“Was it not a damn’d thing, That Russell and Hampden, Should serve all the projects of hot-headed Tory? But much more untoward To appoint my Lord Howard Of his own purse and credit, to raise men and money, Who at Knightsbridge did hide Those brisk boys unspy’d, That at Shaftsbury’s whistle were ready to follow, But when aid he should bring, Like a true Brentford king, He was here with a whoop, and there with a hollo.” Lord Howard died in 1683, and was succeeded by his son Charles, at whose death, in 1715, the sullied title became extinct. Our hamlet has one more association with Stuart plots; but this time the Stuarts’ partisans were the plotters. In 1694 Sir William Barclay and Sir William Perkins, two staunch Jacobites, formed a plot for the assassination of William III.; the plan being to waylay the King on his return to Kensington from some hunting excursion, and shoot him. The plan required a number of conspirators to render it successful, and herein lay the monarch’s safety. Captain Porter, one of the first to join, gave notice to the ministers, and several engaged in the crime were apprehended. Porter, on the trial, stated that he had been with two others to survey the ground, lying at the Swan at Knightsbridge one night, and there talking over their plans. Finally, it was agreed to commit the foul deed in a lane near to Turnham Green. Perkins and others were found guilty on most clear evidence, and suffered death at Tyburn accordingly. THE KNIGHTSBRIDGE VOLUNTEERS.—Notwithstanding the declaration of our brave tars on the threatened invasion of our shores, by Napoleon in 1803, that he should not come by _water_, great excitement prevailed, and volunteers were enrolled from one end of the country to the other, and a deadlier contest never cursed the earth than such would have been, had the Emperor dared to put his project into execution. Among those earnest men who at this crisis rendered genuine service to the country by their energies in this particular, was Major Robert Eyre, an officer who had seen much and real service in the American War of Independence, and elsewhere, but who had now settled down at Knightsbridge, where for years he resided, one of the most respected of its inhabitants. He offered to raise a corps in the hamlet, although it had already furnished a number of men to the regiments of the surrounding locality. His offer was accepted in the following terms:— London, August 14th, 1803. SIR,—Lord Hobart has acquainted me, that the King has derived great satisfaction from the zeal and public spirit which have been manifested by the offer lately communicated to me by you, which his Majesty has most graciously been pleased to approve and accept. You will be pleased to name your officers.