alone knows whereunto he at first directs his expedition, and his strength is thus kept together. When news reached London that William had landed at Torbay, the royal forces were widely scattered, for it was the North that had seemed threatened. Many were in Yorkshire, others in Portsmouth; the Scotch at Carlisle, and the Irish in Chester. When troops were mustered, and some left behind in London, James directed his course to Salisbury, where he arrived on the 19th November. It is not necessary here to recapitulate the incidents of treachery and desertion, among the leaders in the army, whose fidelity the King had hitherto trusted: Cornbury, Churchill, and the rest. It was a dark business, one that sullies with meanness, hypocrisy, and corruption, the character of the so-called "Glorious Revolution;" making it by no means glorious or reputable. There cannot be any doubt that James found himself paralysed by the continual desertions and falsehoods. Therefore, instead of giving battle, as he had intended, while believing that his army was faithful, he returned to London hastily. William then advanced to Salisbury, where fresh supporters joined him. Events pressed on so swiftly, that on the 6th of December he was at Hungerford, awaiting the Commissioners; on the 10th the Queen with the infant Prince of Wales escaped to France; a few hours later James himself quitted Whitehall in disguise, and by the 23rd had crossed the Channel to Ambleteuse, thence retiring to Saint-Germains. His quitting England was a fatal mistake; only to be understood when we remember the confusion into which he was thrown by the almost universal treachery and ingratitude of all whom he had befriended. As King Lear says: "Nothing could have subdued nature to such a lowness but his unkind daughters." Betrayed thus, whom could he trust? He knew not, and therefore filed. A few pages later (373-6) we meet the account of "The Reading Skirmish," an event of December 9th, 1688. It is useful, as showing the hatred already felt against the wild Irish troops, all Roman-Catholics; whom the London citizens also feared might be let loose against them. Our present introduction serves, in an especial manner, to lead up to the "Reading Skirmish" of Bagford Coll., ii. 101. Two other ballads may be here briefly referred to, as describing the gathering of defenders for William. One of these1 is 1 It is to the tune of Tom D'Urfey's Scotch Virago, beginning "Valiant Jockey's marched away; which was sung to Queen Mary at Kensington, in 1689 and is in Roxb. Coll., ii. 357: there called "The Maiden Warrier.' entitled "The City and Country's Loyalty... in defence of Roxb. Coll., ii. 56. The other is closely connected with the same district and date as our present Bagford ballad. Two copies are found in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 136, and 137, entitled "The Devonshire Boys Courage and Loyalty to their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY: in defending their Country from the Invasion of the French. To an excellent new Tune call'd, The Devonshire Boys Delight'; or, The Liggan [Logan] Waters,' &c." The ballad commences: Brave Devonshire Boys, made haste away, The ballad, as also our own immediately following, refers to Tourville, after the Battle of Beachy Head, landing at Torbay on the 22nd July, 1690. The beacons around Teignmouth (the “Tinmouth" of lines quoted) speedily spread the news of this French invasion. Mounted messengers assisted so well that "early next morning five hundred gentlemen and yeomen, armed and mounted, had assembled on the summit of Haldon Hill. In twenty-four hours all Devonshire was up." Tourville, disappointed in thus meeting opposition, where he had rashly counted on adherents flocking to the standard of James, cannonaded Teignmouth, captured, and burned great part of it, and many of the fishing-smacks in the river. The deed excited universal indignation. By these outrages worse injury was done to the Jacobite cause than to the men of Devonshire, who were now aroused to arms. Tourville re-embarked without attempting more. His scanty service was remembered against him, and caused him to be afterwards rash and unsuccessful (see pp. 280, 281, and 118). The two ballads chronicle what was truly an enthusiastic and patriotic rising of the Devonshire men against invasion. Erroneously to take them as referring only to 1688 would be to exaggerate alike the unanimity and the readiness of the country 1 These two copies have the woodcut of soldiers marching (as on our pages 313, 326), and both are printed at back of "The Devonshire Damsels_Frollick," beginning" Tom and William, with Ned and Ben:" which is reprinted in Choyce Drollery, &c., 1876, p. 342. Roxb. Coll., ii. 56 has the same cut. people to rally around William as the Protestant Defender. His plans, indeed, had been well laid, at that earlier time: as in the solemn thanksgiving immediately after landing at Torbay, and the obtrusive religious formalities in the Cathedral at Exeter (where Gilbert Burnet was bustling and encroaching, more suo, while the resident clergy were timid and powerless). All these were calculated to favourably impress a nation not very quickwitted to detect intriguing ambition, so long as it is cloaked by an affectation of Puritanical sanctity. Although there are references throughout the ballad to the earlier invasion, and success, of 1688, we doubt not that it properly belongs to the later date of August or September, 1690; after the demonstration against Tourville with his troops, when they had landed at Torbay, and destroyed Teignmouth. The two following notes are referred to on our page 366. The Duke of Marlborough's treachery towards King James had not possessed the small extenuation of having been forced on him by the instinct of self-preservation, under unjust suspicion; for James was singularly blind to the duplicity of his followers, until they had actually completed their betrayal and desertion. Such faithless commanders could not plead, with Joseph Surface in regard to wives who are suspected by a jealous husband, that, on a groundless withdrawal of confidence," the original compact is broken, and she owes it to the honour of her sex to endeavour to outwit him." But, as Lady Teazle remonstrated, "Don't you think we may as well leave honour out of the argument?"—and also the being "true and loyal" from connexion with Marlborough's name. The only vestige of loyalty displayed by him was in his declining to march against his old master, before the Battle of the Boyne, during June, 1690; which refusal may, quite as probably, have proceeded from a distrust of William's future success, and a consequent unwillingness to irretrievably commit himself by fighting against James in person. So soon as the issue was decided, and James had fled from Ireland, Marlborough showed himself zealous to fight against the French and Irish. He advocated the very expedition against Cork and Kinsale which he (despite William's endeavour to deprive him of the credit of sole-command) brought so rapidly to a successful end on the 29th September, 1690. It is this zeal which is referred to in line 21 of the ballad. After this brief and brilliant campaign, of thirty-seven days, Marlborough returned to Kensington by the 28th October. t+t Id est, Bristol. Seyer, in his Hist. of Bristol, enumerates 47 variations of spelling in the name, such as Bristuit and Bricstow. Bristow, or Bristowe, is the name commonly used in old ballads, as in one entitled "The Marchant's Daughter of Bristow," licensed 1594-5, beginning, "Behold the touchstone of true love, Maudlin the Marchants daughter of Bristow towne." Printed at London for William Blackwall (Huth Collection), before 1600. Spelt similarly in "More Strange Newes," 1607. But in "The Angel Gabriel" ballad, beginning "Here's joyful newes come late from sea" (Bagf. Coll., ii. 88; much later than our own copy, which is printed for T. Vere, at the sign of the Angel without Newgate), it is "The Honour of Bristol." [Bagford Collection, II. 100.] The Couragious Soldiers of the West; THe martial Drum no sooner did beat thorough each Western City and Town, Souldiers was rais'd, who flock'd in amain, 4 illiam and Mary, 8 who'll valiantly fight their rights to maintain. Now to maintain the Protestant cause, For our lives, religion and laws, Romans shall never reign in this Land; 12 At the famous town of Reading, hundreds came in to add to the train, S[t]out Lads brisk and airy, for William and Mary, There's not a Land in Christendom, that can afford men freer to fight; Newberry boys, at hearing the Drum, readily came with valour and [might].1 Marlborough both true and loyal,2 Stout Lads brisk and airy, for William and Mary, now with the rest did add to the Train, they'll valiantly fight their rights to maintain. Bridgewater boys I needs must commend, Parents and Wife, nay every Friend 16 20 24 they recommend to Heavens great care; Bristow true hearts was void of all fears, Tho' the young Lasses shed many tears, for their Sweet-hearts whom they did adore; 36 Yet no Damsel could perswade them; Stout Lads brisk and airy, for William and Mary, As for the Town of brave Taunton-dean,5 For our most gracious King and his Queen, 1 The word "might" is torn away, but still recognizable. 3 See note t+t on p. 364. 40 44 Torn and defective; but partly decipherable. 5 Taunton-dean was a favourite name in West-country ballads, e.g. 1-" Go, vind the Parson o' Taunton-Dean," entitled "The Somersetshire Clown;" which is by Tom D'Urfey, and in Merry Musician, i. 23. 2-" In Taunton Dean che were bore and bred," another "Somersetshire Song" (in Merry Musician, i. 305). 3-" On New Year's Day." |