Cumnor Hall

Cumnor Hall was to have been the original title of what became Walter Scott’s “Kenilworth”, which was published in 1821.  The balled of the same name, by William Julius Mickle, provided inspiration for Scott in taking on this endeavor.  

The dews of summer nighte did falle,
The moone (sweete regente of the skye)
Silver'd the walles of Cumnor Halle,
And manye an oake that grewe therebye....

On January 31^st, 1829, we find Scott reading another Cumnor Hall: ‘…Looked over Cumnor Hall by Mr. Usher Tighe of Oxford. I see from the inscription on Tony Foster's tomb that he was a skilful planter, amongst other fashionable accomplishments….’

The book in question is Hugh Usher Tighe’s “An Historical Account of Cumner…”, which reached the public in 1821, the same year “Kenilworth” was published.  Tighe provides useful background on Cumner and Scott’s “Kenilworth” in the introduction to his work. 

‘The deep interest so deservedly felt, and so openly evinced for every production which emanates from the highly gifted “Author of Waverley”, reflects a corresponding interest on every subject connected with a Tale on which the finest feelings of the mind are unavoidably concentrated.  These sentiments, so universally excited by the perusal of this author’s former Tales, can assuredly not have been lessened by his last production of “Kenilworth”, which, perhaps from the circumstances of the case, form the melancholy story of a very young and lovely woman, contending with villainy and treachery, and struggling with the most trying hardships and privations, appeals more closely to the human heart, and is more calculated to excite the warm emotions of pity, than any of his earlier works.  It is on the prevalence of these feelings, that I venture to hope, that some account of Cumner where the scene of this fascinating story is  principally laid, and the narration of the facts, as given by Ashmole in his Antiquities of Berkshire, may not be deemed utterly devoid of interest….I annex the facts of this melancholy story, as related by Ashmole, and which is alluded to in the latter part of “Kenilworth”.  The same narration, in the same words, may be found in Anthony Wood’s MSS in the Ashmoleon collection…’ 

Elias Ashmole

On October 24, 1660, Samuel Pepys records in his diary visiting William Lilly's house, where he met Elias Ashmole and John Booker; astrologers all.  Per Pepys: '...I went to Mr. Greatorex, where I met him, and so to an alehouse, where I bought of him a drawing-pen; and he did show me the manner of the lamp-glasses, which carry the light a great way, good to read in bed by, and I intend to have one of them. So to Mr. Lilly’s with Mr. Spong, where well received, there being a club to-night among his friends. Among the rest Esquire Ashmole, who I found was a very ingenious gentleman. With him we two sang afterward in Mr. Lilly’s study. That done, we all pared; and I home by coach, taking Mr. Booker with me, who did tell me a great many fooleries, which may be done by nativities, and blaming Mr. Lilly for writing to please his friends and to keep in with the times (as he did formerly to his own dishonour), and not according to the rules of art, by which he could not well err, as he had done....'

Elias Ashmole was an antiquary, politician, and founding member of the Royal Society, as well as being an astrologer.  Ashmole's name lives on at Oxford University, to which he bequeathed a collection of antiquities, stipulating that a museum be built to house them.  That museum was named in his honor, the Ashmolean Museum (http://www.ashmolean.org/about/historyandfuture/).

As told on Edinburgh University's Walter Scott archive, Sir Walter Scott relied on his "Antiquities of Berkshire" for the tale Amy Robsart and Cumnor Hall that he employed as source material for "Kenilworth"(http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/kenilw.html).