Lady Whorwood her House in Holton, 15th June 1646.—Alban Eales, Rector.’[1]
Treton, we are to remark, was one of Fairfax’s Commissioners on the Treaty for surrendering Oxford, and busy under the walls there at present: Holton is some five miles east of the City; Holton House we guess by various indications to have been Fairfax’s own quarter. Dell, already and afterwards well known, was the General’s Chaplain at this date. Of ‘the Lady Whorwood’ I have traces, rather in the Royalist direction; her strong moated House, very useful to Fairfax in those weeks, still stands conspicuous in that region, though now under new figure and ownership; drawbridge become fixed, deep ditch now dry, moated island changed into a flower-garden;—‘rebuilt in 1807.’ Fairfax’s Lines, we observe, extended ‘from Headington Hill to Marston,’ several miles in advance of Holton House, then ‘from Marston across the Cherwell, and over from that to the Isis on the North side of the City’; southward and elsewhere, the besieged, ‘by a dam at St. Clement’s Bridge, had laid the country all under water’:[2]—in such scene, with the treaty just ending and general Peace like to follow, did Ireton welcome his Bride,—a brave young damsel of twenty-one; escorted, doubtless by her Father among others, to the Lord General’s house; and there, by the Rev. Mr. Dell, solemnly handed over to new destinies!
This wedding was on Monday 15th June; on Saturday came the final signing of the treaty: and directly thereupon, on Monday next, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice took the road, with their attendants, and their passes to the sea-coast; a sight for the curious. On Tuesday ‘there went about 300 persons, mostly of quality’; and on Wednesday all the Royalist
- ↑ Parish Register of Holton (copied, Oct. 1846). Poor Noble (i. 134) seems to have copied this same Register, and to have misread his own Note: giving instead of Holton Nalton, an imaginary place; and instead of June January, an impossible date. See antea, p. 70; postea, Letter XLI. p 25.
- ↑ Rushworth, vi. 279-285.
