It was Endymion Westcote who rode up single-handed, (they, were carrying the only constable on their shoulders) and faced and dispersed the rioters.
It was he who headed the subscription list, prevailed on the purchase a wagon-load of potatoes and persuaded the people to plant them--for even the seed potatoes had been eaten, and the gardens lay undigged.
It was he who met the immediate famine by importing large quantities of rice.

Finally, it was he, through his influence with the county, who brought back prosperity by getting the French prisoners sent to Axcester.
We shall talk of these French prisoners by and by.

To conclude this portrait of Endymion Westcote.

He was a handsome, fresh-complexioned man, over six feet in height, and past his forty-fifth year; a bachelor and a Protestant.

In his youth he had been noted for gallantry, and preserved some traces of it in his address.