89 



Batli again a few months later, when, after his defeat at Newbury, 

 he fled there in all haste. He made no stay, but under the 

 protection of Prince Rupert's horse, went ofi" at once to Oxford. 

 With regard to " the regiment of lobsters" spoken of in the battle of 

 Lansdown, it Avas remarked that the red uniform; now so general 

 in the British army, was ordered by the Parliament in January, 

 1645. Mr. Green added that at Agincourt the English wore red. 

 Captain Wedgwood Yeeles said he should be sorry to attempt to 

 deploy a troop of cavalry in the Ham meadow at Claverton, and 

 Mr. H. M. Skrine said they could only be used as he had used 

 them in drills there ■ndth the Bath troop of the North Somerset 

 Yeomanry Cavalry — ^by dismounting half the men and leaving the 

 rest to guard the horses. He thought cavalry might have dashed 

 across the ford in pursuit, but there could not have been a cavalry 

 skirmish. Some discussion followed, in which Cromwell was 

 defended from the responsibility of the proceediiigs of the 

 Parliament and its army previous to the declaration of the 

 Commonwealth. 



The second evening meeting of the session was held at the 

 Eoyal Institution on Wednesday, Jan. 16th, Mr. H. B. Acton 

 in the chair, when a paper on " Gales of Wind," vide p. 58, 

 by the Rev. L. Blomefield, was read by the secretary. The writer 

 gave some notes of gales previous to those of October last, and 

 pointed out that as meteorological phenomena are imperfectly 

 recollected, there is a tendency to think every fresh phenomena 

 unprecedented. In tracing the historical part of the subject he 

 refen'ed to the information aflbrded by the registers of the 

 Institution, the Lockey registers datuig from 1859, deposited in 

 the Jenyns Library, and Mr. Blomefield's own. Several storms 

 were mentioned, none equal to the great gale of the 26th and 

 27th November, 1703, about which several books had been 

 written, including one by Daniel Defoe, of which there was a 

 copy in the Jenyns Liorary. It killed Bishop Kidder at Wells 

 and blew down Eddystone Lighthouse. From the scientific point 



