What have they done, or what left undone, That might advance the cause at London? March’d rank and file, with drum and ensign, T’ intrench the City for defence in; Rais’d Rampiers with their own soft hands, To put th’ Enemy to stands; From Ladies down to Oyster-wenches, Labour’d like Pioneers in Trenches, Fall’n to their pickaxes, and tools, And help’d the Men to dig like Moles.” In a very fine copy of _Hudibras_ (ed. 1793), with voluminous notes by T. R. Nash, he thus elucidates the line “Rais’d Rampiers with their own soft hands.” “When London was expected to be attacked, and in several sieges during the civil war, the women, and even the ladies of rank and fortune, not only encouraged the men, but worked with their own hands. Lady Middlesex, Lady Foster, Lady Anne Waller, and Mrs. Dunch, have been particularly celebrated for their activity.” The probability is that he took the names of these ladies from a not very scarce satirical tract printed in 1647, called _The Parliament of Ladies, or Divers remarkable passages of Ladies_ in Spring Gardens; in _Parliament Assembled_, etc., which was never meant to be taken seriously. They are mentioned in the following resolution:-- “The House considered in the next place, that divers weake persons have crept into places beyond their abilities, and to the end that men of greater parts might be put into their rooms, they appointed the Lady _Middlesex_, Mistris _Dunce_, the Lady _Foster_, and the Lady _Anne Waller_, by reason of their great experience in Souldery in this Kingdome, to be a Committee of Tryers for the businesse.” When London was fortified, in 1643, a large fort, with four bastions, was raised at Hyde Park Corner, where Hamilton Place now stands, and there it remained for four years, being pulled down in 1647. There was also at the north-east corner of the Park, where now stands the Marble Arch, a Guard House, to watch travellers on the Oxford Road, which was also defended by a large fort with four bulwarks, at the corner of Wardour Street. There was also in the neighbourhood of Hyde Park a small redoubt and battery on Constitution Hill; whilst another gives its name to Mount Street.