The Family Council

He counsels a divorce
Shakespeare, KING HENRY VIII.

In the spring of the year 1572, a family council was assembled in
Hurst Walwyn Hall. The scene was a wainscoted oriel chamber closed
off by a screen from the great hall, and fitted on two sides by
presses of books, surmounted the one by a terrestrial, the other by
a celestial globe, the first 'with the addition of the Indies' in
very eccentric geography, the second with enormous stars studding
highly grotesque figures, regarded with great awe by most
beholders.

A solid oaken table stood in the midst, laden with books and
papers, and in a corner, near the open hearth, a carved desk,
bearing on one slope the largest copy of the 'Bishops' Bible'; on
the other, one of the Prayer-book. The ornaments of the oaken
mantelpiece culminated in a shield bearing a cross boutonnee,
i.e. with trefoil terminations. It was supported between a merman
with a whelk shell and a mermaid with a comb, and another like
Siren curled her tail on the top of the gaping baronial helmet
above the shield, while two more upheld the main weight of the
chimney-piece on either side of the glowing wood-fire.

In the seat of honour was an old gentleman, white-haired, and
feeble of limb, but with noble features and a keen, acute eye.
This was Sir William, Baron of Hurst Walwyn, a valiant knight at
Guingate and Boulogne, a statesman of whom Wolsey had been jealous,
and a ripe scholar who had shared the friendship of More and
Erasmus.