General History of Bath. 6 1 



tablishing himself at Wells, an unwalled and defenceless town. 



The Horners of Mells, and the Pophams, who were 

 amongst the few Somerset gentry who sided with the Parlia- 

 ment, raised forces and pursued the Royalists. The trained 

 bands deserted to them, and Hertford was driven to Somer- 

 ton and Sherborne, and afterwards retreated into Wales. 



Colonel Popham and Colonel Stroud, who thus gained the 

 ascendancy of the county, occupied Bath, and were in turn 

 made much of by the Corporation. 



The command of the Parliamentary forces in the West 

 was entrusted to a gentleman well known in Bath, Sir 

 William Waller. His first wife, the daughter of Sir Richard 

 Reynell, had died in the city, and he erected a handsome 

 monument to her memory in the Abbey, and entrusted 

 the Corporation with funds for its repair and maintenance. 

 The citizens rejoiced that Waller made Bath his head- 

 quarters, and not only gave him complimentary presents, 

 but afforded assistance to him in establishing his stores of 

 ammunition in the Guildhall. They had still to discover 

 what a military occupation implied. 



In the summer of 1643 the King's forces were divided. 

 One army was with His Majesty at Oxford, the other, under 

 Sir Beville Grenville, flushed with its victory at Stratton, 

 was marching from the West. It was the object of these 

 two armies to effect a junction. The purpose of Waller, 

 whose forces had been reinforced by the fugitives from 

 Stratton, was to keep them apart. 



After some skirmishing in the Claverton 



Battle of valley,* the Royalists took up their quarters 



ans own. ^^ Marshfield, whilst Waller took strong 



ground on the opposing declivity of Lansdown, (near the 



* See Index, Claverton. 



