 Their first contact with the Parliamentarian commander William Waller was a cavalry skirmish at Chewton Mendip.Waller was driven out of Monkton Farleigh on 3 July 1643 and on 5 July, two days later, the Royalists won a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Lansdowne.Slanning was described as "advancing from hedge to hedge at the head of his men, in the mouths of muskets and cannons, insomuch they thought him immortal, as indeed he was that day" whereas Sir Bevill Grenvile, the next "wheel", fell at the battle.