296 



them. "They were left to their own shift," says a military writer, "and con- 

 strained to eat fruit and the comes growing upon their ground — apples, pease, and 

 green wheat." The Earl of Leven sent a special complaint of the straits he was 

 put to to the House of Lords, dated August 12, 1G45, and said, "The common 

 soldiers began to be sicke with eating of fruite " ; as well they might be if they 

 ate cider apples in August. 



The general himself took np his quarters in Aconbury Camp. His own tent 

 was on the very summit of the hill. It commanded the road from Monmouth to 

 Hereford, by which the king's forces might be expected if they came to relieve the 

 city. It looked down also upon the Mynde, the fortified mansion of that noted 

 loyalist Sir Robert Pye, and enabled that also to be closely watched. The royal 

 garrison had retired from the Mynde on the approach of the Earl of Leven, and 

 had removed the military stores, but any activity displayed here would be one of 

 the first signs of the king's approach, and an advantageous opportunity might 

 occur for attacking them. Meantime foraging went on in the valley of the Worm, 

 all round the Mynde. Cattle and sheep were seized and slaughtered at Wormi- 

 low Tump for the Earl's forces. " Herefordshire felt every day more and more," 

 says Mr. Webb, "how disastrous was the presence of ill-fed, unpaid, unrestrained 

 soldiers in actual warfare. Three years before, as we have seen, the poor farmers 

 in this district had been harassed by troops sent from the Monmouthshire border, 

 who carried off all their cattle and stores, and at that time sent an urgent com- 

 plaint to the King and Parliament against that dangerous i^apist, the son of Lord 

 Herbert " (p. 194). The graphic description of the terrible evils of actual warfare 

 is well given in Mr. Webb's valuable work, which should be read by all interested 

 in the county. 



The Earl of Leven did not remain many days at Aconbury. The news arrived 

 suddenly that the King and his forces were close at hand. A panic seized his troops, 

 and the same night, in the words of the brave Governor, Barnabas Scudamore, 

 "the Scottish mist began to disperse, and the next morning vanished out of sight." 

 So ended the remarkable siege of Hereford, 



Peace has reigned since this period on Aconbury Hill, and it has been devoted 

 to agricultural purposes, in one way or other — of late years the hill has all been 

 planted with timber, and in the recesses of its northern steep sides the fox and the 

 badger find a home. 



In 1884, the Royal Engineers took possession of the camp. They invaded it, 

 as their predecessors had done, to take advantage of its central commanding posi- 

 tion, but unlike them, for the peaceful object of the Ordnance Survey. To-day, 

 the Woolhope Naturalist Field Club comes to enjoy the extensive prospect from 

 its summit ; to search, amidst its luxuriant vegetation, for the many wild flowers 

 that grow here, and thus to meditate on its history. 



The Rev. J. Tedman, in thanking Dr. Bull for his excellent paper, would 

 venture to give a few further jiarticulars respecting the neighbourhood which 

 might, perhaps, prove interesting. " The hill, it will be observed, follows the 

 general law of hills in the district, having on one side, the north-west, a short and 



