ie le lee 
" 
191 
1642.” And farther on—‘‘ My dear Ned, my hart has bine in no reste since you 
went. I confess I was never so full of sorrow. I fear the proviscion of corne and 
malt will not hoolde out if this continue, and they say they will burne my barnes; 
and my feare is that they will place soulders so neare me that there will be no 
gooing out. My comfort is that you are not with me, leest they should take you ; 
but I do most dearely miss you; I wisch if it were so I was with your father. I 
would have write to him, but durst not write upon paper. Deare Ned, write to 
me, though you write upon a peace of clothe, as thisis. I pray God bless you, as 
I desire my own soule should be blessed. Theres a 1000 Dragooners come 
Hereford. 5 owere officers, my Lord Harfords. Your mother, Brilliana Harley, 
Dec. 13, 1642 ” 
Later on, a council of war decided that the best way to take Brampton Castle 
was to blow it up. On St. Valentine’s Day, 1643, Lady Brilliana writes :—‘‘ The 
Sheriff of Radnorshire, with the trained bands of that county, and some of the 
Herefordshire soldiers, mean to come against me. My Lord Herbert had 
appointed a day to come to Presteign, so that his presence might persuade them 
to go out of their county. He had commanded them to bring pay for victuals for 
ten days. The soldiers came to Presteign, but it pleased God to call my Lord 
Herbert another way. So they will starve me out of my house. They have taken 
away all your father’s rents, and now they will drive away the cattle, and then I 
shall have nothing to live upon; for all their aim is to enforce me to let the men 
T have go, that then they may seize upon my house and cut our throats by a few 
rogues, and then say they knew not who did it.” 
The siege was regularly commenced on the 25th July, 1643, by Sir William 
Vavasour with a force of 600 men. It lasted for about six weeks, during which 
Lady Brilliana was blockaded in the castle with her children and neighbours, who 
resorted thither to keep themselves from the plunder and violent usage then in 
practice among the Cavaliers. Sir Robert was at this time in London, attending 
to Parliamentary duties, and her eldest son at Oxford. In this extremity her 
faithful adviser and friend was a Dr. Nathaniel Wright, a physician of Hereford, 
who now with his wife took up his quarters at Brampton Bryan, and devoted 
himself and his money to the cause. The rest of the garrison consisted of her 
servants and Sergeant Hackluit, a veteran soldier who had been sent to her by 
Col. Massey from Gloucester. ‘‘ The first stroke of the Cavaliers was upon a poor 
aged blind man, who was without any provocation killed in the street.” During 
the siege the cook was killed by a poisoned bullet, and a running stream that sup- 
plied the village was poisoned. The church, parsonage, and dwelling-houses, 
together with the mill (about a quarter of a mile off) and the buildings belonging 
to the castle were all destroyed, but it does not appear that the castle itself was 
much injured, or that there was much loss of life. It was, in fact, a blockade. 
Nothing serious had been done towards reducing it before the 22nd August, 
when Sir William Vavasour was summoned to Gloucester to join the King. On the 
_ 25th of August Lady Brilliana thus writes : ‘‘ Mr. Phillips has taken a great deale 
of pains and is full of courage, and so is all my houses, with honest Mr. Petter 
and good Dr. Wright, and Mr. Moore, whoo is too much comfort tome. The 
