"The Kingdome of England and Principality of Wales, exactly described with every sheere and the small townes in every one of them, on six mappes portable for every man's pocket; useful for all commanders for quarteringe of souldiers, and all sorts of persons that would be informed where the armies be--never so commodiously drawne before this 1644. Described by one that travailed throughout the whole Kingdome for its purpose." Thorn farmhouse, at Inkberrow, also claims the honour of having sheltered the royal head; and there is a farmhouse at Cookhill, in the same parish, in which a portrait of the King remained hidden behind a sliding panel (probably ever since the days of the Commonwealth), and would not have been discovered to the present time but for the decay of a peg on which it was hung, occasioning it to fall with a great noise in the night time some years ago. So large a number of old houses in this county are said to have been temporary resting places for the King or his fugitive son that it is probable one half of these traditions cannot be correct. The King marched from Inkberrow to Droitwich, where he stayed from Sunday till Wednesday, and then went to the siege of Hawkesley House, which was at once surrendered, and set on fire. That night the King lay at Cofton Hall, near Bromsgrove, occupied by Mr. Thomas Jolliffe, who was faithful to his Sovereign to the last, and attended his execution. There is a tradition that when the King was in prison he gave a key to Mr. Jolliffe, to visit him when he pleased; and in Dr. Nash's time there was a picture in the house, representing that gentleman, with a key in his hand, his pistols and sword hanging on a pillar before him. After leaving Cofton Hall the King marched to Himley, then inhabited by Lord Ward. In June, 1645, was fought the famous battle of Naseby, which crushed the Royal cause. Soon afterwards, the Scotch army was ordered to march from Nottingham to Worcester; and in July, Canon Froome, in Herefordshire, then a garrison of the King's, was taken by the Scotch army with little loss, and Col. Harley, progenitor of the famous Tory minister of Queen Anne and of the Earls of Oxford and Mortimer, was appointed governor of the place. Whether the property at Canon Froome then belonged, as it does now, to a member of the ancient family of Hopton, I have not the means of ascertaining, but it is recorded in the memorials of Whitelock that about this time a Mr. Hopton, with a small band of followers, fell in with, and, after a gallant conflict, destroyed a party of the Royalists in the vicinity of Ledbury.