Free John Aubrey: My Own Life by Ruth Scurr

to the King.
    . . .
    Anno 1644
    January
    The King has set up a new Parliament in Oxford for the conduct of the war. He has summoned the members from London to assemble in Christ Church Hall. Most of the House of Lords and about a third of the House of Commons have heeded his summons.
    . . .
    Anthony Hungerford, Member of Parliament for Malmesbury, obeyed the King’s summons to attend the Oxford Parliament in December. As a consequence, the London Parliament has fined him, disabled him and appointed a new member for Malmesbury: Sir John Danvers, my honoured kinsman on my mother’s side.
    . . .
    March
    Sir Francis Dodington has blown up part of Wardour Castle in Dorset, the seat of Lord Henry Arundel, whose father died in Oxford of battle wounds last year. Edmund Ludlow’s garrison of Parliamentarian forces held Wardour Castle this past year, but soldiers loyal to the King, led by Dodington and Arundel, laid siege last December. Now it is surrendered, damaged irreparably, to its rightful owner. It will never be used as a fortress again.
    I rode over 8 to see the ruins of Wardour Castle the day after the explosion. The mortar it was built with is so good that one of the little towers reclining on one side still hangs together and has not fallen to pieces.
    . . .
    Anno 1645
    January
    Parliament directed the Committee of Both Kingdoms, which oversees the conduct of the war, to review its forces. The result is the establishment of a new-modelled army, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax.
    . . .
    The King’s forces have garrisoned Faringdon House. All the small towns on the main roads through Berkshire – Wallingford, Abingdon, Faringdon, Wantage, Newbury, Hungerford, etc. – have seen either the King’s soldiers or the Parliament’s riding in with their troops.
    . . .
    The Parliament’s soldiers 9 are destroying the ancient monuments, which they consider idolatrous.
    . . .
    2 May
    On this day 10 Dr George Bathurst, brother of my friend Dr Ralph Bathurst, was killed in the Battle of Faringdon fighting for the King. He was one of thirteen sons and like a step-grandson to Ralph Kettell.
    . . .
    Mr William Browne writes 11 to me from Oxford. He believes it a mistake to suppose that the University can preserve its privileges if the State perishes.
    The King’s soldiers have been defeated at Abingdon this month, despite the King’s instructions that it be held at all costs. Oxford is threatened now. My friends there are afraid.
    . . .
    14 June
    On this day, in a battle at Naseby, the King’s army was all but destroyed by the Parliament’s new-modelled army.
    . . .
    The fine high steeple at Calne, which stood upon four pillars in the middle of the church, has collapsed. One of the pillars was faulty, and the churchwardens were dilatory, as is usual in such cases. Mr Chivers of that parish foresaw this but he could not prevent it, and brought down Mr Inigo Jones to survey the steeple. This was in about 1639 or 1640: he gave him 30 li. out of his own purse for his pains. Mr Jones would have underbuilt the steeple for 100 li. But it fell down on Saturday, and brought the chancel with it too; the parish will be charged 1,000 li. to make a new heavy tower. I fear the same fate will befall our steeple at Kington St Michael. It is impossible to persuade the parishioners to go out of their own way to invest in such repairs before it is too late.
    When I was a boy 12 I was told that the figures in the south aisle window of Kington St Michael church were King Ethelred and his Queen. Since then I have looked in the Legier Book of Glastonbury and found that they gave the manor of Kington and Langley to the abbey, so I think what I was told must be true since it was a common fashion in those days to place in the windows the effigies of pious benefactors to inspire others.

    . . .
    There is a church 13 in Salisbury – St Edmund’s – that had curious painted glass windows, especially in the chancel. One of the windows (I think the