never again able to rally sufficient forces to take the field. From Market-Harborough he went to Leicester, thence, after a few hours' rest, to Ashby-de-laZouch, thence to Wales, to Ragland Castle, to Scotland, to the Isle of Wight, to London, to Whitehall, and thence to the block!

Here is Cromwell's letter to the House of Commons, "written," says Carlyle, "from Harborough, or 'Haverbrowe,' as he calls it, that same night after the hot battle and hot chase were over. The original, printed long since in Rushworth, still lies in the British Museum, with a strong steady signature,' which one could look at with interest. The letter consists of two leaves; much worn, and now supported by pasting; the seal much defaced; is addressed on the second leaf:

"For the Honourable William Southall, Speaker of the Commons House of Parliament; these.

"HARBOROUGH, 14th June, 1645. "SIR,-Being commanded by you to this service, I think myself bound to acquaint you with the good hand of God towards you and us.

"We marched yesterday after the King, who went before us from Daventry to Harborough, and quartered about six miles from him. This day we marched towards him. He drew out to meet us; both armies engaged. We, after three hours' fight very doubtful, at last routed his army; killed and took about five thousand,-very many officers, but of what quality we yet know not. We took also about two

hundred carriages, all he had; and all his guns, being twelve in number, whereof two were demicannon, two demi-culverins, and, I think, the rest sackers. We pursued the enemy from three miles short of Harborough to nine beyond, even to the sight of Leicester, whither the King fled.

Sir, this is none other but the hand of God; and to Him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with Him. The General served you with all faithfulness and honour; and the best commendation I can give him is, that I dare say he attributes all to God, and would rather perish than assume to himself, which is an honest and a thriving way; and yet as much for bravery may be given to him in this action as to a man. Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty; I beseech you, in the name of God, not to discourage them. I wish this action to beget thankfulness and humility in all that are concerned in it. He that ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I wish to trust to God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for. In this he rests, who is "Your most humble servant,

"OLIVER CROMWELL."

When the battle was fought, the country was open moorland. Ireton's troops were hindered by pits and ditches, and the whole place was wild and desolate. It is now enclosed; and fine wheat and grass fields occupy the once barren place. Pleasant clumps of trees, richly foliaged, add to the beauty of the scene: some fine

copses also are there; and the land, judging from what we saw, seems tolerably productive. The "hills" are gentle slopes, and give a sea-wave kind of undulation to the country, which renders it extremely beautiful. Some writers have called it flat and tame; but to our mind it had charms of no ordinary character. The elevation at which it stands; the wide prospect it offers to the view; the great variety of its slopes, its rich fields, and pleasant woods, were enough of themselves to make a ramble there delightful, without the matchless historical associations which had caused us to make a pilgrimage thither. Irrespective of this all-potent charm, we can truly affirm that the ramble to and about Naseby was in itself a delightful one.

Several hollow spots are marked out as having been the burial-places of those who fell, and one is designated on the plan as "the graves of the slain." It need not be said with what solemn feelings we walked over its now richly green surface, and thought of those who so calmly sleep beneath, and who on that "glorious day of June" did one of the notablest deeds in their country's annals. With reverence we gathered a few wild flowers, to be preserved as mementoes of this day. We sat for some time near the place, and talked over the glories of that great struggle of the seventeenth century, painting to ourselves its men and its events; and ever rising above all the noble ones which those great times produced, -soaring like eagles above ordinary birds,-like giants among the people, came out the grand,

glorious, and immortal figures of Milton and Cromwell.

It was now turned six o'clock, and we had many miles to walk before we reached our evening restingplace. Yet it was with the most reluctant steps that we left the field. We paused and lingered, turned and turned again, and, ere we quitted the place, sat down once more and read Carlyle's account of the battle, Cromwell's Letter to the the "Honourable William Southall, Speaker of the Commons House of Parliament," sang Mr. T. H. Gill's fine hymn,

"Lift thy voice among the nations,

England of the Lord beloved,"

and recited Macaulay's Ballad of the Battle of Naseby, as a fitting conclusion to a day of deep, intense, solemn, yet withal exuberant joy. Never, so "long as memory holds her seat" in our brain, can we forget our visit to the scene of this great and decisive action. It was a long day of still-increasing pleasure. The walk itself was crowded with scenes of interest and beauty. Each place we passed through had some attraction or other. The occasional short April-like showers which fell in the morning, only increased the loveliness of the scenery, and the beauty of the prospects. When within a few miles of the battle-field, the last rain of the day fell, and we had a tolerably good thunder-storm. It was a not unfitting nor inappropriate accompaniment to that scene over which so many years agone had rolled an artillery more fierce, more deadly, but in its results not less salutary than the artillery of the heavens.

If nature had intended to make the day all that we should have wished it, the results could not have been more successful: and when we thought of the terrible work going on that morning at Stafford,* we had this one lament, that a day so famed in the annals of our country-rendered so glorious by that fight and its results-should be desecrated by being the day appointed for the execution of one of the greatest of villains in the criminal records of our land. We would preserve the memory of such a day from such a desecration; and keep it treasured up in the minds of all Englishmen as one of the most precious remembrances; making it to all what it has been to us, -a day to strengthen our love for our country; to encourage hope for the increase of her liberties; to animate all in discharging the not unimportant citizenduties of our own time; and to bless by the rich memories of the past, which necessarily arise as we walk over such sacred soil as that on which was fought that ever-memorable battle of the "glorious day of June," in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-five.

* Palmer was executed this day.