[53] This MS. Diary, which is in the British Museum, is entitled “A Continuation of the Marches and Actions of the Royall Army, His Majestie being personally present. From the 17 of August, 1645. Liber Ricardi Symonds.”
[54] In this Diary there are two or three curious entries, which, though not referring to any matter of public importance, it may be as well to transcribe: one, detailing a singular occurrence, is connected with a name well known in Bridgnorth. “Monday, Oct. 13. Captn. Gatacre, of this County, (Salop) killed in Bridgnorth by a Quarter Master, and the Quarter Master killed too by him.” “Friday, Oct. 17. A Scott was tryed at Bridgenorth, at a Council of Warre, that he put on his hatt before his Majestie, and being reprehend for it by the Govr., he told them he was equal to all but the Govr., and they committed him for it.”
[55] I am indebted to Mrs. Stackhouse Acton for the copy of these two letters of King Charles’s. They are found in an 8vo. Vol. of King Charles’s letters to his Secretary Nicholas, in which the ciphers are explained as above. I owe to her kindness also my acquaintance with the “Iter Carolinum” and “Symmonds’ Diary.”
[56] The only difficulty that there is in assigning to this letter the date of October, 1642, is that the king speaks in it of Lord Goring being in command of his horse; whereas, we learn from Whitelock, that Lord Goring, in the Autumn of that year, took ship from Portsmouth, where he was closely besieged by the Parliamentary army, and fled to Holland. (Memorials, p. 62.) But Whitelock does not give the exact date of the siege of Portsmouth, so that the King may have written this letter to his Secretary Nicholas from Bridgnorth, before it took place, or at least before he had received any tidings of it.
[57] If the right date has been assigned to the first letter of King Charles’, given above, he must have left the town the day before the rebel forces entered it; and they could have remained here but a few days, as he returned on the 12th.
[58] This probably was the ford near the “Shearing Bush,” and the “champayn field” mentioned afterwards may very likely have been the flat extensive pasture-field opposite St. James’s.
[59] Lord Paulet, though made prisoner on this occasion, regained his liberty afterwards by some means, for he is mentioned as one of those who were engaged in the siege of Lyme, in 1644.
[60] These particulars I have collected partly from the Blakeway apers, and partly from the puritan tract of “The Burning Bush not onsumed.”