[111] Newspapers in "C.W.T.," pp. 152, 153.
[112] "Portland MSS.," Vol. 1, p. 717. T. Stockdale to Wm. Lenthall. This is a very minute description of the battle.
[113] "A Declaration and Summons sent by the Earl of Newcastle, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 143): "I cannot but wonder while you fight against the King and his authority, you should so boldly offer to Professe yourselves for King and Parliament, and most ignominously scandalize this army with the title of Papists, when we ventured our Lives and Fortunes for the true Protestant Religion, established in this Kingdom." The Lancashire letter to Lenthall is in the "Tanner MSS.," Vol. 62. fol. 152.
[114] Newspapers: Rosworm's "Good Service" ("C.W.T.," pp. 146, 147, 228). The border of Lancashire and Yorkshire about Blackstone Edge is formed by high moors. The main road over the Edge is 1,269 feet above sea level; and the summit of the moor 1,553 feet. The next summit to the south, Bleakedgate Moor, is 1,663 feet; Rosworm says that this too was fortified. The descent on the Lancashire side is rather steeper than that into Yorkshire, but the latter is steep enough to make attack very difficult. Blackstone Edge is 18 miles from Manchester, 6 from Rochdale, and 11 from Halifax; Rosworm calls Halifax "distant about 16 mile from us"; but actually it is 28 miles by the nearest way, and over Blackstone Edge 29. In spite of the fortification of the border, it was thought advisable to send away the royalist prisoners at Manchester to some more distant place ("C.W.T.," p. 146).
[115] During these operations the Parliamentarian troops were supported out of sequestered estates, the Order for Sequestrations being now for the first time put into force. Tyldesley's estate at Myerscough was sequestered in October, the first in Amounderness Hundred ("Discourse," p. 44).
[116] "L.J.," Vol. 6, p. 279. Order for pressing 3,000 soldiers in Lancashire, with so many gunners, trumpeters, and surgeons, as the Committee may think fit.
[117] Thurland Castle is still of much the same extent as formerly, but the old building only remains in the lower part of the walls. Two pictures in Philips' "Lancashire Halls," 1822-24, show a very dilapidated building. The moat is three or four yards wide and seven feet deep, and is still only crossed by a single bridge.
[118] "Discourse," p. 41. "A True Relation of the great victory, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 148). "The British Mercury," No. 5, November 27. "The Weekly Account," No. 7, October 18. Rigby's letter to the Speaker was read in the House of Commons, and on November 18 he was formally thanked, and the destruction of Thurland Castle approved ("C.J.," Vol. 3, p. 315). It is evident that in spite of statements to the contrary, the common soldiers on both sides were alike in the matter of plundering. There are two places in Furness named Lindale, one near Cartmel, and one near Dalton. As Rigby says that the royalists were driven into the sea, it must have been the former of these places where the battle was fought.
In some resolutions agreed upon at a meeting of the Deputy-Lieutenants of Lancashire at Preston on October 12, 1643, it was decided that Hornby Castle should be destroyed according to the Order of Parliament; so that the Order had evidently not yet been carried into effect. It was also decided to maintain the garrisons of Warrington and Liverpool ("Hist. MSS. Com.," Vol. 10, app. 4, pp. 67, 68).
[119] "Discourse," p. 45. Cf. also "Hist. MSS. Comm.," Vol. 10, app. 4, p. 66, where is given a petition from the town of Liverpool that Colonel Moore might be Governor in place of Venables, who had been ordered to Ireland (March, 1643‑4). Moore was Governor later in the same year when the town was taken by Prince Rupert.