SPRING MEETING. 379 



ecclesiastical and civil, occurrences related in antiquated news- 

 sheets, &c. Wrecking was one of the subjects dealt with; and 

 I noticed a counsel's brief drawn up on behalf of a lady whose 

 husband was accused of ill-treating her To show his character 

 it was alleged against him that he was a man of so violent a 

 temper that even the tax-gatherers paid his taxes for him out of 

 their own pockets rather than apply to him for the amounts when 

 due. There was also part of a list of French prisoners with 

 certain details for their detention under a commissary in Bodmin. 

 It seems that such prisoners, some of whom were officers of good 

 education, were allowed a certain freedom on parole, and it has 

 struck me that a prisoner of this description, attached perhaps 

 to some depot in Devon, may have cut the inscription in Oke- 

 hampton Oastle which has been regarded as a mystery. When 

 I saw that inscription, thirty-two years ago, on the piscina of 

 the ruined chapel, it appeared to be " Hie V [&c] fuit captivus 

 belli, 1809." in plain mixed letters, not antique in style. A 

 recent observer states that he reads the figures 1509. I cannot 

 decide as to the correctness of this, without renewed inspection, 

 and merely suggest that the letters if originally 1809, may have 

 been altered by being re-cut deeper. 



Again, with regard to records, it will perhaps be allowed 

 for me here to refer to glimpses which the old Parish Eegisters 

 sometimes afford of the excitements prevailing at particular times. 

 It is well-known, for instance, that at Lostwithiel, during the 

 great Rebellion, Cromwell's troops on a certain occasion occupied 

 the church and baptised an old horse Charles in derision of the 

 king, and they also vainly tried to shoot, or smoke-out, some 

 royalists who had taken refuge in the tower. It is therefore 

 not to be wondered at if we find the registers incomplete at 

 about that period, and we may reasonably expect to find some 

 allusions to recent and current events interpolated amidst more 

 regular entries in the books of neighbouring parishes. The 

 Lanlivery Eegister supplies us with something of this kind. A 

 poetical attempt on the part of the Eoyalist Vicar ( Wm. Collyer ?) 

 therein appears, indicating his dismay at the king's violent death 

 and at the rule of his foes, also his hope of better things under 

 a restoration of monarchy. Some portions of the parchment have 

 perished, consequently the words commencing the first few lines 



