114 THE EXETER ROAD 



left him still peculating. He liaJ become a lioarv- 

 headed sinner by the time Elizabeth reigned, or there 

 is no knowino- but that he mioht have become a 

 Prince Consort ; for when he entertained Her 

 Majesty here in 1560: 'By my troth,' said she, 'if 

 my Lord Treasurer were but a young man, I could 

 find it in my heart to have him for a husband before 

 any man in England.' But she had said this kind of 

 thing of many another. 



The successors of this gorgeous nobleman — not 

 being Lords Treasurers — could not aftbrd to keep up 

 so immense a palace, and so demolished a part of it, 

 and found the remainder ample. To this place, fitting- 

 alike by its situation at a strategic point on the 

 AVestern Road, and by the splendidly defensible nature 

 of its site, crowded the King's Hampshire adherents 

 who were not engaged at Winchester and Southamp- 

 ton at the outbreak of the war between Charles and 

 his Parliament. John, fifth Marquis of AVinchester, 

 then ruled. ' Aimez Loyaulte,' he wrote with his 

 diamond ring on every window of his great mansion, 

 and, provisioning his cellars, aw'aited events. As 

 ' Loyalty ' the house speedily became known to 

 the flying bands of the King's men who, pursued 

 through the country l)y the Eoundheads, made for 

 its shelter as birds do for trees in a storm. The 

 rebels might hold Basingstoke for a time, and lay 

 siege to Basing House, but troops from Royalist 

 Oxford w^ould come and take the town and repro- 

 vision this stronghold. It was a mixed company in 

 this palace - fortress. My lord, loyalist, soldier, 

 amateur of the arts ; reposing after the warlike 



