rose
tale of _Endymion_ was translated by Richard Hurst in 1637. _Ismena_ and
_Diophania_ who was metamorphosed into a myrtle, are characters in the
story. _Periardes_ is a hill in Armenia whence the Euphrates takes its
course.

P. 79. An Elegy on the Death of Mr. R. W., slain in the late unfortunate
differences at Routon Heath, near Chester.

The battle of Routon, or Rowton, Heath took place on September 24, 1645.
The Royalist forces, under Charles I. and Sir Marmaduke Langdale,
advancing to raise the siege of Chester, were met and routed by the
Parliamentarians under Poyntz. The contemporary pamphlets give a long
list of the prisoners taken at Routon Heath, but name hardly any of
those slain. It is therefore difficult to say who R. W., evidently a
dear friend of Vaughan's, may have been. He appears to have been missing
for a year before he was finally given up. From lines 25-27 we learn
that he was a young man of only twenty. The most likely suggestion for
his identification seems to me that of Mr. C. H. Firth, who points out
to me that the name of one Roger Wood occurs in the list of Catholics
who fell in the King's service as having been slain at Chester. Miss
Southall (_Songs of Siluria_, 1890, p. 124) suggests that he may have
been either Richard Williams, a nephew of Sir Henry Williams, of
Gwernyfed, who died unmarried, or else a son of Richard Winter, of
Llangoed. He might also, I think, have been one of Vaughan's wife's
family, the Wises, and possibly also a Walbeoffe. A reference to the
Walbeoffe pedigree in the note to p. 189 will show that there was a
Robert Walbeoffe, brother of C. W. Miss Morgan thinks that he is a
generation too old, and that the unnamed son of C. W., who, according to
his tombstone, did not survive him, may have been a Robert, and the R.
W. in question. On the question whether Vaughan was himself present at
Routon Heath, _see_ the _Biographical Note_ (vol. ii., p. xxviii).

P. 83. Upon a Cloak lent him by Mr. J. Ridsley.

I do not know who Mr. Ridsley was. On the references to Vaughan's
"juggling fate of soldiery" in this poem, _see_ the _Biographical Note_
(vol. ii., p. xxviii).

_craggy Biston, and the fatal Dee._ Chester stands, of course, on the
Dee, which is "fatal" as the scene of disasters to the Royalist cause.
Dr. Grosart explains Biston as "Bishton (or Bishopstone) in
Monmouthshire," and adds, "'Craggie Biston' refers, no doubt, to certain
caves there. The Poet's scho