Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/477

 I^^ BEnALF OF TUli; KdYALlST CAUSK. 375 mills at Osency, which brouglit in a daily supply of powder. The place was provisioned for six months, and although there is no doubt but that he must ultimately have surrendered, still a very good stand might have been made, and he might have obtained better terms for himself than were ultimately given. However, on the 1st of May, Fairfax rendezvous'd between Abingdon and Garsington, and had his head-quarters that night at the latter place. May 2nd. There was a general rendezvous of the army, horse and foot, on Bullingdon Green, and thence the forces were distributed to several quarters, viz., at Headington, Marston, and the towns thereabouts. May 3rd. The general, with the officers of the army, took a survey of Oxford by perspectives, (telescopes) and found the place to have received many alterations and additions of great advantage since last being there before it ; and it was made incomparably more strong than ever, it being the king's head-quarters and garrison, and his chief place of residence and retreat. The situation, in reference to the ground it stood on, rendered it very apt for defence, being placed betw^een the River Isis on the west, and the Cherwell on the east, both meeting on the south side ; which rivers, especially the first, spreading themselves into several branches, which run through, and under some parts of the city, were so ordered, by locks and sluices placed upon them, that the city could be surrounded with waters (except the north j^arts) when the defendants pleased, and thereby make the place absolutely inapproachable. As for the said north, part of it was indifferently high in relation to the other ground, ha'ing so many strong bulwarks so regularly flanking one another thereon, that nothing could be more exactly done. Hound about the line it was strongly palhsadoed, and without that again were digged several pits in the ground, that a single footman could not, without difficulty, approach the brink of the trench. Within the city was 5000 good foot, most of them of the king's old infantry, which had served him from the beginning of the wars, and they were well stored with a plentiful magazine of victuals, ammunition and pro- visions for war. In a word, whatever art or industry could do to make a place impregnable, was very liberally bestowed here.