The Children of the New Forest

The Children of the New Forest

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Title: The Children of the New Forest
Author: Captain Marryat
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6471] [Yes, we are more than
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Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST.
BY CAPT. MARRYAT, R.N.

1864.
CHAPTER I.
The circumstances which I am about to relate to my juvenile readers
took place in the year 1647. By referring to the history of England, of
that date, they will find that King Charles the First, against whom the
Commons of England had rebelled, after a civil war of nearly five years,
had been defeated, and was confined as a prisoner at Hampton Court.
The Cavaliers, or the party who fought for King Charles, had all been
dispersed and the Parliamentary army under the command of Cromwell
were beginning to control the Commons.
It was in the month of November in this year that King Charles,
accompanied by Sir John Berkely, Ashburnham, and Legg, made his
escape from Hampton Court, and rode as fast as the horses could carry

them toward that part of Hampshire which led to the New Forest. The
king expected that his friends had provided a vessel in which he might
escape to France, but in this he was disappointed. There was no vessel
ready, and after riding for some time along the shore, he resolved to go
to Titchfield, a seat belonging to the Earl of Southampton. After a long
consultation with those who attended him, he yielded to their advice,
which was, to trust to Colonel Hammond, who was governor of the Isle
of Wight for the Parliament, but who was supposed to be friendly to the
king. Whatever might be the feelings of commiseration of Colonel
Hammond toward a king so unfortunately situated, he was firm in his
duties toward his employers, and the consequence was that King
Charles found himself again a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle.
But we must now leave the king and retrace history to the
commencement of the civil war. A short distance from the town of
Lymington, which is not far from Titchfield, where the king took
shelter, but on the other side of Southampton Water, and south of the
New Forest, to which it adjoins, was a property called Arnwood, which
belonged to a Cavalier of the name of Beverley. It was at that time a
property of considerable value, being very extensive, and the park
ornamented with valuable timber; for it abutted on the New Forest, and
might have been supposed to have been a continuation of it. This
Colonel Beverley, as we must call him, for he rose to that rank in the
king's army, was a valued friend and companion of Prince Rupert, and
commanded several troops of cavalry. He was ever at his side in the
brilliant charges made by this gallant prince, and at last fell in his arms
at the battle of Naseby. Colonel Beverley had married into the family
of the Villiers, and the issue of his marriage was two sons and two
daughters; but his zeal and sense of duty had induced him, at the
commencement of the war, to leave his wife and family at Arnwood,
and he was fated never to meet them again. The news of his death had
such an effect upon Mrs. Beverley, already worn with anxiety on her
husband's account, that a few months afterward she followed him to an
early tomb, leaving the four children under the charge of an elderly
relative, till such time as the family of the Villiers could