At Ailesbury
Cromwell was met by a deputation of the two commissioners of the great
seal, the lord chief justice, and Sir Gilbert Pickering; to each of whom,
in token of his satisfaction, he made a present of a horse and of two
Scotsmen selected from his prisoners. At Acton he was received by the
speaker and the lord president, attended by members of parliament and of
the council, and by the lord mayor with the aldermen and sheriffs; and
heard from the recorder, in an address of congratulation, that he was
destined "to bind kings in chains, and their nobles in fetters of iron."
He entered[a] the capital in the state carriage, was greeted with the
acclamations of the people as the procession passed through the city, and
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.]
repaired to the palace of Hampton Court, where apartments had been fitted
up for him and his family at the public expense. In parliament it was
proposed that the 3rd of September should be kept a holiday for ever in
memory of his victory; a day was appointed for a general thanksgiving; and
in addition to a former grant of lands to the amount of two thousand five
hundred pounds per annum, other lands of the value of four thousand pounds
were settled on him in proof of the national gratitude.
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