Edge Hill Part 2

Judges 5-31.

"So let all thine enemies perish O Lord, but let them that love him, be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might."

London: Printed November the 4, 1642.

Loving Cousin, I shall make so neare as I can a true, though long relation of the battell fought betweene the King's Army and our Army, under the conduct and command of my Lord Generall on Sat.u.r.day _October_ 22. Our Forces were quartered very late and did lie remote one from the other, and my Lord Generall did quarter in a small Village where this Battell was fought, in a field called Great Kings Field, taking the name from a Battell there fought by King _John_ as they say: on Sunday the 23 of _October_ about one of the clocke in the afternoon, the Battell did begin and it continued untill it was very darke, the field was very great and large, and the King's Forces came down a great and long hill, he had the advantage of the ground and wind, and they did give a very brave charge, and did fight very valiantly: they were 15 Regiments of Foot and 60 Regiments of Horse, our Horse were under 40 Regiments and our Foot 11 Regiments: my Lord Generall did give the first charge, pressing them with 2 pieces of Ordnance which killed many of their men, and then the enemy did shoote one to us, which fell 20 yards short in a plowed Land, and did no harme, our Souldiers did many of them run away to wit blew Coats and Grey Coats, being two Regiments, and there did runne away, 600 horse, I was quartered five miles from the place, and heard not anything of it, until one of the clocke in the afternoone. I halted thither with Sergent Major _Duglis'_ troope, and over-tooke one other troope, and when I was entiring into the field, I thinke 200 horse came by me with all the speed they could out from the battell, saying, that the King had the victory, and that every man cried for G.o.d and King Charles. I entreated, prayed and persuaded them to stay, and draw up in a body with our Troopes, for we saw them fighting, and the Field was not lost, but no perswasions would serve, and then I turning to our three troopes, two of them were runne away, and of my Troope I had not six and thirtie men left, but they were likewise runne away, I stayed with those men I had, being in a little field, and there was a way through, and divers of the enemy did runne that way both horse and foote, I tooke away about tenne or twelve horse, swords, and armour, I could have killed 40 of the enemy, I let them pa.s.se disarming them, and giving the spoile to my Troopers; the Armies were both in a confusion, and I could not fall to them with out apparent loss of my selfe and those which were with me, the powder which the Enemy had was blowne up in the field, the Enemy ran away as well as our men, G.o.d did give the victory to us, there are but three men of note slain of ours, namely my Lord Saint _John_, Collonell _Ess.e.x_, and one other Captaine, whose name I have forgot: Captaine Fleming is either slaine or taken prisoner, and his Cornet, he had not one Officer which was a souldier, his Waggon and money is lost, and divers of the Captaines money and Waggons are lost, to great value, our foote and Dragooners were the greatest Pillagers, wee had the King's Standard one houre and a halfe, and after lost it againe: Wee did lose not above three hundred men, the enemy killed the Waggoners, women and little boyes of twelve years of age, we tooke seventeene Colours and five pieces of Ordnance, I believe there were not lesse than three thousand of the enemy slaine, for they lay on their own ground, twenty, and thirty of heapes together, the King did lose Lords, and a very great many of Gentlemen, but the certaine number of the slaine cannot bee knowne, we did take my Lord of _Lindsey_, Generall of the Foote, being shot in the thigh, who dyed the Tuesday morning following, and his body is sent away to be buryed, the Lo: _Willoughby_ his son was taken, _Lunsford_, _Vavasour_, and others, being prisoners in Warwick Castle; on Munday there did runne from the King's Army 3000, foote in 40, 50, and 60 in Companies, wee kept the field all Sunday night, and all Munday, and then marched to our quarters, and on Munday the enemy would have given us another charge, but they could not get the foote to fight, notwithstanding they did beate them like dogs, this last Relation of the enemy I received from one which was a prisoner and got away.

Banbury is taken by the King, there was 1000 Foote in it, the Captaines did run away, and the souldiers did deliver the Toune up without discharging one Musket. It was G.o.d's wonderful worke that we had the victory, we expect to march after the King. The day after the Battell all our Forces, horse and foote were marched up, and other forces from remote parts, to the number of 5000, horse and foote more than were at the Battell, now at my writing, my Lord Generall is at Warwick, upon our next marching we doe expect another Battell, we here thinke that the King cannot strengthen himself, for the souldiers did still runne daily from him, and I believe if we come to fight a great part of them will never come up to the charge. The King's guard were gentlemen of good quality, and I heard it, that there [was] not above 40 of them which returned out of the field, this is all I shall trouble you with, what is more, you will receive it from a better hand than mine: Let us pray one for another, G.o.d I hope will open the King's eyes, and send peace to our Kingdome. I pray remember my love to all my friends; if I could write to them all I would, but for such newes I write you, impart it to them, my Leiutenant and I drinke to you all daily; all my runawayes, I stop their pay, some of them for two dayes some three dayes and some four dayes, which time they were gone from mee, and give their pay to the rest of the souldiers, two of my souldiers are runne away with their Horse and Armes: I rest, and commit you to G.o.d.

Your loving Cousin,

EDWARD KIGHTLEY.

The Rebellion in Ireland and our Battell were both the 23 of October.

II.

The Geology of Edge Hill.

The Geology of the Edge Hill region presents points of study to the student of the physical phases of the science rather than to the palaeontologist, though it does not appear in either case that the conditions presented are difficult to read. Beginning with the low range of hills three miles N.W. of Kineton, forming the Trias outcrop, and fringed with a thin development of Rhaetics, we cross the broad plain of the Lower Lias almost without undulation, save in the ridge which stretches from Gaydon to Butler's Marston, until the foot of Edge Hill itself is reached. Fragments of Ammonites of the _rotiformis_ type are occasionally ploughed up in the plain, and the railway cutting at North End has yielded specimens of _Ammonites semicostatus_. The hill slopes are in the main formed of the clays and shales of the Middle Lias, the Zone of _Ammonites margaritatus_ with certain characteristic fossils, _Cypricardia cucullata_, &c., appearing in the old brickyard at Arlescot. There is no other exposure of the seleniferous shales of the zone; their course is masked by a rich belt of woodland. The natural terraces somewhat characteristic of this horizon in the midlands are roughly developed towards the Sun Rising, and are more perfectly shown at Hadsham hollow in the Hornton vale. At Shenington, four miles southward, there are some beautifully terraced fields, one locally known as Rattlecombe Slade recalling to mind the lynchets of the Inferior Oolite sands of Dorsets.h.i.+re. They are in the main terraces of drainage, the step-like form of subsidence being due to the composition of the seleniferous marls and under waste. The terraces are of exceptional regularity, and run parallel to the lines of drainage; in one case, however (Kenhill), in the same locality, they form a bay or recess on the hill slope. A familiar instance of the last phase is to be seen at the Bear Garden, Banbury. The salient feature of the Edge Hill escarpment is the Marlstone rock-bed, the uppermost division of the Middle Lias. Several sections in this zone (_Ammonites spinatus_) may be seen near the Round House. It has three main divisions: The upper red layers the roadstone, the middle of several green hard beds called top-rag, and the lower courses of dark green softer stone, the best rag (used for building). Some of the quarries have been worked for centuries, and the grey green slabs of Hornton stone, its local name, are familiar on the hearths and in the homes of nearly the whole country-side. At this its N.W. outcrop, the rock thickens considerably, attaining a development of about twenty-four feet. The stone itself is a ferruginous limestone, greenish when unweathered, otherwise of a rich red brown colour. Good evidence of its durability as a building material is shewn in the fine fourteenth century churches of North Oxon, which are almost without exception built of the stone. Near the Beacon House on the Burton Da.s.sett Hills, a good section is exposed in which fossils are found more freely. Amongst the brachiopod sh.e.l.ls _Waldhemia indentata_, _Terebratula punctata_, _T. Edwardsii_ occur, together with an abundance of the characteristic _Rhynchonella tetraedra_: _Spiriferinae_ are rare.

When the ironstone workings were extended, ten years or so since, large _Pholadomya ambigua_ and other sh.e.l.ls were obtainable from some sandy beds at the base of the series. Capping the "spinatus" beds are a few feet of Upper Lias Clay belonging to the zone of _Ammonites serpentinus_, and fragments of the Ammonites common to the horizon are scattered about; but these beds are not found along the escarpment east of Shenloe Hill.

By the roadside leading from Burton Da.s.sett to Fenny Compton, a small quarry on the south side shows a patch of Inferior Oolite. A fault has preserved this the only remnant to prove the former extension of the Bajocian beds over the area of the Burton and Edge Hills. Tysoe Hill, four miles S.W. of the Round House, and the hills which fringe the borderland of Warwicks.h.i.+re and Oxon, are nearly all capped with sands or limestones of the Inferior Oolite, and occasionally with the marly limestones of the Great Oolite also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BANBURY CROSS.]

III.

NOTES ON BANBURY AND THEREABOUT.

STATISTICAL TABLE.

Banbury, in N.E. Oxfords.h.i.+re, on river Cherwell, drainage N. to S.

Alt.i.tudes: river level, 300 o.d.; the Cross, 331; high town, 424.

Average rainfall, 27.59 inches. Mean temperature, 41.5.

Population, Munic.i.p.al Borough, 12,967.

Parliamentary division of Banbury, in W. Oxon., bounded E. by river Cherwell, S. by line from E. to W. through Finstock. Member of Parliament, 1890, A. Bra.s.sey, Esq., Heythrop Park, Chipping Norton.

Railway Systems: G. W. R.; L. & N. W. R.; B. & C. R.; N. & B. J. R.; G. C.

R.

Ca.n.a.l: Oxford and Birmingham.

Table of Distances in miles from Banbury:--

Aylesbury 32 Bicester 15-1/4 Birmingham 42 Brailes 10 Buckingham 17 Byfield 9-1/4 Brackley 9 Charlbury 15-3/4 Chipping Norton 13 Cheltenham 39-1/2 Enstone 12 Edge Hill 8-1/2 Deddington 6 Daventry 17 Hook Norton 9 Harbury 14 Kineton 11-1/2 Leamington 21 London 70 Moreton-in-Marsh 21 Northampton 24 Oxford 22-1/2 Stratford-on-Avon 20 s.h.i.+pston-on-Stour 13-1/2 Southam 14 Stow-on-the-Wold 20-1/4 Towcester 17-1/2 Warwick 20 Witney 23 Woodstock 16-1/2

_Munic.i.p.al Properties and Buildings:_

The Cross The Town Hall The Old Bridge and Bridge-ways The Munic.i.p.al School The Recreation Ground and Baths The Spittal (Sewage) Farm

_Ecclesiastical and other Buildings:_

St. Mary's (Parish) Church Vicarage House Christ Church St. Paul's Church, Neithrop St. John's Church (R.C.) St. John's Priory Wesleyan Chapel, Marlborough Road Congregational Chapel, South Bar Baptist Chapel, Bridge St.

Unitarian Chapel, Horse Fair The Corn Exchange The Mechanics' Inst.i.tute The Horton Infirmary

The Borough Arms: The Sun in glory or' and on a mount vert. A lily argent in pare the letters B.A.

Manufactures: Agricultural implements and machinery, patent files, patent boxes, and cabinet goods; linen garments; cloth; cakes; ale and beer; horse girths; patent gates.

Geology: Lower town, Middle Lias clays and thin limestones; Middle town, Middle Lias seleniferous marls and thin limestones; High town, Middle Lias rock (ironstone); Crouch Hill and Const.i.tution Hill, capped with thick Upper Lias clays and Inferior Oolite limestones and sand.

BANBURY CROSS.--A fine hexagonal Gothic structure, fifty feet in height, was erected from the designs of the architect, Mr. John Gibbs, in 1859, in commemoration of the marriage of the Princess Royal with Prince Frederick William of Prussia. On the b.u.t.tresses of the lower stage are painted the munic.i.p.al seals of old Banbury. Between the b.u.t.tresses are pedestals intended to receive statues. Statues of the late Queen, Oliver Cromwell, and Whateley would complete the beauty of the structure if accompanied by the removal of the palisading. The upper panels are enriched with conventional ornaments of vine, ivy, rose, and other flowers, and bear the arms or cyphers of Queens Mary and Victoria, Kings Charles I. and George I., the Princess William of Prussia, the Earls of Banbury and Guildford, Viscount Saye and Sele, Sir William Cope, Sir William Compton, the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Rev. W. Whateley. The celebrated old Cross is believed to have stood near the site of the present one, and was destroyed about the year 1602, at which time it went ill with the other Crosses which formerly adorned the town, owing to excesses of religious zeal. The High Cross mentioned in King Ed. VI.'s reign is probably the same as The Bread Cross repaired in 1563, on the site of which the present Cross is supposed to be. Of the White Cross "outside Sugarford" (West) Bar and of the Market Cross no more can be said. From a pa.s.sage in Leland's Itinerary, it appears that the Cross was of some note, and from the old nursery rhyme, "Ride a c.o.c.k-horse," &c., if from no more veracious record, it seems that it was honoured by an occasional pageant.

THE PARISH CHURCH (ST. MARY'S).--The old church, of which there is abundant record in engravings and contemporary drawings, stood on the ground where now is the new church. Of fine proportions and good style, its destruction (1790) appears to have been an ill-judged measure. It had a ma.s.sive west tower, embattled and crowned by eight ornamented pinnacles and a series of beautiful windows on the south and south-east sides. Its chantry of St. Mary was founded in 1413, and there was another chapel dedicated to honour the resurrection of our Lord. Records remain of the armorial gla.s.s, nearly all of which was destroyed during the time of the siege of Banbury Castle, when the church was used as a vantage point.

There were sixty coats of arms. The church was said to be the burying place of Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, its founder, also of William Pope, cofferer to Henry VII., and of Captayn Wm. Danvers who died "in the service of G.o.d and the King" in 1643. Mr. Arden's list of the Vicars of Banbury gives the date of death of Vicar Roger as 1278. Many of the remains of the old fabric are in use as ornaments in Banbury gardens.

Erected about 1797, the present church stands in architecture far away from the taste of the time. It is nevertheless a bold and good design by c.o.c.kerill of domestic Doric style. Betwixt its beginning and its completion so many years intervened as to give birth to the rhyme:

"Proud Banbury, poor people, Built a church without a steeple."

The portico with its semicircle of plain columns and the circular tower, 133 feet high, with its ornamental quartrefoiling and the balconied alleis are not without ma.s.sive beauty of their own. The bareness and heavy structure of the body are compensated for by the beauty of the interior decoration, which is of the best of the mural work of the kingdom. The galleries and dome are supported by twelve graceful Ionic pillars, arranged in an octagonal figure. The chancel has been re-built in unison with the original design, and the apse is worked in colour in three divisions representing the twelve apostles with trees of scripture in the background. The ceiling ill.u.s.trates the enthronement of Christ (Rev. iv.) On the wall, at the east of the nave, are inscribed the tables of the commandments. A band of gold encircles the dome, bearing the text, "The Lord is in His holy temple," &c. The painted windows are good examples of modern work; one in the north-west gallery is in memory of the explorer, Admiral Sir G. Back, uncle of the late vicar, and represents arctic scenes and figures. The work was carried out at the cost of and during the office of the late vicar, the Rev. H. Back, aided by Miss Wyatt and others. The decorators were Messrs. Heaton, Butler and Baines. There is also a richly inlaid marble font, and pulpit. At the time of the Victorian Jubilee the peal of eight bells was overhauled, and new chimes with s.h.i.+fts for three weeks added to the clock tower. Beesley gives four of the bells as having been made by the Bagleys' of Chacombe, where they had a well known 17th century bell foundry. The eighth bell bears the inscription:

"I ring to Sermon with a l.u.s.ty boome That all may come and none may stay at home."

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR ST. MARY'S CHURCH. BANBURY.]

THE VICARAGE HOUSE, dated 1649, stands against the south-west corner of the churchyard, and is a handsome specimen of the domestic architecture of the period. The gabled front, window mullions and porch remain of the old work, and also the hall and front rooms. The room over the porch, used as a private chapel, seems to be of its old service. Very carefully has the interior ornamentation been carried out, of which the cornice of music staves of the front room is an instance.

OLD HOUSES.--The gabled houses on the north side of the High Street, and on the south and west sides of the Market Place, are good examples of domestic architecture of late Tudor or early Stuart times. An old sun-dial, bearing the motto "Aspice et abi," is attached to the front of the High Street houses. The barge boards and pargeting of the front and the good casemated windows of the west side remain, but the roof has been stripped of its Stonesfield slate, and the finials are badly restored.

Also worth notice is the front of No. 11 Market Place, and the old jail, No. 3 (1646), though the lower stage has been cut away. Orchard House, Neithrop, the front of which it is said was protected by woolsacks during the siege of Banbury Castle, stands on a mound away from the road side. It bears the appearance of a manor house, as it probably was, and it has a ma.s.sive oak stair-way. The Woodlands, Horse Fair, has a handsome garden front; it was formerly an inn. The Woodlands, as well as the school house near by, now Banbury Academy (and here Dean Swift commenced his Gulliver's Travels, taking the t.i.tle of Gulliver from the name on a tomb in the churchyard opposite), are typical houses of the time. A beautifully carved oak cornice remains in the north-west room of house No. 47 North Bar, Mrs.