Aug. 10, 1659

my

ing in the autumn of 1659. It was six years since Cary Gardiner had been at Claydon; it was difficult for her to travel either with or without her large party, but she will come 'if general trobles befall us not.' Sir Ralph urges Aunt Sherard to join them : 'Tis but a stepp to Claydon & Coach shall attend your daughters and my Cozen Fust, when & where you please to command it, & for theire sakes I shall double my endeavour to save my Horses from the soldiers who at this hower doe swarme at Brickill, Stratford, Alisbury, & in some little villages neare me, & I heare are unruly enough in all places, but these only pass towards Cheshire, and make no stay in these parts, therfore you need not feare them. The first week in September (if Times are quiet) my Sister Gardner brings Preshaw heather; Sister Elmes Sister Denton and Brother Harry meet her heere; in the interim Sister Elmes visits Ratcliffe, and Harry, Stowe, because tis a more confiding Place then Claydon. Doubt not want of Lodging for we Virgins are resolved to Ligg1 alltogeather. On Mounday there was about a Thousand Foot marched through my grounds about halfe a mile off, & on Tuesday some 5 hundred horse & Dragoons with theire Ordnance & 9 wagons of Ammunition & I was soe very a cloune as not to invite them to my house: but to

1 Ligg, to lie down :

And they were bidden for to slepe
Liggende upon the bed aloft.

GOWER, Halliwell's Dict.

bee more searious, God be thanked I did not suffer by them. I am informed that greater numbers of horse & foot then wee have yet seene are to passe very suddenly; all immaginable haste is made to reduce Chesheire, soe that I hope they will finde no leasure to bee injurious to me.' John Stewkeley

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returns thanks, from 'Pickadilly,' for the invitation.

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1659

The late noysis of riesings puts mee in a fear,' Cary Aug. writes later, that I have no fortune to see Claydon, the plas I do much long to be at ; for if distorbances incres I would not be so uncevell to trobell your house, knowing strangers are unseasonabill at souch tims.'

Sister Betty came with the Gardiners, Mun and Jack were at home, and so complete was the gathering that there is not a single family letter written to Sir Ralph during that month of September. It certainly required some courage on his part to receive his four sisters; they usually discovered in their old home some piece of furniture or linen which they claimed as a right under their mother's will, or begged as a favour. This time Pen and Peg took a fancy to the same chair, and called each other hard names about it; Pen considered that Peg's self-will 'hath grone up with her from her cradell; all together she cannot make her great brags, her one will, hether two, hath maide her unfortinate.

I must follow Sister Gardiner's good humer and forget her ill humer to us both.'

Cary writes to her brother, on the way home,

Oct. 21, 1659

Nov. 3, 1659

'At the bare' at Reading: In souch paper as the Inne affords me, I cannot but let you know wee are safely arived at Reding before sunset, and your horsis have performed ther jorney very well. I acknowledg the gretest of thanks is due to you though I cannot expres it to you. I know by this time you have the hapy chang of your quiet which you could not have in souch a rout. My sarves to all your good company and till them I would have them pounc the pety-coat still and charg Hary to frighten Ante Isham with his ugly faces elc I shall take it ill.'

Penelope and her husband stayed two months at Claydon, and John Stewkeley thus describes their return journey: The Squier had a sad martch to London hee had a great contest with Pen for a place in the coach, but Scartlett was preferd before him hee rode as near the coach as if his horse had been tied to it, and was wett to the skin before hee came half way.'

We can see Sir Ralph's carriages and the party of riders clattering into the market-palce at Aylesbury, all splashed and dripping after fourteen miles of heavy November roads; we hear the hard words and hard blows exchanged as the passengers struggle for places in the public coach; while the Claydon servants, the post-boys and ostlers are grinning to see Squire Denton foiled in his efforts to push away his wife in order to secure an inside seat for himself.

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Peg Elmes describes the great disorder' the Squier' was put into, for he was turned a horseback in all the wett . . . soe he had noe good luck

after all his long feasting.'

No wonder that his ill-humour lasted beyond the journey; his black eye,' writes Brother Stewkeley, 'hath made him very nice of admitting any to see him since hee came up; hee is scarce in charity yet with his playfellows, but time will doe it.'

Anne Hobart, staying with Daughter Smith at Ratcliffe, and looking back upon Claydon hospitalities, writes to Sir Ralph: I pety you from my hart, that you have so much compeny, but when I conseder how near and dear they ar all to you-it tis a recreaton, espeshally when it coms but sildom.'

Betty Verney returned with the Stewkeleys to Preshaw where she relapsed into sad fits of grumbling; but it is impossible not to sympathise with the poor orphan girl, who had missed all the petting and spoiling that were her due as the youngest of a large family, or to wonder that she envied Ursula Stewkeley, whose caprice and wilfulness were viewed at home with an indulgence that Betty had never known. She holds her peace,' we are told, after a good scolding from Cary, only repeats often, how happy Ury is to have a father and uncill which dus all they can to help her to live in pleshur.'

CHAPTER XIII.

TURNING WHEELS OF VICISSITUDE.'

O! what a hurly-burly is there made.

1658-1660.

HENRY CROMWELL.

OLIVER CROMWELL is dead and gone, but his Highness Richard, the Lord Protector, rules in his stead. There is a pause of silence and expectation. For a moment it seems as if the good ship of State would hold steadily on her course, even though the strong hand has relaxed its grip of the helm, and left her amidst gathering clouds to a feeble and inexperienced pilot. Dryden, in his heroic stanzas to Oliver's memory, could write with general acceptance

No civil broils have since his death arose,
But faction now by habit does obey;
And wars have that respect for his repose

As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea.

But there are mutterings of the coming storm when Dr. Denton reports, in October 1658 The souldiers are not so quiett as I could wish, they would fayne a generall distinct from the Protector.'

In marked contrast to the preceding years, the