Loughborough during the Great Civil War. By E. W. Hausman.
(Loughborough: Echo Press. la. 6d. net.)—Mr. Hensman's essay, based on the local records and the news-letters of the time, is a useful contribution to the history of the desultory fighting in the Midlands between 1643 and 1645. Loughborough, being near Parliamentarian Leicester and Royalist Newark and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, suffered much from both sides without itself playing any great part. The town was in June, 1642, the rendezvous of Lord Huntingdon's son, Henry Hastings, who collected a Royalist_force and tried to muster the Leicester trainbands for the King's service. Hastings' men got drunk and were taken in their beds by the indignant citizens. The King made Loughborough his headquarters on the eve of his attack on Leicester in May, 1645, a fortnight before Naseby. it is a pity that Mr. Hensman, tempted by a reference to his town, tries to defend the authenticity of two of the forged "Squire papers," which were foisted upon the unwary Carlyle. The letters which he quotes are peculiarly un-Cromwellian in style. But impostures of this kind die hard.
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