the heavy necessities my Troops are in, press upon me beyond measure. I am neglected exceedingly!

I am now ready for my march towards the Enemy; who hath entrench. ed himself over against Hull, my Lord Newcastle having besieged the Town. Many of my Lord of Manchester's Troops are come to me: very bad and mutinous, not to be confided in ;-they paid to a week almost; mine noways provided for to support them, except by the poor Sequestrations of the County of Huntingdon! My Troops increase. 1 have a lovely company; you would respect them, did you know them. No "Anabaptists;" they are honest, sober Christians :-they expect to be used as men !

If I took pleasure to write to the House in bitterness, I have occasion. Of the 3000l. allotted me, I cannot get the Norfolk part nor the Hertfordshire: it was given away' before I had it.-I have minded your service to forgetfulness of my own Soldiers' necessities. I desire not to seek myself: 'but' I have little money of my own to help my Soldiers. My estate is little. I tell you, the Business of Ireland and England hath had of me, in money, between Eleven and Twelve Hundred pounds ;therefore my Private can do little to help the Public. You have had my money: I hope in God I desire to venture my skin. So do mine. Lay weight upon their patience; but break it not! Think of that which may be a real help. I believe 5000/.* is due.

If you lay aside the thought of me and my Letter, I expect no help. Pray for

Your true friend and servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.

There is no care taken how to maintain that Force of Horse and Foot raised and a-raising for my Lord of Manchester. He hath not one able to put on that business.' The Force will fall if some help not. Weak counsels and weak actings undo all !—[two words crossed out]—all will be lost, if God help not! Remember who tells you.t

* Erased, as not the correct sum.

+ Additional Ayscough мss., 5015, art. 25: printed, with some errors, in Annual Register, xxxv., 358.

No. VI.

[Vol. i., p. 147: Successfully besieged when the Spring comes."]

In the month of January, 1643-4, Oliver, as Governor of Ely, is present for some time in that City; lodges, we suppose, with his own family there; doing military and other work of government : -makes a transient appearance in the Cathedral one day; memorable to the Reverend Mr. Hitch and us.

The case was this. Parliament, which, ever since the first meeting of it, had shewn a marked disaffection to Surplices at Allhallowtide and 'monuments of Superstition and Idolatry,' and passed Order after Order to put them down,—has in August last come to a decisive Act on the subject, and specifically explained that go they must and shall.* Act of Parliament which, like the previous Orders of Parliament, could only have gradual partial execution, according to the humor of the locality; and gave rise to scenes. By the Parliament's directions, the Priest, Churchwardens, and proper Officers were to do it, with all decency: failing the proper officers, improper officers, military men passing through the place, these and such like, backed by a Puritan populace, and a Puritan soldiery, had to do it ;-not always in the softest manner. As many a Querela, Peter Heylin's (lying Peter's) History, and Persecutio Undecima, still testifies with angry tears. You cannot pull the shirt off a man, the skin off a man, in a way that will please him! Our Assembly of Divines, sitting earnestly deliberative ever since June last,† will direct us what Form of Worship we are to adopt,-some form, it is to be hoped, not grown dramaturgic to us, but still awfully symbolic of us. Meanwhile let all Churches, especially all Cathedrals, be stripped

* 28 August, 1643 (Scobell, i., 53; Commons Journals, iii., 220): 2 November, 1642 (Commons Journals, and Husbands, ii., 119): 31 August, 1641; 23 January, 1641 (Commons Journals, in diebus).

+ Bill read a third time, 6 January, 1642-3 (Commons Journals, ii., 916); Act itself with the Names, 13 June, 1643 (Scobell, i., 42-4). .

of whatever the general soul so much as suspects to be stage property and prayer by machinery,-a thing we very justly hold in terror and horror, and dare not live beside !

Ely Cathedral, it appears, had still been overlooked,-Ely, much troubled with scandalous ministers, as well as with disaffected trainbands,—and Mr. Hitch, under the very eyes of Oliver, persists in his Choir-service there. Here accordingly is an official Note, copies of which still sleep in some repositories.

MR. HITCH,

LETTER VIII.

To the Rev. Mr. Hitch, at Ely: These.'

'Ely,' 10th January, 1643.

Lest the Soldiers should in any tumultuary or disorderly way attempt the reformation of the Cathedral Church, I require you to forbear altogether your Choir-service, so unedifying and offensive :-and this as you shall answer it, if any disorder should arise thereupon.

I advise you to catechise, and read and expound the Scripture to the people; not doubting but the Parliament, with the advice of the Assembly of Divines, will direct you farther. I desire your Sermons 'too,' where usually they have been,-but more frequent.

Your loving friend,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*

Mr. Hitch paid no attention; persisted in his Choir-service whereupon enter the Governor of Ely with soldiers, 'with a rabble at his heels,' say the old Querelas. With a rabble at his heels, with his hat on, he walks up to the Choir; says audibly : "I am a man under Authority; and am commanded to dismiss this Assembly," then draws back a little, that the Assembly may dismiss with decency. Mr. Hitch has paused for a moment; but seeing Oliver draw back, he starts again: "As it was in the

Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1788), Iviii., 225: copied 'from an old Copy, by a Country Rector,' who has had some difficulty in reading the name of Hitch, and knows nothing farther about him or it.

beginning!". Leave off your fooling, and come down, Sir !"'* said Oliver, in a voice still audible to this Editor; which Mr. Hitch did now instantaneously give ear to. And So, 'with his whole congregation,' vanishes from the field of History.. Was over

LETTER IX.

ABOUT the end of next month, February, 1644, the Lieutenant General, we find, has been in Gloucester, successfully convoying Ammunition thither; and has taken various strong-houses by the road, among others, Hilsden-House in Buckinghamshire, with important gentlemen, and many prisoners; which latter, Walloons, French, and other outlandish men,' appear in Cambridge streets in a very thirsty condition; and are, in spite of danger, refreshed according to ability, by the loyal Scholars, and especially by 'Mrs. Cumber's maid,' with a temporary glass of beer.† In this expedition there had gone with Cromwell a certain MajorGeneral Crawford, whom he has left behind in the Hilsden neighborhood; to whom there is a Letter, here first producible to modern readers, and connected therewith a tale otherwise known.

Letter Fifteenth,‡ which exists as a Copy, on old dim paper, in the Kimbolton Archives, addressed on the back of the sheet, with all reverence, To the Earl of Manchester, and forms a very opaque puzzle in that condition,-turns out, after due study, to have been a Copy by that Crawford, of a Letter addressed to himself: Copy hastily written off, along with other hasty confused sheets still extant beside it, for the Earl of Manchester's use, on a certain Parliamentary occasion, which will by and by concern us too for a moment.

A Lieutenant Colonel,' Packer I dimly apprehend is the name of him, has on this Hilsden-and-Gloucester expedition given of

* Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy (London, 1714), Part ii., p. 23. + Querela (in Cooper's Annals, iii., 370); Cromwelliana, p. 8 (5 March, 1643).

'Letter IX.' of this Supplement

fence to Major-General Crawford; who again, in a somewhat prompt way, has had Packer laid under arrest, under suspension at Cambridge; in which state Packer still painfully continues. And may, seemingly, continue: for here has my Lord of Manchester just come down with a Parliamentary Commission, 'to reform the University,' a thing of immense noise and moment, and 'is employed in regard of many occasions; is, in fact, precisely in these hours,* issuing his Summonses to the Heads of Houses; and cannot spare an instant for Packer and his pleadings. Crawford is still in Buckinghamshire; nevertheless the shortest way for Packer will be to go to Crawford, and take this admonitory Letter from his superior in command :

SIR,

To Major-General Crawford: These.'

Cambridge, 10th March, '1643.'

The complaints you preferred to my Lord against your Lieutenant Colonel, both by Mr. Lee and your own Letters, have occasioned his stay here;-my Lord being 'so' employed, in regard of many occasions which are upon him, that he hath not been at leisure to hear him make his defence: which, in pure justice, ought to be granted him or any man before a judgment be passed upon him.

During his abode here and absence from you, he hath acquainted me what a grief it is to him to be absent from his charge, especially now the regiment is called forth to action: and therefore, asking of me my opinion, I advised him speedily to repair unto you. Surely you are not well advised thus to turn off one so faithful to the Cause, and so able to serve you as this man is. Give me leave to tell you, I cannot be of your judgment; 'cannot understand,' if a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for drinking, hath as great a share in your affection as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin,—that this doth commend your election of men to serve as fit instruments in this work!

66

Ay, but the man "is an Anabaptist." Are you sure of that? Admit he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the Public? He is indiscreet." It may be so, in some things: we have all human infirmities. I tell you, if you had none but such " indiscreet men" about you, and would be pleased to use them kindly, you would find as good a fence to you as any you have yet chosen.

Sir, the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their

* 11 March (Cooper, iii., 371; details in Neal, ii., 79–89).