174 The Hertford Correspondence. 



these levies from ordinary taxes seems to have been that, bearing 

 the name of "Loans," they could not be enforced by distress. 

 Mr. Matcham in his interesting account of the Eyre family (Hist, 

 of Fr ust field Hund.) recites the form of an application of this 

 nature, made in 1625, to Giles Eyre of Brickworth, Esq., for the 

 sum of £10 ; and from the absence of any endorsement by way of 

 receipt, Mr. Matcham thinks it probable that payment was actually 

 refused by that resolute Anti-Stuart ; though such a mode of defy- 

 ing the tax-gatherer, even when that functionary approached in 

 the attitude of a borrower, must at all times have been fraught 

 with peril. That it was so in Mr. Eyre's case, his subsequent 

 history abundantly showed. 



Returning to the subject of the present letters ; they seem to 

 contain evidence that Lord Hertford's principal confidence was 

 placed in Sir William Eyre. This distinguished individual who 

 represented an older branch of the family than the Eyres of South 

 Wilts, lived at Great Chalfield, near Bradford, where his mansion, 

 though in a mutilated condition, may still be seen and admired. 

 He was Sheriff of Wilts, in 1591, and Knight of the Shire in 1597. 

 He was father of Robert Eyre, a Commissioner for King Charles, 

 and grandfather of Colonel William Eyre, an officer serving the 

 Parliament. 



LETTER XII. 



The Earl of Hertford to Sir James Mervm concerning Sir Thomas 

 Thynne's refusal to be Colonel. 



I received this day fortnight by my cousin Sir Thomas Gorges, a strange 

 message which he told me was from you, in the behalf of your son-in-law, Sir 

 Thomas Thynne — namely, that he neither intended nor would perform the 

 service as colonel now at the musters, which (at your desire first, and for his 

 better countenance, and better enabling to serve his Majesty hereafter) I laid 

 upon him. I marvel that your years and gravity could not divert him from so 

 peremptory and undutiful a resolution, which, before myself, Sir Thomas Gorges, 

 yourself, and Sir William Eyres, deputy lieutenants, with other justices of the 

 peace, he feared not to aver, with many idle words used at the same time: 



