20 
with one troop of horse, which marched with them over that plain 
retired before them, without giving them one charge ; which was imputed 
to the lashty [ill conduct] of Wilmot [Commissary General], who 
commanded, and had a colder courage than many who were under 
him, and who were of opinion that they might easily have defeated 
that body of foot, which would have been a very seasonable victory ; 
would have put Coventry unquestionably into the King’s hands, and 
sent him with a good omen to the setting up of his standard. Whereas 
that unhappy retreat, which looked like a defeat, and the rebellious 
behaviour of Coventry, made his Majesty’s return to Nottingham very 
melancholy; and he returned thither the very day the standard was 
appointed to be set up.” The precise spot where this skirmish took 
place—(I can meet with no tradition of it in the neighbourhood) —is 
unknown. I presume it to have taken place in the valley of the Itchen, 
between Honingham and Long Itchington, perhaps near Snowford 
bridge. It is a point we may reasonably hope to have cleared up 
hereafter by the discovery of a broken pike, halbert, or spur, a bullet 
or two, or cannon ball, and the words of the poet are not inapplicable :— 
** Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis 
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro, 
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila” 
“Then after length of time, the labouring swains, 
Who turns the turfs of these unhappy plains, 
Shall rusty piles from the plough’d furrows take.” 
The route taken by the King on his way to Nottingham was, I have 
reason to think, through Birdingbury and Draycott, to a spot on the 
road between Coventry and Dunchurch, where stands a house known 
as the Blue Boar. There is a green lane near this house up which the 
King—I heard the tradition more than forty years ago—is said to have 
come. He is also traditionally said to have called and taken refresh- 
ment at Causton Hall, which would be in his way to Rugby, through 
which he passed on his road to Leicester. I heard this tradition some 
years ago from an old man, then 98 years of age, who when a boy had 
lived at Causton Hall. This skirmish at Long Itchington, considered 
of such importance by Lord Clarendon, was the last scene in the first 
act of the great tragedy of these troublous times, the result of which 
no one could venture to predict. I may perhaps have another opportu- 
nity of showing the division of parties in this county at this time, and 
the events which subsequently occurred—events of deep and enduring 
interest in the constitutional history of our country. 
