A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Essex was desired to punish the ' particular insolencies ' which were 

 complained of. MO In the following April Fairfax was commanded to 

 remove his forces which lay in Middlesex, and the county was em- 

 powered to refuse lodging to such officers and soldiers as had not proper 

 warrant from their superior officers. 8 * 1 



In 1 644-5 was he^ that abortive conference known as the Treaty 

 of Uxbridge. The Commissioners met on 29 January. Those repre- 

 senting the king were quartered on the south side of the town, those 

 representing the Parliament were on the north side, 352 each party having 

 a ' best inn ' reserved for their use. 38 * On the evening of their arrival 

 the two parties exchanged visits. 834 Sir John Bennet's house at the 

 Buckinghamshire end of the town was appointed as a ' treaty house,' and 

 it was arranged that the king's party should come in by the ' foreway ' and 

 the Parliament's by the ' backway,' a room in the middle of the house 

 having been arranged for the meetings. 326 Uxbridge was in the Parlia- 

 mentary country, and the Royalists were treated as guests, but Clarendon 

 declares that the townspeople observed that the Parliament's men did 

 not look as much at home as did the cavaliers, and adds that the former 

 had not that ' alacrity and serenity of mind as men use to have who do 

 not believe themselves to be at fault.' S26 The conference was to last 

 twenty days, not counting the days of coming and returning, nor the 

 days spent in devotion, ' there falling out three Sundays and one fast day 

 in those first twenty days.' On the first morning of the conference 

 Christopher Love, a celebrated Puritan divine, preached the usual 

 market-day sermon. He told the large congregation that the king's 

 commissioners were come with ' hearts of blood,' and that there was 

 as great a distance between the Treaty and peace as between heaven 

 and hell. The Cavaliers complained, but the Parliamentarians disowned 

 him, and he was afterwards reprimanded by Parliament. 387 



The discussions and wranglings over ecclesiastical, military and 

 Irish questions do not belong to the history of Middlesex. The nego- 

 tiations from the first were hopeless, and early served to show how 

 unlikely was the chance of any settlement between Charles and the Par- 

 liament. The main proceedings had opened on 3 1 January, and they 

 came to an end on Saturday, 22 February. On the Sunday both sides 

 rested in the town, and spent the afternoon in exchanging farewells, 

 ' parting with such dryness towards each other as if they scarce hoped 

 to meet again.' The Parliament had allowed two days for the Royalists 

 to return to Oxford as the time of year was bad for travelling, but the 

 king's commissioners were so unwilling to run the risk of being caught 

 on the road after the armistice ended, that they were in their coaches 

 early enough on the Monday morning to kiss the king's hand at Oxford 

 that night. 8 ' 8 



Cat. S.P. Dm. 1644-5, P- H4- " Ibid. 441, 443 (39). 



Lysons, Environs of Land. (1800), v, 179. 

 Whitelocke, Mem. 127. 

 "I Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 472. Whitelocke, Mem. 127. 



Clarendon, op. cit. iii, 472. Ibid. 474. * Ibid. JO I. 



44 



