were in making splendid preparations for the little heir that had been promised her by the star-readers, and in observing a grave demeanour. She had prayers twice a-day, to the great disgust of her husband, whose union with her in this respect was as ill-assorted as would have been a marriage between Lord Chesterfield and Lady Huntingdon. While Parkhurst was reading prayers, Seymour was winking at the dairy-maids, and poor Katharine was sorely vexed at the ungodliness of her mate. At length a girl was born, shaming the sooth-sayers, and bringing death to her mother. The mother left all that she possessed to her very graceless spouse, with some hints, natural to a wife who had been so tried, that such generosity on her part was more than he deserved. And so ended the year-and-a-half's unqeened condition of Katharine Parr. In another half-year the admiral himself had passed under the axe of the executioner, his |
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