202 Notes on the Manor of Aldbounie. 



Lord Clarendon, in his History, Book 7, states that after the | 

 raising- of the siege of Gloucester, the Earl of Essex proceeded I 

 to Cirencester, and " moved through that deep and enclosed county \ 

 of North Wiltshire, his direct way to London, and that Prince 

 Rupert, with near five thousand horse, marched day and night over 

 the hills to get between London and the enemy before they should 

 be able to get out of those enclosed deep countries in which they j 

 were engaged between narrow lanes, and to entertain them with 

 skirmishes till the whole army should come up. This design, pur- 

 sued and executed with indefatigable pains, succeeded to his wish, 

 for when the van of the enemy's army had almost marched over 

 Awborne Chace, intending that night to have reached Newbury, ( 

 Prince Rupert, beyond their fear or expectation, appeared with a 

 strong body of horse so near them that before they could put them- 

 selves in order to receive them he charged their rear and routed 

 them with good execution, and though the enemy performed the parts 

 of good men, and applied themselves more dexterously to the relief 

 of each other than on so sudden and unlooked-for an occasion was j 

 expected, yet with some difficulty, and the loss of many men, they 

 were glad to shorten their journey, and, the night coming on, took 

 up their quarters at Hunger ford. 



u In this conflict, which was very sharp for an hour or two, many 

 fell of the enemy, and of the King's party none of name but the 

 Marquis of Vieu Ville, a gallant gentleman of the French nation, 

 who had attended the Queen out of Holland and put himself as a 

 volunteer upon this action in the Lord* Jermyn's Regiment. There 

 were hurt many officers, and among those the Lord Jermyn received 

 a shot in his arm, with a pistol, owing the preservation of his life 

 from other shots to the excellent temper of his armour; and the 

 Lord Dig by a strange hurt in the face, a pistol .being discharged at 

 so near a distance upon him that the powder fetched much blood 

 from his face, and for the present blinded him, without further 

 mischief, by which it was concluded that the bullet had dropped out 

 before the pistol was discharged, and may be reckoned among one 

 of those escapes of which that gallant person hath passed a greater 

 number in the course of his life than any man I know." 



