Newbury

“ Edward Newbury indeed belonged to a type not common in our upper class, yet always represented there, and in its main characteristics to be traced back at least to the days of Laud and the Neoplatonists. It is a spiritual, a mystical type, developed under English aristocratic conditions and shaped by them. Newbury had been brought up in a home steeped in high Anglican tradition. His grandfather, old Lord Broadstone, had been one of the first and keenest supporters of the Oxford movement, a friend of Pusey, Keble, and Newman, and later on of Liddon, Church, and Wilberforce. ”

“ Edward Newbury gave up his seat to Sir Wilfrid, and stood against the back of the box talking to Waggin. But she could not flatter herself he paid much attention to her remarks. Marcia could not see him; but his eyes were on her perpetually. A wonderfully handsome fellow, thought Waggin. The profile and brow perfect, the head fine, the eyes full—too full!—of consciousness, as though the personality behind burnt with too intense a flame. Waggin liked him, and was in some sort afraid of him. Never did her small talk seem to her so small as when she launched it at Edward Newbury. ”

“ Now trust me quoth the King, you are stout soldiers to fight against butterflies, and so manfully to withstand such mighty giants
My dread Sovereign, quoth Jack of Newbury, not long ago, in my conceit I saw the most provident nation of ants summon their chief peers to parliament which was held in the famous city of Drudistle, the 21st of December last, whereat by their wisdom, I was chosen King. ”

“ The Newbury road runs about half a mile north of the river past Stock Cross and Benham Park to Speen, generally supposed to be identical with Spinae, the Roman station at the junction of the roads from Bath and Cirencester to Silchester. Not far from the rebuilt church is an ancient well over which has been erected in recent years a Gothic arch. One mile farther, eight from Hungerford, and we are in Newbury, perhaps the "new burb" in comparison with the older settlement of Speen. A castle built in 1140 was in existence but a few years. ”

“ We see no reason why he may not be regarded as a genial good fellow, desiring to make some gloomy portion of mankind more cheerful and happy.
At Newbury there possibly was nothing more than a playful and self-gratifying exercise of constitutional powers by a band of spirit gymnasts—not malicious, but playful and rude; curious also, it may be, to see how far they might be able to frighten mortals and arouse consternating wonder, while they should be pleasurably exercising their own faculties. We view them as neither specially good or bad, but as heedless and rude in their frolic. ”

“ This Jack of Newbury, alias Winchcombe, alias Smallwoode, “was the most considerable clothier England ever had. He kept an hundred looms in his house, each managed by a man and a boy. He feasted King Henry VIII. and his first Queen Catherine at his own house in Newbury, now divided into sixteen clothiers’ houses. He built the Church of Newbury, from the pulpit westward to the town.” [98] At the battle of Flodden in 1513, he joined the Earl of Surrey with a corps of one hundred men, well equipped at his sole expense, who distinguished themselves greatly in that fight. ”

“ The cloth industry is long extinct in Newbury, but large wool fairs are held annually; there is considerable agricultural trade, and there are breweries and flour mills. A racecourse was opened in the vicinity of the town in 1905, and six meetings are held annually. The borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 1828 acres.
Newbury (Neubiri, Neubiry) possibly owes its origin to the village of Speen on the other side of the Kennet, which probably marks the site of the Roman station Spinae. The name Newbury (new town or borough) is first mentioned by Odericus Vitalis ”

“ It is built of bricks of a good deep rich red—not the painfully bright red so much in use now—and no person has had the bad taste to spoil the harmony by introducing stone and stucco. Moreover, Newbury has, in Shaw House, an Elizabethan mansion of the rarest beauty. Let him that is weary of the ugliness and discords in our town buildings go and stand by the ancient cedar at the gate and look across the wide green lawn at this restful house, subdued by time to a tender rosy-red colour on its walls and a deep dark red on its roof, clouded with grey of lichen. ”

“ Lady Coryston made no reply except to say that she must get ready for luncheon. She left the room just as Sir Wilfrid perceived a rider on a bay horse approaching through the park, and recognized Edward Newbury.
"Handsome fellow!" he thought, as he watched him from the window; "and sits his horse uncommonly well. Why doesn't that girl fly to meet him? They used to in my days."
But Newbury dismounted with only a footman to receive him, and Marcia did not appear till the gong had rung for luncheon. ”

“ In the battle of Newbury, on the part of the king, besides the earls of Sunderland and Carnarvon, two noblemen of promising hopes, was unfortunately slain, to the regret of every lover of ingenuity and virtue throughout the kingdom, Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland, secretary of state. Before assembling the present parliament, this man, devoted to the pursuits of learning and to the society of all the polite and elegant, had enjoyed himself in every pleasure which a fine genius, a generous disposition, and an opulent fortune could afford. ”

“ Twisse half wished he had let them go when on the 18th September it seemed likely that the two armies would encounter each other in the near neighbourhood of Newbury. A sharp skirmish was reported from Aldbourn Chase, and on the 19th the King’s forces took possession of Newbury, to the great disgust of the inhabitants, who were strongly in favour of the Parliament. In their breasts bitter memories still lingered which made them little inclined to favour a king who was swayed by his “popish” wife. ”

“ And indeed she began to grow as great a gossip as any in Newbury, and would sometimes come home very late at night, insomuch that once her husband John went up to bed and locked her out, and took the key up into his chamber. And when the good wife found she was locked out, she knocked very hard, till at last her husband looked put of the window, and told her to look out her lodging that night at the place she had been sitting all day. Such gossips as you, says he, the cage is he fittest lodging for. ”

“ The supporters of the Newburys were many, for there were scores of persons on the Newbury estates who heartily sympathized with their point of view; but on the whole the defenders of the Betts marriage were more. The affair got into the newspapers, and a lecturer representing the "Rational Marriage Union" appeared from London, and addressed large and attentive audiences in the little towns. After one of these lectures, Newbury returning home at night from Coryston was pelted with stones and clods by men posted behind a hedge. ”

“ He felt the pressure of his duties as age crept on, and was tempted by the offer of Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick [q. v.] , to give him a better living (Benefield, Northamptonshire) , with a less laborious cure. Before accepting it he saw Laud, with whom he had been intimate at Oxford, about the appointment of his successor, Newbury being a crown living. ”

“ One of the first settlers at Newbury, Massachusetts, was one Henry Sewall, who came over from England in 1634, bringing with him cattle, servants, and provisions. He was allotted six hundred acres of upland and marsh land at Newbury, according to agreement made before he left his native country. This land bordered the river Parker, near what is now known as Byfield proper, a fertile, woodland country with rolling hills and rich land. He married Jane Dummer, settling later on the grant of land that had been apportioned to him for the first stock farm in America. ”

“ Speaking of students,—Mr. Benjamin Woodbridge, of our American Newbury, Mass., the first graduate of Harvard College, went to Newbury, England, and became rector of St. Nicholas, [Pg 125] after the death of the celebrated Dr. Twiss, so that our town has double honors. Mr. Woodbridge remained rector more than twenty years,—a learned and eloquent preacher,—till at last, in consequence of his strongly non-conformist doctrines, imbibed partly in New England, he was driven from his pulpit, and suffered great persecution. ”

“ The history of all religious movements is there to prove it. But there are tremendous currents in our modern life making against such men as Newbury—their ideals and traditions. And to one or other of those currents it always seems to me that she is committed. She does not know it—does not dream, perhaps, whither she is being carried; but all the same there are 'murmurs and scents' from 'the infinite sea' of free knowledge and experiment which play upon her, and will never play upon Newbury.
"Coryston will make a great effort to upset the engagement—if it is an engagement ”

“ He will only marry Miss Glenwilliam over his mother's body—and if he does marry her he may whistle for the estates."
"Then James will have them?" said Newbury, smiling.
"Why not Marcia? She has as good a chance as anybody."
"I hope not!" Newbury's tone showed a genuine discomfort.
"What is Lady Coryston doing?"
"About the Glenwilliam affair? Ah!—what isn't she doing?" said Sir Wilfrid, significantly. "All the same, she lies low." As he spoke, his eyes fell upon the hillside and on the white cottage of the Atherstones emerging from the wood. He pointed. ”

“ JACK OF NEWBURY.
In the reign of King Henry VIII. one John Winchcomb was a rich clothier in the town of Newbury in Berkshire; a handsome and clever youth; when his master died, and left his mistress a widow, who seeing John to be a careful servant, put him in great trust in her house, which he carefully performed. ”

“ A profane historian will depart from Bentinck Street, London, and drink tea, sup and lye at Newbury in Berkshire.
[Sidenote: January 1st, 1781.]
The same historian will gently proceed from Newbury to Bath till he reaches the aerial cell of the Fairy of the Green, or more probably the white mountain. It is apprehended that the said Fairy will not be able to dine that day before four o'clock in the afternoon. ”

“ And the wise Beauclerc had thus ordered, for that the men of Newbury having a fair of their own about the same season, for the sale of cattle and much cheese, were likely to waylay and stop such as were coming to our fair, as in verity they afterwards did, despite of our charter and to the peril of their own souls. But the castle-builders and the robbers that were liege-men unto them, had done the Fair-wending franklins much more harm than had been done them by the wicked men of Newbury ”

“ On 1 April 1645 it was reported to the assembly that the prolocutor was ‘very sick and in great straits.’ He had received no profits from Newbury, and but a small stipend (1643–5) as one of three lecturers at St. Andrew's, Holborn. On 30 March 1645 he had fainted in the pulpit (‘procumbit in pulverem,’ Kendall) , and henceforth kept his bed. Though a man of some estate—for his will (9 Sept. 1645; codicil 30 June 1646; proved 6 Aug. 1646) disposes of the manor of Ashamstead, Berkshire, and other property—the confusion of the times had deprived him of income. Parliament voted him 100l. ”

“ The Chap-book version is, that he was apprenticed to a rich clothier at Newbury, and married his master's widow, and a great portion of the book is taken up with their courtship. "Shortly after the king had occasion to raise an army against the Scots, who were risen against the English, Jack of Newbury raised at his own expense one hundred and fifty men, and cloathed them with white coats, red caps and yellow feathers, and led them himself." ”

“ Other men have worked for their wives and children. I've worked for the farm. There are experiments going on there—you know it, Mr. Edward—that have been going on for years. They're working out now—coming to something—I've earned that reward. How can I begin anywhere else? Besides, I'm flagging. I'm not the man I was. The best of me has gone into that farm." He raised his arm to point. "And now, you're going to drive me from it."
"Oh, Betts—why did you—why did you!" cried Newbury, in a sudden rush of grief. ”

“ The grand wooded vista down the Kennet valley toward Newbury is a sharp contrast to the bare uplands north and south. Walbury Camp, a fine prehistoric entrenchment, is distinct from Walbury Hill, slightly lower, on which is Combe Gallows, a relic of the past kept in constant repair by a neighbouring farmer as a condition of his land tenure. Inkpen village is more than a mile away to the north. Here is a church once old but now smartened up to such an extent that its ancient character is not apparent. ”

“ CHAPTER III. NEWBURY. Newbury was one of the twenty-odd townships, five miles square, that then made up the county of Geauga, and a part of the Western Reserve, the Yankee-doodledom of Ohio, settled exclusively by emigrants from New England. It was so much of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, etc., translated into the broader and freer West. It has been said that the Yankee, like a certain vegetable, heads best when transplanted. ”

“ FOR raising a Sum of Money for the building and maintaining a Bridge over the River Parker, in the Town of Newbury, at the Place called Old Town [Pg 10] Ferry (in pursuance of an Act of the General Court, passed in April 1760) Wherein Daniel Farnham, Caleb Cushing, Joseph Gerrish, William Atkins, Esq., and Mr. Patrick Tracy, Merchant, (or any Three of them) are appointed Managers. The acting Managers are sworn to the faithful Performance of their Trust.
Newbury-Lottery Number Four, consists of
5000 Tickets, at Two Dollars each; 1655 of which are Benefit Tickets of the following Value. ”