for an invasion.  Cromwell’s retort, after a preliminary quibble, was practical enough.  “War is inevitable.  Is it better to have it in the bowels of another’s country or in one’s own?  In one or other it must be.”  Fairfax’s scruple, however, withstood this battery, though it was strongly enforced by Harrison, who, in reply to the Lord-General’s question, “What was the warrant for the assumption that Scotland meant to fall upon England?” inquired, if Scotland did not mean to invade England, for whose benefit were levies being made and soldiers enlisted.

Fairfax proved immovable.  “Every man,” said he, “must stand or fall by his own conscience”; and as he offered to lay down his command, there was nothing for it but to accept the resignation and appoint his successor.  This was speedily done, and on the 28th of June 1650 “Oliver Cromwell, Esquire,” was appointed Captain-General and Commander-in-chief of all the forces.  On 16th July Cromwell crossed the Tweed, and on the 3rd of September the Lord delivered Leslie into his hands at Dunbar.

It was in these circumstances that Lord Fairfax and his energetic lady and only child went back to their Yorkshire home in the midsummer of 1650, taking Marvell with them to instruct the Lady Mary in the tongues.

Nunappleton House is in the Ainstey of York, a pleasant bit of country bounded by the rivers Ouse, Wharfe, and Nidd.  The modern traveller, as his train rushes north, whilst shut up in his corridor-carriage with his rug, his pipe, and his novel, passes at no great distance from the house on the way between Selby and York.  The old house, as it was in Marvell’s time, is thus described by Captain Markham, who had a print to help him, in his delightful Life of the Great Lord Fairfax:—­

“It was a picturesque brick mansion with stone copings and a high steep roof, and consisted of a centre and two wings at right angles, forming three sides of a square, facing to the north.  The great hall or gallery occupied the centre between the two wings.  It was fifty yards long, and was adorned with thirty shields in wood, painted with the arms of the family.  In the three rooms there were chimney-pieces of delicate marble of various colours, and many fine portraits on the walls.  The central part of the house was surrounded by a cupola, and clustering chimneys rose in the two wings.  A noble park with splendid oak-trees, and containing 300 head of deer, stretched away to the north, while on the south side were the ruins of the old Nunnery, the flower-garden, and the low meadows called ings extending to the banks of the Wharfe.  In this flower-garden the General took especial delight.  The flowers were planted in masses, tulips, pinks, and roses, each in separate beds, which were cut into the shape of forts with five bastions.  General Lambert, whom Fairfax had reared as a soldier, also loved his flowers, and excelled both in cultivating them and in painting them from Nature.  Lord Fairfax only went to Denton, the favourite seat of his grandfather, when the floods were out over the ings at Nunappleton, and he also occasionally resorted to his house at Bishop Hill in York."[31:1]

In this garden the muse of Andrew Marvell blossomed like the cherry-tree.