24 The Life of William, Duke of Newcastle 



governor, having quarter given him contrary to my Lord's 

 orders, was brought before my Lord by a person of quality, 

 for which the officer that brought him received a check ; and 

 though he resolved then to kill him, yet my Lord would not 

 suffer him to do it, saying, it was inhuman to kill any man 

 in cold blood. Llereupon the governor kissed the key of the 

 house door, and presented it to my Lord ; to which my Lord 

 returned this answer : ' I need it not ', said he, ' for I brought 

 a key along with me, which yet I was unwilling to use, until 

 you forced me to it.' x 



At this house my Lord remained five or six days, till he 

 had refreshed his soldiers ; and then a resolution was 

 taken to march against a garrison of the enemy's called 

 Bradford, a little but a strong town. In the way he met 

 with a strong interruption by the enemy drawing forth a 

 vast number of musketeers, which they had very privately 

 gotten out of Lancashire, the next adjoining county to those 

 parts of Yorkshire which had so easy an access to them at 

 Bradford, by reason the whole country was of their party, 

 that my Lord could not possibly have any constant intelli- 

 gence of their designs and motions. For in their army there 

 were near 5000 musketeers, and eighteen troops of horse, 

 drawn up in a place full of hedges, called Atherton Moor, 

 near to their garrison at Bradford, ready to encounter my 

 Lord's forces, which then contained not above half so many 

 musketeers as the enemy had ; their chiefest strength con- 

 sisting in horse, and these made useless for a long time together 

 by the enemy's horse possessing all the plain ground upon that 

 field ; so that no place was left to draw up my Lord's horse, 

 but amongst old coal-pits. Neither could they charge the 

 enemy, by reason of a great ditch and high bank betwixt 



l Howley House was garrisoned by the Parliamentarians on January 16, 1642 ; its 

 owner, Lord Savile, had made a composition with young Hotham in the preceding 

 October, and also received a similar promise of protection from Lord Fairfax, and had 

 in consequence declined to receive a detachment sent by Newcastle to occupy the house . 

 The suspicions raised by these transactions caused Newcastle to arrest Savile, and to 

 send to the King a lengthy information against him. {Information against the Lord 

 Viscount Savile, in Papers relating to the Delinquency of Lord Savile, Camden Miscellany , 

 vol. viii). The King, however, decided that though Newcastle had very good cause 

 for suspicion, and was justified in what he did, yet Savile's explanations were satis- 

 factory. Howley House was about half way between Wakefield and Leeds. The 

 capture mentioned above took place on June 22, 1643. (Rushworth III, ii, 279). The 

 governor referred to was Sir John Savile of Lupset, cousin of Lord Savile. The House 

 was retaken by the Parliament forces in February 1644 {Scottish Dove, 23rd February 

 to 1st March). 



