[700]Old major Cosh was quartered (Sept. 18, 1642) at his mother's house at Shirburne in Dorsetshire; her name was Gertrude.
This was when Sherburne castle was besieged, and when the fight was at Babell hills, between Sherburn and Yeovill: the first fight in the civill warres that was considerable. But the firstbrushwas between the earle of Northampton (father to Henry, the lord bishop of London) and the lord Brooke, neer Banbury: which was the later end of July, or the beginning of August, 1642. I[701]was sent for into thecountrey to my great griefe, and departed the 9th of Aug. 'Twas before I went away, I beleeve in Aug. Quaere de hoc.
But to returne to T. Coryat: had he lived to returne into England, his travells had been most estimable, for though he was not a wise man, he wrote faithfully matter of fact.