Now! Then! A Yorkshire Almanac for 2024

Excerpt

The 3rd of January (out of curiosity to see the spectacle of our public death) I went to Bramham moor to see the training of our light horse, for which service I myself had sent two horses, by commandment from the deputy lieutenants and Sir Jacob Astley, who is lately come down with special commission from the King to train and exercise them. These are strange, strange spectacles to this nation in this age, that have lived thus long peaceably, without noise of shot or drum, and after we have stood neutrals and in peace when all the world besides hath been in arms and wasted with it; it is I say a thing most horrible that we should engage ourself in a war one with another, and with our own venom gnaw and consume ourself. It is strange to see a flock of birds as it were an army in the air of one kind to fight and tear one another; and such fights hath been seen to prognosticate the events that should follow.

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The final sentence is ironic given his execution in 1658.

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Original

The 3rd of January (out of curiosity to see the spectacle of our public death) I went to Bramton [Bramham] moor to see the training of our light horse, for which service I my self had sent 2 horses, by commandment from the Deputy Lieutenants & Sir Jacob Astley who is lately come down with special commission from the King to train & exercise them. These are strange, strange spectacles to this nation in this age, that have lived thus long peaceably, without noise of shot or drum & after we have stood neutrals & in peace when all the world besides hath been in arms & wasted with it; it is I say a thing most horrible that we should engage ourself in a war one with another, & with our own venom gnaw & consume ourself. It is strange to see a flock of birds as it were an army in the air of one kind to fight & tear one another; & such fights hath been seen to prognosticate the events that should follow.

Our fear proceeds from the Scots who at this time are become most warlike, being exercised in the Swedish and German wars; & from hence many begun to call to mind a prophecy which did foretell that after England had been conquered by the Danes Saxons and Normans, at last it should be conquered by the Scots, but I hope this age will not find the effect of it. The cause of their grievance as they pretend is matter of religion; a fair pretext if the design be answerable to the cause, or that the cause be taken upon good ground: for what is more usual than to make religion a pretence & cloak for wickedness. Nihil enim in specie fallacius quam prava religio, ubi deorum numen prætenditur sceleribus. As if ambition, avarice, cruelty & revenge had not sufficient vigour & courage unless they came armed with Justice and devotion. The Scots do mainly stand in defence of the government of their church by the Presbytery, & admit not of any Bishops & therefore do now seek to expel out of the church those whom our King in his time hath established, fearing lest he might by degrees introduce a new form in their church; & the which made them the more fear it was that now of late he enjoined them to accept a form of public prayer & administering the sacrament somewhat differing from our book of common prayer, which they have refused to accept.

Neither the one nor the other can expect to receive advantage by this war where the remedy will prove worse than the disease. I like their opinion who would not have violence offered to the quiet repose of a country, no not to reform & cure the same, nor allow of the reformation which is purchased with the blood & ruin of the citizens. We ought not to usurp the tyrannical possessions of a Common Wealth, with such drugs as war brings, whose best physick is infection; it is of so ravenous & malign a nature that if it continue any while we shall not be able to distinguish the sound from the sick, both in respect of their manners, & of their estates; every man finding himself upon the point of his fortune’s overthrow and downfall; we seek by war to defend the Law, & while that we do so, we do but enter into actual Rebellion against her own ordinance. We pretend we do but chastise disobedience, & yet we show the example of it; we cure sedition & is therewith ourselves infected: what part will be exempted in these popular diseases from corruption where they shall find such freedom to all licentiousness? At such a time we need not go to Theatres to understand by fabulous representations the tragic revolutions of human fortune; ourselves shall be the actors, & calling Devils & furies to our help shall subvert all policies, disgrace magistracy, abuse Law, filling our minds & hearts with malice hatred & murder. These are times for Historians to write who seek, to avoid all calm narrations as a dead water, to fill their volumes with cruel wars & seditions. I desire not employments at these times; it is for those that will purchase it at any rates; undique totis usque adeo turbatur aquis: where to do evil is common, to do nothing is in a manner commendable. Yet I happened to be in some employment though it were but short. My Lord Deputy of Ireland sent his letters unto my Lord Mayor of York & to myself as Deputy Lieutenants. My Lord Mayor had a commission, but I had no other but his Lordship’s letters; by which I sat to assist my Lord Mayor in the taking the view of arms, the which I did perform most diligently, a thing not usual with me who does little affect business: therefore as I entered upon it by virtue of my Lord Deputies letters directed to my Lord Mayor & myself, after 2 months service I gave it over, being left out by the Vice-President in a general Summons to all the Deputy Lieutenants.

It is said that abstinence from doing is often as generous as doing. And he that cannot for conscience, at least for ambition, let him refuse ambition; it is not the best fortune that is raised the highest; the meaner it is the more solid & firm it is: & having pleasures suitable to our fortune, let us not usurp those of greatness: those actions are most commendable that are performed with no ostentation & those actions have most grace, which carelessly & under silence pass from the hands of a work man; but on the contrary we judge our actions lost, if they be not set out to show like Mountebanks, that show the operation of their skill upon scaffolds in view of all passengers, that more notice may be taken of them: so ambitious are we of renown, that goodness, moderation, equity, constancy, & such qualities, are little set by.

1000 words.

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• Acrobatics (1) ·
• Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain (2) ·
• Bishop (1) ·
• Bishops’ Wars (1) ·
• Bramham, West Yorkshire (2) ·
• Cavalier (16) ·
• Cavalry (4) ·
• Charles I (1600-49) (23), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625 until his execution in 1649 ·
• Church of England (87) ·
• Church of Scotland (1) ·
• Covenanters (4) ·
• Denmark (6) ·
• Eighty Years’ War (1) ·
• England (11) ·
• Germany (24) ·
• Gustavus Adolphus (1) ·
• Horse (70) ·
• Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1) ·
• Jacobean era (1) ·
• Light cavalry (1) ·
• Ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland (1) ·
• National Covenant (1) ·
• Nonconformism (47) ·
• Norman Conquest (6) ·
• Ornithomancy (3) ·
• Presbyterian polity (1) ·
• Protestantism (25) ·
• Puritans (15) ·
• Scotland (34) ·
• Slingsby, Henry (1602-58) (3), 1st Baronet, landowner, politician and soldier, MP at various times 1625-42, supported the Royalist cause, executed for conspiring to restore Charles II ·
• Stefano della Bella (1) ·
• Sweden (5) ·
• Theatre (22) ·
• Thirty Years’ War (1) ·
• Viking expansion (3) ·
• Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1) ·

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