176 CHARLES II. IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



spoken of by Lord Macaulay, and the recent re-publication of 

 which has so nearly led to a lawsuit)*' loyally held Castle Cornet, 

 in Guernsey, for the king against the rebellious Guernseymen, 

 disdaining all summonses to surrender. 



In the spring of 1645 Charles I. determined to send his son 

 into the west partly from the idea of giving the Prince some 

 active work of his own initiative to do, and partly owing to the 

 fears he entertained for his safety and to the threatening aspect 

 of his own affairs evinced by the active preparations being made 

 for war by the Commons in case the negotiations for peace then 

 pending were not satisfactorily concluded. 



On 5th March, 1645-6, the royal father and son (a boy not yet 

 1 6) parted never to meet again. The Prince, escorted by 800 

 horse and accompanied by several noblemen, set out for Bristol, 

 and apparently had a narrow escape of being captured, as on the 

 1 7th of that month Colonel Sir James Long, High Sheriff of Wilts 

 for the King, returning from the convoy of the Prince to Bristol, 

 was set upon by a party of Waller's army at Devizes and 40 of 

 his men killed, many prisoners being also taken. The Prince 

 lodged that night at Farringdon, next day with the garrison at 

 Devizes, the third he reached Bath, where he stayed two or three 

 days, and on arriving at Bristol at once set up his little court. 



At this time, it should be remembered, the whole of Dorset 

 was in possession of the rebels, with the exception of two 

 unimportant places, Sherborne and the Isle of Portland. 



As the plague was then raging at Bristol, 150 dying in a week, 

 the Prince left for Bridgwater on 23rd April. Here he became 

 under the somewhat baneful influence of his old nurse, Mrs. 

 Wyndham Anne, daughter of Thomas Gerard, of Trent.f 



* I am happy to believe that these letters, which, together with others of the 

 Osborne Papers, were at the time of their publication by his Honour Judge Parry 

 in private hands, have now become the property of the nation and are in the safe 

 custody of the British Museum. 



f Presumably this was Lady Anne Wyndham, author of Claustrum Regale 

 Reseratnm, wife (or sister?) of Col. Francis Wyndham, of Trent, to whom 

 Charles went for shelter in Sept., 1651. 



