LORD FAIRFAX:. 471 



ted himself with signal bravery, as well as military 

 skill. It was indeed his character to be animated 

 during action, with a spirit which did not seem to 

 belong to his ordinary temper, and which rose to a 

 kind of enthusiastic fury. He pursued his success 

 with vigour. Marching westward he raised the 

 siege of Taunton, took Bridgewater, Bath, Bris- 

 tol, Dartmouth, and other places ; defeated lord 

 Hopton, the king's general at Torrington, and fi- 

 nally by a series of masterly movements, cooped up 

 the whole of the remaining royal army, in the ex- 

 tremity of Cornwall, and obliged it to capitulate 

 upon terms. Then returning he reduced Exeter, 

 Oxford, and Walliiigford, and by the capture of 

 Ragland castle, in August 1616, put an end to all 

 opposition to the parliament's authority through- 

 out England. 



In these transactions Fairfax conducted himself 

 with honour and humanity. He was particularly 

 careful of the concerns of literature, on the surren- 

 der of Oxford, and diligently preserved the Bod- 

 leian library from pillage ; so that according to Dr. 

 Wartori, (Hist, of English poetry) it suffered less 

 than when that city was in the possession of the 

 royalists. He presented also to that celebrated li- 

 brary the immense collections of Dodsworth, con- 

 tained in 162 folio volumes of MSS. ; to which 

 modern antiquaries have always had recourse, as 

 an invaluable storehouse of the most ancient re- 

 cords, and most authentic documents. 



But Fairfax was now to act in a scene for which 

 he was much less fitted than for martial exploits 

 in the involved and hollow politics of the trium- 

 phant party. 



Meaning well, and confiding too much in the in- 

 tegrity of others, he was no match for the craft of 

 Cromwell and Ireton. He was really Avell disposed 

 to the parliament, to which he had owed all hi* 

 power, and which liberally rewarded all his servi- 

 ces ; yet he was induced by the army agitators to 

 head them in their advance towards London, in or- 

 der to awe the legislature, and lie joined in that 



