A possible Neville family legend that Henry Neville wrote the works of Shakespeare is a very important research direction. This discovery may be one piece of that puzzle.
I have found two poems from the 18th and early 19th centuries describing the "Oak-Walk at Billingbear." Sir Henry Neville grew up in Billingbear in Berkshire and returned there after his father's death in 1593.
The first poem is from the 1745,
A collection of original poems and translations, by John Whaley, M. A., Fellow of King's-College, Cambridge:
The second poem is even more interesting, published in 1805, Edward Coxe, Esq.
Miscellaneous Poetry,
The poem is titled "Inscriptions for the Grotto, At the end of the Oak Walk, at Billingbear."
Here are some excerpts, it begins from the perspective of outside of the walk looking in:
Nor Parian stone, nor costly shell,
Adorns this humble
moss-grown cell;
This lowly roof should ne'er supply
A thought that tends to luxury.
But if a rustic plain retreat,
Fit shelter for a
hermit's feet,
Can tempt thee from the open glad,
To rest beneath the tranquil shade;
Then inside:
Embow'ring oaks, a stately row,
Around their spreading branches throw,
And tow'ring with
gigantic size,
Life their proud summits to the skies.
On either side a verdant lawn,
Glitters with dew-drops in the dawn;
In
playful herds the speckled deer
Crop the sweet turf, and wanton here.
Then fancy sees, or seems to see,
Beneath each venerable tree,
Dryads and Hamadryads rove,
Along their consecrated grove:
And as they tread the sacred ground,
Aerial music breathes around,
And
choral streams, distinctly clear,
Thus break upon the ravish'd ear: --
For here the
Nevilles and the Greys
Protection to the
wood-nymph raise;
who hail the best auspicious hour,
When first they chose this sacred bow'r.
And though ye can recall no more
Your
Druid Bards' prophetic lore,
Ye still the
Poet shall inspire,
And harmonize the British Lyre!
I've bolded the most interesting bits. To me it seems like the author is consciously connecting these woods to Shakespeare's plays. Even if he's not, there are obvious parallels here. The reference to "Druid Bard" very well could directly reference Shakespeare; "Bard of Avon" was already common in the 18th century.
These are the woods of Henry Neville's youth and adulthood. If he did indeed write the plays and poems of William Shakespeare, they almost certainly inspired him.
The more interesting question is whether this poem offers evidence of a family legend about Henry Neville writing the works of Shakespeare. The book is dedicated to Lord Braybrooke:
"As my first attempts at poetical composition were encouraged by Mr. Neville, your late excellent Father, and as several of the earliest pieces in this Miscellany were weritten at Billingbear, where I passed in your society so many of the happiest hours of my life"
The Mr. Neville here refers to
Richard Aldworth Neville. I have uncovered some evidence that Richard Aldworth Neville may have known a family legend about his great-great-great-great-grandfather Henry Neville writing the works of Shakespeare. This could possibly be another piece of evidence in that direction.
I could pull up many examples of this poem referencing Shakespeare, but here are a few choice ones that show how someone who grew up at Billingbear might have used the Oak Walk as inspiration and how that might have inspired this poet in the late 18th century:
As You Like It, 4.3:
Within an hour; and, pacing through the forest,
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befell! He threw his eye aside,
And mark what object did present itself.
Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,
A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
And this from As You Like It, 2.1, the famous deer hunting scene:
To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him as he lay along
Under an oak whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood!
To the which place a poor sequest'red stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.
Remember, deer hunting was a central part of Henry Neville's life from the time he was a child. Note his letter from 1608,
published first on this blog, transcribed by our anonymous benefactor:
My hope was to have killed our deere in time to have re
turned to you to dinner, But when I saw he had car[-]
ryed us out as farre as Cramborne, and that yt was
not possible for me to com back in time, I thought
yt as good to stay out his death
And this famous passage from Merry Wives of Windsor, 5.5::
About, about;
Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room:. That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit,
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!
And
nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' write
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white;
Let sapphire, pearl and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away; disperse: but till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom
round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.
