“Here I do wonder at ye admirable temper of ye King, whose constancy was such y^t no perils never so unavoidable could move him to astonishment, but y^t still he set ye same face & settled countenance upon what adverse fortune soever befell him, & neither was exalted in prosperity nor dejected in adversity; w^h was ye more admirable in him, seeing he had no other to have recourse unto for counsel & assistance, but must bear ye whole burden upon his shoulder. By this accident I never found him moved at all, though the loss was so much & greater by my Lord of Lichfield’s death, his kinsman, & whom he loved so dearly. But this makes him look nearer for his own safety, & therefore gives order for his march ye next day with those horse y^t came safe to ye town; which he left without all hopes of relief to make conditions for themselves for the town if they durst attempt no more. We marched over ye bridge in ye day, having set up some blinds if they might not take notice so easily when ye King passed over, & except one horse that was killed, I think no others took any harm. From hence we marched on to Denbigh Castle, and after that to Ruthin, till at last by unknown ways and passages, with many dark & late marches, we arrived at ye garrison of Newark about ye 14^{th} of October.” The above contemporary accounts will enable us to realise both the gravity of the situation in the city, and the difficulties which beset the Royalist troops in their journeys through the country. CHESHIRE AND ITS FAMILIES By James Hall _Author of “A History of Nantwich,” “The Civil War in Cheshire,” &c._ Cheshire, in regard to its shape, has been said to resemble a bird’s wing, an axe-head, and a shoulder of mutton. The late Colonel Egerton Legh humorously compared it to a chicken with its head in Featherbed Moss, Macclesfield in its crop, and the tail formed by Wirral. Perhaps more seriously, but no less fancifully, it may be likened to a broad, ear-topped shield of the College of Arms type, divided palewise by a central line of hills, of which the isolated rocks of Halton and Beeston occupy respectively the chief point and the fesse point of the shield.