And If By Travel
They Get A Few Broken Languages, That Shall Profit Them Nothing More
Than To Have One Meat Served On Divers Dishes."[154]
The mother of Francis Bacon affords a good example of the Puritan
distrust of going "beyond seas." She could by no means sympathize with
her son Anthony's determination to become versed in foreign affairs, for
that led him into intimacy with Roman Catholics.
All through his
prolonged stay abroad she chafed and fretted, while Anthony perversely
remained in France, gaining that acquaintance with valuable
correspondents, spies, and intelligencers which later made him one of
the greatest authorities in England on continental politics. He had a
confidential servant, a Catholic named Lawson, whom he sent over to
deliver some important secret news to Lord Burghley. Lady Bacon, in her
fear lest Lawson's company should pervert her son's religion and morals,
had the man arrested and detained in England. His anxious master sent
another man to plead with his mother for Lawson's release; but in vain.
The letter of this messenger to Anthony will serve to show the vehemence
of anti-Catholic feelings in a British matron in 1589.
"Upon my arrival at Godombery my Lady used me courteously until such
time I began to move her for Mr Lawson; and, to say the truth, for
yourself; being so much transported with your abode there that she let
not to say that you are a traitor to God and your country; you have
undone her; you seek her death; and when you have that you seek for, you
shall have but a hundred pounds more than you have now.
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