Now! Then! John Reresby loses his sword between Barnsley and Wakefield

16 October 1685: John Reresby loses his sword between Barnsley and Wakefield

Heneage Dering. 1877. Autobiographical Memoranda. Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Ed. Charles Jackson. Durham: Surtees Society. Dean of Ripon etc., but focussed on London etc. – nothing of interest. Get it:

Excerpt

As I rode late between Barnsley and Wakefield I lost my sword out of my belt, and not discovering it till I came to my journey’s end I was troubled at it, because it was reputed unlucky for a soldier to lose his sword. But it so happened that as I returned to Thrybergh two days after, my men found it close to the roadside, though many persons travelling that way passed very near it, yet did not find it.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Original

October 16.
I returned home and met the news that I should recover 500l. of the 700l. which I feared to lose by the breaking of the goldsmith.
As I rode late between Barnsley and Wakefield I lost my sword out of my belt, and not discovering it till I came to my journey’s end I was troubled at it, because it was reputed unlucky for a soldier to lose his sword. But it so happened that as I returned to Thrybergh two days after, my men found it close to the road side, though many persons travelling that way passed very near it, yet did not find it.

113 words.