or minister was championed in particular by a certain
Captain Ouseley, and the discussion of the matter on the bowling-green
on the following day led to the suggestion that the Mayor should be sent
for to explain his conduct. As he took no notice of a courteous message
requesting his attendance, the Captain repeated the summons accompanied
by a file of musketeers. In the meantime many suggestions for dealing
with Mr. Aislabie in a fitting manner were doubtless made by the
Captain's brother officers, and, further, some settled course of action
seems to have been agreed upon, for we do not hear of any hesitation on
the part of the Captain on the arrival of the Mayor, whose rage must by
this time have been bordering upon apoplexy. A strong blanket was ready,
and Captains Carvil, Fitzherbert, Hanmer, and Rodney, led by Captain
Ouseley and assisted by as many others as could find room, seizing the
sides, in a very few moments Mr. Mayor was revolving and bumping, rising
and falling, as though he were no weight at all.

This public degradation was too much to be borne without substantial
redress. He therefore set out at once for London to obtain satisfaction
from his Sovereign. But Ouseley was wise enough to look after his own
interests in that quarter himself, and in two letters we see the upshot
of the matter.

'LONDON,

'September 22, 1688.

'....Captain Ouseley is said to be come to
town to give reasons for tossing the mayor of
Scarborough in a blanket. As part of his plea he
has brought with him a collection of articles against
the said mayor, and the attestations of many gentlemen
of note.'

'LONDON,

'September 29, 1688.

'The mayor of Scarborough and Captain Ouseley,
who tossed the other in a blanket, were heard last
night before the council: the Captain pleaded his
majesty's gracious pardon (which is in the press)
and so both were dismissed.'

Aislabie was the last of the only five Mayors the town had then known,
and the fact that the office had only been instituted in 1684 seems to
show that what reverence had gathered round the person of the chief
magistrate was not sufficient to stand in the face of such outrageous
conduct as the public caning of the minister. The townsfolk decided that
they had had enough of Mayors, for on November 16 in the same autumn
Scarborough was once more placed under the control of two Bailiffs, as
had been the case previous to 1684