A Ballad upon the Popish Plot and region (“From Pulpit to Pot / They talk’d of a Plot” [1.5-6]), as well as the fear invoked in the general population (“frighted with Fire-balls, their heads turned round” [1.4]), but then proposes a rational and just correction of these effects. The majority of the rest of the ballad then lists the occupational types, personal characteristics, and machinations of the participants in the plot. The first is a politician “of Body unsound,” who intends to slander the Pope and the current King, Charles II, until both are forced out of power (2.1, 8). The narrator then describes the personal
Rye House Plot with Aaron Smith and William Hone, both to be plotters though aside from the main group. John Locke had arranged accommodation for West in Oxford at that time, and had other associations in the group of revolutionary activists (Smith, John Ayloffe, Christopher Battiscombe and Israel Hayes), of whom Ayloffe was certainly implicated in the Rye House Plot, leaving Locke vulnerable. Rumbold was introduced to West's group by John Wildman; but by the time the plot was discovered both had distanced themselves, Wildman by refusing to finance Rumbold in the purchase of arms, and Rumbold through loss of his earlier enthusiasm.