By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 295 
birth, he was lawfully debarred. A private quarrel between him- 
self and his uncle, James Duke of York, laid the foundation of a 
difference which embittered the latter years of King Charles II’s. 
reign, and finally brought ruin on Monmouth himself. At Shaftes- 
bury’s instigation, he took the lead of the party opposed to the 
Court. The Duke of York was banished; a bill for excluding him 
from the succession had all but passed; Charles fell ill, and had he 
died, Monmouth was in a very fair position to agitate his title to 
the Crown. But the King suddenly recovering, by an unaccount- 
able revolution of mind, and to everybody’s utter amazement, sent 
for James back again, stripped Monmouth of his honours, and 
banished him to Holland. From Holland, under Shaftesbury’s 
advice, the young man came back to England, without the King’s 
leave, and commencing various progresses through the kingdom, 
gained the whole population to his side. It was in August, 1680, 
that he rode through the West, visiting the houses of the principal 
gentry who were mostly of his party. Coming first into Wiltshire 
he staid some days at Longleat. Crowds flocked to see and to 
escort him, scattering flowers in his path, and shouting for the 
King and the Protestant Duke. After having proceeded in a perfect 
triumph as far as Exeter, he returned by Longleat. His visits 
here would be, not of that ceremonious kind where nobody is very 
comfortable, but easy and familiar, for Mr. Thynne was one of his 
warmest partizans and personal friends. From him the Duke re- 
ceived his fine set of Oldenburg coach-horses. It was owing to this 
intimacy that Mr. Thynne was removed from the command of a 
Regiment of Horse of the Wilts Militia, Nov. 19th, 1681. We 
shall find them together once more under circumstances little anti- 
cipated by either party. 
And here, in lightly sketching the history of this house, I pause 
for one moment, to refer somewhat more emphatically to the re- 
markable meeting under this roof, of two men, to whose names a 
deep tragic interest belongs. The incident would of itself supply 
no bad material for a chapter of historical romance, presenting as 
it does a double example of that strange vicissitude in human 
things which sometimes makes history as marvellous as fiction. 
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