25 NOVEMBER 1916, Page 11

MR. WHITWORTH'S MANUSCRIPT.

[To THE EDITOR. or THE "SPECTATOR."] vicar of the parish in which Batchacre Hall is situated, I was much interested in the paragraph in your issue of the 11th inst. about the MS. written by Mr. Whitworth over a hundred : years ago. I should much like to know more about the MS. Mr. Whitworth seems to have been somewhat of a crank, and to have thought that if England were invaded Batchacre would be the last ditch. Tradition has it that he took his army to London, but was' so badly 'treated by the Government that he vowed he would fight against the King, and was imprisoned for high treason and had his lands taken away from him. There is a farm called " The Banqueting House " where his soldiers are said to have been Ridged. He appears to have been at one time Ambassador to France, and to have been made a Baronet, the latter fact being borne out by a hatchment in the church.—I am, Sir, &c.,

[We quoted, not from an MS., but from a little volume of collected pamphlets, the most important of which deals with Lord Ellenborough's decision as to the right of Volunteers tO resign. We do not think that the Squire of Batchacre was ever Ambassador to France, nor did he ever commit even a technical treason.—En. Spectator.]