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The journal of John Stevens, containing a brief account of the war in Ireland, 1689–1691

Author: John Stevens

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Text ID Number: E680002-001

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Notes

Sources

Manuscript source
1. London, British Library, Add. 36296.
2. London, British Library, Lansdowne MSS. 828, ff. 10, 10 b, 11 (contains introduction)

Books by John Stevens
1. John Stevens, A Journal of my Travels since the Revolution containing a brief account of all the War in Ireland, ed. by R. H. Murray (Oxford 1912) [London: British Library, Add. Ms. 36,296].

Further Reading: a Selection
1. Gerard Boate, Ireland's Naturall History, London 1652. Chetham Society. Reprinted as 'Gerard Boate's natural history of Ireland', edited, with an introduction, by Thomas E. Jordan (New York 2006).
2. George Walker, A true account of the siege of London-Derry (London 1689).
3. An Account of the town and castle of Charlemont in Ireland, besieg'd by a detached body of the Duke of Schombergs army under the command of Lieutenant General Douglas (London 1689).
4. George Story, A true and impartial history of the most material occurrences in the kingdom of Ireland during the last two years: by an eye-witness (=An impartial history of the wars of Ireland, Part 1) (London 1691).
5. George Story, A continuation of the impartial history of the wars of Ireland (London 1693).
6. Laurence Eachard, An Exact Description of Ireland (London 1691).
7. Anon., An exact journal of the victorious progress of Their Majesties forces under the command of Gen. Ginckle, this summer in Ireland: giving a particular account of the several skirmishes, battles, sieges and surrenders of Athlone, Galloway, Slego, &c. together with the total defeat of the Irish at Agrim and Thomond-Bridge: and lastly of the capitulation and surrender of Limerick. (London: Printed for Randolph Taylor near Stationer's Hall, 1691).
8. Nicholas Bernard, The whole proceedings of the siege of Drogheda: to which is added, A true account of the siege of London-derry (Dublin 1736).
9. Robert Parker (of the Royal Regiment of Foot in Ireland), Memoirs of the Military Transactions in Ireland (...) from 1683 to 1718. Published by his son (Dublin 1746).
10. W. Harris, History of the Life and Reign of William III. (Dublin 1749).
11. Thomas Burke (de Burgho), Hibernia Dominicana: sive historia provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum [...] (Coloniae Agrippinae (= Cologne) 1762).
12. Mémoires du maréchal de Berwick, écrits par lui-même (...) (Paris 1778).
13. William Tighe, Statistical Survey of the County of Kilkenny (Dublin 1802).
14. John Nichols, Literary anecdotes of the eighteenth century: comprizing biographical memoirs of William Bowyer, Printer, F. S. A. and many of his learned friends (. . .), 9 volumes (London 1812–1816).
15. Rev. J. S. Clarke (ed.), The Life of King James the Second, King of England, etc., collected out of the Memoirs writ of his own Hand, 2 volumes (London 1816).
16. G. S., Two unpublished diaries connected with the battle of the Boyne, one entitled "Bonnivert's Journey" taken from the Sloane Mss. (Brit. Mus.) and the other from the autobiography of Rev. Rowland Davis, Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1:4 1856) 77–95; 169
17. Charles O'Kelly, Macariae Excidium, or the destruction of Cyprus, ed. J. C. O'Callaghan, 1850. [An allegory of the war from the Gaelic Irish point of view.]
18. J. D'Alton, King James' s Irish Army List, 1689 (Dublin 1861).
19. Onno Klopp, Der Fall de Hauses Stuart und die Succession des Hauses Hannover in Gross-Britannien und Irland (Vienna 1875–1888).
20. P. W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland. 2 volumes. (New York, London, and Bombay 1903).
21. The memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe, wife of Sir Richard Fanshawe, bart., 1600–72, reprinted from the original MS. in the possession of Mr. Evelyn John Fanshawe of Parsloes, (London 1907).
22. Demetrius Charles Boulger, The Battle of the Boyne: together with an account based on French and other unpublished records of the war in Ireland (1688–1691) and of the formation of the Irish brigade (...) France (London: Seeker 1911).
23. Robert H. Murray, Revolutionary Ireland and its Settlement (London 1911).
24. Robert H. Murray, The diary of Bonnivert, 1690, (giving an account of the Jacobite War), PRIA 30, sect. C, 331–341, January 1913 [Available online at CELT].
25. Robert H. Murray, Ireland, 1603–1714 (London 1920).
26. J. M. Flood, The sieges of Limerick, 1690–91; a narrative based on contemporary sources. (Limerick: Limerick Leader, 1944).
27. R. B. McDowell, 'The problem of religious dissent in Ireland, 1660–1740'. Bulletin, Irish Committee of Historical Sciences 40 (1945).
28. J. G. Simms, Williamite peace tactics, 1690-1, Irish Historical Studies 8:32 (1952/53) 303–23.
29. J. Jordan, 'Würtemberg at Limerick, 1690'. Studies; an Irish quarterly review, 43 (1954) 219–225.
30. J(ohn) G(erard) Simms, 'The surrender of Limerick, 1691'. Irish Sword, 2:1 (1954) 23–28.
31. Constantia Maxwell, The stranger in Ireland: from the reign of Elizabeth to the Great Famine (London 1954).
32. J. G. Simms, The Williamite confiscation in Ireland, 1690–1703 (London: Faber and Faber 1956).
33. J. G. Simms, 'Eye-witnesses of the Boyne'. Irish Sword, 6:22 (1963–4) 16–27.
34. J. G. Simms, 'The siege of Derry (1689)'. Irish Sword, 6:25 (1963–4) 221–33.
35. J. G. Simms, The Jacobite Parliament of 1689 (Dundalk: Dundalgan 1966).
36. J. G. Simms, The siege of Derry (Dublin: APCK 1966).
37. J. G. Simms, Jacobite Ireland 1685-91 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1969).
38. Liam Cox, The Williamite war in Westmeath and Ginkle's march to Athlone, Irish Sword 9 (1970) 308–317.
39. F.G. James, Ireland in the Empire, 1688-1770: a history of Ireland from the Williamite wars to the eve of the American Revolution (Cambridge MA 1973).
40. Michael Hewson, Robert Stearne's diary of the Williamite campaign, An Cosantóir 33 (1977) 49–53.
41. Sheila Mulloy, 'French eye-witness of the Boyne', Irish Sword 15 (1982) 105–111.
42. J. G. Simms, War and politics in Ireland: 1649–1730; edited by D.W. Hayton and Gerard O'Brien. London: Hambledon, 1986.
43. Patrick Macrory, The siege of Derry (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988).
44. Peter McCartney, The siege of Derry 1689 (Derry: Guildhall Press, 1988).
45. D. Murtagh, H. Murtagh, 'The Irish Jacobite army, 1689–91', Irish Sword, 18 (1990) 32–48.
46. P. W. Joyce, The origin and history of Irish names of places. [Facsimile of the original edition in 3 volumes published 1869–1913.] With a new introductory essay on P.W. Joyce by Mainchín Seoighe. Dublin: Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke 1995.
47. John McVeagh (ed.), Irish Travel Writing. A Bibliography. (Dublin 1996).
48. Ian McBride, he siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology (Dublin 1997).
49. William Kelly (ed.), The sieges of Derry. (Dublin: Four Courts 2001).
50. Michael Sheane, The great siege (Ilfracombe 2002).
51. Michael Sheane, King William's victory: the Battle of the Boyne (Ilfracombe 2006).
52. John Childs, The Williamite wars in Ireland, 1688–91 (London 2007).
53. Matthew Glozier and David Onnekink (eds.), War, religion and service: Huguenot soldiering, 1685–1713 (Aldershot 2007).
54. C. J. Woods, Travellers' accounts as source material for Irish historians (Dublin 2009).

The edition used in the digital edition
1. The journal of John Stevens, containing a brief account of the war in Ireland, 1689–1691. John StevensRobert H. Murray (ed), First edition [lxiv+241 pages; appendix, index; bibliography; one map.] Clarendon Press Oxford (1912)

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Created: By John Stevens Date range: 1689–1691.

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Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E680002-001

The journal of John Stevens, containing a brief account of the war in Ireland, 1689–1691: Author: John Stevens

PREFACE

This first edition of the Journal of John Stevens has had the advantage of the criticisms of two masters of seventeenth-century history, Mr. R. Bagwell and Professor C. H. Firth, who most kindly read through the manuscript and proof-sheets. To Professor Fitzmaurice-Kelly's special and intimate knowledge of Spanish literature I owe not a little. Mr. A. C. Stewart, of the British Museum, furnished me with valuable suggestions. Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have been good enough to allow me to use the map of Limerick in my Revolutionary Ireland and its Settlement. My thanks are due to Dr. F. Elrington Ball and Mr. T. U. Sadleir, for their readiness to advise me on difficult points, and also to Major and Mrs. Lenox Conyngham, of Spring Hill, for their kindness in lending me their copy of the Negociations ... en Irlande, 1689–90 by Comte d'Avaux. It only remains for me to express my gratitude to my wife for the patience and judgement with which she revised the proof-sheets.

p.ix

Introduction

The Life of John Stevens

Of the life of John Stevens not many details remain, but from his journal some facts emerge. Thus, he served three years in the army in Portugal, he was in civil employment in England, and at the time of the Revolution he was collecting the excise and was stationed at Welshpool; he spent a year in Wales. He first saw Drogheda in 1685, and Limerick in 1686, and when he lived in Dublin he did so ‘in esteem and with splendour’. Twice in his journal he refers to a book of his travels in Ireland, but this has disappeared. In Singer's edition of the Clarendon correspondence occur some references to him. In the Appendix to the first volume is printed the Earl of Clarendon's list of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, with remarks on their character. There Stevens is described as ‘an honest, sober, young fellow, and a pretty scholar. His father is a page of the back-stairs to the Queen Dowager, and has been so from her first landing: he waited on my father in Spain. He is a Roman Catholic. They are very good, quiet people. I would be glad to get a colours for him.’ The advent of Tyrconnel to power effectually stopped all favour for any friend of Clarendon. On October 23, 1686, the latter wrote to Rochester:
‘We have now fresh reports out of England that there are speedily to be great alterations in the army; and reports of that kind having often proved true, I hope your Lordship will forgive me, if by way of provision I take the liberty upon the encouragement you have formerly given me, to bespeak your Lordship's favour on behalf of some young men who have depended upon me, and came over with me, and to whom I would be very glad to do good. And, if

p.x

On November 17, 1686, he again wrote to Rochester:
‘This bearer, Stevens, came over with me, one of my gentlemen at large; he is a very honest young man; his father is a page of the back-stairs to the Queen Dowager, and did formerly wait upon my father at Madrid. I intended to have done something for him, but so little interest has a Lord Lieutenant at present, that he can provide for nobody, which makes men think a little of themselves. His father has sent over for him, in hopes to get him into something there; if he have need of your help, let me beg you to assist him. I am sure he will deliver a letter safe to you, and therefore I will write of such things as are not fit to mention by the post.’

Two days later he writes to the same correspondent: ‘I have written to you by a servant of mine who goes hence to-day for Chester; one Stevens, who will deliver it safe to you within a few days after this.’ Stevens was an ardent Jacobite, and therefore he fled to France on the nth of January, 1689. On the 2nd of May, 1689, he landed at Bantry, and took part in the war. The journal ceases in the middle of an account of the battle of Aughrim. He was not attainted until 1695: his death occurred on October 26, 1726.

Before the Jacobite war he had paid some attention to literature, but after the war he devoted himself to it. There can be no doubt that Stevens knew Spanish well, but this was not a very rare accomplishment in his time. Hence he cannot be regarded as a pioneer. There is a steady production of translations from Spanish dating back to the early sixteenth century, when Lord Berners issued his versions of San Pedro's Cárcel de Amor and Guevara's Libro aureo.

p.xi

It is plain, then, that Stevens was not an explorer in an unknown domain. He had many predecessors, and his work is not on the same level as the work of the best of his predecessors. His translations are not equal to North's Guevara, to David Rowland's Lazarillo de Tormés, to Shelton's Cervantes. And he had an unhappy trick of inviting comparisons. Thus in 1706 he takes Shelton in hand, and issues him revised and corrected, and so on. It is difficult not to resent this. It may be that Stevens corrects some of Shelton's oversights, but in doing this he lowers the tone of the translation, and all the sparkle goes out of it. Again, take the volume published by Stevens in 1707, under the title of The Spanish Libertines. It contains, amongst other things, a version of La Celestina. A man who knows no Spanish might get some idea of the original by reading this version, but it is a wan, pale transcription indeed if one compares it with the vigorous, full-blooded translation of La Celestina, issued by James Mabbe

p.xii

From his numerous works nothing personal can be gleaned about the writer: they are uniformly inscribed ‘Captain Stevens.’ Even the dedications yield scanty information. The translation of Sandoval's History of Charles V is dedicated in 1705 to James, Duke of Ormonde, and runs as follows: ‘I should be wholly at a loss how to accost your Grace, did I present you a work of another nature; but the martial spirit that reigns throughout this whole book, emboldens me to approach so noble a person, who has made war his exercise and delight.’ The subscribers to The History of the Ancient Abbeys include peers, prelates, and clergy, but with the exception of Sir John Vanbrugh their names are not very well known. There are a few Irish subscribers, such as Mr. Williamson of Dublin, merchant. From the preface to this book it is evident that Stevens formed a high impression of the value of his work. ‘It is well known,’ he states, ‘that Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World at the first met with a very cold reception; but time made its value known. The Monasticon Anglicanum lay many years before its fame had spread itself abroad. Many now celebrated writers have been for some time as it were buried, and unregarded. I do not mean to rank myself among them; but this I am fully convinced of, that as prejudice shall begin to wear off I shall meet with a more favourable entertainment.’ His first publication was an abridged translation in three octavo volumes of Manoel de Faria e Sousa's Europa Portugueza: it appeared in 1695. Three years afterwards

p.xiii

‘As for the method here intended,’ the advertisement declares, ‘it is to publish every month, as much as will make a book of 12d., or 18d., according as it can be contrived, without breaking off abruptly, to leave the relation maimed and imperfect.
[...]
Now each month being sold stitched, every buyer may afterwards bind them up when he has an author complete.
[...]
All the books shall be adorned with proper maps and useful cuts.’

p.xiv

The Collection of Voyages and Travels consists of The Description, &c., of the Molucca and Philippine Islands, by L. de Argensola; The Travels of P. de Cieza in Peru; The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia; The Captivity of the Sieur Mouette in Fez and Morocco; The Travels of P. Teixeira from India to the Low Countries by Land; and A Voyage to Madagascar by the Sieur Cauche. This collection was republished in 1719.

A devout Roman Catholic, Stevens exhibited much interest in ecclesiastical matters. In 1718 he published, without putting the usual ‘Captain Stevens’ on the title-page, a folio translation and abridgement of Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. Ralph Thoresby, a correspondent of Stevens, attributed it to a Spanish priest. According to him it is ‘an useful book in its kind’, though ‘there are both typographical errors and others, besides some reflections upon the Revolution’.¹ In 1722–3 Stevens published The History of the Antient Abbeys, Monasteries, Hospitals, Cathedral and Collegiate Churches,... being two additional volumes to Sir William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. In 1722 he issued anonymously Monasticon Hibernicum; or the monastical History of Ireland. According to Stevens ‘the same is neither a translation nor his own compiling’. He uses Louis Alemand's Histoire Monastique d'Irlande (Paris, 1690) extensively, and though ‘this Monastical History of Ireland is due to him, he having laid the foundations, and found most of the materials, yet can it not be called a translation, on account of the many additions and alterations that have been made to it.’² Unlike his adaptation of Herrera, his version of the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of Britain is so literal as to be obscure. Some of the notes were used by W. Hurst in his translation published in 1814, while in 1840 Dr. Giles and the volume in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, Camden

p.xv

All the time these historical, ecclesiastical, and commercial volumes were pouring forth Stevens was not forgetting his literary studies. In 1697 was issued his version of Francisco Manoel de Mello's The Government of a Wife: it was dedicated to Don Sen da Cunha, the Portuguese envoy. In the same year Stevens published a version of Quevedo's Fortune in her Wits, or the Hour of all Men. In 1707 he issued

p.xvi

p.xvii

Authorities on the Jacobite War

Thus our author's tale of work is long and not altogether undistinguished. One example, however, remains to be considered, and it belongs to a class entirely different from all the others. This is A Journal of My Travels since the Revolution, and it has not been published till now. This journal begins on January 16, 1689, and abruptly closes on July 1, 1691, while the writer is giving an account of the battle of Aughrim; perhaps his copy fell out of his knapsack. As this volume constitutes an important addition to the literature of the Revolution in Ireland it becomes necessary for us to consider the authorities for that movement. In the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, there are seven folio volumes of much importance. These volumes begin with a proclamation of 1671, and a list of goods sold by Arthur Gore on June 19, 1676, and proceed to give a letter of Tyrconnel, December 18, 1689, which informs us that the Derry people ‘continue obstinate in their rebellion.’ They come down to February, 1692, when they cease. Among them are original letters from James to Hamilton, while the latter was engaged in the siege of the maiden city. In Trinity College, Dublin, is preserved the correspondence of George Clarke, Secretary-at-war (1690–4). Clarke's thirteen volumes are larger than the seven of the R. I. A., and they deal with operations all over Ireland. This secretary preserved all letters sent to him, and from them an intelligible view of the Williamite side of the war can be obtained. From the Jacobite standpoint they can be supplemented by the material in the Archives des Affaires Étrangères, Paris. Much trouble is caused to the student by the fact that these

p.xviii

Among the published authorities J. S. Clarke's Life of James II ranks as a primary authority. James, like his cousin Louis XIV, spent time in compiling an account of his life. Before he sent his wife and child with Lauzun to a place of safety in 1688 he secured his Memoirs, which he had kept most carefully. James enclosed them in a box and gave it to Terriesi, the Tuscan envoy. He sent to Terriesi one of his most confidential servants at midnight with papers and writings, requesting him to take charge of them as ‘he knew not where to place them in more honest hands.’
‘So the King having just time to thrust them all confusedly into it, sent it to him, which he, imagining it to be jewels of great value, was exceeding careful of it; tho' that imagination had like to have occasioned its miscarriage
[...]
An Italian servant of the envoy's conveyed it safe to Leghorn, as directed; from whence the Grand Duke sent two galleys on purpose to convoy it into France, through

p.xix

While James was living at Saint-Germain he added notes upon later events. During the French Revolution the manuscript of the Memoirs was burnt. Tradition relates that it was brought to Saint-Omer with the intention of depositing it safely in England, but as it bore the arms of England and France fear of the revolutionary government caused its destruction. Though the Memoirs thus perished, yet a biography based upon them remained in existence. King James's son gave orders for a Life of his father soon after 1701. Ranke does not think that evidence exists to warrant the assumption that Innes, Principal of the Scots College, had the largest share in the composition, although James confided his Memoirs and papers to Innes a few months before his death. The Chevalier de Saint-George read the Life, underlined passages in it, and bequeathed it to his family. In 1707 he sent for that part of the Memoirs which referred to the year 1678. After the death of the Duchess of Albany, the wife of Charles Edward, the Life passed into the hands of the Benedictines at Rome, and was purchased by the British Government. The Napoleonic wars placed obstacles in the way of its safe transmission. It came to Leghorn, then to Tunis, then to Malta, and at last, in 1810, to England. The Prince Regent, who had a regard for the Stuarts, requested his chaplain and librarian, J. Stanier Clarke, to edit it, and in 1816 two handsome volumes were issued.

p.xx

The Life is in four parts. The first, which is unimportant, goes down to the Restoration in 1660; the second, which is most valuable, to the accession of James II; the third to his flight from England at the end of 1688; and the fourth embraces the rest of his life. Ranke ⁵ analyses the value of the four parts with his usual acuteness. It is clear that the original was written in a fragmentary manner—the most detailed portions by James, others compiled by his secretaries. Ranke did not use the Caryll Papers, which show that John Caryll, secretary to James's wife, Mary Beatrice, was working at the Life. Its originals are preserved at Windsor, with the other Stuart Papers, uncatalogued and inaccessible to the public.⁶ At Welbeck there is a MS. (folio) which successively belonged to Henri Oswald de la Tour d'Auvergne, Archbishop of Vienna, Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, Sir Thomas Phillipps, who also owned the Journal of Stevens, and the Duke of Portland. The title of this MS. is ‘Memoires de Jacques Second, Roy de la Grande Bretagne, etc. De glorieuse Memoire. Contenant l'histoire des quatre Campagnes que sa Majesté fit, estant Duc de York, sous Henry de la Tour D'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, dans les Années 1652, 1653, 1654 et 1655
[...]
Traduits sur l'Original Anglois écrit de la propre main de sa dite Majesté, conservé par son ordre dans les Archives du Collége des Ecossois á Paris. Le tout certifié et attesté par la Reyne Mère et Regente de la Grande Bretagne, etc., MDCCIV.’ From his careful survey of the Memoirs Ranke concludes that the biography is not the work of James. The extracts, however, of Carte and Macpherson prove that it is based on autobiographical notes and other authentic material. When the biographer does not use these, his work possesses little value: where he agrees with the extracts, there is little doubt that we have

p.xxi

In 1830 the British Foreign Office printed privately the Négociations de M. le Comte D'Avaux en Irlande. These negotiations are concerned with the years 1689 and 1690, and cover over 750 pages. They are of the greatest value in revealing the motives of the inner policy of Louis XIV, the divisions among the Irish, the state of the army, and kindred problems. In the Memoirs of Sir J. Dalrymple there is printed a useful selection of letters. Mr. W. J. Hardy has edited the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series; volumes i, ii, and iii cover the years 1689 to 1691. In the Record Office, London, the State Papers, Ireland, volumes 352 and 353, the State Papers, Ireland, Signet Office, volume xii, and the State Papers, Ireland, Entry Books, volume i, are of the utmost importance.

The author of A Light to the Blind is probably Nicholas Plunket, an able lawyer, member of a branch of the house of Fingall. Under the pseudonym of John Rogers he acted in 1713–14 as a secret agent in England and on the Continent, working zealously in the interests of James Francis Edward Stuart. Together with the secretary of James, David Nairne, he planned a Jacobite descent to make their master James III of England. The exact title of Plunket's volume is A Light to the Blind; whereby they may see the dethronement of James the second, king of England: with a brief narrative of his war in Ireland: and of the war between the emperor and the king of France for the crown of Spain. Anno 1711. It begins with an account of James II before and after his accession to the crown, and furnishes details of the last

p.xxii

p.xxiii

Colonel Charles O'Kelly (1621–95) in his Macariae Excidium, or The Destruction of Cyprus, writes from the point of view of one who fought on the side of King James. He had fought for the Stuarts from the days of Cromwell, and he finally sheathed his sword in 1691. He was an old

p.xxiv

The internal evidence points to the conclusion that the Latin text is the original of O'Kelly's narrative. Unlike Plunket, he is not at all friendly to Tyrconnel, and is a warm partisan of St. Ruth. Making allowance for these prejudices, Macariae Excidium is a very able record.

William King, the greatest archbishop of Dublin; wrote The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late

p.xxvi

p.xxvii

Among the published material it is difficult to find detailed accounts of the Jacobite War. Works like Dumont de Bostaquet's Mémoires inédits, Berwick Mémoires, Schomberg's Diary, the Journal of Mullenaux, and Parker's Memoirs, give on the whole scanty detail. The few unpublished records resemble the published in this matter. Thus Ensign Cramond's diary (Add. 29878) gives no information of importance. It has no title, but begins ‘The Route of Colonel Wauchope's Regiment beginning the 15 of October, 1688.’ Cramond served in the Low Countries and in Ireland from 1688 to 1691, but was clearly a man of action and nothing else. His diary follows immediately after the details of the number of miles marched each day; and at the end of the slim volume there are money accounts. There are thirty-seven written leaves in it, besides almost the same number that are blank. Bonnivert's Journal (1033, British Museum) is somewhat more satisfactory, though it is also deficient in detail. It occupies only twelve written leaves, besides one leaf of drawings and two of medical receipts. It has no title, but begins ‘I came out of London the 6 of June, 1690.’ On f. 5, according to Bonnivert, the Enniskilleners ‘are but middle sized men, but they are nevertheless brave fellows. I have seen 'em like masty dogs run against bullets.’ F. 8 points out that at the battle of the Boyne the enemy ‘drew up upon a line only, and our army was upon three.’ The account of the battle is wretched: there are no particulars of the movements of the troops. Nevertheless Bonnivert finds space to record the fact that his

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The Journal of John Stevens

It is a satisfaction to turn from the meagre information of these two diaries to the comparatively ample account of John Stevens. His journal measures 8 x 4 3/4; inches and covers no less than 163 pages. The copy now edited lies in the British Museum (Add. 36296). It was bought at the sale of the library of Sir F. A. F. Constable, of Tixall, in 1899. It belonged previously to John Warburton, Somerset Herald, being lot 326 in the sale-catalogue of his library in 1759. The Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century, by the Rev. John Kirk, D.D., edited by J. H. Pollen, S.J., and E. Burton, D.D., affords some additional information on the history of the manuscript from 1759 to 1899. Dr. Kirk was born in 1760 and died in 1851. He finished his work, which was a part of his projected continuation of Dodd's Church History, in 1841, but it was not printed till 1909. The editors conjecture that the majority of the Lives were written before 1820. In a short notice of Stevens on p. 219, the writer refers to the Journal:
‘In the library of Burton Constable, I remember to have seen a MS. (M. 266) with this title: A Journal of my Travels since the Revolution. Containing a brief account of all the War in Ireland impartially related, and what

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He also mentions the printed slip which is pasted on the title-page of the British Museum copy. This newspaper cutting states that:
‘The Author of the above was Mr. John Stevens, a Roman Catholic, and before and at the Revolution, a Collector of the Excise in Wales: after which he followed the Fortunes of his Master, and became a Captain in the Army. He is well known to the learned World by his valuable Continuation of Dugdale's Monasticon, and numerous translations chiefly from the Spanish and Portuguese.—S. P.’

At the end of the notice of Cuthbert Constable, formerly Tunstall, in Dr. Kirk's volume, there is a short list of manuscripts at Burton Constable, in which the Journal is included (p. 54). But as Cuthbert Constable died in 1746, and as the Journal was in the Warburton sale in 1759, it must have been after his time that the Journal was acquired. The purchase at the Tixall sale in 1899 is intelligible, for Sir Thomas Hugh Clifford Constable, originally Clifford, succeeded both to Tixall and Burton Constable. It is interesting to note that the printed slip, pasted on the title page of Add. 36296 has evidently been taken from a sale-catalogue; lots 1050 to 1054 are catalogued on the other side. The initials S. P. are those of Samuel Parker, bookseller and auctioneer. Though he sold the Warburton Library, this extract has not been taken from that catalogue, 1759. In the Warburton Catalogue, lots 318 to 327 are all Stevens's manuscripts. Lot 325 is A Diary or Account of my Life (Capt. Stevens's) and Actions, written by himself, 8vo. Lot 326 is A Journal of my Travels since the Revolution —it is Add. 36296; while lot 327 is A Journal of all my Travels since I left London, to follow our most merciful, most pious and

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A version of an introduction to the Journal will be found in Lansdowne MSS. 828, ff. 10, 10b, 11, beginning, ‘I had been above a year in Wales, upon business, at the time when the never to be forgotten catastrophe, commonly called the Revolution, happened
[...]
’ and ending, ‘Perceiving I could expect no further security, I resolved to withdraw, sent for my horses over night, and left Poole the next morning early, being Monday.’ On f. 10b the writer, in stating the scope of his work, refers to himself as ‘having in order to this constantly kept a journal, and often broke my rest, after much fatigue, rather than interrupt the series of my observations.’ Though in general these three pages differ from Add. 36296 there are still obvious points of similarity. There is another version not merely of the introduction but of a large part of the Journal, and this was used by Ranke ( History of England principally in the Seventeenth Century, vi, pp. 128–43). Ranke married an Irishwoman, a daughter of John Cosby Graves of Dublin, and in 1865 he went to Cheltenham in order to pay a visit to his brother-in-law, John Graves. Bishop Graves of Limerick was another brother-in-law. The well-known antiquary. Sir Thomas Phillipps, lived in the neighbourhood and permitted Ranke to use his famous collection (cf. ‘Reminiscences of Leopold von Ranke’, by his son, General Friduhelm von Ranke, in Temple Bar, March 1906). Sir Thomas evidently on this visit gave the historian access to his copy of the Journal of Stevens. This copy and the British Museum one differ in some particulars, and the differences can be clearly

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It would not appear that the two versions end at the same place. Ranke (vi. 143) seems to indicate that his version stops at July 30, 1690, whereas Add. 36296 continues to July 12, 1691. The British Museum manuscript appears to be an earlier version than that quoted by Ranke. The evidence, such as it is, seems to point to this conclusion. Reference, however, should be made to the erasures in Add. 36296. On f. 80b, nine lines, which are not in Ranke, have been crossed out, and these lines are clearly utilized on ff. 81b, 82 of the manuscript. This, though by no means conclusive, would, considering the similarity of the two versions, argue in favour of the priority of Add. 36296. It is true that there has been an alteration in the title of Add. 36296, which would go against the view suggested. In this case, on the other hand, it is evident that the alteration

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The Journal (Add. 36296) cannot have been kept from day to day, but has been written up from notes that have been so kept. Clearly Stevens kept such a day-to-day journal, and he must have based the present work very closely upon it. But this work, viz. Add. 36296, cannot be that day-to-day journal, for it has certainly been written up afterwards. In the first place the appearance and the form of the work both afford proof of that. The Journal is divided into an introduction and two parts, a system of division which suggests that the writer had the end in sight. Apart, however, from questions of appearance and form, there are various passages where Stevens obviously generalizes and anticipates in a way which he could not have done had he been writing from day to day. A short list of such passages places this beyond doubt: the italics, of course, are the editor's:
f. 14b. ‘I understood not this word then, but having afterwards found the benefit of it, think it not amiss in this place, to give an account of it, which is this.’
f. 23. ‘the following part of my exile will show I have not wanted my part in most sort of sufferings.’

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F. 50b illustrates the character of the work. ‘As I do not pretend to write a history or give an account’, Stevens points out, ‘of the particular transactions of the times, but only as far as I was concerned, or where I was present myself, so having spent much time in speaking of my private affairs, it will not be amiss to set down some few observations of the general state of affairs, during this my vacation from business though not from sufferings.’ The reference on f. 118b to f. 92 is also illustrative: ‘This town and the road to it I shall not need to give any account of in this place, having said as much of it as is requisite before, when we passed the same way the first time towards Athlone, as is to be seen in this book, i. 92.’

The Journal, then, of Stevens was not kept from day to day. It thus lacks order; dates are dropped into it or are left out of it as the purpose of the writer is best served. On the whole, though the Journal is barren of some personal details one wants to know, it is a very human document indeed. It is plain that a scholar like the author did not relish his life as a soldier. He is conscious of the mistakes of his generals, of the loss of promotion, of the lack of pay, of the blisters on his feet, and of the hunger in his stomach. Stevens sees and he makes the reader see. For the truth, the sincerity, and the reality of his account of the Jacobite war much grumbling may be forgiven him. In interest his Journal is comparable to Mercer's Journal of the Waterloo

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The Condition of the Army

Upon the commissariat of the army Stevens has somewhat to say, and the method of supplying clothing deserves attention. The pay of the soldier consisted of (i) subsistence money, the regulated rates being, for a trooper, two shillings out of his total of two and sixpence; for a dragoon, one and twopence out of one and sixpence; for a foot-soldier, sixpence out of eightpence, (ii) the gross off-reckonings, which were the difference between the whole pay and the subsistence, and (iii) the net off-reckonings, which were the balance of the gross off-reckonings after all lawful deductions. These net off-reckonings formed the clothing fund, and belonged to the colonel for that purpose. Out of the off-reckonings was deducted one shilling in the pound on the whole pay, besides one day's pay per annum, for Chelsea Hospital and other purposes. Take the case of a private foot-soldier:—
£ s. d.
Total pay at 8d. per day . . .12 3 4
Deduct subsistence at 6d. . . .9 2 6
Gross off-reckonings. . .3 0 10
s. d.
Deduct 1s per £ on annual pay. . .1 2 2
One day's pay for Chelsea. . .0 8
0 12 10
Net off-reckonings. . .2 8 0

These net off-reckonings belonged to the colonel, and out of them he was obliged to clothe his regiment. This amount was not excessive for each private, for in 1678 two pounds thirteen shillings was reckoned the proper cost of the annual clothing of an infantry soldier. Of course, allowance must be made for the saving effected by regimental contracts. Moreover, some clothing was not required because of casualties and non-effective men. When the regiment was on active service the colonel could not employ a contractor,

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It is clear that the margin of profit to a just colonel was reduced to a vanishing point, yet it is common to find that the colonel received from £200 to £600 a year from the net off-reckonings. This money was of course stolen from the private soldier.⁷ Not only was he thus defrauded, but he also suffered in other ways. Even the subsistence money of sixpence a day was tampered with. In April 1686 Clarendon wrote to Rochester: ‘And some (Irish) colonels told me they were offered £600 by tradesmen to have the clothing of their regiments, which they thought a very unconscionable thing, to get so much money into their own pockets out of the poor soldiers' bellies. I confess I thought it very hard that the King should allow 6d. a day, and the poor soldier have but 2d. of it.’ It was easy to swindle the soldier, for the colonel appointed the regimental agents, through whose hands all the money passed. These agents bribed the commanding officer, sometimes offering him so much as £600 for the year. Sometimes instead of a lump sum the colonel received a percentage on the contract. Sometimes the amount of the contract was increased and the colonel received the increase. These abuses were checked by the plan adopted by the colonel of the Irish Foot-Guards. He allowed each captain to arrange for his company, but this excellent method was not carried out by his successor. On the 10th of April, 1686, Clarendon wrote to Rochester:
‘Speaking of the clothing of the army puts me in mind to tell you of a particular. My lord Arran (who loved to get money) left the clothing of the regiment of Guards to each particular captain to take care of his own company, which got him the perfect love of the officers. My Lord of Ossory has ordered it otherwise, and sent orders to the Receiver-General (at least it is come in his name) to pay the deductions no more to the captains, but that he will appoint

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Schomberg complained repeatedly in his dispatches of the neglect and cheating of the men by their officers, of the bad state of the men's clothing, and of the astonishing avarice of the colonels who thought of nothing beyond making an income out of their regiments. He characterized the officers of the artillery as ignorant, lazy, and timid.⁸ On the officers in general he made remarks in his letters to William on August 27 and September 20, 1689. The latter of these pointed out that ‘il y a bien encore d'autres officiers que je voudrais qu'ils fussent en Angleterre. Je n'ai jamais vu de plus méchants et de plus interessés; tout le soin des colonels n'est que de vivre de leurs regiments, sans aucune autre application.’ ‘If the Irish colonels’, he writes, ‘were as capable and as eager for war as they are for sending forage parties to plunder the country
[...]
our affairs would stand better. The incapacity of the officers is indeed great, but their carelessness and laziness are still greater.’ The ignorant and indolent officers delayed the erection of huts till it was too late to procure dry timber for the walls or dry straw for the roofs.⁹ On December 26, Schomberg wrote: ‘I never was in an army where are so many new and lazy officers. If all were broke who deserved it on this account, there would be few left.’ ¹⁰ If Schomberg had grounds for complaining of the character of his officers, Rosen and Lauzun had equally good grounds for complaining of the character of theirs. Mr. Osborne's paper of March 9 and 10, 1689, states ‘that for the Irish army, though their horses were good, yet their riders were but contemptible fellows, many of

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In another letter of April 16/6, 1689, to Louvois he declared that ‘la pluspart de ces regimens sont levez par des gentils-hommes, qui n'ont jamais esté à l'armée, que ce sont des tailleurs, des bouchers, des cordonniers, qui ont formé les compagnies qui les entretiennent à leurs despens, et en les capitaines.’ Macaulay doubtless had this letter before him when he wrote that ‘Their colonels were generally men of good family, but men who had never seen service. Their captains were butchers, tailors, shoemakers.’ It is therefore necessary

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When Macaulay therefore censures the bad clothing of the troops as due to the defective commissariat he is in error: it was really due mainly to the avarice of the colonels and slightly to the neglect of the captains.

It is worthy of notice that the colonel and lieutenant-colonel had troops in the cavalry and companies in the infantry, and they drew pay as captains of these in addition to their pay as colonels and lieutenant-colonels. In foot regiments the major had always a company, but not in horse or dragoon regiments. The colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major with the adjutant, quarter-master, and surgeon constituted the regimental staff. The other officers were divided into three grades, captain, lieutenant, and ensign in the infantry or cornet in the cavalry. Promotion as a rule went by selection on the colonel's recommendation, not by seniority or merit. From the autobiography of James II it appears that he bought the Earl of Macclesfield's first troop of Guards for the Duke of Monmouth in 1674.¹¹ On June 22, 1686, Clarendon wrote to Sunderland:
‘My lord Tyrconnel told me, tho' I had nothing of it from your Lordship (which I should have been very glad to have known the King's mind in), that the King gave Col. Salkeld the command of the Horse Grenadiers as a recompense of his former services, in lieu of his employment of lieutenant-colonel, and in order to his disposing of it to his advantage. Though I know it is against his Majesty's resolution of not suffering commands in the army to be sold, yet, considering what has been told me, and that there can be no harm in making the proposition, I am desired by my Lord Ikerrin, that the King may be acquainted, that his Lordship and Col. Salkeld are agreed for that command of the Grenadiers; but then my Lord Ikerrin hopes that the King will give him leave to surrender the company, which he now has, to a friend of his; and he desires it may be to one Lieutenant John Roth. If his Majesty approve hereof, your Lordship will be pleased to let me know it, and to send over the commissions.’

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Stevens has a detailed description of the first siege of Limerick, and in it one matter calls for comment. ‘I can affirm’, writes the Duke of Berwick, ‘that not a single drop of rain fell for above a month before or for three weeks after’¹² the siege. This statement is flatly contradicted by Stevens. On the 29th of August he writes: ‘The night was extreme cold, dark, and rainy’ and the 3rd of September ‘was

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The Brass Money

Stevens had troubles due to the foul weather, but he had other troubles due to bad money. On ff. 39b, 55b, 62b, 71a, 72a, 95a, 97a, 113b, and 117a, he refers to the many difficulties caused by the new coinage of James. It

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The records of Stevens are the best proof that such proclamations as James issued invariably fail in the end. On f. 62b he remarks, ‘The army was punctually paid, and the brass money passed as current, and was of equal value with silver.’ When the French arrived they ‘were paid in silver, which was no small damage and discouragement to the rest of the army who received none but brass money’ (f. 71a) . Less than three months had sufficed to bring about this change in value. F. 95 a shows marked depreciation:
‘The brass money which our misfortunes had much lessened in the common esteem, the French made so contemptible it was scarce of any value, for they being always paid in silver, had no regard for the brass, but would give half-a-crown of that coin for a silver three-halfpenny piece, and forty shillings for a silver crown whereupon all things were sold accordingly as a pair of shoes for forty shillings, stockings that used to be sold for ninepence or tenpence were now worth five shillings, ale ninepence or twelvepence the quart, wine four shillings brass or sevenpence silver, brandy ten shillings brass, or tenpence silver. In short all things were at this time according to this rate (for it grew worse and worse daily), and we who were paid in brass had a miserable existence.’

On f. 62b Stevens gives prices before depreciation. Then ale was threepence a quart, whereas now it was ninepence or twelvepence, a rise of two hundred to three hundred per cent. In Dublin, too, ale was twelvepence a quart.¹⁶

The Irish Divisions

The confusion caused by the base money was a grave trouble, but far graver was that brought about by the divisions among the Irish themselves. On this point Clarke is clear:
‘Besides all these contradictions his Majesty had another to struggle with, which was discord and disunion amongst his own people, which are never failing concomitants of difficult and dangerous conjunctures.
[...]
But the King was

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James found that two distinct, even contradictory, lines of policy were pressed upon him by his English and Irish supporters respectively. The features of the English Jacobite—Stevens was one—are well known, for they have been drawn by a succession of skilled artists, and in him is to be discerned the characteristic weakness of the House of Stuart—a greater regard for dynastic than for national interests. Stevens was so devoted to James that he could not condemn his conduct at the battle of the Boyne, but it is worthy of note he never mentions his king again. To him the sovereign meant everything, the state very little indeed. The Lord's anointed might commit iniquity, and still be able to rely upon the personal devotion of his liegeman. On the other hand, the features of the Irish Jacobite cannot be drawn in clear outline, for they are sometimes veiled in the shifting mists of variety, sometimes hidden in the dim shadows of uncertainty. His ancestors cared for the first James because they believed that he was descended from their own Milesian kings, but this attachment was not reciprocated, and the feeling passed away. The Celt wants to see a sovereign regularly in order to adore him. James I was never in Ireland, and the ministers he sent failed to develop the feeling of devotedness to his dynasty. Moreover, all the traditions of an Irish Jacobite were those of a man with ancestors in persistent opposition to the line of Stuart. His grandfather perhaps shared the flight of the earls to Spain. His father, it may be, had borne his part in the rebellion of 1641. He had been despoiled of some, if not all, of his family estate by Charles II. The romantic devotion of the Highlander to the name of

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To the English Jacobite these aspirations were largely incomprehensible. Stevens, for example, regarded Dublin as but one stage in the return journey to London. The English Jacobite was as much an exile in Dublin Castle as he had been at Saint-Germain. In fact, of the two courts

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The last sentence gives an important clue to the policy pursued by the Irish Jacobites, for they followed Bishop Molowny's advice and placed implicit trust in France. Of course Avaux sympathized with the bishop, for though their aims were different, the measures they advocated were identical. Tyrconnel and the French were desirous of leading James in one path, while Melfort and the English wanted to conduct him along a road diametrically opposite. James saw, on the one hand, that he must continue to raise, in the Irish, the hopes raised by his own Lord Deputy; on the other, that if he expected to be restored to England he must protect the colonists. The two lines of policy were absolutely incompatible, but, standing hesitatingly at the parting of the ways, he tried to achieve the impossible, and effect a conciliation of divergent interests by a policy of mere oscillation. Thus at one time he urged the Protestant bishops to oppose the repeal of the Act of Settlement, at another he insisted on its speedy revocation. An extract from the journals of the proceedings in the Irish Parliament reveals the vacillating character of his policy. On the 28th of May, 1689, a motion of adjournment for a holiday was brought forward. The king asked, ‘What holiday?’ Answer, ‘The restoration of his brother and himself.’ He replied, ‘The fitter to restore those loyal Catholic gentlemen who had suffered with him and been kept unjustly out of their estates. The motion rejected.’ James saw at the time and saw more clearly long afterwards, that his land policy must set the English faction against the Irish. Two passages in his Memoirs are highly significant. ‘Nothing but his unwillingness’, he maintains, ‘to disgust those who were otherwise affectionate subjects could have extorted his consent to the Irish policy from him. It had, without doubt, been more generous in the Irish not to have pressed so hard upon their prince when he lay so much at their mercy, and more prudent not to have grasped at regaining all before they were sure of keeping what they

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The divisions of the Irish and English Jacobites hindered the return of James to England, but the advice of Avaux must irrevocably have destroyed any such prospect. Undoubtedly Avaux intended by this universal annihilation of the Protestants to separate England and Ireland for ever, to place the two nations in a permanently hostile position in order that French interests might be advanced.

The Social Condition of the Country

From f. 87b to f. 88b Stevens writes a tantalizingly short sketch of the social condition of the country, though here and there throughout the Journal he also affords interesting information. He notes that the people are ‘the greatest lovers of milk I ever saw, which they eat and drink above twenty several sorts of ways, and what is strangest for the most part love it best when sourest’. Fynes Moryson (1600–3) agrees that ‘they feed most on white meats, and esteem for a great dainty sour curds, vulgarly called by them Bonaclabbe (i.e. Bonnyclabber). And for this cause they watchfully keep their cows, and fight for them as for their religion and life; and when they are almost starved, yet they will not kill a cow, except it be old and yield no milk. Yet will they upon hunger in time of war open a vein of

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Stevens points out that ‘all smoke, women as well as men, and a pipe an inch long serves the whole family several years, and though never so black or foul is never suffered to be burnt. Seven or eight will gather to the smoking of a pipe, and each taking two or three whiffs gives it to his neighbours, commonly holding his mouth full of smoke till the pipe comes about to him again.’ Le Gouz and Stevens agree in their description of Irish shoes. The former remarks, ‘Their shoes, which are pointed, they call brogues, with a single sole. They often told me of a proverb in English, ‘Airische brogues for English dogues’ (Irish brogues for English dogs), ‘the shoes of Ireland for the dogs of England,’ meaning that their shoes are worth more than the English.’ They also agree in their account of the cabins. They are, according to Le Gouz, ‘four walls the height of a man, supporting rafters over which they thatch with straw and leaves. They are without chimneys and make the fire in the middle of the hut, which greatly incommodes those who are not fond of smoke.
[...]
They have little furniture, and cover their rooms with rushes, of which they make their beds in summer, and of straw in winter. They put the rushes a foot deep on their floors, and on their windows, and many of them ornament the ceilings with branches.’

Other inmates of the cabin were more unpleasant than

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The disappearance took time, but ultimately it came. The letter of January 26, 1653, states that
‘Upon serious consideration had of the inconveniency of permitting the Irish to live in creaghts after a loose and disorderly manner, whereby the enemy comes to be relieved and sustained, and the contribution (i. e. the monthly assessment) oft damaged; we issued our order dated the 11th of October last for the fixing such persons upon lands proportionable to their respective stock and enjoining them to betake themselves to tillage and husbandry, and in case of refusal to seize upon the cattle and stock of such persons, and appraising them upon oath to expose them to sale for the best advantage of the Commonwealth.’

‘We’ are the commissioners for the government of Ireland. They go on to complain of want of intelligence, and require their officers to report how far they have gone in the execution of the order, and lay down that in fixing all such creaghts they take care that they be disposed at most distance from their friends and relations, to the end all relief may be the better debarred from the enemy. An army, whether Williamite or Cromwellian, was obliged to depend for support on supply raised by the assessment of a gross sum on each county, and then apportioned on the inhabitants according to their several stocks and crops. The difficulty of assessing such wanderers as the creaghts can easily be imagined, and was set forth in another order, by which fresh measures were directed for extinguishing them by ‘unheading the creaghts’, that is, imprisoning the chief man of the creaght until the rest of it were certified to have transplanted themselves and taken up a fixed abode in Connaught. This order states:
‘29 August, 1656.—Whereas the Lord Deputy has been informed by his Council that at this present there are some

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Story saw some of the wild Irish near Newry in 1690, and writes: ‘Some call them creaghts, from the little huts they live in, which they build so conveniently with hurdles and long turf, that they can remove them in summer towards the mountains, and bring them down to the valleys in winter.’²³ It is clear, however, that the historian confounds the Irish term creaghts with the English word crate, hurdle or wicker-work. His error is intelligible, for the word was applied to an Irish village or collection of those frail habitations, even though they were not intended to be moved. Stevens met creaghts, and Story may well have met them. In spite of law and in spite of orders traces of the creaghts persisted till the middle of the eighteenth century.

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The Dates of the Journal

1. January 11 . . . . . . f. 2b
2. September 6 . . . . . . f. 4b
3. January 11 . . . . . . f. 10b
4. February 1 . . . . . . f. 18a
5. March 4 . . . . . . f. 26a
6. April 3 . . . . . . f. 33b
7. May 5 . . . . . . f. 36b
8. Dates cease . . . . . . f. 44b
9. August 20 . . . . . . f. 60a
10. September 5 . . . . . . f. 60b
11. October 4 . . . . . . f. 62a
12. Dates cease . . . . . . f. 66a

1. May 19 . . . . . . f. 73b
2. June 1 . . . . . . f. 76b
3. July 1 . . . . . . f. 79b
4. August 1 . . . . . . f. 97a
5. September 1 . . . . . . f. 108b
6. Dates cease . . . . . . f. 113a

1. April 20 . . . . . . f. 116a
2. May 4 . . . . . . f. 117b
3. June 2 . . . . . . f. 118a
4. July 1 . . . . . . f. 125a

The Notes

In compliance with a suggestion of Professor Firth, the notes have been re-arranged to avoid having too many on one page: the index of events and persons will facilitate reference. (The indices have been omitted from the CELT edition. They may be consulted in the PDF version of Stevens Journal available on www.archive.org on the Internet.)Notes on well-known people, e.g. Schomberg, are short, while those on obscure people are necessarily longer.

The spelling of the Journal has been modernized. Names of places have also been modernized, e.g. when Stevens writes Ierney the editor writes Ernée. Where there seems a doubt the spelling of Stevens has been given.

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An Introduction to the Journal

{ms folio 1b}His Most Sacred Majesty having, through the infinite goodness, and providence of Almighty God, made his escape from Rochester,²⁴ and the most happy news of his safe arrival, and kingly reception in France,²⁵ being spread all over England: the small remainder of his loyal subjects (those few thousands who had not bowed their knees to Baal) either in their persons, or at least in their wishes hasted to follow him. Some through the great incumbrance of their families, others through want having been plundered of all their substance, others for fear of being burdensome to him in his exile, and lastly some in hopes of being more serviceable to him, when Providence should ordain his return, remained in {ms folio 2a} their more than Egyptian slavery. Yet a very considerable number gathering together the small remainders of their shipwreck, and laying aside all worldly considerations, having only before their eyes their duty and love to their sovereign, resolved to follow him through all hazards, in hopes of being instrumental in regaining his just rights. I shall ever esteem it the most glorious action of my life that I made myself one of this number, and cannot but be proud that in all the hardships, and misfortunes, which have attended this my tedious exile, I have never been dismayed, or given way to despair; but relied always on the justice of our cause, and all miseries have been easy to me in consideration of the happiness of my return home. To come closer to the matter, to wit my transactions after his Majesty's

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The Journal

Friday the 11th of January 1688/9 about two of the clock afternoon I embarked at Billingsgate stairs on a Deal hooker bound for Deal, the wind at north-west. There were on board between forty and fifty passengers, whereof about twelve or fourteen gentlemen, the rest private soldiers all on the same account, flying the Prince of Orange's usurpation, and our fellow subjects' most unparalleled rebellion. We had many spectators on the shore, but civiller than what others on the like occasion had found. Sailing down we had some scoffs cast upon us from other boats as we passed, but no stop or trouble till about seven at night, when we met with abundance of ice, and that very thick. Still we made the best of our way, the wind blowing a fresh gale, till about eight, when it grew very dark, and there being no seamen aboard, but the master who was almost blind, and a little boy, we ran aground about two miles within Gravesend, where we lay about three-quarters of an hour, and then the water flowing brought us off. We kept on with great difficulty by reason of the great flakes of ice the tide drove up and, having happily escaped being stopped or examined at Gravesend, by the help of the darkness were again aground about eleven of the clock three miles below the town, where we lay all night.

Saturday the 12th in the morning at high water we floated again, and, nothing remarkable happening, cast anchor that night at the buoy in the Nore amidst the rebellious English fleet, the false Lord Dartmouth then riding admiral there. Within an hour the said lord sent his lieutenant aboard of us to see our passes; he was very civil, and not too exact {ms folio 11a} or rigid, and went away satisfied. However about twelve of the clock, though it was very dark, and somewhat rough, we thought it better to commit ourselves to the mercy of the

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Sunday the 13th: the morning proved excessive cold with much snow and the darkness was such that we knew not how to avoid the sands, and about three of the clock were the third time aground, about three leagues within Margate, on a hard sand with an ebbing water, so that there was little likelihood of getting off, and, the wind blowing very fresh, though not stormy, the vessel beat violently on the bank for near half an hour, to the great terror of us all, expecting either that or the next ebb at farthest to be lost. Thus we all betook ourselves to prayers. After a while one Mr. Usher that had been lieutenant at sea, spying the light of a ship at a great distance from {ms folio 11b} us, heaved all things out of our cockboat, and put her over the side of the vessel, pretending to go to the other ship to bring us assistance, and inquire where we were, for our master was wholly ignorant, and fancied it was Sandwich Bay, whereas next day we found we were not near it. But Mr. Usher's real intention was to save himself, and consequently leaped the first into the boat, three others presently following him; I seeing all throng to the ship side, fearing the boat would be sunk, would not attempt to get into it, but resigned myself to God's Will, and resolved to take my fortune in the vessel. The fourth man leaping into the boat from the deck put her away from the side of the vessel, and she drove off without oars, or sail, the tide carrying her violently away in a minute, so that we gave them for lost, having only just heard them cry out for oars, when it was out of our power to assist them. How sadly we passed the rest of the night {ms folio 12a} may be imagined, between the compassion for our (as we imagined) lost companions, and the apprehensions of being lost ourselves, yet compared with them we thought ourselves in much the better condition. When day appeared we found all about us for above a mile dry except some little channels not a foot deep: whereupon I advised the master to carry out an anchor before the water rise towards the channel, that might bring about the head of the vessel at high water, for the wind was almost in our stern,

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Monday the 14th: we continued at Deal, endeavouring to persuade the master of the same hooker that brought us to carry us to Calais; we used all our endeavours, but could not at first prevail so that some of the company were for going to Dover, which I was utterly against, knowing what multitude of people flocked thither to be transported, and being informed of the barbarous usage most of them received there. At night having very well treated the master of the vessel and his wife, we agreed to find fifteen passengers, who should give him ten shillings a man for their passage in hand and he to make what he could besides, and to sail next day, which was the hardest to obtain, but at length we concluded on it. Yet I cannot but once more remark that though we continued there a whole day and walked about the town, we were {ms folio 14 a} very civilly used everywhere without the least insolency being offered to us, as was to many others.

Tuesday the 15th: we embarked about noon, the vessel being ashore, and about two sailed, the wind at north-west, that night came to an anchor in Calais road, not daring to venture in in the dark. The night proved very favourable, being calm but very cold, and the number of passengers was so great in proportion to the vessel that there was not room for us all to sit much less to lie under deck, and were forced to walk great part of the night in the cold air. Beside we had so little forecast as not to put aboard anything either to eat or drink, which proved no small punishment though the time was short, being most of us very hungry and thirsty.

Wednesday the 16th (st. vet. and 26th st. no.): ⁴¹ in the morning boats came off from Calais, it being then ebb so that the vessel could not get in. We went ashore being carried out

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Thursday the 27th (st. no.) I spent in viewing the town, which is small and hath not anything very remarkable. The chief thing are the fortifications, which are in part new, and still more works carrying on. In the evening word was brought that the town major ordered all English gentlemen to retire into the suburbs, which I obeyed for that night in hopes of getting away the next morning by water to St. Omer, and so went out of town an extraordinary dirty way over a great field, which divides the town and suburb, which is also excessive dirty and has but little accommodation at best, much less then being very full of English. With much difficulty I found a lodging and lay there that night, but

Friday the 28th: to go on with the style of the country, returning to town in the morning I was stopped by the sentry at the gate, there being many at the same time waiting there, and having stayed a while till an officer was called, he with difficulty let me and three other gentlemen in. We {ms folio 16b} spent most of our time in seeking conveniency to go to Paris, but such was the throng that coaches and horses were bespoke many days beforehand, and lodgings and provisions were risen to an excessive rate which made all men endeavour to fly the town the sooner. This night I continued in town.

Saturday the 29th: meeting with the Lord Buchan⁴⁶ and several other Scotch gentlemen, we agreed with a boat to

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Sunday the 30th: in the morning we went aboard a boat, carrying no provision as being told we had but eight leagues to St. Omer, and the boat to be drawn by horses. About half way we met much ice, and were told the channel was quite closed up a little farther. We were therefore obliged to strike off into the channel that comes from Dunkirk, which was clear, but by this means we had farther to go about than we had at first setting {ms folio 17a} out from Calais. That night we were forced to stay at a miserable village, where there were no beds but good clean straw, and scarce anything to eat, which made us very earnest to be gone the sooner, and accordingly

Monday the 31st: we returned to the boat about three in the morning, and having gone about two leagues were again stopped, the floods having been so great that the water was too high at a bridge we came to for the boat to go through. The night being excessive cold I went ashore to seek some fire at two or three poor houses by the bridge, and the first there was neither fire nor fuel, and having with much difficulty, by reason of the darkness and dirtiness of the way, got over to another I found five or six poor women warming themselves at a little straw, having nothing else to burn. There we sat awhile to refresh our joints that were almost benumbed with cold, and when day appeared returned to the boat. The water falling a little, with much difficulty the boat was forced through. Having gone {ms folio 17b} about a league farther came to another bridge, which being also too full of water the boat's head struck against a piece of timber whereon the planks lay and broke it, which caused the neighbouring boors to stop the boat to pay for repairing the damage. After a long dispute and almost alarming the country they agreed, and so we went on for near two leagues when we struck out of this cut channel into the river of St. Omer, and then no longer could be drawn by horses, but hoisted sail, and as our good fortune ordered it the wind was fair, and we sailed till about three in the afternoon we arrived at Watou, and were forced to stop some time to satisfy the customhouse officers. Here

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Tuesday the 1st of February (sti. no.): I continued at St. Omer, which is a very fine city having large and handsome streets, the buildings generally good and several stately churches.⁴⁸ Here the English Jesuits have a very magnificent college newly built of stone, but not yet quite finished. The great market place is large and beautiful; the walls and outworks of the town of a considerable strength. The river runs up to the gates, on each side of which is a very fine quay for the vessels that come up. But the most remarkable thing is that the {ms folio 18b} inhabitants of the one side can by no means be persuaded to marry or contract any alliance with those of the other; nay, they will scarce trade or have any commerce with them, and yet they do not pretend to give any reason that ever I could learn for this.⁴⁹ Having in vain sought most part of this day for some conveniency to go to Amiens, all being taken up by the multitude of English that resorted to

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Wednesday the 2nd of February (to go on with the style of the country): about eight in the morning we saw a narrow long cart hooped over and covered with an oiled cloth, in which there was not room for us without our portmanteaus, so that to make room for them, after crowding four into the cart, two were forced to sit upon the horses that drew. In this manner we set out, and went three leagues of good way, most of it paved, to Aire, a small {ms folio 19a} but neat town, walled and well fortified, where we stayed no longer than to refresh ourselves, and then went on two or three of us always afoot, as we did till we came to Amiens. This night we lay at Auchel, a little village three leagues from Aire, where were only three poor inns, which not being capable of entertaining the great number of people that travelled that way, the greater part lay upon straw. These three leagues the way was very deep and hilly, the soil a stiff clay.

Thursday the 3rd: went to St. Pol which is but four leagues, there being no conveniency to lodge farther, unless we went six leagues which, our way of travelling, could not be performed that day. This is a pretty good town now somewhat decayed: it has been fortified, whereof at present only the memory remains in an old ruined wall. There are here four little churches. I went to see the monastery of the Carmelites, wherein I found nothing remarkable but that they received and treated us with much civility; as did also a sort of religious women, who have here a house and church {ms folio 19b} and whose profession is to assist the sick.

Friday the 4th: travelled six leagues to Doullens, a good little town; but coming in at night I could remark nothing in it but one good church and the inn where I lodged, which was very magnificent in its rooms, being very large and extraordinary well furnished. The town in a bottom enclosed by very high hills.

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Saturday the 5th: we arrived at Amiens, which is eight leagues from Doullens, were conducted to the governors, who soon dispatched us. All this road from Aire is very bad, deep, and a stiff clay, insomuch that walking as for the most part I did, by reason of the smallness and uneasiness of our cart, so much dirt stuck to the shoes I could scarce many times lift my feet. For it is generally a very fat soil, yet mixed with a small sand, which binds it together like lime, the way all between arable land, but not separated by any hedges or otherwise, the country being all open without any distinction of fields or enclosures, not any banks, ditches or scarce a tree. Only about the towns and villages there is some wood, but no more ground enclosed than just serves {ms folio 20a} for their gardens and orchards. The people for the most part are extremely poor, and consequently their villages very inconsiderable, and such as afford little or no accommodation for travellers.

At Amiens I continued Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the 6th, 7th and 8th. Most of which time was spent in seeing that city, to give a particular account whereof would require a much longer stay there and might afford matter for a particular work. To be short it is a very fine city and much beyond any I have seen in England, except London, as are many other cities of France. The streets are large and well paved, the buildings lofty and sightly, the number of churches very considerable, whereof I saw many. The cathedral is very magnificent, large and well built, all the front covered with images of stone: there is an ascent of about twelve or fourteen steps to the gate.⁵⁰ Just within on the right hand is an image of St. Christopher with our Saviour on his shoulders, of {ms folio 20b} a prodigious bigness. In this church I saw a skull, which is kept in great veneration, being esteemed to be that of

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Wednesday the 9th: we set out for Paris, sixteen of us in a thing they call a coach; in England it would pass for a wagon, only the covering is more like that of a coach. This day we travelled seven leagues to Breteuil, a good small town plentiful enough of all accommodations. The road though bad was not so deep as before, the country more enclosed, and pleasanter than the last we came through, but what added to it was that our coach was much easier than the cart we had to Amiens.

Thursday the 10th: we made seven leagues more to Clermont, a large and beautiful town, which I believe takes its name from its situation, being on a {ms folio 21b} high hill visible at a great distance, and from the valley affords a very pleasant prospect; the hill being very steep the ascent is round it, and the way at the bottom for a considerable space is narrow with a deep ditch on each side.

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Friday the 11th: seven leagues to Lucheux, which is a good small town and has convenient inns, though not like the last. The country about is hilly and this stands on a small hill. The road is pleasant, being gravelly, and on both sides are many vineyards, which produce good grapes, but yield a very small wine.

Saturday the 12th: baited at St. Denis, seven leagues distant from Lucheux, and two from Paris. It is but a small town, but in it that most famous and stately church from which I believe the town takes its name, being the burial place not only of St. Denis the patron but of many kings of France, and most worthy of admiration for the unknown value of its treasure.⁵⁴ The valley wherein it stands is very large, plain and beautiful, being full of many small but well built {ms folio 22a} towns, which render it extraordinary pleasant; the road through it is all causeway, and the fields are so stored with partridges that they run in great numbers along by the road none daring to shoot or take them.⁵⁵ This evening we arrived at Paris of which place I will not attempt to give any account, it being too great a subject for my pen, and my stay there too short to render me capable of it. Here I continued Sunday and Monday.

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Tuesday the 15th: I took coach for St. Germains, where both their Majesties with the Prince of Wales then kept their court. It is four leagues from Paris, the way most sandy and causeway, but a little hilly. On the left of the road stands a house of the king's, called Madrid. St. Germains stands upon a hill, the ascent very steep, the town is capable of entertaining a great court, the palace large and beautiful, but not regular; many new buildings are begun about it.⁵⁶ The gardens are divided into pleasant walks, but nothing extraordinary in them: the most remarkable is a {ms folio 22b} walk and horse way along the side of the hill about a mile long, where turning off upon the left the way leads into the forest, and there to a fine little pleasure house.⁵⁷ But this as all the other palaces of France have been already described by many and my intention is only a bare memoir of my travels, not a description of the country. My life here was not so settled or pleasant to give me leisure or desire to view and give an account of what I saw, but such as can be imagined of a poor banished man, full of many cares and hardships, which I had been but little inured to before, having amidst all my misfortunes no other comfort but that of a just cause, remembering that Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam,⁵⁸ and a sense of loyalty towards the best of princes, whom I saw flying the most general and barbarous rebellion the world has seen, except what the same people had shown in this unparalleled monarch's father's day, wherein he was so considerable a sufferer {ms folio 23a} being so many years banished, as is well known. The sufferings of my king in his exile, the dangers of my father mother and brethren whom I had left in the power of my inhuman countrymen, and my own condition in a strange country without any friends but such as were under my own circumstances, were causes sufficient to produce care and trouble to the most insensible of men. And if hitherto I seem

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Thursday the 24th of February: being the first Thursday in Lent, when finding most of my friends were gone before on their way to Brest, in several routes, I having stayed till this time in hopes of a bill of exchange from England. Finding none come and fearing to be left behind, when the rest were shipped for Ireland in order to serve the king there, I went this afternoon to Paris, where I took a place with the messenger, to go the {ms folio 23b} next day for Orleans, being in haste to overtake my friends that were gone before, and ambitious to be among the first that went over to serve His Majesty in Ireland.

Friday the 25th: in the morning I left Paris in company with Major O'Regan, Captain Fortescue and two more; on the road my Lord Hunsdon joined us and travelled this day fourteen leagues; four to Orsay, four to Ernée, and six to Étampes, a good town where we lay this night.⁵⁹

Saturday the 26th: we set out very early, and went through to Orleans being twenty leagues: six to Outarville,⁶⁰ four to Toury, where we baited, four thence to Artenay, and thence six to Orleans. This road is generally deep in winter, wherefore for the conveniency of travellers there is a continued causeway from Paris to Orleans broad enough for coaches, and well kept in repair, but for horse great part of the way is good all the year. This manner of travelling with the messenger,

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Sunday the 27th: I continued at Orleans, which is a very beautiful city, well built after the ancient manner. Here are many large churches, which I cannot much commend for their structure or ornament, the churches in France being generally inferior to those of Flanders. The cathedral is very large and well {ms folio 24b} built, but only part of the choir is in use, the rest having been defaced and almost ruined by the Huguenots, and not yet repaired.⁶¹ The Jesuits' is large and the richest for ornaments, the Dominicans' and Franciscans' large but mean. Over the river Loire is a beautiful stone bridge, adorned with a large crucifix, with the king kneeling on the right and Joan of Arc, commonly called the Maid of Orleans, on the left, as a memorial of their success under her against the English, who burnt her as a witch, the French to this day paying reverence to her as a saint.

Monday the 28th: after noon we embarked upon the Loire in large flat-bottomed boats, about 100 passengers in each. These vessels have no deck, but were covered over with slit deal set up like the ridge of a house. With us were put into every boat hogsheads of wine, beef boiled and roast, and

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Monday the 28th: as was said before, we embarked upon this river, and continued Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; the day, the weather {ms folio 26a} being fair and the country so diverting, passed away easily, but the nights were very cold, and we had no accommodation for lying.

Friday the 4th of March: late at night with much difficulty we obtained leave to land at Nantes, where we continued Saturday and Sunday. This is a very good harbour and commonly well stored with ships, its trade to most parts of Europe being very considerable, the most noted commodity which takes name from the place is brandy.⁶² The city reaches a great length along the water with very good buildings, being merchants, and storehouses. It has a good bridge, and many considerable churches, especially the cathedral, which is large and beautiful.⁶³ It is a bishopric and university very plentiful of all provisions, and well stored with all things, either for necessary use or luxury, which it affords at moderate rates. This was the first place where I received the benefit of the Route, which was the same as free quarters, being diet and lodging, only the billet mentioned a captain's allowance not to exceed four livres or 6s. 8d. per diem, a lieutenant's {ms folio 26b} 3s. 4d. and an ensign 2s. 6d., which rates, as provisions are there, are competent to live plentifully. Here I had a captain's billet and continued to be treated as such all the way, being entered as such by the king's order under Major Ingram, who commanded a Route, and was my friend. Other boats came in on Saturday and Sunday, which well stocked the city with the king's subjects, and the country small towns not being fit to entertain so great a number, it was ordered we that came first should march on Monday, the others to follow in several bodies. This is the first town we were in of Brittany, and lies upon the very borders of that province.

Monday the 7th: we marched to Savenay, seven leagues from Nantes, the leagues in Brittany are very long⁶⁴ and it

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Tuesday the 8th: we marched two leagues to Donges; this was very plain and good, about the middle of it is a small inlet from the sea, very wide, but runs not far up, so that there is a way about, and a shorter over a ferry. Not having time to recover the former day's weariness and my feet being very sore, I found this day's march though so short extreme tiresome. Donges is so small that we were forced to lie twelve or fourteen in a house, with little accommodation, and had no provision but what the king's commissary, whom they call the Tapié, had made for us. The Tapié goes before all such as march by way of the Route, and, having an account of their number and quality, provides meat, bread and wine for them, allowing a captain six rations or men's proportion, a lieutenant {ms folio 27b} four, and an ensign three. This method is used either where provision is not to be found for such a number as the Route contains, or in privileged towns that are exempted from providing anything but lodging to such as quarter in them.

Wednesday the 9th: to Herbignac seven leagues, where we continued Thursday the 10th, as the general custom is after two or three days' march to make a séjour, or day of rest at the most convenient town on the road. Herbignac is a good town, but inferior to many in Brittany.

Friday the 11th: it was designed we should march to Ambon, but when we were within a league of it the commissary, that always went with us, sent word the townspeople

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Saturday the 12th: being excessively tired and my feet sore I got upon one of the carts that carried our luggage and was drawn by oxen, and in this manner was carried four leagues

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Monday the 14th: our appointed stage was but three leagues to Auray, so it was agreed by the commissary and captains of Routes to burn that town, as the phrase is, that is receive money for our quarters, and march through to Landevant three leagues farther, which was appointed for the next day. The country here is very pleasant full of rising hilly ground, but not mountainous, with large delightful commons, wherein is store of hares. This town is not large, but well built, and has many wealthy inhabitants, who afforded us good quarters, but our stay was only for one night.

Tuesday the 15th: three leagues to Hennebont a large town, has many good houses, and one great and handsome church; but the worst contrived in the manner of its streets that ever I saw, there being not one good one in the whole, and one part of them steep as precipices, most very narrow, and short.⁶⁶ Here we continued Wednesday {ms folio 29b} the 16th, at first to the great satisfaction of some of our young gallants, though they had afterwards leisure to repent. For in this as in most great towns of France there are many gentlewomen, who appear very splendid in apparel, and among them some of tolerable faces; to some of our company a painted face with petticoats was an angel, and every one fancied if he walked but by the lady's side, and she happened to look that way, though it were but to spit, that he had won her heart, for I observed some of these courtiers spoke not one word of French, yet they followed the women about the town, and even to their chambers courting them with bows and grimaces, the custom of France and their civility to strangers or their design to ridicule them allowing this liberty. With the assistance of such as could stammer some French balls were

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On Thursday the 17th: to Quimperle a town reputed much inferior to the last, but in my esteem equal to it or rather better were it not somewhat decayed. It has at the entrance a commendable river oh the one hand, and on the other a noble mansion house of the Duke Mazarin. The descent from a hill to the town yields a pleasant prospect thereof; has one good {ms folio 30b} street, many fair houses, and one large church, not to speak of monasteries whose chapels as inconsiderable I commonly omit. The Duke Mazarin, being in town and commanding, ordered the Tapié or commissary of provisions to furnish us all with both fresh and salt fish, which had not been done in any other place it being now Lent time.

On Friday the 18th, in the morning the duke invited us all to a most splendid breakfast he had provided for us, where was all variety of fish exquisitely dressed, with other sorts of dainties fit for the time, plenty of the best wines, and an inexpressible civility and courtesy shown by him to every individual person. I cannot but say I saw not in all France a more general or particular act of civility than this in all my progress through it. The entertainment ended, we set out and marched five leagues to a very poor small and much decayed

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Saturday the 19th: we marched four leagues to the famous and, by most of us that were some days in it, much beloved City of Quimper—Corentin, Quimpir where we continued many days, wherefore I shall take the freedom to enlarge somewhat here, since time allows and the place deserves it. This city stands in a bottom, on the banks of a very pleasant navigable river, which runs through it: on all sides it is surrounded with high hills that overlook it, on the south side they are close to the town and very steep. The cathedral is very large and sumptuous, has a beautiful choir, and all round it many chapels well adorned:⁶⁷ the market-place wherein it stands is large and plentifully supplied with all sorts of fish, which it being then Lent constantly filled it. There are several other churches and chapels both without and within the town, and monasteries of religious men and women, which though not very sumptuous yet help to beautify and adorn the city, as does the bishop's house adjoining to the church {ms folio 31b} of a goodly structure. The streets are not very commendable being after the old fashion generally narrow, but in the suburbs which are very large the streets are wider; the houses everywhere spacious though not very sightly, being ancient buildings. About a mile from the town is a pleasant house of the archbishop's not much to be commended for its greatness, yet valuable for its gardens divided into delightful walks and fishponds with much variety and several ornaments. Strangers here find very good entertainment, provisions being very cheap, their inns though not like those of England, yet well furnished with good beds, and meat cleanly and well dressed, variety of good wines and the common rate M. the bottle, and a good table for 15d. ordinary with a pint of wine a man. Here we may be said to have first breathed after our toils, resting sixteen or seventeen days,

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Palm Sunday, the 3rd of April, to Locronan three leagues, the weather was fair, the way good, for a large space a great road then a very wide open common, where we saw many of the country people well armed who had been mustering. On the road, a league from Locronan, is a small village, wherein is a pretty little church. Here as I was passing through looking into the church a woman came running and rung the bell, and inquiring into the occasion, we found some of our scattering scoundrels were pillaging the poultry thereabouts, which caused the ringing the bell to alarm the neighbourhood, the people being abroad by reason of the muster and because it was Sunday. Coming out we saw six of our men running with their drawn swords after ten or twelve of the poor naked country men and women, who getting over a style faced about

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Monday the 4th: we had a long but not very tiresome march to Crozon six leagues, the weather was fair, the way good, and country very pleasant, full of rising fertile ground but no mountain or steep ascent. This town is somewhat larger and better than the last, seated high, the streets open, and has pleasant seats about it.

{ms folio 34b}Tuesday the 5th: we marched a league to a little town upon the Bay of Brest called Le Faou, where the ships' boats took up, and carried us aboard the ships that lay there in order to carry us into Ireland. This bay makes one of the finest harbours in the world being at least three leagues over every way, enclosed round with high hills which shelter it much from storms, and make it very secure: the mouth of it, being very long and narrow, lies east and west, and is divided into two channels, a long ridge of rocks lying along the middle. The north channel is best and most used, both have much water but little room for a ship to tack which makes it the more difficult coming in and out. On the north side is a fort whereon are planted above fifty pieces of cannon, the lower tier almost level with the water. On the south side a lesser fort, each has the full command of its channel, and between both the passage is not to be forced. Opposite to the channel

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Thursday the 5th of May: the wind coming to south-east the Admiral and all his squadron weighed, and fell down

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1. L' Ardent commanded by M. de Château Renault, Admiral
2. {ms folio 37a}Le St. Michel, commanded by M. Gabaret, Vice-Admiral
3. Le Courageux commanded by M. Forraud, Rear-Admiral
4. Le François
5. Le Vermandois
6. Le Duc
7. Le Pendant
8. Le Fort—60 Le Léger
9. Le Précieux
10. Le Capable
11. L' Arrogant
12. Le Diamant
13. Le Furieux
14. Le Faucon
15. Le Modéré
16. L' Entreprenant—60
17. Le Neptune
18. L'Arc en Ciel
19. L' Excellent
20. Le Sage
21. L'Emporté
22. L' Oiseau—45
23. L'Apollon
24. Le Sérieux

1. La Tempête
2. La Présente

1. Le Bouffon
2. L'Hercule
3. Le Pétillant
4. Le Maligne
5. L' Incommode
6. Le Terneuvie(?)
7. Le Déguisé
8. Le Gaillard
9. La Catherine
10. L'Inconnue
11. L'Éveillé

{ms folio 37b}Friday the 6th: in the morning the wind being at north-east the whole fleet weighed and sailed out, the wind held

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Saturday the 7th: the wind blowing fresh at north-east we bore up north-north-west and north-west and by north, the night was fair but we made little sail.

Sunday the 8th: the wind continued at north-east and we bore up north-north-west all day, the night fair, but made little way. This day we discovered one sail, which, a frigate having chased and brought up, proved an Englishman bound for France and was soon after discharged. A Portuguese bound for London sailed through the fleet, which having hailed made her way. We lay by about noon for a while, and some consultation was held aboard the Admiral, after which we held on our course.

Monday the 9th: the wind continued and we lay close upon it to north-north-west and north-west, and by west about seven we discovered land and about noon came up within half a league of the shore, and found we were fallen ten leagues to leeward, the Admiral intending to have been {ms folio 38a} as far to windward, the shore we came up with was Castlehaven. We stood off again, and tacked to gain upon the wind. Towards evening on a sudden the Admiral fell off with the wind and steered west-south-west, then lay by and made little or no way all night. This morning a small vessel of Ostend was taken by one of our ships. Two English men-of-war were discovered and chased for some time, by which was guessed the fleet was not far off, which was the reason our Admiral changed his resolution of bearing up for Kinsale.

Tuesday the 10th: the wind still at north-east we continued our course west-south-west in sight of land till coming up with Berehaven or Bantry Bay, for two parts of it bear these several names, we bore to windward and stood in for about a league, anchored close under the shore four leagues from the bottom of the bay and town of Bantry. This afternoon intelligence being brought that the English fleet was seen, the Admiral ordered all the English, Scotch and Irish to the number of about 1,500 with all the money, arms, and ammunition

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Wednesday the 11th, and 1st of May (st. vet.): for being come to shore I will hereafter follow this account, we weighed at break of day, the wind still at north-east, and the bay lies north-east and south-west, so we spent the whole day tacking. But at noon we discovered the English fleet making up to the French, who having before their anchors apeak weighed and met them, having the wind and tide with them. Particulars I cannot pretend to give an account of, but that we saw them near four hours hotly engaged, and then they fell down a till we quite lost sight first of the English, then of the {ms folio 39a} French; in the evening the latter returned and anchored where they were in the morning.⁶⁸ Just at sunset the wind calmed quite where we were, and we were towed by our boats into the creek where Bantry stands. This is an extraordinary bay, being between four and five leagues in length, everywhere wide, but more or less as some points butt out. The largest ships may anchor anywhere close under the shore, there being for the most part within 100 yards of it fourteen or fifteen fathom water, at the entrance into the creek about seven and more within. All round the bay are high rocky mountains with some few scattering cottages. This night much against our

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Thursday the 2nd: we landed at Bantry, which is a miserable poor place, not worthy the name of a town, having not above seven or eight little houses, the rest very mean cottages. The least part of us could not be contained in this place, so most were sent two or three miles round to no better cottages to quarter. {ms folio 39b} Two nights that we continued here I walked two miles out of town to lie upon a little dirty straw in a cot or cabin, no better than a hog-sty among near twenty others. The houses and cabins in town were so filled that people lay all over the floors. Some gentlemen I knew who took up their lodging in an old rotten boat that lay near the shore, and there wanted not some who quartered in a sawpit. Meat the country brought in enough, but some had not money to buy, and those who had for want of change had much difficulty to get what they wanted, the people being so extreme poor that they could not give change out of half a crown or a crown, and guineas were carried about the whole day and returned whole. Drink there was none, but just at our landing a very little wort hot from the fire, which nevertheless was soon drunk; and good water was so scarce that I have gone half a mile to drink at a spring. About half a mile from this is the old town of Bantry, much like the new. Upon a hill over the town and creek is a fort built by Cromwell, now gone to decay but never of any considerable strength.

Friday the 3rd: we continued in this miserable place. Both days were spent in landing {ms folio 40a} the arms and ammunition that came with us. The Earl of Clancarty's Regiment⁶⁹ came to town, and during our stay had no better quarters than the open fields without tents.

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Saturday the 4th: much of the morning was spent in looking for horses; at last with much difficulty Mr. Lazenby,⁷⁰ afterwards a captain in Colonel Butler of Kilcash's Regiment, bought a little nag, on which we laid his, Captain afterwards Major Price's,⁷¹ and my clothes in two portmanteaus, and having loaded our horse marched afoot driving him before us twelve miles to Dunmanway, a place consisting of only one gentleman's house and some scattering cabins. The road is all mountains very high, steep and rough, with few or scarce any houses near the way. Having sent before to take quarters we prevailed for money to get a good barn, where we made fire and had clean straw to lie on, conveniences that very many met not withal who were forced to stay all night in the open fields.

Sunday the 5th: marched six miles to Enniskeen, the first three like the day before, the other much plainer. This is a tolerable town, and appeared much the better to us after coming {ms folio 40b} from the miserable places before mentioned. Here we only refreshed ourselves, and went on six miles farther to Bandon, a considerable walled town, where we found good entertainment, though at this time it was ill-inhabited many of the richest being fled, after the king had most graciously pardoned their unnatural rebellion in presuming to take up arms and shut out His Majesty's forces upon framed fears and pretences.

Monday the 6th: marched twelve miles to Cork; in all this way there is not so much as a village unless such as consist of

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Tuesday and Wednesday, the 7th and 8th: all the company before intending to take no rest till our arrival at Dublin, which was also my {ms folio 41a} earnest desire, but finding myself unfit to march I was glad to be stopped to rest. Neither could I well stay behind my company, having spent most of what money I brought out of England and being disappointed of a bill I expected at Paris, coming away in haste, so that afterwards I was beholden to Mr. Lazenby whom I have before spoken of, and who lent me money in my want, without any farther acquaintance than what we contracted at Quimper Corentin, when some that were my friends in England refused to assist me. It was not therefore without reason I called him brother, as also Major Price, to whom also I owe many obligations we three having contracted a peculiar friendship and kept together from the beginning of our acquaintance with a true brotherly love, which we continued not only then but long after till the misfortunes of the times parted us.

Thursday the 9th: we set out having hired a man and horse to carry our clothes, and marched with much difficulty, the way being hilly and my feet very sore to Rathcormack a little town, which was very full, yet afforded {ms folio 41b} us good quarters.⁷²

Friday the 10th: in the morning, we marched four miles to Kilworth, a small market town. Though the way was good, the excessive heat of the sun so overcame us that we were forced to take two or three hours' rest here, when venturing to set forward we soon found ourselves in as bad or rather a worse condition, it being just the heat of the day, and having a vast high and rough mountain to pass over which held for

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Saturday the 11th: we found the way good, yet having marched but three miles to a village whose name I learned not, but a river runs through it and over it stands an old castle, I was so spent with heat and the continual fatigue that I had been left behind had I not with much difficulty hired a horse, the people being very fearful, because many upon pretence of hiring horses {ms folio 42a} for a few miles went quite away with them; thus I rode five miles to Clonmel. This is one of the prettiest towns I have seen, though small. It is walled, and famous for the opposition it made against the former usurper, Oliver Cromwell; the principal streets are in the form of a cross with a handsome town house much about the centre of it, the streets clean, and the houses well built, a navigable river running by the side of it next which are the ruins of a large old convent, then in possession of the Franciscan friars. Having found by experience that we could not march in the heat of the day, we resolved for the future to travel all or most part of the night, and rest the days, and accordingly we stirred not till the following evening, which was Sunday the 12th: and then set out about seven of the clock and marched a good rate till eleven, at which time we reached the nine mile house: the first five miles are plain good way, the other four hilly and very rough. This is a lone house, however we wanted not conveniency to rest here till break of day.

Monday the 13th: early we marched five miles {ms folio 42b} to Callan, now a very poor place, but by its ruins appears to have been somewhat considerable, having refreshed ourselves here during the heat of the day, we went on in the evening six miles to Kilkenny.⁷³ I will not here pretend to give any

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Tuesday the 14th: in the evening being all ready to set out, we loaded our small luggage on a car we bought in town, putting to it a large horse belonging to Captain Arnold⁷⁴ who here joined with us and had a boy to drive it, and being eased of that trouble I stopped in the street to speak with an acquaintance till all my company marched out of town before me, and thinking to overtake them I lost my way within a mile of the town, till meeting with a countryman he put me again into the road, where I travelled alone three or four miles and then overtook one Mr. Brett,⁷⁵ whom I had before known in {ms folio 43a} England. But he being afoot as well as I, a corpulent man and very lame, I could not prevail with him to go any farther than to a small farmer's house seven miles from Kilkenny, where having after much entreaty obtained admittance we found a good will in the people but no great refreshment, they having nothing to eat or drink but milk, a diet I was not yet used to, and clean straw to lie on. As it was we took our rest till about three of the clock on

Wednesday the 15th: in the morning, when being earnest to find my company, we went on forgetting to inquire for them at Wells, a small village a mile from our place of rest, till we went two miles farther to Leighlinbridge, where is only a large stone bridge over the Barrow, two good houses of entertainment

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Thursday the 16th: having dismissed the boy with the horses, we marched afoot seven miles to Kilcullen Bridge, and having there refreshed ourselves till evening, went on five miles farther to the Naas, a good town though at this time decayed, the walls of it as many other things are gone to ruin. About a mile from the town in some old walls is preserved the memory of a stately seat, intended though never finished {ms folio 44a} by the loyal Earl of Strafford when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Here first of all we found difficulty in getting quarters, and, having got a billet of the sovereign on an inn, were refused not only beds, but fire and meat and drink for our money, till finding the perverseness of the people we possessed ourselves of a room, broke open the cellar doors, and took out meat, wine, and whatever we found for our use; our landlord having made his complaint to the sovereign, and, meeting a rebuke instead of redress, served, and attended us for the future with great diligence, and found

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Friday the 17th: being somewhat cool, we marched with ease six miles to Rathcoole, and having {ms folio 44b} rested a sufficient while, with great satisfaction marched the remaining six miles to Dublin, our so long wished for port.⁷⁶ Yet was it not without some shame and trouble I entered the town afoot and all covered with dust, having lived there sometime before in esteem and with splendour, and fearing to meet with many that had formerly known me in a prosperous condition. And yet what greater glory or honour could I wish than to be seen and known a signal sufferer for my religion, my king, for justice and loyalty. But man's ambitions has always aspirations, and covets the grandeur of the world: it feeds not itself with the

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As Paris or St. Germains was the first place of rest, where every one that followed the king intended to take the measures of his {ms folio 46a} future proceedings, so being commanded from thence and His Majesty residing in Dublin, that was the second harbour, where every one proposed to refit himself for the residue of his long voyage, and to weather the ensuing storms. Formerly in England peace flourishing there, and I being settled in a good civil employment had laid aside all thoughts of any military preferment, but now the king having more need of soldiers than receivers, and my design in following of him being to signalize my loyalty, and be serviceable to him, not to seek my own ease, conveniency or interest, I resolved upon a soldier's life, at least till such time as it should please God to reenthrone His Majesty. And though my experience in martial affairs could not entitle me to any considerable post, and consequently enable me to do any extraordinary service: yet I concluded in whatever capacity employed I might be useful, and doubted not but for the present my zeal would supply what was wanting in experience. The methods to be taken to be employed in the army were, first by immediate application to His Majesty either by word of mouth or by way of petition. {ms folio 46b} The former was the more general, for even kings in distress grow cheap, and their very friends usurp an unbecoming familiarity with them; but nature and my education had engrafted in me such a reverence for Majesty that though I daily saw others (who had less right or pretensions than myself) boldly breathe their pretensions in the king's ears, and that to such a degree of freedom that one who was but an ensign in England durst pull him

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{ms folio 50b}As I do not pretend to write a history or give an account of the particular transactions of the times, but only as far as I was

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At my arrival in Ireland the face of affairs was such as seemed to promise a prosperous success to our undertakings, a speedy restoration to the king, and a glorious reward to all our sufferings.⁸⁴ Several small rebellions breaking out in the kingdom were suppressed, the rebels in many encounters worsted and forced to shut themselves up in garrisons, almost all the kingdom quietly settled under His Majesty's obedience, and Londonderry and Enniskillen seemed rather, despairing of pardon, to prolong the punishment due to their obstinacy than

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It is time to conclude this discourse, and with it put a period to this first part of my travels and journal from the time I left England till I departed Dublin to go to my command in the Right Honourable the Lord Grand Prior's Regiment.⁹⁵

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The time of this my peregrination was about nine months, and the length of my travels mentioned in this part 1,146 miles as will appear by the following computation. {ms folio 58a column 1}

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Which is the sum of the distance of the straight roads allowing but two miles to a league from Calais till you come to Nantes, though in and near the low Countries the leagues are longer, and in Brittany where they are very large three miles to a league, the same upon sea. But the miles in England and Ireland are set down according to the known and generally allowed computation. This is too great a space of ground for so short a compendium, and much more might be expected to be said of so many remarkable places and occurrences, but my misfortunes gave me not leisure to enlarge myself.

{ms folio 59a}Thus I have run through this first part of my pilgrimage, and what is this but a shadow to the remaining part of my toils, sufferings, and afflictions. Yet since the heathen said Dulce pro patria mori, I may well add Dulcius pro fide, et rege pati. And though these kingdoms have been the causers of all the calamities that have befallen them through their heresy, rebellion, and multiplicity of other sins, as the Jews through their idolatry and other vices, so I cannot but lament with the prophet Jeremiah the ruin of the country, the banishment of my king, the desolation of his dominions, the extirpation of the true religion, and persecution of the faithful. What the said prophet Jeremiah saith in the Lamentations may be well applied to our countries, cap. i, v. 8 Peccatum peccavit Hierusalem propterea instabilis facta est; and cap. 2, V. 14 Prophetae tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta, nec aperiebant iniquitatem tuam. A text very suitable to the wicked doctrines preached and taught by the infamous Protestant parsons, and their blasphemous incendiary bishops. Our nobility are like those of whom Isaiah, cap. i, v. 23, saith, Principes tui infideles socii furum. And I wish {ms folio 59b} God has not pronounced against these perverse kingdoms the judgement formerly against Samaria by the mouth of the prophet Amos, cap. 13, v. i. Pereat Samaria quoniam ad amaritudinem concitavit deum, in gladio pereant, parvuli eorum elidantur, et foetae eorum

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The second part of the Journal

3

Quien se muda, Dios le ayuda. God helps him that changes, saith the Spanish proverb. It hath not been my fortune to verify this saying, for though I have changed from a civil to a military life, my fortune hitherto hath been retrograde and gone in diminution. Yet no man has more reason to bless and praise the infinite goodness of God, who has brought me safe out of all dangers, and preserved me in entire health in all the hardships I have gone through. This I look upon to be Melioris tessera fati, and hope God has reserved me for some better fate that I may see my sovereign victorious and partake of the fruits of peace, as I have borne my part in the calamities of war, and that such as shall see me happy and peruse this compendium of my sorrows may say, Dulcia quam meruit, qui tam gustavit amara.

Having received my commission I made all the haste my want would admit of to go to the regiment, and being furnished with a good horse by Major Price, I set out from Dublin on Tuesday the 20th of August, and went that night to Drogheda where the regiment was then in quarters. Here I continued some days, and hoping to return soon into England, where I had left a collection of my former travels and in it some description of this town, I forbore to {ms folio 60b} take any notes, and shall only add that it is twenty miles from Dublin. There happened nothing remarkable, nor did we stir till Thursday, September the 5th, when we marched out and encamped, many regiments in number but most very weak, on the south side the town. We spent several days here exercising and furnishing the men with what necessaries the time would allow of. The army daily increased in numbers,

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Saturday the 14th:¹⁰⁰ advice being given that the rebels

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Sunday the 15th: detachments were drawn out to fetch wood and straw, and the rest of the day spent in building the huts. The post of our regiment was the left of the second line, there being but three elder regiments in the {ms folio 61a} field. About midnight the alarm beat furiously, the whole army was under arms very readily, and having continued so a while returned, it being a false alarm given on purpose to try how quick the men could be drawn up in case of any surprise.

Monday the 16th: His Majesty in person with a great body of horse marched to discover the enemy's motion, and, finding they kept close having met no opposition upon the way, sent orders for the army to march,¹⁰¹ which was not done till the next day, being

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3

Tuesday the 17th: when the whole army decamped, and, the ground taken up to encamp being bare of trees, every soldier was obliged to carry some of the wood for building of their huts, which, notwithstanding, many would drop by the way rather than carry so far, though afterwards they found the want of it, being forced to lie that night without shelter, and the next day to go far for wood. This day's march was about six miles, the king's quarters at a village near Fane Bridge, where His Majesty lay in a little thatched cabin, there being never a better house near. The whole army encamped in two lines along the fields on the left of the village as far as Allardstown Bridge,¹⁰² having the river before them for a defence, and our outguards upon the passes. This is about four miles from Dundalk, on all sides a pleasant and fruitful country, though not so beautified with good fences as it deserves or is usual in England. Here we lay still and nothing remarkable happened till

Saturday the 21st: by break of day the whole army {ms folio 61b} was drawn out and marched in two columns, the one over Fane,¹⁰³

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Friday the 27th: the rebels fired all their great {ms folio 62a} guns three times and several volleys of small shot, which they performed with incomparable exactness not one shot falling out of time. This we were informed was for joy of some advantage gained by the rebels at Sligo, which they represented as very considerable to keep up the hearts of their

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Saturday the 28th: passed without anything of note, and Sunday the 29th was only remarkable for a most violent storm of wind and rain, which lasted the whole day but ceased at night. The next day proved fair, and very cold with a northerly wind. The three days following warmer but very wet.

Friday and Saturday, the 4th and 5th of October: the weather was more favourable. The first of these days was sent out a detachment towards the mountains, the design as was said to rescue some prisoners that were kept under a slight guard at Carlingford. They returned the day following without effecting anything, the enterprise being discovered to the enemy, of whom meeting some small party in the mountains they had killed fourteen without any loss on our side. This last night also orders were given to march at break of day. Whilst the army continued encamped in this place it suffered no want of anything that was necessary. There was plenty of forage for the horse, besides what was destroyed to endamage the enemy, which was a great quantity that lay close under their camp, and which they never made any attempt to defend, though our parties burnt it in open day to see to draw them out. {ms folio 62b} The country abounded with straw and corn which served both to lie upon and cover our huts wherewith we supplied the want of tents, there being very few in the army, and even such as had them made huts as being both warmer, and drier. The army was punctually paid, and the brass money passed as current and was of equal value with silver,¹⁰⁷ which made the camp so plentiful of

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Sunday the 6th: at break of day we fired all {ms folio 63a} the huts, and the wind blowing the same way we were to march carried such a cloud of smoke along with it, the thickness of the weather keeping it down, that it blinded us for a considerable space, and thereby several battalions were put into such disorder that it appeared more like a flight than the retreat of an army that had laid so long to brave its enemies, and had they been near enough to make use of the opportunity they had with little danger put us into a great consternation. Had the rebels but stirred the least in order to molest us upon our march, there happened another accident which might have been of a very fatal consequence, and this was that not only the foot but all the horse and dragoons were marched above two miles, leaving behind not only His Majesty's baggage but his person in his quarters with only, his troop of guards, notwithstanding some regiments of horse and dragoons had been ordered to attend him, who nevertheless marched away after the rest till General Rosen himself came up and caused the whole army to halt and face about. His Majesty being come up we continued our march to Ardee, where we encamped on the north side of the river having the town on our left. In this encampment our lines were not very regular by reason of the ill disposition of the ground.

Monday the 7th: we continued in the same place. At

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Tuesday the 18th: the aforesaid brigade marched to [...] upon a high ground about three miles from Ardee, on the right of all the army and towards the seaside upon the road that goes from Dundalk to Drogheda. Here we encamped, and the Earl of Clanricarde's¹¹¹ and Cormuck O'Neill's regiments of foot joined us; the latter consisted of two battalions, and on the left we had the Lord Dungan's Dragoons. All the horse were quartered in the neighbouring villages and country houses. Many days we lay here without any manner of action, the enemy keeping close in their quarters notwithstanding our horse drew daily near to provoke them. The extremity of the weather brought many inconveniences and bred much sickness in our camp. For the most part the rains were so violent that neither huts nor tents could keep out the water, and the earth was so soaked that we were not only wet in the

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Tuesday the 29th: a strong party of the enemy marched as far as one of our advanced posts, which was at Tallantstown, a house of the Earl of Louth's¹¹³ with a court before it encompassed with a stone wall, whither were sent from the army weekly a captain, two lieutenants, and an ensign with sixty men, whereof twenty with an officer were detached to a bridge about a furlong from the house, where was an old mill

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Saturday the 2nd of October: I was commanded to the advanced guard at Tallantstown, with a captain of Colonel Butler of Kilcash's Regiment,¹¹⁴ a lieutenant of the same, an ensign of ours, and sixty men. Having relieved the guard, and sent the lieutenant with twenty men as usual to the bridge, about midnight we were alarmed by a shot from the said bridge, and stood at arms about the wall all night but saw none of the enemy. This night also came to us a lieutenant with twenty men with orders to relieve us, the army being to decamp the next morning. His orders were for us to march immediately, but by reason of the alarm it was deferred till morning.

Sunday the 3rd: at break of day we marched in good order, and with lighted matches some part of the way, lest any of the enemy, having passed the house by night, might be in the way, but we met none and coming to the camp found the army was {ms folio 65a} marched, whom we followed with speed towards Drogheda. The captain that commanded the detachment being well mounted left us ordering every man to make the

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Monday the 4th: I took my way along the hills and came about noon to Drogheda. The great rains had made the ways almost impassable, the horse road which is most old causeway being broken up and quite out of repair, and the footway in the fields very boggy with abundance of ditches at that time full of water. It was extreme tiresome to me marching afoot, but to avoid the inconveniences and toils of the camp at such an unseasonable time of the year all things appeared more easy. In Drogheda we continued till

Thursday the 14th, when the Grand Prior's Regiment {ms folio 65b} being appointed to quarter in Dublin, we marched and, within a mile of Ballough dividing the regiment for conveniency of quarters, one part went on to Ballough and the other, in which I was, struck off to the left towards the sea to the town of Lusk, where we had very good quarters.

Friday the 15th: the regiment joined again on the road, and marched without any considerable halt to Dublin, each day's march being ten miles. Our quarters were assigned us in the college,¹¹⁵ where the scholars being turned out another

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Our intelligence in England for a long time seemed to carry a favourable aspect, some little vessels running often from Dublin to the coast which, returning always safe, filled us with the news of the good disposition of affairs there towards His Majesty's service. But neither in this particular was there used that secrecy and caution that became a business of that consequence. It was not enough that every one knew when a vessel was to sail for England, but that at her return the common discourse of the town was what business she went upon and what success she had met with, who managed the intelligence on the other side, to whom commission was given to dispose and provide men, what number of men were in readiness, where and in what manner horses and arms were

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{ms folio 71a}In the spring arrived at Cork the French fleet, bringing besides wheat and ammunition eight battalions of foot well clothed, armed, and disciplined, in return whereof they received a like number of unarmed, ragged, and inexperienced men.¹²⁵ These forces being landed and well refreshed at Cork and all about the country, by easy marches came to Dublin to the great satisfaction of all good men, and no less vexation of the rebellious party. These men raised a great expectation of themselves in every one's thoughts, and not without reason, they being the very flower of the foot of the army. M. de Lauzun had the command of them;¹²⁶ they brought twelve

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Money, like blood in the body of man, ought to have its circulation, and passing from one hand to another be as it were in a continual motion, from the subject to the king, from the king to the soldier, from the soldier to the tradesman, from the tradesman to the merchant, from the merchant to the countryman, from the countryman to the gentleman, and from every one again to the king. The distempers that the kingdom laboured under had stopped this circulation in such manner that though it continued its course in some measure through the body of the people, the recourse to the king, the head, was almost quite diverted. All the branches of His Majesty's revenue were so sunk that the receipt scarce turned to any account, and a subsidy granted when the parliament

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Summer drawing on the preparations for the campaign began to be hastened, and the war which the winter seemed to have lulled asleep being awakened, every man was employed in furnishing himself for the field.¹²⁷ Every regiment

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Monday, May the 19th, 1690: the Lord Grand Prior's Regiment,¹³⁰ having the day before received what clothes, and

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Tuesday the 20th: about five of the clock in the morning I returned to the regiment and found them ready to march. It was ordered that neither officer nor soldier should quit the ranks which was no small fatigue, the weather being hot and the road excessive dusty to that degree that we were almost stifled and blinded, and so covered with dust that we scarce knew ourselves, all which fell most grievously upon such as marched afoot, whereof I was one. From Swords to Ballough is four miles, thence to Balrothery two, both of them poor villages, these last two miles of the longest I have seen. Hence to Gormanstown three miles, not worthy the name of a town, but at best only a tolerable village, most remarkable for giving title to a lord, who has a good house in the place, but poorly provided at that time, as some of our officers {ms folio 74b} found by experience, who went to it only to get any sort of drink, there being then none to be had for money. Here we made a halt for about two hours, but found no refreshment, but what we brought with us unless the cool air and grass. Hence

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Saturday the 24th: a detachment of His Majesty's Horse Guards, then two battalions of the foot guards, then the Lord Grand Prior's Regiment, and, to close up the rear, a troop of the Lord Dungan's Dragoons; in this manner we marched about three or four miles to Mellifont, as to the village very inconsiderable. But what makes the place anything known is a large but now much decayed house in a bottom enclosed with wooded hills and a very fair park, all of the estate of the infamous Earl of Drogheda, infamous both as a rebel and notorious coward.¹³⁴ On a ridge of hills to the northward of this place we encamped the horse and foot guards on the left, it being next to the general's quarters, the Grand Prior and two troops of Colonel Sutherland's Horse¹³⁵ on the right, leaving in the centre a large interval for other regiments to encamp.

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3

Sunday the 25th: Colonel M'Ellicott's Regiment encamped on the left of us.¹³⁶ They marched in about 550 strong, besides officers and sergeants, very well armed and clothed.

{ms folio 75b}Monday the 26th: in the morning the Earl of Tyrone's Regiment joined us, and encamped on the right of the guards, about 500 and odd strong. Soon after them came up Colonel Parker's Regiment of Horse, consisting of eight troops in all, 300 men complete; they marched through, and took their ground about a quarter of a mile from the head of our line. A troop of the Lord Dungan's Dragoons marched in with this last regiment, but neither these nor those before mentioned encamped with us. These two days we had very foul weather, towards evening it cleared a little.

Tuesday the 27th: though the weather was extreme foul with a continual violent rain all the foot were drawn out and kept at arms all day only to satisfy the impertinent curiosity of some ladies, who appeared in a coach towards evening, and whom we were commanded to receive with the same respects as are used to be paid to the king, though there were few there who did not curse them in their hearts and even some with loud voices. For although we were obliged to obey our

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{ms folio 76a} Wednesday the 28th: the general beat at three, all the line was at arms at four, and began at five to march off from the left. First the horse guards, then two troops of Colonel Sutherland's, next the two battalions of foot guards and other regiments successively, and lastly the Lord Grand Prior's; after them followed the ammunition and baggage and Colonel Parker's Horse, which doubtless was designed to close the rear, but on the sudden without much order they marched off and left us. The country here is very open, the first mile and half a broad road between cornfields, then a common above a mile over very thick of fern, thence to Ardee about four miles. We marched through three miles farther and encamped at night between Stormanstown and Cookstown, both little more than the ruins of two gentlemen's houses. The line was extended near a mile in length, the guards taking the right, the Lord Grand Prior the left, the rest in the centre being in all but six battalions, leaving intervals for such battalions as were designed to fill up the line. The horse guards held the right and Colonel Parker's Horse the left, the Lord Dungan's Dragoons on the right of the guards. The line lay along the side of a pleasant hill, all the fields about full of grass, but very little corn.

Thursday the 29th: joined us eight complete troops of Quarter-Master General Maxwell's Regiment of Dragoons, being 400 men well armed and mounted. They encamped on the left of Parker's Horse.

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Friday the 30th: the Earl of Antrim's Regiment of Foot¹³⁷ encamped on the right next the Grand Prior's, their muster-rolls and computation amounted to near 800, but after a diligent search and inquiry I could not find above 550 private men.

Saturday the 31st: in the morning two women were {ms folio 76b} hanged as spies by order of Major-General Léry,¹³⁸ the commander-in-chief. In the afternoon the Earl of Westmeath's Regiment¹³⁹ about 550 strong encamped on the right of Antrim. These two days' provisions of all sorts were very scarce and

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Sunday the 1st of June: nothing of note.

Monday the 2nd: a party of horse and dragoons sent out returned at night, having marched about nine miles and scarce seen any human creature but an old woman dying for want in the church at Carrickmacross, and two men on the road by whom they understood there was no body of the enemy near.

Friday the 6th: the Earl of Louth's Regiment¹⁴⁰ came up

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Sunday the 8th: a party of horse and dragoons under the command of Brigadier Maxwell returned, having been within two or three miles of Armagh, and hardly seen any living creature all the way. Four deserters came to us from the enemy.

Monday the 9th: four troops of Brigadier Maxwell's dragoons that were behind joined the regiment, making up twelve complete troops and near 600 men well accoutred and disciplined.

Tuesday the 10th: the camp was alarmed by a report of some body of the enemy being seen between us and Dundalk. The horse and dragoon pickets mounted, horses were taken from grass, and some parties {ms folio 77a} went out, but it proved a very groundless alarm.

Wednesday the 11th: two of Sir Michael Creagh's men,¹⁴¹ being taken six or seven miles from the camp, were shot as deserters. The weather till now having continued very cold, wet, and raw, became on a sudden extreme hot.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nothing of note but that this last day being appointed a general muster; there being but one commissary of the foot only the two battalions of guards mustered.

Sunday the 15th all the other foot regiments mustered beginning from the right. The Earl of Clare's Regiment of Foot joined the army.

Tuesday the 17th: the general beat between two and three o'clock in the morning, about an hour after, the troop, with orders to decamp, the army marched off from the right towards Dundalk. First to Tallantstown Bridge near which

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Wednesday the 18th: the Duke of Tyrconnel's and Lord Galmoy's¹⁴³ Regiments of Horse came into the field, and encamped, the first on the right, the other on the left of the first line.

Thursday the 19th: the general beat at three, all the foot were at arms between five and six. About an hour after, the Earls of Westmeath and Antrim's Regiments marched and took the left of the Lord Grand Prior's, then the three regiments marched about half a mile towards Newry road, where we halted in the fields, and heard mass after which was an alarm. All the horse and dragoons mounted, the {ms folio 78a} foot guards had before marched down and were posted at a distance on the right, now the horse and dragoons advanced. Several parties were sent out to the Four-mile Bridge, but it proving a false alarm, the horse and dragoons soon returned to the camp, but the foot continued at arms in the fields till nine o'clock at night.

Friday the 20th: the French and other regiments coming up, the whole army decamped, the first line pitching their tents on the top of the hill, which before were not so regular along the sides of it, and stretched out the line a considerable space on the left. The second line also moved, several regiments being removed from the first into the second.

Saturday the 21st: a strong detachment of firelocks was sent out to a castle on the Newry road. At night 200 chosen men out of five regiments, being 40 of each, were sent to lie

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Sunday the 22nd: a party of horse under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Dempsey,¹⁴⁴ advancing towards Newry, fell into a body of the enemy and, being overpowered, retreated; till coming to the above said detachment of 200 foot under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel FitzGerald¹⁴⁵ and finding them receive the enemy vigorously, they rallied. The rebels made no great resistance, our foot firing hotly, but fled towards Newry, the horse pursuing them a considerable space. Of the rebels above sixty were killed, of ours a few wounded and fewer killed, among which was Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence Dempsey, shot through the {ms folio 78b} shoulder whereof he died. I was not present at this action but had the account from some who were. This day was taken one who received pay as sergeant in our regiment, deserting to the enemy and hanged at the head of the battalion. Three others who together with the former, being all Scotchmen, had served in Dumbarton's Regiment¹⁴⁶ and made their escape from Flanders into France

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Monday the 23rd: the whole army prepared to march early in the morning, and moved about noon. Men were detached from each regiment to receive salt meat and bread at the stores at Dundalk, but it being known the king designed to abandon that place, the soldiers in a disorderly manner fell to plundering the stores, which caused no small confusion, every one there laying hold of what he could, and running a several way. We marched back about nine miles in such manner as looked more like a flight than deliberate retreat, and encamped on the north side of Ardee.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nothing of note happened, but we continued in the same place and spent the two last days in exercise, and teaching the men to fire, which many of them had never been accustomed to before.

{ms folio 79a}Friday the 27th: we decamped and leaving Ardee on the right marched about five miles and encamped. This place fared no better than Dundalk, being plundered by our own men and left almost desolate. Before the Rebellion it was an indifferent good town, but most of the inhabitants fled from their homes and allegiance, and the rest either dead or left worth nothing. Here we understood the enemy was advancing.

Saturday the 28th: we marched again about five miles and encamped within three of Drogheda, near a small village, along cornfields, gardens, and meadows, the river Boyne in the rear. This night no word was given, but about midnight in great hurry ammunition delivered out, then orders to take down all tents and send away the baggage. This done the whole army drew out without beat of drum and stood at their arms the whole night, expecting the approach of the enemy.

Sunday the 29th: about break of day no enemy appearing, the army began to march in two columns, the one through

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Monday the 30th: early in the morning the enemy appeared on the tops of the hills beyond the river, some of the poor country people flying before them. They marched down and spread themselves along the sides of the hills where they encamped, but so as we could not discover them all, a great part being covered by the higher grounds. Part of our cannon was carried down and planted on the pass or ford, which from thence played upon some regiments of theirs, and did some but not considerable execution. After noon they began to play upon us with their cannon and some mortars, but no considerable damage was received on either side.

Tuesday the 1st of July: very early the tents were thrown down, the baggage sent away, but the soldiers ordered to carry their tents, some of which were afterwards together with their snapsacks laid in heaps in the fields with some

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{ms folio 84b} Wednesday the 2nd: at break of day those few drums there were beat as formally as if we had been a considerable body, but it was only mere form and we scarce the shadows of regiments, the bodies being dispersed and gone. What was left in dismal manner marched as far as Dublin, where when each commanding officer came to view his strength, shame of marching in such case through the city we not long before had filled with expectation of our actions and hopes of gathering part of the scattered herd caused us to halt in the fields without the town. The colours of each regiment being fixed on eminences that all stragglers might know whither to repair, in the space of near three hours each regiment had gathered a small number, the Grand Prior's as one of the most considerable being then 100 strong. Thus we marched through the skirts of the city, passing over the river at the Bloody Bridge, which is the farthest off in the suburbs, being now only the remains of four regiments, the others being either quite

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Thursday the 3rd: we were roused out of a dead sleep, proceeding from excessive weariness not from the easiness of the beds which were no other than the planks, at break of day by a great number of dragoons and others riding through the town as fast as their horses could carry them, and crying the enemy was within a mile of them. Being awaked and our lodging nothing pleasant we set out on our lame horse and having travelled five or six miles {ms folio 85b} were overtaken by the Duke of Tyrconnel ¹⁵⁹ and his family, some whereof challenged

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Friday the 4th: meeting a servant to one of our lieutenants I borrowed a horse he had, and pressed or forced away another about a mile from our quarters, but without saddle or bridle, which was very uneasy, but anything more tolerable than going afoot, and thus mounted we got about noon to Kilkenny, which is sixteen miles.¹⁶² To do justice I restored the horse to his owner before entering the town, contrary to the advice of all present, but as it was unjust to detain the horse without any other pretension but force so it was inhuman to do it after the poor man had followed sixteen miles afoot upon my promise of restitution. Nor was the manner of taking the horse unpleasant, for at least twenty of the poor people flocking to his defence with several weapons. I frighted away and kept them all oft by presenting a matchlock I had taken from the lieutenant's man, though without powder, ball, or so much as a match. All the shops and public-houses in the town were shut, and neither meat nor drink to be had though many were fainting through want and weariness. Hunger and thirst put me forward to seek relief, where nothing but necessity could have carried me, but the invincible power of want hides all blushes, so hearing the stores at the castle were broken up and much bread and drink given out, I resolved to try my

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Saturday the 5th: on our march we passed by Clonamicklon, a house of the Lord Ikerrin¹⁶³ about a mile from Kilcooly, and rested five miles farther at Killenaule, a small poor village on the mountain, whence we travelled to Cashel which is six miles. It is an archbishopric and the metropolitan see of Munster, and one of the ancientest in the kingdom. The cathedral seems not so beautiful as ancient and stands like a castle on the top of a rocky hill out of town, I thought it not worth time to go up to see it, being satisfied with the outward appearance. All manner of refreshment was hard to be had here but necessity overcame all difficulties. Hence we travelled five miles to a gentleman's house upon the road, where was plenty of all provisions. Some few of our stray officers, being got in before, endeavoured to make good the house against us, the confusion of the time which ought {ms folio 87a} the more to have endeared us to each other, being fellow sufferers in the same cause, making some men rather inhuman and barbarous to those they should relieve and support. Insomuch that one who was within the house would not admit his own brother who came with me to the gate, and where such near ties of blood could not prevail, it is not to be thought our being fellow officers in the same regiment could have any influence. Fair means being of no effect, necessity obliged us to use violence, and with much difficulty we forced our way into the house, where was such plenty as might have contented an entire regiment, much more about a dozen that we were in all, and yet those few first possessors thought all too little for themselves.

Sunday the 6th: we travelled four miles to Cullen a small town, where we heard mass the church being then in the possession of the Catholics. Hence is seven miles to Cahirconlish, a small village, where was assembled a great number of the country people armed with roperies to receive the Duke

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Wednesday the 9th: orders were given to all officers to endeavour to gather the remains of their regiments, and to ours in {ms folio 87b} particular to march four miles to the westward of Limerick ¹⁶⁴ to a village called Carrigogunnell and the adjacent places, there to quarter till the rest of our dispersion came up and we received fresh orders. The most remarkable thing in this march was that the number of officers exceeded that of the private men, and yet not one-half of the former were present. These quarters proved very refreshing after our long fatigue, the people being generally very kind, as some thought partly for love, but in my opinion most through fear. For most certain it is few are fond of such guests as soldiers are upon free quarter, especially such as ours were ravenous and unruly, but it is the wisest course to make a virtue of necessity, and offer that freely which otherwise would be extorted forcibly. We had here plenty of meat and barley

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Saturday the 12th: in pursuance of the orders received the night before, we rendezvoused at the head-quarters to the number of about 150 men, some with arms fixed, others unfixed, and others without any arms. Thus we marched to Limerick, and halted there a considerable time without the town, to receive bread, where about fifty more joined us. Hence we marched three miles to the eastward of the city and encamped in a plain on the left of the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards, which here made two small battalions not equal to

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Sunday the 13th was spent in building huts, it being too late the night before and all our tents lost the unfortunate day at the Boyne, as was most of the baggage of the army. The tents were most thrown about the fields or left in heaps with the soldiers' snapsacks before the rout. The officers' baggage was all sent away with a guard towards Dublin before we marched, but upon the defeat much plundered by those who were appointed to preserve it, and most of what they left ransacked by our own dragoons, and even by some of our officers who being well mounted were swiftest to overtake it. As afterwards appeared by many who were discovered and convicted of the fact, and, among others for an instance, our captain-lieutenant was found wearing the clothes and linen of a considerable officer of horse and refusing upon demand to make restitution, tried {ms folio 89a} for the same by a court-martial, where he could give no account how he came by them, and was accordingly found guilty of the fact, commanded to restore all that was challenged, and by favour of the times only imprisoned during some few days. By this disorder of our own men though the enemy got but little, very many of us were left almost naked, not having so much as a shirt to change. In which condition being a stranger and without friends I continued many days, for money was as scarce as clothes and what we had only brass, which was then of very little or no value, till I met an Englishman who had but three shirts yet taking compassion of me gave me one, which was the first relief I had after losing all. One comfort was I did not want companions in misery, though few reduced to so great extremity as myself, the Irish being in their own country, and though perhaps many far from home yet few but had some friend to assist them; and most of the English officers were then withdrawn from the regiment.

Monday the 14th: we were reviewed by Brigadier Wauchope, and our regiment found to consist of 150 men with arms fixed, 50 unfixed, and almost 100 without arms. A dismal and most shameful sight, the king a fortnight before giving

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Tuesday the 15th: nothing remarkable happened, but many of our men came up and joined their regiments.

Wednesday the 16th: in the morning we decamped, and the regiments being so very weak as I said before they were joined by two and two, to us was joined the Lord Slane's.¹⁶⁶ The whole day was spent in marching to Limerick, though it was not full four miles. In the city {ms folio 89b} were left all the French, the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards, the Grand Prior's, Major General Boisseleau¹⁶⁷ and Sir John FitzGerald's, the rest

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Thursday the 17th: quarters were assigned us, in some houses one, in some two companies. Limerick, being the principal city at this time and long after that held out for the king, and consequently there being often occasion and that on account of many memorable occurrences to speak of it, having been long quartered in it during that season, I will endeavour to give a true and exact description of it, but as brief as the small compass of this journal requires. Limerick is seated in a plain on the banks of the river Shannon, a branch whereof runs through and divides it into two, the one called the English, the other the Irish town, and encompasseth the former together with a considerable spot of ground without the walls called the King's Island, and so falls again into the main body of the river as appears in the map,¹⁷⁰ to which recourse may be had in relation to all that shall occur hereafter,

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Friday the 18th: the Lord Grand Prior's to which were

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Saturday the 19th: Colonel Talbot with all the Grenadiers of the camp prepared the palisades. Gordon O'Neill and O'Donovan's Regiments ¹⁷² were at the work with all their

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Sunday the 20th: Gormanstown's and Bellow's Regiments at the work.

Monday the 21st: the days being long and very hot it was found the men could not hold out with vigour from sunrise to sunset, it was therefore thought expedient to keep them close whilst at it and have them relieved; accordingly Hamilton's Regiment, mounted first, were relieved by Kilmallock's and they again by Burke's ¹⁷³

{ms folio 92b}Tuesday the 22nd: The Grand Prior's, Bellew's, and Gormanstown's Regiments, commanded by the Lord Slane, marched about five miles into the county of Clare towards Brian's Bridge to a wood near the river to bring palisades, which were there ready cut. Gordon O'Neill was at the work in the town.

Wednesday the 23rd: Athlone having been some days besieged and by Colonel Grace the governor well defended, it was thought fit to send him some relief, the enemy being only on the Leinster side of the river and Connaught side open. Here upon this day one battalion of the guards, the Grand Prior, Slane and Boisseleau's detachments making another battalion, Gormanstown and Bellew a third, Hamilton and Sir Maurice Eustace¹⁷⁴ a fourth, and the French detachments,

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Thursday the 24th: we marched first along the side of the

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Friday the 25th: with the day began our march over the

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Saturday the 26th: the news of raising the siege of Athlone being come to the Duke of Berwick who commanded in chief, though the news was not made known, yet why kept secret is a mystery, the Irish forces continued here, but the French detachments marched back to Limerick to our great satisfaction,

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Sunday the 27th: we marched to Loughrea six miles, all the country hitherto is wild, mountainous and in my judgement may be called barren, but some people are so blinded with affection they will not allow the worst of soils to be called barren, because it produces fern and wild sedge, which the miserable cattle having no better are forced to feed upon, and yet some will maintain that to be a rich soil, which all the art of man cannot improve so as to bear anything but oats and potatoes. At the town begins a valley which extends some miles in length and breadth. It is not very plain, but has several old ruins of castles and gentlemen's houses {ms folio 95b} and there being many enclosures from the mountains it looks like an exceeding pleasant and fertile place, but coming to view all this near it is only ruins and a barren soil, wherein are some scattered cornfields, some coarse pasture and the rest nothing but fern and rushes. The town is like the country, promises well at a distance, but when near you find only the remains of a formerly indifferent place with some memory of walls, the gates yet standing. There is also little more than the ruins of a very considerable house belonging to the Earls of Clanricarde. Adjoining to the town is a great lough or lake out of which runs a small river, and from the lough I suppose the town takes its name. Here every company had a house assigned for quarters.

Monday the 28th: we continued here. Brigadier Sarsfield¹⁸²

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Tuesday the 29th proved an excessive hot day, yet we marched nine miles of that country (which are the longest I ever saw) without halting, then rested a while near Gort,¹⁸³ a very small inconsiderable village upon a very rocky river, over which is a stone bridge, and adjoining to it a very large house. The road hither is along one end of the bottom I spoke of before, and partakes much of the hills and barrenness. After a short halt we marched three miles farther to a mill about a mile from the place called Toberreendony, famous for a clear spring dedicated to our blessed lady, as the name imports in Irish, and held in great veneration by all the neighbouring people.¹⁸⁴ Part of this way is through lanes, the rest very stony and hilly. Upon the road advice was brought that the enemy ad approached to Limerick and it was feared they would attempt to pass the Shannon, which if they had compassed might have been the loss of us all, we being but a small number of foot {ms folio 96a} and without horse or dragoons. Hereupon ammunition was distributed and both officer and soldier ordered upon pain of death not to stir from their post but to lie down upon their arms and take some rest till such time the general should beat, which was appointed within two hours, having halted about ten at night to march again at twelve. And though we had marched with only half an hour's rest from morning till this time at night and at a great rate yet could we the whole day make but twelve miles. I cannot but observe how little confidence was then to be reposed in our men, for notwithstanding the severe orders the fear of the enemy prevailed so much more over them than that of punishment, or any sense of honour, or their safety in standing by each other, that it appeared with the light at least one half of them were stolen away in the dark, those that were left being ready upon the first alarm to follow the example set them by their companions.

Wednesday the 30th: between twelve and one in the morning the general beat, and again ordered that no man

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Thursday the 31st: we marched to Limerick which is six large miles, almost half the way over a high steep and stony mountain, the rest plain and most part lanes, cornfields and meadows on both sides, all enclosed as in England. There is another way to avoid the mountain but farther about: I shall speak of it when I come to travel it. From our setting out till our return to Limerick we suffered much for want of provisions and above all of bread, for no ammunition bread was given and scarce any could be bought, only very rarely some few cakes of oats or bere, a grain much like to though not the same but bigger and coarser than barley, whereof all their beer and ale is made, little or none of their land producing the true barley. The city being filled with the chief officers, both civil and military, the guards and French, we were quartered in the Irish town one or two companies in a house.

Friday the 1st of August: all the regiments were drawn out and reviewed in the King's Island in order, as was given out, to receive money and bread and have quarters regulated. After standing at arms till about two of the clock we were dismissed without any thing, only orders that an officer of a company should make a true return of their arms fixed and unfixed, and of the number of their men present.

Saturday the 2nd: most of our horse and dragoons, some on the one side of the river some on the other, marched towards Athlone. This day also the French forces departed for Galway to the great satisfaction not only of the inhabitants, but of all the garrison that remained in town. They remained some time at Galway till ships came to carry them into France, thinking it impossible Limerick should hold out a siege, offering to lay wagers it would be taken in three days.¹⁸⁷

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{ms folio 97b} Sunday the 3rd: nothing of note, but that advice was brought of the approach of the enemy, and all preparations for their reception hastened accordingly.

Monday and Tuesday, the 4th and 5th: most part of these two days the foot, who were encamped on the east side of the town, marched through into the King's Island, carrying with them all the materials for building their huts, and encamped there. The small works about the town not being finished, the men were kept at work incessantly day and night.

Wednesday the 6th: there was nothing remarkable, but a review being taken of the Lord Grand Prior's regiment it was found to consist of 446 private men, besides corporals, sergeants and commissioned officers, making in all 543. Of these many sick and absent, but many more without arms. Though there was the name of many regiments in the garrison yet very few of them were near this number and fewer equal in goodness of men. I speak it not out of affection or vanity because I served in it, but because it was one of the oldest in the kingdom, giving their precedence only to the Guards and disputing the right with Hamilton's, all others yielding to it.

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Thursday the 7th: on the works mounted by brigades at noon went the Lord Grand Prior and Hamilton¹⁸⁸ and the regiments joined to them, which made a large brigade and had not as at other times a particular brigadier, but were commanded by him whose day it was. The enemy encamped within three miles of the town and our dragoons retired, burning all the country as they went. The devastation spread on all sides, and quite round might be seen some villages, and many farms, and considerable gentlemen's country houses in flames. Our negligence at first was cause that our works, though mean and inconsiderable, were not yet finished, so that no intermission could be allowed. Gordon and Felix O'Neill¹⁸⁹ with other regiments joined to them relieved the work in the evening to continue all night till break of day.

Friday the 8th: Gormanstown¹⁹⁰ and Bellew,¹⁹¹ &c., mounted the work and were relieved at noon by the Grand Prior, &c. This morning the enemy's horse and dragoons came up within half a mile of the town, showing themselves on the rising

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Saturday the 9th: the Prince of Orange invested the town, enclosing with his army all that is not surrounded by the Shannon.¹⁹² Detachments of our foot, supported by the dragoons, disputed every field with the enemy, lining the hedges and retiring orderly from one to another after several volleys and some execution till they came within shelter of our cannon or outworks, and there they continued in small bodies in the ditches and kept their ground all night. In this skirmishing we lost but very few men, nor indeed could we spare them so that it was done only for form and to amuse the enemy. Giving way still as they pressed upon us, there was never an officer killed but Sir Maurice Eustace had his horse shot under him in the midst of us, and Fitzpatrick's major his in a field below us, but neither they nor any of us hurt. I will not be too exact in affirming what garrison we had, I know both to encourage us and terrify the enemy we were given out to be

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Sunday the 10th: one battalion of the Royal regiment of Foot Guards relieved the hornwork, Gordon¹⁹⁵ and Felix O'Neill the east side, Luttrell's Dragoons St. John's Gate, FitzGerald and Kilmallock the west. The enemy fired most part of the day some field pieces from Cromwell's fort and the hill opposite to the south-west commonly called the Ball tower. They did no execution though two or three balls went through the Capuchins' chapel in time of mass. Our cannon answered upon all occasions though to as little effect, only that we looked on the enemy's losses through multiplying glasses their loss could not be much, but some there was.

Monday the 11th: the Grand Prior mounted the east side where the O'Neills were, the second battalion of guards relieved the first and the rest in order. The Grand Prior also relieved the two redoubts of the south-east angle. The cannon played hot on both sides till the enemy's on a sudden gave over, it was thought ours had dismounted or at least endamaged some of their pieces. Some battalions of the enemy's being encamped within sight and reach of our guns, they played through them so smartly, that they were obliged to remove.

Tuesday the 12th: the works were relieved as before. We heard nothing of the enemy all day they continuing very quiet, as was thought being busy in the wood cutting of faggots, wherever they could be perceived to move in any body within reach on cannon continually played on them.¹⁹⁶

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Wednesday the 13th: we mounted the same place, all other posts were relieved as usual, for the whole strength of the garrison even now at first consisted but of one relief, so that we were on duty every other day and were besides subject to all accidents of alarms which were frequent, and towards the latter end our duty was continual. This day before mounting was a review of all that were not upon duty. The unarmed men {ms folio 99a} were continually kept at work, the chief part whereof was in the King's Island, where was raised a square fort with four bulwarks, on one of them a small platform for three or four guns to play over the branch of the river that makes the island, where it was thought the enemy designed to raise a battery, having made some odd shots from thence. There were besides some breastworks cast up at such places as the river was most easy to be forded. This day passed without any molestation from the enemy.

Thursday the 14th: all the works relieved as usual. The enemy lay very still till about two or three of the clock, at which time they began to play furiously with four pieces of cannon on our platform of the citadel, and so continued very hot for about two hours, when on a sudden they gave over. Our cannon the meanwhile was not idle, but answered them so smartly both from that platform and above within the citadel that by their sudden ceasing as well as other signs which we could perceive, it was concluded we had done some considerable damage to their battery. On our side only a lieutenant lost an arm, seven or eight killed, and as many wounded.

Friday the 15th: we mounted as before. The enemy's cannon played at our platforms and did little or no hurt. Only on the north side some few men were hurt and two or three killed by the cannon balls which rebounded back from the stone wall.

Saturday the 16th: the works relieved as usual. All our unarmed men were continually kept at work, some fortifying

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Sunday the 17th: having relieved the works the whole day continued very quiet. About midnight the enemy advanced on the south and south-east sides of the town. Not far from the south-east angle were two small redoubts and a third opposite to St. John's Gate on the south side. This last they attacked, which though made up only of loose stones laid one upon another was vigorously maintained by Hamilton and Eustace's Grenadiers, who behaved themselves so well that they repulsed the rebels and kept their ground till ordered to retire, that poor work being no longer tenable. A detachment of the Grand Prior's men, who were in the remotest of the two redoubts opposite to the south-east angle behaved themselves so ill that they quitted their post at the first charge and fled, some to the other redoubt and some to the trenches, with such precipitation that they lost their arms, the officers commanding there being the first, as it afterwards appeared, that gave the example to the soldiers of running, which they so readily followed that not one shot was spent in defence of the post. Lieutenant-Colonel Connel¹⁹⁷ of the Lord Slane's Regiment advanced out of the trenches, endeavouring to encourage the men to retrieve their honour by regaining the redoubt, but {ms folio 100a} the enemy being in possession and our men in a consternation nothing was effected, only that with some small reinforcement he put himself into the other redoubt, which secured it for that time he continuing there till we were relieved. The enemy after this success attempted not to proceed any farther, but were heard to work all the remaining part of the night and the next day, being

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Monday the 18th: it appeared they had raised a new battery upon Cromwell's Fort, so called for that it was raised by that usurper in the former rebellion when he besieged Limerick. It stands on a hill which overlooks the town about a quarter of a mile distant from it, the redoubt we lost the last night on the south side lying in the mid way to it. As soon as day appeared they began to play from that new battery with four pieces of cannon upon our small platform that covered the south-east angle, but with little success, some few balls being buried in it, others flying quite over the town, and some after glancing along the wall falling into our trenches, whereof one broke the legs of three men and a piece of another killed one man, but we retiring our men under shelter received no further damage. At the usual time we were relieved by first battalion of the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards, who were afterwards to be relieved by their second battalion, that post being taken from us, either because it being the most {ms folio 100b} exposed and consequently most honourable seemed of right to belong to the Guards or else silently to reproach us for the loss of the redoubt. This night the enemy advanced and attacked that redoubt we were still masters of near the south-east angle, and having made some show of attempting the trenches retired without gaining anything, their assault being but weak and of no continuance. The town took the alarm and all the garrison that was within continued the whole night, either on the walls or at arms, in the streets ready upon all occasions.

Tuesday the 19th: a strong detachment of the best men with firelocks and swords, for it is to be observed we had but few of those sorts of arms, was drawn out of the best regiments that relieved the trenches. The Grand Prior's with Colonel Moore's Regiment¹⁹⁸ mounted the hornwork where

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{ms folio 101a} The detachment before mentioned was advanced before the trenches on the east to have secured the redoubt of the south-east angle, if attacked, but the enemy attempted it not, and contented themselves with drawing a trench parallel to ours from the redoubt they had taken towards the river, our advanced men never endeavouring to disturb them, whereas they might easily have obstructed their work and done good execution upon them. Nothing else happened of moment, but whereas before we relieved the works in the morning now it was put off till the evening.

Wednesday the 20th: the enemy played from their battery on Cromwell's Fort, and from another they had newly raised on the redoubt they took from us opposite to the south-east angle. In the afternoon they vigorously attacked the redoubt we still maintained on the same side not far from their new battery. Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly of the Guards commanded there and twice repulsed the rebels,¹⁹⁹ but the third time the post was abandoned without any apparent reason for it, the defendants having sustained no loss and the enemy giving way; only the fear of our men, and, as I heard, the ill example of some officers, who {ms folio 101b} first quitted the post putting them to flight. An unfortunate sally was made after the loss of the redoubt at the east Watergate by all our horse, a party of

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Thursday the 21st: about one or two in the morning we were alarmed and continued at arms in the street and on the walls till about six when we were again dismissed. All the day the enemy continued their work, having every day brought great quantities of faggots, which now they employed in securing and carrying on their trenches towards the river. In the evening the posts were all relieved according to custom and this night we received no disturbance from the enemy.

{ms folio 102a} Friday the 22nd: with the day the enemy began to batter the tower on the south-east angle with four pieces of cannon and continued it hotly without any intermission till about noon or somewhat after the upper part of it fell to the ground, the remaining part being still as high as the wall. After this they slackened in their fury of firing, but gave not wholly over continuing to make some shots at the same tower and some at another in the middle of the east wall. It was now ordered we should relieve at one of the clock the time the

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Saturday the 23rd: they spent the whole day battering the east wall next the tower they had ruined the day before, playing incessantly with six pieces of cannon planted on a battery they had raised in the first redoubt they took from us directly opposite to the south-east angle. They {ms folio 102b} also made many shots at the citadel by St. John's Gate. The stones that flew from the wall and splinters of balls which broke against those hard stones killed some and wounded many of our men, because the narrowness of our works afforded no shelter and the ruins of the walls could not be avoided in the straightness of the trenches. The citadel and south wall received little or no damage, but on the east side the top of the wall was shaken. After noon there was a cessation of arms for about two hours to bury the dead, which lay above ground since the day we lost the last redoubt and made the unfortunate sally. Then the works were relieved. A detachment of 100 men out of several regiments was sent to join the guards in the trenches on the east side where the enemy pushed on their approaches and had their chief battery. I was ordered with this detachment and we were posted in the north end of the trench next the river, that being the most exposed place of all the works because all the enemy's cannon that played upon the wall drove clouds of stones and rubbish upon it which flew with great violence and wounded many. Besides it was {ms folio 103a} thought the enemy would make an attack upon that place because it was the weakest and even naked at low water. The officers had positive orders if attacked to kill any soldier that should offer to fly, and it was also declared death for any officer to quit his post though never so hard pressed. However we only essayed the fury of the cannon which played day and night, for the enemy attempted not the post. They were all

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Sunday the 24th: with the day we discovered the enemy had advanced their trenches within fifty paces of our counterscarp on the east side, and were raising a battery in the redoubt they last gained of us. All the day they played hotly from the other on the wall which was much damaged thereby. Nothing else remarkable happened this day. The works were relieved as usual except our detachment which through the negligence of the major continued on till night.

{ms folio 103b}Monday the 25th: the enemy began very early and continued all day playing hotly from two batteries, the one of twelve pieces of cannon against the intended breach in the east wall. The other was of four newly raised in the bottom near the bog opposite to the middle tower of the east wall, whence they made many shots at the Franciscans' chapel, standing near the east gate of the English town where we had three pieces of cannon that flanked their trenches. They also played them at Ball's Bridge which joins the English and Irish towns, being built over that arm of the Shannon which encloses the English town and King's Island. About noon both sides

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Tuesday the 26th: the day began as usual with {ms folio 104a} the noise of the cannon from all the enemy's batteries. This day they perfected their intended work, having made a breach in the southernmost part of the east wall near twenty paces wide, and though somewhat high yet easy of ascent, the vast quantity of rubbish beaten from the upper part of the wall and tower having almost filled the counterscarp so that there was no difficulty in mounting. Their cannon also levelled the glacis of the covered way and, having beat down the palisades, opened a plain passage to the breach and that gave a fair invitation to assault the town. This night they threw but few bombs and fewer carcasses seeming to be sparing of both. None of them did any damage worth mentioning.²⁰⁶

Wednesday the 27th: the enemy's batteries played furiously, the farthest off being the least at Ball's Bridge, the great one at the breach till they had laid it open above thirty paces and made the ascent plainer on their side than it was from the town. About noon the trenches were to be relieved which in part was done, only the Grand Prior's to which, as was said before, because of the weakness of regiments were joined Slane's and Boisseleau's,²⁰⁷ stood at arms in the street in order to have relieved {ms folio 104b} the hornwork. It had been before ordered that as they relieved one regiment should still stand at arms till another came in. It was our good fortune to

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Thursday the 28th: the enemy played their cannon very hot at the breach to enlarge it towards the south angle, and to beat down a small part of that tower which sheltered our men on the south wall from their shot, and had been prejudicial to them mounting the breach. The first they performed as to laying the breach wider open, but their design on the remaining part of the tower took no effect. From their lower battery next to the bog they plied the bridge so warmly it was very dangerous to pass. This, as was remarked before, is not the great bridge over the main body of the Shannon, but a small one over a branch of it, and joins the English and Irish towns; the communication between which they laboured to cut off, which if effected must {ms folio 107a} have proved fatal to us, but the damage they did was inconsiderable. In the morning

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Friday the 29th: the enemy's cannon played as before and enlarged the breach to above forty paces. At the bridge one shot cut both the chains of the drawbridge and did some other damage but not of much moment, because the enemy's battery had not a full view of it, and their shot came slanting towards one end, yet the passage was very dangerous. The Grand Prior's detachments were all relieved this afternoon except that where I commanded, which continued in the same place till night, when being relieved we only marched into the street, and having joined the rest of the regiment to the trenches on the south-west side of the town, where we continued all night expecting an attack. The night was extreme cold, dark and rainy and we almost spent for want of rest.²¹³ For my own particular as appears by this relation I had had none at all for three nights before this and but very little during the whole siege, nor indeed was {ms folio 107b} it possible to have much being upon duty every other day and continually alarmed when we expected to rest. Our cannon and small shot fired the whole night round the walls, and much railing was betwixt our men and the enemies, for we were so closed up on all sides that though the night was stormy we could easily hear one another.

Saturday the 30th: in the morning we observed there was great silence in the enemy's works and day appearing we could not perceive any body in them, which at first was looked upon as a stratagem to draw us out of our works, but some few being sent out to discover returned and brought the news that all abroad was clear. Immediately the word was carried

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Sunday the 31st: the enemy continued encamped in the same place. All our works were mounted as before, the Grand Prior's regiment at the breach. Several detachments and all the unarmed men were put to work to bring in the faggots the enemy had gathered in great numbers, and about thirty gabions they left behind, which were placed upon the breach.

Monday September the 1st: our men continued bringing in the faggots, demolishing the enemy's works and removing the rubbish from before the breach. The prisoners we had were sent out with a guard to bury the enemy's dead that lay very thick about the town and began to grow noisome. All posts were relieved, but the Grand Prior's men continued for want of orders all day at the breach and were drawn off towards evening.

Tuesday the 2nd: the enemy lay still in the same place, but we received intelligence that they had sent away their sick and wounded men, as also their artillery and heavy baggage. It was hereupon ordered that for the future only seventy men of each battalion should do duty instead of the whole.

Wednesday the 3rd: was appointed a general day of review for the garrison in the King's Island, but the {ms folio 109a} weather proving extreme foul it was put off.²¹⁴

Thursday the 4th: all the foot drew out into the King's Island and were reviewed by the Duke of Berwick, then Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland. I designed to have taken a particular account of the strength of all regiments, but the weather proving very foul we were discharged.

Tuesday the 9th: in the morning arrived at Limerick Lieutenant-Colonel Boismeral,²¹⁵ who had been sent with 100 foot and 100 dragoons to garrison Kilmallock. He returned this day with all his men disarmed, having to his eternal infamy delivered up that place and his arms, without

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Sunday the 14th: I walked out to view the ground where the enemy encamped, in one part whereof where their forges had stood were found ten or twelve tons of Kilkenny coals, and under ground above 400 bombs and carcasses with a great quantity of cannon ball of all sizes, which upon their raising the siege they had buried. {ms folio 109b} But the most remarkable thing was a spectacle of horror near this place, for here were to be seen the ruins of a hospital built by them for their wounded men, which at their departure they most inhumanly burnt full as it was of those miserable wretches, whereof many were consumed to ashes, others lay within half burnt, and others that had more strength or were nearer crept out at the three doors, and soon failing for want of relief dropped down and lay dead about the field. A piece of barbarity we have not heard of amongst the most savage nations.²¹⁶ There might be destroyed in this inhuman manner about 300 men, for so many, deserters told us, there were in the hospital, and the carcasses and limbs that lay about unconsumed were very numerous. I cannot but observe here that all about the city, but more especially in this place last mentioned, there were infinite numbers of crows and ravens, which seemed to have resorted from all parts of the country to prey upon the dead bodies

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Monday the 29th, when four battalions of foot marched out of Limerick, and encamped about a quarter of a mile from the town, and not far from Cromwell's Fort. The regiments {ms folio 110a} being very weak, several of them were put together to make up battalions. Those that encamped were the Grand Prior's to which were joined Slane's and Boisseleau's, Butler²¹⁷ joined by Sir Michael Creagh, Westmeath and Grace, the two MacMahons,²¹⁸ and Iveagh composed the third battalion, and Gordon and Felix O'Neill the fourth. The third of these battalions had no arms at all, the other three for the most part were armed, but not completely; this is to be understood of firearms, for very few had swords. This day the weather began to grow foul with much rain and great storms of wind, which continued all the while we lay encamped here. The fields we lay in were very green, and we wanted not wood, an orchard at hand supplying us plentifully, but there was no straw in

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Tuesday the 30th: we received the news of the loss of Cork,²¹⁹ which, though afterwards contradicted, proved true. The manner of it I do not undertake to relate, as not having been present, and the relations we had differing very much.

Saturday October the 4th: marched out of Limerick towards the county of Kerry Brigadier MacGillicuddy,²²⁰ and the Lord Kenmare's Regiments²²¹ of Foot.

Sunday the 5th: the Lord Slane's Regiment, which till now had been joined to the Grand {ms folio 110b} Prior's, marched away from the camp.

Monday the 6th: the Horse Guards, the second Battalion of Foot Guards, the Grand Prior's Regiment to which were joined Boisseleau's, as was said before, and FitzGerald's instead of Slane's, and Butler of Ballyraggett's Regiment joined by those, of Creagh and Grace,²²²

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Tuesday the 7th: I set out with the day {ms folio 111a} and joined our forces at the Bridge. We marched thence three miles to Bruff, a small but not contemptible town, where we halted awhile, and found, contrary to report we had heard before, no want of entertainment, but what was caused by the shyness of the poor people and the too much eagerness of the soldiers, whose pressing necessities were a sufficient excuse of their rudeness. Yet it had been given out that the country was quite destroyed, and neither meat nor drink to be found on all the way to Cork. After this little halt, we marched on three miles farther to Kilmallock. Notwithstanding the

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Wednesday the 8th: a subaltern officer of each battalion was sent out with a detachment to bring in spades, shovels, and pickaxes from the country. The Duke of Berwick, who came to town the night before, went out with the horse, and returned without meeting any enemy. Towards evening marched into the town Colonel Nugent's Regiment of Foot, called the Caps, because they all wore them like Grenadiers, as being more easily to be had than hats.²²⁴

Thursday the 9th: nothing happened of note, but whereas we expected some works would have been carried on with the tools taken up the day before, they were only ordered to be left at the general's quarters.

Friday the 10th: the four battalions of foot were drawn out upon the hill over the town, where the Duke of Berwick took a view of them, and they returned to their quarters.

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Saturday the 11th: in the morning the foot drew out again on the hill and marched away, having left detachments who burnt Kilmallock, the horse doing the same to Charleville, having before wasted the country round about and fired several villages. This morning we marched back three miles to Bruff, and with us the Horse Guards {ms folio 112a} and Duke of Tyrconnel's Regiment of Horse. These last encamped in the gardens of a great house near Bruff belonging to one Evans, which, being very large and built after the manner of a castle with large stone walls and battlements, had been burnt by our army: the place was called Ballygrennan. All the Foot and the Horse Guards quartered in the town, which being but small they were much thronged, and to straighten our quarters a house accidentally took fire, and the wind being very high burnt down five or six others that contained a considerable number of men. All the morning whilst we were drawn up on the hill and marched, there continued a most violent storm of wind and rain, which cleared up when we came to Bruff but it fatigued us extremely on the march. All the country about Bruff is very pleasant, being a large valley and good land well peopled and improved. The town is small and has nothing in it worth observing. There was corn and cattle enough, plenty of cabbages in the gardens, and what was the great support of the people and soldiers, large fields of potatoes, yielding prodigious quantities of them, and all little enough considering the vast consumption, for they often serve instead of bread, and the soldiers would be feeding on them all the day.

We continued here all Sunday the 12th, {ms folio 112b} and Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th, without anything worth observing, unless the bringing in of six or seven prisoners and two deserters; but this night about midnight, by the mistake of our advanced guards, we were alarmed and continued under arms above an hour. The night was favourable being very fair and moonlight, when finding our mistake we returned to our quarters with orders to be ready upon beat of drum.

Wednesday the 15th: at the same time the tattoo was beating we received orders to be in readiness, and so continued all

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Thursday the 16th: we returned to Limerick. Here I continued in quarters with the regiment all the winter, during which time there happened very little or nothing of note, for our forces being very inconsiderable and much harassed, there {ms folio 113a} was no possibility of gaining any advantage upon the enemy, who at the same time made no other of our weakness but to live the more at ease. The weather it must be confessed, for the most part, was not fit for any action, yet considering how much they were superior to us they might without much difficulty have taken opportunities to straighten us in our quarters, which in a small time must have reduced us to extremity, and would consequently have saved the expense of another campaign, and the lives of many men they lost in it. But they seemed to be stupefied or wholly devoted to their ease, leaving us in quiet possession of the whole province of Connaught, besides the entire county of Kerry and the greatest part of the county of Limerick. These counties maintained the greatest part of our small army especially with flesh and potatoes, for all sorts of grain was very scarce. In Limerick, which was the head-quarters, we lived most of the winter upon salt beef allowed out of the stores, had one while ammunition bread made of all sorts of corn put together allowed in a small quantity, but for the most part instead of bread we received half a pint of wheat for officers, and the soldiers the same quantity of barley or oats in grain, to make our own bread. Of salt {ms folio 113b} beef the allowance was half a pound a day. As for pay a small part of the winter we received subsistence money in brass, which was equivalent almost to nothing, for

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On the 18th of April, 1691, arrived an express from France, with the news of the taking of Mons by the French; for which on the 19th Te Deum was sung in the church of St. Mary being the cathedral.²²⁷ The cannon was also three times discharged, and as many volleys of small shot, and there were bonfires and other {ms folio 117b} demonstrations of joy.

May the 4th: marched out of Limerick a detachment of fifty men of a regiment, more of the Guards, and Burke's company of two hundred Fusiliers, in all about eight hundred men. They marched to Lough Gur, seven miles from Limerick; to fortify a pass there, which when finished they all returned, except Burke's company left to make good that place.

May the 9th: arrived in the river Shannon a French squadron of men-of-war, having sent some ships to Galway, and about noon landed the French general M. St. Ruth,²²⁸ who was received with real demonstrations of joy. The 17th was a general muster of the garrison of Limerick, and the 18th and 19th the regiments were particularly reviewed, delivered

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June the 2nd: Purcell's Regiment of Horse,²³¹ Carroll's²³²

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The 3rd: came to Limerick Cormuck O'Neill's Regiment of Foot consisting of about nine hundred men as likely, clever, lusty, well-shaped fellows, as ever eyes beheld.

Thursday the 4th of June: marched out of Limerick Brigadier Talbot's Regiment, which was before the Grand Prior's, in which I served. It was then about four hundred strong. We halted a considerable time beyond Thomond Bridge, till one small field piece and one cart laden with ammunition joined us, and then we marched without any other stop to the camp at Killaloe, eight miles from Limerick, where we pitched our tents on the left of the Guards, all on the south side of the town, but without any order. This town and the road to it I shall not need to give any account of in this place, having said as much of it as is requisite before when {ms folio 118b} we passed the same way the first time towards Athlone, as is to be seen in this book, folio 92. This night the soldiers passed with much inconveniency for besides that we had but four tents to a company there were neither tentpoles nor pins; some few made what shift they could to set them up, the rest lay about under the hedges. The day was fair and pleasant to march, but the night extraordinary wet and cold, considering the season of the year. In this place we found fifteen battalions of foot, whereof two were of the Guards.

Friday the 5th: two hundred men were detached to bring wood, and the whole day spent in building huts, which were covered with turf or long sods cut off the face of the earth, very thin and four or five feet long, which in Ireland they call strauths. The reason of this shift was because there was no straw left in the country or other sort of thatch to be had, and we were obliged to hut because, as was said above, each company had but four tents, one of which was taken for the

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Saturday the 6th: part of the day was spent in exercise, wherein I found our old men as imperfect, through the want of use, as the new. We received six days' bread late at night, twelve {ms folio 119a} bullocks for the regiment, and orders to march the next morning.

Sunday the 7th: Brigadier Talbot's, Saxby's, and FitzGerald's Regiments of Foot marched²³³ at three of the clock in the morning. First to Tomgraney, five miles, a little ruined town, within half a mile of which is Scarriff, neither of them worth the noting but for the iron mills there formerly, now gone to decay. The road is all mountain with a wood along the Shannon. Hence we marched to Graig or as the English call it Woodford, eight miles over an uncouth barbarous mountain full of bogs and covered only with wild sedge, fern, and heath, without one house, cottage or so much

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Monday the 8th: the general beat at four, but we stirred not in two hours after, then set forward and marched seven miles, which in this country are the longest in Ireland, though none there be short. The first part of this way is mountain, then a pleasant bottom, most good pasture land. We struck two miles into this valley and ought to have kept along the sides of the hills, but none knowing the way went astray near two miles, for after four hours' march we were at the abbey, which is but two miles from Woodford. Thence three miles along a pleasant country till we came to Portumna Park, which is very pleasant and delightful, and a full mile through it, and just under it the town of Portumna, small yet better than many of the country towns in that province. We made no halt, but marched a mile farther and encamped on a rising

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Tuesday the 9th: nothing of note, but that one small bullock was divided among all the officers of the regiment, a very poor allowance, and all they received since they left Limerick.

Wednesday the 10th: the general beat at five in the morning, yet we stirred not till towards noon, then marched five miles to Meelick. The country is pleasant, being diversified with cornfields, pasture land, and some underwood and brakes. From the time we left Limerick till we came to this place I did not see ten head of any sort of cattle, but what was with the army, either horses, cows, or sheep, very few people and nothing but ruined villages. At Meelick in the small islands the river Shannon there makes the people had secured some small flocks of sheep and a few black cattle. This place consists of a few scattering cottages, one gentleman's house in an island and an old castle in another little island, upon one of the passes of the Shannon, which pass is convenient enough for travellers with a guide; but not for an army, the ford being narrow with several windings and dangerous on both sides. Here is also {ms folio 120b} the residence of a few Franciscan friars only remarkable for the poverty of their house and chapel which are nothing but long thatched cabins. The walls of a handsome chapel designed by these friars are standing, but never roofed or further finished than the raising of them to their full height. All round is a very delightful plain, the soil good, but inclining to bog in wet weather.

Thursday the 11th: a review of the brigade was taken by Brigadier Talbot;²³⁴ the general beat at noon in order to march,

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Friday the 12th: four deserters came over to us, who gave an account that the enemy were 13,000 strong at Ballyboy in horse, foot and dragoons. We had before received information that they were 15,000 between Athlone and Mullingar, and had taken Ballymore, a place of very considerable strength, in less than forty-eight hours.²³⁵ Here we lay still, without anything remarkable happening till

Friday the 19th, when, about three in the morning an express came with orders pursuant to which we decamped and marched immediately five miles to a place whose name, if it has any, I could not learn, there being no village, house or place of note near it. The first mile of this way is a large beaten road as bad at this time with the continual rain as if it had been the depth of winter, where stands the much noted house in Connaught called Eyre's Court, being a pleasant seat built by one Mr. Eyre and much celebrated in the {ms folio 121a} country, but by what I could perceive in marching by it nothing answerable to what fame reports. All that can be said, it is a pretty gentleman's seat, the house large with a pleasant wood on the back of it; but no good prospect any way, nor any river near it. Round about is hilly ground, which, with the improvements and the convenient neighbourhood of a small village, make it delightful enough. The land hither is most enclosed, though some of it full of shrubs and wild. The next two miles is all common, covered with fern, heath, much sedge and some patches of good grass and several bogs. No dwelling is in this way, but at the end of the two miles an old house or castle, where begins for the following two miles to be some enclosures and much more bog and shrubby land. At the end of our march we found fifteen battalions of foot encamped in a line, the horse and dragoons

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Saturday the 20th: we marched but two miles {ms folio 121b} through a pleasant hilly country, and then encamped, twenty battalions of foot, besides horse and dragoons, in the same manner as the day before, the latter whose number was increased, all scattered, and four battalions of foot, which were the beginning of a second line divided from the first by a ridge of rising ground. About the first every way it is all hilly, and in the rear of the second line a spacious beautiful valley, as far as a man's sight could extend, but most of it boggy, and I believe is overflowed in winter by the river Suck, which lay behind us. On our left was the town or village of Ballinasloe, or according to the Irish pronunciation Ballinaslouagh. We heard the cannon at Athlone firing hotly all the day. After noon marched thither Major-General Hamilton's, and the Lord Galway's Regiments of Foot, with all the officers in second of the army.

Sunday the 21st the army decamped and marched through Ballinasloe seven miles, and encamped on an eminence, about two miles or better from Athlone.²³⁶ Ballinasloe is but a mean ruinous place, with some remains of a remarkable

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Monday the 22nd: very early Brigadier Talbot's and the Lord Iveagh's Regiments²³⁷ of Foot relieved the trenches on

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Tuesday the 23rd: we continued in the same post all the day much of which was spent in a sort of voluntary cessation on the banks of the river, where the guards on both sides discoursed familiarly till some general of the enemy's coming down broke off the communication, and we fell to firing at one another for a short space, and then ceased without any harm done on either part. The enemy's cannon and mortars played at the castle, but not so hot as the day before. In the morning before day appeared we heard the noise of carriages, and when it grew light saw some bodies of the enemy marching. This day came to our camp eight field-pieces with ammunition and other necessaries. At night Gordon O'Neill's Regiment relieved us in the trenches; but we only drew back, and lay all night upon the bivouac on the bog under the hills, which are the road to Athlone near the river.

Wednesday the 24th: at the first dawning of the day we marched off, and returned to the camp. From the camp to the town, for above a Connaught mile, is through the shrubs and bushes, till within a large mile of the town is a small bridge over a little brook, and from thence forward a plain hard

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Thursday the 25th: there was a general muster in the morning; soon after we had orders to be all ready in half an hour, and presently again to decamp; which was done, and we marched down about a mile nearer to the town, where we encamped on a ground much like the last, but far from water. The enemy had now mounted more cannon and played most violently without intermission on the castle. Here we were new formed into brigades, and ours made up of Colonel Talbot's, the Lord Slane's, Colonel Dillon's,²³⁹ the Lord Bophin's,²⁴⁰ and Colonel O'Brien's Regiments.

Friday the 26th: the enemy's fire at the castle continued very hot all the day, but nothing else of note happened.

Saturday the 27th: the enemy having made some attempt

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Sunday the 28th: continued playing incessantly. About one in the morning the enemy, creeping over their barricades of faggots on the bridge, made up the broken arch with planks, both sides plying their small shot and hand grenades without intermission; yet they did their work and retired. No sooner was it done than five or six of our men, getting over our work of faggots on the bridge, notwithstanding the enemy's continual fire, took up the planks, and throwing them into the river, returned in safety. The great and small shot never ceased firing, and some time before noon the enemies with their grenades fired our faggots on the bridge, which, being very dry and not covered with earth, burnt most furiously. I was commanded with a detachment of forty men of our regiment, and other officers of the other regiments in the town with proportionable numbers of their men to put a stop to the fire, which notwithstanding all our endeavours raged so violently that it took hold of the houses adjoining to the bridge. The enemy in the meanwhile bent thirty pieces of {ms folio 124a} cannon and all their mortars that way, so that what with the fire and what with the balls and bombs flying so thick that spot was a mere hell upon earth, for the place was very narrow which made the fire scorch, and so many cannon and mortars incessantly playing on it there seemed to be no likelihood of any man coming off alive. However we threw down one house, and the men, being hasty to run off with

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Monday the 29th: with the dawning of the day we marched to the camp. This morning some of the enemy's Grenadiers advancing were so well received that we heard they lost above a hundred. Two officers and five soldiers of ours, venturing up to the enemy's faggots on the bridge, set them

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Tuesday the 30th: most of the day passed in silence. In the afternoon on a sudden the whole camp was alarmed, and we marched down to the bridge within a mile of Athlone where we understood the town was taken, the enemy having entered both at the bridge and ford without the least opposition made on our side. The Regiments of O'Gara,²⁴³ Cormuck O'Neill,²⁴⁴ and others that were in the works, quitting them at the first onset without firing a shot, so that there was no time for any relief to enter the place. Some of the enemy who ventured without the castle were driven back without any loss whereupon they retired and secured themselves within, whilst our men who had quitted the town ran in great confusion over the bog. All our army stood at arms near the place but could do nothing, the castle being strong on the

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Wednesday the first of July: before day we marched about two or three miles, and encamped on a {ms folio 125b} plain about the same distance from Athlone. This march was performed with great confusion and disorder, such a panic fear having seized our men that the very noise of ten horsemen would have dispersed as many of our battalions, above half the soldiers scattering by the way without any other thing but their own apprehensions to fright them. This, was a general thing in ten regiments of foot that marched, and so great was the terror that in Brigadier Talbot's Regiment, one of the eldest and best in the army, there were but 190 men left when we came to encamp, our last muster amounting to 400 and upwards. We lay here the remaining part of the day without any disturbance, many men dropping in to us, their fear somewhat abating by our encamping so near the enemy. The weather was extreme wet and provisions very scarce this day, all the servants being gone to Ballinasloe with what little necessaries every man had.

Thursday the 2nd: the general beat at four in the morning, and our little army soon after marched and encamped three

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{ms folio 126a} Friday the 3rd: we marched again three miles, two to Ballinasloe and one beyond it, and encamped on the sides of the hills near a village called Aughrim²⁴⁶ far from water and fire, without any other thing worth observing.

Saturday the 4th: nothing remarkable.

Sunday the 5th: a party of our horse and dragoons advancing to discover the enemy met a small squadron of about thirty-six of them near the place on which we encamped before, of whom they killed about twenty and took five prisoners, pursuing the rest till within a mile or two of Athlone. Every regiment was this day reviewed by its major.

Monday the 6th: returns were given in by the commanding officers of each regiment of their men and arms, the commanders-in-chief having to that purpose taken another review.

Tuesday the 7th: the general beat at break of day with directions not to stir tent or baggage till further order, but to keep in a readiness to march. Thus we continued most part of the day, and after noon it was declared we were not to march. This day was broken at the head of the picket guards, drawn together for that purpose, Lieut.-Col. James O'Neill²⁴⁷ of the Regiment of Cormuck O'Neill, and obliged to carry a musket in the same regiment for quitting his post and running away shamefully at Athlone, which either was the cause or contributed much to the losing of that town, {ms folio 126b} the whole regiment by his example basely abandoning the

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Wednesday the 8th: the army began to march early, but the rear stirred not till noon, and we moved but a mile from the place, encamping on a plainer, pleasanter ground than the last. This day was very remarkable, first for the violent scorching heat of the sun, which I then thought so excessive as to exceed what I had felt in three years I lived in Portugal; but the reason might (be) because in that country I was never much exposed to it whereas here I marched afoot without any better place to refresh in after all than a small soldier's tent; next for the prodigious thunder, which during three hours it continued at a great distance all men took for hot firing of cannon till coming near it lasted about an hour longer in monstrous claps so great as are seldom heard, and all ended in such a violent shower of rain as ran through the tents as if there had been none. Here our artillery encamped in the front of the first line.

Thursday the 9th: this morning returned to the camp a party of our horse, who having met some of the enemy's advanced guards beyond Ballinasloe, killed nine and took five prisoners.

Friday the 10th: the whole body of the enemy {ms folio 127a} advanced, their horse driving ours before them even to our camp.

Saturday the 11th: the enemy encamped near Ballinasloe, their horse advancing even to the hills opposite to our camp, which were divided from us only by the bog, and on them they kept their videttes. Both parties lay still all day, nothing remarkable happening, only preparing to engage the next day, which was

Sunday the 12th: when the enemy moved from their camp betimes and appeared on the hills opposite to us about eight of the clock. Then they began to open to the right and left, still stretching out all day insomuch that we had cause to fear they would be able to flank as well as face us. They brought down their cannon, and played it from the most advantageous posts, but to little effect by reason of good

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An Account of His Majesty's Royal Camp near Dundalk Friday June The 19th, 1690

First on the right the Lord Dungan's regiment of dragoons consisting of eight troops at fifty men in a troop, 400 men.²⁵⁰

2. His Majesty's first troop of Guards under the command of the Earl of Dover, consisting of 200 private gentlemen, 2 lieutenants, 1 cornet, 1 guidon, 4 exangs,²⁵¹ [...] brigadiers, and 8 sub-brigadiers.

3. The second troop of Guards under the command of [...] in all respects answerable to the first.

4. The Duke of Tyrconnel's {ms folio 128b} Regiment of Horse, nine troops, 50 men each, in all 450.²⁵²

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5.²⁵³ The Royal Regiment of Foot Guards being twenty-six companies 80 in a company, 2,080 private men, besides officers. All well armed, clad in red lined with blue, their colours the royal colours of England St. George's cross and the arms of the four kingdoms.²⁵⁴

6. The Earl of Antrim's Regiment. Thirteen companies, 50 per company, 650 private men. Clothed in white lined with red. Their colours a red cross in a green field, in each quarter of the field a hand proper coming out of the clouds, holding a cross of Jerusalem or cross-crosslet gold, in the centre of the colours the Irish harp with a crown imperial with this motto In hoc signo vinces.²⁵⁵

7. The Lord Bellew's Regiment, thirteen companies, 62 men each, 806 private men. Their clothes red, lined in orange tawny. Their colours bendy black, and tawny or filamot on the top. Next the spear, a crown {ms folio 129a} imperial, and round it this motto Tout D'En Haut. In the centre the Irish harp and crown imperial. The colonel's colours has a small red cross patée for distinction.²⁵⁶

8. Gordon O'Neill's Regiment, thirteen companies, 62 men each, 806 private men. Clothed in red, lined white, faced red. The colours white in the centre, a bloody hand round it, this motto Pro Rege et Patria pugno, the colonel's next, the spear a red cross patée for distinction.²⁵⁷

9. The Lord of Louth's Regiment, thirteen companies as the last, {ms folio 129b} clothed white lined and faced filamot, the colours filamot plain the colonel, the others with a blue cross in the centre, a crown imperial with this motto Festina lente.²⁵⁸

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10. The Lord Grand Prior's Regiment, thirteen companies at 62 men each, 806 men, 39 corporals, 26 sergeants, 12 ensigns, 13 lieutenants, 11 captains, 1 major, 2 lieutenant-colonels, 13 besides [sic] officers in commission that have no companies, and such as are reformed, in all, [...]. Clothed in red lined white, all but the drums, who are blue with white and [...] loops. The Grenadier's white and red loops, their caps with a flaming city, and this {ms folio 130a} motto, The fruits of Rebellion. The colonel's colours white, the other two with the same device and motto as the Grenadiers' caps.²⁵⁹

These seven battalions of foot, with eight of French in all fifteen, made up the first line.

First line
dragoons two regiments . . . 800
horse . . . 1,700
foot fifteen battalions at 600 . . . 9,000
....................................................11,500
The second line equal to the first . . . 11,500
....................................................23,000
The reserve equal to half one of the lines[...] 5,250
....................................................28,250

APPENDIX

In Lambeth Library there is a MS., 711, no. 4, entitled The Irish Villany | Feelingly represented | By the Baron of Courthuy Rousele | With an exact account of all his Troubles, Sufferings, Losses and Dangers | During the Irish Wars And how Miraculously | He has Escap'd Hanging With many Remarkable and pleasant Passages Concerning the Irish And their Babylonicall Govert | Written in Dublin A[ordm ] 1692. | And Dedicated to ye Honble Trustees A[ordm ] 1700|. | It is beautifully written on foolscap size paper. Rousele begins his narrative with an account of his marriage in St. James' Church, London, in July 1686, to Mary Carteret, and he notes that his bride came to him ‘without a penny of portion.’ He tells how he settled first at Castle-hacket and then at Shrule in Mayo. On p. 16 there is a paragraph beginning ‘'Tis very well known that the Irish are a wild, stubborn, malicious, and cunning temper and constitution (the horses and cows are so too),’ a passage recalling Plato's description of the conduct of animals under a democratic government. Rousele declares that ‘Those that have described the humours of the natives would speak of the Irish in this manner. They are naturally strong, very nimble, haughty of spirit, silly in their discourses, careless of their lives, great admirers of their foolish and superstitious religion, which they neither understand nor follow, according to the canons of the Church of Rome: they are patient in cold and hunger, implacable in enmity, constant in love, light in belief, greedy of glory, great flatterers and dissemblers, stubborn as mules, great cheats in their dealings, ready to take an oath on all occasions, commonly great thieves, very barbarous when they have the upper hand, of a bloody temper, very unjust to their neighbours, breakers of their trust, mortal enemies to all those that are not of the Romish Religion, and ready to rebel against the English on all occasions. A fine description indeed of a nation.’ In reading this account we must remember the fact that the writer complains (p. 25) that he had been wronged and abused by Arthur French, Mayor of Galway, Captain Richard Martin, Sarsfield, and Lord Dillon: his

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Like a great contemporary who hated mankind but liked individual men, Rousele liked individual Roman Catholics though he hated their communion. When near Ross in County Wexford he described what he labelled ‘Ignorance and superstition of the Irish’:—
‘I could not forbear (seeing) so many unworthy and base actions which were daily committed against the poor English who lived quietly and inoffensively. I remember that sometimes after mass I did speak to them (i.e. the Irish) in this manner, Gentlemen you know very well King James by his Proclamations will have the English protected, and therefore you are obliged to use them well for your King's sake, and not wrong and affront them whenever you can. You take away all their substance, you make them to be rebels, as you call them, if they will or not, seeking all sorts of inventions to make them leave their habitations, that by those means, without making any opposition, you may make yourselves masters of what they have. And when they answered me that it was lawful to destroy disaffected people and Huguenots, I endeavoured as modestly and as civilly as I could to show them how much they were mistaken, and that their priests should burn in hell upon their account, because they did not thunder against them in their meetings, to make them sensible of their barbarous injustices, which great sin, I said, no priest could absolve without making restitution. If you were overpowered by the English, said I, and that they should use you as you use them now, would you not damn and curse them, and call them all the rogues and villains? I am sure you would not fail to say quod tibi non vis fieri, alteri ne feceris; and why then, said I, are you so cruel and unjust to your fellow Christians, who do nothing either to offend or provoke you?
[...]
This discourse and several others of the same nature, made one Mr. Wall (who was a very sensible man), say
[...]
I have heard our friars of Ross say that the Irish are the greatest

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