74 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



of war in bitter snow to London. A sad winter for Sir 

 Edward, as he had buried his daughter Anne in Hart- 

 ing Church on the I3th November. The loss of Arundel 

 was " an inward bleeding wound to Lord Hopton." 



We have a most interesting bit of old English 

 history, in connection with the taking of Arundel, in a 

 single line of our oldest Parish Register. " There were 3 

 souldiers buried Nov. 24, 1643." Following up this clue, 

 and assuming from the loyalty of the village that the 

 three " souldiers " were King's men, I have discovered 

 that there were two encounters at Harting about this 

 time, and have been fortunate enough to hit upon the 

 account in one of the King's Royalist newspapers * of 

 a battle at South Harting on the 23rd Nov., 1643, as 

 detailed by the " Special Correspondent " of that time. 

 It will be observed that the date of the fight is just the 

 day previous to the interment. The Earl of Crawford 

 (Ludovic Lindsay, 1 5th Earl of Crawford in Scotland) 

 had three troops of horse (King's), with part of which 

 he was on his way to Arundel, having probably come ' 

 from that stronghold of loyalty, Basing House, where 

 Waller the Parliamentarian General was repulsed about 

 this time. The Royalist cavalry entered Harting first, 

 and took up their quarters, in all 120 men. Some 400 

 dragoons under the Parliamentarian General, Colonel 

 Norton, a sort of flying squad of Waller's, whose object 

 was to harass Lord Hopton's cavalry on its way to 

 Arundel, according to the favourite device of the Cove- 

 nanters at Alton, Adderbury, Reading, and elsewhere, 

 caught the King's men asleep in South Harting. But 

 the officers were equal to the occasion, and sallying out 

 from the Knight's house near the Church, they passed 

 along Typper lane, thus placing themselves between the 

 hills and their enemy, and gave the signal, " Follow ! 

 Follow ! " which in the darkness would convey the 

 impression to the Parliamentarians that some of the 



The " Mercurius Aulicus," or Court Mercury, one of the first 

 newspapers ever published. 



