BOOK REVIEW – HERBERT STRANG AND RICHARD STEAD – ONE OF RUPERT’S HORSE. – 1936 Humphrey Milford. - Oxford University Press.
Obscure and not particularly good boy’s own adventure novel about the English Civil War. In fact, it’s really a short story that could be told in about twenty pages, padded out with lots of historic background detail that makes it a shame that the authors did no simply write a textbook study of the conflict. The ‘novel’ interrupts a reasonably good study of the troubles.
The story begins in 1637 when staunch Royalist Gerard visits cousins in Humberside. He arrives in time to see a rabble listening to a man speaking out for Parliamentarian reform, and showing contempt for the King’s Ship Money taxation. As Gerard listens, the local trained bands arrive to break up the meeting. Only Gerard is captured, but he manages to convince them of his sincere innocence, and even gives them a description of the main speaker at the event.
When he meets the aunt he plans to stay with, Gerard finds out that the rabble-rouser was his own cousin, John, who has now been arrested. He risks having his ears cropped for his seditious talk.
Gerard feels guilty about having unwittingly helped in the pursuit and capture of his kinsman, so he helps John breakout of jail on a vow to turn Royalist. However, he is soon to discover that John has remained true to the Roundhead cause.
With war now truly afoot, Gerard and his father enlist in the Royalist Cavalry under Prince Rupert Of The Rhine, and fight at Edgehill in 1642. Soon afterwards, Gerard, (a master of disguise) is sent on a secret mission to London to liberate some money that can be used for the King’s cause. While there, he sees his cousin and learns that he is now a Roundhead soldier. Their paths cross and re-cross several times again, no matter what part of Britain they are in. The level of coincidence makes their meetings utterly unconvincing. Gerard learns that his brother is a spy in the King’s camp at Oxford on the brink of the battle of Marston Moor, but allows him to escape again. John now talks another cousin, Ruth into also serving the Parliament cause.
After the shattering Royalist defeat at Naseby, Gerard is captured, and risks deportation to the colonies for refusing to renounce support for the King. His father dies in the siege at which Gerard is taken. Now it is John and Ruth who rescue Gerard, in return for his kindness to them. Their paths never cross again, but Gerard learns that John has died in Jamaica establishing one of Cromwell’s plantations there. Gerard has witnessed the execution of his King, and then just goes home to his mother to live his life to its end.
It’s a sad tale, that seems undecided on its audience or approach, but it evokes the mood of battle and crowd scene well – shame about the flimsy plot though.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
LINK TO THIS PAGE http://arthurchappell.me.uk/book.review-one.of.ruperts.horse.htm
LINKS TO OTHER PEOPLES PAGES E-mail arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
UPDATES MYSPACE - http://www.myspace.com/arthurchappell
FACEBOOK - http://profile.to/arthurchappell/ FACEBOOK
BLOG http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blogpage.php?blogid=85623
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTHUR-CHAPPELLS-WRITING-POETRY-MODELLING-PHOTOGRAPHY-FAN-PAGE/366778907731?ref=mf
MY BOOKS - http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=952521
MY TWITTER
PAGE - http://twitter.com/arthurchappell
MY
WOOPHY PAGE - http://www.woophy.com/member/Arthur+Chappell
MY FLICKR PAGE http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthurchappell/
MY MODEL MAYHEM PAGE http://www.modelmayhem.com/arthurchappell
MY MODEL URL WEB PAGE http://modelurl.com/arthurchappell
Yougov
Surveys pages - http://my.yougov.com/go.aspx?id=83d4324b-e38d-4022-af7d-44ee3ab4f4c9