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IIBATTLE OF EDGE HILLAdvance of Hampden_Retreat of Rupert & King
Meanwhile Rupert had been lost to sight inKineton streets. When he learned that the fortunes of the day were, in other parts of the field, in full flow against his cause, he and his cavaliers re-formed for the retreat. The place is still known as Prince Rupert’s Headland. There was, however, another factor to be taken into consideration. Some of Hampden’s green-coated soldiers, stimulated no doubt by the sounds of the fight, had in the meantime come up from Stratford-on-Avon, and were prepared to dispute Rupert’s return. They also succeeded in re-forming many of the fugitives, in which duty Captains Cromwell,[5]Nathaniel Fiennes and Kightley, took part.[q]The guns and infantry opened fire upon the retreating cavaliers, who had a hard fight to regain the hill butt, for Stapleton’s horse, after fighting along the whole of the Royalist line, chased them home. Nevertheless, two of the royal regiments refused to be beaten; falling back upon their guns, they made a stand, probably along the line from Radway to Bullet Hill, and there, reinforced by Rupert’s returning troops, they held their ground, repulsing the Parliamentarian attacks, and so says Fiennes,[PB]“horse and foot stood together against horse and footuntil night, when the Royalists retired up hill.” It is probably from this stage of the fight that Bullet Hill got its name. The braided lovelock of many a cavalier who rode so exultingly down the hill in the afternoon sunlight had a stain of a far deeper colour ’ere sunset, and with the phase of the fight following the straggling return of Rupert’s Horse, the events of the day seem to have ended. The King would have tried a final charge with some unbroken regiments to test once more the fortunes of the day, but was with difficulty persuaded from so perilous an enterprise.
Each side claims that only the night prevented a completely victorious issue for its cause, but when we consider that the right wing and centre of the King’s army were disorganised, and in part driven up the hill, and that the Parliamentarians were in possession of the battle ground, the Royalists retaining possession only of the low ground from Radway to Bullet Hill, it seems that the advantage rested on the Puritan side. One[a]remained master of the field of battle, the other kept the London road.
Amongst the several estimates of the slain, it is hard to say which is nearest the truth. Clarendon gives the number as 5,000, two parts of whom were Parliamentarian, and one part theKing’s, but the probability is that it was nearer, a half of that number. Fiennes[PB]puts down the losses acknowledged by the Royalists themselves as 2,000. Certainly the records show that they were exceptionally heavy in officers, one writer adducing as a reason that “the rebel officers had fleeter horses, so not so many of them were slain.” During the cold frosty night after the battle the wounded must of necessity have been left exposed, inasmuch as the fight stretched over many miles of country, and was continued until night; nor do the Royalists appear to have been debarred from searching for their wounded, as we learn by the succour of old Sir Gervase Scroop by his son. The King’s troops saysClarenden“had not the shelter of tree or hedge, and after a very cold night spent on the field, without any refreshment of victual or provision for the soldiers (for the country was so disaffected that it not only sent no provisions, but many soldiers who straggled into the villages for relief were knocked on the head by the common people), the King found his troops very thin.” The Parliamentarians, whose baggage had been cut up by Rupert, could not have been in much better plight; some of them, however, fired the Dassett Beacon, and the news of the conflict was thus flashed across country toLondon. Though so much is recorded of Mr. Wilmot’s (afterwards Lord Rochester, of Adderbury,) position and work during the day, nothing other than the mere statement is made of a far greater leader, Spencer Compton, Earl of Northampton, than that he was at Edge Hill, with some of the best disciplined men.[MW] It would seem that the extended movement of the Royalist forces along the hill ridge in the early part of the day was to give support to Compton Wynyate, or get aid therefrom. It was but three miles distant. Whether any deflection of Hampden’s force moving from Stratford-on-Avon was made to mask or retard Compton’s men is mere surmise: the main part of Hampden’s rear did not reach the field until the Sunday midnight, when Essex got reinforced by a regiment of horse and two of foot.
The story of successive campaigns, as in this the first fight, resolves itself into the superiority of the heavy armament of the Parliamentarian horse. The improved status of the men added greater force at a later date. With all the dash, and all the value of the light horse of the King for foray, when in the field the cavalier went down before the iron armed horse of the Parliament’s army.
On the following day, the two armies againdrew up, the Parliamentarians having in the early morning retired from the hill side towards Kineton,[PB]but neither showed any disposition to renew the fight. Essex was pressed to do so by some of his more impetuous officers, but wanted the daring necessary for so bold a movement. Charles sent a messenger into the rebel lines with a pardon for Earl Essex, which “messenger returned with so great a sense of danger as not to have observed the number and disposition of the Parliamentary forces.” Later on, Essex retired to Warwick with his troops, and Prince Rupert is reported to have followed, but failed to overtake them, though it is stated that he destroyed many wagons and carriages with munitions, &c. The reconnaissance appears to have been otherwise fruitless, for the King at once marched southward, and received the surrender of Banbury Castle, and also subsequently of Broughton Castle. Lord Saye, Sir Wm. Cobb, of Adderbury, and John Doyley, Esq., were not only proclaimed traitors, but were specially exempted from the King’s pardon.[y430]
The position of the graves in which the slain were buried is about 200 yards south of Thistle Farm, the ground bearing still the name of the Grave Field, and a wych elm marks the site ofone of the graves.
The part that Oliver Cromwell played in the struggle has not unnaturally been the cause of much comment. Carlyle[q101]characteristically cuts the Gordian knot with the statement, “Captain Cromwellwaspresent, and did his duty, let angry Denzil say what he will.”[6]Denzil Hollis’s[o226] charge that Cromwell purposely absented himself from the field may be fairly set aside on the ground of malice, his enmity being openly shown, and moreover it meets contradiction in Cromwell’s own statement:[Q249]“At my first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were beaten at every hand. I did indeed.” Neither can Dugdale’s[C]account of Cromwell’s hurried descent from a church steeple by means of the bell rope, when he saw the Parliamentarian disaster, be received in the face of the letter written by Captain Nathaniel Fiennes,[PB]which ends thus: “These persons underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute. The Lord Generall’s Regiment—Sir Philip Stapleton, Captain Draper, SerjeantMajor Gunter, Lord Brookes, Captain Sheffield, Captain Temple, Captain Cromwell; Sir William Belfore’s Regiment—Sir William Belfore, Serjeant Major Hurrey, Lord Grey, Captain Nathaniell Fiennes, Sir Arthur Hasilrigge, Captain Longe.” It is equally curious that Captain Oliver Cromwell, of Troop Sixty-Seven,[q100]was at Edge Hill in the place he invariably occupied during the civil war, viz., with the victorious wing, and that the history of the fluctuations of the fight should be repeated in so many of the great battles, Naseby and Marston Moor to wit.
A most true and ExactRELATIONOFBOTH THE BATTELS FOUGHT BYHIS EXCELLENCYand his Forces against the bloudy Cavelliers.The one on the 23 ofOctoberlast nearKeyntonbelowEdge-Hill inWarwickshire,the other atWorcesterbyColonellBrown, CaptainNathaniel, andJohn Fiennes, andColonellSandsand some others.
Wherein the particulars of each Battel is punctually set down at large for the full satisfaction of all people, with the Names of the Commanders and Regiments that valiently stood it out.
Also the number and Names of the Chief Commanders that were slain on both sides: All which is here faithfully set down without favour or partiality to either Army.
Written by a worthy Captain MasterNathaniel Fiennes, And commanded to be Printed.
London, Printed for Joseph HunscottNovem. 9. 1642.
Mr.Nathaniel Fienneshis Letter to his Father.
My Lord,
I have sent to your Lordship a Relation of the last Battell fought inKeyntonField, which I shewed to the Generall and Lievtenant Generall of the Horse, and divers Colonels and Officers, and they conceive it to be right and according to the truth: For the ill writing of it, I desire that your Lordship would excuse me, for I had not time to write it over again; yet I suppose it may be read, and your Lordship may cause it to be written faire, if your Lordship thinke it worth so much. For that which your Lordship writeth concerning my brotherJohn, is a most false and malicious slander which that fellow hath raised upon him, that he should be the first man that fled on the left wing, when as none of your Lordship’s sonnes were in the left wing, and my brotherJohnwas not at all in the field while the fight was; for by occasion that I intreated him on Saturday morning, when we marched towardsKeynton(little dreaming of a Battell the next day) to go toEvesham(which was but three miles from the quarter where our Troops lay, before they marched with the Army toKeynton) for to take some Arms that were come thither the night before, for such of ourmen as wanted Arms, and so to come after to the Rendevous atKeynton. He could not come thither on Saturday with those men of both Troops which went backe with him toEveshamfor their Arms, but the next day he came thither between three or foure of the clock; at which time our left wing being defeated, many of the Runaways met with him as he was coming to the Army; and happily among the rest, this fellow that raised this report; for thatViverswhich your Lordship mentioneth, was not CaptainVivers(for he was inBanbury) but a brother of his that was in one of ColonellGoodwin’sTroops, and as I heard my brother say, he saw him there; and I heard my Lord Generall say, thatViverswas one of the first that ran away: Now it seemes that those men that ran away so timely, seeing my brother before them, reported as if he had fled from the Army, which is so contrary to the truth, that he tooke a great deale of pains to make his own men and Captain Vivers’ men which were with him to stand, and to stop the Runaways that came from the Army, and this he did, and made two or three stands, and at length gathered a pretty body upon a hill together, and with them (there being Captain Keightlye’s, and Captain Cromwell’s Troope, at length came to them also) hemarched towards the Town; and hearing the enemy was there (as indeed they were with the greatest part of their horse they made a stand, and sending forth their Scouts to give them intelligence where the enemy and where our Forces were, at length they came to knowledge of ColonellHampden’sBrigado that was coming another way to the Town, and so joyning themselves unto them, they came to the Army together. My Lord Generall is very sensible of the wrong that this fellow hath done my brother, and will inquire after him to have him punished, as he hath written to my LordWhartonconcerning him, to let you know so much. MasterBondwhom he citeth for one of his authors, denies that ere he spake to my brother at all, or that he saw any such thing of flying, as that base fellow reporteth, and this your Lordship shall have under his hand. It had been a strange thing if my brother that shewed so much courage atWorcester, should have been so faint-hearted on this occasion; ButI strangethat men will give credit to every idle fellow; if they will, they may heare that my Lord Generall and all the Officers, every one of them ran away. But my Lord, as your Lordship hath great cause to be thankfull, together with us, to God, that in all these late actions of danger, hath preservedthe persons and lives of all your three Sons, so also for preserving their honors, and the honor of Religion; that in this cause they have never flinsht, but have all of them in their severall places and conditions been as forward to hazard their persons into the midst of their’s and God’s enemies as any whosever. And of the truth of this (though we do not vapour so much as some do) there are enough, and those very honorable witnesses that can and will affirm it as well as
Your Lordship’s most obedient Son,NATHANIEL FIENNES.
A most true Relation of the Battell fought by his Excellency and his Forces against the bloudy Cavalliers.
The two and twentieth ofOctober, beingSaturday, his Excellency the Earl ofEssexcame with twelve regiments of Foot, and two and forty Troops of Horse, and a part of the Ammunition and Artillery, toKeynton, a little Market Toun, almost in the mid-way betweenStratfordupon the Avon, andBanbury, there being three Regiments of Foot, and nine or ten Troops of Horse, with seven Pieces of Cannon, and good store of Ammunition coming after, together with six Companies of Dragooners; the Dragooners, and two of the Regiments of Foot, with the Cannon, and nine or ten Troops of Horse, came toKeyntononSundaynight, a little before the day went down; The Regiment, with the Lord Rochfords, came not into the Army till Monday in the afternoon. The King’s Army was lodged on Saturday night, about Croprede and Edgecot, some 6 or 7 miles fromKeynton; and having, no doubt, got intelligence that part of our Army, and Artillery, with a great part of our Ammunition was behinde us, they thought they could not have a better opportunity to fight with our Army, especially if they could get theadvantage of the hill before us, it being a very high and steep assent, which if they were put to the worst might serve them for a Retreat, as it did, it being that which saved them, their Carriages, and the Colours of their Regiments of Foot that ran away; for of those that fought it out, we tooke most of them, excepting onely those two Regiments that stood it out till night, and went off with their horse in an orderly way. The enemy having resolved to give us Battell, and no whit doubting of the Victory, they being more then we were, both in horse and foot (a considerable Brigado of our Army being behinde) and having a great opinion of the resolution of their Souldiers, wherein they were partly deceived, and partly not, as it hapned also on our side; They returned back towardsEdge Hill, and made all possible speed to gain the hill before us (which they did, by reason that his Excellency had not timely intelligence of their designe, otherwise we were much neerer the hill, and might have been possessed of it before them). And by that time our Army was drawn out of the Town about a mile and half towards the hill, the Dragooners, and some of the enemie’s Foot were coming down the hill; Their horse having gotten down most of them on their right hand, and placed themselves ina fair Meadow, at the bottom of the hill; Their Cannon and Ammunition, with the Rere of their foot, were something long ere they came down. And if we had charged them before their Cannon and all their Foot were come down, we might have had a great advantage: but they got all down into the Meadow at the foot of the hill, and there drew up their Army very handsomely, their horse being on their right Wing for the most part, and their Dragooners, and some few Troops of horse on their left Wing; some of their prisoners said they had four Regiments of horse on that wing also; but I could never speak with any of our Army, that either saw any such number of horse, or could tell what they did, unlesse they went directly toKeynton, to plunder the Carriages without charging our Army at all.
For our Army, it was drawn up upon a little rising ground, and being amongst the horse, I could not well discern how the foot were drawn up; only I knew they were most of them a good space behinde the horse, when we began to charge: but for the horse, there were three Regiments on the right Wing of our Army,viz., The Lord Generalls Regiment commanded by SirPhilip Stapleton; SirWilliam Belfore’sRegiment, Lieutenant Generall of the Horse;and the LordFielding’sRegiment, which stood behinde the other two, in the way of a reserve.
On therightWing of our Army, was Sir James Ramsey, with some 24 Troops, for many of our Troops were not in the Field that day. The Armies being thus placed one against another with no great oddes of the winde or ground (but what their was of winde the enemies had it, the ground being reasonable indifferent on both sides) after many shot of Cannon which did very little hurt amongst us, and very much amongst them, their foot advancing for the most part against our right Wing, and their horse against the left Wing of our Army. Their horse had the better of our horse that were on our left Wing, and routing them, drove them back upon our foot, and amongst the rest, upon ColonellHollishis Regiment, which was in the Rere, and they brake through it, yet they ran not away, nor seemed to be at all dismayed at it; but four other Regiments ran away, and fought not at all, and many of them cast away their Colours, and so the enemy took them up, having scarce got so much as one Colour or Cornet of those Regiments or Troops that fought, whereas all the Colours that we got from them, and the King’s Standard, which we had a long time in our possession, were taken out of the midst oftheir best Regiments that fought it out very resolutely: Our left Wing being thus put to the worst, the day was very desperate on our side; and had not God clearly fought for us, we had lost it; for had the enemie’s horse when they routed the left Wing, fallen upon the Rere of our right Wing, in all probability the army had been wholly defeated: But they made directly to the Town, and there falling upon our Carriages, most barbarously massacred a number of poor Waggoners and Carters that had no arms to defend themselves, and so fell to pillaging and pursuing those that ran away, so long till they met with ColonellHampden, who with the other Brigado of the Army (which came with the Artillery and Ammunition which was behinde) was by this time come near toKeynton, and the enemie’s Troops falling upon him as they pursued our men that ran away, he gave them a stop, and discharging five pieces of Cannon against them, he slew some of them; whereupon they returned in some fear and disorder: But when they came back into the Field, they found all their Infantry, excepting two Regiments, cut in pieces or defeated and run away; for it pleased God to put such courage into four or five of our Regiments of foot, and two Regiments of horse, the Lord Generall’s commanded by SirPhilipStapleton, and SirWilliam Belfore, that they defeated all their Regiments of foot, except two. SirWilliam Belfore’sRegiment of horse charged a Regiment of the enemie’s foot, before any foot came up to assist him, and breaking into it cut most of it off; and after, by the assistance of some of our foot, he defeated another Regiment, and so we got up to the greatest part of the enemies Ordnance, and took them, cutting off the Geers of the horses that drew them, and killing the Gunners under the Carriages, but were forced to leave them without any to guard them, by reason we were fain to make good the day against severall Regiments of foot that still fought with a good deal of resolution; especially that which was of the King’s Guard, where his Standard was, close by which SirWilliam Belfore’sRegiment rode when they came from taking the Ordnance; and they taking us to be their friends, and we them, some of our Company, shook hands with some of them, which was the cause that after riding up towards the Lord Generall’s Regiment of horse, they gave fire upon SirWilliam Belfore’sRegiment, and discerning each other to be friends, we joyned Companies; and so with half the Lord Generall’s Regiment, which his Excellency himself led up, charging the King’s Regiment, we defeated it,took the Standard, took the Generall of the King’s Army, the Earl of Lindley, and his son, and Colonell Vavasor who was Lieutenant Colonell of that Regiment, and killed Sir Edward Varney upon the place (who carryed the Standard), Colonell John Munroe, and divers others: In this charge, and generally throughout the day, the Lord Generall’s Troop, consisting most of Gentlemen, carried themselves most valiantly; and had all our Troops,ofour left Wing been made of the same metall, the enemy had not made so easie an impression into them. And what is said of my Lord Generall’s Troop, may most truly, and to his high praise, be said of himself; and also that noble Earl, the Earl of Bedford, Generall of the horse, for both of them rode all day, being in the heads of the severall Troops and Regiments to give their directions, and to bring them on upon the enemy, hazarding their persons as far and further than any particular Souldier in the Army. By this time all the enemie’s foot being dispersed and gone excepting two Regiments, they retiring themselves, found their Ordnance behind them without any Guard, and there they made a stand, and made use of their Cannon, shooting divers shot at us; at which time our Regiment of foot began to want Powder, otherwise we hadcharged them both with horse and foot, which in all probability would have utterly ruined their Infantry, for those two Regiments were the onely stake which they had now left in the hedge: But partlythroughwant of Ammunition, and partly being tyred with fighting all the day (the whole brunt of the Battell having been sustained by two Regiments of horse, and four or five of foot) we made no great haste to charge them, so that the enemies horse that had been pillaging at Keynton had leisure to come about, some on one hand of us, and some on the other, and so joyned with their foot: Yet as they came back on our left hand, SirPhilip Stapleton, with his Troop, went out to charge some 4 or 5 Troops of them which went away from him as fast as they could upon the spur to the rest of their Company, and their foot that stood by their Ordnance, most of the enemie’s horse being gathered to their foot, most of our horse also gathered to our foot, and so we stood horse and foot one against the other till it was night. Our Army being thus possessed of the ground that the enemy chose to fight upon, stood there all night; the enemy having withdrawn their Army to the top of the hill for more security to themselves, where they made great fires all the night long, whilst we in the meantime drew backesome of our owne Ordnance, which they had once in their possession, and some of their’s which they had left behinde.
The next morning, a little before it was light, we drew back our Army towards the Town to our other Brigadoe and Artillary and Ammunition that was come and lodged there, and the enemy drew out their horse in the morning upon the side of the hill, where staying till towards night, whil’st the foot were retyring behinde the hill and marching away, at length a little before night, their horse also marched away; and about an houre after, our horse also marched towards their Quarters, the Foot and some horse staying all night in their Quarters, in and beforeKeynton; and the next day the whole Army both horse and foot marched towardsWarwicketo refresh themselves; instead of which, if they had marched towardsBanbury, they would have found more victuals, and had in all probabilities dispersed all the foot of the King’s Army, and taken his Canon and Carriages and sent his horse farther off to plunder, whereas now because we did not follow them though they quitted the field to us which we fought on and left their quarter before us the next day, yet they begin to question who had the day: It is true, there were Colours and Canon taken on bothsides, without any great difference in the numbers, but for the number and quality of men slaine and hurt, it is verily believed, they left foure times as many at the least as we did, and in saying foure times as many, I am confident I speake much below the truth. There were slaine on their side the Earl ofLindseyGenerall of their Army, the LordAubigney, brother to the Duke ofRichmond, SirEdward VernyColonell,John Monroeand divers other gentlemen and Commanders, and very many hurt. Of our side were slaine the Lord St. John, ColonellCharles Essex, Lieutenant ColonellRamseyand none other of note, either killed or dangerously hurt that I can heare of; They acknowledge that they lost 1200 men, but it is thought they lost 2000: and whereas they report we lost divers thousands, where one man judgeth that we lost 400, ten men are of opinion that we lost not 200 Souldiers, besides the poore Waggoners and Carters.
These persons underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their Troops but they and their Troops fought till the last minute.
A FULL AND TRUE RELATION of the great Battell fought between the King’s Army, and his Excellency, the Earle of Essex, upon the 23 of October last past (being the same day twelve-moneth that the Rebellion broke out in Ireland) sent in a Letter from Captain Edward Kightley, now in the Army, to his friend Mr. Charles Lathum in Lumbard Street, London, Wherein may bee clearly seene what reason the Cavaliers have to give thankes for the Victory which they had over the Parliaments Forces.
A FULL AND TRUE RELATION of the great Battell fought between the King’s Army, and his Excellency, the Earle of Essex, upon the 23 of October last past (being the same day twelve-moneth that the Rebellion broke out in Ireland) sent in a Letter from Captain Edward Kightley, now in the Army, to his friend Mr. Charles Lathum in Lumbard Street, London, Wherein may bee clearly seene what reason the Cavaliers have to give thankes for the Victory which they had over the Parliaments Forces.
Judges 5-31.
“So let all thine enemies perish O Lord, but let them that love him, be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might.”
London: Printed November the 4, 1642.
Loving Cousin, I shall make so neare as I can a true, though long relation of the battell fought betweene the King’s Army and our Army, under the conduct and command of my Lord Generall on SaturdayOctober22. Our Forces were quartered very late and did lie remote one from the other, and my Lord Generall did quarter in a small Village where this Battell was fought, in a field called Great Kings Field, taking the name from a Battell there fought by KingJohnas they say: on Sunday the 23 ofOctoberabout one of the clocke in the afternoon, the Battell did begin and it continued untill it was very darke, the field was very great and large, and the King’s Forces came down a great and long hill, he had the advantage of the ground and wind, and they did give a very brave charge, and did fight very valiantly: they were 15 Regiments of Foot and 60 Regiments of Horse, our Horse were under 40 Regiments and our Foot 11 Regiments: my Lord Generall did give the first charge, pressing them with 2 pieces of Ordnance which killed many of their men, and then the enemy did shoote one to us, which fell 20 yards short in a plowed Land, and did no harme, our Souldiers did many of them run away to wit blew Coats and Grey Coats, being two Regiments, and there did runne away,600 horse, I was quartered five miles from the place, and heard not anything of it, until one of the clocke in the afternoone. I halted thither with Sergent MajorDuglis’troope, and over-tooke one other troope, and when I was entiring into the field, I thinke 200 horse came by me with all the speed they could out from the battell, saying, that the King had the victory, and that every man cried for God and King Charles. I entreated, prayed and persuaded them to stay, and draw up in a body with our Troopes, for we saw them fighting, and the Field was not lost, but no perswasions would serve, and then I turning to our three troopes, two of them were runne away, and of my Troope I had not six and thirtie men left, but they were likewise runne away, I stayed with those men I had, being in a little field, and there was a way through, and divers of the enemy did runne that way both horse and foote, I tooke away about tenne or twelve horse, swords, and armour, I could have killed 40 of the enemy, I let them passe disarming them, and giving the spoile to my Troopers; the Armies were both in a confusion, and I could not fall to them with out apparent loss of my selfe and those which were with me, the powder which the Enemy had was blowne up in the field, the Enemy ran away as well asour men, God did give the victory to us, there are but three men of note slain of ours, namely my Lord SaintJohn, CollonellEssex, and one other Captaine, whose name I have forgot: Captaine Fleming is either slaine or taken prisoner, and his Cornet, he had not one Officer which was a souldier, his Waggon and money is lost, and divers of the Captaines money and Waggons are lost, to great value, our foote and Dragooners were the greatest Pillagers, wee had the King’s Standard one houre and a halfe, and after lost it againe: Wee did lose not above three hundred men, the enemy killed the Waggoners, women and little boyes of twelve years of age, we tooke seventeene Colours and five pieces of Ordnance, I believe there were not lesse than three thousand of the enemy slaine, for they lay on their own ground, twenty, and thirty of heapes together, the King did lose Lords, and a very great many of Gentlemen, but the certaine number of the slaine cannot bee knowne, we did take my Lord ofLindsey, Generall of the Foote, being shot in the thigh, who dyed the Tuesday morning following, and his body is sent away to be buryed, the Lo:Willoughbyhis son was taken,Lunsford,Vavasour, and others, being prisoners in Warwick Castle; on Munday there did runne from the King’s Army 3000, footein 40, 50, and 60 in Companies, wee kept the field all Sunday night, and all Munday, and then marched to our quarters, and on Munday the enemy would have given us another charge, but they could not get the foote to fight, notwithstanding they did beate them like dogs, this last Relation of the enemy I received from one which was a prisoner and got away.
Banbury is taken by the King, there was 1000 Foote in it, the Captaines did run away, and the souldiers did deliver the Toune up without discharging one Musket. It was God’s wonderful worke that we had the victory, we expect to march after the King. The day after the Battell all our Forces, horse and foote were marched up, and other forces from remote parts, to the number of 5000, horse and foote more than were at the Battell, now at my writing, my Lord Generall is at Warwick, upon our next marching we doe expect another Battell, we here thinke that the King cannot strengthen himself, for the souldiers did still runne daily from him, and I believe if we come to fight a great part of them will never come up to the charge. The King’s guard were gentlemen of good quality, and I heard it, that there [was] not above 40 of them which returned out of the field, this is all I shall trouble you with, what is more, you will receiveit from a better hand than mine: Let us pray one for another, God I hope will open the King’s eyes, and send peace to our Kingdome. I pray remember my love to all my friends; if I could write to them all I would, but for such newes I write you, impart it to them, my Leiutenant and I drinke to you all daily; all my runawayes, I stop their pay, some of them for two dayes some three dayes and some four dayes, which time they were gone from mee, and give their pay to the rest of the souldiers, two of my souldiers are runne away with their Horse and Armes: I rest, and commit you to God.
Your loving Cousin,EDWARD KIGHTLEY.
The Rebellion in Ireland and our Battell were both the 23 of October.
The Geology of the Edge Hill region presents points of study to the student of the physical phases of the science rather than to the palæontologist, though it does not appear in either case that the conditions presented are difficult to read. Beginning with the low range of hills three miles N.W. of Kineton, forming the Trias outcrop, and fringed with a thin development of Rhætics, we cross the broad plain of the Lower Lias almost without undulation, save in the ridge which stretches from Gaydon to Butler’s Marston, until the foot of Edge Hill itself is reached. Fragments of Ammonites of therotiformistype are occasionally ploughed up in the plain, and the railway cutting at North End has yielded specimens ofAmmonites semicostatus. The hill slopes are in the main formed of the clays and shales of the Middle Lias, the Zone ofAmmonites margaritatuswith certain characteristic fossils,Cypricardia cucullata, &c., appearing in the old brickyard at Arlescot. There is no other exposure of the seleniferous shales of the zone; their courseis masked by a rich belt of woodland. The natural terraces somewhat characteristic of this horizon in the midlands are roughly developed towards the Sun Rising, and are more perfectly shown at Hadsham hollow in the Hornton vale. At Shenington, four miles southward, there are some beautifully terraced fields, one locally known as Rattlecombe Slade recalling to mind the lynchets of the Inferior Oolite sands of Dorsetshire. They are in the main terraces of drainage, the step-like form of subsidence being due to the composition of the seleniferous marls and under waste. The terraces are of exceptional regularity, and run parallel to the lines of drainage; in one case, however (Kenhill), in the same locality, they form a bay or recess on the hill slope. A familiar instance of the last phase is to be seen at the Bear Garden, Banbury. The salient feature of the Edge Hill escarpment is the Marlstone rock-bed, the uppermost division of the Middle Lias. Several sections in this zone (Ammonites spinatus) may be seen near the Round House. It has three main divisions: The upper red layers the roadstone, the middle of several green hard beds called top-rag, and the lower courses of dark green softer stone, the best rag (used for building). Some of the quarries have beenworked for centuries, and the grey green slabs of Hornton stone, its local name, are familiar on the hearths and in the homes of nearly the whole country-side. At this its N.W. outcrop, the rock thickens considerably, attaining a development of about twenty-four feet. The stone itself is a ferruginous limestone, greenish when unweathered, otherwise of a rich red brown colour. Good evidence of its durability as a building material is shewn in the fine fourteenth century churches of North Oxon, which are almost without exception built of the stone. Near the Beacon House on the Burton Dassett Hills, a good section is exposed in which fossils are found more freely. Amongst the brachiopod shellsWaldhemia indentata,Terebratula punctata,T. Edwardsiioccur, together with an abundance of the characteristicRhynchonella tetraëdra:Spiriferinæare rare. When the ironstone workings were extended, ten years or so since, largePholadomya ambiguaand other shells were obtainable from some sandy beds at the base of the series. Capping the “spinatus” beds are a few feet of Upper Lias Clay belonging to the zone ofAmmonites serpentinus, and fragments of the Ammonites common to the horizon are scattered about; but these beds are not found along the escarpment east of Shenloe Hill.
By the roadside leading from Burton Dassett to Fenny Compton, a small quarry on the south side shows a patch of Inferior Oolite. A fault has preserved this the only remnant to prove the former extension of the Bajocian beds over the area of the Burton and Edge Hills. Tysoe Hill, four miles S.W. of the Round House, and the hills which fringe the borderland of Warwickshire and Oxon, are nearly all capped with sands or limestones of the Inferior Oolite, and occasionally with the marly limestones of the Great Oolite also.
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BANBURY CROSS.
STATISTICAL TABLE.
Banbury, in N.E. Oxfordshire, on river Cherwell, drainage N. to S.Altitudes: river level, 300 o.d.; the Cross, 331; high town, 424.Average rainfall, 27.59 inches. Mean temperature, 41.5.Population, Municipal Borough, 12,967.Parliamentary division of Banbury, in W. Oxon., bounded E. by river Cherwell, S. by line from E. to W. through Finstock. Member of Parliament, 1890, A. Brassey, Esq., Heythrop Park, Chipping Norton.Railway Systems: G. W. R.; L. & N. W. R.; B. & C. R.; N. & B. J. R.; G. C. R.Canal: Oxford and Birmingham.
Banbury, in N.E. Oxfordshire, on river Cherwell, drainage N. to S.
Altitudes: river level, 300 o.d.; the Cross, 331; high town, 424.
Average rainfall, 27.59 inches. Mean temperature, 41.5.
Population, Municipal Borough, 12,967.
Parliamentary division of Banbury, in W. Oxon., bounded E. by river Cherwell, S. by line from E. to W. through Finstock. Member of Parliament, 1890, A. Brassey, Esq., Heythrop Park, Chipping Norton.
Railway Systems: G. W. R.; L. & N. W. R.; B. & C. R.; N. & B. J. R.; G. C. R.
Canal: Oxford and Birmingham.
Table of Distances in miles from Banbury:—
Municipal Properties and Buildings:
Ecclesiastical and other Buildings: