PRICE OF VOTES at Wakefield, and asking for immediate supplies both of men and money. He tells them how greatly Lord Newcastle outnumbers Fairfax, infantry two to one, horse more than six to one. And he ends with:—
"Our motion and yours must be exceeding speedye or else it
will do you no good at all. If you send, let your men come to
Boston. I beseech you to hasten the supply to us:—forget not
money! I press not hard; though I do so need, that I assure
you the foot and dragooners are ready to mutiny. Lay not too
much upon the back of a poor gentleman, who desires, without
much noise, to lay down his life, and bleed the last drop to serve
the Cause and you. I ask not your money for myself; if that
were my end and hope,—viz. the pay of my place,—I would not
open my mouth at this time. I desire to deny myself; but others
will not be satisfied. I beseech you to hasten supplies. Forget
not your prayers
"Gentlemen, I am,
"Yours
"Oliver Cromwell."
It was six years after this that Isaac Newton went to school
in Grantham. Since the Restoration, but for the pulling down
of the market cross by Mr. John Manners in 1779, which he was
compelled to put up again the following year, nothing of note
happened at Grantham till the Great Northern Railway came
and subsequently Hornsby's great agricultural implement works
arose.
Grantham had been incorporated in 1463, and received the elective franchise four years later, in the reign of Edward IV., who more than once visited the town. The two families at Belvoir and Belton usually influenced the elections. But in 1802 their united interests were opposed by Sir William Manners, who had bought most of the houses in the borough. But the Duke of Rutland and Lord Brownlow won. There were then two members, and the historian makes the naïve statement, "previous to this election it had been customary for the voters to receive two guineas from each candidate; at this election the price rose to ten guineas."
The mention of "le George" inn in the grant of 1461 brings to mind the other ancient hostel opposite to it. The Angel stands on the site of an earlier inn which goes back to the twelfth
