Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 8I 
unfriendly to the Parliament. The above, therefore, is not the case 
of a Royalist compounder; but as a sufferer in respect of a very 
interesting property, Lord Coleraine seems to claim notice. It was 
in 1641, only a year before the war broke out, that he had purchased 
the Longford demesne from Edward, the second Lord Gorges, with 
a covenant that it was free from incumbrance; but so far was this 
instrument from representing the facts of the case that in a short 
space of time after his purchase Lord Coleraine had expended 
£18,000 in suits of law to secure his title, and ultimately Richard, 
Lord Gorges, voluntarily paid off £2000 of incumbrances, to redeem 
his own and his father’s honour, and also executed a new conveyance. 
In 1644, when he had been in possession only three years, Lord 
Coleraine was called upon to surrender his beautiful house into the 
King’s hands, to be used as a garrison. Being very partial to his 
purchase, and anxious, if possible, to prevent by his presence any 
wanton injury, he took up his abode at a small house in the neigh- 
bouring village of Britford, where he long remained the desponding 
eyewitness of spoliation which he was utterly powerless to check. 
He saw his vines and other fruit trees torn from the walls, the 
stables and offices set on fire or levelled to make way for lines of 
fortification, leaden pipes and cisterns displaced, stone bridges broken, 
and trees felled; till, unable any longer to endure the sight, he 
petitioned the King for leave to quit the West of England. After 
the surrender of the castle to Cromwell in 1645, and the levelling 
of the outworks, there still remained a fear that the fabric itself 
might be condemned, in order to prevent its future use as a military 
post; but by the intercession of Lord Kimbolton, whose sister was 
the wife of Lord Coleraine, this crowning catastrophe was averted. 
On re-visiting the spot in 1650 Lord Coleraine found little remaining 
but the bare walls, dirt, and desolation. But though his losses by 
the war were estimated at £40,000, he instantly set about the work 
of restoration, and had in great part recovered the original design 
when his death occurred, in 1667; his son, Henry, Lord Coleraine, 
still further carrying forward the father’s intentions. 
Henry Hawkins, of Chippenham, yeoman. Declares that he 
was never sequestered nor even questioned for any delinquency ; 
VOL. XXIV.—NO. LXX, @ 
