A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



treated with scorn." 8 Charles took a middle course. The earls were to 

 be allowed to come to Oxford, but every one was to treat them as he 

 thought best. Holland received nothing but cold looks, and though he 

 followed the king to Colchester and was present at Newbury, he was 

 disappointed in the hope that he would be restored to his office as groom 

 of the stole. He still refused to acknowledge that he had committed 

 any offence in siding with the rebels, and leaving the king's party on 

 6 November he threw himself at the feet of Parliament, * which after a 

 short imprisonment gave him leave to live in his own house with- 

 out further considering him as a man able to do little good or harm.' 299 

 He employed his time in publishing a declaration of the causes of his 

 going to and returning from Oxford, which lost him the regard of the 

 few friends he still retained. 



After Brentford, Middlesex was completely at the disposal of Parlia- 

 ment. The proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money 

 fell very heavily on the county in 1643. The object of the com- 

 mittee was to furnish the sinews of war, and at first its exactions fell 

 mainly on those within a twenty-mile radius of London. No distinc- 

 tion of party was made in the first instances, but gradually delinquents 

 came to be more frequently and heavily taxed. In April, 1643, Sir 

 Nicholas Crispe, whose house in Lime Street was sold ' by the 

 candle,' also had his estate at Hammersmith despoiled, and his goods 

 carried to London for the use of the Parliament. 800 Sir Thomas Allen, 

 who lived at Finchley, was assessed at 1,000, and his household goods 

 were distrained for arrears. 801 There is a long list of those who were 

 called upon to pay sums varying from 200 to 2,000.** Sir John 

 Wolfenstone of Stanmore was said to have lost 100,000 during the 

 war by fines, and by the seizure of his estates. 308 



The country round London, and especially the south-western 

 portion of Middlesex, was used as a camping and recruiting ground 

 for the Parliamentary armies. In August, 1643, when Essex was 

 about to raise the siege of Gloucester, the rendezvous for the 

 army was appointed for Hounslow Heath. Some of the Commons 

 who rode out to inspect the troops reported them to be * a very shattered 

 and broken body,' and found their general in a very dispirited con- 

 dition. 804 They used every effort to recruit the army 805 and such was 

 their energy that in three weeks three regiments of auxiliary forces had 

 been raised, and these with three regiments of London trained bands 

 gave Essex an additional 5,000 men. 306 On Saturday, 26 August, he 

 broke camp from his last stations at Colnbrook and Uxbridge with an 

 army 'so full of patience as that with one fortnight's pay (being much 

 in arrears) they were content to march against all these difficulties.' 8or 



198 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 146-51. "" Ibid. 156, 191-9. 



" Cal. Com. fir Advance of Money, 21 April, 1643. *" Ibid. 21 June. 



m Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 474. * Lysons, op. cit. iii, 400. 



1 Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 65. *>* Washbourn, Bibl. Glouc. Ixv. 



"" Com. Jount. 3, 15, 1 6 August. *>' Washbourn, Bibl. Glouc. ZJ3- 



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