382 
live, or escape the death designed him, 
for that he scorned to ask life at his hand, 
and should be soon ready for execution,” 
After a short ceremony with Lord Ca- 
pell’s chaplain, the hour “drew nigh 
that called for a steady exercise of 
those principles of courage, indignant 
honour, and religion, which had led 
them thus far in their course without 
faultering. It was seven o’clock when 
they were led forth from the castle, and 
conducted to a green spot of ground a 
few paces from the wall on the north 
side of it. Here the three colonels, 
Ireton, Whalley, and Rainsborough,with 
three files of musketeers, had already 
arrived, and upon perceiving the knights 
advance, put themselves in order to per- 
form their fatal work. Sir Charles 
Lucas coming forward took the appoint- 
ed stand, at the same time saying, ¢ I 
have often faced deuth in the field, and 
you shall now see I dare die.’—Calmly 
kneeling down, he continued a few mi- 
nutes in that humble posture of religi- 
ous intercession, and rising with a cheer- 
firl countenance, hastily opened his dou- 
blet and pulled his hat on firmly. Then 
placing his arms at his sides, as in de- 
fiance, with a resolute indignation, call- 
ed aloud, ¢ See, I am ready for you; 
now r.le/s do your worst.’—An instant 
discharge of the musquetry ensued, and 
four mortal wounds put an immediate 
end to his existence *.” Sir George Lisle 
immediately suffered the same fate, and 
their bodies were afterwards interred in 
& vault at St. Giles’s church, Colchester, 
where their cofftns are now to be seen. 
The second volume of this work con- 
tains the local and parochial history of 
Colchester; in. which every particular 
circumstance relating to the churches, 
monasteries; castle, police, tombs, &c. is 
minutely detailed. Among this mass of 
miscellaneous matter, we find a few re- 
lations ef an amusing, and some of 
rather an interesting, nature. 
The following historical particulars 
of. the Colchester oyster may be con- 
sidered among this class, by those who 
have a /asie for the subject. 
«© The oysters which ate the produce of 
this fishery, being so famous, it may not be 
jmproper to mention soime particulars relat- 
ingto them. They are of several sorts, of 
Which the Pyc-feat is most im esteem, be- 
BRITISH TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 
ing a small thick oyster with a deep trans- 
parent shell. The creek in which they are 
found proceeds from the river to the Strood 
at the entrance of Mersea island. The num- 
ber of oysters which are natives of this creek 
cannot be very great; neither can the whole 
produce of the river, with its various creeks, 
be anyways adequate to the vast quantities 
sold under the denomination of Colchester 
oysters. The great demand daily made 
for them has obliged the merchants to get 
oysters from other places, which they strew 
upon their layings ; after these oysters have 
acquired a degree of fa mess, they are not 
unfrequently vended as the native production 
of the fishery. 
«© Oysters cast their spawn in April and 
May, and about Midsummer and Michael- 
mas. This is called the spat by the. fisher- 
men, and cleaves to stones, oyster-shells, 
pieces of wood, and other things, at the 
bottom of the sea, all which they call cultch. 
The spat, when first cast, is like the drop 
of a candle, but no larger than a small spangle. 
“« Jt is conjectured that in twenty-four 
hours after, the shell begins to be formed, 
After the oysters have first spawned they are 
sick, but soon afier beein to get well, and 
in August are perfectly so. The male oyster 
having a black substance in the fin, 1s termed 
black sick, and the female having a “milky 
substance in the fin, they term white sick. 
When they take the oysters, they separate, 
the sinall brood from the culteh, and then 
throw it in again; but if the spat is so small 
that it cannot be severed from the culteh 
then they are permitied to take the stone or 
cultch the spat is upon. ‘The spat and small 
oysters thus taken, are spread upon places 
called beds or layers, near the edge of the 
river, where they grow and fatten, and in 
two or three years the sinallest becomes 
oysters of the legal size. The size, isan 
oyster cast in brass, which is kept by the 
magistrates, or water-bailiff. 
“When the ovsters have attained this 
legal size, they are removed, from their lay- 
ings, or beds, inte pits cut in the marshes, 
where they fatten, Some of these pits com- 
municate a green tinge to the fin of the 
oyster, which colour they acquire In a few 
days. ‘The method of giving this quality to 
the pit is kept a seerct, but there is little 
doubt to be made, that it consists in sowing, 
the botiom of the pit with some vegetable, 
upon which, when it begins to spring up, 
the oysters. feed. ‘Chat this, quality is com- 
municated to the pit, and is not occasioned 
by the nature of the soil, is evident, for 
otherwise it would not be easy to account 
why a pit within a foot or two of a greening 
pit, shall not have the same quality. That 
itis owing ta a catisc NOt permanent ts also 
evident, a3 a pit alter a certain time loses 
ee * An antient servant of Sic Charles Lucas, who was asad spectator of this event, was 
surprised, throne afiectian, with such pa 
“at the hands of une soldiers. 
on for bis loss, as earncstly to beseech death 
Loyal Sacriuce, }. 78.” 
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