Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering
were married at the church of Pilton, a very small village between
Aldwinkle and Oundle, on October 21, 1630. Dryden was therefore
indisputably the eldest son. Blakesley, where his father's property was
situated, is not near Aldwinkle or Tichmarsh, which are close together
on opposite sides of the river Nene, and about two miles from Thrapston,
but near Canons-Ashby on the other side of the county. The estate (of
about two hundred acres) was united to that of Canons-Ashby after the
death of Dryden's youngest son. But, unlike Canons-Ashby, it does not
now belong to the family, having been sold many years ago.--ED.]
[21]
"And though no wit ran royal blood infuse,
No more than melt a mother to a muse,
Yet much a certain poet undertook,
That men and manners deals in without book;
And might not more to gospel truth belong,
Than he _(if christened)_ does by name of John."
_Poetical Reflections_, etc. See vol. ix.
Another opponent of our author calls him
"A bristled Baptist bred, and then thy strain
Immaculate was free from sinful stain."
_The Laureat_, vol. x.
[22] Upon a monument, erected by Elizabeth Creed to the poet's memory in
the church at Tichmarsh, are these words:--"We boast that he was bred
and had his first learning here." [A rival tradition favours Oundle,
which had and has a grammar school of merit.
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