The fact that he himself was notoriously indifferent, if not callous, to the sufferings of others, has destroyed all the sympathy that might have been felt for this strange character in his fall and tribulations. For a mere difference of opinion Laud would order ears to be lopped off, noses slit, and brows and cheeks to be branded with red-hot iron. His best and most enduring monument is the addition he made to St John’s College at Oxford, of which he was at one time the president, and in whose chapel his remains were re-interred, after resting for a time in the Church of All Hallows, Barking, and in the library of which his spectre is said to be seen occasionally gliding on moonlight nights, between the old bookshelves. After the month of August 1642, when Charles had unfurled his standard at Nottingham, the Tower, although nominally still in the King’s possession, was in reality held by the Parliament; and its prisoners were those who were opposed to the representatives of the people. Among these was Sir Ralph Hopton, who had protested against a violent address made by the Parliament against Charles, Sir Ralph having declared that his fellow-members “seemed to ground an opinion of the King’s apostacy upon less evidence than would serve to hang a fellow for stealing a horse.” This remark brought him to the Tower, where he was soon joined by another member of Parliament, Trelawney (or Trelauney), who had informed the House of Commons that they could not legally appoint a guard of troops for themselves without the King’s assent, under pain of high treason (Clarendon). Sir Ralph, afterwards Lord Hopton of Stratton, distinguished himself later in the war in the West of England, where he had much success, and with the help of Sir Beville Grenville, gained a signal victory over the Parliamentarians at Stamford Hill, near Stratton, in Cornwall. Fairfax, however, ultimately proved too strong for him, and finally Hopton left England, dying at Bruges in 1652. Besides these, Sir Thomas Bedingfield and Sir James Gardner were committed to the Tower by the House of Lords, “for refusing to be of the counsel of the Attorney-General,” whilst the Earl of Bristol and Judge Mallet followed them to the fortress, “merely for having seen the Kentish petition.” This petition was drawn up by the principal inhabitants of that county, praying, “that the militia might not otherwise be exercised in that county than the known law permitted, and that the Book of Common Prayer, established by law, might be observed.” Lord Bristol soon obtained his liberty, but Mallet was kept a prisoner for two years on the charge of being “a fomentor and protector of malignant factions against the Parliament” (Clarendon).