Communicated hy Mr. James Waglen. 



81 



unfriendly to the Parliament. The above, therefore, is not the case 

 of a Royalist compounder ; but as a sufferer in respect of a very 

 interesting- property, Lord Coleraine seems to claim notice. It was 

 in 1641, only a year before the war broke out, that he had purchased 

 the Longford demesne from Edward, the second Lord Gorges, with 

 a covenant that it was free from incumbrance ; but so far was this 

 instrument from representing the facts o£ the case that in a short 

 space of time after his purchase Lord Coleraine had expended 

 £18,000 in suits of law to secure his title, and ultimately Richard, 

 Lord Gorges, voluntarily paid off £2000 of incumbrances, to redeem 

 his own and his father's honour, and also executed a new conveyance. 

 In 1644, when he had been in possession only three years, Lord 

 Coleraine was called upon to surrender his beautiful house into the 

 King's hands, to be used as a garrison. Being very partial to his 

 purchase, and anxious, if possible, to prevent by his presence any 

 wanton injury, he took up his abode at a small house in the neigh- 

 bouring village of Britford, where he long remained the desponding 

 eyewitness of spoliation which he was utterly powerless to check. 

 He saw his vines and other fruit trees torn from the walls, the 

 stables and offices set on fire or levelled to make way for lines of 

 fortification, leaden pipes and cisterns displaced, stone bridges broken, 

 and trees felled ; till, unable any longer to endure the sight, ho 

 petitioned the King for leave to quit the West of England. After 

 the surrender of the castle to Cromwell in 1645, and the levelling 

 of the outworks, there still remained a fear that the fabric itself 

 might be condemned, in order to prevent its future use as a military 

 post ; but by the intercession of Lord Kimbolton, whose sister was 

 the wife of Lord Coleraine, this crowning catastrophe was averted. 

 On re- visiting the spot in 1650 Lord Coleraine found little remaining 

 but the bare walls, dirt, and desolation. But though his losses by 

 the war were estimated at £40,000, he instantly set about the work 

 of restoration, and had in great part recovered the original design 

 when his death occurred, in 1667 ; his son, Henry, Lord Coleraine, 

 still further carrying forward the father's intentions. 



Henry Hawkins, of Chippenham, yeoman. Declares that he 

 was never sequestered nor even questioned for any delinquency; 



VOL. XXIV. — NO. LXX. G 



