66 THOMAS GERARD OF TRENT. 



After Worcester fight in 1651, to Colonel and Mrs. Wyndham 

 fell the dangerous task of providing for Charles II. for three 

 weeks while his friends tried to find a way of escape from the 

 Dorsetshire coast. Failing this the King was conducted to 

 Hale, near Salisbury, where he was sheltered by Mrs. Mary 

 Hyde, related to Edward Hyde, the brother-in-law of Mrs. 

 Wyndham. After the restoration Anne Wyndham wrote an 

 account of the King's sojourn at Trent, under the title of 

 " Claustrum Regale Reseratum." 



The male line of her descendants died out in the third 

 generation ; and the relics of the royal visitor, a knife in a 

 case and two worked caps, together with the portraits of 

 Colonel Wyndham and his four sons, are preserved at Newton 

 Surmaville, having descended to the Colonel's daughter 

 Elizabeth, who married William Harbin, of that place. 



II. 



The second portion of these notes contains the evidence 

 which shows that the last Thomas Gerard of Trent was the 

 author of the " Particular Description " of Somerset, and also 

 of Coker's " Survey of Dorset." This evidence is considered 

 under four heads. 



(1.) Thomas Gerard wrote the " Particular Description." 



(2.) He also wrote a survey of Dorset. 



(3.) This work is the Survey hitherto attributed to John 

 Coker. 



(4.) This attribution has arisen from pardonable misunder- 

 standing of certain passages in the Survey. 



The following pages are based upon an exhaustive article 

 by Mr. John Batten, F.S.A., in Som. and Dors. N. and Q., V., 

 Art. 83, " Who Wrote Coker's Survey ? " and on my intro- 

 duction to the Particular Description of Somerset ; Som. 

 Rec. Soc., XV. 



