169 



that year. The true explanation of the discrepancy of the dates 

 probably is, that the letters were written and the entry in 

 the Re<;ister made, some time after the event. Humphrey 

 Chambers, the Rector of Claverton, was a member of the 

 Assembly of Divines and was probably in London at the 

 time, and as there is evidence to show that the bodies 

 were buried without coffins* it may be conjectured that the 

 funeral may have been hasty and " without benefit of clergy." 

 It appears by these letters that Waller, having heard that the 

 Eoyal army coming from the west had reached Bradford, had 

 taken post with all his forces on Claverton Down ; and having 

 thrown a bridge across the Avon at Warleigh ferry, and built a 

 redoubt to protect the bridge and the ford there, had sent a force 

 of horse and foot and artillery across the river to occupy Monkton 

 Farleigh Down — so as to be prepared to meet the enemy on 

 whichever side of the river he might select to march. As a 

 matter of fact, the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice, 

 who commanded the Royalists, marched by the road on the right 

 bank of the river, which was identical as far as Farley Wick 

 with the present high road from Bradford to Bath. Near the 

 point of junction of this road with that leading to Warleigh lane, 

 and about half a mile from Farleigh Down on the way to Bradford 

 at the foot of a hill, was a small wood which was grubbed about 

 30 years ago. In this wood Major Davet,t who commanded the 

 Parliamentary force on Farleigh Down, placed some of his infantry 



* CoUinson states that these soldiers were buried under the west 

 wall of the church. There is at present no room west ot the church to 

 bury, but previous to the building the new north aisle there was a 

 space for burial, and in digging a deep grave there early in the century 

 some bones were found which apparently had been buried without 

 coflSns, and these were removed to the other side of the church, where 

 tradition now is that these victims of civil war were finally interred, 

 t Eushworth's account. 



