old Church, with its graves, stands in the centre, the truncated spire finishing itself with a strange old Ball, held up by rods; a ‘hollow copper Ball, which came from Boulogne in Henry the Eighth’s time,’—which has, like Hudibras’s breeches, ‘been at the Siege of Bullen.’ The ground is upland, moorland, though now growing corn; was not enclosed till the last generation, and is still somewhat bare of wood. It stands nearly in the heart of England: gentle Dulness, taking a turn at etymology, sometimes derives it from Navel; ‘Navesby, quasi Navelsby, from being’ etc.: Avon Well, the distinct source of Shakspeare’s Avon, is on the Western slope of the high grounds; Nen and Welland, streams leading towards Cromwell’s Fen-country, begin to gather themselves from boggy places on the Eastern side. The grounds, as we say, lie high: and are still, in their new subdivisions, known by the name of ‘Hills,’ ‘Rutput Hill,’ ‘Mill Hill,’ ‘Dust Hill,’ and the like, precisely as in Rushworth’s time: but they are not properly hills at all; they are broad blunt clayey masses, swelling towards and from each other, like indolent waves of a sea, sometimes of miles in extent.
It was on this high moor-ground, in the centre of England, that King Charles, on the 14th of June 1645, fought his last battle; dashed fiercely against the New-Model Army, which he had despised till then; and saw himself shivered utterly to ruin thereby. ‘Prince Rupert, on the King’s right wing, charged up the hill, and carried all before him’; but Lieutenant-General Cromwell charged downhill on the other wing, likewise carrying all before him,—and did not gallop off the field to plunder, he. Cromwell, ordered thither by the Parliament, had arrived from the Association two days before, ‘amid shouts from the whole Army’: he had the ordering of the Horse this morning. Prince Rupert, on returning from his plunder, finds the King’s Infantry a ruin; prepares to charge again with the rallied Cavalry; but the Cavalry too, when it came to the point, ‘broke all asunder,’—never to reassemble more. The chase went through Harborough;
