22 
Banks, who were all sent to the Gatehouse to receive 
punishment. As also (29 Oct.) one Mr. John Wentworth, 
of Lincolns Inn, and (1 Noy.) Sir William Fielding Knight, 
giving (25 Oct.) twenty pounds to one man by order of the 
House, who came and reported that most that were killed 
in the battel were of the King’s side; and that the Earl 
of Essex commanded him to tell his friends that he with 
his own hands carried away the King’s standard. But to 
undeceive the world as to the number on both sides slain 
(which were then confidently given out to be five thousan¢,) 
most certain it is, that, upon strict enquiry from the 
adjacent inhabitants who buried the bodies and took par- 
ticular notice of the distinct number put into each grave, 
it appears that there were not one thousand complete there 
interred. As the remaining part of the Parliament army 
after this battel finding not themselves in a condition to 
encounter the King again without new recruits, and there- 
fore made a fair retreat no less than eight miles backwards 
(as hath been observed), so did some of them before the 
fight standing doubtful of the success, forbear to adventure 
themselves therein ; amongst which the after famous Oliver 
Cromwell was one (if some of the most eminent persons 
of his own party who were in the fight bely him not), who 
being Captain of a troop of horse in the General’s Regi- 
ment, came not into the field, but got up into a steeple 
within view of the battel, and there discerning by a 
prospective glass the two wings of their horse to be utterly 
routed, made such haste to be gone that, instead of 
descending the stairs by which he came up, he swing’d 
down by a bell rope, and ran away with his troop.” I 
need hardly say that this story of Oliver Cromwell may 
be considered as altogether apocryphal. The church 
steeple is said to be that of Burton Dassett church. The 
re-taking of the Royal Standard by Captain John Smith, 
a native of Skilts, in this county, and of one of whose 
former exploits I gave an account in my last paper, is 
particularised at length in that scarce work, on the life of 
this worthy, I adverted to before. From this I give an 
excerpt. At Keinton Captain Smith’s troop at that time 
being in the Lord Grandison’s Regiment, was drawn up 
in the left wing of the King’s army. After several charges 
there were no more left than himself and one Chickly, a 
groom of the Duke of Richmond, the rest of his troop 
following the pillage of the routed rebels. ‘As these 
two,” so says the historian, ‘were passing on towar’~ ov™ 
