of free trade upou the prices of land in the present day, and the 

 value of money at that time as compared with the present. 



The secretary then took the chair while Mr. Skrine read 

 a paper on "The Skirmish at Claverton in 164:3," (mde j}- 49^ 

 which raised several interesting points of discussion as to 

 what portion of the Royal forces was there engaged ; what 

 was the object of attack, and further whether there was a 

 cavalry skirmish at the ford. Mr. Skrine showed, among other 

 maps and views, a print of old Claverton Manor-house with 

 the place where the cannon ball fired during the skirmish 

 entered (as tradition says) when King Charles was in the room. 

 A lengthened conversation followed, in the course of which 

 Mr. Green remarked, that if Claverton House were ever struck by 

 either cannon ball or bullet, it must have been in July, 1643, 

 when the royalist forces, coming from Frome, passed by Claverton 

 and over the river towards Batheaston, their opponents retii-ing, 

 but fighting them closely up to this point. This he had sketched 

 in a paper on the battle of Lansdown, printed in the Club's 

 Proceedings. The ford over the river, still so called, close by 

 Claverton, was defended on the Batheaston side and consequently 

 facing Claverton, by an earthwork or battery, with, cannon. In 

 the general fighting here or during the melee when this battery 

 was taken and the ford secured, it is possible that Claverton 

 House might have been struck. If it were not done then, it was 

 never done, as no fighting occurred there afterAvards. But the 

 King certainly was not there. It was in July, 1644, that coming 

 through Gloucestershire, he passed by Marshfield and over 

 Lansdown, to view the battle-field of the year before, and 

 descending the hill, was met towards the bottom by Sir Thomas 

 Bridges, the governor of the garrison, and conducted into Bath. 

 He stayed one clear day to rest, and then marched on to MeUs. 

 That he went to Claverton is entirely supposition, unsupported by 

 any evidence ; and to imagine that he did so is to forget his- 

 fatigue and suppose that he had nothing else to do. He was at 



