We will only remark that, in the closing years of the reign of George II., Jacobites, who had neither been harmless nor intended to remain so if opportunity favoured them, were allowed to live undisturbed. As Justice Foxley remarked to Ingoldsby, they attended markets, horse-races, cock-fights, fairs, hunts, and such like, without molestation. While they were good companions in the field and over a bottle, bygones were bygones.
CHAPTER XIV.
(1744 to 1761.)
subject of great interest in the life of Charles Edward presents itself to consideration in the alleged romantic, but particularly absurd, incidents of his various appearances in London, or England. These doubtful visits commence with the year 1744, and close with the no longer young Chevalier’s supposed presence at the coronation of George III., 1761.
In the former year, there was residing at Ancoats, near Manchester, Sir Oswald Mosley, who had been created a baronet by the Hanoverian king, George I., in 1720. At the end of nearly a quarter of a century, if common report do not lie, he seems to have been a thorough Jacobite, with Charles Edward for his guest, in disguise! The ‘fact’ is first recorded in Aston’s ‘Metrical Records of Manchester,’ in the following doggrel lines:—
In the year ’44, a Royal Visitor came,
Tho’ few knew the Prince, or his rank, or his name—