Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/155

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the Army in India’ (London, 1858), an accurate little narrative of personal observation from May 1857 to January 1858, when he was invalided home. He became colonel by brevet on 30 March 1865, and sold out of the army on 26 Oct. 1868. He died at Bray, co. Wicklow, on 20 Aug. 1869, aged 52. By his directions his remains were brought to England, and were laid by his old regiment in the cemetery at Aldershot.

[Information supplied by the war office; North's Journal with the Army (London, 1858); Army and Navy Gazette, August 1869.]

H. M. C.

NORTH, CHRISTOPHER (pseudonym). [See Wilson, John, 1785–1854, professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh.]

NORTH, DUDLEY, third Lord North (1581–1666), eldest son of Sir John North [q. v.], was born in London in 1581, and succeeded his grandfather Roger, second baron [q. v.], at the age of nineteen. After completing his education at Cambridge, where, however, he did not graduate, he married, in 1599, Frances, daughter of Sir John Brockett of Brockett Hall, Hertfordshire, a wife not altogether of his own choice; she was barely sixteen at the time. He tells how his grandfather, after a desperate illness, lived just long enough to arrange the marriage, while he was himself disposed to wait until the age of thirty at the least. He was, according to his grandson Roger, a person ‘full of spirit and flame,’ and he chafed at the thought of finding himself ‘pent and engaged to wife and children’ before he had crossed the sea or tasted independence. In the spring of 1602, however, he set forth to the Low Countries for the summer's campaign, accompanied by Mr. Saunders, a cousin of Sir Dudley Carleton. Saunders died of the plague in Italy, and, soon after, North journeyed to London alone. To escape the infection, he had largely dieted himself on hot treacle, and to the immoderate use of this preventive he repeatedly ascribes his impaired health in after life. On his return to England he threw himself with ardour into the extravagant amusements of the court, and became one of the most conspicuous figures there. He was a finished musician and a graceful poet, while at tilt or masque he held his own with the first gallants of the day. Congenial tastes had won for him the close friendship of Prince Henry; but a hasty and imperious temper, on the other hand, made him enemies. Once there were ‘rough words between my lord chancellor [Bacon] and my Lord North; the occasion, my Lord North's finding fault that my lord chancellor, coming into the house, did no reverence, as he said the custom was.’

In the spring of 1606 North's health failed him, and he retired to Lord Abergavenny's hunting seat of Eridge in Kent. The whole of the surrounding district then consisted of uncultivated forest, without a single habitation save Eridge itself and a neighbouring cottage on the road to London. While returning to the metropolis, North noticed near the cottage a clear spring of water, which bore on its surface a shining scum, and left in its course down a neighbouring brook a ruddy, ochreous track. He tasted the water, at the same time sending one of his servants back to Eridge for some bottles in which to take a sample to his London physician. A favourable judgment was pronounced upon the quality of the springs, which became known as Tunbridge Wells, and North thus first discovered the waters of that subsequently famous resort. The wells grew steadily in favour until, in 1630, the fortunes of the place were established by a visit from Queen Henrietta Maria, acting under the advice of her physicians. North also made known the virtues of the waters of Epsom, and counted this no small boon to society; for, he says, ‘the Spaw is a chargeable and inconvenient journey to sick bodies, besides the money it caries out of the Kingdome, and inconvenience to Religion.’ After returning to drink the waters of Tunbridge Wells for about three months, he again settled in London, completely healed of his disorder. On 4 June 1610 he was in attendance on Prince Henry at his creation as Prince of Wales, and took part in the tournament by which the occasion was celebrated. North's impoverished condition in after life was in large measure due to his participation in such entertainments. On 23 March 1612, while tilting with the Earl of Montgomery, he was wounded in the arm by a splintered lance, and was prevented from taking part in the tournament on ‘Kings' Day,’ the anniversary of the accession. On 27 April 1613 he was one of the performers in ‘a gallant masque’ on the occasion of the queen's visit to Lord Knollys at Caversham House.

When his younger brother Roger (1585?–1652?) [q. v.] projected, in 1619, a voyage of exploration to Guiana, North, with the Earls of Arundel, Warwick, and others, supplied funds for the venture. Roger sailed without leave, and North was committed for two days to the Fleet, on the charge of abetting his brother. His warm support of Roger's enterprise also led him into a quarrel with John, lord Digby [q. v.]