98 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



Lodge in Dorsetshire, four miles to the west of Ring- 

 wood, in the attempt to reach the New Forest.* 

 " Since we landed," he said, " we have not had one 

 comfortable meal, or quiet night." At eleven o'clock 

 on Wednesday, July 8, the Duke of Monmouth himself 

 was taken by one Henry Parkin (one of the Sussex 

 Militia) in a ditch covered with fern, disguised in a 

 shepherd's dress ; and it is recorded that some raw 

 peas, gathered in the rage of hunger (though it is 

 strange that field peas should have seeded by the 8th 

 of July, even if we allow for the variation of style), 

 were found, together with the decoration of the George, 

 given him by his father, Charles II., in his pocket. 



On the road to London for his trial Grey showed 

 great spirit : " He was not only calm but cheerful, 

 talked pleasantly of horses, dogs, and field sports, and 

 even made jocose allusions to the perilous situation in 

 which he stood." Monmouth, who showed the greatest 

 degradation of cowardice, begged his life of his uncle, 

 King James II. , even at the cost of becoming a PapisF: 

 Grey was " more ingenuous," said the king (which pro- 

 bably means " made more discoveries "), and never 

 once begged his life. Both prisoners, condemned, were 

 sent by water to the Traitor's Gate of the Tower. 

 Monmouth was beheaded after five strokes of the axe 

 by Jack Ketch the hangman. Grey, as his estate was 

 large and strictly entailed,f was spared, as he would 

 bleed a large ransom, and also would turn king's 

 evidence. 



It has been thought by a recent writer that Grey's 

 part had been that of wilful treachery to his friends at 

 Bridport and Sedgemoor, and that hence James I. 



8 "Account of Fights and Skirmishes, 1685," page 6. 

 t Grey's property would have gone to his brother, Ford Ralph 

 Grey, who became after Ford Grey's death "Lord Grey of 

 Warke," but survived his brother only five years. He was 

 younger than Ford Lord Grey by seven years, being born in 

 1661. 



