Page 32 - Hampdens Monument Unveiled

During the winter months, while the King held his court at
Oxford, and a Parliamentary army lay between London and that
city, Hampden's regiment was quartered in Buckinghamshire, and
his own time was divided between the seat of war and the House
of Commons. To this period also is to be referred the
association of six midland counties for the purpose of the war,
Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and
Northampton : a step which proved of material service in giving
strength and union to the Parliamentary cause, and which
probably would not have been carried into operation but for
Hampden' s peculiar talent of allaying jealousies, reconciling
conflicting interests, and smoothing away the obstacles to any
business which he undertook. For the closing scenes of this
great and good man's life, we must again recur to the pages of
Lord Nugent's 'Memorial' : referring to the fatal and half-
hearted inactivity of Essex, the Parliamentary General, who
evidently did not wish for a decisive victory, Lord Nugent says
---

''Hampden incessantly, but in vain endeavoured to promote
some great enterprise which might restore the cause and give
heart to its supporters. But failing in this, he served to the
last under Essex, with a zeal as obedient as if those means had
been adopted which his superior mind clearly saw were necessary
for the success and credit of their arms.

The Fall of Reading.

Reading having surrendered, the troops who had been engaged
in that siege were not directed to any forward movement; they
were not effectually removed from the neighbourhood of
contagious disease, nor 'was the position turned to account as
the base of any new operations. To prevent the sickness
spreading, as well as to cover the country which principally
produced his supplies, Essex extended his quarters greatly, but
still continued to act on the defensive ; thus imposing on
himself the necessity of protecting a lengthened and more
vulnerable line, while the enemy was left unembarrassed and at
leisure to choose both the time and point of attack. Whenever
Rupert wanted cattle or any other provisions for his troops, he
seized them from some part of these feeble and ill-connected
lines.

The remonstrances of the troops could no longer be
suppressed, and Hampden was again loudly named to the
Parliament as the fit person to place at their head. To remove
from himself all suspicion of a querulous or selfish ambition,
and to exhibit to murmuring spirits a great example of patient
subordination, he placed himself in constant and personal
intercourse with the chief whose plans he disapproved, and many
of whose qualities he held in disesteem. Meanwhile the distant
cantonments in the country around Thame and Wycombe, worn by
the fierce and wasteful sickness, by inglorious suffering, and
deep discontent, were nightly harassed by the enemy. Rupert's