learn the value of the goods appropriated in the cathedral
alone, but the jewels and plate of the whole country were estimated at
4860-1/4 ounces, in value about L1213, 1s. 3d.

On August 22nd or 25th, 1642, the Royal Standard was set up at Nottingham,
and the clouds of the Great Rebellion burst over the country. Bishop Coke
of Hereford had been one of the twelve churchmen most active against the
Bill for excluding the bishops from Parliament, passed in the Commons in
May 1641, and was one of the ten bishops committed to the Tower by the
joint sentence of the Lords and Commons on charge of treason.

The "popishly inclined" county of Hereford was at one with its Bishop, but
so unprepared for war that Lord Stamford, with two troops of cavalry and a
single infantry regiment, entered Hereford under the orders of the Earl of
Essex and quartered himself in the Bishop's palace. Here he remained till
December 14th without, however, any serious plundering in the town itself.
In April 1643, Waller took the city for the second time, and again without
much resistance, a condition of the surrender being the immunity of the
Bishop and cathedral clergy from personal violence and plunder. On his
leaving Hereford the place was retaken by the Royalists, and became an
asylum for fugitive Roman Catholics. So it went on, being held first by
one side and then by the other. In the autumn of 1645 Hereford was
besieged by Lord Leven with the Scottish army, who were driven off by
Colonel Barnabas Scudamore with heavy loss.

The cathedral at this time suffered considerable injury during the siege.
The defenders used the lead from the chapter-house roof to cover the keep
of the castle, and possibly also to make bullets. Finally, on December
18th, through the treachery of Colonel Birch, the governor of the city,
Hereford was once more taken, and this time the whole place was overrun by
a rabble of plundering soldiery.

No doubt much damage had been done in the cathedral during the
Reformation, but despite the protests of an antiquarian captain, one Silas
Taylor, far greater mischief was perpetrated in this military loot. "The
storied windows richly dight" were smashed to bits, monumental brasses
torn up, the library plundered of most valuable MSS., and rich ornaments
stolen.

Some while after the Restoration, an appeal was made by the cathedral
clergy to the nobility, baronets, knights, esquires, and gentry of the
county for help towards restor