men, most dazzled with such, whether it be friend or foe; and, in truth, none ever made their exit from this life in more Christian or gallant fashion.

And thus died mine only son, on the 30th day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1651, dutiful and loving, at the early age of sixteen, and not quite the fourth of another year, leaving in mine heart no sorrow save that of his loss in such early spring; also that the place of his rest is beneath the unquiet waters.

Yet esteeming the great and wide sea, and its boisterousness, above the peacefulness of land, after tasting well of it, perchance his rest is sweeter beneath its rolling waters than it might have been under the green turf and the ancient yew-tree in God's-acre here. And surely now is there nought betwixt him and the blue heaven save the waves he took such delight in; and when there shall be no more sea, then shall there be nought to hide the full outpouring of the Saviour's splendour, and he will no longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face.

To which sea of love may the flood of His pity bring my dear lord, Ellinor, my sweet child, and mine own poor self, washed clean from all sin, and murmuring, and impatience, by His own indulgent tenderness, who will then fetch home the lost sheep, and heal the broken heart, and wipe away all tears from off all faces! Amen.

NOTES.

P. 2. Lower Gwersylt, in the Parish of Gresford, came into the Shakerley family by marriage. The yew-trees in All Saints' Churchyard, Gresford, are very remarkable. One of them is larger than any other yew in England.

Colonel Robinson, of Upper Gwersylt, was nearly hanged by the Rebels, on one of his own oaks, but the sudden arrival of a party of Cavaliers saved him. The old tree used to be shown in Gwersylt Park. His monument is in All Saints' Church, Gresford.

P. 25. I have enlarged the account of the Plague at Malpas in Ormerod, taken from the Parish Register in Malpas Church.

P. 36. The ring, taken from Sir Edmund Verney's hand after the Battle of Edgehill, is now in possession of Sir Harry Verney, Bart., as well as the small locket worn by Royalists after the execution of King Charles. They were in the Loan Room of the South Kensington Museum.

P. 73. The lines on a quiet conscience have not been published before. They are in a MS. book of Dame Anne Rich, 1654, by King Charles, kindly copied for me by Miss Tollemache, of Dorfold Hall, with the permission of her aunt, Lady Rich.

P. 111. Beeston Castle was really taken by nine Royalists, as here stated. In Burke's Peerage the exploit is ascribed to Sir Charles Compton. In Ormerod's History of Cheshire, to Captain Sandford.

P. 147. Mr. Warburton, in his memoirs of Prince Rupert, copying from Heath's Chronicle, says that the letter written by his enemy, Lord Digby, which brought on the Battle of Marston Moor, 'Prince Rupert carried about him to his dying day.' Surely it was a grand trait in his fiery character never to produce it! He bore all the blame his enemies could heap on him, rather than throw it from himself on his unhappy King.

P. 201. The banner of the second Lord Brereton was hanging in Brereton Church twenty years ago, but has now disappeared. His coat of mail fell to pieces within the last few years, on being moved to make way for a new organ. There still remain in Brereton Church the helmet, collar, gauntlets, and spurs of this noble Cavalier. This was told me by the Rev. E. Royds, the present Rector of Brereton.

P. 208. Sir Geoffrey Shakerley crossed the Dee in the manner described during the Battle of Rowton Moor.

P. 243. The letter of Lord Derby to Cromwell was found among Bradshaw the Regicide's papers, now in possession of the Queen, and is printed in Collins' Peerage.

P. 247. The letter from King Charles I. to Sir Rowland Egerton, is inserted by permission of Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart.

P. 288. There are two errors in the dates. The death of the two sons of Mr. Wilbraham and their mother did not take place till 1675 and 1676. The account is copied from Mr. Wilbraham's MS. Diary, by permission of Lord Skelmersdale. And the imprisoning of the Baron of Sir