of the prisoners taken in the action averred, "that he was confident Mr. Hampden was hurt, for he saw him ride off the field before the action was done, which he never used to do, with his head hanging down, and resting his hands upon the neck of his horse." The intelligence was soon confirmed, and the rejoicings on that occasion were greater than those for the victory. It is believed that on receiving his wound he repaired to Watlington (in the neighbourhood of which town resided his wife's father.) He was afterwards conveyed to Thame, where he lingered in great agony for nearly three weeks, and then died.

"Many men," says Lord Clarendon," observed, that the field on which the late skirmish was, and upon which Mr. Hampden received his death wound, was the same place in which he had first executed the ordinance of the militia, and engaged that county, in which his reputation was very great, in this rebellion; and it was confessed by the prisoners, and acknowledged by all, that upon the alarm that morning, after their quarters were beaten up, he was exceeding solicitous to draw forces together to pursue the enemy; and, being a colonel of foot, put himself among those horse as a volunteer who were first ready; and that, when the prince made a stand, all the officers were of opinion to stay till their body came up, and he alone (being second to none but the general himself in the observance and application of all men,) persuaded and prevailed with them to advance; so violently did his fate carry him to pay the mulct in the place where he had committed the transgression about a year before."

The most important events in the political life of this eminent man are too well known to need formal repetition; but it is impossible to contemplate the last scene of activity in which he was engaged, without entering into some sort of Biographical Enquiry.

The family of Hampden are supposed to have been originally Saxon, and they were seated for several centuries in Buckinghamshire, where their possessions were extensive. According to the extract already given from A. Wood, it appears likely

that

that John Hampden received the rudiments of education at Thame School; after which he went to Oxford. On quitting the University he removed to one of the Inns of Court; but devoted his time rather to revelry and pleasure than to the study of the law. A sudden change was effected in his mode of life by the growing fanaticism of the age. He restricted his familiar conversation to those who thought gloom a virtue, and termed innocent indulgence, licence; but his natural cheerfulness was not to be conquered, and he retained, under all circumstances, a most agreeable vivacity of manner, and an undeviating affability of deportment.

He sat in Parliament while young, and shewed wisdom by declining to enter actively on the senatorial stage during periods of inexperience. He first attracted the notice of the public by refusing to accede to the illegal demand for Ship Money.* In this refusal he was not singular. Many persons as obstinately resisted the imposition as himself. Suits were instituted against all the refractory parties by the Crown officers. The Lord Say, a vehement oppugner of the measure, openly requested that proceedings might be enforced against him; but the Court selected Hampden, and it was determined that his cause should be first heard and argued, on the result of which all other suits should depend. The issue is well known; and from this accident of selection" the eyes of all men," to use the words of Lord Clarendon," were fixed on Hampden, as their Patriæ Pater."

The public attention was never more judiciously directed. He was calculated, by the natural graces of suavity, to win an easy approach to the heart. He had acquired the art of impenetrably

A writ was directed to the different sheriffs, ordering them to provide a ship of war for the king's service; but with the writ were forwarded instruc tions that, instead of a ship, the sheriffs should levy on their respective counties a certain sum of money, to be returned to the treasurer of the navy for his Majesty's use. The sum of two hundred thousand pounds was annually placed in the king's coffers by this tax, for about four years.

penetrably disguising his motives and purposes, and had the skill of infusing his own opinions while he never committed himself by a verbal acquiescence in the sentiments of others. His regulation of temper was so entire, that he cherished apparent humility in the midst of popular exaltation. He was eloquent, active, and enterprising.

Between the period of his first introduction to notice, and that of the open rupture between the king and the Parliament, he said little in public; but appears to have been deeply and busily at work. With him are supposed to have originated many of those strenuous measures which led to so great a tempest in the state; but he made more noisy men his tools, and seemed to reserve himself and the full declaration of his powers for some crisis worthy the energy of a master-genius...¦

After the king accused him in the House of Commons of High Treason, his nature acquired a novel fierceness; " and certainly," says Lord Clarendon," when he drew the sword he threw away the scabbard."

He entered on the civil contest as a colonel of foot, at the head of men attached to his person as well as to his principles, and was engaged against the royal forces at Brill, in Buckinghamshire, and at Edge-Hill.

Hampden is a favourite character with historians and poets; and in some respects he is deservedly so. There appears ho room to call the purity of his intentions in question.” Lord Clarendon insinuates that he might, at any rate, have been restrained from endeavours" to subvert the royal building, if he had been placed as a principal pillar of it;" but Clarendon does not wish to infer that favour from the Crown, even at the earliest part of national disagreement, would have been likely to lead him into any acquiescence, contrary to the dictates of his conscience."

All Hampden's expansive good-sense and constitutional vivacity do not appear to have preserved him from puritanical infection. He was one of those who wished episcopacy destroyed both root

and

and branch, and he was as familiar as his kinsman Cromwell with the pseudo-religious jargon of the age.

*

According to the character drawn by Clarendon his talents were truly great. But it may be observed, that the assertion of this honest chronicler" is Hampden's surest passport to the admiration of posterity, in regard to mental powers. His adroitness was of the silent nature, that depends for repute on contemporary observation. If Clarendon, and other writers of that era, had not informed us that he possessed such stupendous resources of mind, we should not have discovered it in the register of his actions.

His personal courage was undaunted, and worthy of the noble cause in which he was engaged; for we are warranted in believing that patriotism of the purest description induced him to unsheathe his sword. Courage is the only military virtue that he had an opportunity of exhibiting. He died when he was young in arms. It is evident that he had not learned the prudence necessary for a station of high command. )

"

The hour in which Hampden performed the last act of sacrifice at the altar of liberty was in every shape unpropitious to his glory. He rushed forwards at the head of an ill-organized band, and had not even the satisfaction of losing in the shades of death the view of that defeat which his rashness had provoked. He was constrained by mortal suffering to leave the field; and he lingered for weeks, among perishing friends, the prey of all the weaknesses to which nature is subject in progressive dissolution.

The spot on which the battle of Chalgrove was fought has undergone

A young Welshman, named Griffith, "of no parts, or reputation, but for eminent licence," endeavoured to make a profit of court favour, and solicited an appointment from the queen. On meeting with a refusal he joined the popular party, and became vehement in professions of patriotism. "I saw Mr. Hampden," says Lord Clarendon," shortly after this discovery take Griffith in his arms, telling him his soul rejoiced to see that God had put it into his heart to take the right way,"

dergone little alteration. The soil is deep and heavy. The lane through which Prince Rupert retreated is narrow, and points a little to the north of Chistlehampton. Many memorials of the

contest are occasionally turned up by the plough.*

Near Chalgrove is HASELY, a parish of some extent, composed, according to an ancient division, of four parts; Great Hasely, the two small hamlets of Little Hasely and Latchford, and the Barony of Ricot.

The name of this parish seems compounded of the Saxon Hasle, and the British Ley; signifying a wild uncultivated spot, overrun with hazels, or nut-trees. Great Hasely, from Milo Crispin, to whom it was given by the Conqueror, came to the Bassets, some of which family were afterwards Barons of Headington, in this county, and of Wycombe, in Bucks. The manor, (with those of Kirtlington, Ascot, and Pirton,) passed to the son-in-law of the last of the Bassets, Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. On the death of one of the Bigods without issue, in the reign of Edward I. the manor reverted to the Crown, and was by Edward bestowed on Thomas De Brotherton, his fifth son; but the first by his second Queen, Margaret. After various transmissions it became vested in the Pipards †, which family constructed a spacious manor place near the church. The male line of the Pipards being quite worn out, Edward IV. in the twenty-second year of his reign, bestowed the manor place, with the patronage of the rectory, on the dean and canons of Windsor; but the manorial rights passed to the family of Lenthal, in consequence of a marriage with a female of the Pipards. By the Lenthals the manor was sold to Sir John Cutler, Bart. well known for his encouragement of science, and one of the original members of the

Royal

• One of these is in the possession of an innkeeper at Watlington;—a dirk with a three-edged blade, the handle bound with horse-bair. Among the articles found are Hatchets, which had probably been prepared by Prince Rupert's party for the contingencies of their nocturnal excursion.

+ It was obtained by the Pipards at the death of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester.