33 



were found. The Welsh were scarcely likely to have left this 

 passage migarded ; it was their line of communication with 

 Wales. If held by any considerable force, Waller could not 

 have left that force in his rear when marching* to the attack on 

 Highnam ; and here, perhaps, occurred that resistance on the 

 first day, which, according to the " Mercurius Aulicus," cost him. 

 400 men. 



But even if the Welsh had relied on their entrenchments 

 above the three milestone, Waller was not likely to overlook 

 the strategic importance of a position which would enable him 

 to intercept the retreat of an enemy he must have felt confident 

 he was about to j)ut to flight, and the occupation of which by 

 him would explain the disaster said by the old blacksmith to 

 have befallen the Welsh on their retreat from Ludnam's hill. 

 That Highleadon Passage was a point of strategic importance 

 at that time may well be conceived by those who know it 

 now, and as it would be if unbridged, and if it had not been so, 

 CoEBETT would not have thought it necessary to tell us, in 

 describing the march of Masset to Hartpury, in 1645, that 

 "late in the afternoon our party began to advance, and at 

 Highleadon Passage got over the Brook." 



Moreover, the tradition handed down through Samuel Col- 

 well would seem to show that the encampment at Highleadon 

 was established chiefly for the protection of this passage, though 

 it was only held in force by day. 



It is submitted, therefore, that beyond all question the skele- 

 tons at Barber's Bridge, or at "Barbarous" Bridge, as some 

 suppose the original name to have been, are the remains of such 

 of the Welsh army as perished in their fight on 24th March, 

 1648, and though the original letter of Sir William Waller 

 to both Houses of Parliament, as corrected by Sir Thomas 

 Barrington, and in which no doubt further details were given, 

 has not yet been discovered, it is possible that it may still exist 

 among the large number of letters and papers belonging to the 

 period which have recently been found in the Victoria Tower, 

 at Westminster, and which were saved when the Houses of 

 Parliament were destroyed by fire. 



