2,3- History of the English Landed Inte7'est. 



from tlieir well-merited graves.^ This insane policy touched 

 the whole landed interest in its sorest point and brought 

 Hampden to the front. As compared with his father's milder 

 opposition, Charles's action was as aggressive as that of Reho- 

 boam. Smarting under this chastisement with scorpions, it is 

 surprising that the entire English gentry did not at once join 

 the revolt, and their forbearance amply proves how closely 

 associated with the landed interest was the sense of loyalty to 

 the Crown. As it was, it was divided into two hostile factions. 

 Speaking generally, the hereditary owners of real property 

 helped to swell the forces of the Cavaliers, whereas the recently 

 imported blood swarmed into the Roundhead camp. Amongst 

 the former there still lingered the force of tradition ; and just 

 as in times of danger their fathers had rendered obligatory 

 service to their feudal lord and master, so now their descen- 

 dants voluntarily arrayed themselves in the ranks of the king's 

 army. Once more then the land was to be deluged with the 

 blood of its occupiers. Small knots of the gentry, well mounted 

 and " accompanied (as Macaulay puts it) by their younger 

 brothers, grooms, gamekeepers," and huntsmen, might be seen 

 dotted over the country, all converging with hot haste on 

 the royal field quarters. Estates were mortgaged and heir- 

 looms sold to replenish the king's military chest. Even the 

 family plate, contemptuously termed by the Roundheads 

 " thimble money," found its way into the melting pot for 

 a similar object. On the other side, Hampden was enlisting 

 a regiment of hirelings whom Cromwell had contemptu- 

 ously described as " a mere rabble of tapsters and serving 

 men out of place." ^ But the cream of the Parliamentary 

 forces was composed of the farmers' sons and freeholders, and 

 these were the raw material out of which Cromwell fash- 

 ioned his famous Ironsides. 



It is, however, inaccurate to describe either camp as Avholly 

 composed of particular classes. There were noblemen in the 

 Parliamentary ranks, and citizens as well as freeholders in the 

 Royal army. Professor Rogers has shown that the opposing 



^ Parliamentary History, vol. ii., p. 526. 

 ^ Macaulay, Hist, of Engl., ch. i. 



