Here we are, dearest sir, and here we mean to pass this night.
We did not leave Bath till eight o'clock yesterday evening, at which
time it was filled with dragoons, militia, and armed constables, not
armed with muskets, but bludgeons: these latter were all chairmen, who
were sworn by the mayor in the morning for petty constables. A popish
private chapel, and the houses of all the catholics, were guarded
between seven and eight, and the inhabitants ordered to keep house.
We set out in the coach-and-four, with two men on horseback, and got to
Warminster, a small town in Somersetshire, a little before twelve.
This morning two more servants came after us from Bath, and brought us
word that the precautions taken by the magistrates last night had good
success, for no attempt of any sort had been renewed towards a riot.
But the happiest tidings to me were contained in a letter which they
brought, which had arrived after our departure, by the diligence, from
Mr. Perkins,[132] with an account that all was quiet in London, and that
Lord G. Gordon was sent to the Tower. I am now again tolerably easy, but
I shall not be really comfortable, or free from some fears, till I hear
from St. Martin's Street.
The Borough house has been quite preserved. I know not how long we may
be on the road, but nowhere long enough for receiving a letter till we
come to Brighthelmstone.
We stopped in our way at Wilton, and spent half the day at that
beautiful place.
Just before we arrived there, Lord Arundel had sent to the officers in
the place, to entreat a party of guards immediately, for the safety of
his house, as he had intelligence that a mob was on the road from London
to attack it:--he is a catholic. His request was immediately complied
with.
We intended to have gone to a private town, but find all quiet here, and
therefore prefer it as much more commodious. There is no Romish chapel
in the town; mass has always been performed for the catholics of the
place at a Mrs. Arundel's in the Close--a relation of his lordship's,
whose house is fifteen miles off. I have inquired about the
Harris's;[133] I find they are here and all well.