preserve his person, and to prevent all comings over into the Island. I have already stopped all passages in our Island except three (Ryde, Cowes, and Yarmouth), and at them have appointed guards. Now, I must desire you all to preserve peace and unity in this Island as much as you can. I hear there are some such persons as His Majesty feared, but I hope better. But to prevent it I would give you these cautions. If you see or hear of any people in any great number gathered together, whatsoever be their pretence, I would have you dissipate them, or timely notice given to me of it. Also if there be any of those formerly spoken of (levellers), such as His Majesty fears, that shall offer to come into this Island, you must do your endeavours to oppress them, and all things else for the preservation of His Majesty's person. And to this end I shall desire all the captains to come and renew their commissions, that they may be the better authorized hereunto. Lastly, I must tell you I have sent an express to Parliament to signify His Majesty's being here, and as soon as I receive any answer I shall acquaint you with it." . . . After this speech, Sir Robert Dillington moved the Colonel to know whether the gentlemen might not after dinner go up to His Majesty to express their duties to him. The Colonel answered, "Yes, by all means, it would be a fit time when the King has dined; and truly I would invite you all to dinner," said he, "had I any entertainment, but truly I want extremely fowl for His Majesty," intimating thereby that he wanted the gentlemen's assistance, whereupon I and others promised him to send him what we had. So he thanked us and returned to the castle to His Majesty. Now when we had dined we all went up to Carisbrooke Castle, where we had not stayed above half-an-hour ere His Majesty came to us, and after he had given every man his hand to kiss, he made this speech, but not in these words, but as well as my memory will give me leave to this effect:

6.66

Gentlemen, I must inform you that for the preservation of my life I was forced from Hampton Court, for there were a people called levellers that had both voted and resolved of my death, so that I could no longer dwell there in safety. And desiring to be somewhat secure, till some happy accom

modation may be made between me and my Parliament, I have put myself on this place, for I desire not a drop more of Christian blood should be spilt, neither do I desire to be chargeable to any of you. I shall not desire so much as a capon from any of you, my resolution in coming here being but to be secured, till there be some happy accommodation made."

'After this he caused Mr. Legg, one of his servants, to read a kind of remonstrance, which it seemeth he left at Hampton Court when he went thence, but I shall forbear writing of that, being in print. . . . Mr. Legg demanded of me, "What if a greater number of these levellers should come into our Island than we are able to resist? What course could there be for His Majesty's preservation?" I answered None that I know but to have a boat ready to convey him to the mainland." These were all the passages that day, and on the Thursday following it pleased His Majesty to come to my house at Nunwell, as much unexpected by me as his coming into the Island.-I. O.

66

'When we came the Monday to Carisbrooke Castle, His Majesty was then busy in writing these propositions now in print, which the next day he sent to Parliament, and I hope will be accepted.-I. O.'

This contemporary record of the first days of Charles I's detention in Carisbrooke Castle, which Mr. Venables's researches into the Oglander Memoirs have brought to light, cannot fail to be read with interest by those who wish to know the details of the royal prisoner's captivity in this Island.

April 25, 1885.

COLONEL ROBERT HAMMOND, CAPTAIN AND GOVERNOR OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT, A.D. 1647-1649.

No wise man would seek to be entrusted with the custody of a distinguished personage, though if such a trying position. was thrust upon him in the way of duty he would accept the

responsibility. However honourable and humane, a man so placed can hardly avoid obloquy and abuse. Such was the lot of Sir Hudson Lowe, when for five stormy years, from 1817 to 1821, the first Napoleon was in captivity at St. Helena. Sir Hudson Lowe was a gallant soldier and a good administrator; no Englishman that knew him has doubted his ability, his unflinching firmness, his humanity, or his honour. His duty required him to prevent the escape of Napoleon, who was allowed the range of a considerable portion of the Island of St. Helena. These were his orders, which left very little to his discretion, and he executed them in a most conscientious spirit. It was not to be wondered at that Napoleon, and still more the Emperor's French attendants, should pick a quarrel with the Governor of St. Helena. The Opposition at home, anxious to wound in any way they could the Government of the day, did almost as much to raise and spread the storm of reproach which gathered round Sir Hudson Lowe as the Bonapartists themselves; and the Liverpool administration, though they afterwards employed and promoted the man who had ably fulfilled a most invidious and difficult office, left him to encounter singly the fury of the attack, which was enough to bow their official subordinate to the earth.

It has been the good fortune of Col. Robert Hammond, who had in the Isle of Wight very much the same duty to discharge in the case of King Charles I as that which was lodged in the hands of Sir Hudson Lowe, to escape the rancorous abuse which has been poured upon the head of the latter.

This immunity from reproach was in a great measure owing to Hammond's own sound judgement, discretion, and kindly consideration for the illustrious captive of 'Carisbrooke's narrow case.' Hammond was quite a young man when, on September 6, 1647, he was appointed by an ordinance of both Houses of Parliament 'Captain and Governor of the Isle of Wight, and of all ports, forts, towers, and places of strength therein, until the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled shall otherwise order' (Lords and Commons Journals). He seems to have been a religious, seriously minded Puritan, of the stamp of Colonel Hutchinson; not a coarse and snuffling fanatic, but a highly educated, accom

plished, and refined gentleman. His family belonged to the upper middle class, settled at Chertsey in Surrey. His grandfather had been physician to Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. The daughters of this Court physician had made what are called good marriages. One of them, Jane, was the wife of Sir John Dingley, of Woolverton, Isle of Wight, who was Lieutenant-Governor of the Island under the Earl of Pembroke. Another daughter was married to Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, who distinguished himself among the Privy Councillors of that kingdom by the zeal with which at the commencement of the struggle between the Crown and the Long Parliament he supported the latter. Of the sons, Thomas rose to be Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance under the Parliament. Persisting in his devotion to Cromwell, he took part in the Army troubles of 1646, patronized the Adjutators or Agitators, and sat as one of the King's judges. In strong contrast with him was another brother, Henry Hammond, a learned and pious divine, who took the side of the King with very conspicuous zeal during the Civil War, and was deprived of his preferment in the Church after the victory of the Parliament. Nothing is recorded of Robert, the second son of the physician and the father of Colonel Robert Hammond.

George Oglander, Esq., of Nunwell, who, as it appears from the inscription on the brass plate fixed on the east wall of the Oglander chapel in Brading Church, died May 6, 1567, married for his second wife Alice, the sister and heiress of William Hammond, Esq., of Guildford. Whether the Hammonds of Guildford were of the same family as the Hammonds of Chertsey, the books do not say.

Robert Hammond, the future Governor of the Isle of Wight, was matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which his uncle Henry was a Fellow. He left the University after three years' residence without taking his degree. His uncle Thomas got young Robert a commission in the Army. As a young man of best parts and principles Robert Hammond was marked out for promotion in the Parliamentary forces. An incident which occurred not long after the breaking out of the Civil War might have put an entire stop to his military career. When, at the end of August, 1644, during

the earlier successes of the regal army, Charles, instead of marching upon London and combining with Newcastle's powerful army, was wasting valuable opportunities by sitting down before Gloucester, Hammond held a captain's commission in Massey's Horse on the opposite side. Massey's brigade did not bear a good reputation. It had some black sheep in it, men of no particular religion.' In the month of October of that same year a brother officer, Major Gray, gave Hammond the lie, whereupon the fiery young man called Gray out to mortal duel, and had the misfortune to kill his man. He was tried by court martial, but was acquitted on the ground of the provocation being so great. He had a powerful friend in Cromwell. Hammond had been on terms of intimacy with John Hampden, whose daughter Mary he afterwards married. Hammond's connexion with Hampden, whose memory was,' as Clarendon says, 'adored by Cromwell,' was enough to secure that sagacious soldier's attachment. Cromwell, himself a gentleman by birth, education, and feeling, was anxious to secure for his own party men of his own class and position. When Fairfax and Cromwell determined on terminating the desultory warfare which had been going on between the King's forces and those of the Parliament by moving an overwhelming force successively against the scattered fragments of the Royal party, they also took the bold step of getting rid of the worse elements of their own army. Foul-mouthed bullies and ruffians, like Gray, were dismissed or cashiered. The Parliamentary army was framed on what was called at the time the New Model.' No sooner was the process complete than the fortunes of the war began to change. The Cavaliers found themselves confronted by soldiers with a courage equal to their own, and with a far stricter discipline. Cromwell had his eye upon Hammond, whose moral character and bearing was calculated to win the respect of sturdy troopers, who had been induced to take up arms by religious and political zeal, mingled with the desire of distinction or promotion. He soon rose to be colonel, and held a high command at the memorable siege of Bristol in September, 1645. In the dispatch which Cromwell sent to Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons, Hammond's name occurs more