of the Isle of Wight. About the same time as they were at Ningwood an orphan boy of the name of Hobson, who it may be inferred was not in any way related to the county family of that name, was apprenticed by the Bonchurch parish officers to a tailor at Niton. There was salt blood in the veins of the lad, who, breaking his indentures, went to sea. He rose through all the grades of the service, becoming a lieutenant in 1672, a captain in 1678, and hoisting his admiral's pennant on board the Breda in 1689, when he was nicknamed by the sailors Admiral Snip.' He was a gallant officer, and in 1792 in his ship Torbay, followed by all the fleet, which had to sustain a terrible fire from the Spanish ships and batteries, he led up the port, breaking the famous boom of the harbour of Vigo on the coast of Galicia in Spain. On returning home from his exploit he was knighted by Queen Anne. He sat for the borough of Newtown in the last three Parliaments of William III and the first of that King's successor.

Hobson is a common name; Mr. Ferguson, in his English Surnames (p. 334), says that 'the old English word for a countryman or clown was "hob." Hence our Hobbs, Hobman, Hobson, Hube, perhaps Hopps, Hopson, Hope, Hopping, Hopkins.' The bearers of this name in the Isle of Wight or elsewhere, who may be descended from the friend of Milton or the brave admiral, may well be proud of their ancestry, since among the men of note belonging to the Island may be reckoned Captain Hobson, husband of the Lady Margaret Ley, and vice-admiral of the Red Sir Thomas Hobson who took Vigo.

June 11, 1887.

Since writing the letter on the intimacy between Milton and the Hobsons, husband and wife, I have had the opportunity of consulting the excellent library of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall, London, where I found Masson's Life of the poet. On searching through that exhaustive biography of John Milton (vol. iii. p. 59), I find that Professor Masson does not supply any definite information about the Isle

of Wight family of Hobsons. He states that Dugdale's 'Hobson of the Isle of Wight,' and Phillip's 'very accomplished gentleman' of that name, was a Parliamentarian. What kind of captaincy he held, Mr. Masson says, is uncertain, and adds, that from his intimacy with the Puritan poet it appears Hobson was domiciled in London in 1643-1644, but he gives no evidence on this point, so that it is just possible that Milton may have visited Captain Hobson and his wife, the Lady Margaret Ley of the well-known sonnet, in the Isle of Wight. Mrs. Hobson, 'daughter of that good earl, once President of England's Council and her Treasury,' is described by Mr. Masson as 'a woman of great wit and ingenuity' from the evidence of her contemporaries.

June 18, 1887.

A LETTER FROM ROBERT DILLINGTON TO SIR JOHN OGLANDER, DECEMBER 3, 1644.

THROUGH the kindness of Major Boulcott, of Grosvenor Lodge, Ryde, I. W., I am enabled to give a copy of a letter, addressed to Sir John Oglander, which Major Boulcott has extracted, with other particulars relating to the Dillington family, from the original documents at Nunwell. The letter has, so far as I am aware, never before been printed, and throws a side light upon an interesting period in the history of our Civil Wars in the seventeenth century, in which the Isle of Wight occupied so prominent a position. The families of Dillington and Oglander were connected by marriage, about which there was a little romance, as appears from the account which Sir John, in his manuscript Memoirs, gives of the life and death' of his father, Sir William Oglander. 'He (Sir W. O.) came into ye Iland, where Mr. Anthonie Dillington, of Knyghton, invitynge him often thither, and usinge of him kindely, he ffell in love with his eldest dawghter, Ann Dillington, as handsome a mayden as any

wase in Hamshye. His unkell, Mr. John Hamond, of Gilford, his mother's brother, woold have matched him to his wyfe's dawghter, which wase afterwards married to Sir Larrance Stoughton, of Stoke, near Gwilford, butt he being before in league with Mistress Ann Dillington, woold not hearken unto itt, whereupon, Mr. Hammonde's wyfe takinge itt ill that her dawghter wase soe slyghted, never left ye old man, her housband, till he disinheryted his ryght heyre, for he had no children of his owne, and by that misfortune Mr. Oglander lost £600 land a yere. But Mr. Oglander, as soone as he wase out of his wardship, married Mistress Dillington, and had with her not above £50.'

This Mistress Oglander was one of the 'three gentlewomen of ffashion and repute, accounted in qualified fittings to kepe companye with my Lady Carye,' and came of a comely sisterhood. Sir John, her son, says 'It is and hath been a taxe layd on this Iland, that it never produced any extraordinary ffayre, handsome woman nor a man of any supereminent gwyftes in witt or wisdom, or a horse excellent. for goodness. I can answer that no part of England in general, the Quantitie considered, hath produced more exquisite in either speties than this Iland, for women, I think, Mr. Anthony Dillington's four daughters.... and many more hardly in a countrye to be equalled.'

The reproach on the Isle of Wight, which Sir John Oglander disdains with such proper spirit, it need hardly be said, is no longer heard, and they who follow the gallant master of the Isle of Wight foxhounds may on any hunting day see for themselves 'fair women' mounted on 'good horses.'

The letterin the Oglander MSS. is endorsed 'R. Dillington's letter, 2nd December, 1644,' and is as follows:

'Noble Sir,

These times are dangerous even for friends to whisper, much less to babble, yet friendly wishes and hearty love are beyond the reach of malicious informers, though you have not frequent salute from me, yet give me the favour to be preserved in your memory. My father is gone to London, one and the same planet is regent over him and you, his

actions traduced, and his good indeavours turned to malignity, he is willing to submit to ye justice in London. I believe he will find more than here. I believe you know who is ye Disturber in our little Iland, ye Comission of our considering comittee is now terminated, they have spent much time and treasure, yet I think ye country is little ye stronger, the Commons begins to wish for their gentry, and that the Government were again in their handes, they are weary of strangers, we are disjointed into Factions. God send the Spirit of union among us all, that we may agree as brethren. I have heard some old men say that the Isle of Wight was renowned for a strong affection that was cemented amonst the gentry. Your family at Nunwell are all well, to your comfort it doth branch out its prosperous sprigs, that you and your family may thrive in happiness you shall never want ye prayer of

Your ffaithful kinsman and servant,
R. D.

You receive my wife's service and your Godson's duty, who begs your blessing.

'10th ye 2nd, 1644.

For his worthy Friend, Sir John Oglander, at his lodging in ye Strand, neer ye Half Moon Tavern there, London.

What reply the tough old cavalier of Nunwell returned to this friendly letter does not appear, but his general opinion of his correspondent, Robert Dillington, may be found in hist manuscript memoirs at full length. Sir John, who lived in those days when a man's heart was on the tip of his tongue and belonged to the race of good haters, has drawn the character of his kinsman, R. D., in no flattering colours, as I have shown in a letter on Sir John Oglander and the Dillington family,' which appeared in June, 1885. (See vol. i. p. 538).

The close of the year 1644 was a turning-point in what Mr. Green the historian has called 'The Great Revolution.' The commencement of the war between Charles I and the Parliament dates from August, 1642. In every shire, in every parish, in law-courts, in churches, in alehouses and

markets, wherever men were gathered together, they were divided into hostile factions. They who stood up for the King and for the National Church were called by their opponents malignants. The term applied to the insurgents was Roundheads, because the Puritans cropped their hair short in opposition to the prevailing fashion of wearing it long. When the animosities of the two parties had kindled up civil warfare, they were not contented after the prevailing practice with political factions to call each other by opprobrious names, which after all break no bones, but determined to settle their differences by charge of horse, pike and bullet. The two parties were at first nearly equally divided. On the whole the north-west of England, then the wilder and less thickly peopled part of the country, was for the King, who relied chiefly for money aid upon the liberality of his wealthier adherents. On the outbreak of hostilities his troops, composed of country gentlemen, mounted on good horses, with their younger brothers, grooms, gamekeepers, and huntsmen, serving under them, were the better soldiers. The Houses of Parliament had upon their side the busier and wealthier southeast of the country, with the City of London, the fleet, the navigation of the Thames, and the larger towns and seaports. They had at their disposal almost all the military stores of the kingdom, and were able to raise duties both on goods imported from abroad and on some important products of home industry. A line drawn from Hull to Southampton would, as Hallam remarks, suggest no very incorrect idea of the two parties, considered as to their military occupation of the kingdom in the earlier part of the war. At first things looked well for the King, whose cavalry gained many successes. The first battle was fought at Edge Hill, where the victory was claimed on both sides. 'We all thought one battle would decide it,' said good Richard Baxter, but the worthy divine was mistaken. In civil wars till one party has succumbed, no real peace can ensue. Cromwell, who did not believe that Providence was on the side of the big battalions, was taught a lesson by Edge Hill; he told his cousin, Hampden, that they would never get on with a company of poor tapsters and town apprentice people fighting against men of honour. To cope with gentlemen they must have men of religion,

And