[99]Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley in com. Oxon was a gentleman of a good estate, and a strong and valiant person.
He was raunger of Woodstocke parke, and (I have heard my old cosen Whitney say) would many times in his younger yeares walke at nights in the parke with his keepers.
Sir Gerard Fleetwood succeeded him in this place[X.]; as his nephew Sir William Fleetwood did him, and him the earl of Rochester.
[X.] J. S. on the heroicall epistles of Michael Drayton—'In Rosamund's time, one Vaughan.'
This Sir Henry Lee's nephew and heire (whom I remember very well; he often came to Sir John Danvers') was called Whip-and-away. The occasion of it was thus:—this old hero declining in his strength by age and so not being able to be a righter of his owne wronges as heretofore—
Ovid. Metamorp. lib. xv, fab. 3 <l. 227>—
some person of quality had affronted him. So he spake to Sir Henry Lee his heire to lie in wayte for him about the Bell Inne in the Strand with halfe a dozen or more lustie fellowes at his back and as the partie passed along to give him a good blow with his cane and whip and away, the tall fellowes should finish the revenge. Whether 'twere nicety of conscience or cowardice, but Sir Henry the younger absolutely refused it. For which he was disinherited, and <Sir Henry the elder> setled his whole estate upon a keeper's sonne of Whitchwood-forest of his owne name, a one-eied young man, no kinne to him, from whom the earle of Lichfield[100] now is descended, as also the lady Norris and lady Wharton.
He was never maried, but kept woemen to reade to him when he was a bed. One of his readers was parson Jones[101] his wife of Wotton. I have heard her daughter (who had no more witt) glory what a brave reader her mother was and how Sir Harry's worship much delighted to heare her. But his dearest deare was Mris. Anne Vavasour. He erected a noble altar monument of marble (☞ see it) wheron his effigies in armour lay; at the feet was the effigies of his mistresse Mris. Anne Vavasour. Which occasioned these verses:—
Memorandum: some bishop did threaten to have this monument defaced (at least to remove Mris. A. Vavasour's effigies).
[103](1) Old Sir Henry Lee[104] of Ditchley, com. Oxon.
(2) Sir Henry Lee, whom they called Whip-and-away, was cosen-german to the other Sir Henry; he dyed a batchelor, sine prole.
Old Sir Henry Lee, knight of the Garter, and was supposed brother of queen Elizabeth. He ordered that all his family should be christned Harry's.
This account I take from my lady Elizabeth viscountesse Purbec, the eldest daughter of Sir John Danvers, sister to the lady Anne Lee.