A HISTORY OF DORSET 



looting, losing the whole of his library, as a revenge for his zeal in the 

 popular cause.^ 



All Dorset, except Lyme and Poole, was now in the king's hands ; and 

 • had not Lord Carnarvon, stung in his honourable pride, retired to the king, 

 the Prince would have been compelled to follow up these victories. But 

 ' staying too long at Dorchester and Weymouth, he summoned Poole, which 

 returned so peremptory an answer, that he declined to attack it.' " Waller, 

 who had now been made general in the west to oppose Prince Maurice, 

 began to take measures for its defence." But the king's forces in the west 

 were affected by the unfortunate disputes of Rupert and Hertford over the 

 capitulation of Bristol, and of Maurice and Carnarvon over that of Dor- 

 chester. These, and the presence of the Parliamentary garrison at Plymouth, 

 caused the abandonment of the advance on London. Maurice, leaving 

 Poole untouched, was detailed to turn his attention to Exeter and Plymouth. 

 The capitulation of Exeter (4 September) and the surrender, a few days 

 previously, of Barnstaple and Bideford, had increased the importance of the 

 two Dorset garrisons remaining in Parliamentary hands. In the autumn 

 Poole Harbour was occupied by Lord Warwick, their admiral. But the 

 former losses, together with that of Dartmouth (October 16) and the con- 

 sequent danger to Plymouth, had the unlooked-for effect of forcing a 

 reconciliation between Essex and Waller, the latter of whom was charged, 

 at this crisis, with the raising of a western force.* 



The outcome of the summer's negotiations in English troops from 

 Ireland landed at Minehead and Bristol, and the threatened landing of Irish 

 soldiers themselves, caused a danger of a Parliamentary reaction in the south- 

 west. Charles, with the double view of placating merchants and conveying 

 his own despatches, established in November a weekly passage between Wey- 

 mouth and Cherbourg.' Hopton's advance in December was checked by the 

 Royalist defeats of Alton (20 December, 1643) and Cheriton (29 March, 1644).* 



On his advance Waller immediately overran Wiltshire, and occupied 

 Christchurch (Hants), threatening a move on Dorset. This calamity would 

 have more than offset the capture of Wareham by Hopton on his eastw^ard 

 march in January, which had ' gained the king all Dorset save a sea town 

 called Poole.' ^ But the city regiments declined to operate so far from their 

 homes, and he, unable to advance into Dorset, had to draw back to Farnham, 

 a reversion to the state of affairs before Cheriton. 



In March (1644) Maurice, declining to join the king's main army (a 

 necessary step to the securing of Gloucester for the king),' blockaded Lyme 



' He was appointed one of the Assembly of Divines, i July, 164.3 ; see list in Masson's Li/e of Milton, 



* Vicars, op. cit. ii, 285 ; Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 213. ' Commons 'Journals, iii, 590 (15 Aug. 1643). 

 ' Agostini to the Doge, -^r°', Venetian Transcripts, P.R.O. 



' Lord Warwicli to Com'" of Both Kingdoms. 1644, 19 June. 'Weymouth has been most serviceable 

 to the enemy's designs and supplies of any port in England.' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, p. 252. See also 

 pp. 6 and 7. 



* He had wished to secure his rear, before advancing, by the capture of the Parliamentary garrisons in 

 Dorset and Wilts, but was overruled by Charles, anxious for his old plan of a southern advance on Sussex and Kent. 



' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, p. II. The surrender of Wareham w.is attributed to the treachery of the captain 

 of the watch, and was said to have been accompanied by 'divers rapes and cruelties.' Whitelocke, op. cit. 82. 

 But see S. R. Gardiner, Hist. Civ. War, \, vii. ' A reader has to be ... on his guard against stories of 

 cavalier outrages, specially upon women, which are probably . . . imaginary.' 



' Walker, Historical Discourses, 7. 



152 



