With the King at Oxford: A Tale of the Great Rebellion

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XVI.

  OF MY KINSFOLK AT ENSTONE.

  My sister Dorothy and her good husband, Master Blagrove, had long beenearnest with me that I should visit them; and this, though there wasthat which drew me elsewhere, I now purposed to do, both because Idesired to see my kindred again and to learn how they fared, andbecause Enstone was of a convenient nearness to Oxford. Such goods asI had I put in charge of a worthy citizen, Master Mallam, a draper,that had his dwelling in the Corn-market, a good man that loved theKing and the Church in his heart, but bare him so discreetly that hehad the favour of the opposite faction. My books, which were indeed mychief possessions, though these also were neither many in number norof great price, I gave into the charge of Anthony Wood, that wasBible-clerk of Merton College (which place though a King's man he hadkept by the special favour of Sir Nathaniel Brent, the Warden of thesaid College). This Anthony was a great lover of books, and studiousbeyond his years, of which he at that time numbered about sixteen.These matters settled, I, taking with me only so much as I couldconveniently carry on my back, and with a stout walking-staff in myhand--such as the good Bishop Jewel did lend to Master Richard Hooker,pleasantly calling it his horse--set out on my journey, which, beingtwenty miles or thereabouts, I accomplished in the space of six hours.I found a pleasant company gathered at Master Blagrove's house, for hehad that day christened his little son, so that my coming was inseason. After the first greeting, says my sister Dorothy to me:

  "Now, Philip, kiss your godson; though indeed you are but a negligentgodfather. Had you but come six hours sooner you had answered foryourself. As it is you must thank Master Willis here, whom I must nowmake known to you, for standing in your place."

  "Nay, Dorothy," I answered, "you cannot rightly blame me. No man couldhave done to-day's business more speedily than I. This very morning,mind you, come the visitors to Lincoln College, and, my bettersdisposed of, call me before them. 'Philip Dashwood,' says the chiefamong them, Sir Nathaniel Brent, that is warden of Merton College, 'doyou submit to this visitation?' 'Sirs,' said I, 'I do not submit.''Then you are expelled,' says the great man; and, turning to theclerk, 'Take a note of his name and sentence;' and to the manciple,'Strike out his name from the books;' and having waited till I saw itdone, I even turned on my heel, and so departed without a word. Iwarrant that my business filled not more than three minutes at themost. And this was scarce ten hours ago, for the visitors came to usabout eight of the clock."

  When I had told them my tale, my sister Dorothy, who had ever a tenderheart, and thought better of me than I deserved, cried out:

  "That was well, my brave Philip. I cannot be patient with thetime-serving knaves who would keep their preferment at cost of theirfaith."

  "Nay, Dorothy," said I, "mine was but a small matter, a few shillingsby the year, which, in the common course, I could not have had muchlonger. 'Twas easy enough to give up so small a thing, but I judge notthem who for wife and children's sake have strained their conscience,it may be, beyond that which is right."

  As I spake, I noticed that my good brother looked somewhat grave andheavy, and so went on--

  "But _cras seria_, as some one hath it, which may be translated,Mistress Dorothy, lest, haply, you have forgotten your Latin,'business to-morrow.' And now, Dorothy, tell me about this littlePhilip."

  Dorothy had much to say about the babe, which I will not here setdown. And when she had ended her talk, which she did, not because shehad said enough concerning his beauty and goodness, but because shewas constrained to depart with him and lay him in his cradle, fromwhich he had been kept overlong, we discoursed about other things, assport and country matters of divers kinds, buying and selling ofhorses and cattle and the like, with Master Willis, who was a farmer,and a person of no small consideration, seeing that he paid moretithes than any other in the parish, and was churchwarden to boot. Hewas in a complaining mood, for which, doubtless, he had at the timesufficiently good reason, but which seems to be common to all whofollow his occupation. I suppose that they who spend their time inthis business of tilling the earth have ever from day to daydisappointments, unseasonable weather, promise of crops ill performed,and the like, which, though they be severally small, yet from theirnumber and frequent occurrence worry the soul; and it is ever the waywith men that little evils obscure and drive out of mind great goods.

  "It has ever been a poor life with us farmers, and now it is like tobe poorer still. As for sport, there is scarce a hare or a partridgein the whole country side. For that the soldiers have taken good care.There was no odds between King's men and Parliament's men. One was askeen after these things as another, and what one chanced to leave theother was sure to take. And as for merrymaking, there is little of itleft, and will soon be none. Why, 'tis a sin in the eyes of thesesour-faced whining folk to eat a mince-pie; and as for baiting a bearor a bull, as has ever been done here till these bad times, we shouldbe taken to prison for the very mention of such a thing. But these bestrange times, sir. Why, our good parson himself, Master Blagrovehere, if I may make bold to say so much to his face, has new-fangledfancies about such things. You would scarce believe it, sir, but hewill not suffer the scholars to have their cock-throwing on ShroveTuesday. I was wont to give the bird--some tough old fellow that wasbecome too savage, as they will, sir, when they get past theirage--and the master would tie him to a stake when school was ended forthe morning, and the scholars, or such of them as had been diligent attheir learning, would stand in a ring round about him and throw stavesat him, and the lad that gave him the mortal blow ('twas strange tosee how long a bird would live) would have a shilling for himself.Then comes Master Blagrove, and talks of cruelty and the like. Now, ifa man deals barbarously with a Christian, I call him cruel; but whyshould we care about brute beasts that, as St. Peter has it, are 'madeto be taken and destroyed?'"

  Perceiving that Master Willis was getting to be somewhat warm on thismatter, I rose from my place and said to my host: "I am somewhatweary, and, with your good leave, will to bed." On this signal theothers also went their way.

  The next day I rose betimes, and seeing my brother pacing to and froin his garden made haste to join him.

  "Philip," said he, "your dear sister is a very lioness for courage,though she is gentle also and loving. I have heard tell of wives thatfor fear of poverty for them whom they love, have tempted theirhusbands to compliance with base things. Verily your sister is not oneof these. She would starve, yea and see her babe starve--which, I takeit, would trouble her a hundredfold more--before she would let onefalse word pass her lips. And I do believe in my soul that if, whichGod forbid, I should yield to evil for her sake and the babe's (for Icould not be so base as to yield to it for my own), she would leave mesooner than have a share in the unclean thing. And being so set in hermind, and resolved what she will do, she keeps such a cheerful mind asI cannot pretend to. And, indeed, to speak the whole truth, which Iscarce like to do in her hearing, 'tis a dismal prospect. Hitherto, itis true, I have been marvellously protected. My good friend Sir ThomasChesham, who is the principal man in this part, having both a freeholdof his own and a very profitable lease from the College, has stood byme, so that while others have been dispossessed of their livings, bothon my right hand and my left, I remain unharmed. 'Tis true there aremurmurings against me; yea, and threats openly made. Once and againhave my enemies come into the church, resolved, I doubt not, had theynot been hindered, to drag me from my very pulpit. 'Twas the Sundaybefore Easter this very year that three troopers, with their swords bytheir side, came, having with them a preacher in a black gown, whomthey would have put in my place. When I went up to the pulpit topreach, up starts one of the troopers, and would have left his place;but Sir Thomas rose from his seat and said, 'William Ball, and you,Hugh Peters, (for I know you both), you shall answer for this day'suproar. Master Blagrove is a good man, and has not been dispossessedby any sentence of law or commission. Till he be so, he, and he only,has a right where he is, and verily so long as I am master in
thisparish he shall keep it.'

  "After that they were content to remain in their place, and I gave theDoctor such a screed of doctrine as, I warrant you, he had not heardfor a long time. You see, Sir Thomas is a man of no mean authority,having been ever on the Parliament's side from the very beginning ofthese troubles. He was with Master Hampden in the Ship Money matter,and has served the cause with money and otherwise, having indeedraised no small part of a troop of horse from this very place. I wouldhe had been otherwise minded; but if it had been so he could not haveserved me. Nor do I know how much longer his protection will avail.For I hear, and that from the good man himself, that he is ever inless and less accord with them that have now the chief authority. Hewould gladly have made peace with the King and set him again on histhrone, with due provision made for liberty; nor does he hold withthose that cry out for a Republic. And in religion he is aPresbyterian, yet of such a sort that he is not ill-content to liveunder a Bishop so that he have no Popish ways. But as you know,brother Philip, these are not the opinions which find favour in highplaces in these days, and I know not how soon he may find even himselfin danger."

  "And what will you do, Master Blagrove?" for so I was wont to call himin consideration of his age, which was, I suppose, the double of mineat this time.

  "I shall wait," answered he; "and when I am dispossessed suffer itwith what patience I may. I have not the spirit of my good neighbour,Master Warden, of Haythrop; for when they would have intruded a newminister into his house he would not give place, but declared himselfresolved not to give up his house to the usurper but with his life.Accordingly he caused his bed to be brought down into his parlour,kept his gun still charged, and had a watch set all night. Ay, and sobravely and constantly did he bear himself that the usurper had tobetake himself elsewhere till Master Warden's death, which indeedhappened but a few weeks since, he being then in his eighty-seventhyear. He was a stout fellow, and his people loved him, for never manhad a more open hand. But 'tis in my temper to yield more peaceably;for I have given pledges to Fortune, whereas Master Warden had beenmany years a widower, and his children had long since grown up, andgone forth into the world. But come, let us talk of other things.'_Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof._'"

  I was yet bound by my promise to Sir Thomas Fairfax (now become by hisfather's death Lord Fairfax) that I would not bear arms against theParliament, the three years for which this said promise held goodrunning until the fourteenth day of June, on which day, it will beremembered, the battle of Naseby was fought. But for this 'tis verylike that I had taken part with His Majesty's friends who in this yearsought to raise the kingdom on his behalf. This they did in manydiverse parts, as in Wales, where certain officers that had latelyfought against the King now took up arms for him, and in Essex wheremy Lord Capel with others held Colchester in his name; nor were theywithout good hope of success, the Scots being ready to help, and thefleet also setting their officers aside and submitting them to thePrince of Wales. It was well for me that things were otherwiseordered, for, as is well known, all these beginnings ended in nothing.As for myself, when I was free from my promise (which was about amonth after my coming to Enstone), I tarried where I was, judging thatmy duty kept me there. For first my mother was very urgent with methat I should stay. "His Majesty is a kind prince," she would say,"and now that I have lost my husband in his cause, will not ask fromme my son also." Also I felt myself bound in kindness to my sister andher husband, that had relieved me in my need, and were now, I couldperceive, in no small need of such help as I could give. For MasterBlagrove, for lack of a tenant, had been constrained to farm his ownglebe, which glebe was indeed the main support of his living. But whatcould a man do in such a business who, I do verily believe, knew not aplough from a harrow, or barley from wheat? Books on husbandry he hadnone, save you may reckon as such Hesiod's _Works and Days_, and the_Georgics_ of Virgil; nor, had he possessed the wisest treatises thathave ever been writ, may a man get any great benefit from that whichis written. And as for buying and selling, there was never a man inthis world so incapable of doing these to his own profit. I have notedthat 'tis always hard for gentlefolk to hold their own in the market,be they ever so shrewd and full of knowledge. But my brother, being assimple as he was good, would sell his goods for the price, be it everso small, that was first offered to him, and would buy for whateverwas asked. Here, then, I found excellent occasion to serve him and mymother and sister also, who had otherwise fared but ill. Of farming Iknew somewhat, having learnt it from my father, who was himself, as Ihave said, well acquainted with it; and as for dealings in the market,though I doubt not I was sometimes circumvented (for your rustic, lookhe ever so simple, is more than a match in cunning for your townsman),yet I took good care that he should not suffer any grievous wrong. Andwhen the harvest was ended, I journeyed to Northamptonshire to seegood Master Ellgood and my sweet Cicely. And there, for the land aboutNaseby is high and cold so that the seasons are later by far than inOxfordshire, I was able to do service to the good man in the gatheringof his corn. 'Twas a happy time indeed, for I would ply the sickle,and she, not being one of those delicate maidens that can but sit athome with their embroidery, came after me, binding the sheaves, oneGilbert Davenant, a young lad from Rugby School, helping. And when thegathering in was finished we took holiday. Sometimes we had a party atbowls (which game, as I have said, the good man liked much, takingpains beyond measure to keep his green smooth). Then Cicely and Iwould take sides against her father and Gilbert; in this sport I hadno small skill, having followed it much at Oxford, where are bowlinggreens as fair and smooth as any in this kingdom; and it was mydelight to bring my sweet Cicely's bowl as near as might be to thejack, for so they call the mark whereat the players aim, driving it inat sacrifice of my own, or driving off her adversaries. And we came bypractice to use this alliance to such good purpose that her goodfather and his companion could scarce win a rubber. It must beconfessed that he would sometimes lose his patience and grow angryover the game (but on grave matters I never saw his anger stirred,though indeed he had suffered no small provocation). Now and then alsoshe would walk with me to Naseby field, when I would rehearse to herall that I knew about the battle--a tale which she was never weary ofhearing. Sometimes also we would angle in the Nen, which river, thoughhere but a petty stream, flowed but a little way eastward from herfather's dwelling. It was a happy time, such as I had never beforeenjoyed, but it was soon to be broken through by a most grievousinterruption.