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Mr. URBAN, Bainton, Nov. 8, 1812. WITH a drawing of Woodcroft

the liberty of sending you some extracts from different authors relating thereto; and also anecdotes of the heroic Dr. Michael Hudson, who bravely fell, defending himself against the Parliament forces, in 1648.

In the parish of Etton, in the hundred of Nassaburgh, Northampton, is Woodcroft-house, an old manorplace, and, from the remains of antiquity, apparently in former times a place of strength. It is surrounded by a large water, excepting on the Western side, where the drawbridge is supposed to have been. The doors of the long passages through the gateway, with two large arches and seats of stone, and stone windows, and staircases within the house, and a round bastion towards the North end, are of remarkable and antient workmanship. Over the porch or gateway is a chamber, formerly the chapel : in the wall is a bason for holy water, a long stone seat, and a large window, now in part filled up, and made into a smaller. The walls are about four feet thick.

In the reign of Henry III. Herbert and Roger de Woodcrofte held of the Abbot of Burgh half a knight's fee in Walton and Woodcrofte, which was confirmed to the Convent by a charter in the same reign, and in the subsequent reigns of Edw. I. and Edw. II. *

In 1648 Woodcroft-house was made a garrison by the Royalists, who took up arms for Charles the First, under the command of the Rev. Dr. Michael Hudson +. After the battle of Edgehill, Mr. Hudson, retiring to Oxford, was, in 1642, created Doctor in Divinity, and appointed Chaplain to the King. From hence he attended him, with Mr. Ashburnham, in 1646, when he put himself into the hands of the Scots; and the Parliament sending a serjeant at arms to bring Hudson to London, he eluded the vigilance of the messenger; but was soon after

* Bridges's Northamptonshire, vol. II, p. 511.

+ Dr. Hudson was rector of Uffington, and was joined in his expedition against the rebels by the Rev. Mr. Styles, who was warden of Brown's Hospital in Stamford, and minister of Croyland.

GENT. MAG. April, 1813.

discovered and apprehended at Rochester, and committed prisoner to

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cape from this confinement, he was in a short time retaken, and sent from Hull to the Tower. Here he wrote "The Divine Right of Government, natural and politic, more particularly of Monarchy," which was printed in 4to. 1647. Making his escape also in the beginning of 1648, he went into Lincolnshire, raised a party of horse, and, to secure himself against the Parliamenttroops, retired with his men to Woodcroft-house. The Rebels, on the 6th of June, entering the house, and taking many prisoners, Hudson, with the most courageous of his soldiers, went up to the battlements, and defended themselves a considerable time but yielding, upon a promise of quarter, which was not observed, and the Rebels advancing to them, Hudson was thrown over the battlements, and caught hold of a spout or projecting stone; but, his hands being cut off, he fell into the moat much wounded; and desiring to come to land to die, was knocked on the head by the butt-end of a musket. His tongue was then cut out by a lowbred shopkeeper of Stamford ‍§, who carried it about the country as a trophy. Being there buried, after the enemy had left the place, his body is said to have been removed to the neighbouring parish of Uffington, near Stamford, where it was solemnly interred.

In the examination of John Brownę of St. Ives, Hunts, taken May 18, 1646, he deposed, that he met with Dr. Hudson at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, being the last of April, where they lodged all night. Mr. Peck conceives, that Dr. Hudson had rela tions at Melton; one Sir Henry Hudson, bart. who, he supposed, entertained him. This Sir H. H. owned and lived in the house where Mr. Simon Stokes the attorney now lives (1734); and here supposed Dr. Hudson and his servant Browne lodged . Yours, &c. R. H.

By one Egborough, the Minister of Castor's Servant.

John Walker, a grocer.
Desiderata Curiosa, lib. IX,

Mr.

Mr. CHASE'S Account of the Earth-lating this circumstance, because it quake at LISBON. (Concluded from p. 206.)

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THU

HUS far have I endeavoured most minutely to describe, not only every accident that happened to me, but even the various hopes and fears occasioned by them, whether depressed or magnified by my debilitated state of body I know not; therefore shall only say, that after I had got into the street, the general distress painted upon every ghastly countenance made but little reflection necessary to suppose that nearest relations would be unable to assist each other; and from the short examination I had made of myself, I deemed it was of little consequence to me; therefore at once resolved silently, without a murmur, to resigu myself to the will of the Supreme Governor of all things; humbly hoping, by my patience under what He was pleased to inflict, to make some atonement for my faults. Nor, indeed, could the vehement and noisy supplications of the disabled tend to any other effect at such a time, than merely to increase the general horror. How great, then, must be my thankfulness to Divine Providence, for raising me up assistance, not only unasked, but even unhoped for, among persons almost strangers to me! more especially Mr. FORG, with whom I had but a slight acquaintance; and who, like a guardian angel, appeared always ready to assist me in the utmost extremities! He assured me afterwards, that it gave him the greatest concern to be obliged to leave me in the manner he did; but that, finding all hopes of procuring a boat were in vain, because the moment any came near the shore, they were immediately crowded with people, who waited there on purpose; he resolved to get away himself in the same manner, and endeavour to send me the first help he could procure; that accordingly, after crossing the river, which took them up a long time, he met with a Mr. Bride, an English shoemaker, who was going over, and who, at his entreaty, promised to look for me, and bring me away with him; but that, after making the most diligent search for me without success, he rightly concluded I had been already carried from hence. I bave been the more particular in re

sets in its true light a behaviour which I can never reflect upon without the greatest astonishment and surprize, as well as the deepest sense of gratitude.

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"It is universally agreed that all the mischief proceeded from the three first shocks of the earthquake, which were attended with a tumbling sort of motion, like the waves of the sea; and that it was amazing the houses resisted so long as they did. No place nor time could have been more unlucky for the miserable people. The city was full of narrow streets; the houses were strongly built and high, which, by falling, filled up all the passages. The day was that of All Saints, which, with them, is a great holiday, when all the altars in the churches were lighted up with many wax candles. Just at the time when they were the fullest of people, most of them fell immediately! The streets likewise were thronged with people going to or from their churches, many of whom must have been de stroyed by the falling of the houses only.

It would be impossible to pretend justly to describe the universal horror and distress which every where took place. Many saved themselves by going upon the water, whilst others found there the death which they hoped to have avoided. Some were wonderfully preserved by getting upon the tops of houses; and more were equally so by retiring to the bottoms of them. Others again were unhurt, but imprisoned beneath the ruin of their dwellings, to be soon burnt alive! while the Dutchmen in particular were said to have escaped by the fire's coming to the ruins of their houses, and lighting them through passages, which otherwise they would never have found out. In short, Death in every shape soon

grew

grew familiar to the eye! The earnest, but neglected, supplications of the maimed, no less than the violent and vociferous prayers of persons who thought it to be the day of judgment, added unspeakably to the general distraction. The river is said in a most wonderful manner to have risen and fallen several times successively; at one time threatening to overwhelm the lower parts of the city; and directly afterwards leaving the ships almost aground, shewing rocks that never had been seen be fore. It is said that Captain Clies had once actually deserted the packet, as thinking she must be lost.

"The duration of the first shock, which came on without any warning, except a great noise heard by the people near the water-side, is variously reported, but by none as less than three minutes and a half. At the close of which, as 1 imagine, it was when I was thrown over the wall and fell about four stories down, between the houses! where I must have lain but a short time, if it was the second shock which I felt in the house of our Portuguese neighbour, and which was said to have happened at ten o'clock, though by some people it is confounded with the first, I am therefore almost inclined to think it could not be the third which I telt at Mr. Forg's house; for as that was at. twelve o'clock, I must have remained a long time in the street, which, instead of two hours, as it must have been, if it was between the second and third shocks that I lay there, appeared to me scarcely a quarter of an hour before I left Mr. Forg's house, on the Saturday night about eleven o'clock, and which was in the same street with our own, called Pedras Negras, situated upon the hill leading up to the castle. There I saw the middle part of the city extending to the King's Palace, and from thence up the hill opposite to us, leading to the Bairo Alto, and containing a number of parishes, all in one great blaze. Three times I thought myself inevitably lost; the first, when I beheld all the city moving like the undulations of water; the second, when I found myself shut up between four walls; and the third time, when, with that vast conflagration before my eyes, I considered my self as deserted, in Mr. Forg's house;

and even in the Square, where I remained all Saturday night and Sunday, when the almost continual trembling of the earth, as well as the sinking of the great stone quay adjoining to this Square, at the third great shock about twelve o'clock, the quay being then, as it was said, covered with three hundred people, all endeavouring to get into boats, and were swallowed up, boats and all, which was the reason why so few boats ventured upon the river for some time after: all this made me fearful lest the waters had undermined the Square, and that, at every succeeding convulsion, we should sink; or else, as the ground was low, and even with the water, that the least rising of it would overflow us. Full of these terrors, as well as tortured by the distresses already mentioned, it more than once occurred to me, that the Inquisition, with all its ut. most cruelty, could not have invented half such a variety of tortures for the mind as we were then suffering. Could the general consternation have been less, not only many persons' lives, but even their effects, might have been saved; for the fire did not, till the Sunday-morning, reach the Custom-house, which stood next to the water-side, and had large open spaces on each side of it; so that all that great multitude of bundles, which caused us so much distress, might most easily have been removed safe by boats: whereas the King's soldiers, amongst whom were many foreign deserters, instead of assisting the people, turned plunderers; even adding, as some of them before their execution confessed, to those fires, which already were dreadfully nume-. rous from the fallen houses only; for no fire came out of the ground, nor were there any openings of the earth, except the quay already mentioned was one; but every where innumerable cracks, from many of which were thrown up water and sand.

"The King sent directly to the nearest garrisous for his troops; upon whose arrival order was restored, and the butchers and bakers were dis persed about, to provide for the people, who were not permitted to remove farther from the city without passes. The common people were immediately forced by the soldiers, with swords drawn, to bury the dead

bodies,

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