Note 188 — Chapter XIV · THE OLD SOUTH-WESTERN SEA-COAST—SOMERFORD, CHEWTON GLEN, MILFORD, HURST CASTLE, LYMINGTON.

From Peek (Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i., b. ii., part iv., p. 66) we find that in Elizabeth’s reign the captain received 1s. 8d. a day; the officer under him, 1s.; and the master-gunner and porter, and eleven gunners and ten soldiers, 6d. each, which in Grose’s time had been increased to 1s. (Grose’s Antiquities, vol. ii., where a sketch is given of the castle). Hurst, on account of its strength, was to have been betrayed, in the Dudley conspiracy, to the French, by Uvedale, Captain of the Isle of Wight. (Uvedale’s Confession, Domestic MSS., vol. vii., quoted in Froude’s History of England, vol. vi. p. 438.) Ludlow mentions the great importance of Hurst being secured to the Commonwealth, as both commanding the Isle of Wight and stopping communication with the mainland (Memoirs, p. 323). Hammond, in a letter from Carisbrook Castle, June 25th, 1648, says it is “of very great importance to the island. It is a place of as great strength as any I know in England” (Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii., b. ix., p. 383).