FARNHAM HUNDRED 



already in royalist hands, as is further implied 

 by the 'fuerunt' of the safe-conduct. A pic- 

 turesque incident of the Barons' Wars of 

 Henry III.'s time is placed at Farnham. Nicholas 

 Trivet and Rishanger tell the story of Adam de 

 Gurdun, an outlawed adherent of the defeated 

 barons, maintaining himself at Farnham Castle, 

 after the battle of Evesham, and controlling the 

 road from Alton to Farnham, till he was surprised 

 by treachery in Alton Wood and overcome in 

 single combat by Edward, the king's son, and 

 then received into his service.' 

 The army of Simon de Montfort in 1 263 probably 

 ~ passed through Farnham when hurrying from the 

 west to seize Dover, and certainly the Cornish 

 insurgents marched through it in 1497 on their 

 way from Winchester to Guildford. 



Farnham became the scene of fighting early in the 

 Ovil War. Its position on the road from London 

 to the south-west made it of some importance, 

 which was increased when after the battle of Edge- 

 hill the king had occupied Oxford and begun an 

 advance upon London. On 14 October George 

 Wither, a gentleman of Hampshire, was given the 

 command of the garrison. If it had been in the 

 hands of a soldier we should know little about it ; 

 but Wither was a literary man, fully persuaded that 

 he was a powerful moral force in the country, and 

 that anything in which he was himself concerned 

 was of the greatest importance. He used to be a 

 respectable lyric poet, and had he written nothing 

 except Fidelia, and The Shepherd's Hunting, which 

 he composed in the Marshalsea when imprisoned 

 for writing a satire, he would be remembered 

 with honour. But he would be a. moralist, in 

 dreary and conceited verse, such as Britain's Re- 

 mevihrancer, published in 1628, and he now ex- 

 changed this ill-executed function for the worse 

 executed place of commander of a garrison, fol- 

 lowing up this as a still worse pamphleteer 

 in defence of his own conduct, and in attack 

 upon Sir Richard Onslow, the chief supporter of 

 the Parliamentary cause in Surrey — an attack 

 which landed him in prison again. Wither's two 

 productions, Se Dejendendo,'' published in 1643, 

 and Justitiarius Justificatus, published in 1646, 

 which the Commons ordered to be burnt by the 

 hangman in Guildford as a libel on Sir Richard, 



FARNHAM 



describe the state of the garrison as deplorably 

 weak. The town was royalist, and the neighbouring 

 gentry are described as the same almost universally, 

 which ^yas doubtfully true, and Sir Richard Onslow 

 as a traitor to the Parliament, which was certainly 

 false. Wither seems to have occupied the whole 

 castle within the great ditch and the enceinte wall. 

 He had two squadrons, weak and ill-armed, some 

 irresolute volunteers whom he did not trust, only 

 60 muskets, and a deficiency of ammunition, tools 

 and all necessaries. He wished for an engineer 

 ofiicer, and for artillery, for more men, and for 

 means of bringing over a large store of provisions 

 and of beasts which lay at his own house four miles 

 away. There was no stabling within the walls, as 

 there had been a fire in the stables on the occasion 

 of one of King James' visits. He proceeded to 

 build stables, to try and dig a well, to make a 

 drawbridge, sally-port, platforms, palisades and 

 counterscarp; but was hampered for want of 

 spades and pickaxes. The only reason which he 

 could imagine for the enemy not falling upon him, 

 was their persuasion that he had too much wit to 

 defend an untenable place. The explanation that 

 there was no enemy within miles does not occur 

 to him. He plied Onslow with unreasonable re- 

 quests for stores which were not in existence. 

 At last, when the royalist cavalry were on the 

 borders of Surrey, Wither left his garrison and 

 went up to London to get what he wanted. He 

 got an order from the Parliament for demi- 

 culverins from the Tower, on 7 November, but on 

 the following day the news of Rupert's advance 

 caused the order to be rescinded, and though 

 Wither asked for drakes, or light artillery instead, 

 which he thought he could convey safely through 

 by-roads, he was told that the fortress must be 

 abandoned. He then really distinguished himself. 

 Alone, and well mounted, he rode down to his own 

 house, braving the chance of capture by Rupert's 

 cavalry. A body of royalists were said to be close 

 by at Hartley Row, but he collected carts and 

 horses on his own property near Alton, took them 

 into Farnham, and carried off safely what stores 

 and men he had through Farnham Park, so as to 

 avoid the malignant town, and conveyed them in 

 safety to Kingston.^ The royalists took possession 

 of the castle, and Sir John Denham, another poet. 



' The story became the theme of 

 a well known ballad. T. Wykes adds 

 the date as Whitsuntide I z66. There 

 is some difficulty about the story. 

 Adam de Gurdun was in right of his 

 wife keeper of Woolmer and Alice Holt 

 forests. He was on the baronial side, 

 and was made keeper of Lundy Island 

 by the king on 15 June 1265, when 

 the king was still in Montfort's hands. 

 But on 2 April 1266 he had a safe con- 

 duct to come and treat for his peace, 

 to last till Whitsuntide, granted at the 

 instance of Henry of Almaine. Ac- 

 cording to Wykes, again, he was a 

 prisoner in chains at Windsor, soon 

 after Whitsuntide, and certainly he was 

 still a prisoner in January 1267. He 



was afterwards received into favour, 

 and had his old post as keeper of the 

 Hampshire forests near Farnham. 

 Gurdun's capture and treatment by 

 Edward seem apocryphal, as the king 

 was in the Midlands over Whitsuntide. 

 Gurdun*8 name was well known about 

 Farnham, and may have been associated 

 by legend with some resistance there 

 {Genealojfist, N.S. vol. iv. * Adam de 

 Gurdun '), but we may admit that the 

 Waverley Annals give a possible ex- 

 planation. That annalist, who was 

 certainly near the spot, says very posi- 

 tively that Adam de Gurdun was taken 

 in Alton Wood on the Thursday after 

 Whitsuntide. His safe-conduct had 

 expired, and he was taken immediately 



603 



afterwards. Only Edward's personal 

 share in his capture and his immediate 

 generous treatment aeem to be legendary. 

 A band of outlaws may have gathered 

 in the woods, and may have been dis- 

 persed by Edward ; but Adam de Gurdun 

 remained for a long time in prison, and 

 was not released at Edward's instance. 



' B. M. King's Pamphlets, 14, 7, 13. 



8 Wither's order for cannon was 

 rescinded on the day on which Rupert 

 entered Surrey {Se Defeneiendo). Rupert 

 came to Egham from Windsor on 8 

 Nov., and Wither's ride was on the 

 night of the 8-9, therefore he evacuated 

 Farnham on the next night. Kingston 

 was evacuated by Ramsay, the Parlia- 

 mentary commander, on the 12th, 



