Thomas Sackville’s Elegy to Thomas and Philip Hoby: The Discovery of a Draft Manuscript

THE elegies on the Hoby monument in the parish church of All Saints, Bisham in Berkshire have received a great deal of attention. The monument was commissioned by Elizabeth (Cooke) Hoby (later Lady Russell) in memory of her first husband, Sir Thomas Hoby and his brother, Philip Hoby (d. 1558).¹ Thomas Hoby died in Paris in 1566 after serving less than two months as ambassador to France, leaving his heavily pregnant widow to wrap up his affairs and transport her family of three children back to England, efforts for which she was much praised by Queen Elizabeth.² On the tomb, figures of these two men are presented in full armour; their heads rest on their helmets and are turned out toward the viewer. At their feet are hobby hawks. The monument...