We pack properly to protect your item! 
FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
During the earlier period of the great civil war between Charles the First and
his parliament, alternate successes and defeats raised the hopes and depressed the
spirits of each of the contending parties; but, in the year 1643, when great
expectations were entertained of the advantages which would accrue to the royal
cause from the considerable force which had been brought into the field by the
exertions of the Marquis of Newcastle, two men in the ranks of the parliamentary
army began to be remarked for their valour and military talents, and contributed
not a little to the final overthrow of the royal party. These were Sir Thomas
Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. The former, whom it is our present object to
introduce to the notice of the reader, is thus described by Hume :—" Fairfax was a
person equally eminent for courage and for humanity ; and though strongly infected
with prejudices, or principles derived from religious and party zeal, he seems never,
in the course of his public conduct, to have been diverted by private interest or
ambition from adhering strictly to these principles : sincere in his professions,
disinterasted in his views, open in his conduct, he had formed one of the most
shining characters of the age, had not the extreme narrowness of his genius in
everything but in war, and his embarrassed and confused elocution on every
occasion but when he gave orders, diminished the lustre of his merit, and rendered
the part which he acted, even when vested with the supreme command, but
secondary and subordinate.
Sir Thomas Fairfax was the son of Ferdinando Lord Fairfax, whose title and
estates he inherited in the year 1648, and his wife Mary, daughter of Edmund
Sheffield, Lord Mulgrave. He was born at Denton, about twelve miles north
west of Leeds, and concluded his education at St. John's college, Cambridge. The
recollections and example of Edward Fairfax, his near relation, whom Dryden classes with Spenser as one of the greatest poets of the times, although he is now
only known for his able translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, may have
induced the youthful student to have cultivated the muses before he developed that
military genius which seems to have been inherent in his family, for the following
pieces were for a long time preserved in Mr. Thoresby's museum, although we are
not aware that they have been printed. The Psalms of David, the Canticles, the
Song of Moses, and other parts of Scripture, versified ; a poem on Solitude, Notes
of Sermons, and a Treatise on the Shortness of Life. He also wrote Memorials of
Thomas, Lord Fairfax, which were printed in 1699. But his taste, as a writer,
may probably be questioned, for Walpole asserts that his most remarkable compo
sition was a poem on the horse on which Charles the Second rode to his coronation.
But whatever opinion may be formed of his skill as a writer, or of the weak
nesses which subsequently made him a tool in the hands of the able and designing
Cromwell, all parties have done justice to his eminent talents as a commander.
During the beginning of the war, and whilst he acted in conjunction with his
father, Lord Fairfax, he shared in the occasional reverses to which each of the
contending parties was subject ; but, during the latter years, the success of the
troops under his command contrasted with the increasing defeats of his unfortunate
antagonist, contributed much to strengthen the opinions of the waverers and
to inspire confidence in the parliamentary cause. The actions in which he took a
prominent part were too numerous to allow of a detailed account; we shall
therefore confine ourselves to some of the most important, which tend to illustrate
the character of the times.
Had the king followed the energetic counsel of some of his advisers, this
dangerous adversary would at a very earlier period have been precluded from any
opportunity of active exertion, but the warnings of the more prudent, or timid,
prevailed, and Sir Thomas Fairfax and his father were allowed to remain undis
turbed in their houses, within a few miles of York, at a time when most of the
men of any quality in the neighbourhood were well affected to the royal cause. In
truth, they were not suspected of being over-vehemently inclined to the parlia
ment, and the natural ease and love of quiet of Sir Thomas Fairfax probably
induced him to refrain, as long as possible, from any decided step which might
identify him with one of the great parties in the civil war. And, when the king
left Yorkshire, they behayed in the militia question in such a manner that they
were reproached by parliament, " gently, indeed," says Clarendon, " in words,
though scornfully in matter," upon which Lord Fairfax, quietly submitting to the
reproof, " prepared to bear a part in the war, and made haste to levy men." This
open declaration brought matters to a conclusion, and Lord Fairfax was named, " The two who were thus murdered, were men of great name and esteem in the
war ; the one being held as good a commander of horse, and the other the foot, as
the nation had; but of very different tempers and humours. Lucas was the
younger brother of Lord Lucas, and heir both to the honour and estate, and had a
present fortune of his own. He had been bred in the Low Countries, under the
Prince of Orange, and always amongst the horse. He had little conversation in
that court, where great civility was practiced and learned. He was very brave in
his person, and in a day of battle a gallant man to look upon and follow ; but at all
other times and places, of a nature scarce to be lived with, of no good under
standing, of a rough and proud humour, and very morose conversation ; yet they
all desired to accompany him in his death. Lisle was a gentleman who had had
the same education with the other, and at the same time an officer of foot; had all
the courage of the other, and led his men to battle with such an alacrity, that no
man was ever better followed ; his soldiers never forsaking him, and the party which
he commanded never left anything undone which he led them upon. But then, to
his fierceness of courage, he had the softest and most gentle nature imaginable ; was
kind to all, and beloved of all, and without capacity to have an enemy.
" The manner of taking the lives of these worthy men was new, and without
example, and concluded by most men to be very barbarous ; and was generally
imputed to Ireton, who swayed the general, and was upon all occasions of an
unmerciful and bloody nature. As soon as this bloody sacrifice was ended,
Fairfax, with the chief officers, went to the Town Hall to visit the prisoners ; and
the general (who was an ill orator on the most plausible occasion) applied with his
civility to the Earl of Norwich and the Lord Capel; and seeming in some degree
to excuse having done that, which he said the military justice required, he told
them that all the lives of the rest were safe, and that they should be well treated,
and disposed of as the parliament should direct. The Lord Capel had not so soon
digested this so late barbarous proceeding, as to receive the visit of those who had
caused it with such a return as his condition might have prompted to him ; but said,
that they should do well to finish their work, and execute the same rigour to the
rest ; upon which there were two or three such sharp and bitter replies between
him and Ireton, that cost him his life in a few months after. When the general
had given notice to the parliament of his proceedings, he received orders to send
the Earl of Norwich and the Lord Capel to Windsor Castle, where they had,
afterwards, the society of the Duke of Hamilton to lament each other's misfortunes ;
and after some time they too were sent to the Tower."
The civil war is fertile in these touching episodes, for the soil of England was
at that time fruitful in great and good men, who, speaking the same language, and frequently belonging to the same family, stood arrayed against each other in deadly
opposition. But the catastrophe was now approaching, and Charles was put upon
his trial. " There was an accident happened that first day, which may be fit to be
remembered. When all those who were commissioners had taken their places,
and the king was brought in, the first ceremony was to read their commission ;
which was the ordnance of the parliament for the trial ; and then the judges were
all called, every man answering to his name as he was called ; and the
president being first called, and making answer, the next who was called being
the general, Lord Fairfax, and no answer being made, the officer called him
the second time, when there was a voice heard, that said, ' He had more
wit than to be there which put the court into some disorder, and somebody
asking who it was, there was no other answer but a little murmuring. But,
presently, when the impeachment was read, and that expression used of, ' All the
good people of England,' the same voice, in a louder tone, answered, ' No, nor the
hundredth part of them ;' upon which, one of the officers bid the soldiers give fire
into that box whence those presumptuous words were uttered. But it was quickly
discerned that it was the general's wife, the Lady Fairfax, who had uttered both
those sharp sayings ; who was presently persuaded, or forced, to leave the place to
prevent any new disorder. She was of a very noble extraction, one of the daughters
of Horace, Lord Vere of Tilbury ; who, having been bred in Holland, had not that
reverence for the Church of England which she ought to have had, and so had,
unhappily concurred in her husband's entering into rebellion, never imagining
what misery it would bring upon the kingdom, and now abhorred the work in
hand as much as any one could do, and did all she could to hinder her husband
from acting any part in it. Nor did he ever sit in that bloody court, though he
was throughout over-witted by Cromwell, and made a property to bring that to
pass which could hardly have been otherwise effected."
The general humanity of his character, his refusal to act as one of the king's
judges, and the more active part which he had taken in promoting the return and
restoration of Charles the Second, enabled Fairfax, probably, to pass the remainder
of his days in ease and security. He died in November, 1671, at his country
house, and was buried at Bilburgh, near York. One of his daughters, Mary,
married the Duke of Buckingham.
Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, etching, lithograph, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, and NOT blocks of steel or wood or any other material. “ENGRAVINGS”, the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or “engravings” were created by the intaglio process of etching the negative of the image into a block of steel, copper, wood etc, and then when inked and pressed onto paper, a print image was created. These prints or engravings were usually inserted into books, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone lithographs. They often had a tissue guard or onion skin frontis to protect them from transferring their ink to the opposite page and were usually on much thicker quality woven rag stock paper than the regular prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper.
| |
