A HISTORY OF SURREY 



would have become the commander of a Plevna or a Ladysmith rather 

 than the governor of a post of not half the importance of a score of 

 castles and houses held by either side in these wars. Yet Wither was 

 really zealous and active. The castle was not a strong fortress, the 

 townspeople were Royalists, and in the four hundreds of Surrey adjacent 

 to Farnham there were not, he declared, six gentlemen well affected to 

 Parliament. As he included so stout a Parliamentarian as Onslow in his 

 suspicions of disaffection, we may doubt this sweeping judgment. He 

 had two squadrons recently raised and only half armed, a few irresolute 

 volunteers whom he did not trust, and only sixty muskets. 1 He set to 

 work to collect stores, to strengthen his works and to dig a well. But 

 he plied Onslow with demands for men, cannon and supplies which did 

 not exist, or if they did were wanted elsewhere. For the want of them 

 he wrote Onslow down a traitor. 2 



On October 23 Edgehill had been fought. The king had occu- 

 pied Oxford, and early in November began his march down the Thames 

 towards London, while Rupert's horse swept the country far and wide. 

 An attack upon Farnham seemed very likely. In his vindication, called 

 & Defendendo, published very soon after this time, Wither says that he 

 was ordered to come to London with a troop of horse, leaving another 

 officer in charge at Farnham. Some years later injurious reports were 

 spread about him to the effect that he had run away from Farnham. 

 Then in 1 646 he, still quarrelling with Onslow, published the Justiciarius 

 Justificatus, in which he says that Sir Richard Onslow advised him to 

 leave Farnham on the ground that his charge of the garrison was only 

 temporary, and that he would enjoy a better position and do better 

 service at the head of cavalry in the field. Considering the nature of 

 the charges against him, it is improbable that he would have failed in 

 1646 to produce an order telling him to abandon Farnham if such an 

 order was given. He probably came up to London without orders, but 

 it is likely enough that Sir Richard, tired of his unreasonable requests 

 for aid, may have told him to go and ask for it himself at headquarters 

 if he wanted it. What is clear is that he left his garrison and came up 

 to London, and actually got an order for culverins from the Tower to be 

 taken to Farnham. On the next day, November 9, came the news of 

 Rupert being in north Surrey, and the culverins were counterordered 

 for fear of capture. Wither begged to be allowed to take light guns, 



1 See Wither's pamphlet, Se Defendendo, for his position at Farnham. 



8 Onslow was no doubt falsely accused of an understanding with the king. He was not a 

 Republican nor a fanatic, but an honest supporter of a constitutional government. The Onslow family 

 tradition of Wither as a ' low fellow, well known in those times for his fanatic poetry and ribald writings ' 

 (Arthur Onslow, in Onslow Papers, Hut. MSS. Comm. Reports, 14, 9, p. 477), is almost as wide of the 

 truth. Wither was a gentleman and a poet. Onslow later on was apparently, by his own confession, 

 really playing a double part when he delayed to come up with some Surrey militia in time to fight at 

 Worcester (see the Report referred to above, p. 478). Whitelocke says that Onslow with the Surrey 

 regiment and Walter St. John with a troop of horse marched hard to be in time. I am indebted to 

 Mr. Firth for the suggestion that Whitelocke probably wrote the truth, but that after the Restoration 

 Onslow had good reasons for letting it be supposed that he had not been eager to fight Charles II. He 

 was a more honest man than revolutions often produce, but his credit must suffer on one horn of the 

 dilemma or the other. Either he was not true to his military duty, or he said what was not true. 



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