script, called the Memorials of the War, written by Sir Edward Walker, the King's secretary at war, revised by the King, and also lost on the field of Naseby. Still more minute evidence as to the character of the papers restored by Major Huntington will confirm Sir William Dugdale's statement. We cite only one or two of the most striking testimonies. (1) Mr. Cave Beck (of Ipswich, Suffolk):

'That some years after the King's trial Major Huntington, at Ipswich, assured me that so much of his Majesty's book as contained his meditations before Naseby fight was taken in the King's cabinet, and that Sir Thomas Fairfax delivered the said papers unto him and ordered him to carry them to the King. And the Major affirmed that he read them over before he delivered them, and that they were the same for matter and form with those meditations in the printed book, and that he was much affected with them, and from that time became a proselyte to the royal cause. He also told me that when he delivered them to the King his Majesty appeared very joyful, and said he esteemed them more than all the jewels he had lost in the cabinet.' 1

(2) Another, Sir Paul Whichcott, testifies to having heard his father, Sir Jeremy Whichcott, tell that he had the Icon Basilikè some time in his hands, lent him by Major Huntington, and that he transcribed about seventeen chapters, as he would have done the whole had not the Major been in haste to restore it to the King.

(3) Mr. Rowney, of Oxford, a special friend of Major Huntington, in a statement attested by several witnesses, bearing date Oxford, May 12, 1699, testifies what he had from the mouth of Major Huntington-that

'The King solicited him to obtain his papers, taken in his cabinet at Naseby, from General Fairfax; that the Major undertook it, went in person to the General, and obtained them; that on his return he had the curiosity to read a good part of them, and was highly pleased with them; that the King received them with infinite satisfaction and respect; and that upon the publishing the Icon he declared that he remembered several passages in the said papers, and did believe both to be the same and the King's own book.'

We will close the evidence as to the Naseby copy with the testimony of the officer-Colonel Okey-who at the head of his regiment of dragoons 'did mightily annoy the King's right wing of horse as they advanced towards the Parliament army.' This officer affirms that on several occasions he saw those sheets of the Icon Basilikè which were taken in King

1 Dr. Walker's True Account strictly Examined by Thomas Long, B.D., and Prebendary of St. Peter's, Exeter, 1693.

Charles I.'s cabinet with his letters at Naseby.

And with

that of Mr. Prynne, who, by order of the Parliament, had the perusal of the papers after they were sent up to London.

'He did not doubt but that the book was the King's own work, because as much of it as was wrote before Naseby fight was taken there, and sent up with the letters which the Parliament afterwards printed to London, where he, by their order, had the perusal of all the papers, and then and there saw those chapters of the Icon Basilikè that were wrote before that time, which he knew to be the same that were afterwards published.'" 2

We must continue to bear in mind that, according to Gauden, the King first heard of and saw the manuscript of the Icon Basilikè a fortnight before the Treaty of Newport (September 1648). We have, however, found it on the field of Naseby (June 1645), written up to that date. It has been restored to the King. Nor are we ignorant of its fate during the next three eventful years. Several witnesses are forthcoming to prove not only its existence, but also its gradual progress during that time-one gentleman, for instance, whom the author of the pamphlet 3 has not the liberty to name during his life,' who attended the King in the civil wars, and had an opportunity to peruse part of that chapter in the royal Icon on the Queen's Departure out of England,' 4 while the ink was yet wet, the King having been suddenly summoned away. Another, at Holmby House-Dr. Dillingham, Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge-read in the King's closet, while his Majesty was at dinner, several sentences of a paper newly written, and declared after the Icon came out that he found these the very same things, word for word, as he had thus read at Holmby.' When the King was forcibly removed thence (June 1647) by Cornet Joyce and his soldiers, it was stipulated that his trunks and papers should not be rifled or tumbled. Here were parcels of his Icon Basilikè, and some other choice pieces, as was known since.' 6 Several nights previous to his escape from Hampton Court, in the November of that same year, two persons recommended by Bishop Juxon, at the desire of the King, sat up to assist him in arranging the papers of the Icon Basilikè, all written with the King's own hand. During his long confinement at Carisbrook the unhappy monarch found his only solace in this

interesting work. Twice Colonel Hammond publicly testified to having found in the King's chamber there many sheets of the Icon, in the King's own handwriting. The book was undoubtedly his; for when I had the order for viewing and searching his papers' (this was in March 1648, six months before the journey of the Marquis of Hertford and Bishop Duppa) I found amongst them many sheets of the rough draught of that book in his own handwriting, which I have at this time by me.' 'This I heard the said Hammond declare, and am ready to attest it upon oath if required.—John Wight.' '

'Part of that book, if not the whole, was writ when he was my prisoner in Carisbrook Castle, where I am sure he had nothing but a Bible, pen, ink, and paper; and going to call him out of his closet to dinner, which I always did, I found him still a-writing; and staying behind to see what he writ, the paper being still wet with ink, I read at several times most of that book which now bears that title.'

6

This last speech was an answer to the sneer of the regicide Ludlow that the King had neither piety nor parts to write such a book as that is.' 2 One of the gentlemen-Mr. Anthony Mildmay-who attended the King at Carisbrook received from him the present of a Bible. In this book there were many verses marked with a pen, especially in the Book of Psalms. After the Icon was published the gentleman compared the Bible with the verses cited in the book. 'I found,' says he, 'they did exactly agree. I have the Bible to show, and can give any man satisfaction.'

Wade, a captain in the Parliament army, having seen and studied the manuscript, threw up his commission, saying 'he would no longer be such a prince's jailer.' Reading, one of the pages appointed by the Parliament, declared that he had often seen his Majesty writing the Icon Basilikè; that when he was tired of writing he would sit down or walk about the room dictating what he desired to be written.

The evidence accumulates round this last period of the history of the manuscript. Mr. Herbert, a faithful servant of the King, who attended him on his last fatal journey to Whitehall, receives a manuscript copy from the royal hand.3 Colonel Legge, the Groom of the Bedchamber, affirms his belief that the King, and the King only, wrote the book. And there are numerous testimonies, besides the one already mentioned, from Levett, the page of the royal bedchamber. 'If anyone has a desire to know the true author of a book entitled 2 Ibid. pp. 98-9.

1

Wagstaffe's Vindication, p. 100.

3 Herbert's Memoirs, p. 45.

Icon Basilikè, I, one of the servants of King Charles the First in his bedchamber, do declare, when his said Majesty was prisoner in the Isle of Wight, that I read over the above-mentioned book (which was long before the said book was printed) in his bedchamber, writ with his Majesty's own hand, with several interlinings. Moreover, his Majesty King Charles the First told me, "Sure, Levett, you do design to get this book by heart," having often seen me reading it.1 I myself very often saw the King write that which was printed in that book, and did daily read the manuscript of his own hand in many sheets of paper. . . . I do truly believe that there is not a page of that book but what I have read under the King's hand before it was printed.'

After the Treaty of Newport, when the King was hurried in the dead of night to Hurst Castle, 'during the time of his Majesty's making himself ready he concerned himself only how to secure this book of his. . . . He gave me in charge this said book, which I faithfully presented to his Majesty's own hands that night in Hurst Castle.' From W. Levett we also hear of the prepartions made for the printing of the book:

'Mr. Richard Royston told mee this day that his late Ma1y of blessed memory, King Charles the First, did send to him about Michmas before his martirdome to provide a Presse ; for hee had a booke of his owne for him to print. That upon Xmas Eve the said Booke came to his hande, brought to him by Mr. Simmons, a divine (since deceased). He supposed the same was sent to him by Dr. Duppa, late Bishop of Winchester. That his late Majesty did send with the coppie in manuscript a crown with wreathes of thorns; but before the printing thereof, and immediately after Xmas holliday 1648, his Majestie sent another figure to be ingraven in copper and annexed to the booke with "C.R." in it, and instead thereof sent that with his own effigie by. . . . [blank in original] 1648 printed with the first booke.' 2

This was the copy which the Royalist Symmons affirms to have been written with the King's own hand, and to have been delivered to him by the King himself from under 'his blue watchet waistcoat.' 3 But at this critical moment, when the manuscript was passing out of the keeping of the royal author into the hands of the printer, it was overtaken by the same hapless fate which throughout his life seemed doomed to mar at the crisis every scheme devised by the unfortunate sovereign. The press was prepared, in obedience to the 1 Signed and sealed, Oct. 16, 1690, William Levett.

2

Autograph letter, quoted p. 172.

3 Wagstaffe's Vindication, p. 107. The statement as to the 'blue waistcoat' is confirmed by a contemporary ode on A Portrait of the King in a Blue Waistcoat, beginning

'Here shines in a field azure such a star,' &c.

King's command; but before the precious MS. was consigned to the care of Royston, it was borrowed of Mr. Symmons by Dr. Gauden, who sat up a whole night to transcribe it.

This is the culminating piece of the whole evidence, and the reader will naturally expect to know the exact source whence it is derived. It is given at full length in Young's Several Evidences, and we will reduce it to as small a compass as possible. Mr. Le Pla, minister of Finchinfield (about six miles from Bocking, of which place, it will be remembered, Gauden was rector), writes a letter, dated Nov. 26, 1696, in which he describes a certain William Allen, a servant for many years in Gauden's family

'who came to see me; and after dinner, being alone with him, I fell into discourse with him about Dr. Gauden and the King's book. He said most people thought his master to be the author of it, or to have had the chief hand in it, or to that purpose. I told him I could never believe it for some reasons I then gave him. Whereupon he smiled and told me he could say more to that business than any man besides him; for that Dr. Gauden told him he had borrowed the book, and was obliged to return it by such a time; that, besides what other time he might employ in it, he sate up one whole night to transcribe it; that he, William Allen, sate up in the chamber with him to wait upon him, to make his fires, and snuff his candles.

I think he said this book was borrowed of Mr. Symmons, of Raine,1 one of the King's chaplains. . . . That which makes it very probable that Dr. Gauden had the book from Mr. Symmons is the near neighbourhood and great familiarity which I am told was between them. . . . Allen could read and write very well, and so could not easily be deceived either in the book or in his master's, though the Doctor had not told him that it was none of his.' 2

This testimony is further supported by a nephew of Mr. Symmons, the Rev. Robert Rogers, who declares his belief 'that Dr. Gauden borrowed the King's book from Mr. Symmons, of Raine, and transcribed it; and this Mr. Allen, Dr. Gauden's quondam servant, who was an eye-witness thereof, hath often declared in my hearing.' 3

Such was the origin of the false claim of Gauden to the authorship of the Icon Basilikè. The history of the true manuscript is rapidly drawing to its close. It was transcribed, by the King's order, by Mr. Oudart, secretary to Sir Edward Nicholas, and this transcript was printed, according to the testimony of the two apprentices who set up the types at

6

1. The distance between Raine church and Bocking church does not exceed a mile and a half.'-Tracts on the 'Icon Basilikè,' p. 125.

2 Ibid. p. 127.

3 Young's Several Evidences, p. 8.