And, next day [10th October 1643], the Earl of Manchester came to us with his Foot.
The day following [11th October 1643], we advanced again towards the Enemy; and choosing a convenient ground to fight on, we drew up the Army there. The Enemy did so on the side of another hill close by, having a little plain betwixt us.
Lieutenant General [Oliver] Cromwell had the Van [of Horse]; I, the Reserve [of Horse]: my Lord [of] Manchester all the Foot. After we had faced one another a little while; the Forlorn Hopes [Advanced Guards] began the fight. Presently the [Main] Bodies met in the plain: where the fight was hot for half an hour; but then we forced them to a rout. Above 200 killed, and 2000 taken prisoners. This was the issue of Horncastle Fight, or, as some call it, Winceby Fight.
At the same instant, we heard great shooting of ordnance towards Hull: which was a sally my father made [out of the town] upon my Lord of Newcastle's Trenches; who drew out most part of his Army to relieve them. But our men charged so resolutely as they possessed themselves of the cannon; and so pursued their advantage as [they] put the enemy into a total rout. Upon which, he raised the Siege, and returned again to York.
These two defeats together, the one falling heavy on the Horse, the other on the Foot, kept the Enemy all that Winter [of 1643-1644] from attempting anything.
And we, after the taking of Lincoln, settled ourselves in Winter Quarters.
But, in the coldest season of it, I was ordered by the Parliament to go and raise the Siege of Nantwich; which the Lord Byron, with the Irish Army, had reduced to great extremity.
I was the most unfit of all the forces; being ever the worst paid; my men sickly, and almost naked for want of clothes. I desired the Parliament that they would be pleased to supply these wants: not to excuse myself, as some who had no will to stir, though well enough accommodated with all these; and a business of so much importance. But their answer was a positive direction to march; for it would admit of no delay: which indeed was as grievous to me as that injunction was to the Israelites, to make bricks without straw.
But, foreseeing I should have such a return to my desires, I had, seeing the necessity of the business, upon my own credit got so much cloth as clothed 1,500 men: and [they were] all ready to march when these Orders came to me.