i82 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book X. 



of having his life spared, and his estate preserved. This was 

 assured him, when he retired from public life, devoting his 

 talents to rural affairs and breeding thoroughbred horses. He 

 was friendly with Monk, and had encouraged him to march 

 against Lambert, promising to make a diversion in his favour ; 

 and before the wary royalist had declared himself, his 

 intimacy and frequent conferences with Sir Arthur excited 

 the doubts and jealousies of the king's friends. The royalist 

 party has represented him as " haughty, imperious, precipi- 

 tate, vainglorious, without civility, without prudence, qualified 

 only by his noisy, pertinacious obstinacy to acquire an ascend- 

 ency in public assemblies." But this revolting picture is 

 evidently over-charged, being not relieved by a single moral 

 virtue. However, Sir Arthur's actions show him to have been 

 a bold, active, and determined man. He was a staunch repub- 

 lican, and like most of the leaders of that party, possessed of 

 capacity and experience ; but he may have erred in advocating 

 some of the measures identified with his stirring life. Sir 

 Arthur Haselrigg was very opulent. He made such extensive 

 purchases of land, belonging to the see of Durham, sold by 

 order of Parliament, that he acquired the soubriquet of " Bishop 

 of Durham." His riches, political connections, and military 

 command, rendered him one of the most influential men in 

 the north of England. Among other possessions he held 

 Woodstock Park, where he kept and bred his thoroughbred 

 horses, some of which were derived from drafts obtained at 

 the dispersal of the royal stud at Tutbury. Sir Arthur's stud 

 at Woodstock was sold off in November, 1659, as appears from 

 the following advertisement, which is probably the first 

 announcement of the sort that ever appeared in a newspaper : — 

 ^^Advertisement. These are to give notice, that it is resolved 

 by Sir Arthur Hesilrigg, to sell "all his Horses, Geldings, 

 breeding Mares, stoned Colts, Fillies and Foals, that are now 

 at Woodstock Park in Oxfordshire ; and that the Fourteenth 

 day of November next coming is the first day on which Sir 

 Arthur intends to begin the sale" — Mercureus Politicus, 

 October 2^, 1659, No. 593. Sir Arthur died the following year. 



