POLITICAL HISTORY 



attendant gaieties soon brought the citizens to look upon Hounslow Heath 

 as a pleasure resort. 



Mingled with the musketeers and dragoons, a multitude of fine ladies and gentle- 

 men from Soho Square, sharpers from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods 

 and gowns, lacqueys in rich liveries, pedlars, orange girls, mischievous apprentices, and 

 gaping clowns, were constantly passing and re-passing through the long lanes of tents 

 ... In truth the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital. 398 



Familiarity had the proverbial result, and London no longer feared the 

 army, which indeed, soon ceased to be a menace to its safety. The 

 troops on which the king had so greatly depended, and whose welfare 

 he had rightly cherished as his own, became imbued with the temper of 

 the City and of the nation. 897 A strong Protestant bias made itself felt 

 among the soldiers and ' it appeared on many occasions that the army 

 had a great animadvertence to the King's religion.' S9S 



The Roman Catholic officers, whose admission to the army the 

 king had gained by the suspension of the Test Act, were very few in 

 number. James had a chapel in the camp, but few officers or men 

 heard mass there, and those few were treated with great scorn by their 

 fellows. 399 Protestant tracts were freely circulated, in which the troops 

 were exhorted to use their arms in defence of the Bible, the Great 

 Charter, and the Petition of Right. 400 As the crisis of 1688 drew near 

 it became evident that the army could not be trusted if trouble arose. 

 James still went frequently to the camp, driving there as a rule twice a 

 week, sometimes with Major-General Worden, 401 and sometimes with the 

 future duke of Marlborough, then Lord Churchill. 402 He went to 

 Hounslow on the morning of the last day of the trial of the Seven 

 Bishops. 403 Sunderland sent a courier with news of the acquittal, who 

 was brought before the king while he was in Lord Feversham's tent. 

 On hearing the news James exclaimed fiercely, 'So much the worse for 

 them.' He set out shortly afterwards for London, and scarcely had he 

 left the camp when a great shout broke out from the soldiers. The king 

 asked what noise was that, and was answered that it was ' Nothing, that 

 the soldiers were glad that the Bishops were acquitted.' Then James 

 broke out, ' Do you call that nothing ? ' and again said gloomily, ' So 

 much the worse for them.' 404 The news was received with even more 

 acclamation at the camp than elsewhere, 408 and the soldiers were soon 

 more dreaded by the Court than ever they had been by the City. James 

 went several times to Hounslow during July, 40 * but he saw fit to break 

 up the camp early in August. 407 The troops were scattered over the 

 country on the excuse that they would be needed to keep order at the 

 approaching elections, but in reality because they had become more a 

 danger than a protection to the king. 4 



408 



** Macaulay, Hut. o/Engl. ii, 102. *" Bramston, Autobiog. 234. 



98 Burnet, Hist, of His Own Time, iii, 154. *" Clarke, Life of] as. 11, ii, 70. 



100 Macaulay, op. cit. ii, 103. 4C1 Ellis Carres, ii, 24. 



01 Ibid, ii, i. 403 Ibid, ii, 2. The jury for the trial was drawn from Middlesex. 



14 Macaulay, op. cit. ii, 388. 40S Clarke, Life ofjas. 11, ii, 163. 



406 Reresby's Memoirs, 397, 399. *" ///'/ Corw. ii, 116. 408 Ibid, ii, 139. 



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