However it terrified them, and they reſolved to move croſs the Foreſt towards Rumford and Brent-Wood; but they heard that there were numbers of People fled out of London that way, who lay up and down in the Foreſt call’d Henalt Foreſt, reaching near Rumford, and who having no Subſiſtence or Habitation, not only liv’d oddly, and ſuſſered great Extremities in the Woods and Fields for want of Relief, but were ſaid to be made ſo deſperate by thoſe Extremities, as that they offer’d many Violences to the County, robb’d and plunder’d, and kill’d Cattle, and the like; that others building Hutts and Hovels by the Road-ſide Begg’d, and that with an Importunity next Door to demanding Relief; ſo that the County was very uneaſy, and had been oblig’d to take ſome of them up.
This, in the firſt Place intimated to them, that they would be ſure to find the Charity and Kindneſs of the County, which they had found here where they were before, hardned and ſhut up againſt them; and that on the other Hand, they would be queſtion’d where-ever they came, and would be in Danger of Violence from others in like Caſes as themſelves.
Upon all theſe Conſiderations, John, their Captain, in all their Names, went back to their good Friend and Benefactor, who had reliev’d them before, and laying their Caſe truly before him, humbly ask’d his Advice; and he as kindly adviſed them to take up their old Quarters again, or if not, to remove but a little further out of the Road, and directed them to a proper Place for them; and as they really wanted ſome Houſe rather than Huts to ſhelter them at that time of the Year, it growing on towards Michaelmas, they found an old decay’d Houſe, which had been formerly ſome Cottage or little Habitation, but was ſo out of repair as ſcarce habitable, and by the conſent of a Farmer
