  THE SECOND BATTLE The Second Battle of Newbury was fought on Sunday, October 27, 1644. The thickest part of it raged round Speen, on the Bath Road, and in the gardens of Shaw House. This house, one of the finest mansions in Berkshire, was built by Thomas Dolman, clothier, in 1581. He was evidently something of a scholar, and worldly wise as well, for he knew that his riches and his grand mansion would rouse envious talk. Accordingly he caused Latin and Greek inscriptions to be carved over the entrance, which, Englished, run— “Let no envious man enter here.” And— “The toothless man envies the teeth of those who eat, and the mole despises the eyes of the roe.” It is quite obvious that Thomas Dolman had been a great deal criticized locally, and that the iron of that criticism had entered his soul. His son became Sir Thomas Dolman, and it was his descendant, Sir John Dolman, who garrisoned the house and entertained King Charles here on the night before the second battle. A hole is still shown THE LAST OF THE SMOCK-FROCKS AND BEAVERS. The parapets of Shaw House were lined with Royalist musketeers on this occasion, and entrenchments thrown up in the gardens; but after a stubbornly contested fight the Royalists were too weakened to retain the position. Their ordnance and the wounded were left at Donnington Castle, a mile away, and they fell back upon Oxford. Neither side had been sorry when night fell and put an end to a hard-fought, but inconclusive, day; and for their part the Parliamentary leaders were glad to see the King’s It is not a little singular that during all this clash of arms the Royalist governor of Donnington Castle held that stronghold, although repeatedly attacked, from August, 1644, to April, 1646, and then only surrendered when desired by the King to do so. CURIOUS OLD TOLL-HOUSE BETWEEN NEWBURY AND HUNGERFORD. SPEEN The road ascends to Speen, or, as it is often called, “Church Speen.” The present writer was climbing it when he overtook a countryman in a smock-frock, to whom the steep gradient was evidently anything but welcome. “You’re a regular Mountjoy, a’ b’lieve,” said the countryman, puffing and blowing. “A regular what?” “A Mountjoy—a walker. But there; you bain’t Newbury?” “Well,” said he, “you won’t, never have heerd of ’un, p’raps.” It seems, then, that about fifty years ago Newbury boasted a pedestrian of that name, who obtained such a great local reputation that he has become proverbial with the country people, so that a “regular Mountjoy” is any one who possesses good walking powers. Church Speen passed, an undulating road leads past a curiously castellated old toll-house to Hungerford. |
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