On 10th March 1613, John Chamberlain wrote in a letter to Sir Ralph Winwood:
“[A]n odd fray … happened much about that time near the Temple, ‘twixt one Hutchison of Grays-Inn and Sir German Pool; who, assaulting the other upon Advantage, and cutting off two of his Fingers, besides a wound or two before he could draw, the Gentleman finding himself disabled to revenge himself by the Sword, flew in upon him, and getting him down, tore away all his Eyebrow with his Teeth, and then seizing on his Nose, tore away all of it, and carried it away in his Pockett”.
John Chamberlain, who lived from 1553/4-1628, and was baptised and buried in the church of St Olave Jewry in the City of London, is best known now as the author of a large number of letters written between 1597-1626, that “constitute the first considerable body … in English history and literature that the modern reader can easily follow”.
Most of the nearly 500 that still survive were written to Sir Dudley Carleton, who, like the aforementioned Sir Ralph Winwood, went on to become Secretary of State.