Montgomery manuscripts

ig6
The Montgomery Manuscripts.
to see the Prince of Orange's houses at Reswick 6 and Hunsterdyke,? where (in a parish church) we
saw a copper pan and brass one, in w" a Countess of Holland's birth were baptised, the males and
the females separately, but at one time; the infants (in all) were 36s. 8 There were also hung (up
by those pans) verses pasted on boards, declaring how this world's wonderment came on that Coun-
tess, viz. that she refused to give alms to a poor distressed woman, who went about begging charity
for her little ones at home and for three sucklings on her back, which she fostered on her own
breasts. The Countess conjecturing the beggar to be a common whore and the children to be
bastards to three men, and telling her that was the reason she rejected her. The poor woman
answered, God knows I am the honest wife of an indigent man, who is at home using industry to
preserve our numerous family from starving. He sent me forth thinking a sight like this of mine
was the best way to move compassion and to get relief, but seeing your Ladyship is so hard-hearted
6 Reswick. — The village of Ryswick is situated about
half way between Delft and the Hague, amidst scenery of
surpassing beauty. It is known throughout Europe as
the place where the celebrated peace was concluded between
Louis XIV. and the confederate powers, on the 20th of
September, 1697, after a war of nine years' duration.
The treaty of Ryswick was signed in the royal palace
there, then occupied by William III., and known as the
House of Neubourg.
1 Hunsterdyke. — Evelyn calls this place Hounslers
Dyck. "I went," says he, "to see one of the prince's
palaces, called the Hoff van Hounslers Dyck, which is a
very magnificent cloyster" 1 and quadrangular building.
The gallery is prettily paynted with several huntings, and
at one end, a Gordian knot, with several rusticall instru-
ments so artificially represented as to deceive an accurate
eye to distinguish it from actual relievo. The ceiling of
the stair-case is paynted with the Rape of Ganymede, and
other pendent figures, the work of F. Covenberg, of
whose hand I bought an excellent drollery, which I after-
wards parted with to my brother George of Wotton,
where it now hangs. To this palace joynes a faire garden
and parke, curiously planted with limes." — Memoirs,
vol. i., p. 19.
s Were 365. — This story was originally preserved in
an old Dutch MS., of which a Latin translation was
published at page 66, of a work entitled Variorum
in Europa Itinerum Delicia. See Moreri, Le Grand
Dictionaire, under Loosduynen, and the authorities cited
there. " A une lieue et demie de la Haye, et a deux de
Delft, on remarque le Village de Losduynen, ou il y eut
autre-fois une Abbaye le Filles, de l'Ordre de Citeaux,
laquelle a ere fondee Fan 1224, par Florent IV., et son
epouse Marguerite, Comtesse de Hollande. C'est dans
ce lien qu' aniva ce monstrueux accouchement de la
Comtesse Mathilde, femme de Herman, Comte de Hanne-
berg, qui, a l'age de vingt-quatre ans, mit au monde, d'une
seule portee, le jour des Rameaux, l'an 1276, trois cents
soixante-cinq enfans, moitie males, moitie femelles, &c.
Cette Histoire se trouve dans Erasme, Vives, Guichardin,
Camerarius, Pierre d'Oudegerst, auteur des Annales de
Flandres, et dans plusieurs autres. — Les Delices des Pays-
Bas,tom. v., p. 89, (Liege, 1769)." The following is a trans-
lation of the Latin version : — " Matilda, wife of Herman,
count of Henneberg, fourth daughter of Floris, count of
Holland and Zealand, was about forty-two years of age,
and, on the Good Friday, about nine of the clock in the
morning, in the year 1276, was delivered of 365 children,
all of whom were baptized on the day of their birth — the
boys being called John, and the girls Elizabeth. All of
them bore a strong resemblance to their mother, and the
mother and children died the very same day they were
born, and were buried in the holy church of Loosduyn.
The occasion of this very miraculous birth was an old
beggar-woman, who happened to solicit alms of the coun-
tess as she was passing. This woman had two children
in her arms, which, she said, were twins, and declared
that she was left entirely destitute of home with them.
' You wicked impostor,' said the enraged countess,
'begone, it is impossible.' The countess was about to
have her punished ; and as the beggar, being disturbed in
her mind, turned away, she wished that the countess,
who was then encicnle, might have, at one birth, as
many children as there were days in the year. To prove
this, there are the old memorials and manuscripts at
Utrecht. May God for ever be praised and glorified.
Amen." The following extract of a letter from the Hague
contains some additional details relating to this wonderful
affair : — " On the 20th of March, 1748, a friend took me
to Loosdein, five miles from the Hague, to view two
brass basins, in which it is recorded that 365 children,
born by Margaret, countess of Henneberg, at one birth,
were baptized. Accordingly, when we entered the
church, I saw a long inscription on the wall, giving the
following account : — That the said countess, in 1276,
having upbraided a poor woman with twins in her arms,
as unchaste, insinuating that one man could not get both
at once, so provoked the honest woman, that she wished
her ladyship, then with child, might bring forth as many
children at a birth as there are days in the year. And
this wish, or rather curse, says the inscription, was fulfilled
upon the uncharitable Margaret, who was delivered of
365 children, who were all baptized by Guido Suffragan
of Utrecht, the males being named John, and the females
Elizabeth; and they and their mother all died the same
day. I also saw the two brass basins, with this distich
under them : —
" Eh tibi monstrosum nimis et memorabile factum.
Quale nee a mundi conditume datum"
— The Edinburgh Topographical, Traditional, and Anti-
quarian Magazine, pp. no, III,