Volume 1

Portraits and lives of remarkable and eccentric characters.

Date:
[1819?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Portraits and lives of remarkable and eccentric characters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    193/348 (page 113)
    his history we have no authentic evidence; certain it is, he was distinguished for his g-reat simplicity of manners, and was uncommonly reserved ; when he spoke it seemed to hurt him much ; he was remarkably satirical, and what he said had generally some prophetic meaning. His parents, at their decease, left their farm and Robert to the care of his elder brother, and it was about this time that the monk of Vale- royal, having displeased him, he said, in an angry tone, When you the harrow come on high Soon a ravelins nest will be; which is well known to have come to pass in the person of the last abbot of that place, whose name was Harrow. Being called before Sir Thomas Holcroft, he was put to death for deny¬ ing the supremacy of King Henry VIII. who, according to his commission, having suppressed the abbey, the king gave the domain to this knight and his heirs, who bore a raven for their crest.