Memoirs of a Cavalier | Page 5

part
by all the writers of those times. If they are here embellished with
particulars, which are nowhere else to be found, that is the beauty we
boast of; and that it is that much recommend this work to all the men of
sense and judgment that read it.
The only objection we find possible to make against this work is, that it
is not carried on farther, or, as we may say finished, with the finishing
the war of the time; and this we complain of also. But then we
complain of it as a misfortune to the world, not as a fault in the author;
for how do we know but that this author might carry it on, and have
another part finished which might not fall into the same hands, or may
still remain with some of his family, and which they cannot indeed
publish, to make it seem anything perfect, for want of the other parts
which we have, and which we have now made public? Nor is it very
improbable but that if any such farther part is in being, the publishing
these two parts may occasion the proprietors of the third to let the
world see it, and that by such a discovery the name of the person may
also come to be known, which would, no doubt, be a great satisfaction
to the reader as well as us.
This, however, must be said, that if the same author should have

written another part of this work, and carried it on to the end of those
times, yet as the residue of those melancholy days, to the Restoration,
were filled with the intrigues of government, the political management
of illegal power, and the dissensions and factions of a people who were
then even in themselves but a faction, and that there was very little
action in the field, it is more than probable that our author, who was a
man of arms, had little share in those things, and might not care to
trouble himself with looking at them.
But besides all this, it might happen that he might go abroad again at
that time, as most of the gentlemen of quality, and who had an
abhorrence for the power that then governed here, did. Nor are we
certain that he might live to the end of that time, so we can give no
account whether he had any share in the subsequent actions of that
time.
'Tis enough that we have the authorities above to recommend this part
to us that is now published. The relation, we are persuaded, will
recommend itself, and nothing more can be needful, because nothing
more can invite than the story itself, which, when the reader enters into,
he will find it very hard to get out of till he has gone through it.

MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER.


PART I.
It may suffice the reader, without being very inquisitive after my name,
that I was born in the county of Salop, in the year 1608, under the
government of what star I was never astrologer enough to examine; but
the consequences of my life may allow me to suppose some
extraordinary influence affected my birth.
My father was a gentleman of a very plentiful fortune, having an estate
of above £5000 per annum, of a family nearly allied to several of the
principal nobility, and lived about six miles from the town; and my

mother being at ---- on some particular occasion, was surprised there at
a friend's house, and brought me very safe into the world.
I was my father's second son, and therefore was not altogether so much
slighted as younger sons of good families generally are. But my father
saw something in my genius also which particularly pleased him, and
so made him take extraordinary care of my education.
I was taught, therefore, by the best masters that could be had,
everything that was needful to accomplish a young gentleman for the
world; and at seventeen years old my tutor told my father an academic
education was very proper for a person of quality, and he thought me
very fit for it: so my father entered me of ---- College in Oxford, where
I continued three years.
A collegiate life did not suit me at all, though I loved books well
enough. It was never designed that I should be either a lawyer,
physician, or divine; and I wrote to my father that I thought I had
stayed there long enough for a gentleman, and with his leave I desired
to give him a visit.
During my stay at Oxford, though I passed through the proper exercises
of the house, yet my chief reading was upon history and geography, as
that which pleased my