31 



The description of the field and of the battle, given by that pains- 

 taking antiquary, W. Hutton, F.S.A., is so full, that I am unable to 

 add much to the stock of information on those subjects, which is con- 

 tained iu his interesting work ; to which, however, several references 

 will be found in the following pages. 



He has expressed some surprise at the changes which had taken 

 place between his visit in 1788 and that in 1807. He says, " I paid 

 a visit in July, 1807, to Bosworth Field, but found so great an 

 alteration, since I saw it in 1788, that I was totally lost. The manor 

 had been inclosed, the fences were grown up, and my prospect impeded. 

 King Richard's Well, which figures in our histories, was nearly oblite- 

 rated ; the swamp where he fell, become firm land ; and the rivulet 

 proceeding from it, lost in an under drain." ^ 



If so great a change had occurred prior to July, 1807, it may well 

 be imagined, that a still greater change had occurred when I visited it 

 in 1856. On that occasion I had the benefit of the local information 

 and knowledge possessed by Mr. John Rubley, a farmer of respectability, 

 and a very well-informed person, residing at Dadlington Fields, near 

 thei'e, who was kitid enough to accompany me, and explain the various 

 positions and points of the field of battle, without which I should have 

 found it impossible to have understood them, oven with the aid of a 

 copy of the plan of the field, from Mr. Button's work, which I carried 

 with me. 



Amongst other changes which have occurred there, and which have 

 altered its appearance, may be mentioned the cutting of the Ashby-de- 

 la-Zouch Canal, which extends through part of it. 



Mr. Hutton states that the south end of the field by wliich Henry 



(the word* in the Charter as given at length by Coke and Sandford, are, " exeepta dignitate 

 regali ;" and it is remarkable that these words seem to bare been intentionally omitted in the 

 printed copy of the Act of the Rot. Pari., vol. 3, p. 243 : qucere were the words cunningly oblite- 

 rated from the Roll by the order of Henry VII. ?) ; besides wliich, several personages, amongst 

 whom were the daughters of Edward IV., and after them the son and daughter of George, Duke 

 of Clarence, were living, and in the due order of the succession. By the Battle of Bosworth, 

 Uichniond became King Henry VII. ; he was crowned on the 30th October, 1485, and married 

 the Princess Elizabeth, elde.st daughter of King Edward IV. (the marriage gave him his 

 best title to the throne), and he died at Richmond on Ihe 21st of April, 1609, in the 53rd 

 year of his age, having reigned twenty-three years and about eight months. There is some- 

 thing remarkable, with respect to the number and rank of the personages who wore candi- 

 dates for the hand of the Princess Elizabeth ; firstly, she was intended by her father, King 

 Edward IV., to be the bride of Georg(! Neville, Duke of Bedford, the son of John Neville, 

 Marquis -Montague (slain at the battle of Barnet); .secondly, she was affianced to Charles 

 the Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XI; thirdly, she was courted by her uncle. King 

 Richard III., who probably intended, as has been the fashion of royalty in Portugal, to 

 obtain Ihe Pope's permiiJiion to marry a niece; fourthly, she married King Henry VII., 

 and consei|UODtly became a Queen, on the 19th of .lanuary, I486. 



' Ilutton's " Bosworth P'ield, Advertisement," pp. III. and IV. 



