it is cultivated like a garden, and the hill side, down which the cavalry of the king rushed, is now covered with fine woods.

Hume's concise account of this opening battle of the civil war, gives its main features in a little space. "The King, on mustering his army, found it to amount to two thousand men. The Earl of Lindsey, who in his youth had sought experience of military service in the Low Countries, was general. Prince Rupert commanded the horse: Sir Jacob Astley the foot :* Sir Arthur Aston the dragoons: Sir John Heyden the artillery. Lord Bernard Stuart was at the head of a troop of guards. The estates and revenue of this single troop, according to Lord Clarendon's computation, were at least equal to those of all the members who, at the commencement of the war, voted in both houses. Their servants, commanded by Sir William Killigrew, made another troop, and always marched with their masters.

Two

"With this army the king left Shrewsbury. days after the departure of the royalists, Essex left Worcester. Though it be commonly easy, in civil war, to get intelligence, the armies were within six miles of each other ere either of the generals was acquainted with the approach of his enemy. Shrewsbury and Worcester, the places from which they set out, are not above twenty miles distant; yet had the two armies marched ten days in this mutual ignorance. So much had military skill, during a long peace, decayed in England.

The prayer and charge of Sir Jacob Astley on the commencement of this battle, have been much and justly admired—“O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget thee, do not thou forget me.— -March on boys!"

B B

"The royal army lay at Banbury; that of the parliament at Kineton, in the county of Warwick. Prince Rupert sent intelligence of the enemy's approach. Though the day was far advanced, the king resolved upon the attack. Essex drew up his men to receive him. Sir Faithful Fortescue, who had levied a troop for the Irish wars, had been obliged to serve in the parliamentary army, and was now posted on the left wing, commanded by Ramsay, a Scotchman. No sooner did the king's 's army approach, than Fortescue, ordering his troop to fire their pistols into the ground, put himself under the command of Prince Rupert. Partly from this incident, partly from the furious shock made upon them by the prince, the whole wing of cavalry immediately fled, and were pursued for two miles. The right wing of the parliament's army had no better success. Chased from their ground by Wilmot and Sir Arthur Aston, they also took to flight. The king's body of reserve, commanded by Sir John Biron, judging, like raw soldiers, that all was over, and impatient to have some share in the action, heedlessly followed the chase which their left wing had precipitately led them. Sir William Balfour, who commanded Essex's reserve, perceived the advantage. He wheeled about upon the king's infantry, now quite unfurnished of horse, and he made great havoc amongst them. Lindsey, the general, was mortally wounded, and taken prisoner: his son, endeavouring his rescue, fell likewise into the enemy's hands. Sir Edmund Verney, who carried the king's standard, was killed, and the standard taken, but it was afterwards recovered. In this situation,

Prince Rupert, on his return, found affairs. Every thing bore the appearance of a defeat instead of a victory, with which he had hastily flattered himself. Some advised the king to leave the field; but that prince rejected such pusillanimous counsel. The two armies faced each other for some time, and neither of them retained courage for a new attack. All night they lay under arms; and next morning found themselves in sight of each other. General, as well as soldier, on both sides, seemed averse to renew the battle. Essex first drew off, and retired to Warwick. The king returned to his former quarters. Five thousand men are said to have been found dead on the field of battle; and the loss of the two armies, as far as we can judge by the opposite accounts, was nearly equal. Such was the event of this first battle, fought at Kineton, or Edge-hill.

"Some of Essex's horse, who had been driven off the field in the beginning of the action, flying to a great distance, carried news of a total defeat, and struck a mighty terror into the city and parliament. After a few days a more just account arrived, and then the parliament pretended to a complete victory. The king also, on his part, was not wanting to display his advantages, though, excepting the taking of Banbury a few days after, he had few marks of victory to boast of. He continued his march, and took possession of Oxford, the only town in his dominions which was altogether at his devotion."

To this we may add the following particulars from the historians of the times. The number of slain, although generally stated as above at five thousand, appears, by a survey

taken by Mr. Fisher, the vicar of Kineton, at the time, at the request of the Earl of Essex, to have amounted to little more than thirteen hundred. These were buried in two spots which are yet conspicuous, one of them being planted with fir-trees. The copse of fir-trees is said to have been a pit at the time of the battle, into which five hundred bodies were thrown. The farm on which it is, is still called the Battle-farm; and the two places of the burial, the Grave-fields. They lie about half-way between Radway and Kineton.

The battle was fought October 23, 1642. It was Sunday. It was some time before the king was aware of the fate of Lord Lindsey; when he discovered that he was wounded and in the hands of the enemy, he wished to send him a surgeon, but it was useless. That loyal and high-spirited nobleman, while life continued, did not cease to upbraid the parliamentary officers about him with their treason and disaffection.* There is a curious letter, signed by Hollis, Stapleton, Ballad, Belfore, Meldrum, and Charles Pym, who were present in the action, addressed to John Pym, for the information of the Parliament, and which was printed five days after the battle, in which they attempt to account for the loss of the standard which the loyalist historians simply say "was recovered." They say that it was delivered to the Lord General, and by him to his secretary, with an intention to send it back the next day to his majesty; "but the secretary, after he had long carried it in his hand,

A fine portrait of this gallant nobleman, in Warwick Castle, is very expressive of his open-hearted and high-principled character.

suffered it to be taken away by one of our troopers, and, as yet, we cannot learn where it is."

Near the Round-house, in the range of hill, is one place called Bullet-hill, from the vast quantity of bullets which have been taken out of it. It would appear, from its position, to have received the hottest fire of the parliamentary army. Within view also stands on the height the church of Burton-Dasset, which is supposed to be the place whence Cromwell viewed the battle. Hooper states that he was not in the battle; afterwards excusing himself to the Earl of Essex, by alleging that he could not come up in time. He was then but a lieutenant or captain, and watching the action from a church-tower near, and seeing the flight of the parliament cavalry, he slid down the bell-rope and rode off; shewing, as the historian remarks, what great endings may grow out of very indifferent beginnings. If such was the fact, Burton-Dasset seems the only place where it could have occurred.

The two princes, Charles and James, were here, and the situation of their tent is laid down in old maps; the boys are said to have watched the battle from the hill, and that during the temporary defeat of the royal army, they might readily have been taken. In the village of Radway, at the foot of the hill, is a cottage in which tradition says the king and the princes breakfasted on the morning after the battle, and an old table was formerly shewn as the one they used, but it has been sold as a relic. In the church is also a tablet to the memory of an

officer who fell there.