Yet they rise in the West, &c.

That this designe was framed, brought to a ripeness, could not be but with a correspondency betwixt the bulke and body of this party. The pretended kinge would not have put himself in the face, &c., nor those he sent hither

They kept their meetings aparte.

These

The tyme when this attempt was made well with forein states. The designes of the army broken, and those at the helme awake and aware. things must be the fruit of a generall consent.

These thinges which were in fact, wee had as good proofe as thinges of this nature will permitt; and after all this and this rebellion supprest, wee had new evidence that they were at worke againe.

This was the matter of fact; these were some of those grounds, which made his highness believe, that the whole party were infected.

He saw by this, what measure to take of their affections, and what was to be expected from them.

Some in the last Parliament did thinke them a very inconsderable number or company of people, without armes, that were scarce need of any army. It appeared otherwise. His highness saw a necessity of raising more force, and in every county, who might be ready upon all occasion, unlesse he would give up his cause to the enemy, and leave us all and the whole kingdom exposed to their rage and malice.

This additional strength must draw with it an additional charge. Who must bear this? must the .well affected? what soe just as to put the charge upon those whoe are the occasion of it? This is the ground of the decimation.

The question is not, whether they shall be confiscated, or their lands taken, but whether they shall not be made to pay for the support of that force, which is raised to keep them quiet. And I think the act of oblivion is nothing to the question.

Just jealousie and suspition is enough to a state to do more than this; or otherwise they were without the means of their own safetie.

That there hath beene a just ground of jealousie it's more than evident.
Why to be continued to the future?

Upon the same grounds it was set.

They discovered by their last insurrection, and what hath been sayd about it, what their intentions are, they are implacable in their malice; that noe act of grace or moderation will winne them; that they are men of another interest, which they can noe more cease to promote then to live.

Besides, they are now joyned in with a foreigne prince, and thereby the dangers from them is encreased.

The pretended kinge hath undertaken with the Spaniard, that his whole partye shall rise upon the first appearance; and they are now preparing themselves with horse and foot for that attempt-this is serteyne.

I think it is necessary for you not only to continue what you have, but to raise more; and I hope wee are not come hither to take of the charge from the kinge's partie, and lay it upon our friends."

It cannot be said after perusing the two last documents, penned by two men probably of all others the best informed-the one in the

John B. Day Lith. 3, Savoy St, Strand, London THE OLD TOWN HALL AT CHARD, SOMERSET.

confidence of Charles, the other the "look-out man" for the Lord Protector-that the Risers in the West had not some solid ground for believing that success would attend them. The Protector's declaration,on the appointment of the Major-Generals, and the raising a force of militia throughout the country, which was published in the following October,1 says they had engaged eight thousand men to rise in the west, and a like number in the north, and more in other districts; their object being to divide the army, which was then quartered near London, and draw it off to distant parts of the country. This reads feasible enough. And though as to the particular action which they eventually took at Salisbury, and the time, it might have been better to have done otherwise, and wiser to have waited till the country at large was more prepared; yet on the other hand, delay in such matters often brings ruin, and we may be sure that their proceedings were hastened by Wagstaff.

Their blood was one of the indirect causes of the Restoration; for the Rising brought out the Major-Generals, whose conduct certainly helped the fulfilment of that event.

Penruddock and Grove and their fellows deserve the high honor which they have ever since received, of having suffered for doing, what they believed to be their duty.

And the world went on its way, and Dorrington of Gray's Inn, wrote to Joshua Williamson, of Queen's College, Oxford, (Penruddock's College), of music for the Act (June, 1655, Commemoration) and ladies to come up for it, and silk stockings and other kindred pleasantries. But we turn aside to look upon the graves of the fallen; and to think of the poor widows who struggled to support the children of those who had died for "a worthy fame."

"Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind,)

To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon which we hope to find,

And think to burst out into sudden blaze,

Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin spun life-But not the praise.

[Milton's Lycidas.]

A copy of this, which was printed by His Highness's printer, will be found in the Parliamentary History, vol. xx., p. 434. It is too lengthy to re-produce Thurloe's notes (given above) no doubt formed the rough draft for it. VOL. XV.-NO. XLVIII.

here.

G

42

On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and
Weather Fallacies.

By the Rev. A. C. SMITH, M.A.

[Read before the Society at Swindon, September, 1873.]

T is not unfrequently remarked by foreigners, and that too with no little amount of ridicule, in speaking of the habits of the British people, that the Englishman's universal salutation to his acquaintance, his first and chief topic of conversation, when he meets his friend, is the weather; its past, or present, or future state.

Now not to mention what a very natural subject, and of what universal interest such a topic at once offers for what is by no means intended as a profound remark or matter for discussion; but only a civil friendly salutation, or an opening for farther conversation; it is worth while to remember of what enormous and general importance the state of the weather really is to us; what a vast difference it makes not only to the comfort and enjoyment, but to the well-being and prosperity of tens of thousands amongst us. For living, as we are, in a sea-girt island, and proverbially visited with a considerable amount of cloud, rain, and vapour in many shapes: 1 subject too, as

This paper which (as read before the Society) chiefly related to the proverbs of Wiltshire, has since been considerably added to, more especially in the direction of illustrating and comparing our County proverbs with those peculiar to other parts of England, and with those of France and Germany. For this I must acknowledge my obligations to a little "Handbook of Weather Lore," by the Rev. C. Swainson (1873): and I am also indebted to Notes and Queries, passim, and various kindred works.

1A Frenchman once asked me at Lyons, seriously, and by no means as a joke, whether it was true that in England we never saw the sun, but were always enveloped in fog, "brouillard, toujours brouillard" as was commonly reported ? I certainly did think that somewhat strong, coming from an inhabitant of Lyons, which, standing between two great rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, is, without any exception, the very foggiest place I have ever seen, and on the five occasions when I have visited it, there was certainly "brouillard, toujours brouillard," in every instance. Could any Frenchman say the same of five visits to London ?