Part 20 (1/2)
[Sidenote: Charles Cotton.]
[C] BASING, or OLD BASING, though a small village, is of some importance, as the scene of a desperate and b.l.o.o.d.y battle between the Danes and the Saxons, in 871, commanded by King Ethelred and his brother Alfred, when the latter were defeated. It was, however, rendered more famous by the gallant stand made against the parliamentary forces in the reign of Charles I., by John Poulet, Marquis of Winchester, a lineal descendant of Hugh de Port, who, at the time of the Domesday Survey, held 55 lords.h.i.+ps in this county. This small village was the princ.i.p.al of these extensive possessions, and appears to have been the very site of a castle, as mention of the land of the old castle of Basing is made in a grant allowed by John de Port, to the neighbouring priory at Monks Sherborne, in the reign of Henry II. His grandson, William, a.s.sumed the surname of St. John; and Robert, Lord St. John, in the 43d of Henry III., obtained a license to fix a pole upon the bann of his moat, at Basing, with permission to continue it so fortified during the pleasure of the King. In the reign of Richard II., Basing was transferred by marriage to the Poynings; and again, in the time of Henry VI., to the Paulets, by the alliance of Constance with Sir John Paulet, of Nunny Castle, in Somersets.h.i.+re. Sir William Paulet, Knt., third in descent from this couple, created Baron St. John, of Basing, by Henry VIII.; and Earl of Wilts.h.i.+re, and Marquis of Winchester, by Edward VI., was a very accomplished and polite n.o.bleman, greatly in favour at court during most of the successive changes that occurred in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. He held the office of treasurer nearly 30 years, sustaining himself by the courtly maxim, of ”being a willow, and not an oak.” He rebuilt Basing Castle, in a magnificent, and even in a princely style; indeed, so much so, that Camden, in allusion to the immense expense of living entailed on his family by its splendour, observes that, ”it was so overpowered by its own weight, that his posterity has been forced to pull down a part of it.” Here, in 1560, he entertained Queen Elizabeth with ”all good cheer,” and so much to her satisfaction, that she playfully lamented his great age; ”for by my troth,” said she, ”if my Lord Treasurer were but a young man, I could find it in my heart to have him for a husband before any man in England.” William, the great-grandson of this n.o.bleman, and fourth Marquis of Winchester, had also, in 1601, the honour of having Queen Elizabeth for a guest for ”thirteen days, to the great charge of the sayde Lorde Marquesse.” During her residence here, the Duke of Biron, accompanied by about 20 of the French n.o.bility, and a retinue of about 400 persons, were accommodated at the Vine, the seat of Lord Sandys, which had been purposely furnished with hangings and plate from the Tower, and Hampton Court, and with seven score beds and furniture, ”which the willing and obedient people of the countrie of Southampton, upon two days' warning, had brought in thither to lend the Queen.” When Elizabeth departed from Basing, she affirmed, that ”she had done that in Hamps.h.i.+re, that none of her ancestors ever did; neither that any Prince in Christendom could do: that was, she had in her progresses, in her subject's houses, entertained a royal amba.s.sador, and had royally entertained him.” John, son of the preceding, and fifth Marquis of Winchester, was the brave n.o.bleman who rendered his name immortal by his gallant defence of Basing House, in the cause of Charles I., during a tedious succession of sieges and blockades, which, with short intermissions, continued upwards of two years. The journal of the siege, printed in Oxford, in 1645, is one of the most eventful pieces of history during the civil war. The final investment appears to have been undertaken by Cromwell, who took it by storm, in October 1645, and burnt it to the ground, in despite of the Aimez Loyaulte, which the Marquis had written with a diamond in every window, and which has ever since been the motto of the family arms. The plunder obtained on this occasion is said to have amounted to 200,000. in cash, jewels, and rich furniture. The number of soldiers slain before the walls from the commencement of the siege, is recorded to have been upwards of 2,000.
There is a traditionary report, that the garrison was partly surprized through some of the troops being engaged at cards when the a.s.sault commenced. From a survey made in 1798, it appears that the area of the works, including the garden and entrenchments, occupied about fourteen acres and a half. The form was extremely irregular, the ditches very deep, and the ramparts high and strong; some of the remains are yet very bold and striking. The site of the ruins is particularly commanding. The ca.n.a.l from Basingstoke has been cut through a part of the works, and the outward entrenchments have been rendered very obscure and imperfect from recent improvements in the grounds. The brave Marquis, whose property was reduced to ruin in the cause of his Sovereign, lived to the restoration, but received no recompence for his immense losses. He died in 1674, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles, who, when he saw that other men of sense were at their wits' end, in the arbitary and tyrannical reign of James II., thought it prudent to a.s.sume the character of a madman, as the first Brutus did, in the reign of Tarquin.
He danced, hunted, or hawked, a part of the day, went to bed before noon, and constantly sat at table all night. He went to dinner at six or seven in the evening, and his meal lasted till six or seven in the morning; during which time he ate, drank, smoked, talked, or listened to music. The company that dined with him were at liberty to rise and amuse themselves, or to take a nap, whenever they were so disposed; but the dishes and bottles were all the while standing upon the table. Such a man as this was thought a very unlikely person to concern himself with politics, or with religion. By this conduct, he was neither embroiled in public affairs, nor gave the least umbrage to the court; but he exerted himself so much in the revolution, that he was, for his eminent services, created Duke of Bolton: he afterwards raised a regiment of foot for the reduction of Ireland. Charles, son of the former, and second Duke of Bolton, a.s.sisted in the great work of the revolution; and was one of the n.o.blemen appointed at Exeter, in November, 1688, to manage the revenues of the Prince of Orange, as Sovereign of England. In 1717, he was declared Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Charles, the eldest son, and third Duke of Bolton, filled several high offices in the state.
This n.o.bleman, on the death of his first wife, from whom he had long been separated, wedded the celebrated Lavinia Beswick, or Fenton, more known by the name of Polly Peachem, from her celebrity in the performance of that character in the ”Beggar's Opera.” The parish church of Basing is a large, ancient, and curious structure, standing at a short distance from the site of Basing House, with a tower rising in the centre. In a niche at the west-end is a figure of the Virgin Mary: the roof is supported by round arches, springing from ma.s.sive columns. This edifice was repaired in 1510, by Sir John Paulet, who, with his father, John Paulet, Esq., and their respective wives, lie buried beneath two arched tombs, one on each side the chancel. Beneath the south aisle is the family vault of the Paulets, in which six Dukes of Bolton, with many of their n.o.ble relations, are deposited. A mural monument has also been erected in this church to the memory of Francis Russel, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A., a native of Basingstoke, who a.s.sisted Mr. Nichols in his History of Leicesters.h.i.+re. He died in 1795.
[Sidenote: Great battles fought here.]
[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth splendidly entertained here for 13 days.]
[Sidenote: Burnt by Cromwell.]
[Sidenote: The sixth Marquis of Winchester, a singular character.]
[Sidenote: Polly Peachem.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From
+--+------------------------+-------+------------+-----------+ 16
Basingstoke[A] m.t. & p
Hants.
Andover 13
Reading 15
+--+------------------------+-------+------------+-----------+
Dist.
Map
Names of Places.
Number of Miles From
Lond.
Population.
+--+------------------------+--------------------+-----+----+ 16
Basingstoke[A] m.t. & p
Winchester 17
46
3581
+--+------------------------+--------------------+-----+----+
[A] BASINGSTOKE. This large, ancient, and populous town is situated in a pleasant and well-wooded part of the county, and commands a considerable trade from its standing at the junction of five great roads. In the ”Domesday Book” it is mentioned as always having been a royal manor, and as never having paid any tax, nor been distributed into hides: it is also noticed in that survey as having a market, whose tolls were worth ”thirty s.h.i.+llings”: we presume this to have been the weekly collection--a large sum in those days. From this town a ca.n.a.l was made to the river Wey, in Surrey; it was commenced in 1778. Its length is thirty-seven miles and a quarter, and the expense of cutting it amounted to 100,000. A large portion of this sum was laid out in forming a tunnel, nearly three quarters of a mile in length, through a hill near Odiham. Besides corn and flour, coals, timber, manure, and goods of almost every description are conveyed to different parts of the country by this channel. The first barge arrived at Basingstoke Wharf in January, 1794. Among the numerous projected advantages which led to the formation of the ca.n.a.l, was, the presumed cultivation of Bagshot Heath, and other heaths within the line of its course. A beautiful ruin overlooks the town on the north side, called Holy Ghost chapel. This was founded by Sir William, afterwards Lord Sandys, who with Bishop Fox, obtained a licence from Henry VIII. to found a brotherhood, to continue in perpetual succession, for the maintenance of a priest to perform divine service, and for the instruction of youth in literature. On an eminence in the vicinity, is an ancient encampment of an elliptical form, supposed to be British, three thousand three hundred feet in circ.u.mference; it is called ”Aubrey Camp,” or familiarly ”Bury Bank;”
the ditch on the outside is partly filled up by the labours of the agriculturist; and in Rook's Down, in this neighbourhood, while cutting a new road in 1831, a number of human skeletons were discovered, supposed to be of those who fell in some battle fought near this place.
The free grammar school adjoins the venerable ruins of the chapel of the Holy Ghost; it is an ancient edifice, and is supposed originally to have been the parish church. This grammar school was first founded by Sir William Sandys, in connexion with the ”Guild of the Holy Ghost,” and was re-established upon the dissolution of that fraternity, by Queen Mary, in the succeeding reign. There are twelve boys at present on the foundation. Drs. Jos. Warton, the refined poet and critic, and his brother Thomas Warton, Poet Laureate, were both educated here, under their father, Thomas Warton, B.D., Professor of Poetry in the university of Oxford, a writer of considerable ability. John De Basinge, a learned Greek scholar, a friend and contemporary of that intelligent historian, Matthew Paris, was a native of this town. He was a man eminent for piety and learning, and a perfect master of the Greek and Latin languages--an eloquent orator--an able mathematician, and a sound divine. Having laid the foundation of his university learning at Oxford, he went to Paris, and from thence to Athens; upon his return to England, he brought over several curious Greek ma.n.u.scripts, and introduced the use of Greek numerical figures into this country; and to facilitate the knowledge of that rich language, which at that remote period was very little known or appreciated in the western world. He translated from the Greek, into the Latin, the celebrated Grammar, ent.i.tled ”The Denatus of the Greeks,” and the learning and piety of this truly good man, recommended him to the esteem of all the lovers of literature of that time: particularly that of Robert Grosteste, Bishop of Lincoln, by whom he was promoted from the Archdeaconry of London, to that of Leicester; he died in 1252. Among other subjects he wrote a Latin translation of the harmony of the four Gospels; and it was this learned individual that informed Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, that he had seen at Athens, a book called ”The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,” upon which the Bishop sent for it and translated it into Latin; this valuable MS. was first printed in 1555, and has often been reprinted in English. At Basingstoke, was also born Sir James Lancaster, an eminent navigator, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, explored the Arctic Sea. Thomas Warton, the historian of English Poetry, was descended from an ancient and honorable family in Beverly, County York, and born at Basingstoke, in 1728; from his infancy he discovered a vein for poetry, and at the age of nine years he wrote to his sister that remarkable production of his genius: viz. a translation from the Latin of Martial:--
”When bold Leander sought his distant fair, (Nor could the sea a braver burthen bear) Thus to the swelling waves he spake his woe, Drown me on my return--but spare me as I go.”
This curious doc.u.ment bears date from the school of Basingstoke, Nov.
1737. In March 1773, at the age of sixteen, he was admitted a Commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, and soon after elected a Scholar. At this college Mr. Warton continued, with trifling intervals, forty-seven years. In 1745, he published ”The Pleasures of Melancholy.” In 1749, in consequence of a foolish riot occasioned by some of the scholars, Mason, the Poet, produced a poem called the ”Isis,” reflecting upon the loyalty of the college, upon which Mr. Warton immediately wrote the ”Triumph of Isis,” a poem of some merit, and a severe commentary upon the other production. About this time, his talents being generally acknowledged, he became Poet Laureate, and in 1750 he took a Master's Degree, and in 1751 succeeded to a Fellows.h.i.+p. In 1754 he published his observations on the ”Faerie Queene of Spencer.” In 1757, upon the resignation of Mr Hawkins, of Pembroke College, he was elected Professor of Poetry, which he held according to the usual custom for ten years. He died, May 21, 1790. Basingstoke is one of the polling places for the northern division of the county.
_Market_, Wednesday.--_Fairs_, Easter Tuesday, for cheese and cattle; Whit-Wednesday for pedlary; September 23, for cattle and hiring servants, Devonport. _Mail_ arrives 12.55 morning; departs 1.48 morning.--_Bankers_, Raggett and Co., draw on Masterman and Co.--_Inn_, Crown.
[Sidenote: Royal manor.]
[Sidenote: Aubrey Camp.]
[Sidenote: Eminent men born here.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From
+--+-----------------+--------+------------+----------+ 24
Basingthorpe pa
Lincoln
Corby 3
Grantham 8
53
Basingwerk[A] vil
Flint
Holeywell 1
Flint 5
10
Baslow chap
Derby
Middleton 3
Bakewell 5
+--+-----------------+--------+------------+----------+
Dist.
Map
Names of Places.
Number of Miles From
Lond.
Population.
+--+-----------------+---------------------+-----+----+ 24
Basingthorpe pa
Folingham 10
105
122
53
Basingwerk[A] vil
Park Gate 7
204
10
Baslow chap
Chesterfield 10
158
863
+--+-----------------+---------------------+----+-----+
[A] BASINGWERK. This place is chiefly celebrated for the remains of its ancient abbey; for the vestiges of a house belonging to the Knights Templars; and for a castle, once the key to this part of the country.
The abbey, which had the names also of Maes-Glas and Greenfield monastery, is beautifully situated in a meadow between two hills, on the eastern side of the mouth of the Holywell river. It was founded, according to Tanner, in 1131, by Ranulph, Earl of Chester; others say in 1150, by Henry II. The abbot was frequently summoned to attend in parliament by Edward I. and at the dissolution of monasteries, the annual revenue amounted to 150 7s. 3d. The remains convey an imperfect idea of the original architecture. The doors and lower arches were semi-circular and unornamented, the windows were long, narrow, and pointed; but the south wall of the transept, one doorway, and one pointed arch, are all that remain of the church, and the offices have entirely disappeared. At a short distance from the ruins is an oak of great age, called the Abbot's Oak, which measures fifteen feet two inches in circ.u.mference. But the oaks and elms in this neighbourhood, though of a large size, appear withered and blasted by the effect of the channel breezes; the sycamores and maples are the only trees that flourish; a useful hint to planters. The house for the lay order of the Knights Templars, was inst.i.tuted by Henry II., for the purpose of defence against the inroads of the Welsh, and of this no more than some portion of the offices remain. Vestiges of the castle are yet visible in the fragments and foundation of a wall at some distance from the abbey, on the very margin of Watts-d.y.k.e. On a slope among hanging woods, near the towns.h.i.+p of Bagilt, stands Bagilt hall, a substantial mansion of ancient erection, late the seat of Paul Panton, Esq. Mostyn hall, a seat of Sir Thomas Mostyn, exhibits a variety of interesting features.
Approached by a venerable avenue and a magnificent gateway, it stands in a small but beautiful park; it consisted originally of a square tower and two halls, in the larger of which the festive orgies of the baronial board were performed; but large additions were made in 1631, and many of its pristine features are defaced. Numerous paintings decorate the rooms, consisting for the most part of portraits, which ill.u.s.trate all the varieties of costume in the several ages of their production; among the treasures of art are also many unique statues, busts, bronzes, and other articles of ancient or foreign production. In this neighbourhood are numerous collieries, the different appearance of which are phenomena interesting to the geologist. On the summit of a height called Mostyn mountain, is a monumental stone denominated Maen Achwynfan (the stone of lamentation). Its form is that of an obelisk; in height twelve feet, and two feet-four in thickness. It is probably a memorial of the dead slain in battle; but there appear to be no certain grounds for determining the period of its formation.
[Sidenote: Ancient Abbey.]
[Sidenote: Mostyn Hall.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From
+--+---------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ 26
Ba.s.saleg[A] pa
Monmouth
Newport 3
Cardiff 11
9
Ba.s.senthwaite pa
c.u.mberland
Keswick 5
c.o.c.kermth 10
23
Ba.s.set House ex.p.lib
Leicester
Leicester 13
Atherstone 8
6
Ba.s.singbourn pa
Cambridge
Royston 5
Potton 9
24
Ba.s.singham pa
Lincoln
Newark 9
Lincoln 9
29
Ba.s.sington to
Northumb
Alnwick 4
Eglingham 4
24
Baston pa
Lincoln