Note 3 — I DESCENT AND PARENTAGE; CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD (LEYDEN, THE HAGUE, AND RHEENEN, 1630-1650)

Lord and Lady Harington, as will be seen, accompanied Elizabeth after her marriage to Heidelberg. From them Combe Abbey descended to their daughter Lucia, Countess of Bedford, Drayton’s ‘sweet nymph of Ankor’ (on whose banks the Abbey is situated) and earlier ‘Idea,’ and the recipient of other poetic tributes from Ben Jonson and Donne. (See Courthope’s History of English Poetry, Vol. iii. pp. 29 sqq.) It was her prodigal tastes which made it necessary to sell Combe Abbey, which was finally purchased by the Earl of Craven. (See the notes to Combe Abbey, a historical tale of the reign of James I, by Selina Bunbury (Dublin, 1843)—the first work of the authoress, written in an ardently Protestant spirit. In this novel are cited the stanzas, ‘This is a joye, This is true pleasure,’ said to have been composed by the Princess Elizabeth in her childhood.)