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THE  HOME   COUNTIES 
MAGAZINE. 


THE  HOME  COUNTIES 
MAGAZINE 


Devoted  to  the  topography  of  London,  Middlesex,  Essex, 
Herts,  Bucks,  Berks,  Surrey  and  Kent. 


Edited  by 
W.    J.     HARDY,    F.S.A. 


VOLUME    II. 
1900 


o" 


LONDON  \ x    , 

X ^  \ 
F.     E.     ROBINSON    &    Co. 

20,     GREAT    RUSSELL    STREET 
W.C. 


Dfl 

20 

HI 


WILLIAM     COWPER. 

(From  Homney"  s  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery). 


ON    A    PORTRAIT    OF    WILLIAM    COWPER. 
BY  F.  M.  O'DoNOGHUE,  F.S.A. 


life-sized  bust  portrait  in  oils  here  reproduced,  came 
JL  to  light  only  a  few  years  ago.  It  appeared  at  Christie's, 
in  May,  1894,  in  the  sale  of  the  collections  of  Miss  Elizabeth 
Romney,  grand-daughter  of  the  painter,  to  whom  the  pictures, 
drawings,  MSS.,  etc.,  which  remained  with  the  family  after  his 
death,  descended.  The  portrait  was  catalogued  only  as 
"  possibly  Cowper,"  and,  being  without  a  frame  and  in  an 
otherwise  sadly  neglected  state,  was  acquired  for  a  small  sum 
by  Messrs.  Agnew.  It  had  already  attracted  the  notice  of 
Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  George)  Scharf,  the  director  of  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  who,  after  fully  satisfying  himself 
that  it  was  an  authentic  likeness  of  the  poet,  purchased  it  on 
his  own  account.  Subsequently  he  had  it  re-lined  and  put  in 
perfect  order,  and  in  December  of  the  same  year  presented  it 
to  the  institution  over  which  he  presided. 

The  first  and,  so  far  as  is  recorded,  the  only  occasion  on 
which  Romney  met  Cowper  was  at  Eartham,  his  friend 
Hayley's  country  residence  near  Chichester,  in  the  summer  of 
1792.  He  then  made  the  crayon  drawing  of  the  poet,  which 
elicited  from  the  latter  the  graceful  sonnet  printed  in  the  "  Life 
of  Romney  "  by  his  son,  and  was  afterwards  engraved  by 
Blake  for  Hayley's  "  Life  of  Cowper."  If  the  painting  be 
correctly  attributed  to  Romney,  as  seems  fairly  certain,  it 
must  be  assigned  to  the  same  date. 

The  portrait,  as  a  study  of  the  poet's  personality,  differs 
considerably  from  those  by  Abbott,  Lawrence  and  Jackson, 
and  also  from  the  above-mentioned  drawing  by  Romney,  but 
is  nevertheless  perfectly  consistent  with  them.  It  represents 
him  in  three-quarters  view,  looking  downwards,  and  con- 
sequently the  stare  of  the  full  prominent  eyes,  so  suggestive 
of  a  tendency  to  insanity,  of  which  he  had  occasional  attacks, 
is  less  noticeable  than  in  the  others. 

As  the  centenary  of  Cowper's  death,  which  occurred  on 
25th  April,  1800,  is  close  at  hand,  this  seems  a  fitting  moment 
to  introduce  his  portrait. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  note,  that  not  only  in  regard  to 
Hampstead  Heath  and  Ham  Common  is  the  cry  raised  against 
making  open  spaces — delightful  from  their  "wildness  and 
rusticity  " — into  ornamental  grounds  or  parks.  Something  in 
the  "  laying  out "  way  is  going  on  at  Harpenden,  and  has 
awakened  hostile  criticism  which  is  answered  by  writers  to  the 
local  papers,  who,  in  referring  to  picturesque  ponds,  speak  of 
the  advantages  of  "shapely  sheets  of  water."  Depend  upon  it 
such  individuals  would  like  to  see  such  "shapely  sheets"  with 
concreted  bottoms  and  nice,  tidy,  concrete  edges. 

Laying  out  is  fatal  to  natural  beauty,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  Ealing  District  Council  will  not  spoil,  by  any  such 
process,  the  30  acres  of  beautifully  wooded  park  that,  at  a  cost 
of  4O,ooo/.,  they  are  acquiring  for  the  public.  A  fourth  of  this 
sum  is  contributed  by  the  Middlesex  County  Council,  which  is 
also  about  to  assist  the  local  authorities  at  Hanwell  in  securing 
for  the  sane  inhabitants  of  that  place  a  recreation  ground. 

It  is  a  pity  that  the  authorities  at  Richmond  cannot  at  once 
rescue  from  the  builder  the  Marble  Hill  Estate,  and  the 
authorities  at  Twickenham,  at  least  some  part  of,  Eel  Pie 
Island.  This  spot  covered  with  villas,  or  worse  still  with 
"works,"  would  entirely  alter  the  character  of  the  Thames 
scenery  there.  Indeed,  all  the  wood  and  meadow  land 
between  Richmond  Bridge  and  Twickenham  should  be  secured, 
if  the  beauty  of  the  Thames  is  to  be  maintained. 

The  park  at  Ealing  is  around  a  fine  house  said  to  be 
erected  by  Inigo  Jones.  This  building  is  to  be  preserved  as  a 
library,  picture  gallery  and  museum.  To  such  purposes  will  be 
employed,  when  the  necessary  alterations  are  completed,  Queen 
Elizabeth's  hunting  lodge  at  Chingford,  which  is  destined  to  be 
the  home  of  antiquities  and  curiosities  specially  associated  with 
Epping  Forest.  The  museum  in  course  of  construction  at 
Stratford  will,  we  imagine,  be  the  resting-place  of  those  relating 
to  East  London  and  the  suburban  parts  of  Essex  generally. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  3 

The  Hertfordshire  County  Museum  at  St.  Albans,  the 
progress  of  which  has  from  time  to  time  been  referred  to 
in  these  notes,  was  opened  by  the  Countess  Cowper  on  I5th 
November  last.  Only  a  portion  of  the  building  as  designed  by  Mr. 
Arthur  S.  Flower  has  been  erected,  but  that  is  well  filled  with 
county  exhibits,  and,  if  the  programme  of  the  museum  as  a 
teaching  centre,  sketched  by  some  of  the  speakers  at  the 
opening,  is  carried  out,  it  should  not  be  long  ere  funds  permit 
the  completion  of  the  museum  buildings. 

The  daily  attendance  of  visitors  since  the  opening  has  been 
most  encouraging;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  St.  Albans 
Museum  should  not  be  to  Hertfordshire  what  the  Reading 
Museum  is  to  Berkshire.  How  popular  is  this  last  named 
institution  may  be  judged  from  the  fact,  that  during  the  quarter 
ending  at  Michaelmas  last,  the  average  attendance  of  visitors 
has  been  300  a  day.  By-the-way,  we  have  not  heard  much 
lately  of  the  scheme  for  a  County  Museum  at  Aylesbury  ;  let  us 
hope  the  idea  has  not  been  abandoned. 

One  has  only  to  look  at  the  local  newspapers  connected 
with  the  Home  Counties  to  see  how  generally  encroachments 
on  commons,  roadside  wastes,  and  rights-of-way  are  being 
attempted,  and  it  behoves  us  to  offer  unstinting  support  to  that 
valuable  organisation  the  "  Commons  and  Footpath  Preservation 
Society,"  in  order  that  this  particular  form  of  theft  be 
successfully  combated.  The  Society's  work  is,  as  often  pointed 
out  here,  specially  difficult  on  account  of  the  negligence, 
wilful  or  otherwise,  of  local  bodies. 

In  the  case  of  Horsell  Common,  in  Surrey,  Mr.  J.  Leslie, 
of  that  place,  asks  for  signatures  to  a  petition  to 
the  Parish  Council,  urging  it  to  do  its  duty,  and  stop  the 
encroachments  by  builders  upon  the  common.  At  Twyford, 
the  Berkshire  County  Council  does  not  seem  so  desirous  of 
helping  the  Parish  Council,  in  resisting  the  niching  of  road- 
side waste,  as  was  the  Hertfordshire  County  Council  in 
assisting  the  Elstree  Parish  Council,  a  year  or  so  back,  with 
regard  to  similar  encroachments.  At  Weybridge  we  notice 
that  the  public  right-of-way  along  the  tow-path  is  being 
disputed  by  the  Thames  Conservancy. 


4  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

In  these  days  of  the  obliteration  of  rusticity,  it  is  pleasing 
to  note  that  the  hiring  fair  still  holds  its  own  in  the  Home 
Counties.  At  that  which  took  place  last  September  at  High 
Wycombe,  the  shepherds  and  cow-men  wore  in  their  head-gear 
tufts  of  wool  or  hair  to  exemplify  their  calling ;  whilst  the 
plough  or  team  drivers  decorated  their  hats  with  knots  of 
whip-cord.  Higher  wages  than  usual  were  asked  and,  on 
obtaining  them,  the  fortunate  ones  donned  bunches  of  bright 
coloured  ribbands. 

We  wonder  if  the  spread  of  the  light  railway  will  kill  this 
and  similar  remnants  of  arcadian  uses.  Certainly  the  new 
means  of  locomotion  is  being  very  generally  adopted  in  the 
Home  Counties,  especially  in  the  rural  parts  of  Kent. 
Hertfordshire  is  to  be  invaded  from  Stanmore  by  a  line  running 
through  Bushey  to  Watford,  and  westwards  thence  to 
Rickmansworth,  and  eastwards  to  St.  Albans.  Now,  without 
at  all  deprecating  the  spread  of  light  railways,  we  would  utter 
a  protest  against  their  construction  in  localities  already  served 
by  "  heavy  "  lines.  What  is  really  wanted  in  Hertfordshire  is 
a  better  means  of  communication  than  now  exists  between  the 
eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  county.  Why  does  not  some 
enterprising  individual  set  on  foot  a  scheme  for  a  light 
railway  from,  say,  Hitchin  to  Bishop's  Stortford,  from  thence 
to  Hertford  and,  across  the  county,  to  Rickmansworth, 
managing  to  cross  the  three  northern  trunk  lines  at  points 
where  they  have  railway  stations. 

The  "  heavy"  lines  do  not  seem  to  be  applying  to 
Parliament  for  any  schemes  materially  affecting  the 
Home  Counties,  though  the  powers  many  of  them  seek  for 
widening  their  lines  and  for  additional  terminal  accommodation, 
should  certainly  find  favour  with  the  travelling  public.  Even 
the  Midland  Railway  when,  possessed  of  abundant  accommo- 
dation for  conducting  its  goods  traffic  in  comfort,  may  give  a 
little  attention  to  the  punctuality  of  its  passenger  trains  ! 

News  of  interesting  archaeological  discoveries  comes  to  us 
from  various  parts  of  the  Home  Counties.  Systematic 
excavations  have  been  in  progress  during  the  past  summer  at 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  5 

Silchester,  and  the  annual  paper  embodying  the  results  of  the 
past  season's  work  will  be  laid  before  the  Society  of  Antiquaries 
in  the  spring  of  next  year. 

Very  interesting,  too,  are  the  excavations  which,  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  William  Page,  F.S.A.,  and  the  assistance 
of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  and  others,  are  being  carried  out 
on  the  site  of  Verulamium,  where  foundations  of  important 
buildings  have  already  been  unearthed. 

The  East  Herts  Society  has  also  founded  a  separate  fund 
for  excavations,  and  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  a  liberal  response 
will  be  made  to  the  Secretary's  appeal  for  contributions  to  this 
fund.  From  the  wording  of  the  appeal  it  would  seem  that  the 
excavations  intended  are  entirely  Roman  or  pre-historic.  This 
is  a  pity ;  there  is  much  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  excavating 
mediaeval  buildings — the  sites  of  religious  houses  and  so  forth, 
that  ought  to  be  included. 

The  Surrey  Archaeological  Society's  excavations  on  the  site 
of  Waverley  Abbey  have  already  proved  the  value  of  such 
work,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that,  ere  long,  the  Society's 
object — to  obtain  a  complete  ground  plan  of  tbe  first  Cistercian 
House  founded  in  England — will  be  successful.  The  Society 
proposes  to  hold  its  annual  meeting  on  the  site  of  Waverley 
next  summer. 

Illustrative  of  the  pre- Roman  period  in  the  history  of 
Britain,  are  the  explorations  which  Mr.  H.  H.  Cocks,  of  Great 
Marlow,  is  conducting  on  the  site  of  the  village  of  pile-dwellings 
at  Hedsor;  these  are,  of  course,  impeded  by  the  presence  of 
water,  though  that  "  element "  is  kept  under  by  the  constant 
use  of  the  steam  pump.  The  "finds"  include  flint  implements, 
and  some,  though  only  a  little,  British  pottery.  Many  of  the 
piles  discovered  are  of  large  dimensions,  and,  though  they  were 
mostly  driven  in  with  the  bark  upon  them,  just  as  cut,  one 
was  carefully  squared.  No  human  remains  have  been 
discovered  during  the  past  season. 

Besides  what  has  been  brought  to  light  by  systematic 
exploration,  some  curious  discoveries  have  been  made  during  the 


6  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

progress  of  work  which  entails  digging  for  purposes  other  than 
archaeological.  In  preparing  the  foundations  of  the  new 
municipal  buildings  at  Colchester,  a  quantity  of  coins,  bronze 
ornaments,  pottery  and  glass,  some  early,  has  been  unearthed 
and  removed  to  the  very  excellent  museum,  of  which  Colehester 
is  justly  proud.  During  building  operations  at  Braintree,  a 
massive  stone  coffin  has  been  found. 

Coming  to  a  yet  later  period  of  history  we  may  mention 
the  discovery  of  the  gibbet  stumps  on  Hounslow  Heath, 
unearthed  at  the  junction  of  the  Bath  and  Staines  Roads, 
during  the  work  necessary  for  the  tram-line  extension  at 
Hounslow.  Likely  enough  we  shall  hear  of  the  discovery  of 
the  remains  of  some  of  those  who  paid  the  penalty  of  following 
the  profitable  career  of  highwaymen  on  the  heath,  and  who 
were  buried  at  the  cross-roads,  with,  as  Hood  puts  it,  "stakes" 
in  their  insides. 

In  London  itself  some  interesting  "finds"  have  been  made 
during  the  extensive  drainage  and  other  works  being  carried 
out  by  the  Honourable  Society  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  under  the 
direction  of  its  surveyor,  Mr.  Dennett  Barry.  There  have 
been  unearthed  quite  a  number  of  silver  and  copper  coins  of 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth — some  of  the  shillings  in  really  first- 
rate  order — and  a  lavish  supply  of  jugs  and  drinking  vessels — 
often  referred  to  in  the  Inn  records  as  "green  cups"  and 
"  green  jugs  " — which  bear  witness  to  the  convivial  habits 
of  the  lawyers  of  the  sixteen  and  seventeenth  centuries. 

Many  of  the  Inn  buildings  have  undergone  a  very  thorough 
and  very  careful  restoration  at  Mr.  Barry's  hands  ;  and  that 
gentleman  is  to  be  particularly  congratulated  on  his  treatment 
of  the  noble  Tudor  gates  which  fill  the  Chancery  Lane 
entrance  to  the  Inn.  These  gates  have  been  stripped  of  many 
coats  of  paint  and  tar,  the  deal  patching  has  been  removed 
from  them  and  replaced  by  old  oak  taken  from  Inn  buildings 
formerly  demolished,  and  they  are  to  be  wax-polished  ;  a  treat- 
ment found  most  satisfactory  in  the  case  of  oak  subject  to  the 
influence  of  the  weather. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  7 

The  development  of  the  district  lying  to  the  north-east  of 
London  as  a  middle-class  residential  estate  has  already  led  to 
the  obliteration  of  some  of  the  most  picturesque  spots  in 
Middlesex  and  South-West  Essex,  and  the  destruction  of  some 
of  the  most  noble  mansions  which  London's  mercantile  wealth, 
in  the  late  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  century  caused  to 
be  erected.  Many  such  buildings  bordered  on  the  high  road 
through  Edmonton,  along  which  the  wigless  Gilpin  galloped, 
and  almost  the  last  of  them,  Causeware  Hall,  at  Lower 
Edmonton,  is  about  to  be  cut  up  as  a  building  estate. 

Around  the  very  substantial  house  in  Queen's  Square, 
Bloomsbury,  just  acquired  for  a  Jewish  College,  hangs  a  halo 
of  musical  romance  :  it  was  the  home,  for  a  time,  of  Handel's 
"  Impresario  "  and  no  doubt  was  the  scene  of  many  stormy 
meetings,  when  things  went  wrong,  as  they  often  did,  with  the 
great  master's  productions.  Some,  we  fancy,  little  noticed 
allusions  to  Handel's  Musical  career  in  London  occur  in 
Mr.  J.  J.  Cartwright's  "  Wentworth  Papers."  The  Earl  of 
Stafford's  son,  Lord  Wentwroth,  writes  to  his  father  a  good 
deal  of  London  gossip,  and  in  1738  tells  him  of  a  piece  entitled, 
"The  Dragon  of  Wantcliff "  (sic),  the  "tunes"  in  which, 
though  it  was  a  burlesque  of  the  opera,  Handel  owned, 
bethought,  "very  well  composed."  Next  year  the  rehearsals 
of  "  Saul  "  are  named.  Handel  was  borrowing  "  a  pair  of  the 
largest  kettle-drums  in  the  Tower  "  for  the  performance,  "so," 
says  Lord  Wentworth,  "to  be  sure  it  will  be  most  excessive 
noisy.  ...  I  doubt  it  will  not  retrieve  his  former  losses." 

In  Mr.  O'Donoghue's  remarks  on  Cowper's  portrait,  which 
forms  a  frontispiece  to  the  present  issue  of  this  Magazine, 
allusion  is  not  made  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Collingridge's  generous  gift 
to  the  people  of  Olney  of  Cowper's  house,  as  that,  with 
suitable  illustrations,  will  be  the  subject  of  an  article  in  our 
next  issue,  which  will  appear  when  the  literary  world  is 
celebrating  Cowper's  first  centenary. 

The  question  of  the  safe-keeping  of  local  public  records,  so 
often  referred  to  in  these  pages,  has  been  recently  again  brought 
forward  by  Mr.  Deputy  White,  in  regard  to  city  parochial 


8  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

records,  other  than  parish  registers.  It  is  true  the  illustrations 
of  civic  life  afforded  by  these  parochial  records,  are  not  so 
early  as  those  which  may  be  drawn  from  the  Corporation's 
Letter  Books  now  being  edited  by  Dr.  Sharpe,  but  their  value 
has  been  abundantly  demonstrated,  by  public  spirited  men  like 
Dr.  Edwin  Freshfield  who,  at  their  own  expense,  have  printed 
and  published  volumes  of  such  records  ;  and  they  are  certainly 
fully  appreciated  by  such  workers  as  the  Bishop  of  London  and 
Professor  Hales. 

Deputy  White's  suggestion  that  the  Guildhall  Library 
should  be  a  home  for  the  records  of  the  city  parishes  will,  we 
sincerely  hope,  be  carried  out.  There  is  scarcely  a  city  parish 
that  has  not  had  connected  with  it,  more  or  less  closely,  some 
famous  name.  And  surely  the  parochial  records  which  through 
light  on  the  daily  life  of  illustrious  men  and  women — their 
political  or  religious  views,  their  wealth  or  poverty — are  of 
greater  value  and  interest  than  the  registers  which  record  their 
baptisms,  marriages,  or  burials.  Yet,  in  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  parishes  in  London,  and  all  over  the  country,  even  where 
the  registers  of  births,  marriages  and  deaths  are  carefully 
tended,  other  parish  records  are  neglected,  suffered  to  perish  by 
decay,  or  lost.  Let  us  hope  that,  ere  long,  Parliament  will 
take  some  measures  to  secure  the  safety  of  local  public  records. 

A  piece  of  ecclesiastical,  parochial  property,  and  a 
manuscript,  though  not  a  "  record,"  has  lately  been  restored 
to  its  proper  custody  after  long  absence :  in  the  parish 
church  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  Buckingham  may  now  be  seen 
an  exceedingly  interesting  Bible,  written  mostly  in  a  fourteenth 
century  hand,  but  with  some  writing  of  an  earlier  date.  It 
was  given  in  to  the  chancel  of  the  church  by  one  John  Rudyng 
in  the  year  1471,  but — like  many  other  ecclesiastical  belongings 
— passed  away  from  its  rightful  possession  in  the  subsequent 
century.  Later,  we  find  it  in  the  hands  of  the  celebrated 
Browne  Willis.  At  the  sale  of  his  library  it  was  bought  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Kerslake  who,  in  1855,  returned  it  to  the  then 
vicar.  The  Holy  Book  remained  in  the  vicarage  till  recently, 
when  the  present  vicar,  the  Rev.  P.  P.  Goldingham,  returned 
it  to  the  church. 


ESSEX    CHARITIES.  9 

One  of  the  most  interesting  gatherings  that,  during  the  last 
quarter,  has  taken  place  in  the  Home  Counties,  in  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Incorporated  Law  Society,  held  at  Dover,  from 
the  gth  to  the  12th  of  July.  The  historic  seaport  accorded  the 
lawyers,  by  their  excellent  mayor,  Sir  William  Crundall,  a  very 
hearty  and  brilliant  welcome  at  the  Maison  Dieu,  on  the 
evening  of  the  gth.  On  the  following  days  the  president,  Sir 
Henry  Manisty,  gave  his  address,  and  papers  were  read  on 
subjects  of  great  interest.  The  meeting  terminated  with  one 
excursion  to  Boulogne,  in  the  South -Eastern  Railway  Company's 
new  steamer,  the  "  Mabel  Grace,"  when  the  Society  was  wel- 
comed by  the  Municipal  Council  of  Boulogne,  with  the  "  Vin 
d'  honneur."  A  special  train  conveyed  a  large  party  to  visit 
Canterbury  Cathedral  and  St.  Martin's  Church.  The  meeting 
was  an  unqualified  success,  and  many  hopes  were  expressed 
that  the  men  of  Kent  might  renew  their  invitation  to  the 
men  of  law  at  no  distant  date. 


ESSEX    CHARITIES. 

BY  THE  EDITOR. 
(Continued  from   Vol.  7,  p.  303). 

ALDHAM. 

By  an  Inquisition  taken  at  the  Lion  at  Kelvedon,  1 1  December, 
43  Elizabeth  [A.D.  1600],  it  was  found  that  Nicholas  Stowe,  late  of 
Aldham,  deceased,  died  seized  of  a  messuage  and  16  acres  of  land 
called  Croxes,  Ballwyns,  and  Waspes,  in  Aldham,  and  "  being 
charged  to  serve  our  said  sovereign  lady  the  Queen's  majestie  in  her 
affayres  beyond  the  seas,"  did,  by  will  dated  in  November,  1562, 
devise  to  Joan,  his  wife,  the  rent  of  the  said  messuage  and  lands,  for 
her  life  (except  the  rent  for  two  years  after  the  date  of  his  said  will), 
and  after  her  death  the  said  messuage,  etc.,  to  John  Wells,  his 
godson,  and  the  heirs  of  his  body,  and  in  default  to  Mary  Wells, 
sister  of  the  said  John,  and  the  heirs  of  her  body,  and  in  default  to 
his  executors  to  be  sold,  and  the  money  obtained  by  the  sale, 
distributed  to  the  poor  people  of  Aldham.  The  testator  appointed 
John  Cockerell  and  John  Wells,  his  brother-in-law,  his  executors. 

The  jurors  found  that  John  Wells,  the  godson,  and  Mary,  his 
sister,  died  about  26  years  before  the  date  of  the  inquisition,  in  the 
life-time  of  the  said  Joan  Stowe,  without  any  lawful  issue ;  and  that 
the  said  Joan  Stowe,  after  the  decease  of  the  said  Nicholas,  received 


io  ESSEX    CHARITIES. 

the  rents  during  her  life,  and  died  about  20  years  since.  The  said 
John  Wells,  the  elder,  died  in  the  life-time  of  the  said  Joan  Stowe, 
and  before  any  sale  was  made  of  the  said  messuage  lands  and 
tenements  by  the  said  John  Cockerell  and  John  Wells,  or  either  of 
them. 

They  also  found  that  the  said  John  Cockerell  (notwithstanding 
he  had  proved  the  said  will  and  taken  upon  him  the  charge 
thereof,  unless  the  inhabitants  would  give  consent  that  a  lease  of  the 
said  messuage  lands  and  tenements  should  be  made  to  him  at  a  less 
yearly  value  than  they  were  worth,  after  the  decease  of  the  said  John 
Wells)  would  not,  nor  did  not,  in  his  life-time,  sell  the  same  messuage 
lands  and  tenements  according  to  the  trust  reposed  in  him. 

They  further  found  that  one  Joshua  Newton  (who  was  one  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  parish  of  Aldham  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the 
said  John  Wells,  the  younger,  and  Mary  WTells,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  death  of  both  the  executors)  being  put  in  trust,  on  behalf 
of  the  poor  of  the  said  parish,  to  ask  counsel  and  deal  concerning 
the  sale  of  the  said  premises,  went  to  London,  and  asked 
counsel  of  divers  good  lawyers  (as  he  said),  and  informed  the 
inhabitants  of  the  said  parish,  and  made  them  believe,  that  the 
premises  could  not  be  sold  according  to  the  said  will.  And, 
thereupon,  he  got  possession  of  them,  and  by  the  sinister  practice  of 
one  John  Searles,  one  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  parish,  the  said 
Joshua  fraudulently  procured  one  Joan  Stowe,  the  sister  and  heir  of 
the  said  Nicholas  Stowe,  the  testator,  to  release  or  convey  all  her  right 
estate  and  interest  in  the  said  premises  to  him,  the  said  Joshua,  and 
his  heirs,  informing  her  that  the  said  premises  did  of  right  and  by  law 
belong  to  the  poor  people  of  the  said  parish.  And,  thereupon,  for  the 
sum  of  5/.  only,  given  to  the  said  Joan  Stowe,  the  said  Joshua 
obtained  the  assurance  and  conveyance  to  himself  of  the  said 
premises,  and  has  ever  since,  being  about  14  years,  taken  the  rents 
and  profits  thereof. 

On  the  gth  of  January,  43  Elizabeth  [A.D.  1601],  it  was  ordered 
that,  as  the  said  Joshua  Newton  could  not  show  that  Mary  W^ells  was 
alive  since  the  death  of  the  said  two  executors,  it  should  be  lawful  for 
the  churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor  of  Aldham,  for  the  time 
being,  at  any  time  thereafter  to  enter  into  the  said  messuage  lands 
and  tenements,  and,  by  deed,  for  money  sell,  convey,  and  assure  the 
same  to  any  person  and  his  heirs  for  ever,  and  to  distribute  all  the 
money  coming  from  such  sale  among  the  poor  people  of  Aldham. 

COLNE    WAKE. 

By  an  Inquisition  taken  at  the  Lion  at  Kelvedon,  1 1  December, 
43  Elizabeth  [A.D.  1600],  it  was  found  that  John  Mylion  and  John 
Boteler,  by  their  deed,  bearing  date  on  the  feast  of  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul,  38  Henry  VI.  [A.D.  1460],  enfeoffed,  delivered  and  confirmed 
to  John  Loveney,  and  John  atte  Meadowe,  of  Colne  Wake,  one 
messuage  with  a  garden,  and  three  crofts  of  land  thereto  adjoining 
in  Cplne  Wake  called  Hethe's,  situate  between  the  land  sometime 
William  Booke's  on  the  one  part,  and  the  land  late  John  Smythe's  on 
the  other  part,  one  head  thereof  abutting  upon  the  land  sometime  John 


ESSEX    CHARITIES.  n 

Marler's,  and  another  head  thereof  abutting  upon  the  highway  leading 
from  Earle's  Colne  towards  Munt  Bewers  [Mount  Bures]  which  said 
messuage  is  now  decayed ;  to  have  and  to  hold  the  said  messuage 
with  the  garden  and  three  crofts  of  land  aforesaid,  with  appurtenances, 
to  the  said  John  Loveney  and  John  atte  Meadowe,  their  heirs  and 
assigns  for  ever.  And  also  one  meadow  called  Fuller's  Meade, 
containing  by  estimation  one  acre,  one  rood,  lying  in  Colne  Wake, 
"between  the  river  on  the  south  part  and  the  meadow  of  one 
Dowcett  on  the  north,  one  head  thereof  abutting  upon  the  lane  that 
leads  towards  Wakes  Myll  westward ;  and  also  one  messuage  or 
dwelling-house  called  the  Church- House,  otherwise  the  Towne 
House,"  in  Colne  Wake,  adjoining  to  the  churchyard  of  Colne  Wake. 
All  which  said  messuages,  meadow,  lands  and  tenements  had,  from 
time  to  time,  for  a  very  long  time,  been  given  and  put  and  continued 
in  feoffment  to  divers  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  parish,  whose 
names  were  unknown  to  the  jurors,  and  their  heirs  upon  especial 
trust  and  confidence  only,  and  to  that  intent  and  purpose  that  the 
said  feoffees,  their  heirs  and  assigns  for  ever,  should  bestow  and 
employ  all  the  rents,  issues,  and  profits  of  all  the  said  messuages, 
meadow,  lands  and  tenements,  to  the  use  of  the  poor  people 
inhabiting  within  the  said  parish  of  Colne  Wake,  and  the  reparations 
of  the  church,  as  occasion  and  necessity  should  require  the  same 
to  be  distributed  and  bestowed  by  the  churchwardens  for  the  time 
being,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  parson,  and  four,  or  two  at 
least,  of  the  honest  men  of  the  said  parish;  which  rents,  etc.,  for 
long  time,  had  been  bestowed  and  employed  accordingly. 

The  jurors  also  found  that  the  rents  and  profits  of  the  said 
messuage  or  tenement  called  the  Church-House,  otherwise  the 
Town  House,  were  still  employed  to  the  good  and  charitable  uses 
aforesaid ;  but  that  John  Keble,  of  Colne  Wake,  aforesaid,  then 
took  the  issues  and  profits  of  the  said  meadow  to  his  own  use, 
contrary  to  the  good  and  charitable  intent  of  the  first  gift  or 
feoffment.  And  that  one  William  Keble,  of  Myleend,  near  Colchester, 
took  all  the  rents,  issues  and  profits  of  the  said  decayed  messuage, 
garden  and  three  crofts  of  land  called  "the  Heathes,"  to  his  own  use 
contrary  to  the  intent  of  the  first  gift  and  feoffment.  WThich  said 
John  Keble  and  William  Keble,  have  got  some  of  the  deeds  and 
evidences  touching  the  premises  in  their  possession. 

On  5  January,  43  Elizabeth  [A.D.  1601],  it  was  ordered  that  it 
should  be  lawful  for  the  churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor 
people  of  Colne  Wake  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  for  so  many 
of  them  as  would  consent,  to  enter  into  the  said  messuage  called  the 
Church- House,  and  into  the  said  meadow,  lands  and  tenements 
mentioned  in  the  Inquisition,  and  by  deed  indented,  make  an  estate 
in  fee  simple  of  the  said  messuage,  meadow,  lands  and  tenements 
with  appurtenances,  to  the  use  of  twelve  at  least  "of  the  discreetest 
and  honestest  men"  of  the  said  parish  of  Colne  Wake  and  their  heirs 
for  ever;  to  the  intent  and  purpose  that  those  persons,  their  heirs  and 
assigns,  should,  from  time  to  time  for  ever  thereafter,  bestow  or 
employ  all  the  rents,  issues  and  profits  of  all  the  said  messuage, 


12  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

meadow,  lands  and  tenements,  to  the  use  of  the  poor  people 
inhabiting  within  the  parish  of  Colne  Wake,  and  the  reparations  of 
the  said  church,  as  occasion  and  necessity  should  require  the  same 
to  be  distributed  or  bestowed  by  the  churchwardens  and  overseers  of 
the  poor  for  the  time  being,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
parson  there,  and  four,  or  two  at  least,  of  the  honest  men  of  the  said 
parish.  And  that  the  said  messuage,  meadow,  lands  and  other 
premises  should  for  ever  thereafter  be  used  and  employed  to  the  good 
and  charitable  uses  aforesaid.  And  that  the  estate  and  interest 
which  John  Keble  and  William  Keble  had,  or  claimed  to  have,  in  the 
premises,  should,  after  entry  thereof,  as  aforesaid,  cease. 


ARCHERY    IN     THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

BY  REV.  W.  K.  R.  BEDFORD. 

No.  I.     HERTFORDSHIRE. 


Thrice  welcome  ye  fair  who  attend  at  our  call, 
Ye  Cricketers'  welcome,  stout  Archers  and  all, 
Diana  herself  (were  she  here)  might  improve 
In  the  pleasures  of  Archery,  Freedom  and  Love. 

Our  Bowmen  so  true  make  the  target  resound, 
Well  pleased  that  no  anguish  results  from  the  wound, 
Strong  in  pow'r  to  destroy  yet  as  mild  as  the  dove, 
They  contend  but  in  Archery,  Freedom  and  Love. 

Our  Union  Society  wills  to  be  free, 
Yet,  chaste  in  our  freedom,  no  rebels  are  we ; 
All  contempt  of  our  rules  we  are  free  to  reprove, 
For  our  motto  is  Archery,  Freedom  and  Love. 

As  for  Love — whilst  we  see  so  much  beauty  and  grace, 
The  cunning  rogue,  Cupid,  must  here  find  a  place ; 
Shou'd  he  challenge  our  bowmen  his  arrows  to  prove, 
They'll  shrink  not  from  Archery,  Freedom  and  Love. 

Then  may  mirth  and  good  fellowship  ever  attend 
The  Union  Society,  world  without  end  ; 
That  when  we  are  call'd  to  the  regions  above, 
Our  sons  may  toast  Archery,  Freedom  and  Love. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  13 

THE  Union  Society,  whose  verses  we  quote,  although  they 
headed  them  with  the  armorial  insignia  of  the  counties  of 
Hertford  and  Middlesex,  held  their  meetings  within  the  borders 
of  the  neighbouring  shire  of  Essex,  at  Harlow  first,  and  then 
in  1792  at  Harlow  Bush  Common.  Colonel  Walrond,  in  the 
Badminton  Archery  Book,  says  of  them,  no  doubt  truly,  "the 
rules  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  the  other  societies;  they 
shot,  had  suppers  and  dances,  and  enjoyed  life  generally." 
What  is  curious  about  them,  he  proceeds  to  remark,  "  is  that 
the  colours  of  each  lady  and  gentleman,  are  given  in  the  list  of 
names  at  the  end  of  the  book  of  rules,  two  French  mottoes 
having  also  been  adopted  by  each,  the  use  of  which  is  hard  to 
understand.  One  lady,  with  orange  as  her  colour,  calls  herself 
"  La  Novice,  La  Parfaite,"  another  takes  green,  purple,  and 
pink,  and  has  as  her  mottoes,  L'Infidelle  (sic)  La  Jalouse;  and 
one  gentleman  has  chosen  La  (sic)  Jolie  La  (sic)  Lourde.  As 
all  the  gentlemen's  mottoes  begin  with  "La,"  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  they  knew  more  about  shooting  than  they  seem  to  have 
known  of  French.  Their  shooting  regulations  provide  that 
they  shall  shoot  at  fifty  and  seventy  yards,  and  that  whoever 
hits  a  target  at  a  shorter  distance  shall  buy  a  new  one." 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  this  society  shared  the  fate  of 
many  others  in  the  memorable  year  1793,  when  the  famous 
Welsh  Association,  the  Royal  British  Bowmen,  recorded  in 
their  minutes:  "  Most  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  society  having 
entered  into  some  military  employment  for  the  defence  of  the 
country,  our  bows  and  arrows  are  hung  up  and  have  given  way 
to  the  broad  sword  and  musket." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  more  aristocratic  assembly 
at  Hatfield  which  existed  for  several  years  at  the  same  period, 
languished  and  expired  for  similar  reasons,  since  its  foundress, 
Mary  Amelia,  daughter  of  the  first  Marquess  of  Downshire, 
who  married  in  1773,  James,  seventh  Earl  and  afterwards  first 
Marquess  of  Salisbury,  survived  until  1835.  It  was  the 
outcome  of  a  Gothic  renaissance  of  which  Strawberry  Hill  was 
the  type,  and  for  some  years  archery  occupied  a  prominent 
place  in  fashionable  entertainments.  Lady  Salisbury  made 
herself  conspicuous  in  promoting  the  revived  pastime,  and  to 
her  in  1791,  the  Rev.  H.  G.  Oldfield  dedicated  a  little  volume 


I4  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

of  Archery  anecdotes.  "  Presuming  (it  says)  on  your 
Ladyship's  well-known  liberality  in  the  encouragement  of  the 
elegant  and  fashionable  science  of  archery."  Additional  proof 
of  the  celebrity  of  Lady  Salisbury  as  an  archeress,  is  afforded 
by  a  shockingly  indecent  caricature  (Gillray's  worst  work),  now 
in  the  library  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries. 

The  plate  from  the  Ladies  Pocket  Book  of  1791,  by  no  means 
contemptible  in  its  execution,  represents  some  of  the  prominent 
members  of  this  Hertfordshire  Society,  although  the  ladies  are 
not  engaged  in  actual  archery.  The  gentlemen,  equipped  in 
the  full  bowman's  costume,  "  which  shall  consist  of  a  green 
coat,  white  waistcoat  and  breeches,  a  black  hat,  green  and 
white  feathers,  white  stockings,  half  boots,  a  buff  coloured 
leather  belt  with  a  pouch  and  green  tassel,  and  black  leather 
bracer,"  are  not  named;  but  the  ladies  are  thus  designated: 
Duchess  of  Leeds,  Hon.  Miss  Grimston,  Miss  Sebright,  and 
the  patroness. 

Of  these,  the  first  was  Catherine,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Anguish,  Esq.,  second  wife  of  Francis,  fifth  Duke  of  Leeds, 
and  mother  of  Lord  Sidney  Godolphin  Osborne,  once  well- 
known  to  readers  of  the  Times  by  his  initials,  S.G.O.,  as  a 
frequent  and  pungent  writer  upon  church  matters.  She  was 
grandmother  also  to  the  author  White  Melville.  Whether  the 
Miss  Grimston  were  Frances  or  Charlotte,  sisters  of  the  third 
Viscount,  is  not  certain,  though  it  may  be  presumed  the  figure 
most  likely  represents  Charlotte,  who  was  fond  of  ancient 
archery,  and  is  remembered  as  the  possessor  of  a  most 
interesting  relic,  a  leathern  bracer,  left  by  King  Henry  VI.  at 
Bolton  Hall,  after  his  defeat  at  Hexham  in  1464. 

Miss  Sebright  may  be  identified  with  Henrietta,  sister  of 
Sir  J.  S.  Sebright,  M.P.  for  Herts,  and  in  1794  married  to 
Henry,  second  Earl  of  Harewood.  The  tall  hats  worn  by  the 
ladies  are  the  quaintest  part  of  the  picture,  which  appears  to 
have  enjoyed  extensive  popularity,  as  the  writer  has  seen,  in  a 
distant  county,  the  identical  design  transferred  to  a  china  jug. 

We  know  but  little  of  the  doings  of  these  doughty  archers. 
A  contemporary  publication  says  that  they  possessed  several 
valuable  prizes,  the  principal  of  which  was  a  gold  heart, 
enriched  with  a  bow  and  shaft  and  set  in  diamonds. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  15 

An  interesting  incident  in  the  history  of  the  society  is  its 
reception  of  the  freedom  of  a  fraternity  which  still  continues 
to  exist,  the  Society  of  the  Woodmen  of  the  Forest  of  Arden, 
founded  at  Meriden  in  Warwickshire  by  Heneage,  fourth  Earl 
of  Aylesford,  in  1785. 

The  diploma  which  conveyed  the  freedom  is  said  by  Hansard 
(Book  of  Archery,  p.  152),  to  have  been  preserved  at  Hatfield, 
but  is  not  now  to  be  found.  Hansard,  however,  gives  a  full 
description  of  the  diploma,  and  faithful  transcript  of  the  words 
in  which  the  freedom  was  conveyed,  which  is  worth  repeating. 


To  the  Most  Noble  the  Marchioness  of  Salisbury 

PATRONESS 
And  all  others  the  Members  of  the  Society  of  the 

Hertfordshire  Archers 

The  Woodmen  of  the  Ancient  Forest  of  Arden 
SEND  GREETING. 


BE  IT  KNOWN,  That,  in  token  of  the  great  love  we  bear  the 
Patroness  and  Members  of  the  said  Society,  We  have  given  and  granted, 
and  by  these  presents  Do  give  and  grant,  to  each  and  every  of  them,  the 
free  Use  of  all  our  Butts  Targets  and  Marks  now  erected  or  hereafter  to  be 
erected  within  the  Bounds,  Purlieus,  Privileges,  and  Assorts  of  the  FOREST 
of  ARDEN,  the  property  of  the  Woodmen  of  the  said  Forest. 

In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set  our  Hands  and  Common 
Seal  this  sixteenth  day  of  November  MDCCLXXXIX. 

(Seal)  ARDEN. 

Passed  through  slits,  on  either  side  of  the  parchment  on 
which  the  diploma  was  written,  and  below  the  device  we  have 
given  above,  was  a  piece  of  riband.  That  on  the  left  side  was 


16  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

garter-blue  with  a  white  border  at  each  end,  and  had  suspended 
from  it  a  gold  crescent,  bugle  and  shaft,  and  under  it  was  the 
signature,  "  Aylesford,  Warden."  That  on  the  right  side  was 
red,  with  a  black  border  at  each  end ;  below  this  was  the 
signature,  "John  Dilke,  Master  Forester."  That  below  the 
device  was,  as  Hansard  describes  it,  "striped  riband  of  pale 
violet  blue  " — not  a  very  clear  description — and  below  was  the 
signature,  "Wriothesley  Digby,  Secretary." 

The  friendly  expressions  conveyed  by  the  diploma  seem  to 
have  been  really  carried  into  effect;  for  two  at  least  of  the 
members  of  the  society  were  Hertfordshire  residents,  viz.,  the 
Rev.  T.  Bargus,  Rector  of  Barkway,  1787,  and  Stephen 
Sulivan,  of  Ponsborne,  1791. 

In  the  hall  of  the  Woodmen  of  Arden  still  hang  sundry 
Indian  bows  and  arrows  presented  by  Mr.  Sulivan. 

The  target  which  the  archers  in  the  engraving  are 
represented  as  using  differs  considerably  from  the  regulation 
mark  with  its  five  circles,  now  generally  adopted.  It  apparently 
is  one  of  a  pattern  still  in  use  in  northern  France,  with  nine 
circles  of  the  following  colours  and  value — yellow,  one  ;  white, 
two  ;  red,  three  ;  yellow,  four ;  white,  five  ;  red,  six  ;  yellow, 
seven  ;  white,  eight ;  black,  nine  ;  game  35, 

In  addition  to  the  societies  already  mentioned,  there  were 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  Essex  Archers,  Hainault 
Foresters,  who  met  at  Fairlop,  Robin  Hood  bowmen,  at 
Highgate,  and  Woodmen  of  Hornsey,  all  competing  for  medals, 
bugle  horns,  and  such  like  prizes,  on  grounds  to  the  north  of  the 
metropolis.  Most  of  these  ceased  to  exist  before  1800,  though 
forty  years  later  Harlow  Bush  Archers  are  noticed  as  still 
holding  meetings,  possibly  upon  the  lines  of  the  old  Union 
Society. 

The  fortunes  of  archery  in  Berkshire,  Middlesex,  Surrey, 
and  Kent,  will  be  treated  of  in  future  papers. 


j  \z 

I 

Iff 


72  Mile 


Westbourne  Green,  1834. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN  :    A    RETROSPECT. 

BY  W.  L.  RUTTON,  F.S.A. 


REFERENCE  TO  MAP. 

THE   map   opposite  is   a   reproduction   of  part  of  the  "  Topo- 
graphical Survey  of  the  Parish  of  St.  Marylebone,  by  F.  A. 
Bartlett,  under  the  direction    of  John    Britton,  F.S.A.     Published 
June  25th,  1834."     It  includes  Paddington  Parish. 

The  Westbourne  Green  residences,  to  which  reference  is  made  in 
the  article,  are  distinctively  shown  black,  and  are  numbered  on  the 
map  for  the  purpose  of  ready  identification. 

1.  WESTBOURNE  PLACE  or  HOUSE,  built  circa  1745,  by 
the    architect    Isaac   Ware.      Its   subsequent   occupants   were   Sir 
William  Yorke,  Bart.;  the  Venetian  Ambassador;  Jukes  Coulson, 
iron  merchant ;  Samuel  Pepys  Cockerell,  architect ;    and  Viscount 
Hill,  General  Commanding-in-Chief. 

2.  WESTBOURNE    FARM,    occupied    1805-1817,    by    Mrs. 
Siddons,    the    great    actress,    and    1845-1848,    by    Charles    James 
Mathews  and  Mrs.  Mathews  (Madame  Vestris)  comedians. 

3.  DESBOROUGH     LODGE,     occupied     1814,    by     Charles 
Kemble,  actor  (brother  of  Mrs.  Siddons)  and  his  family. 

4.  "THE  MANOR  PIOUSE,"  occupied  by  John  Braithwaite, 
eminent  as  a  mechanical  engineer,  who  died  here  1818;  afterwards 
by  his  son,  of  the  same  name,  distinguished  as  a  civil- engineer  ;  by 
Wrilliam  Charles  Carbonell,  of  the  firm  of  wine  merchants  in  Regent 
Street ;    and   lastly   by   Sir   John    Humphreys,    senior   coroner   for 
Middlesex. 

5.  BRIDGE   HOUSE  belonged  to  John  White,  architect  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland,   and  owner  of  property  at  Westbourne  Green, 
including  Westbourne  Farm. 

The  large  figures  on  the  map  indicate  estates,  thus:  I.  (Not  on 
the  portion  reproduced),  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Westminster.  2. 
The  Pickering  Estate.  3.  The  Lord  Bishop  of  London.  4.  The 
Grand  Junction  Canal  Company. 

Westbourne  Green — a  name  almost  lost,  or  found  only  in 
old  maps  and  books — applied  seventy  years  ago  to  a  district 
now  absorbed  in  "London,"  but  then  distant  from  the  turmoil 

B 


i8  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

and  pollution  of  town,  and  sought  for  quietude,  rest,  and  pure 
breathing.  A  century  back  it  was  described  as  "one  of  those 
beautifully  rural  spots  for  which  the  parish  of  Paddington, 
although  contiguous  to  the  Metropolis,  is  distinguished. 

The    rising   ground  commands  a  pleasing  view 

of  Hampstead  and  Highgate ;  the  village  of  Paddington  with 
the  elegant  new  church  produces  a  pretty  effect  when  viewed 
from  hence ;  and  as  no  part  of  London  can  be  seen,  a 
person  disposed  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  rural  retirement 
might  here  forget  his  proximity  to  the  busy  hum  of  men."* 

Looking  through  the  portfolios  of  the  Grace  Collection  at 
the  British  Museum,  we  find  more  than  one  picture  of  the 
scene  so  refreshing,  yet  so  regretful  to  look  back  to.  Such  is  a 
"View  near  Paddington,  with  Kensington  Gardens  in  the 
distance,"  now  reproduced.  Westbourne  Place,  a  handsome, 
three  storied  mansion,  the  chief  residence  of  the  locality, 
stands  in  its  own  grounds,  some  distance  back  from  the  Green. 
The  Green  itself  fills  the  fore-ground,  unenclosed,  unbroken 
sod,  studded  with  trees  and  bushes  in  natural  beauty,  the  home, 
as  we  readily  imagine,  of  the  rabbit,  the  linnet,  and  the  lark. 
The  pure  West  Bourn  flows  through  it,  and  the  rustic  road 
to  Harrow  winds  over  the  common,  and  up  the  same  quickly 
rising  hill  which  to-day  demands  the  service  of  the  extra  horse 
to  help  the  ordinary  team  of  the  loaded  'bus  toiling  up  the 
street,  now  hemmed  in  with  houses  and  shops  and  noisy  with 
population  and  commerce.  In  our  picture  of  circa  1790,  there 
is  but  one  coach,  heavy  and  stately,  with  its  two  horses  and 
servants,  conveying,  perhaps,  the  master  of  Westbourne  Place, 
Jukes  Coulson,  the  eminent  iron  merchant,  who  is  returning 
home  from  his  business  house  in  Thames  Street,  London. 
And  besides  the  rich  man's  coach  there  are  two  or  three 
pedestrians,  just  to  put  a  little  life  into  the  scene,  and  to  mark 
the  course  of  the  road.  In  the  distance  is  seen  Kensington 
Palace,  probably  introduced  after  the  manner  of  old  pictures  to 
indicate  the  vicinity  of  the  royal  building,  although  perhaps 
scarcely  "  visible  to  the  naked  eye."  Yet  the  distance  was  but 
a  mile,' and  at  that  time  no  objects  intervened  save  trees.  By 
the  road-side  near  Westbourne  Place,  appear  some  buildings 

*  Universal  Magazine,  September,  1793,  p.  177. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  ig 

which  may  represent  its  ancient  predecessor,  presently  to  be 
referred  to.  Two  or  three  other  houses  existed,  though  not 
within  the  limits  of  the  picture,  and  these,  with  the  principal 
mansion  just  mentioned,  and  their  occupants,  will  have  our 
special  attention  ;  but  previously  a  brief  reference  to  the  more 
remote  history  of  the  locality  seems  demanded. 

The  name  Westbourne,  taken  from  one  of  the  three 
principal  brooks  which  descended  from  the  hills  north  of 
London  to  the  Thames — the  other  two  being  the  Fleet  and  the 
Brent* — seems  to  have  been  applied  to  the  district  west  of  the 
brook,  and  which  after  the  formation  of  the  parish  of 
Paddington  became  its  western  moiety.  The  early  history  of 
the  district,  now  that  parish,  is  obscure,  indeed  but  a  matter  of 
conjecture.  Domesday,  in  so  many  cases  the  Alpha  of  topo- 
graphy, making  no  mention  of  it,  it  is  supposed  by  some  to 
have  been  comprehended  in  the  manor  of  Tybourne  which  has 
mention.  So  also  has  Lilestone  (now  written  Lisson),  a  manor 
apparently  westward  of  Tybourne  Manor,  and  divided  from  it 
by  the  stream  of  that  name.  Thus  Lilestone  may  have 
intervened  between  Tybourne  and  the  area  afterwards  known 
as  Paddington.  Tybourne,  however,  gained  an  unenviable 
notoriety  by  becoming  at  an  early  time — as  far  back  at  least  as 
the  reign  of  Edward  III. — the  place  of  public  execution,  and 
as  London  expanded,  the  gibbet  was  moved  westward,  carrying 
with  it  the  name  of  the  locality  where  it  had  been  originally 
planted.  Latterly,  as  we  know,  the  name  "Tyburn,"  synonym 
for  the  gallows,  had  been  carried  to  the  southern  end  of  the 
Edgware  Road,  and  the  name  there  found  seems  to  have 

*  The  old  maps  of  Middlesex,  e.g.,  those  of  Norden,  1593,  Speed, 
1610,  Morden,  1730,  Seller,  1733,  Rocque,  1757,  show  but  the  three 
streams,  the  Fleet,  the  Westbourne,  and  the  Brent.  The  Tybourne  being" 
of  less  volume  is  not  figured,  although  it  was  important  at  an  early  period, 
as  from  its  springs  a  supply  of  water  was  conducted  to  London,  as  it  gave 
its  name  to  a  manor,  and  as  the  lower  part  of  its  course  formed  the  ancient 
boundary  of  the  Westminster  Abbey  estate.  That  boundary,  indeed,  has 
been  disputed,  and  Robins,  in  "Paddington  Past  and  Present,"  contends 
that  the  names  Tybourne  and  Westbourne  were  given  to  the  same  brook, 
and  that  the  Westbourne,  as  now  known,  limited  both  the  Abbey  estate 
and  the  manor  of  Tybourne.  Such  a  conclusion,  however,  is  opposed 
to  the  opinion  of  almost  all  who  have  studied  the  question  ;  but  the  point 
is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  article,  and  reference  must  suffice  to  Mr.  J.  G. 
Waller's  paper  on  the  Tybourne  and  \Vestbourne  (Transactions  oflthe 
London  and  Middlesex  Archaeological  Society,  Vol.  VI.)  Mr.  Waller 
affords  an  excellent  delineation  of  the  two  streams,  and  of  their  sources. 


20  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

created  the  opinion  that  the  manor  of  Tybourne  had  extended 
over  the  Paddington  and  Westbourne  district.*  But,  indeed, 
the  more  probable  reason  for  that  district  being  unaccounted 
for  in  Domesday  is  not  that  it  was  comprised  in  the  Tybourne 
manor,  but  that  at  the  time  of  the  survey  it  was  unreclaimed 
from  the  great  Middlesex  Forest.  A  small  clearance  in  the 
forest  on  the  banks  of  the  Westbourne  may  have  been  made  by 
a  conjectured  tribe  of  Psedings  long  before  the  Norman 
Conquest ;  and  in  a  Saxon  charter  of  the  reputed  date  959, 
there  is  mention  of  a  little  farm,  "prsediolum  in  Padintune," 
claimed  by  the  Abbot  of  Westminster  t ;  but  if  existing  at  the 
time  of  the  survey,  the  farm  seems  to  have  been  over-looked,  or 
perhaps  escaped  register  by  its  insignificance.  However,  taking 
the  little  farm  as  the  germ  of  Paddington,  we  easily  imagine 
the  gradual  spread  of  cultivation  and  population  during  the 
progressive  centuries.  A  hundred  years  after  the  making  of 
Domesday  Book,  we  have  record  of  a  sale  of  land  in  Padinton  by 
William  and  Richard  de  Padinton  to  the  Abbot,  this  in  1185  J. 
In  1222  it  became  necessary  to  adjudicate  between  the  claims 
of  the  Abbot  and  another  ecclesiastical  power,  the  Bishop  of 
London,  and  then,  as  previously  in  951,  the  Tybourne  is  stated 
to  be  the  western  limit  of  the  Abbey  estate,  the  northern  limit 
being  the  strata  regia  or  Saxon  herestreet,  now  Oxford  Street ; 
"but,"  continues  the  decree,  "beyond  these  limits  are  the  villa 
of  Knightsbridge,  Westbourne,  and  Paddington  with  its  chapel 
and  appurtenances. "§ 

The  above  appears  to  be  the  first  mention  of  Westbourne, 
and  its  being  named  with  Knightsbridge  is  interesting  from  the 
fact  that  three  centuries  later  than  the  decree  of  1222,  Knights- 
bridge and  Westbourne,  formerly  extra  Abbey  lands  (i.e.,  not 

*  Robins  (Paddington  Past  and  Present,  p.  11),  supports  this  view 
by  reference  to  an  Act  of  1734,  in  which  messuages  and  lands  at 
Westbourne  are  described  as  being  "parcel  of  the  manor  of  Tyburn,  and 
called  Byard's  Watering  Place  "  or  Bays  water. 

f  Kemble,  Codex  Diplomaticus.     Vol.  VI.,  p.  17. 

\  Maddox,  Formulare  Anglicanum,  p.  217. 

§  The  earliest  definition  of  the  Abbey  estate  is  in  a  charter  of  951, 
quoted    by   Kemble    (who    thought    the    date  probably  971)  in   "  Codex 
Diplomaticus,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  72.     The  decree  of  1222  is  given  by  Wharton 
in  -'Historia  de  Episcopis  et  Decanis  Londinensibus  "  (1690.     Appendix 
p.  252. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  21 

within  its  more  ancient  limits),  were  formed  into  one  manor. 
This  was  the  Act  of  Henry  VIII.,  after  the  spoliation  of  the 
Abbey,  and  although  the  leap  is  great  from  1222  to  1542,  it  is 
not  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  quote  mention 
of  Westbourne  in  the  time  of  the  Edwards,  or  to  trace  further 
the  growth  of  the  Abbey  estate  during  the  three  centuries. 
We  will  pass  on  to  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  when  the 
parish  of  Paddington  became  divided  by  the  West  Bourn  into 
two  estates,  the  eastern  division  being  assigned  to  the  Bishop 
of  London,  the  western  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  West- 
minster as  successors  to  the  old  regime  of  the  Abbot.  This 
latter  estate,  now  administered  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
missioners, is  at  the  present  time  termed  in  our  leases,  "  the 
manor  of  Knightsbridge  with  Westbourne." 

The  earliest  map  affording  details  (e.g.,  the  buildings)  of  the 
London  district  in  past  time,  is  that  of  the  Frenchman  Jean 
Rocque  ;  for  which  reason  his  excellent  survey,  published  in 
1746,  is  constantly  used  and  reproduced  by  those  who  write  on 
London  topography.  There  are  many  older  maps  of  great 
value,  but  only  of  general  character  and  small  scale,  whereas 
Rocque,  with  his  fine  scale  of  five  inches  to  the  mile,  gives  us 
the  very  houses  in  which  we  are  interested,  and  for  his  work 
merits  our  constant  gratitude.  So  turning  to  his  survey  we  find 
the  state  of  Westbourne  Green  in  1746.  Its  connection  with 
the  old  highway  to  the  west  (held  to  have  been  the  Roman 
strata  and  now  generally  known  as  the  Uxbridge  Road),  is 
by  "  Wesborn  Green  Lane"  (now  Queen's  Road),  a  track  of 
varying  width,  fields  on  its  western  border,  and  on  its  eastern 
border  common  or  waste  land,  with  a  large  pond,  perhaps  an 
old  gravel-pit,  at  one  place.  The  lane  leads  to  the  rustic 
"  Royal  Oak,"  progenitor  of  one  of  the  best  known  "  public- 
houses  "  and  omnibus  stations  of  the  London  of  our  own  day.* 
By  the  inn  there  is  an  orchard,  and  here  from  the  lane  turns  off 
eastward,  a  footpath  which  leads  through  the  fields  to  the 
village  of  Paddington  ;  the  footpath  was  then  called  "Bishop's 
Walk,"  it  has  become  Bishop's  Road.  About  300  yards  east 
from  the  inn  the  path  crosses  a  pure  stream  bordered  with  elm 

*  A  picture  of  the  old  Royal  Oak  accompanies  an  interesting  account  of 
the  district  by  Henry  Walker,  F.G.S.,  in  the  Bayswater  Annual,  1885. 


22  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

trees,  the  West  Bourn,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  locality, 
and  from  this  point  the  Green  (judging  from  the  writing 
"  Wesborn  Green,"  on  the  plan  and  such  fences  as  are  shown), 
extends  north-westward  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  but  it 
is  without  definite  limits.  Following  the  lane  northward,  about 
a  quarter-of-a-mile  from  the  Royal  Oak,  it  joins  the  high  road 
to  Harrow  coming  from  the  village  of  Paddington,  half-a-mile 
eastward ;  and  by  the  side  of  the  road  shortly  before  junction 
with  the  lane,  and  just  before  crossing  the  West  Bourn,  is 
"  The  Red  Lion  "  an  inn  or  ale-house  which  is  yet  represented 
130  yards  eastward.  At  the  junction  of  Westbourne  Green 
Lane  with  "the  Harrow  Road,"  as  the  highway  is  called,  is  the 
entrance-gate  to  Westbourne  Place  (or  Westbourne  Park  as  on 
our  map),  the  country-house  of  Isaac  Ware,  the  eminent 
architect,  the  first  house  which  will  have  our  attention  ;  and  a 
quarter-of-a-mile  further  towards  Harrow  is  Westbourne  Farm, 
the  second  house  claiming  our  notice.  Close  to  it  is  another  inn, 
"The  Spotted  Dog,"  also  represented  by  a  modern  house,  so 
we  may  think  that  with  "The  Royal  Oak,"  "The  Red  Lion," 
and  "  The  Spotted  Dog,"  the  thirst  of  the  traveller  over 
Westbourne  Green  was  well  provided  for.  Beyond  Westbourne 
Farm  there  was  not,  in  1746,  another  house  until  Kensal  Green 
was  reached,  or  if  there  were  it  is  omitted  in  Rocque's  survey. 

Maps  ranging  in  date  between  1746  and  1834,  tnat  °f  the 
map  presented,  show  the  gradual  and  very  slow  increase  of 
houses.  The  canal  opened  in  1801  gave  rise  to  building  around 
the  wharves  at  Paddington,  but  caused  no  change  at  Westbourne 
Green.  In  1808,  "  Wesborn  Green  Lane "  (now  Queen's 
Road),  had  not  yet  a  house  along  it ;  in  1819  it  had  only  some 
small  houses  on  the  western  side  ;  in  1828  a  few  had  been 
built  on  the  eastern  side,  and  the  lane  was  called  "  Black 
Lion  Lane "  from  an  old  inn  (still  represented)  at  the 
south-east  corner,  in  the  Uxbridge  Road.  Pickering  Place  and 
Terrace,  named  apparently  after  a  curate  (we  should  now  say 
vicar)  of  Paddington,  were  complete  in  1828,  and  seem  to  have 
been  commenced  circa  1824,  they  are  now  the  most  venerable 
dwellings  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  map  of  1834  nas  been 
selected  as  showing  the  state  of  the  Green  immediately  before 
its  destruction  by  the  making  of  the  Great  Western  Railway, 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY.  23 

which  may  be  said  to  have  brought  London  with  it.  Bishop's 
Walk  still  crosses  the  fields  to  Paddington ;  Westbourne  Grove, 
now  the  Regent  Street  of  Bayswater,  has  yet  no  existence, 
but  it  and  other  thoroughfares  have  been  designed  and  marked 
out.  The  map  appears  to  be  the  result  of  careful  survey,  it  is 
very  nicely  engraved,  and  the  few  interesting  country-houses  to 
which — with  their  sometime  occupants — we  will  now  refer,  are 
precisely  indicated. 

(To  be  Continued). 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 
BY  "  PETER  DE  SANDWICH." 

THE  following  extracts  from  the  Visitations  of  the  Arch- 
deacon of  Canterbury,  which  I  propose  to  give  the 
readers  of  this  magazine,  will  be  read  with  interest,  from  the 
light  which  they  throw  on  life  in  rural  Kentish  parishes,  some 
two  or  three  hundred  years  ago.  The  original  returns  are  in 
the  Cathedral  library  at  Canterbury,  and  accessible  to  students, 
by  the  courtesy  of  the  Dean  and  Chapter. 

WICKHAMBREUX. 

This  parish  is  a  few  miles  east  of  Canterbury,  and  is  first 
mentioned  as  Wickham  in  the  year  948,  when  a  grant  of  "  six 
'  mansas '  (hides),  which  the  people  of  Kent  call  six  *  sulings ' 
(or  ploughs  worth),  was  made  by  King  Eadred  to  a  religious 
woman  named  ^Elfwynne."  The  second  part  of  the  name 
Breux,  or  Bruse,  is  from  the  Breuse  or  Braose  family  who 
were  the  owners  of  the  Manor  from  about  1218  to  1325. 

1569.  "  That  Mr.  Robert  Foemell,  of  our  parish,  hath  pulled 
down  by  his  own  private  authority,  an  old  chapel  called  Hooke 
chapel,"  late  standing  in  the  .same  parish,  and  kept  the  chapel 

*  The  site  of  this  chapel  is  at  the  present  day  unknown,  but  the  chapel 
is  mentioned  in  the  year  1511,  when  Archbishop  William  Warham,  on 
25th  September,  1511,  in  Wye  Church,  held  a  visitation  of  the  clergy  and 
people  in  the  Deanery  of  Bridge.  "Hoke  chapel  annexed  to  this  church 
(Wickhambreux),  is  in  sore  decay,  but  the  Rector  had  begun  to  repair  it, 
and  promised  the  necessary  material.  Hog's  and  other  unclean  beasts  fed 
in  the  churchyard,  so  that  when  the  parishioners  went  in  procession,  first 
they  had  to  drive  them  away." — British  Magazine,  xxx.  527-8. 


24  SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

churchyard  forcibly  from  the  parson  there,  contrary  to  his  ancient 
right  and  interest." 

1578.  "John  Loftie,  of  our  said  parish,  for  that  he  hath  not 
received  the  Holy  Communion  this  Easter  twelve-month,  or  received 
by  our  minister ;  for  that  he  wished  not,  nor  is  willing  to  have  the 
same." 

1581.  "  The  churchyard  is  not  fenced  as  it  should  be." 

1585.  "  We  present  our  parson  for  that  he  hath  felled,  or  caused 
to  be  felled,  certain  trees  growing  in  the  churchyard  of  Wickhambreux 
aforesaid,  giving  offence  to  the  parishioners."     John  Smythe  (rector 
1560-1602),   said  he  felled  two   trees   and   employed   them  on  the 
repairs  of  the  church. 

1.  "  We  present  Thomas  Beake  for  that  he  hath,  and  doth  seize 
and  retain  a  piece  of  land  belonging  to  our  church,  being  within  the 
said  parish,  contrary  to  all  right  and  equity ;    and  hath  contrary  to 
the  consent  of  the  most  part  of  the  parishioners  of  our  parish,  upon 
the  same  made  fire  and  waste." 

2.  "Thomas   Beake    being    chosen    sidesman    by    our    parish 
according  to  custom,  refuses  to  take  the  same  upon  him." 

3.  "Thomas   Beake    absented    himself    from    church   about  a 
quarter  of  a  year  ago  upon^Sundays  and  Holy  Days,  when  our  Mr. 
Carter  had  openly  in  the  pulpit  in  the  forenoon,  published,  and  had 
also  given  notice  to  all  the  parishioners,  to  resort  to  the  church  in 
the  afternoon  to  hear  a  sermon,  he  the  said  Beake  contemptuously  to 
the  offence  of  the  good  of  such  well  disposed  persons  without  any 
lawful  cause,  in  contempt  as  we  think  of   the   preacher  and    his 
doctrines,  absented  himself  from  church." 

1586.  "They  have  no  box  or  chest  for  the  poor,  neither  any 
other  for  the  keeping  of  their  register  book." 

1588.  "We  have  no  Communion  cup." 

1603.  "  We  present  John  Haringford,  of  our  parish,  for  refusing 
to  pay  his  part  of  a  cess  made  for  the  reparation  of  our  church." 

1605.  "Thomas  Beake  doth  withhold  certain  church  lands  from 
the  churchwardens,  which  had  been  a  legacy  given  to  our  church  by 
will ;  and  his  father,  and  after  his  death,  his  mother,  and  after  her 
decease,  himself  hath  paid  rent  always  for  it,  but  now  doth  deny  it." 

1605.  July  22  (a  second  presentment).  "Thomas  Beake  hath  in 
his  possession  land  belonging  to  the  church  of  Wickhambreux 
aforesaid,  for  the  yearly  rent  of  which  land,  or  otherwise  out  of  the 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY.  25 

said  land,  the  occupiers  thereof,  the  predecessors  of  the  said  Thomas 
Beake,  being  his  grandfather,  his  father,  and  his  mother,  occupiers 
of  the  said  land,  have  paid  yearly  to  the  churchwardens  of  the  parish 
of  Wickhambreux  for  the  time  being,  for  and  by  the  space  of  these 
forty  years  past  and  upwards,  until  such  time  as  he  the  said  Thomas 
Beake  came  into  the  possession  of  the  said  land  the  sum  of  2/.  6s. 
lawful  English  money,  or  otherwise  did  allow  for  the  same  to  the 
churchwardens  of  Wickhambreux." 

1607.  "  Our  second  bell  is  cracked,  but  we  will  have  it  shortly 
moulded." 

1608.  "We  whose  names   are   under-written,   do  present   unto 
your  worship,  Margery  Loftie,  wife  of  John  Loftie,  and  Clemence 
Taylor,  wife  of  Robert  Taylor,  both  of  Wickhambreux,  for  that  they 
have  at  diverse  times,   within  this  quarter  of   the   year,   chidden, 
brawled,  railed,  and  fought  one  with  the  other  openly,  and  although 
they  have  been  reproved  for  it  by  the  minister,  yet  they  will  not 
forbear,  but  live  very  uncharitably  and  unchristianly,  to  the  offence 
of  all  their  neighbours." 

1615.  "  We  have  no  carpet  for  the  communion  table." 

"  We  have  not  a  convenient  seat  in  our  church  for  our  minister  to 
read  from." 

"We  have  a  communion  cup  and  a  cover  to  it,  of  silver,  but  the 
same  is  not  a  fair  communion  cup." 

"We  have  not  a  strong  chest  for  alms  for  the  poor,  which  hath 
locks  and  keys." 

"Our  church  is  not  well  repaired,  and  our  belfry-roof  unslated, 
by  our  churchwardens  default,  and  our  churchyard  is  not  well  fenced 
in." 

1619.  "In  the  parish  church  of  Wickhambreux,  the  great  bell 
being  broken,  the  churchwardens  and  other  parishioners  have 
without  any  lawful  authority,  caused  two  small  or  little  bells  to  be 
made  thereof,  and  appropriated  a  yard  residue  of  metal  of  the  broken 
bell  to  their  own  proper  use,  contrary  to  the  law  and  authority." 

[They  were  eventually  ordered  to  make  the  four  bells,  then  in 
the  tower  of  Wickhambreux,  tunable,  and  to  add  the  remainder  or 
surplus  of  the  metal  of  the  former  great  bell,  and  the  four  bells  in 
the  tower  equal  in  proportion  to  the  old  ones.  After  another  hundred 
years,  in  1728,  whilst  Alexander  Young  was  rector,  the  six  bells  that 
are  now  in  the  tower,  were  cast  by  Samuel  Knight]. 


26  SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

1627.  "  We  do  present  Henry  Fostall  and  Alice  his  wife,  both  of 
our  parish,  for  that  there  is  a  common  fame  within  the  said  parish, 
that  they  are  very  contentious  and  uncharitable  persons,  and  sowers 
of  discord  between  their  neighbours.     Also  they  offend  their  neigh- 
bours by  their  profane  swearing,  and  the  same  in  within  our  parish." 

1628.  "William   Field,  of  our   parish,   for   being   absent   from 
church  upon  Easter  Day  last  past,  being  8th  April,  1628." 

"  Robert  Marshall,  for  a  common  drunkard  or  drunken  person, 
who  by  reason  of  his  said  drunkenness  offends  most  of  the  well 
disposed  parishioners." 

1631.  "We  present  upon  a  common  fame  the  wife  of  Richard 
Terry,  and  the  wife  of  Sampson  Espe,  for  common  talkers  in  the 
time  of  divine  service,  and  for  disturbing  the  other  parishioners  of 
Wickhambreux  in  the  time  of  divine  service." 

1636.  "To  our  knowledge,  all  have  received  the  Communion  this 
last  Easter  in  our  parish,   that  are  of  sufficient  age,  except  John 
Uffington  and  his  wife  Margery,  but  for  what  cause  we  know  not, 
whom  we  now  present  for  not  receiving  the  Communion  last  Easter 
according  to  the  articles." 

[The  result  of  this  was  that  they  abused  their  Rector  as  the 
presentment  of  the  following  year  shows]. 

1637.  "John  Uffington  andhis  wife  Margery,for  uttering  and  using 
many  opprobrious  and  scandalous  words  against  Mr.  John   Smith, 
parson  of  our  said  parish  [rector  1602-43],  in  calling  him  a  liar,  and 
saying  he  was  a  slanderer  of  his  neighbours,  and  that  he  did  write 
lying  letters  against  them,  and  that  the  said  Mr.  Smith  did  cause  his 
neighbours  to  for-swear  themselves  about  his  lies.     Furthermore, 
the  said  John  Uffington  and  his  wife  affirmed  that  the  said  Mr.  Smith, 
our  parson,  was  an  oppressor  of  his  neighbours,  taking  away  their 
goods  wrongfully,  and  used  other  railing  and  *  abusening  passages  ' 
against  the  said  Mr.  Smith,  to  the  great  disgrace  and  disparagement 
of  the  said  Mr.  Smith  and  his  ministerial  function,  as  the  common 
fame  is,  in  our  parish." 

1638.  "  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sampson  Espe,  clerk  of  the  parish, 
upon  a  common  fame,  that  she  is  regarded  to  be  a  contentious  person 
and  a  sower  of  discord  amongst  her  neighbours,  and  a  slanderer  of 
her  neighbours." 

(To  be  continued). 


St.  Michael  Eassishaw,  looking  West. 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH   AND    RECTORY 
OF    ST.  MICHAEL   BASSISHAW. 

BY  W.  B.  PASSMORE. 

MR.  EELES'  interesting  notes  (Volume  i,  p.  341),  as 
to  the  finding  of  many  objects  of  interest  during 
the  excavation  now  in  progress  for  the  destruction  of  this 
church,  leads  me  to  think  it  may  be  useful  to  place  on  record 
some  facts  connected  with  the  history  of  the  church  before  it 
finally  vanishes  from  sight,  and  the  rectory  becomes  merged 
in  the  cure  of  St.  Lawrence  Jewry. 

Maitland  states  that  he  was  unable  to  ascertain  the  time 
when  this  church  was  founded;  but  that  it  was  of  great 
antiquity  is  evident  by  its  having  been  given  by  Bishop  Gilbert 
to  the  Prior  of  St.  Bartholomew,  about  the  year  1140.  It 
would  appear,  however,  from  Newcourt's  Repertorium,  that  in 
1130  the  rectory  was  already  in  the  patronage  of  Rahere, 
founder  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  There  has  been,  all 
along,  a  tradition  in  the  parish  that  the  jester  and  minstrel  to 
King  Henry  I.,  was  the  founder  of  this  church  and  rectory. 
Rahere  made  a  journey  to  Rome  to  seek  absolution  for  the 
follies  of  his  youth ;  in  returning  he  had  a  dream  in  which  a 
celestial  visitor  appeared  to  him  and  declared  himself  to  be 
Bartholomew  the  Apostle.  He  directed  Rahere  to  build  and 
endow  a  hospital  and  sanctuary  in  Smithfield,  and  then, 
promising  that  he  would  be  patron  of  the  new  sanctuary, 
vanished.  Rahere  obeyed  the  command  and  finished  the  church 
and  priory  in  1123,  he  became  the  first  prior  and  filled  the  office 
for  22  years.  All  this  is  set  out  in  detail  in  a  window  placed  in 
the  Guildhall,  presented  by  Mr.  Alderman  Stone  in  1866,  "  in 
honour  of  our  ward  of  Bassishaw."  The  subject  on  the  two 
main  openings  below  the  transom  represents  Rahere  founding 
the  church  and  hospital.  The  vision  and  its  result  are  combined 
in  the  window,  the  former  above,  the  latter  below.  The 
selection  of  the  subject  and  preparation  of  the  historical 
statement  was,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  worthy  Alderman, 
deputed  to  a  committee  of  the  elders  of  the  parish,  by  the 
parishioners  assembled  in  vestry,  and  the  result  arrived  at  was 
"  much  admired." 


28  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

The  original  church  was  said  to  have  been  a  thing  of 
beauty,  but  it  had  fallen  into  a  ruinous  condition  before  1460, 
when  it  was  rebuilt,  mainly  at  the  charge  of  John  Barton  and 
his  wife  Agnes  ;  his  mark  runs  throughout  the  roof  of  the  choir 
and  middle  aisle.  Numerous  city  magnates  were  buried  in  this 
church,  whose  tombs  have  been  described  by  Stow  and  others. 
The  chief  monument  appears  to  have  been  one  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Sir  John  Yarford,  mayor  in  1520,  "a  fair  tomb 
built  in  a  chapel  on  the  north  side  of  the  choir,  in  which  he 
was  buried  in  1527,  and  his  lady  in  the  same  tomb  in  1548." 
It  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  old  churchwardens'  book  as 
"the  greate  tombe,"  and  was  kept  in  repair  by  the  Weavers 
Company,  their  last  payment  of  405.  was  made  in  1654,  being 
"  305.  for  the  paynter  and  los.  for  the  plaisteriere."  According 
to  Sir  John's  will  this  monument  was  to  be  beautified  for  ever, 
as  often  as  the  church  should  be  beautified  inside.  It  was 
destroyed  in  the  fire. 

Sir  John  Gresham  was  buried  here  in  1554:  "Here 
lyeth  buried  under  this  tombe  Sir  John  Gresham,  Knt., 
some  time  Alderman  and  Lord  Mayor  of  this  cittie,  who 
had  two  wives,  Dame  Mary  first,  by  whom  he  had  five 
sonnes  and  sixe  daughters.  By  Dame  Katherine,  his  last 
wife,  he  had  no  issue."  This  Sir  John  was  uncle  to  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham.  At  his  funeral,  on  a  fast  day,  a  fish  dinner  was 
provided  for  all  comers;  he  wras  buried  with  great  pomp  and 
display,  the  "church  and  street  being  hung  with  black  and 
arms  in  great  store."  An  old  London  Diarist,  Henry  Machyn, 
gives  a  quaint  account  of  this  funeral,  which  was  reprinted  by 
the  Camden  Society  in  1848.  Sir  John  Ailiffe,  barber  surgeon, 
sheriff  in  1548,  was  also  buried  here  ;  his  portrait  appears  in 
Holbein's  picture  of  Henry  8th  delivering  the  charter  to  the 
Court  of  Assistants  of  the  Barber  Surgeons  Company.  The 
inscription  on  his  monument  stated  that  "  he  was  called  to 
court  by  King  Henry,  who  loved  him  dearly  well."  Another 
Lord  Mayor,  Sir  Wolston  Dixie,  was  buried  in  this  church ;  he 
was  founder  of  the  Divinity  Lecture,  and  was  distinguished  for 
the  magnificent  pageantry  of  his  show  in  1585.  His  portrait 
hangs  in  the  court-room  of  Christ's  Hospital  as  "  a  person  of 
uncommon  merit."  Adrian  De  Ewes  and  Alice  his  wife,  nee 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  29 

Ravenscroft,  died  anno.  1551,  of  the  sweating  sickness,  and 
according  to  Weaver,  there  was  in  one  of  the  windows  not  far 
from  where  they  were  buried  "  a  beautiful  representation  of 
them  both." 

In  the  year  1618,  the  great  bell  seems  to  have  fallen  down, 
there  being  a  charge  in  the  churchwardens'  book  for  "  two 
greate  pieces  of  tymber  to  mend  the  frame  and  wheel  withal, 
for  workmanship  and  men  and  other  stuffe,  the  sum  totell  as 
appeareth  by  the  bill  was  xviijs.  iiijd."  In  the  following  year 
there  is  a  further  charge  for  ''bettering  the  bells,"  plaistering 
the  church  and  making-up  the  pulpit  cloth  and  cushion  with 
crimson  silk  and  fringe,  and  for  a  "  greate  piece  of  tymbre  to 
bear  up  the  joystes  that  the  leads  lye  upon."  In  1622  the 
steeple  was  "  mended  where  it  rayned  in,"  and,  by  contribution 
of  parishioners,  new  pews  were  built  in  the  "  chansill,"  which 
are  described  as  "  fayre  pews  for  any  gentleman  to  sit  in." 
The  church  was  repaired  and  "  beautified "  in  1636,  the 
expense  being  defrayed  by  a  house  to  house  collection,  by 
"voluntary  gifts  of  divers  inhabitants  that  had  not  borne  the 
office  of  constable  and  churchwarden,"  and  the  remainder 
raised  by  a  church  rate,  being  the  first  case  of  levying  a  church 
rate  in  this  parish.  During  the  plague  year,  1665,  the  burials 
in  the  churchyard  numbered  246,  one  hundred-and-fifty-two 
loads  of  earth  having  been  brought  into  the  churchyard,  the 
height  was  greatly  increased  above  the  level  of  the  church  floor 
and  street.  Next  year  occurred  the  great  fire,  which  destroyed 
this  church,  except  a  portion  of  the  tower,  in  the  2o6th  year  of 
its  age.  There  was  saved  out  of  the  fire,  "the  chest  with  three 
locks  and  three  keys  to  it  which  the  parish  wrytings  are  in  itt," 
and  the  church  plate,  which  includes  a  silver  gilt  chalice,  of 
great  beauty  of  form  and  workmanship,  still  preserved  in  the 
plate  chest. 

Incidental  to  the  fire  it  must  be  stated  that  church  affairs  in 
the  parish  fell  into  the  lowest  depth  of  disorder  and  confusion, 
and  so  remained  for  several  years.  The  rector  had  left,  at  the 
time  of  the  plague,  for  his  country  cure  at  Market  Deeping  in 
Lincolnshire,  and  never  returned  to  perform  the  duties  of  his 
office,  leaving  the  vestry  and  churchwardens  to  deal  with  the 
forlorn  condition  of  the  church.  The  vestry  minutes  during 


30  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

the  following  years  illustrate  this;  there  are  many  entries  such 
as :  "to  the  poor  for  sifting  the  church  rubbish,"  "gave  to  the 
watchmen  for  drink,"  "  paid  for  looking  to  the  lead  and  about 
the  great  bell,"  "  paid  the  labourers  engaged  in  getting  the  bell 
metal  and  lead  out  of  the  ruins  and  lodging  it  in  Guildhall." 
This  bell  metal  and  lead  was  sold  in  1675  and  produced  22/.  iSs. 
The  question  of  clearing  the  church  ruins  and  raising  a 
tabernacle  was  debated  from  time  to  time  and  put  off,  nothing 
being  done  until  the  last  day  of  February,  1675,  nine  years 
after  the  fire,  when  Mr.  Edward  Smith  came  and  officiated  as 
minister,  being  paid  out  of  the  parish  stock  in  lieu  of  tithes.  He 
set  to  work,  and  formed  a  committee  of  twelve  of  the  inhabitants 
to  consider  the  question  of  rebuilding  the  church ;  frequent 
interviews  were  had  with  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and  dinners  to 
him  "about  the  church."  Subscriptions  and  loans  were  raised, 
to  be  repaid,  hereafter,  out  of  the  coal  revenue  with  interest  at 
six  per  cent.  Meantime,  arrangements  were  made  for  Mr.  Smith 
to  preach  in  Aldermanbury  Church  on  "  Sabbath  mornings," 
and  in  the  afternoon  at  Guildhall  Chapel,  to  "  the  great  joy  of 
the  inhabitants  who,  during  this  long  period  had  been  debarred 
the  consolation  of  religious  services  at  the  hands  of  their  own 
minister,  and  had  betaken  themselves  to  worship  at  such 
tabernacles  or  chapels  as  had  been  provided  after  the  dreadful 
calamity."  So  it  is  written  in  the  vestry  minutes. 

The  committee  were  constantly  treating  with  Wren  with  a 
view  of  forwrarding  the  work,  which  was  so  far  completed  that 
at  the  end  of  1677  a  sub-committee  was  appointed  for  the 
purpose  of  pewing  the  church  and  "  making  a  pulpit  and  other 
ornaments."  The  common  council  men  came  to  see  the  roof, 
and  the  churchwarden  "  gave  the  workmen  2s.  6d.  to  encourage 
them  to  make  haste  and  get  on  with  it."  Skilful  surveyors 
reviewed  and  measured  the  church,  reviewed  the  vaults,  and, 
after  discoursing  with  the  joiners  and  the  ancients  of  the 
parish,  the  pews  were  set  up;  the  cost  being  computed  at  300^, 
which  was  to  be  advanced  by  the  several  inhabitants  according 
to  the  proportion  of  their  poor  rate ;  this  sum  being  found 
insufficient,  a  further  ioo/.  was  raised,  as  was  40^.  for  the  altar 
piece  and  rails,  the  whole  to  be  paid  out  of  the  parish  stock  by 
instalments  spread  over  six  years.  The  altar  piece  was  of 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  31 

stone  with  entablements  containing  the  Commandments,  the 
Lord's  prayer,  and  the  Creed,  with  cornice  and  pediment 
surmounted  with  urns.  In  later  years  the  tables  of  this  stone 
altar  piece  were  painted  black. 

So  the  church  was  completed  in  1679.  The  elevation 
is  not  attractive,  the  force  of  circumstances  necessitated 
the  style  adopted,  the  adjoining  owners  were  not  disposed 
to  give  up  any  portion  of  their  land,  whilst  it  appears 
from  the  ward  inquest  book  that  some  of  them,  including 
the  Company  of  Coopers,  were  presented,  year  after  year, 
for  encroaching  three  feet  upon  the  churchyard  in  rebuilding 
their  hall.  The  interior  is  one  of  Wren's  happiest  efforts  ;  the 
nave,  as  was  so  usual  with  him,  is  separated  from  the  aisles  by 
an  arcade  of  Corinthian  columns,  which  support  an  elaborate 
entablature  and  cornice,  and  a  semi-circular  roof  of  handsome 
design.  The  church  is  well  lighted  by  a  series  of  large 
windows,  with  clerestory  windows ;  the  window  over  the 
communion  table  is  partly  bricked  up ;  the  steeple  is  a  tower 
crowned  with  a  turret.  The  length  of  the  church  is  70  feet, 
breadth  50  feet,  and  height  45  feet ;  the  height  of  the  tower  is 
75  feet. 

An  agreement  was  made  with  the  bell  founder  for  a  bell  of 
six  or  seven  cwt.,  at  61.  per  hundred-weight,  "  if  not  approved 
at  the  end  of  twelve  months  it  was  to  be  returned."  For 
further  beautifying  the  church  the  pulpit  cloth  was  embroidered. 
Towards  the  expenses  the  churchwarden  borrowed  4O/.  from  the 
Lord  Mayor ;  this  was  ordered  to  be  paid  back  the  following 
year,  and  a  direction  to  "  give  his  worship  thanks,"  appears  on 
the  minutes.  In  1681  a  wall  was  built  "round  about"  the 
churchyard,  which  was  "to  be  made  and  kept  handsome,"  and 
"no  cloaths"  were  to  be  "dried  therein."  In  1680,  Sir  George 
Jefferies,  the  judge,  had  been  presented  "for  having  two  sinks 
running  over  the  burial  ground  of  the  church." 

The  Gordon  rioters  made  an  attack  on  the  church 
in  1780,  on  the  occasion  of  the  interment  of  Mr.  Alderman 
Kirkman,  who  had  actively  opposed  them ;  "  the  most 
effectual  method  of  keeping  peace  and  order,"  having  been 
settled  with  the  Lord  Mayor,  cost  nL  155.  5^.;  "making 
good  the  damage  done  by  the  rioters,"  amounted  to 


32  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

4<D/.  75.  3^.  Upon  the  widow  requesting  permission  to  put 
up  a  hatchment  in  the  church,  it  was  ordered  "that  the 
vestry  clerk  do  wait  upon  Mrs.  Kirkman  with  a  bill  of  expense 
which  the  parish  was  put  to  on  account  of  the  funeral  of  the 
said  Alderman,  to  know  her  pleasure  touching  the  paying  the 
same."  It  was  further  ordered  that  "Mrs.  Kirkman  should 
have  leave  to  erect  the  hatchment  upon  her  paying  the  bill  in 
question."  Next  year  the  "plummer"  was  paid  61.  for  laying 
on  the  New  River  water,  and  a  payment  is  annually  made  to 
the  gardener  for  trimming  the  vines  in  the  churchyard  and 
sowing  "hay  seed." 

The  appropriation  of  the  pews  for  seating  the  parishioners, 
their  wives  and  families  according  to  their  dignity,  was  the  cause 
of  great  vexation  and  trouble,  which  led  to  an  order  of  vestry 
appointing  a  committee  of  all  those  that  had  been  church- 
wardens to  assist  the  present  wardens  in  considering  the 
various  demands ;  they  were  also  to  examine  who  were  seated 
in  the  pews,  strangers  having  been  found  in  pews  to  which  they 
were  not  entitled.  The  account  contains  a  payment  for  locks 
and  keys  for  the  pews,  5/.  IDS.  Sir  William  Hedges  and  Sir 
Jeremy  Sambrooke  were  to  have  the  pillar  pew,  and  Sir 
Rowland  Aynsworth  the  pew  next  the  communion  table,  "  but 
not  succeeding  inhabitants  that  shall  come  into  their  houses." 

The  Lord  Mayor  attended  the  church  in  state  in  1691,  a  pew 
was  lined  for  him,  and  a  stand  set  up  for  his  sword;  the  dove 
belonging  to  the  branch,  and  the  angel  belonging  to  the  pulpit 
candlestick,  were  regilded  for  this  occasion.  The  entry  in  the 
vestry  minutes  runs  thus : — "  Ordered  that  a  pew  be  lined  and 
a  case  for  the  Lord  Mayor's  sword  be  put  up,  and  the  alley  be 
gravelled,  and  that  Sir  J.  Sambrook,  Sir  William  Hedges,  and 
others,  do  assist  the  churchwardens." 

In  connection  with  this  incident,  the  churchwardens' 
account  contains  the  following  articles: — "Paid  for  four  load 
of  gravel  and  spreading  it  in  church  alley,  175.  Paid  the 
upholsterer  for  lyning  a  pew,  3/.  8s.  Paid  for  putting  up  a 
case  for  the  Lord  Mayor's  sword,  il.  i8s.  Spent  on  the 
bonfires,  135.  The  reason  for  this  function  appears  to  have 
been  the  arrival  of  King  William  from  Holland. 

(To  be  Continued). 


METEOROLOGY     OF     THE     HOME     COUNTIES. 
BY  JOHN  HOPKINSON,   F.R.MET.Soc.,  Assoc.lNST.C.E. 

July  to  September,  1899. 

TT^HE  only  alterations  in  the  stations  from  the  previous 
JL  quarter  are  the  omission  of  Sandhurst  Lodge,  Berks,  the 
usual  rainfall  return  not  having  been  received  from  there,  and 
the  reinstatement  of  a  former  rainfall  station,  Upton  Park, 
Slough,  the  return  from  which,  for  the  June  quarter,  was 
received  too  late  for  the  last  report. 

The  Counties  are  distinguished  as  follows: — i,  Middlesex; 
2,  Essex;  3,  Herts;  4,  Bucks;  5,  Berks;  6,  Surrey;  7,  Kent. 

Records  of  temperature  have  been  received  from  Cookham 
and  Bracknell,  Berks,  and  they  give  the  following  means  :-— 
July,  65*0° ;  August,  66*1°;  September,  56*4°;  the  average  for 
the  quarter  being  0*2°  lower  than  that  of  the  ten  stations  in  the 
other  counties. 

July  was  very  warm,  had  a  very  dry  atmosphere,  a  bright 
sky,  and  less  than  the  average  rainfall;  August  was  still  warmer, 
had  also  a  very  dry  atmosphere  and  a  very  bright  sky,  and 
about  two  inches  less  rainfall  than  the  average ;  September  was 
rather  warm,  had  a  dry  atmosphere,  a  sky  of  average  brightness, 
and  about  an  average  rainfall.  Although  in  July  the  rainfall  in 
the  Home  Counties  generally  was  less  than  usual,  in  Essex  it 
was  greater,  chiefly  owing  to  the  heavy  falls  on  the  22nd  and 
23rd,  extending  from  Herts,  through  Essex,  to  Norfolk.  On 
the  22nd,  1*20  in.  fell  at  St.  Aibans,  1*46  in.  at  Chelmsford, 
and  rgo  in.  at  Bennington ;  on  the  23rd,  i'68  in.  fell  at 
Newport,  Essex;  and  at  Halstead  0*87  in.  fell  on  both  the  22nd 
and  23rd.  There  was  a  severe  storm  of  wind,  rain,  thunder, 
and  lightning,  preceded  in  Herts  and  Bucks  by  a  dust  storm, 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  I5th  of  August.  In  North  Herts  much 
damage  was  done  to  crops;  at  High  Wycombe  a  house  was  set 
on  fire  by  lightning ;  at  Amersham  the  stalls  at  the  Horticultural 
Show  were  blown  down ;  and  near  Luton  Hoo  a  tree  was 
blown  across  the  Great  Northern  Railway,  delaying  the  traffic. 


34 


METEOROLOGY. 


On  the  29th  of  September  more  than  an  inch  of  rain  fell  at 
several  stations,  the  heaviest  fall  being  1*32  in.  at  Cranleigh, 
Surrey. 

Although  the  summer  has  been  an  unusually  dry  one,  only 
3-93  inches  of  rain  having  fallen  in  the  three  summer  months 
(June  to  August),  we  are  having  a  wet  autumn  and  the 
deficiency  will  probably  be  made  up. 

July,    1899. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

o 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

o 

"1 

Mean 

Min 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

ft 

1 

Ain't 

Days 

c» 

o 

o 

O 

0 

c 

P/n 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

67-3 

60-1 

74-5 

14-4 

52-5 

84-4 

69 

8-1 

1-78 

10 

2.  Halstead    .  . 

64-6 

54-6 

74-6 

20-0 

48-0 

84-9 

72 

6-6 

3  04 

8 

,,  Chelmsford.. 

63-6 

53-2 

73  9 

20-7 

46'1 

82-5 

72 

5-7 

2-96 

10 

3.  Bennington 

64-3 

54-4 

74-2 

19-8 

47-3 

83-6 

68 

5-5 

1-90 

10 

,,  Berkhamsted 

64^5 

53-9 

75-0 

21-1 

45  9 

85-3 

70 

5-5 

2-27 

10 

,,  St.  Albans.  . 

64  2 

55-1 

73-3 

18-2 

48  0 

84-9 

68 

5-2 

2-20 

10 

6.  W.Norwood   66-2 

56-0 

76-5 

20-5 

48-0 

87'3 

61 

5-0 

•67 

8 

,,  Cranleigh  .  . 

65-5 

55-2 

75-8 

20-6 

47'3 

85-5 

68 

5-5 

1-39 

8 

,,  Addington.  . 

64-7 

56-1 

73-4 

17-3 

48-5 

84-5 

66 

5-8 

•77 

9 

7.  Margate     .  . 

64-3 

56-2 

72-3 

16-1 

50-6 

82-9 

81 

6-0 

1-46 

6 

M!ean 

64-9 

55-5 

74-4 

189 

48  2 

84-6 

-69 

5-9 

1-84 

9 

August,    1899. 


Stations 

Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

1 

0 
f 

Rain 

Means 

Extremes 

Mean 

Min 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

1 

Am't 

Days 

Q 

c 

c 

c> 

0 

0 

"/• 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

67'3 

59-3 

75-3 

16-0 

52  6 

86-0 

69 

43 

•45 

;> 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

64-0 

53-0 

74  9 

21-9 

41-9 

84  0 

69 

5-0 

•67 

6 

,,  Chelmsford.. 

63-1 

51-8 

74-3 

22-5 

38-2 

85-8 

72 

5-4 

•92 

9 

3.  Bennington 

64-9 

54-5 

75-2 

20-7 

44-6 

86  1 

68 

4-3 

1-59 

9 

,,  Berkhamsted 

65-0 

53-0 

77  0 

24-0 

43  5 

86-9 

72 

4-7 

•87 

6 

,,  St.  AlLans.  . 

85-0 

54  6 

75-4 

2(1-8 

46  9 

85-9 

70 

40 

•79 

9 

6.  W  Norwood 

66-1 

56  0 

76-3 

20-3 

47-5 

88-6 

66 

4-8 

•55 

7 

,,  Cranieigh  .  . 

66-7 

55-2 

78-3 

23-1 

45  3 

85-7 

73 

4-0 

•62 

4 

.,  Addington.  . 

6o"2 

/>6  2 

74-2 

18-n 

49-0 

86-5 

68 

6-1 

•85 

9 

7.  Margate     .  . 

65  1 

59  4 

7(i-8    |   11-4 

52-6 

83  1 

77 

6  2 

1-07 

9 

Mean 

65"> 

55-3 

75-2 

19-9 

4fi  9. 

85-9 

70 

4'9        -84         7 

i             1 

METEOROLOGY. 
September,     1899, 


35 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

Rain 

• 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

o 

9 

a 

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

0 

6 

Am't 

Days 

0 

0 

0 

o 

o 

o 

0  / 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

59  7 

53-6 

65-9 

12-3 

43-3 

84-6 

72  i6-6 

2-69 

14 

2-  Halstead   .. 

57-4 

48-7 

66-1 

17-4 

31-0 

86-5 

74 

5-8 

2-19 

16 

,,  Chelmsford  . 

57-4 

48-2 

66-6 

18-4 

33-3 

87-0 

71 

6-2 

2-50 

15 

3.  Bennington 

57-1 

48-9 

65-2 

16-3 

32-9 

84-7 

73 

6-6 

2-28 

17 

,  Berkhamsted 

57-3 

48-0 

66-6 

18-6 

29-2 

86-1 

75 

6-6 

2-22 

19 

,  St.  Albans  .  . 

57'5 

49-6 

65-3 

15-7 

30-9 

84-1 

71 

6-5 

2-51 

19 

.  W.Norwood 

58-3 

49-5 

67-1 

17-6 

38-6 

87-3 

70 

6-3 

2-43 

17 

,  Cranleigh  .  . 

58-1 

49-1 

67-1 

18-0 

39-0 

84-0 

76 

5-0 

3-49 

13 

,  Addington.  . 

57'5 

50-3 

64-8 

14-5 

40-0 

84-5 

72 

7-2 

2-70 

16 

.  Margate    .  . 

58-5 

51-8 

65-2 

13-4 

38-7 

83-6 

77 

6-4 

2-25 

13 

Mean  

57-9 

49-8 

66-0 

16-2 

35-7 

85-2 

73 

6-3 

2-53 

16 

Rainfall,  July  to  September,  1899. 


Stations 

July. 

Aug-. 

Sept. 

Stations 

July. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

1    Camden  Square 

ins. 
1-45 

ins. 

'70 

ins. 
2  65 

4   Slouo-h 

ins. 
•43 

ins. 

ins. 
2-11 

,,  Harefield   

•79 

•60 

1-86 

5.  Abingdon 

•96 

1-99 

2-10 

2   Newport 

3-46 

1*76 

2-77 

Cookham 

1  23 

•74 

9-22 

,  ,  Southend   

1-30 

'78 

2-17 

,,  Bracknell  .  .  . 

•62 

•89 

2-69 

[  3   R/o  yston 

1-70 

1-03 

2-25 

6   Dorkin.0* 

•93 

•88 

2-93 

,,  Hitchm  

1  53 

1-27 

2-09 

7.  Tenterden    . 

1-42 

1-09 

2*39 

|4   "Winslow 

1-17 

1-13 

1-88 

Bircliington 

1-42 

•81 

2-30 

Mean  (24  stations}  :    July,  1'54  ins.  ;  August,  0'9i  ins;  September,  2-41  ins. 


CHALFONT     ST.     PETER     CHURCH. 

BY  THE  REV.  F.  H.  WOODS. 

In  repairing  the  corner  of  the  Georgian  Tower  it  was  found 
to  be  built  not  of  solid  stone,  but  of  rubble  with  a  smooth 
surface  of  plaster.  The  stones  were  evidently  taken  from  the 
old  church,  which  collapsed  in  1708.  Two  of  them  have 
Decorated  mouldings,  ogee  and  fillet,  dating  about  1350,  and 
are  parts  of  an  arch  and  doorway  respectively. 


CHALFONT    ST.    PETER    CHURCH-HOUSE. 

BY  THE  REV.  F.   H.  WOODS. 

AN  interesting  feature  of  old  village  life  once  existed  in  this 
parish,  viz.,  what  was  known  as  "  the  church-house." 
This,  as  we  learn  from  certain  documents  to  which  reference 
will  shortly  be  made,  had  for  more  than  50  years  prior  to  1665 
been  occupied  "  by  certain  poor  inhabitants  of  the  said  parish, 
or  otherwise  let  by  the  churchwardens  there  with  the  consent  ol 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  towards  the  maintenance  and  assistance 
of  the  poor  there."  Besides  rent,  or  probably  only  a  very 
occasional  rent,  the  churchwardens  received  a  certain  sum  of 
money  for  the  yearly  "merry  meetings  and  Whitsonales 
(Whitsun-tide  Feasts),"  etc.,  which  the  parishioners  held  in  the 
church-house.  This  money  was  spent  partly  on  the  poor,  and 
partly  on  the  "church  repairing" ;  45.  yearly  being  paid  "by  one 
Monke  to  the  clerk  of  the  said  parish  in  satisfaction  of  his 
pains  in  looking  to  and  keeping  the  clock  of  the  said  parish." 
But  for  holding  these  feasts  the  consent  of  the  lord  of  the 
manor  was  also  necessary.  That  they  should  become  a 
nuisance  is  natural  enough,  and  certainly  Richard  Whitchurch, 
who  bought  the  manor  in  1650,  being  a  staunch  Puritan,  would 
not  have  encouraged  them  had  he  been  asked.  A  few  years 
after  he  had  bought  the  manor,  finding  the  church-house 
untenanted  and  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  he  claimed  it  as  his 
own,  repaired  it,  and  put  in  his  own  tenant.  At  the  time  it 
was  useless  to  oppose  him.  After  the  restoration,  when  the  tide 
had  turned,  a  commission  under  Act  43,  Eliz.  cap.  4,  was  held 
at  Amersham,  on  September  nth,  1665,  before  a  local  jury  to 
decide  the  question  between  the  lord  of  the  manor  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  vicar  and  churchwardens  on  the  'other. 

It  is  from  the  records  of  this  inquiry,  and  of  the  depositions 
of  witnesses,  of  which  more  presently,  that  our  sole  knowledge 
of  this  church-house  is  derived.  The  former  are  preserved  in 
the  Record  Office  (Chancery  Petty  Bag,  Charity  Inquisitions. 
Bundle  28,  No.  23).  The  evidence  before  the  commissioners 
showed  that  Richard  Whitchurch,  of  Chalfont  St.  Peter, 
being  lord  of  the  manor  there,  "about  n  years  ago,  entered 


CHALFONT    ST.    PETER    CHURCH-HOUSE.  37 

upon  the  said  church-house,  none  then  inhabiting  therein," 
pretending,  as  there  was  no  owner  nor  anybody  claiming 
the  same,  that  it  became  due  to  him  as  lord  of  the  said 
manor,  and  in  pursuance  thereof  let  the  same  to  John 
Copeland  for  about  2,1.  per  annum  ;  and  the  said  Whitchurch 
had,  ever  since  claimed  the  rents  and  profits  thereof;  but 
whether  he  ever  received  any,  the  jurors  knew  not ;  but  they 
were  satisfied  by  "  the  church-book  of  the  said  parish,"  that 
the  profits  of  the  said  church-house  were  formerly  received  by 
the  churchwardens,  and  used  for  the  use  and  repair  of  the 
church  there.  The  judgment  of  the  commissioners  who  heard 
this  dispute  was  given  at  "the  sign  of  the  George  at 
Amersham,"  on  September  i8th,  1665.  They  expressed 
themselves  satisfied,  as  well  "  by  some  of  them  their  own 
knowledges,  as  by  the  rate  made  for  the  monthly  taxes  to  his 
Majesty,"  that  the  said  church-house  was  of  a  greater  value, 
and  had  been  let  by  the  said  Richard  Whitchurch  for  a  greater 
yearly  rent  than  the  said  2/.,  and  they  ordered  and  decreed 
that  the  said  Richard  Whitchurch  should,  within  one  month, 
pay  to  Thomas  Hall,  "minister  of  Chalfont  St.  Peter,"  2O/.  for 
the  rent  of  the  said  church-house  so  by  him  wrongfully 
detained,  the  same  to  be  used  for  the  repair  of  the  church 
there  ;  and  that  the  said  Richard  should  also,  "  within  the 
same  time,  release  and  for  ever  quit  claim  to  the  said  minister 
and  churchwardens  all  right  and  title  to  the  said  church-house" ; 
and  also  pay  to  Michael  Babington,  gent.,  clerk  to  the 
said  commissioners,  iSl.  "for  the  cost  of  suing  out  the  said 
commission  and  prosecuting  the  said  inquisition." 

It  appears  from  this  judgment  that  Richard  was  accused,  not 
only  of  taking  for  himself  the  rents,  but  in  fact  receiving  a 
larger  sum  than  the  nominal  rental ;  the  latter  being  fixed  with 
the  view,  it  may  be  supposed,  to  lower  his  taxes.  The  naive 
words,  "whether  he  ever  received  any  [profits] ,"  etc.,  imply 
that  the  feasts  were  no  longer  actually  held.  Had  the 
parishioners  paid  for  them,  the  jurors  would  certainly  have 
known  it.  But  if  the  real  rent  of  the  house  was  over  2/.,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  why  Richard  Whitchurch  was  only  called  upon 
to  pay  only  2O/.  compensation  for  n  years.  The  judgment,  if 
justified  by  the  evidence,  was  certainly  not  severe. 


38        CHALFONT  ST.  PETER  CHURCH-HOUSE. 

The  matter  does  not,  however,  seem  to  have  been  finally 
settled;  for,  strangely  enough,  the  depositions  of  witnesses 
on  this  question  appear  to  have  been  taken  more  than  a 
year  later,  namely  on  nth  October,  1666  (Chancery  Petty- 
Bag,  Charity  Depositions.  Bundle  9,  No.  n  ;  and  Bundle  13, 
No.  13),  at  "  the  sign  of  the  Crowne  "  in  Uxbridge,  and  partly 
"  at  the  dwelling-house  of  Joseph  Fryer,  innholder,  called 
the  Redd  Lyon  in  Chalfont  St.  Peter,"  the  commissioners 
having  adjourned  to  the  latter  place.  These  depositions  are 
full  of  interest ;  they  illustrate  very  clearly  the  double 
use  to  which  the  church-house  was  put,  and  the  common 
rights  which  the  churchwardens  and  the  lord  of  the 
manor  had  in  it.  Thus  Rowland  Hayward,  of  Chalfont 
St.  Peter,  husbandman,  aged  about  80,  says  that  about 
60  years  ago,  Jeffery  Baker  asked  leave  of  Sir  Henry 
Drury  (the  lord  of  the  manor),  to  keep  a  Whitson  ale  ;  he 
granted  it,  but  told  him  he  must  also  get  leave  of  the 
parish,  which  he  did.  Winloe  Grimsdale,  a  husbandman 
of  Hagerley  (Hedgerley),  deposed  that  the  said  house  had 
been  reported  to  belong  to  the  lord  of  the  manor.  Two 
Whitson  ales  had  been  kept  there  by  leave  of  the  lord  of  the 
manor,  who  gave  to  those  who  kept  the  said  Whitson  ales  "  a 
bushel  of  wheat  or  an  angell  in  money."  John  Newman,  of 
Langley,  yeoman,  says  "  that  he  and  some  other  younger  men 
of  Chalfont  St.  Peter,  desiring  to  keep  a  Midsomer  ale,  gave 
the  churchwardens  2os.  for  permission  to  keep  the  same." 
Nothing  is  said  in  this  case  of  asking  leave  of  the  lord  of  the 
manor.  On  another  occasion,  however,  the  churchwardens 
themselves  got  permission  from  the  lord  of  the  manor,  William 
Drury,  to  keep  a  Whitson  ale  or  two  in  the  same  house,  the 
profits  whereof,  over  the  charges  of  the  churchwardens,  were 
employed  for  the  repair  of  the  church. 

It  would  appear  from  the  following  deposition  of  Robert 
Dell,  the  parish  clerk,  that  events  like  Whitson  ales  were 
recorded  in  a  parish  book.  He  states  that  "  the  ancient  book 
now  produced  belongs  to  the  said  parish,  and  the  parishioners 
sometimes  entrusted  witness  therewith  to  write  in  matters 
concerning  the  said  parish.  The  said  book  was  formerly  in  the 
possession  of  deponent's  father,  who  was  also  parish  clerk 
there  and  died  about  20  years  ago." 


CHALFONT  ST.  PETER  CHURCH-HOUSE.       39 

The  lords  of  the  manor  appear,  from  divers  depositions, 
to  have  had  more  to  do  with  the  letting  of  the  church-house  than 
had  the  churchwardens.  It  would  seem  that  they  constantly 
repaired  it  at  their  own  cost,  and  that  William  Drury  twice  put 
in  his  own  bailiff.  In  fact,  the  house  seems  to  have  been  in 
frequent  need  of  repair.  We  are  assured  that  it  would  have 
fallen  down  had  not  William  Drury  been  at  great  charges  in 
repairing  it.  Under  the  circumstances  we  are  hardly  surprised 
to  hear  from  one  Webb,  a  husbandman,  that  "some  poor  people 
went  into  the  said  house,  but  were  obliged  to  remove  themselves 
because  they  could  not  lye  dry  there  for  want  of  repairs  of  the 
said  house." 

The  usual  practice  was  for  the  lord  of  the  manor,  or  the 
churchwardens  with  his  consent,  to  put  in  some  poor  person, 
either  free  of  charge  or  at  a  nominal  rent.  John  Monke,  for 
example,  who  was  born  in  the  same  house,  deposed  that  his 
father  Robert,  being  desirous  of  living  there,  asked  the  parish  for 
their  good  will  therein.  This  they  gave,  but  told  him  he  must 
go  to  the  lord  of  the  manor,  who  told  him  it  was  his  house,  and 
that  he  (the  deponent)  should  dwell  there  and  pay  "  noe  mann 
a  penny  for  the  same."  It  is  not  very  easy  to  reconcile  this 
evidence  with  the  statement  of  James  Kirby,  who  deposed  that 
"the  churchwardens  asked  permission  of  Mr.  William  Drury, 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  to  put  Robert  Monke  as  tenant  into  the 
said  house,  and  the  said  Robert  paid  45.  yearly  to  the  clerk  of 
the  said  parish  towards  the  setting  of  the  clock."  It  is  clear 
that  the  commissioners,  as  appears  from  the  result  of  their 
inquiry  given  above,  laid  great  stress  on  this  evidence. 
Probably  John's  evidence  refers  to  an  appeal  made  subsequently 
by  Robert  to  the  lord  of  the  manor.  The  words  of  the  latter 
suggest  the  repudiation  of  a  claim. 

Richard  Whitchurch  does  not  seem  to  have  interested 
himself  in  the  church-house  until  about  the  year  1665,  at 
which  time,  as  the  deposition  of  John  Aldridge  showed,  "an 
ancient  woman  who  then  lived  in  the  said  church-house 
was  removed  to  an  almshouse,  but  by  whom  defendant 
knows  not."  The  house  was  again  in  need  of  repairs,  and 
Aldridge  was  a  bricklayer  employed  in  executing  them.  It 
appears  that  John  Monke,  who  lived  in  the  house,  agreed  to 


40        CHALFONT  ST.  PETER  CHURCH-HOUSE. 

pay  405.  rent;  but,  "not  liking  the  said  repairs,  left,  and  the 
said  house  was  then  let  to  John  Disborow  for  40$.  a  year." 
This  rent  was  afterwards  increased  to  3/.,  when  John 
Copeland,  a  butcher,  who  occupied  the  house  at  the  time  of  the 
commission,  became  tenant.  He  informed  the  commissioners 
that  the  rent  covered  the  use  of  a  yard  and  slaughter-house, 
and  that  the  house,  which  alone  was  worth  30$.,  contained 
three  upper  rooms  and  two  lower  rooms,  out  of  one  of  which 
he  had  taken  a  shop  and  a  little  stable.  This  was  evidently 
the  large  room  where  Whitson  ales  used  to  be  held.  The 
discontinuance  of  the  Whitson  ales  is  testified  to  by  Eldred 
Newman,  "  aged  one  hundred  years  or  thereabouts,"  who 
stated  that  "of  late  years  no  Whitson  ales  have  been  kept  in 
the  said  house  by  reason  of  disorders  that  usually  fell  out  at 
such  times."  As  Eldred  Newman  was  baptized  on  November 
25th,  1582,  and  as  the  deposition  was  taken  in  1666,  the  state- 
ment of  age  requires  a  somewhat  liberal  interpretation.  The 
deponent  was  probably  not  more  than  84. 

Another  deposition  is  of  special  interest.  Thomas  Eggleton 
stated  that  he  had  known  the  school  to  be  kept  there,  but  did 
not  know  who  placed  the  schoolmaster  there.  This  seems  to 
imply  that  the  large  room  which  had  been  used  occasionally 
for  Whitson  and  Midsummer  ales,  was  at  one  time  used  for  the 
schools,  and  that  the  schoolmaster  lived  in  the  house.  The 
witness  was  only  34,  and  the  arrangement  is  spoken  of  as 
temporary.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  notice  that  the  school 
and  the  schoolmaster  are  spoken  of,  even  at  this  early  date,  as 
regular  institutions. 

Unfortunately,  no  record  has  been  preserved  of  the  result  of 
this  second  inquiry,  if  it  be  such,  and  were  it  not  for  the 
month  in  which  the  depositions  were  taken  we  should  be 
almost  tempted  to  think  that  the  record  contains  an  error  as 
to  the  year,  and  that  the  depositions  were,  after  all,  the 
evidence  upon  which  the  decision  was  given  by  the  com- 
missioners at  Amersham  in  September,  1665. 

The  Red  Lion  Inn,  at  which  some  of  the  depositions  were 
taken,  has  long  since  been  converted  into  "the  Yew  Tree 
Cottages,"  but  the  name  survives  in  "  Lion  Yard."  It  is 
said  that  the  inn-keeper  was  deprived  of  his  licence,  early  in 


CHALFONT  ST.  PETER  CHURCH-HOUSE.        41 

the  nineteenth   century,    because    a    certain    Worley  killed    a 
man  named  Ware  in  a  fight. 

No  tradition  survives  as  to  the  locality  of  the  church-house, 
but  as  church-houses  were  frequently  situated  in  churchyards, 
it  seems  most  probable  that  it  occupied  a  site  at  the  south 
east  corner  of  the  churchyard.  On  this  site  was  built  in  the 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  "church  school."  Possibly 
the  church-house  had  already  come  to  be  used  regularly  for  this 
purpose.  An  aged  parishioner,  William  Hodgkins,  informs  me 
that  about  1840,  his  father,  who  was  then  master  of  the  school, 
went  up  to  be  examined  at  Westminster,  and  after  that  it  was 
always  called  "  the  national  school."  The  school  consisted 
of  two  rooms,  the  boys'  and  girls'  schoolrooms  being  at  right 
angles ;  the  latter  being  flush  with  the  street,  and  the  whole 
forming  a  square  of  about  50  feet  each  side.  The  dimensions 
are  still  marked  by  the  cobbles  on  the  pathway  outside,  and 
the  irregularity  of  the  churchyard  wall.  The  site  of  school  and 
yard  is  clearly  defined  in  the  Tithe  Map.  In  digging  a  grave 
a  few  years  ago  a  very  large  stone,  which  had  evidently  formed 
part  of  the  foundation  of  the  building  was  dug  up. 

At  this  period  there  were  several  other  private  schools,  one 
behind  the  old  workhouse  was  kept  by  William  Archer,  another 
by  George  Gurney  in  a  shed,  having  an  entrance  by  "  The 
Swan,"  near  what  is  now  "  The  George,"  and  a  third,  an 
infants'  school,  was  kept  by  Sally  Hunt  in  the  house  now 
occupied  by  Mrs.  Crump.  There  were  about  14  scholars  in  the 
last.  At  all  these  schools  the  fees  were  6d.  a  week,  and  they 
were  considered  more  aristocratic  than  the  national  school. 

In  1848  (?)  the  latter  was  demolished,*  and  a  much  larger 
school  was  built  in  what  is  now  known  as  School  Lane.  The 
boys  and  girls  were  divided  by  a  semi-partition  and  a  curtain. 
Some  years  after,  the  school  becoming  too  small  for  the 
increasing  number  of  scholars,  the  girls  were  transferred  to 
"  the  lecture  room  "  in  the  allotment  gardens,  and  a  few  years 
after,  that  becoming  again  too  small,  to  the  church  room,  which 

*  A  vestry  minute  of  November  6th,  1849,  states  that  it  was  agreed  at 
a  special  vestry  meeting,  to  raise  the  ground  on  the  south  corner  of  the 
churchyard  18  inches,  requiring  about  320  loads  of  earth,  thus  filling  up  the 
cavity  caused  by  pulling  down  the  school. 


42        CHALFONT  ST.  PETER  CHURCH-HOUSE. 

had  been  lately  built  by  the  then  vicar,  the  Rev.  G.  M.  Bullock. 
Meanwhile  an  infants'  school  had  been  built  by  J.  N.  Hibbert, 
Esq.,  opposite  the  entrance  to  School  Lane  (now  turned  into 
an  almshouse).  Before  long,  both  infant  school  and  girl's 
school  proving  again  far  too  small  for  modern  requirements, 
the  present  girls  and  infants'  schools  were  built  and  opened  in 
1893.  In  the  last  ten  years  the  average  attendance  of  the  three 
schools  has  increased  from  163  to  209. 

At  the  corner  of  the  churchyard,  between  the  Church  School 
and  the  present  Post  Office,  was  a  lock-up  called  "the  cage." 
It  contained  at  the  back  a  rude  bed-chamber  to  accommodate 
its  involuntary  occupants.  Its  name  was  suggested  by  its 
large  iron  gates,  which,  when  the  cage  was  pulled  down  and  the 
cemetery  laid  out,  were  put  up  close  by  the,  then,  new  church- 
room,  on  the  west  side  of  the  churchyard. 

On  the  hill  to  the  right  of  the  Amersham  Road,  about  a  mile 
from  the  village,  may  be  seen  an  obelisk  and  behind  it  a  cluster 
of  recently  built  villa-like  houses.  The  obelisk,  known  as 
Gott's  monument,  is  a  rough  structure  of  brick  and  stone  put 
up  by  Sir  H.  T.  Gott  in  1785,  to  commemorate,  it  is  said,  the 
killing  of  a  royal  stag,  by,  or  in  the  presence  of,  George  III. 
The  stags  from  Windsor  Park  are  still  hunted  by  Her  Majesty's 
Staghounds  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  they  are  never  killed. 
The  houses  behind  are  the  beginning  of  a  colony  wrhich,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Employment  of 
Epileptics,  is  rapidly  springing  up.  Before  very  long  (alas!) 
the  ancient  houses  of  Chalfont  St.  Peter,  may  be  pulled  down, 
the  few  remaining  red  brick  fronts  tidied  into  a  uniform 
pattern  of  cold  plaster,  the  "splash,"  spanned  over  by  a  County 
Council  bridge  of  the  newest  design,  and  other  historical 
landmarks  effaced;  but  let  us  trust  that  at  least  this  colony 
will  remain  and  prosper,  to  continue  the  good  work  which  has 
been  begun. 


SOME     REMARKS    ON     DENE-HOLES. 

BY  J.  G.  WALLER,  F.S.A. 

PENNANT,  in  his  journey  from  Chester  to  London,  after 
speaking  of  Redburn,  and  its  cell  of  Benedictines, 
continues  "  the  present  great  road,  a  little  beyond  this  place, 
quits  the  Watling  Street,  which  runs  direct  on  the  right  to 
Verulam.  The  former  can  boast  of  no  great  extent  of  view, 
but  is  bounded  by  beautiful  risings  varied  with  woods,  and 
enclosures  dressed  with  a  garden-like  elegance.  The  common 
soil  is  almost  covered  with  flints;  the  stratum  beneath  is  chalk, 
which  is  used  for  a  manure.  Pliny  describes  this  British  earth 
under  the  title  Creta  argentaria,  and  adds  petitur  ex  alto,  in 
centenos  pedes,  acti,  plerumque  puteis,  ore  angustatis  intus,  lit  in 
nietallis  spatiante  vena.  Hac  maxime  Britannia  utitur.*  This 
very  method  is  used  in  the  county  at  present.  The  farmer 
sinks  a  pit,  and  (in  the  term  of  a  miner)  drives  out  on  all  sides, 
leaving  a  sufficient  roof,  and  draws  up  the  chalk  in  buckets, 
through  a  narrow  mouth.  Pliny  informs  us,  in  his  remarks  on 
the  British  marls,  that  they  will  last  eighty  years,  and  there  is 
not  an  example  of  any  person  being  obliged  to  marl  his  land 
twice  in  his  life.  An  experienced  farmer,  whom  I  met  with  in 
Hertfordshire,  assured  me,  that  he  had  about  thirty  years  before 
made  use  of  this  manure  on  a  field  of  his,  and  that,  should  he 
live  to  the  period  mentioned  by  the  Roman  naturalist,  he 
thought  he  should  not  have  occasion  for  a  repetition."  t 

As  dene-holes  are  frequent  in  certain  of  the  Home  Counties, 
and  as  theories  concerning  them  are  from  time  to  time  put 
forth,  this  passage  from  Pennant,  bearing  as  it  does  so  directly 
on  the  question,  has  more  than  ordinary  significance.  It  does 
not  appear,  that  the  writer  \vas  acquainted  with  these 
excavations  in  Kent — the  pits  at  Blackheath,  referred  to  in  the 
issue  of  this  magazine  in  1899,  for  instance — and  in  Essex ; 

*  Lib.  xvii.,  c.  3. 

t  The  journey  from  Chester  to  London  by  Thomas  Pennant,  Esq., 
with  notes.  London,  1811,  pp.  302-303. 


44  SOME    REMARKS    ON    DENE-HOLES. 

else  he  could  scarcely  have  omitted  to  notice  them.  The  first 
edition  of  Pennant's  journey  was  in  1782;  it  then  appears  that 
a  little  more  than  a  century  ago  chalk  was  obtained  for  manure 
in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  described  by  Pliny ;  and  every 
one  who  has  examined  a  dene-hole,  above  and  below,  must  see 
the  identity  it  has  with  his  description.  There  is  the  well-like 
shaft  down  to  the  chalk,  which  being  reached  is  then  mined  in 
various  directions.  Camden,  in  his  Magna  Brittania  speaks  of 
them,  and  the  various  opinions  of  his  time  respecting  them, 
but  quotes  Pliny  as  the  true  solution.  With  the  evidence  of 
Pennant  before  us,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  hard  logic  of  facts. 
If  these  excavations  were  not  made  for  the  chalk,  that  would 
be  refuse,  and  we  should  see  it  in  mounds  about  the  apertures, 
but  this  is  not  the  case.  It  has  been  objected,  that  it  would  be 
absurd  to  excavate  for  that  which  could  be  obtained  on  the 
surface;  a  simple  argument,  for  chalk  is  not  everywhere  on  the 
surface.  Besides  that,  it  must  be  remembered  that  chalk  is  a 
marine  deposit  of  myriads  of  minute  organisms,  foraminifera, 
debris  of  sponge,  and  other  decomposed  matters.  Such  a 
material  would  certainly  be  best  for  manure  when  obtained 
least  acted  upon  by  the  air. 

The  opinions  or  theories,  which  have  gone  on  for  300  years, 
run  much  in  the  same  direction.  They  were  storage  places 
or  places  of  refuge.  I  have  heard  silos  suggested,  and, 
strange  to  say,  one  person  suggested  to  me,  they  might 
be  for  flints.  As  to  places  of  refuge,  the  difficulty  of 
getting  down  or  up  would  make  them  singularly  inconvenient. 
Those  below  could  easily  be  starved  out,  or  very  easily 
smothered,  when  thus  discovered  by  an  enemy.  In  France, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rheims,  they  have  been  utilised 
for  the  storage  of  champagne  in  modern  times ;  but  it  would  be 
rather  a  wild  suggestion  that  they  were  made  for  that  purpose. 
Opinions  are  a  pleasant  exercise  of  the  imagination,  and  once 
entertained  are  hard  to  be  given  up,  and  of  all  things  a  simple 
solution  of  a  difficulty  is  about  the  greatest  offence  that  can  be 
given  to  those  entertaining  them. 


South  Gateway  of  Duke's  Place,  Aldgate,  in  1793. 


THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY,    OR 
CHRIST    CHURCH,   ALDGATE. 

BY  W.  R.  LETHABY. 


T^HE  accompanying  plates  are  reproduced  by  the  kind 
permission  of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  from  surveys 
made  by  J.  Symons,  almost  certainly,  as  will  be  shown,  about 
1592  ;  these  plans  were  found  calendared  in  the  Historical  MSS. 
Commission's  report  on  the  Hatfield  papers.  The  present 
writer  thought  that  they  would  probably  be  of  interest  to 
students  of  old  London,  but  their  topographical  value  goes 
far  beyond  what  was  expected,  restoring  to  us  the  accurate 
plan  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  famous  of  the  monastic 
houses  of  London,  together  with  a  plan  of  the  mediaeval 
Aldgate,  a  length  of  the  city  wall,  and  the  church  of  St. 
Katherine  Cree. 

The  plans  are  so  accurately  drawn  and  annotated  that  it  is 
easy  to  separate  the  monastic  buildings  from  later  accretions. 
It  is  evident  that  at  the  time  they  were  made  the  great 
house,  into  which  the  priory  was  modified  after  the  dissolution, 
had  itself  passed  out  of  its  first  estate  and  was  in  course  of 
being  sub-divided  into  tenements. 

Henry  VIII.  put  out  the  Canons  in  1531,  and  afterwards 
gave  the  priory  to  Sir  Thomas  Audley  (Grey  Friars  Chron.) 
The  grant  to  Sir  Thomas,  made  in  1534,  clearly  defines  the 
whole  precinct  "  from  the  great  gate  of  the  city  called  Aldgate, 
along  the  north  side  of  Aldgate  Street  to  the  church  of  St. 
Katherine,  from  thence  to  the  great  gate  of  the  late  monastery 
and  thence  to  the  stone  wall  of  the  city,  and  to  the  great  gate  "- 
Aldgate  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Henry  VIII.,  vol.  vii.,  p. 
232). 

According  to  Stow,  Sir  Thomas  Audley,  threw  down  the 
church  and  steeple  and  "  builded  and  dwelt  in  the  Priory  till 
his  death  in  1544."  The  property  in  1557  passed  by  marriage 
to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  "and  was  then  called  the  Duke's 
place"  (Stow).  Machyn,  writing  under  date  1558,  speaks  of 
Christchurch  as  "my  lord  of  Norffoke's  Plasse."  Twenty 


46  THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY. 

years  after  the  Duke's  execution  in  1572,  his  son,  the  Earl 
of  Suffolk,  sold  the  priory  precinct  and  mansion-house  of  his 
mother  to  the  City  of  London. 

Our  plans  were  evidently  made  before  the  rebuilding  of  St. 
Katherine's  about  1620,  or  the  erection  of  St.  James,  Duke's 
Place,  in  1622.  In  1606,  Aldgate  was  destroyed  and  rebuilt 
in  a  more  modern  form.  The  plans  which  show  the  ancient 
gate,  were  therefore  made  before  this  time.  It  is  most 
probable,  as  they  were  found  amongst  Cecil's  papers,  that 
they  were  made  in  1592,  when  an  application  was  made 
to  the  Crown,  as  chief  lord,  for  permission  to  alienate.  In 
July  of  that  year  a  licence  was  given  to  Lord  Howard,  to 
grant  "  the  site  circuit  and  ambit  of  the  late  Monastery  of  Holy 
Trinity,  commonly  called  Xpichurche,  and  the  church  of  the 
Monastery  to  the  City  for  ever  "  (Originalia  Roll).  That  this 
is  the  date  of  the  plans  is  confirmed  by  all  the  evidence  I  have 
been  able  to  collect.  A  record  of  January,  1599,  speaks  of  a 
man  who  died  of  a  wound  received  "in  a  fencing  schoole 
m  the  Duke's  Place  within  Aldgate  "  (Atkinson's  St.  Botolph's). 
Now,  on  our  second  plan,  a  "Fense  Skole "  is  found  in  the 
bottom  left  hand  corner.  Again  the  plans  mention  the  garden 
of  Sir  Thomas  Heneage.  "  Thomas  Hennage,  Esq.,"  is  named 
among  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Katherine  Creechurch  in  the  Lay 
Subsidy  Roll  of  1576-7.  (From  this  roll  we  learn  that  many 
"strangers"  were  at  this  time  living  in  "the  precinct  of  the 
late  Duke's  Place.")  Sir  Thomas  Heneage  was  buried  in  St. 
Paul's  in  1594  (Hatton).  It  also  appears  in  the  plans  that 
a  large  part  of  the  site  was  owned  or  occupied  by  one  Aunsel. 
In  1590  the  roof  of  St.  Botolph's,  Aldgate,  was  surveyed  by 
John  Ansell,  carpenter,  who  was  a  person  of  some  importance, 
having  his  yard  just  outside  the  precinct  in  Houndsditch 
(Atkinson).  Another  considerable  portion  of  the  site  was 
occupied  by  one  Kerwin.  Now  a  successful  mason  of  this 
name  was  buried  in  St.  Helen's  in  1594,  and  his  tomb,  bearing 
the  arms  of  the  Masons'  Company,  is  there  still  (Hatton). 

A  large  part  of  the  old  mansion,  on  the  first  floor,  is  shown 
as  being  in  the  occupation  of  Sir  Francis  Hind.  In  the 
Subsidy  Roll  for  1585,  it  is  noted  that  "  Sir  Francis  Hynde  has 
a  house  in  the  ward  and  promises  to  pay."  In  the  roll  for 


BV     J.     SYRIANS. 


THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY.  47 

1596-7,  the  name  of  "  the  Lady  Hinde  "  appears.  In  March  of 
this  year  a  Sir  Francis  Hynde  died,  seized  of  property  in 
Cambridgeshire.  (Inq.  Post  Mortem,  39  Eliz.) 

Much  original  documentary  material  regarding  this  house  of 
Austin  Canons  still  exists.  The  Priory  was  founded  in  1108 
by  Maud,  wife  of  Henry  I.,  and  the  charter  is  still  extant,  in 
which  she  makes  it  free  of  all  subjection  save  to  St.  Paul's, 
and  gives  to  it  the  gate  of  Aldgate. 

A  charter  of  Henry  I.  grants  that  the  Canons  may  "close 
the  way  which  runs  between  their  church  and  the  city  wall ;  " 
and  a  charter  by  a  son  of  King  Stephen,  mentions  that  Maud 
and  Baldwin,  children  of  Stephen  were  buried  there.  Several 
of  these  charters  have  been  reproduced  in  the  Facsimiles  of 
National  MSS.  published  by  the  British  Museum  in  1865.  Let 
us  see  how  these  donations  to  the  Priory  are  recorded  in  the 
"  Liber  Trinitatis." 

Stow  speaks  of  having  had  this  manuscript  in  his  possession. 
It  still  exists,  and  a  careful  transcript  of  it,  with  a  translation,  is 
at  Guildhall.  It  was  written  by  Thomas  de  Axebridge  early 
in  the  I5th  century.  It  is  mostly  taken  up  with  a  collection  of 
charters  belonging  to  the  Priory,  but  a  short  account  of  the 
foundation,  and  of  the  lives  of  abbots,  precedes  the  body  of  the 
work  :  In  the  year  1108  the  priory  of  Holy  Trinity  was  founded 
by  Queen  Maud,  in  the  place  where  Syred  had,  of  old,  begun  a 
church  in  honour  of  the  Holy  Cross  and  St.  Mary  Magdalene. 
Norman  was  the  first  prior  and  the  first  canon  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Augustine  in  the  realm  ;  the  good  Queen  Matilda  gave 
to  the  Priory  the  gate  of  Aldgate,  which  the  Lord  Prior 
Norman  newly  rebuilt  from  the  foundations,  and  kept  peacefully 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  with  all  its  customs.  The  Queen 
intended  to  dedicate  the  church  herself,  but  her  life  did  not  last 
long  enough.  She  also  wished  to  be  buried  here,  but  the 
monks  of  Westminster  persuaded  the  King  in  their  own  favour 
and  she  was  buried  in  the  Confessor's  church  in  1118.  She  left, 
however,  her  relics  to  Holy  Trinity,  including  a  piece  of  the 
True  Cross  in  a  "capsa"  of  Constantinople  work,  which  the 
Emperor  had  sent  to  Henry  I.  In  1132  the  church  was  burnt, 
together  with  nearly  all  its  offices.  Prior  Norman  died  in  1147, 
and  was  buried  before  the  high  altar.  King  Stephen's  son  and 


48  THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY. 

daughter  were  buried  on  the  north  and  south  sides  of  the  altar. 
Peter  of  Cornubia,  the  fourth  prior,  1187-1221,  was  buried  in 
the  middle  of  the  chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  which  he  had 
built.  Here  Matilda,  daughter  of  Stephen,  was  baptised  ;  and 
here,  Stow  says,  FitzAlwin,  the  first  Mayor  of  London,  was 
buried. 

So  much  for  history.  We  now  turn  back  to  the 
plans  which  show  that  the  church  was  a  noble  one,  and 
evidently,  in  the  main,  of  Norman  date.  If  we  form  a.  scale 
from  the  plan  by  comparison  with  dimensions  which  may  still 
be  obtained  we  iind  that,  as  now  printed,  if  inches,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  represents  100  feet.  At  this  scale  the  total  interior 
length  is  245,  the  width  69,  and  120  across  the  transepts.  The 
nave  was  of  seven  bays,  and  the  east  limb  of  five,  with  a  Lady 
Chapel  beyond.  There  were  chapels  on  the  east  sides  of  the 
transepts,  and  two  others  further  eastward  formed  secondary  tran- 
septs. Projecting  west  ward  from  the  north  aisle  of  the  nave  strong 
walls  with  Norman  buttresses  at  the  angles,  enclose  a  space 
called  the  "Great  Tower;"  there  are  similar  buttresses  to 
the  south  transept,  and  the  whole  church  seems  to  have  been 
Norman  with  the  probable  exception  of  the  small  chapels  and 
the  Lady  Chapel.  The  last  was  built  about  1200,  and  this  is 
itself  evidence,  according  to  the  usual  order  in  which  work  was 
undertaken,  that  the  rest  of  the  church  had  by  that  time  been 
completed.  On  the  north  of  the  nave  was  a  cloister  about  80 
feet  square.  In  the  centre  of  its  east  side  was  a  fine  Chapter 
House  about  56  by  30  feet,  divided  into  three  bays,  by  wall 
piers:  from  this  circumstance,  and  the  shafts  in  the  corners, 
we  may  be  sure,  that  it  was  stone-vaulted.  Beyond  the 
Chapter  House, northwards,  ran  a  range  of  buildings  ;  eastward 
"  the  vaults  under  the  Dorter"  and  "the  Dorter"  above. 
This  chamber  was  about  no  by  34  feet.  By  the  angle  of 
the  Chapter  House  below,  the  foot  of  the  dormitory  stair  is 
shown. 

The  north  side  of  the  cloister  was  occupied  by  the  Prater 
("  The  Fratrye  ")  70  by  34  feet.  On  its  north  side  was  a  pro- 
jection containing  a  little  stair ;  this  was  the  pulpit  of  the  reader. 
At  the  north-west  corners  of  this  refectory  stands  the  "great 
kitchen"  and  "the  serving  place."  On  the  west  side  of  the 


THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY.  49 

cloister  was  a  range  of  vaulted  cellars  with  a  passage  through 
them  from  the  cloister  to  the  "great  court."  The  buildings 
above  on  the  first  floor,  marked  "  Parlour,  Hall,  Privy  Kitchen  " 
were  probably  the  Prior's  House  ;  to  which  the  second  range  of 
western  buildings  may  have  been  additions.  South  of  the  great 
court  is  the  gate  house  "entering  into  the  monastery,"  with  some 
buildings  attached  which  may  have  been  the  guest  house.  Then 
outside  at  the  south-west  corner  of  "  the  churchyard,"  wre  have 
St.  Katherine  Creechurch  in  its  mediaeval  state,  and  against  its 
east  end  a  "gate  entering  to  the  monastery  church,"  by  which 
the  south  porch  of  the  nave  was  reached  (by  passing  across 
what  would  have  been  the  cemetery  of  lay-folk),  without  entering 
the  priory  court. 

From  Vanden  Wyngaerde's  view  of  London,  it  appears  that 
there  was  a  large  central  tower  over  the  crossing.  The  steeple 
of  which  Stow  speaks  may  possibly  be  the  western  tower, 
which  may  have  contained  the  famous  peal  of  bells.  John 
Carter,  in  1797,  drew  (and  afterwards  published),  some  Norman 
arches  of  the  principal  arcades,  three  of  which  were  standing 
on  the  north  side,  and  one  on  the  south.  He  says  they  formed 
parts  of  a  western  aisle  to  the  south  transept,  and  an  eastern 
aisle  to  the  north  transept.  However,  as  the  transepts  were 
without  aisles,  and  as  the  axis  of  the  church  is  not  pointed 
east,  but  south-east,  he  must  have  taken  portions  of  the  arcades 
of  the  choir  and  nave  for  parts  of  the  transepts.  Two  etchings 
in  Malcolm  probably  represent  the  same  parts.  Another  etching 
in  the  European  Magazine  for  1802,  shows  some  remains  which 
came  to  light  after  a  fire  in  1800,  at  a  part  further  to  the  east  near 
the  street  of  Aldgate,  on  the  north  side  of  what  was  then 
Mitre  Court  (not  Mitre  Square,  which  was  then  Little  Duke's 
Place.)  This  would  seem  to  represent  two  "  transition " 
arches  (pointed),  and  must  be  a  part  of  the  Lady  Chapel.  The 
gateway  shown  on  this  view  led,  as  the  later  plans  of  the  ward 
show,  to  the  yard  of  the  Mitre  Inn,  which  adjoined  these 
remains. 

From  Dr.  Sharpe's  calendar  of  Wills,  Mr.  Philip  Norman 
has  collected  the  following  dedications  of  secondary  altars — 
St.  John  Baptist,  St.  Anne  and  St.  Erkenwald,  and  St.  Peter. 
Wilkinson  says  that  the  parish  altar  in  the  south  aisle  of  the 


50  THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY. 

nave  was  dedicated  to  St.  Mary  Magdalen.  The  great  nave  altar 
would  have  been  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Cross.  The  principal 
gate  of  the  Monastery  stood  until  1815.  It  was  engraved  by 
Wilkinson  and  others,  and  was  evidently  built  about  1280. 
Wilkinson  says  it  was  called  Thrum-gate,  and  gives  an 
elaborate  theory  to  account  for  this.  On  our  plan  we  see  that 
it  was  occupied  by  one  Throm. 

The  plan  of  this  monastery  may  be  compared  with  that  of 
Barnwell  (an  Augustinian  House),  which  was  very  similar; 
this  last  was  founded  in  1112,  and  completed  with  a  Lady 
Chapel  in  1229.  (See  Willis  Clark  on  Austin  Canons). 

The  Duke's  Place.  It  seems  easy  to  follow  on  these  plans 
the  way  in  which  the  Priory  was  altered  into  a  great  house. 
The  roofs  of  the  church  had  evidently  been  removed  to  make 
two  open  courts  out  of  the  old  choir  and  nave  ;  this  is  shown 
by  the  arrangement  of  windows.  The  Priory  gate  and  great 
court  were  retained,  but  an  additional  entrance  was  made 
through  the  old  Lady  Chapel.  A  great  drawing-room  called 
the  "  Ivy  Chamber  "  was  built  on  the  first  floor,  under,  or  in 
place  of,  the  central  tower.  The  refectory  and  kitchen  of  the 
Priory  wrere  retained  for  their  old  purposes.  Before  the  date  of 
our  plan,  and  the  final  degradation  of  the  site,  two  houses  seem 
to  have  been  formed  out  of  portions  of  the  Duke's  Palace  or 
Place.  The  one  over  the  Lady  Chapel  -was  in  the  possession 
of  Sir  Francis  Hind,  and  the  other  called  a  "  Mansion  house," 
stood  between  the  cloister  and  the  great  court. 

Survivals.  By  means  of  these  plans  and  the  maps  of 
Ogilby  and  Horwood,  we  may  trace  the  transition  of  the  site 
from  its  occupation  by  the  Priory  of  Queen  Maud  to  its  present 
dreary  squalor.  The  entrance  over  the  site  of  the  Lady  Chapel 
remained  until  the  beginning  of  this  century  (Gentleman's 
Magazine,  1800) ;  the  choir,  changed  into  the  east  court  of  the 
Duke's  Place,  survived  as  Mitre  Court.  From  this  Court 
there  was  a  passage  across  the  north  transept  into  the  cloister 
which  became  Little  Duke's  Place,  the  present  Mitre  Square. 
From  this  court  a  passage  into  the  great  court  through  the 
western  range  of  buildings,  is  exactly  represented  by  the 
present  covered  passage  into  Duke's  (or  St.  James's)  Place.  The 
site  of  the  Chapter  House,  and  probably  its  walls  (see  Ogilby  and 


ORY,"      BY      J.      SYMANS. 


THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY. 


7 


THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY    TRINITY.  51 


also  Hatton),  became  St.  James's  Church,  which  Strype  says 
"was  erected  on  the  long  decayed  ruins  of  the  Priory."  St. 
James's  gave  place  to  the  warehouse  on  the  east  of  the  present 
Mitre  Square.  The  present  court  at  the  angle  of  Mitre  Square, 
by  these  warehouses,  is  the  site  of  the  old  north  transept. 

The  passage  northwards  out  of  this  square  is  the  old 
passage  in  continuation  of  the  east  walk  of  the  cloister.  The 
Priory  gate  stood  at  the  south  end  of  the  modern  King  Street. 
Heneage  Lane  is  the  lane  against  "Sir  Thomas  Heneage's 
garden."  Duke  Street  is  the  old  "Way"  at  the  back  of  the  city 
wall,  even  the  reason  why  it  makes  a  bend  at  the  top  of  Heneage 
Lane,  is  explained  on  the  old  plans.  The  big  doorway  which 
to-day  stands  against  the  east  end  of  St.  Katherine's  Church, 
occupies  the  side  of  the  gateway  through  which  passed  the 
parishioners  to  the  south  porch  of  the  Priory  Church.  When 
early  in  the  present  century  Mitre  Street  was  built,  it  was  made 
to  start  at  the  old  east  entrance  into  the  Duke's  Place  ;  it 
then  absorbed  the  old  Mitre  Court,  and  passing  seven  or  eight 
yards  south  of  the  old  cloisters  (Mitre  Square),  it  joined  King 
Street  20  or  30  feet  north  of  the  old  gateway.  It  thus  passes 
right  through  the  axis  of  the  church  over  the  High  Altar  and 
the  Altar  of  the  Lady  Chapel,  over  the  graves  of  Prior  Norman 
and  the  children  of  King  Stephen. 

About  two  years  ago  a  fifteenth  century  arch  was  discovered 
on  the  south  side  of  Mitre  Street,  near  its  junction  with  the 
street  of  Aldgate ;  it  can  hardly  be  anything  else  than  the  south 
window  of  the  small  eastern  transept.  (See  Proceedings 
of  the  Society  Antiquaries,  March,  1898). 

St.  Katherine  Cree,  and  Aldgate.  With  these  plans  and  still 
existing  remnants,  we  may  form  a  very  good  idea  of  what  this 
church  was  as  seen  by  Stow.  The  lower  part  of  the  tower, 
which  stood  open  to  the  church  with  arches,  still  exists.  The 
floor  is  very  much  raised,  so  that  the  old  stair  turret  door  is 
nearly  buried.  Inside,  towards- the  nave,  the  respond  of  the 
nave  arcade  with  its  cap  is  still  attached  to  the  angle  of  the 
tower,  but  only  two  or  three  feet  above  the  present  floor. 
Outside,  the  ancient  masonry  may  be  traced,  low  down,  all 
along  the  south  and  west  fronts.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
parts  of  the  survey  is  the  plan  of  Aldgate  itself,  and  this  all  the 


52  THE    PRIORY    OF    HOLY     TRINITY. 

more  as  it  was  the  dwelling-house  of  Chaucer.  Stow  says  that 
the  gate  was  "  repaired,  or  rather  new  built,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Normans "  about  1215,  and  we  have  seen  that  the 
Register  book  says  it  was  built  about  a  century  before  this  time. 
When  it  was  rebuilt  in  1608,  it  was  about  75  feet  on  the 
front,  and  it  is  likely  that  this  would  have  followed  the  old 
dimensions.  As  the  ancient  circular  towers  are  about  26  feet 
each,  if  we  add  a  roadway  of  20  feet,  that  will  nearly  make  up 
the  75.  By  double  gates  Stow  probably  means  inner  and  outer 
gates.  The  length  of  wall  as  given  in  the  plans  shows  it  was 
about  12  feet  thick  below,  with  steps  up  to  the  passage  behind 
the  battlements.  Outside  is  the  bank  of  the  ditch. 

John  Synions.  The  plans  given  herewith  are  of  considerable 
intrinsic  interest,  as  they  are  the  earliest  examples  known  to  me 
of  such  careful  delineation  according  to  modern  methods.  In 
this  respect  they  go  far  beyond  the  well-known  plans  of  John 
Thorpe,  made  about  the  same  time.  Symons  seems  to  have 
been  proud  of  them  himself,  for  on  back  he  states  that  the 
"plot  of  Creechurche  is  drawn  by  J.  Symons."  About  1580, 
John  Symons,  master  mason,  was  engaged  on  important  works 
at  Dover  harbour,  including  building  a  pier.  A  letter  in  1582, 
from  Richard  Barray  at  Dover  Castle,  promises  to  do  his  best 
in  the  absence  of  John  Symons,  gone  to  Burghley  (CaL 
Hatfield  MSS.)  In  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Domestic, 
Elizabeth)  under  1577,  a  reference  is  given  to  a  plan  of  Dover 
Harbour  by  "  P.  Symons,"  the  date  is  followed  by  a  query,  and 
on  referring  to  the  plan  itself  it  is  seen  that  the  signature  on 
it  is  really  "  Per.  J.  Symons."  Further  entries  in  the 
Calendar  of  State  Papers  show  that,  in  1583,  the  building  of  a 
sluice  in  connection  with  the  same  work  was  entrusted 
to  John  Symons,  the  mason,  who  also  gave  his  opinion,  in 
conference  with  others,  on  what  should  be  done.  In  1584,  Sir 
Richard  Grenville  made  a  report  as  to  a  "plot  set  down  by 
Symons,  Stickelles,  and  Star,"  for  the  Dover  works. 

In  1593,  John  Symonds  made  two  plans  of  the  lodgings 
within  St.  Stephen's,  Westminster.-  (Cal.  Hatfield  MSS., 
Vol.  iv.)>  so  that  we  find  him  in  London  about  the  time  we  have 

*  I  shall  hope,  with  the  help  of  the  Editor,  to  publish  a  note  on 
these  plans. 


3 
o 

V) 

a. 


POPE    AT    BINFIELD.  53 

supposed  that  the  plans  of  Holy  Trinity  were  made.  Under 
the  year  1596,  still  another  plan  is  calendered.  It  is  of 
a  coast  fortification,  and  it  is  endorsed  by  Lord 
Burghley,  "John  Symons'  plott  of  the  reforming  of  the 
blockhouses";  an  accompanying  paper  says  that  the  platforms 
might  be  of  earth,  "  the  same  as  some  are  begun  by  Symons, 
whom  Lord  Burghley  used  at  Dover."  In  the  next  year  1597, 
the  death  of  "John  Symonds,  Queen's  Plaisterer,"  is  mentioned, 
and  this  is  probably  the  same  man,  as  a  mason  might  very  well 
be  appointed  to  that  office  if  it  fell  vacant  at  a  convenient  time, 
so  as  to  enjoy  the  pension  of  is.  a  day  attached  to  this  and 
similar  offices.  It  is  evident  that  Symons  was  a  skilled  master 
mason,  that  is  to  say  "architect  "  of  the  mediaeval  pattern.  It 
would  seem  probable  that  when  he  went  to  Burghley  in  1582, 
it  was  to  give  advice  in  regard  to  the  great  mansion  then 
building  there  by  his  patron. 


POPE    AT    BINFIELD. 

BY  Lucius   FITZGERALD. 

r  I  CHOUGH  the  parentage  and  life  of  Alexander  Pope, 
JL  have  been  the  subject  of  considerable  enquiry,  little 
seems  to  be  known  of  the  house  at  Binfield  in  Windsor  Forest, 
in  which  his  early  years  were  passed.  With  its  situation  few 
are  acquainted,  and  the  name  by  which  it  was  known  in  the 
poet's  days  is  quite  forgotten  even  in  the  neighbourhood.  Pope's 
biographers  appear  to  be  agreed  that  his  father  quitted  London 
as  a  consequence  of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  according  to 
Dr.  Johnson's  well-known  story,  being  "disappointed  by  the 
sudden  blast  of  Popish  prosperity"  retired  to  Binfield,  "with 
about  twenty  thousand  pounds ;  for  which  being  conscienciously 
determined  not  to  entrust  it  to  the  Government,  he  found  no 
better  use  than  that  of  locking  it  up  in  a  chest,  and  taking  from 
it  what  his  expenses  required ;  and  his  life  was  long  enough  to 
consume  a  great  part  of  it  before  his  son  came  to  the 
inheritance."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he  did  not 


54  POPE    AT    BINFIELD. 

purchase  his  Binfield  property  till  nearly  ten  years  after  the 
Revolution,  as  the  dates  which  follow  will  show. 

The  future  poet  was  born  in  London  in  May,  1688,  and  from 
this  date,  says  Mr.  Courthope,*  "up  to  the  little  Alexander's 
twelfth  year  when,  as  he  himself  informs  us,  his  father  removed 
him  to  Binfield,  the  history  of  the  family  is  almost  a  blank.  There 
is  nothing  to  show  how  long  the  father  continued  to  pursue  his 
business,  or  when  he  acquired  the  property  at  Binfield.  He 
seems  to  have  made  a  small  fortune  in  trade  which,  according 
to  Hearne  the  antiquary,  an  accurate  reporter,  brought  him  in 
an  income  of  three  or  four  hundred  a  year.  It  has  been 
assumed  on  the  most  shadowy  evidence  that  before  making  his 
purchase  in  Windsor  Forest  he  resided  at  Kensington.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  many  reasons  may  have 
conspired  to  make  him  desire  a  residence  at  some  distance  from 
London  immediately  after  the  Revolution ;  nor  can  anything 
be  argued  from  his  son's  expression,  recorded  by  Spence,  that 
when  he  was  about  twelve  years  old  he  went  with  his  father 
into  the  Forest.  Such  a  phrase  may  mean  no  more  than  at  this 
age  he  was  taken  from  school  to  live  at  home." 

Pope  was  often  inaccurate  in  persona]  matters,  but 
in  this  case  seems  to  be  correct  enough.  Lysons  in  his 
Berkshire,  says  that  Binfield  is  generally  said  to  have  been 
the  birth-place  of  Pope ;  but  Dr.  Wilson,  the  late  rector, 
ascertained  that  he  did  not  come  there  till  he  was  six  years 
of  age.  This  also  seems  a  mistake.  Whitehill  House,  to 
give  it  the  name  by  which  it  was  known  down  to  the  end 
of  the  1 8th  century,  is  a  red-brick  building  built  probably 
during  the  I7th  century  like  many  of  the  farm  houses  near 
it.  It  has  been  altered  and  enlarged  by  successive 
owners,  so  that  its  appearance  in  the  poet's  time  is  undistin- 
guishable.  Judging  from  the  size  of  the  two  rooms  which 
remain  of  the  original  house,  it  must  have  been  very  small, 
agreeing  with  a  passage  in  one  of  the  poet's  letters  to  H. 
Cromwell,  dated  June  25th,  1711,  wherein  he  speaks  of  a 
"  little  room  and  a  little  heart  both  at  your  service."  It  lies  at 
the  south  end  of  the  parish  of  Binfield,  nearly  two  miles  from 

*  Life  of  Pope.     Courthope  &  El  win's  Edition  of  Pope's  Works.    1889. 


POPE    AT    BINFIELD.  55 

the  parish  church,  and  a  short  distance  north  of  the  road  from 
London  to  Reading,  through  Bracknell  and  Wokingham,  being 
about  half-way  between  the  two  latter  places  and  nearly  30 
miles  from  Hyde  Park  Corner.  This  road  was  in  existence  in 
the  iyth  century,  but  the  other  roads  in  the  neighbourhood  are 
no  doubt  more  modern ;  as  for  instance  the  Forest  Road,  not 
far  north  of  Whitehill,  a  road  running  from  Windsor  to 
Reading,  made  by  the  surrounding  landowners  in  1770.  A 
short  distance  before  the  3Oth  milestone  from  London  a 
bye-way  leaves  the  high-road  in  a  northerly  direction,  and 
passes  close  to  the  poet's  former  home.  The  latter,  which  has 
been  known  successively  as  Whitehill  House,  Binfield  Lodge, 
Pope  Lodge,  and  The  Firs,  is  now  known  as  Arthurstone. 

The  history  of  the  house  begins  in  the  year  1695.  In 
February  of  that  year,  "Gabriel  Yonge,  of  Warfield,  in  the  county 
Berks,  gent.,"  sold  to  Charles  Rackett,  "of  Hammersmith,  in 
the  parish  of  Fulham,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  gent.,"  for  the 
sum  of  445/.,  all  that  messuage  or  tenement  called  Whitehill 
House,  with  five  closes  of  arable  or  pasture  land,  containing  by 
estimation  fourteen  acres,  and  known  as  Whitehill  Closes  and 
Whitehill  Coppice,  lying  and  being  together  in  the  parish  of 
Binfield,  in  the  county  of  Berks,  between  the  highway  and 
common  there  on  the  east  and  south  parts  thereof,  and  a 
coppice  now  or  late  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  on  the  north; 
and  three  acres  of  land  lying  dispersed  in  the  common  fields  of 
Binfield,  and  a  meadow  known  by  the  name  of  Little  Corner, 
containing  twro  acres,  bounded  on  the  east  and  west  by  the  land 
of  John  Pocock,  on  the  south  by  the  land  of  John  Blackmore, 
called  Home  Croft,  and  by  the  common  fields  of  Binfield  on  the 
north.  This  last  piece  of  ground  had  been  part  of  the  land  of 
John  Blackmore,  and  had  been  sold  by  him  to  G.  Young  in 
1685,  for  the  sum  of  25^. 

It  is  impossible  now  to  identify  the  position  of  these 
different  closes,  but  the  names  of  these  seventeenth 
century  yeomen  are  preserved  by  the  two  copses  lying  to 
the  west  of  Whitehill,  and  marked  on  the  Ordnance 
maps  as  Pococks  (pronounced  locally  as  Pockets),  and 
Blackmans  (Blackmore)  copse.  The  enclosures,  which  took 
place  when  Windsor  Forest  was  disforested  at  the  beginning  of 


56  POPE    AT    BINFIELD. 

the  present  century,  probably  make  the  words  of  Macaulay 
particularly  applicable  to  this  part  of  the  country :  "  Could 
the  England  of  1685  be,  by  some  magical  process,  set  before 
our  eyes,  we  should  not  know  one  landscape  in  a  hundred,  or 
one  building  in  ten  thousand.  The  country  gentleman  would 
not  recognise  his  own  fields."  (History,  cap.  iii.) 

The  house  and  grounds  were  at  this  time  in  the  occupation 
of  one  Thomas  Holmes,  as  tenant  for  the  term  of  three 
years  from  September  soth,  1694,  at  a  yearly  rent  of  i6l. 
Charles  Rackett  was  no  doubt  the  husband  of  Magdalen  Pope, 
the  poet's  elder  half-sister;  and  among  the  witnesses  to  the  deed 
of  conveyance,  appears  the  name  of  Alexander  Pope,  who 
three  years  later,  purchased  the  property  for  the  same  price  that 
the  latter  had  given  for  it.  The  Racketts  are  subsequently 
mentioned  by  Pope  in  his  correspondence,  in  the  year  1711, 
as  living  at  Hall  Grove,  a  house  near  Bagshot,  which  still 
exists  under  the  same  name.  This  purchase  took  place  in 
July,  1698,  and  Pope  is  described  as  "  of  Hammersmith 
aforesaid  Merchant,"  Rackett  being  late  of  the  same  place.*" 
Rackett,  however,  could  not  have  lived  at  Binfield  for  more  than 
a  few  months,  as  the  lease  of  Holmes,  the  under  tenant,  would 
only  have  expired  in  September,  1697,  some  nine  months  before 
he  sold  the  house  to  Pope.  The  latter  may  have  gone  to  reside 
there  at  once,  in  the  summer  of  1698 — when  his  son  was  just 
ten  years  of  age.  The  few  particulars  known  of  his  previous 
life  may  be  mentioned  here.t  According  to  Warton,  "  Mr. 
Pope's  grandfather  was  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  Hampshire.  He  placed  his  son,  Mr.  Pope's  father,  with  a 
merchant  at  Lisbon,  where  he  became  a  convert  to  Popery." 
Mr.  Courthope  adds.  "Accepting  this  statement  which 
appears  to  be  made  on  good  authority,  it  would  appear  to  be 
not  improbable,  though  it  is  by  no  means  certain,  that  the 
poet's  grandfather  was  one  Alexander  Pope,  Rector  of 
Thruxton,  in  Hampshire,  who  died  in  1645.  Alexander  Pope, 
his  son,  and  the  poet's  father,  is  said  to  have  been  a  posthumous 
child."  It  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  if  he  was  74  years 

*  Of  Hammersmith,  in  the  parish  of  Fulham,  now  of  Whitehall,  in  the 
parish  of  Binfield,  in  the  county  of  Berks. 
t  Mr.  Courthope's  Life. 


POPE    AT    BINFIELD.  57 

old  at  the  time  of  his  death,  as  the  inscription  on  the  tablet  to 
his  memory  in  Fulham  Church  states,  it  would  make  him  about 
two  years  old  at  the  death  of  the  Rev.  A.  Pope.  In  either  case 
he  could  not  have  been  sent  to  Lisbon  by  his  father.  On  his 
return  from  Lisbon  he  seems  to  have  followed  the  trade  of  a 
linen  draper  in  Broad  Street,  London,  and  the  register  of  St. 
Bennet  Fink  shows  that  on  the  I2th  of  August,  1678,  he 
buried  his  first  wife,  by  whom  he  had  one  daughter,  the 
Magdalen  Rackett,  whom  the  poet  frequently  speaks  of  in  his 
correspondence  as  his  sister.  After  his  second  marriage*  he 
removed  his  business  to  Lombard  Street,  where  his  son  was 
born,  both  parents  being  at  the  time  more  than  forty  years 
old.  The  date  of  Magdalen  Pope's  marriage  with  Rackett, 
seems  to  be  unknown,  and  wherever  he  lived  in  the  interval, 
the  elder  Pope  could  not  have  been  at  Whitehill,  at  any  rate 
before  it  came  into  his  son-in-law's  possession  at  the  end  of 
1697 — probably  not  till  he  purchased  it  himself  in  July,  1698. 
But  in  the  April  of  1700,  he  conveyed  to  Samuel  Mawhood, 
citizen  and  fishmonger  of  London,  and  Charles  Mawhood,  of 
London,  gent.,  "  all  that  brick  messuage  or  tenement  wherein 
he,  the  said  Alexander  Pope,  the  elder,  now  dwelleth,  in  trust  for 
his  only  son  Alexander  Pope,  the  younger,  and  his  heirs,"  the 
various  pieces  of  arable  and  pasture  land  amounting  to  seven- 
teen acres  altogether.  The  land  was  divided  into  the  House 
Close  of  two  acres,  a  piece  of  meadow  of  four  acres,  three 
closes  of  arable  amounting  to  six  acres,  the  three  acres  in  the 
common  fields  and  Little  Corner.  The  young  Alexander  was  at 
this  time  nearly  twelve  years  old,  the  age  at  which  he  says  he 
went  with  his  father  into  the  Forest.  He  now  formed  his  own 
plan  of  study  and  soon  began  his  literary  career.  He  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Sir  William  Trumbull,  with  whom  and 
other  noted  personages  he  corresponded,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  next  fifteen  years  made  his  reputation  as  a  poet.  Trumbull, 
who  had  retired  from  office  as  Secretary  of  State  in  1697, 
resided  at  Easthampstead  Park,  about  a  mile-and-a-half  south 
of  Whitehill  in  the  old  house,  since  pulled  dow'n,  when  the 
present  mansion  was  built.  He  died  in  1716,  and  his  epitaph 
was  written  by  Pope,  who  also  wrote  the  inscription  on  the 

*  To  Edith,  daughter  of  William  Turner,  Esq.,  of  York. 


58  POPE    AT    BINFIELD. 

tablet  to  the  memory  of  Elijah  Fenton,  a  fellow  poet,  in 
Easthampstead  Church.  Fenton  died  in  1730.  The  grove  of 
beech  trees  known  as  Pope's  Wood,  lies  about  half-a-mile 
north-east  of  Whitehall,  on  the  slope  of  a  little  hill  from  which 
a  pleasant  view  is  to  be  obtained.  Here  was  the  tree  under  the 
shade  of  which  the  poet  is  said  to  have  sat  while  composing 
some  of  his  works.  On  this  tree  Lady  Gower  is  said  to  have 
caused  the  words  "  Here  Pope  sang,"  to  be  cut  in  large  letters 
in  the  bark  at  some  height  from  the  ground.  According  to  a 
writer  in  the  Penny  Magazine  (February,  1835),  this  inscription 
was  distinctly  visible  later  than  the  year  1820,  having  doubtless 
been  occasionally  renewed,  and  the  tree  itself  was  then  in  good 
condition,  though  the  stem,  to  the  height  of  seven  or  eight 
feet,  was  covered  with  the  names  of  visitors,  many  of  them 
deeply  cut  into  the  bark.  A  few  years  later  the  upper  portion 
of  the  tree  was  torn  off  by  a  gale,  which  is  said  to  have  injured 
none  of  the  neighbouring  beeches,  and  the  whole  tree  has  long 
since  disappeared.  Bill  Hill,  the  seat  of  Earl  Gower,  lies  a 
few  miles  from  Binfield,  and  is  often  mentioned  in  the 
biographies  and  political  histories  of  the  i8th  century.  Lord 
Gower  being  a  prominent  statesman,  and  head  of  one  of  the 
great  Whig  families  of  the  day.  His  first  wife  was  the  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Kingston,  and  sister  of  the  celebrated  Lady 
Mary  Wortley  Montagu.  Probably  it  was  she  who  had  the 
inscription  cut. 

Little  is  known  of  the  life  led  by  the  Pope  family  at 
Binfield.  The  elder  Alexander  is  said  to  have  been  fond  of 
gardening,  and  Sir  William  Trumbull,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
sends  him  thanks  for  some  artichokes*.  The  only  place 
in  the  neighbourhood  mentioned  by  name  in  the  poet's 
correspondence  is  the  Priests'  Wood,  between  Whitehall  and 
Bracknell,  though  he  alludes  to  his  rides  with  Trumbull  and  to 
his  rambles  about  the  Forest  with  his  dog.  He  fills  one  of  his 
letters  with  a  description  of  the  latter,  wherein  he  mentions 
that  its  mother  had  lived  to  the  age  of  22  years.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  elder  Pope  fixed  his  residence  at  Binfield, 
partly  on  account  of  the  proximity  of  several  Roman  Catholic 
families,  the  Blounts  at  Maple  Durham,  the  Englefields  at  White 

*  In  1706. 


POPE    AT    BINFIELD.  59 

Knights,  near  Reading,  and  the  Dancastles  at  Binfield  itself. 
But  a  residence  in  the  country  was  not  to  the  poet's  taste,  and 
accordingly  he  abandoned  it  as  soon  as  his  fame  was  assured, 
and  the  profits  of  his  works  had  rendered  him  independent. t 
During  the  period  of  his  life  at  Binfield,  Pope  had  published 
his  Pastorals,  Essay  on  Criticism,  Messiah,  Unfortunate 
Lady,  The  Rape  of  the  Lock,  Temple  of  Fame,  and  Windsor 
Forest,  the  last  in  1713,  and  in  that  year  began  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Iliad,  the  profit  of  which  brought  him  fortune  as 
well  as  fame.  Therefore,  in  March,  1715,  Alexander  Pope,  the 
elder,  and  the  two  Mawhoods,  "at  the  request  and  desire  of 
Alexander  Pope,  the  younger,"  sold  Whitehill  House,  wherein 
the  elder  Pope  "  now  dwelleth,"  to  James  Tanner,  of  the  parish 
of  St.  Andrew's,  Holborn,  London,  for  the  sum  of  55O/.  paid 
to  Alexander  Pope,  the  younger.  With  this  sale  the  connexion 
of  the  poet  and  his  family  with  Binfield  ends,  and  all  trace  of 
of  them  has  vanished. 

There  was  in  the  garden,  down  to  the  year  1884,  when  it 
died,  a  cypress  tree,  traditionally  said  to  have  been  planted  by 
Pope.  The  room  known  in  later  years  as  the  "study,"  with  the 
bedroom  above,  formed  part  of  the  original  house,  and  is 
probably  unaltered  since  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  ;  it  may 
therefore  have  been  the  poet's  study,  though  there  is  no 
evidence  of  the  fact.  In  an  article  on  Audley  End,  the  Essex 
seat  of  Lord  Braybrooke,  who  also  owns  the  Billingbear  Estate 
near  Binfield,  which  appeared  in  the  Pall  Mall  Magazine  for 
July,  1897,  it  is  stated  that  there  is,  at  the  former  place,  a  chair 
given  to  the  third  Lord  Braybrooke  in  1844,  by  the  Rev.  T. 
Ashley,  who  had  been  for  many  years  curate  at  Binfield.  He 
found  it  in  a  cottage,  and  the  woman  who  owned  it  told  him 
that  her  husband's  mother  had  lived  many  years  with  the  late 
Mr.  Pope,  and  that  it  was  her  master's  chair  given  to  her  as  a 
keep-sake.  Mr.  Ashley  thought  the  chair  had  been  given  to 
the  poet  after  his  translation  of  the  Iliad,  and  that  the  carving 
on  the  back  alluded  to  that  work.  The  date  at  which  Mr. 
Ashley  purchased  it  is  not  stated.  The  row  of  fine  Scotch 
firs  from  which  one  of  the  modern  names  of  the  house  was 

t  His  father,  the  elder  Pope,  in  1707,  invested  5,220  livres  in  an 
annuity  on  his  son's  life  at  10  per  cent. 


60  POPE    AT    BINFIELD. 

taken,  must  also  have  existed  in  the  poet's  time.  Some  writers 
have  supposed  that  Pope  alludes  to  the  house  and  its  surroundings 
in  the  lines  wherein  he  speaks  of 

"  My  paternal  cell, 
A  little  house,  with  trees  a-row, 
And  like  its  master  very  low. 
There  died  my  father,  no  man's  debtor, 
And  there  I'll  die,  nor  worse  nor  better."^ 

But  the  contradiction  between  the  two  last  lines  and  the 
preceding  ones,  negatives  the  idea  that  any  special  allusion  is 
intended.  His  father  died  in  1717,  two  years  after  the  sale  of 
Whitehill,  in  the  house  in  Mawson'sBuildings,Chiswick,  to  which 
the  family  had  removed.  Pope  himself  died  in  1743  in  the  more 
celebrated  villa  at  Twickenham,  the  lease  of  which  he  purchased 
in  1719.  Still  Whitehill  may  be  called  his  paternal  cell.  In 
a  letter  to  his  friend  Caryll,  dated  the  2Oth  March,  1715,  after 
speaking  of  the  distress  among  Roman  Catholics,  consequent 
on  the  Jacobite  rising  just  defeated,  he  describes  his  farewell  to 
the  place  thus: — "  I  write  this  from  Windsor  Forest,  which  I 
am  come  to  take  my  last  look  and  leave  of.  We  have  bid  our 
papist  neighbours  adieu,  much  as  those  who  go  to  be  hanged 
do  their  fellow  prisoners  who  are  condemned  to  follow  them  a 
few  weeks  after.  I  was  at  White  Knights  where  I  found  the 
young  ladies  I  just  now  mentioned,  spoken  of  more  coldly  than 
I  could,  at  this  time  especially,  have  wished.  I  parted  from 
honest  Mr.  Dancastle  with  tenderness,  and  from  old  Sir  William 
Trumbull  as  from  a  venerable  prophet  foretelling  with  uplifted 
hands  the  miseries  to  come  upon  posterity  which  he  was  just 
going  to  be  removed  from."  He  seems  to  have  revisited 
Binfield  two  years  later,  as  he  says  in  another  letter  to  the 
same  :  "  Then  I  am  obliged  to  pass  some  days  between  my 
Lord  Bathurst's,  and  three  or  four  more  on  Windsor  side; 
thence  also  to  Mr.  Dancastle,  and  my  relatives  on  Bagshot 
Heath."  These  latter  being  the  Racketts.  He  does  not  mention 
the  place  again.  The  subsequent  history  of  Whitehill  may 
soon  be  traced.  From  James  Tanner  it  passed  into  the  possession 
of  William  Reynolds,  Esq.,  who  died  in  March,  1775,  and  left 

*  Imitations  of  Horace,  Epistle  VII. 


POPE    AT    EINFIELD.  61 

it  to  his  wife,  and  after  her  death,  which  took  place  in  the 
following  October,  to  Elisha  Biscoe,  of  the  Inner  Temple,  who 
died  in  January,  1776,  and  whose  son  sold  it  to  James  Batson, 
Esq.,  in  September,  1776.  The  price  paid  for  it  was  2, no/., 
nearly  four  times  the  amount  which  Pope  had  received  for  it. 
Probably  the  house  had  been  enlarged  and  improved  in  the 
interval,  changed  in  fact  from  a  yeoman's  to  a  gentleman's 
residence.  Mr.  Reynolds  had  also  added  to  the  property  the 
cottage  and  one  acre  of  land  lying  opposite  the  house — land 
which  had  belonged,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  to  John 
Blackmore.  This  he  purchased  in  1760  for  94^.  IDS.  Other 
small  purchases  and  exchanges  were  made  in  the  next  thirty 
years,  the  ground  known  as  Furzes  being  added  in  1801. 
Edward  David  Batson,  Esq.,  owned  Whitehill  in  the  year  1786, 
and  during  his  ownership,  and  before  1801,  the  name  was 
changed  to  that  of  Binfield  Lodge.  It  was  at  this  time  let  to 
Thomas  Neate,  Esq.  At  Mr.  Batson's  death  it  became  the 
property  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Fane,  who  sold  it  to  Gerald 
FitzGerald,  Esq.,  in  1841.  It  was  then  known  for  a  time  as 
Pope's  Lodge,  and  subsequently  as  the  Firs.*  In  1884  it  was 
purchased  of  L.  H.  Fitzgerald,  Esq.  by  T.  O.  Wethered,  Esq., 
who  soon  afterwards  resold  it  to  —  McNabb,  Esq.,  by  whom 
the  house  has  again  been  renamed,  and  called  Arthurstone. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  space  of  two  centuries,  Whitehill 
has  changed  hands  by  sale  eight  times,  and  had  fifteen  different 
owners.  In  the  course  of  the  last  hundred  years  it  has  borne 
four  different  names. 

*  Extensive  alterations  and  additions  were  made  to  the  house  about 
1860,  or  a  little  earlier. 


SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS    IN    MIDDLESEX 
AT    THE    TIME    OF    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  BRISTOL. 
(Continued  from   Vol.   1,p.  322). 

THE    HUNDREDS   OF    ISLEWORTH,  ELTHORNE   AND    SPELTHORNE. 

PRESENTMENT  made  by  the  jurors  of  the  hundreds 
aforesaid,  of  the  number  and  yearly  values  of  all 
parsonages,  vicarages,  and  other  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical 
benefices  and  livings  and  other  things  within  the  places 
aforesaid,  to  them  given  in  charge  by  the  commissioners  in 
that  behalf,  authorized  by  Letters  Patent  under  the  Great 
Seal  of  England,  in  pursuance  of  an  Act  of  this  present 
parliament  of  the  8th  June,  1649,  and  by  the  said  jurors 
delivered  to  the  said  commoners  the  2gth  October,  1650. 

ISLEWORTH. 

Imprimis,  We  present  that  we  have  within  our  parish  one 
parsonage  belonging  to  Henry  Mildmay,  Esquire,  who  had 
the  [grant]  thereof  from  the  late  Dean  and  Chapter 
of  Windsor,  for  a  certain  term  of  which  there  is  seven  years 
to  come  at  Lady-day  next.  [We]  conceive  the  parsonage 
house,  barns,  outhouses,  tithes,  with  the  glebe  land  thereto 
belonging  to  be  worth  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
pounds  and  five  shillings  per  annum,  and  that  Mr.  Samuel 

Rowles  is  our  present  preaching  minister in  our 

vicarage  by  consent  of  the  parishioners,  and  hath  the 
profits  thereof,  which  amount  to  about  thirty  pounds  per 
annum,  for  his  salary. 

TWICKENHAM. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  which  belongs 
also  to  Henry  Mildmay,  Esquire,  who  had  the  grant  thereof  from 
the  late  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Windsor,  for  a  certain  term  of 
which  there  is  also  seven  years  to  come  at  Lady-day  next  for 
and  under  a  reserved  rent  of  thirty-five  pounds  [twelve] 
shillings  and  four-pence  halfpenny  for  both  parsonages.  And 


SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS.  63 

we  conceive  our  said  parsonage,  together  with  the  glebe  land 
thereunto  belonging,  to  be  worth  about  one  hundred  and  six 
pounds  per  annum ;  and  that  one  Mr.  Thomas  Willis  is  deputy 

minister  settled  and  chosen  by  the  parishioners 

diligent  in  observing  all  commands  of  parliament,  and  hath 
for  his  salary  the  profits  of  the  vicarage  which  amount  to 
fifty-five  pounds  per  annum  or  thereabouts. 

HESTON. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  within  our  parish  one 
parsonage  impropriate,  and  one  vicarage  and  a  chapel,  and  that 
Sir  Thomas  Stafford,  knight,  holds  the  said  parsonage  in  the 
right  of  his  lady  during  her  life,  and  the  lives  of  Sir  William 
Killegrew,  knt.,  and  his  lady  by  grant  from  the  late  Bishop  of 

London the  rent  twenty-four  pounds  a  year, 

and  had  formerly  the  presentation  of  the  said  vicarage.  And 
we  conceive  the  said  parsonage,  with  two  barns,  an 
orchard,  and  the  tithes  thereto  belonging  to  be  worth  about 
two  hundred  and  four-score  pounds  per  annum  ;  and  that  Mr. 
Nathaniel  [Bos]tocke  is  our  present  incumbent,  [and]  was 
settled  in  the  said  vicarage  about  eleven  years  since  by  the  said 

Bishop,  and  hath  for  his  salary house  with 

the  appurtenances,  fifteen  acres  of  glebe  land,  and  the  tithe 
hay,  and  other  petty  tithes,  which  we  conceive  to  be  worth 

about   sixty   pounds    per   annum four 

pounds  a  year  as  an  augmentation  by  order  of  the  said 
committee.  And  that  our  chapel  [Hounslow?]  is  above  a  mile 
distant  from  our  church  ....  yearly  rent  of  forty  shillings, 
given  by  Mr.  Roane  for  the  inhabitants  to  hear  prayers  on 
Sabbath  day,  there  being  one  hundred  families  in  the  said 
town  (and  most  of  them  inn  and  ale-house  keepers  dependent 
upon  travellers),  which  forty  shillings  is  paid  by  Justinian 

Povey the  said  chapel  is  vacant  for  want  of 

maintenance,  but  our  said  church  is  situated  near  about  the 
middle  of  the  parish  and  the  cure  [a]bly  and  painfully 
supplied  by  the  said  Mr.  Bostocke. 

TEDDINGTON. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  rectory  appropriated 
and  one  vicarage  which  is  a  donative  and  hath  no  cure  of 
souls,  neither  is  it  presentative  ....  our  present  rectory 


64  SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS. 

was,  by  letters  patent  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  granted 
unto  John  Hill,  Esq.,  and  his  heirs,  and  Wm.  Hill,  Esq.,  is 
now  owner  ....  thereof.  It  was  granted  with  the 
Manor  of  Tuddington,  out  of  both  which  was  then  reserved  to 
the  Crown,  for  ever,  eight  pounds  per  annum.  The  whole 
profits  of  the  said  rectory  we  conceive  to  be  worth  about  fifty 
pounds  per  annum  which  is  received  by  the  said  Mr.  Hill. 
There  is  no  messuage  or  land  belonging  to  the  said 
.  .  .  .  only  tithes  of  corn  and  hay  and  petty  tithes,  and  no 
other  duties.  Also,  that  the  donation  of  the  said  vicarage  (which 
is  now  vacant),  belongs  to  the  said  Mr.  Hill  and  his  heirs,  and 
there  is  only  due  and  belonging  to  the  vicar,  six  pounds  thirteen 
shillings  and  four-pence  per  annum,  which  the  said  Mr.  Hill 
.  .  .  .  pay  by  the  original  grant,  out  of  the  parochial 
tithes ;  and  we  humbly  conceive  our  small  church  very 
convenient  for  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  parish  and 
not  fit  to  be  divided  or  joined  to  any  other. 

SUNBURY. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  within  our 
parish  impropriate  to  Lancelot  Lake,  Esq.,  who  formerly  held 
the  same  by  lease  of  the  Dean  .  .  .'  .  .  .  of  Paul's, 
London,  which  is  worth  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  per 
annum  as  it  is  now  let. 

Also,  that  one  Mr.  Gall  hath  within  our  parish  a  parcel  of 
.  .  .  .  which  did  formerly  belong  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter 
of  Chichester,  which  is  rented  at  eleven  pounds  a  year. 

Likewise,  that  one  Mr.  George  Phip  hath  a 

of  tithes  which  is  rented  at  fourteen  pounds  per  annum. 

And  we  present  that  we  have  one  vicarage  formerly  in  the 
gift  of  the  said  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Paul's,  to  which  Mr. 
Henry  Jordan,  our  present  incumbent,  a  pious  preaching 
minister,  was  presented  by  the  Lord's  Commissioners  of  the 
Great  Seal  of  England,  who  has  for  his  salary  the  whole 
profits  of  the  said  vicarage,  viz.,  a  house  and  garden  plot  with 
forty-four  acres  of  arable  land  and  four  acres  of  meadow  and 
pasture  [and]  the  small  tithes  thereto  belonging  which  we 
conceive  to  be  worth  about  forty  pounds  per  annum. 


Cjeorge  JJ1  i-  olV   bouse 


GEORGE    ELIOT    AT    RICHMOND. 

BY  FRED.  TURNER,  F.R.HIST.S. 

WHEN    the    literary   history    of    the    royal    borough    of 
Richmond     is    written,    one   chapter,    recording    the 
three   years   residence   there  of  George  Eliot,    will  stand   out 
most  prominently. 

There  were  no  years  in  George  Eliot's  life  more  calculated 
to  leave  a  permanent  impression  in  the  literary  history  of  our 
country  than  those  spent  so  industriously  in  apartments  at  No. 
8,  Parkshot,  Richmond — a  house  haunted  with  the  memories 
of  many  distinguished  people ;  with  this  fact  in  view,  one  is 
forced  to  express  the  hope  that  the  rumour  which  reports  the 
early  demolition  of  this  house,  along  with  No.  7,  Parkshot,  a 
former  residence  of  the  great  Corn  Law  reformer,  the  late 
Right  Hon.  C.  P.  Villiers,  is  without  foundation. 

Richmond,  one  of  the  most  picturesquely  situated  towns  on 
the  banks  of  the  Thames,  can  boast  of  an  interesting  roll  of 
fame  :  kings,  queens,  statesmen,  poets,  and  novelists  have  at 
various  periods  dwelt  within  her  borders,  but  it  is  safe  to  assert 
that  there  is  no  more  famous  name  recorded  on  that  roll  than 
that  of  the  distinguished  lady  whose  nom  de  plume,  George 
Eliot,  is  known  throughout  the  world. 

We  may  not  entirely  agree  with  Mr.  Oscar  Browning  in  his 
estimate  of  George  Eliot's  place  in  our  literary  history — a  niche 
next  to  Shakespeare,  but  we  can  fully  endorse  his  opinion  that 
"  no  woman  has  attained  a  higher  place  "  in  literature ;  and  we 
may  add  that  she  secured  this  exalted  position,  chiefly,  by  work 
accomplished  in  the  house  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

George  Eliot's  residence  in  Richmond  commenced  in 
September,  1855,  and  we  have  the  authority  of  her  biographer 
—her  second  husband — for  saying  that  it  was  between  this 
date  and  the  year  1859,  when  she  left  the  town  to  reside  at 
Wandsworth,  that  her  "  most  memorable  literary  work  was 
accomplished." 

No.  8,  Parkshot,  Richmond,  represented  in  our  illustration, 
is  situated  near  to  the  railway  station,  at  the  back  of  the  main 

E 


66  GEORGE    ELIOT    AT    RICHMOND. 

thoroughfare  from  Kew,  and  in  close  proximity  to  Richmond 
Green  and  Old  Deer  Park.  From  an  architectural  point  of 
view  there  is  nothing  very  striking  about  the  house ;  it  is 
exceedingly  dull  looking,  and,  apart  from  the  prolific  growth  of 
ivy  which  nearly  covers  the  front,  it  is  devoid  of 
picturesqueness. 

The  rooms  formerly  occupied  by  the  famous  writer  are  those 
on  the  second  floor;  they  are  small  and,  at  this  time,  dingy 
apartments,  which  the  decaying  hand  of  time  has  not  rendered 
any  pleasanter ;  the  ivy  from  without  has  forced  its  way  through 
the  cracks  in  the  window  frames,  and  is  growing  within  the 
room  which  may  possibly  have  been  the  novelist's  writing 
room.  Yet,  as  one  stands  in  the  old-fashioned  place,  the 
feeling  is  undoubtedly  strengthened  that  Richmond  should 
make  an  effort  to  secure  the  old  house  from  destruction. 

The  back  of  the  house  is  very  quaint,  and  a  narrow  path 
leads  out  to  a  pleasant  garden  in  which  we  like  to  think  that 
the  novelist,  with  her  love  of  nature  in  all  its  aspects,  took  the 
deepest  interest. 

The  novelist  has  said  in  one  of  her  letters — "  We  enjoy  our 
new  lodgings  very  much,  everything  is  the  pink  of  order  and 
cleanliness."  It  will  be  remembered  by  the  admirers  of  George 
Eliot's  works,  that  her  first  attempts  at  novel  writing  were 
made  in  Richmond ;  she  and  her  husband  had  frequently 
discussed  her  qualifications  for  such  an  undertaking ;  she  had  a 
wonderful  power  for  descriptive  writing,  and  she  had  wit ;  but 
her  husband  was  scarcely  convinced  of  her  ability  to  give 
expression  to  the  deeper  feelings  of  human  nature,  or  to  present 
her  matter  in  dramatic  form.  However,  an  attempt  was  made, 
and  on  the  occasion  of  a  stroll  in  Richmond  Park,  a  place  she 
repeatedly  visited,  she  announced  to  George  Lewes  that  she 
had  actually  written  part  of  a  story  to  be  called — "  The  Sad 
Fortunes  of  the  Rev.  Amos  Barton."  When  they  returned 
to  their  apartments  she  produced  the  MS.  and  read  over  the 
story,  as  far  as  it  was  written,  to  the  intense  satisfaction  of  her 
husband.  "We  both  cried  over  it,"  she  relates,  "and  then  he 
came  up  to  me  and  kissed  me,  saying,  '  I  think  your  pathos  is 
better  than  your  fun'." 

The   story   was   completed    and   appeared    in   Blackwood's 


George  Eliot's  House  at  Richmond.     Back  View. 


GEORGE    ELIOT    AT    RICHMOND.  67 

Magazine  for  January,  1857  ;  and  ultimately  became  the  initial 
tale  of  a  series  now  known  as  "  Scenes  from  Clerical  Life." 
The  author's  popularity  was  at  once  assured,  and  her  biography 
contains  some  amusing  accounts  of  attempts  made  to  discover 
her  identity,  most  of  her  critics  asserting  that  she  was  a 
clergyman ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  remember,  so  well  was 
the  secret  kept,  that  even  her  publisher,  Mr.  John  Blackwood, 
failed  to  discover  her  sex  or  real  name  until  he  was  introduced 
to  her  personally,  some  time  after,  in  her  rooms  at  Parkshot. 

The  sensation  created  by  the  appearance  of  "Clerical  Life" 
had  scarcely  subsided  before  another  important  novel  was 
begun;  the  novelist's  journal  for  October  22nd,  1857,  records 
that  a  long  story  to  be  entitled  "Adam  Bede "  had  been 
commenced.  With  the  exception  of  a  part  of  volume  ii.,  the 
whole  of  "  Adam  Bede  "  was  written  at  Richmond.  The  work 
is  too  well-known  to  require  description ;  it  is  without  doubt 
the  most  popular  of  George  Eliot's  novels.  For  a  four  years 
copyright  of  "  Adam  Bede  "  the  author  received  8oo/. 

Space  forbids  an  extended  notice  of  the  minor  work  George 
Eliot  accomplished  in  Richmond ;  she  was  constantly 
reviewing,  translating,  or  composing  in  her  room  at  Parkshot ; 
but  before  concluding,  it  is  interesting  to  record  her  impressions 
of  the  neighbourhood  in  which  she  resided  at  so  important 
a  period  in  her  literary  life. 

She  was  particularly  charmed  with  Richmond  Hill  and 
Park,  and  her  journals  contain  frequent  allusions  to  these 
delightful  spots.  "  We  have  had  a  delicious  walk  in  the 
Park,"  she  says,  "  and  I  think  the  colouring  of  the  scenery  is 
more  beautiful  than  ever.  Many  of  the  oaks  are  still  thickly 
covered  with  leaves  of  a  rich  yellow-brown;  the  elms,  golden 
sometimes,  still  with  lingering  patches  of  green.  On  our  way 
to  the  Park  the  view  from  Richmond  Hill  had  a  delicate  blue 
mist  over  it,  that  seemed  to  hang  like  a  veil  before  the  sober 
brownish-yellow  of  the  distant  elms.  As  we  came  home,  the 
sun  was  setting  on  a  fog-bank,  and  we  saw  him  sink  into  that 
purple  ocean — the  orange  and  gold  passing  into  green  above 
the  fog-bank,  the  gold  and  orange  Deflected  in  the  river  in  more 
sombre  tints.  The  other  day,  as  we  were  coming  home  through 
the  Park,  after  having  walked  under  a  sombre,  heavily-clouded 


68  GEORGE    ELIOT    AT    RICHMOND. 

sky,  the  western  sun  shone  out  from  under  the  curtain,  and  lit 
up  the  trees  and  grass,  thrown  into  relief  on  a  background  of 
dark-purple  cloud.  Then  as  we  advanced  towards  the 
Richmond  end  of  the  park,  the  level  reddening  rays  shone  on  a 
dry  fern  and  the  distant  oaks,  and  threw  crimson  light  on  them. 
I  have  especially  enjoyed  this  autumn,  the  delicious  greenness 
of  the  turf,  in  contrast  with  the  red  and  yellow  of  the  dying 
leaves." 

In  another  place  she  gives  a  further  impression  of  the  royal 
borough.  "  Richmond  is  not  fascinating  in  '  the  season '  or 
through  the  summer.  It  is  hot,  noisy,  and  haunted  with 
cockneys;  but  at  other  times  we  love  the  Park  with  an 
increasing  love." 

There  is  a  further  interest  associated  with  George  Eliot's 
Richmond  home ;  the  fame  of  the  novelist  appears  to  have 
dwarfed  the,  by  no  means  unimportant  fact  that  her  husband, 
George  Lewes,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  critics,  scientists,  and 
philosophers  of  his  day,  wrote,  in  the  same  room  as  his  famous 
wife,  books  of  considerable  merit.  Herbert  Spencer,  who  was 
a  frequent  guest  at  Parkshot,  had  high  opinions  of  the  work  of 
Lewes,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  such  works  as  "Sea-Side 
Studies,"  and  "The  Physiology  of  Common  Life"  may  live, 
when  much  more  popular  literature  is  consigned  to  oblivion. 
George  Eliot  was  the  constant  companion  and  fellow  student 
of  Lewes  in  his  scientific  wanderings  and  pursuits. 

George  Eliot's  residence  in  Richmond  terminated  in 
February,  1859.  One  hopes  that  enough  has  been  said  here  to 
induce  the  literary  spirit  of  the  royal  borough  to  keep  alive  the 
memory  of  one  who,  by  her  three  years'  residence  there,  has 
added  lustre  to  the  town's  history. 

The  present  writer  is  convinced  that  there  is  sufficient 
literary  interest  in  Richmond  to  secure  the  house  in  Parkshot 
from  the  ravages  of  the  modern  builder.  Stratford-on-Avon 
has  its  houses  of  Shakespearian  interest ;  Ayr  its  Burns 
Cottage ;  Grasmere  its  Dove  Cottage,  to  keep  green  the 
memory  of  Wordsworth's  residence  there.  Why  may  not 
Richmond  have  a  memorial  of  its  greatest  literary  resident  ? 


THE    ROADS    AND     RIVERS    OF    KENT    IN 
THE    LAST    CENTURY. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  G.  B.  RASHLEIGH. 

A  CCOMPANYING  a  copy  of  J.  Seller's  map  of  Kent, 
JL\  circa  1710,  preserved  at  the  British  Museum  C^),  is 
a  report  made  by  Colonel  Forbes,  apparently  to  the  War 
Office,  on  the  roads  and  ways  of  Kent,  which  is  of  some 
topographical  interest  and  modern  importance ;  the  reference 
to  footpaths  will  doubtless  be  noted  by  those  who  guard  public 
rights  in  such  matters.  According  to  the  Museum  catalogue 
the  report  was  made  in  1755 — a  period  when,  it  will  be 
remembered,  the  French  were  threatening  a  descent  upon 
England.  The  probability  of  a  successful  descent  was  evidently 
contemplated  by  the  authorities,  but  the  Colonel's  observations 
as  to  the  inevitable  fate  which  would  attend  the  invading  force, 
once  landed,  must  have  given  considerable  relief.  It  reminds 
us  of  the  remark  attributed  to  Count  Moltke:  that  he  had 
devised  many  methods  for  bringing  an  army  into  England,  but 
had  failed  to  find  any  for  taking  it  out  again ! 

"  According  to  your  directions,  I  have  looked  over  the  middle  part 
of  Kent,  from  Maidstone  down  below  Ashford,  and  from  thence  to 
Canterbury. 

I  must,  however,  first  observe  that  when  the  sea  is  at  ebb,  and 
no  flood  in  the  River  Medway,  that  there  are  four  places  fordable 
between  Rochester  and  Maidstone,  which  I  have  marked  upon  the 
map.  But  the  ford  next  to  Rochester  is  dangerous  upon  account  of 
the  breadth  of  the  river,  and  the  access  to  it  from  the  east,  being  a 
kind  of  morass  and  swampy  ground. 

From  Maidstone  up  the  river  towards  Tunbridge,  the  river  is 
only  made  considerable,  from  the  different  locks  made  upon  it  on 
account  of  the  navigation.  But  those  locks  destroyed,  the  river 
which  is  called  the  Tunn  would  be  of  consequence. 

The  other  branches  that  compose  the  Medway,  come  from  the 
Weald  of  Kent,  in  a  course  from  east  to  west,  and  pour  out  a  great 
quantity  of  water  ;  as  they  run  in  a  clayey  soil,  so  that  little  or  none 
of  the  water  that  runs  from  the  high  grounds  to  the  north  of  the 
Weald,  or  from  the  Weald  itself  is  any  way  absorbed. 

The  most  considerable  of  those  branches  is  that  which  runs  from 
above  Smarden  directly  westward  towards  Yalding,  and  about  a 
mile  below  that,  joining  with  the  other  branches  from  the  Weald, 
and  the  Tunn  from  Tunbridge  ;  they  form  the  Medway. 


70  KENT    ROADS    AND    RIVERS. 

Those  other  branches  coming  from  the  Weald,  which  in  the  maps 
appear  distinct  rivulets,  yet  are  all  the  same,  as  in  flood  the  whole 
are  joined,  and  even  in  dry  winter  seasons  they  communicate  by 
ousing  along  in  the  ditches  of  the  different  inclosures. 

Over  each  of  those  branches  there  are  several  bridges,  but  over 
the  greatest  branch,  there  are  three  considerable,  as  all  or  most  of 
the  roads  from  Sussex  and  the  south  parts  of  Kent  centre  at  them. 
These  are  Yalding,  Stiles  and  Stevens  Bridges.  From  each  of  these 
bridges  there  is  but  one  road,  that  leads  from  them  directly  northward 
for  one  mile  or  two  through  the  Weald,  and  so  up  to  the  ridge  of 
hills  and  villages  and  again  separates  up  on  the  summit. 

The  bridges  are  marked  on  the  map  with  the  letter  A — as  are 
likewise  the  villages  upon  the  hills  through  which  the  roads  pass. 

The  Weald  or  woody  country  of  Kent  is  so  well-known  as  to 
need  no  description.  But  to  consider  it  in  a  military  way,  of  its 
being  12,  14  or  more  miles  broad,  its  being  of  a  stiff  deep  clayey 
soil,  that  absorbs  no  rain  or  water  that  comes  upon  it,  and  that  from 
the  great  timber  trees,  closeness  of  the  hedges,  and  hollow  ways, 
etc.,  the  sun  has  scarce  any  influence  upon  the  roads.  It  is, 
therefore,  absolutely  impassable  for  wheel  carriages  in  the  winter 
time,  even  to  the  inhabitants  themselves,  so  consequently  to  any 
body  of  troops,  not  to  be  attempted.  And  the  road,  when  practicable 
on  horse- back,  is  only  upon  a  narrow  broken  causeway  of  one  or 
two  feet  broad,  under  the  hedge,  to  keep  one  from  sticking  fast  in 
the  clay. 

N.B.  There  are  footpaths  through  the  inclosure  by  the  side  of 
the  great  roads. 

The  hills  or  high  grounds  lying  all  along  to  the  north  of  the 
Weald,  begin  when  the  Medway  cuts  them  at  Burston  Park,  and 
from  thence  run  directly  east  12  miles  to  Boughton  Malherb. 

The  ascent  of  that  whole  tract  of  hills  from  the  Weald  to  the 
summit  of  them  may  be  about  half-a-mile  in  many  places.  Although 
their  declivities  are  often  more  or  less  difficult.  But  in  general  the 
great  road  from  the  bridges  through  the  villages  to  the  tops  of  the 
hills  is  the  easiest  ascent.  The  grounds  to  the  right  and  left  of  those 
roads  are  divided  into  small  enclosures  of  hop  grounds,  cherry 
orchards,  etc.,  which  I  fancy  will  make  them  a  disagreeable  route 
for  any  body  of  troops  to  pass  through. 

The  summits  of  the  hills  in  general  have  a  very  thick  coppice 
wood  upon  them,  and  towards  the  Medway  behind  this  coppice  there 
is  a  heath  called  Coxheath,  where  a  body  of  infantry  may  encamp  in 
one  line,  as  it  is  three  miles  long  and  half-a-mile  broad,  tolerable 
good  ground  with  wood  and  water. 

The  Dragoons  might  encamp  likewise,  but  could  not  well  act  or 
be  of  service  as  the  country  all  around  is  enclosed. 

N.B.  The  villages  upon  the  hills  are  at  two  and  three  miles 
distance  one  from  the  other  all  along  for  20  or  25  miles. 

Those  hills  from  Boughton  Malherb  stretch  away  to  the  south 
east,  obliquely  across  the  Weald  towards  Romney  Marsh ;  but  are 
here  so  flattened  as  to  become  part  of  the  Weald.  But  at  Hum  and 


A    VISIT    TO    LITTLE    DUMMOW.  71 

Bilsington  the  hills  rise  again,  and  in  a  north-east  direction,  run  to 
Hyth  along  the  side  of  Romney  Marsh.  Towards  Charte  Magna, 
where  the  hills  become  rather  flattened,  yet,  notwithstanding,  it  must 
be  about  the  highest  part  of  the  Weald,  as  those  rivulets  which 
run  to  the  Medway  rise  to  the  south  of  it,  and  the  Stoure  that  runs 
to  Canterbury  rises  from  the  north  side  of  the  same  village. 

There  is  another  ridge  of  hills,  that  shape  their  course  pretty 
much  in  the  same  direction,  but  eight  miles  to  the  northward  of  the 
former,  that  is  to  say  half-way  between  Rochester  and  Maidstone, 
near  the  Medway.  These,  like  the  former,  are  more  or  less  accessible 
all  the  way  eastward  to  Eastwell  (Lord  Winchelsea's  Park),*  where 
they  are  cut  by  the  Stoure,  and  part  of  this  ridge  accompanies  that 
river  to  Canterbury,  which  is  twelve  miles,  and  where  they  are  all 
along  impracticable  for  a  body  of  troops.  The  continuation  of  this 
ridge  of  hills  on  the  east  side  of  the  Stoure  runs  away  towards 
Folkestone  and  Dover. 

Ashford  stands  upon  the  opening  that  the  Stoure  makes  in  the 
last  ridge  of  hills,  and  about  three  miles  north  of  Charte  Magna. 

The  Stoure  is  -a  pretty  rapid  stream,  has  three  bridges  upon  it 
between  Ashford  and  Canterbury,  but,  although  impassable  in  floods 
in  the  winter  season,  yet  there  are  sundry  fords  when  the  river  is  in 
its  natural  state.  The  bridges  over  the  Stoure  are  Wye,  Godmersham, 
and  Shawford,  four  miles  distant  each  from  another.  And  at 
Godmersham  the  vale  is  so  narrow  that  it  might  easily  be  rendered 
a  difficult  pass. 

The  tracts  of  country  here  described  comprehends  from  Yalding 
to  the  east  of  Ashford,  26  miles. 

From  Bexley  Hill  upon  the  Medway  down  to  Eastwell,  20  miles. 

And  from  Ashford  down  to  Canterbury,  15  miles. 

(To  be  continued). 


A    VISIT    TO    LITTLE    DUNMOW. 
BY  DUNCAN  MOUL. 

ON  the  left  bank  of  the  river  Chelmer,  between  Braintree  and 
Bishop's  Stortford,  situated  in  one  of  the  prettiest  parts 
of  Essex,  lies  the  village  of  Little  Dunmow.  Once  a  place 
of  some  importance,  it  has  now  little  to  boast  of,  except 
the  scanty  remains  of  the  ancient  priory.  The  nearest  station 
is  Felstead,  from  which  it  is  distant  about  half-a-mile.  The 
village,  a  collection  of  picturesque  cottages,  is  at  the  turn  of 

*  "  20  miles  "  written  in  the  margin  against  this. 


72  A    VISIT    TO    LITTLE    DUNMOW. 

the  road,  and  a  few  yards  further  down  will  be  seen  the  newly 
built  rectory-house  where  the  key  of  the  church  is  obtained. 
Taking  a  path  through  the  field  on  the  left  we  arrive,  after  a 
few  hundred  yards'  walk,  at  the  Norman  church*,  the  only 
building  in  Dunmow  that  we  can  certainly  point  to  as  a 
remaining  portion  of  the  once  celebrated  priory,  erected  in 
1104,  by  Juga,  the  sister  of  Ralph  Baynard,  builder  of  Baynard 
Castle  in  London  ;  though  it  is  quite  possible  that  a  group  of 
old  cottages,  originally  one  building,  facing  the  church  door, 
may  contain  in  them  remains  of  some  portions  of  the 
priory,  for  the  walls  are  of  remarkable  thickness. 

The  first  view  of  the  church  is  most  disappointing,  for  it 
has  been  much  "  restored,"  and  the  outside  made  hideous 
by  the  ugly  bell  tower  on  the  north  side.  But  on  entering 
the  building,  we  find  the  restorer  has  left  much  that  is  of  the 
greatest  interest,  and  we  can  at  once  realize  what  the  priory 
church  must  have  been.  On  the  south  side,  running 
below  the  windows,  will  be  noticed  an  arcading  with  most 
remarkable  and  very  elaborate  carvings,  some  of  them 
representing  animals  in  the  quaintest  positions,  intermingled 
with  human  figures.  In  the  chancel,  behind  the  altar,  is  a 
reredos,  which,  although  rather  broken,  is  lavishly  decorated. 

Some  years  back  a  beautiful  oak  screen,  curiously  carved, 
separated  the  nave  of  the  church  from  the  chancel,  but  this 
has  now  gone  ;  it  is  said  that  the  present  pulpit  was  made  out 
of  portions  of  this  screen. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  church,  between  twro  of  the 
pillars,  is  the  tomb  of  the  celebrated  Matilda  Fitz  Walter,  with 
whose  name  much  romance  is  associated,  and  who,  in  legend,  is 
indentified  with  "  Maid  Marion,"  sharer  in  the  fortunes  of 
"  Robin  Hood."  The  figure  on  the  top  is  in  a  fair  state  of 
preservation,  though  the  face  is  somewhat  injured.  It 
is  dressed  in  long  flowing  robes  with  a  rich  girdle  round  the 
waist.  The  fingers  are  covered  with  rings ;  and  about  the  neck 
is  a  collar  beneath  a  handsome  necklace.  On  either  side  of 
the  head  are  the  remains  of  two  small  figures ;  the  feet  rest 
upon  a  dog. 

The  history  of  the  lady  is  given  as  follows :  She  was  the 

*  The  church  constituted  the  south  aisle  of  the  priory  church. 


A    VISIT    TO    LITTLE    DUNMOW.  73 

daughter  o£  Robert,  Baron  FitzWalter,  well-known  in  English 
history  as  chief  of  the  Barons  who  rose  against  King  John, 
and  compelled  him  to  grant  the  Great  Charter.  To  celebrate 
her  eighteenth  birth-day,  her  father  gave  a  long  series  of 
banquets  and  entertainments,  to  which  all  the  neighbouring 
nobles  and  knights  were  bidden.  On  the  fourth  day  a  grand 
tournament  was  held,  at  which  the  assembled  knights  competed 
for  a  crown  to  be  given  by  the  fair  Matilda,  who  acted  as 
queen  of  the  tournament.  An  unknown  warrior  obtained  the 
prize,  and  on  receiving  it  from  the  hands  of  the  queen  departed 
as  secretly  as  he  had  come,  though  not  before  his  gallant 
bearing  and  handsome  face  had  won  the  affections  of  the  lady. 

Prince  John,  who  afterwards  became  King  of  England,  was  a 
guest  at  the  festivities,  and  conceived  a  great  passion  for  the 
beautiful  Matilda,  and  endeavoured  to  induce  her  to  become  his 
mistress.  Such  proposals  she,  however,  treated  with  scorn, 
and  John,  gathering  his  followers  together,  attacked  the  Castle, 
slaying  its  lordly  owner,  though  his  daughter  escaped  into  the 
adjacent  forest.  Here,  on  the  following  day,  she  met  the 
strange  knight  who  had  so  distinguished  himself  at  the 
tournament,  but  he  was  now  clad  in  a  dress  of  an  archer.  He 
told  her  that  he  was  the  outlawed  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  but 
that  he  was  known  as  "Robin  Hood,"  and  that  he  and  his 
followers  lived  in  the  forest.  Matilda  remained  with  the  band 
some  time,  and  married  Robin,  becoming,  when  he  was 
restored  to  his  earldom,  Countess  of  Huntingdon.  At  his 
death  she  retired  to  Dunmow  Priory,  to  which  the  FitzWalter 
family  had  been  benefactors,  to  spend  the  rest  of  her  days. 

John,  who  had  then  become  King,  had  not  forgotten  the 
lady's  beauty,  and  made  another  attempt  to  gain  possession  of 
her ;  but  with  no  success.  Enraged  at  his  second  failure,  he 
sent  a  knight  to  Dunmow  bearing  a  present  of  a  pair  of 
poisoned  gloves — or,  as  some  accounts  give  the  story — a 
poisoned  bracelet,  which,  after  she  had  donned,  poisoned  her 
blood  and  caused  her  death.  The  knight,  who  was  ignorant  of 
the  form  of  the  gift,  on  learning  of  its  fearful  nature,  refused 
to  return  to  the  king  and  became  a  monk.  Such  is  story  ;  its 
authenticity  is  shaken  by  the  fact  that  Robert  FitzWalter  was 
killed  at  the  seige  of  Damietta  in  the  year  1234. 


74 


A    VISIT    TO    LITTLE    DUNMOW. 


Dunmow  church  also  contains  a  fine,  though  much  damaged, 
monument  to  Walter  FitzWalter,  grandfather  of  the  Lady 
Matilda,  who  died  A.D.  1198,  and  was  buried  in  the  choir  with 
his  second  wife. 

But  a  notice  of  Dunmow  church  would  not  be  complete 
without  reference  to  the  famous  *'  bacon  "  chair,  which  stands 
on  the  left  of  the  chancel,  and  in  which,  as  is  well-known, 
the  successful  claimants  of  the  "flitch"  were  chaired. 
Considering  the  rough  usage  this  certainly  venerable  seat  has 
probably  received,  its  condition  is  better  than  might  be 
expected.  The  story  of  the  Dunmow  Flitch  has  been  so  often 
related  that  there  is  no  need  to  repeat  it  here ;  an  excellent 
account  of  it  appears  in  Chambers'  "  Book  of  Days,"  edit. 
1863,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  248-251,  where  is  figured  Osborne's  picture  of 
this  procession  in  1751. 


THE    CHARITIES   OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

BY  THE  EDITOR. 
(Continued  from  Vol.  I.  p.  228). 

Hertford,  Watford  School,  St.  Albans  and  Berkhampstead 
By  an  Inquisition  taken  at  Hertford,  ig  January,  1645, 
it  was  found  that,  about  19  years  before,  John  Brown,  of 
London,  merchant,  dying  intestate,  the  administration  of  his 
estate  was  granted  to  Sir  Thomas  Gardner,  then  Recorder  of 
London,  out  of  which  it  was  ordered,  in  the  Prerogative  Court, 
that  6ooo/.  should  be  taken  and  employed  to  pious  uses ; 
whereupon  the  said  Sir  Thomas  allowed  3oo/.  out  of  the  said 
estate  to  be  employed  to  the  use,  of  the  poor  of  the  town  of 
Hertford.  An  inn  in  Hertford,  known  by  the  sign  of  the 
Chequer,  at  the  time  of  taking  the  Inquisition,  in  the  tenure  of 
Robert  Thorowgood,  at  the  rent  of  i8/.,  was  purchased,  about 
17  years  before  the  taking  of  the  Inquisition,  of  Thomas 
Wright,  sometime  schoolmaster  in  Hertford,  with  2jol.  part  of 
the  said  3OO/.,  to  the  use  of  the  poor  of  Hertford.  Another 
messuage  or  tenement,  situate  in  the  parish  of  All  Saints  in 
Hertford,  in  the  occupation  of  Thomas  Hodge,  at  the  rent  of 
i/.  6s.  Sd.,  was,  about  five  years  after,  purchased  with  the 
remainder  of  the  said  3OO/.  to  the  use  aforesaid. 

The  jurors  also  found  that  Edward  Card,  gentleman,  by  his 
will  dated  23  March,  1631,  devised  to  George  Gippes,  parson, 
of  the  parish  of  St.  Andrew,  Hertford,  and  to  Henry  Bull, 
Esq.,  George  Pettit,  Joseph  Dalton,  and  William  Peele,  of 
Hertford,  gentlemen,  and  their  heirs,  a  messuage  and  tenements 
in  St.  Andrew's,  aforesaid,  in  the  tenure  of  Samuel  Goodman 
at  the  rent  of  3/.,  to  hold  to  them  their  heirs  and  assigns  in 
trust  that  they,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  should,  out  of  the 
yearly  rent  and  profit  thereof,  every  year  disburse  505.,  that  is 
to  say  :  205.  on  Easter  Tuesday,  205.  on  the  feast  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist,  and  IDS.  on  the  feast  of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel, 
for  ever,  to  such  of  the  aged  and  impotent  poor  people  of 
St.  Andrew's,  "as  should  usually  resort  to  their  parish  church 
and  should  not  be  of  ill  name  or  fame,  as  they  should  think 
fit";  and  that  ios.,  residue  of  the  said  6os.,  should  be  bestowed 
yearly  upon  a  dinner  on  Tuesday  in  Easter  week  to  those 
persons  who,  from  time  to  time,  should  be  trusted  with  the 
disposition  of  the  said  money  to  the  use  of  the  poor.  The 
said  Edward  Card  likewise  gave  4O/.  to  be  employed  to  the  use 
of  the  poor  of  the  parish  of  All  Saints',  Hertford,  and  a 
messuage  in  the  said  parish,  adjoining  the  said  tenement  in  the 


76  THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

occupation  of  the  said  Thomas  Hodge,  and  an  orchard  thereto 
belonging,  were  purchased  with  the  said  4O/.,  to  the  use  of  the 
poor  of  the  said  parish ;  the  said  messuage  was,  in  1645,  in  the 
occupation  of  one  John  Okeley  at  the  rent  of  405.,  and  the 
said  orchard  is  in  the  occupation  of  the  said  Thomas  Hodge 
at  the  rent  of  6s.  Sd. 

The  jurors  further  found  that  Mary  Pettitt,  widow,  by  her 
will  dated  9  March,  1641,  devised  one  messuage  or  tenement  in 
the  parish  of  St.  Andrew,  near  Cowbridge,  to  the  intent  that  it 
be  inhabited  by  two  poor  widows  of  the  same  parish,  rent 
free,  successively,  for  ever. 

They  also  found  that  29  acres  and  one  rood  of  meadow, 
called  King's  Meadow,  in  Hertford,  amongst  other  things 
theretofore  purchased  of  the  King  by  the  mayor  and  burgesses 
of  Hertford,  was  "pretended  "  for  the  use  of  "the  poor  of  the 
corporation  of  Hertford,"  and  that  the  same  ought  to  be 
disposed  of  to  the  use  of  the  poor  of  the  said  corporation  for 
ever,  all  charges  and  payments,  wherewith  the  said  meadow 
ground  was  then  partly  chargeable,  being  first  discharged. 
Albeit,  the  poor  of  the  said  corporation  were  left  out  of  the 
said  grant,  and  no  use  therein  expressed  to  that  purpose,  the 
mayor  and  burgesses  having  confessed  before  the  commissioners 
and  jurors,  that  they  did  and  do  still  intend  the  same  to  the  use 
of  the  said  poor,  saving  to  every  person  his  right  of  common  in 
and  to  the  premises. 

The  jurors  further  found  that  Francis  Combes,  late  of 
Hemel  Hempstead,  Esq.,  by  his  will  dated  I  May,  1641, 
devised  out  of  his  lands,  tenements  and  goods  in  Hemel 
Hempstead,  io/.  for  ever  to  a  free  school  in  Watford,  for 
teaching  the  poor  to  cast  accounts,  to  read  English,  and  to 
write. 

The  said  Francis  also  gave  to  the  Abbey  Church  in  St. 
Albans,  for  ever,  out  of  his  said  lands,  goods,  tenements  and 
tithes  in  Hemel  Hempstead,  io/.  for  ever,  so  long  as  there  should 
be  a  weekly  sermon  on  Saturday  [the  preacher]  to  be  chosen 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  "  best  inhabitants,"  within  the 
liberties  of  St.  Albans  borough. 

The  jury  conceived  that  the  intent  and  meaning  of  the 
said  testator  was  that  the  said  io/.  devised  to  the  school  of 
Watford  should  be  paid  yearly  for  ever  out  of  his  lands, 
tenements  and  goods  to  the  said  free  school  to  the  uses 
aforesaid,  albeit  the  word  yearly  is  not  mentioned  in  the  said 
will ;  and  that  the  said  other  lol.  devised  to  the  said  Abbey 
Church  should  be  likewise  yearly  paid  for  ever  out  of  his  said 
lands,  tenements,  goods  and  tithes,  so  long  as  there  should  be 
a  weekly  sermon  on  Saturday,  and  the  lecturer  chosen  in 
manner  aforesaid. 


THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE.  77 

The  said  Francis  Combes  also  devised  2ol.  per  annum  for 
ever,  out  of  his  lands  in  Berkhampstead  St.  Peter,  otherwise 
Great  Berkhampstead,  and  Hemel  Hempstead,  to  a  godly  and 
learned  preacher  to  be  chosen  by  most  voices,  whereof,  for  a 
Monday  lecture  in  Berkhampstead  20  nobles,  and  for  a  Thursday 
lecture  in  Hemel  Hempstead  20  marks  ;  the  said  preacher  to 
be  yearly  chosen  for  ever  by  most  voices. 

The  jury  lastly  found  that  neither  the  said  sum  of  iol.,  nor 
the  said  20  marks,  nor  20  nobles,  had  been  paid  since  the  making 
of  the  said  will,  to  their  knowledge. 

The  order  is  dated  on  the  day  of  taking  the  Inquisition. 
It  was  directed  that  the  profits  from  the  premises  in  All 
Saints',  Hertford,  be  employed  yearly  to  the  use  of  the  poor  of 
Hertford  for  ever ;  and  that  the  profits  from  the  premises  in 
St.  Andrew's,  Hertford,  bequeathed  by  Edward  Card  and 
Mary  Pettitt,  be  employed  as  the  jury  found  they  should  be 
employed. 

It  was  further  ordered  that  the  Mayor  of  Hertford,  for  the 
time  being,  and  two  of  the  most  ancient  burgesses  of  each 
parish  of  the  said  town,  together  with  six  more  of  the  ablest 
parishioners  of  each  of  the  said  several  parishes,  of  such  as 
bore  the  greatest  burden  for  the  relief  of  the  said  poor,  not 
being  burgesses,  should,  at  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  said 
mayor  and  burgesses,  in  the  month  of  May,  yearly,  make  choice 
of  one  to  receive  all  such  rents  and  monies  as  were  intended  for 
the  uses  aforesaid  and  according  to  their  direction,  or  the  major 
part  of  them,  to  issue  out  the  same  agreeable  to  the  exigency 
and  necessity  of  the  poor  of  the  said  several  parishes ;  and 
that  each  party,  so  chosen  and  undertaking  the  said  receipts  and 
disbursements,  should  yearly,  at  the  said  meeting,  exhibit  his 
accounts  for  the  past  year ;  and  that  a  copy  of  these  accounts 
should  be  delivered  to  such  of  the  parishioners  as  should  desire 
to  peruse  the  same.  The  order  then  deals  with  certain  over- 
payments made  by  the  corporation  of  Hertford,  and  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  grant  of  the  King's  Meadow 
was  obtained. 

With  regard  to  Francis  Combes'  bequest  to  Watford 
School,  it  was  ordered  that  the  persons  nominated  for  the 
ordering  of  the  school  should  be  paid  yearly  iol.  from  the  rents 
and  profits  of  the  testator's  property,  to  be  paid  by  them  to  the 
schoolmaster  ;  and  that  the  iol.  to  the  Saturday  lecturer  at 
St.  Albans  Abbey  should  be  paid  yearly.  The  document  is  so 
much  effaced,  that  it  cannot  be  decided  whether  Combes'  bequest 
to  the  lecturers  at  Berkhampstead  and  Hemel  Hempstead  is 
dealt  with.  (Petty  Bag  Charity  Inquisitions.  Bundle  W, 
No.  15). 


-THE    NATIONAL    TRUST."* 

BY  HUGH  BLAKISTON. 

IT  is  probably  unnecessary,  in  the  year  of  grace  1900,  to 
explain  elaborately  to  the  readers  of  the  Home  Counties 
Magazine  what  is  the  "  National  Trust  for  Places  of  Historic 
Interest  or  Natural  Beauty."  Even  to  those  unacquainted 
with  the  Trust's  work,  its  lengthy  and  sonorous  title  is  almost 
a  sufficient  explanation,  but  for  clearness  sake,  and  in  order  to 
hasten  the  day  when  a  fuller  recognition  will  make  it  possible 
for  us  to  wriggle  off,  like  a  lizard,  our  superfluous  tail,  and 
stand  forth  as  the  simple  "  National  Trust,"  I  will  commence 
with  a  brief  account  of  our  history  and  work.  I  will  then  go 
on  to  dwell  in  more  detail  on  certain  aspects  of  the  Trust's 
work,  and  to  indicate  the  lines  which,  I  think,  its  development 
should  follow. 

The  National  Trust  was  founded  in  the  year  1894  by  the 
Duke  of  Westminster,  the  Earl  of  Carlisle,  Lord  Hobhouse, 
the  Right  Hon.  James  Bryce,  Sir  Robert  Hunter,  Miss 
Octavia  Hill,  and  others,  and  was  incorporated  as  a  Limited 
Liability  Company  (I  quote  the  Articles  of  Association)  "  to 
promote  the  permanent  preservation  for  the  benefit  of  the 
nation,  of  lands  and  tenements  (including  buildings)  of  beauty 
or  historic  interest ;  and  as  regards  lands,  to  preserve  (so  far  as 
practicable)  their  natural  aspect,  features,  and  animal  and 
plant  life  ;  and  for  this  purpose  to  accept  from  private  owners 
of  property,  gifts  of  places  of  interest  or  beauty,  and  to  hold 
the  lands,  houses,  and  other  property  thus  acquired,  in  trust 
for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  the  nation."  There  is  a  further 
provision  that  no  property  thus  acquired  shall  be  dealt  with,  in 
the  event  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Trust,  in  a  manner 
inconsistent  with  its  objects.  In  place  of  the  usual  Board 
of  Directors  there  is  a  Council,  which  through  its  Executive 
Committee,  transacts  the  business  of  the  Trust,  and  presents  a 
report  to  the  annual  general  meeting  of  the  members. 

So  much  then  for  the  constitution  of  the  Trust.  Let  us 
glance  in  passing  at  some  of  the  work  which  it  has  done  in  its 

*  "  The  National  Trust  for  Places  of  Historic  Interest  or  Natural 
Beauty/'  i,  Great  College  Street,  S.W. 


Church  of  St.  Mary,  Stratford-le-Bow. 


"THE  NATIONAL    TRUST."  79 

short  five  years  of  life.  It  has  purchased  Barras  Head, 
opposite  Tintagel  Castle,  in  Cornwall,  and  a  most  beautiful 
cliff,  overlooking  Barmouth,  has  been  presented  by  a  lady  to 
the  Trust.  Toy's  Hill,  near  Westerham,  in  Kent,  and  Ide 
Hill,  in  the  same  district,  both  commanding  wide  views  over 
the  Weald  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  have  been  acquired.  The 
purchase  and  restoration  of  the  old  Clergy  House  at  Alfriston, 
Sussex,  and  of  Joiner's  Hall,  Salisbury,  have  secured  to  the 
nation  two  fine  specimens  of  mediaeval  domestic  architecture. 
The  Falkland  monument  on  the  battlefield  at  Newbury  is  also 
under  the  care  of  the  Trust.  And  it  has  recently  purchased  in 
Wicken  Fen,  Cambridgeshire,  a  piece  of  the  primitive  fen- 
land,  which  will  remain  for  ever  undrair.ed  and  untouched, 
with  its  original  plant  and  animal  life. 

The  accompanying  illustrations  give  a  good  idea  of  the 
diversified  nature  of  the  work  in  which  the  Trust  engages. 
The  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Stratford-le-Bow,  E.,  standing  as  it 
does  on  an  eminence  at  the  passage  of  the  Lea,  calls  up  before 
our  minds  a  picture  of  the  days  when  wayfarers,  journeying 
from  Essex  villages  to  London  town,  halted  at  the  pleasant 
hamlet  of  Bow,  before  wending  their  way  along  the  green  lanes 
of  Whitechapel  to  the  City  gates.  On  the  understanding  that 
the  plans  for  restoration  should  be  so  drawn  as  to  interfere  as 
little  as  possible  with  the  architectural  beauties  of  the  Church, 
the  Trust  have  lent  their  help  to  the  Rector  in  the  difficult 
task  of  raising  funds.  Two  thousand  pounds  is  still  wanted, 
the  district  is  very  poor,  and  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
subscriptions  has  been,  according  to  the  Bishop  of  Stepney, 
unprecedented. 

The  other  illustration  depicts  Eashing  Bridge,  an 
interesting  structure  of  the  reign  of  King  John,  which 
spans  the  river  Wey  at  Godalming.  It  is  hoped  that,  by  the 
kindness  of  a  gentleman  in  the  neighbourhood,  this  bridge 
may,  ere  long,  become  the  property  of  the  Trust. 

I  have  somewhat  placed  the  cart  before  the  horse  in 
describing  the  constitution  and  work  of  the  Trust,  before 
dealing  with  those  causes  which  have  rendered  its  establishment 
necessary.  They  are  not,  however,  far  to  seek.  We  are 
familiar  with  them  in  other  connections,  though,  perhaps,  their 


8o  "  THE    NATIONAL    TRUST." 

operation  upon  the  subject  matter  of  this  article  may  not  have 
engaged  our  attention  heretofore.  The  historian,  whether  of 
politics,  morals,  art,  or  science,  is  never  weary  of  pointing  to 
the  great  increase  of  industrial  prosperity  in  England  during 
the  last  century,  or  of  commenting  on  its  effects  upon  that 
division  of  the  national  life  in  which  he  is  peculiarly  interested. 
We  too,  looking  at  the  past  hundred  years  as  lovers  of  the 
beautiful  in  nature,  or  the  historic  in  the  building  arts,  see  the 
various  causes  which  led  to  this  prosperity  operating  sometimes 
beneficially,  sometimes  banefully,  upon  the  objects  of  our 
concern.  We  see  the  lava  stream  of  bricks  and  mortar 
obliterating  the  pleasant  woods  and  fields  ;  we  see  the  heaps  of 
shale  and  slag  rising  grimly  amidst  the  heather  and  fern  ;  we 
see  the  smoke-laden  fog  replace  the  white  morning  mist,  and 
dull  the  quick  colours  of  life  to  the  dismal  hues  of  death. 
The  gin-palace  swallows  up  the  ancient  hostelry;  plate-glass 
windows  and  facia  signs  take  the  room  of  latticed  casements 
and  over-hanging  eaves ;  monstrosities  in  terra  cotta  flaunt 
their  meritricious  charms  in  exchange  for  the  dignity  and 
repose  of  manor  house  and  castle.  And  we  ourselves  grow 
daily  into  the  likeness  of  the  work  of  our  hands,  until  a  stroll 
through  the  suburbs  of  a  great  town  becomes  a  night-mare  of 
meaningless  design  and  purposeless  faces,  complementary  the 
one  to  the  other. 

But  there  is  a  reverse  to  our  obverse,  and  we  must  not 
leave  the  medal  unturned.  For  the  pursuit  of  the  beautiful  is 
not  the  end  of  life,  nor  the  constant  contact  with  the  past  the 
only  saving  grace.  At  best  they  are  but  secondary  influences, 
fairies,  not  angels.  For  a  hundred  years  we  have  been  learning 
freedom,  and  justice,  and  mercy  ;  we  have  discovered  that  we 
are  our  brother's  keeper  from  the  reservoir  of  the  nation's 
energy,  a  bounteous  stream  has  flowed  into  all  the  channels  of 
philanthropy.  Is  it  a  great  thing  that,  oppressed  with  nobler 
cares,  we  should,  in  a  measure,  have  forgotten  that  beauty  refines 
and  history  ennobles  ?  WTe  have  still  enough  on  our  consciences 
it  is  true,  but  at  least  we  have  not  been  altogether  idle. 

And  yet  our  forgetfulness  has  been  disastrous.  The  Sibyl 
has  offered  us  the  books,  and  we  have  refused  them  many  times. 
It  is  not  going  too  far  to  say  with  one  of  the  speakers  at  our 


W 


"THE    NATIONAL    TRUST."  81 

annual  general  meeting  in  1897,  that  probably  no  half  century 
in  our  whole  history  has  seen  the  destruction  of  so  many 
buildings  of  interest  and  beauty,  as  that  which  has  passed  since 
the  Queen  came  to  the  throne.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
natural  scenery.  Instances  in  proof  thereof  occur  to  every 
mind,  and  I  will  not  commence  a  wearisome  enumeration.  I 
prefer  to  prove  it  indirectly,  by  pointing  out  that  there  has  been, 
and  is,  no  power  which  could  withstand  this  wave  of  destruction, 
which,  drawn  by  the  attraction  of  industrialism,  has  swept  over 
the  face  of  the  land.  The  Board  of  Works  can  accept  megalithic 
remains  for  guardianship,  and  that  is  all.  Compare  with  this  the 
practice  of  France,  Austria,  and  Italy,  where  the  care  of  the 
monuments  of  the  past  is  considered  to  be  of  sufficient 
importance  to  form  one  of  the  functions  of  a  Minister  of  State. 

Supposing  that  we  have  now  grasped  to  some  extent  the 
defenceless  condition  of  our  national  monuments,  and  the 
wanton  waste  and  destruction  which  has  disgraced  so  much  of 
the  past  century,  there  still  remains  the  question,  "  Of  what 
value  are  these  monuments  to  the  nation,  that  we  should  spend 
time  and  money  in  their  preservation  ?  "  Their  archaeological 
interest  we  all  admit,  but  archaeology  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  it 
is  a  means  to  an  end.  Once  more  in  our  search  for  a  cause — 
final  this  time  and  not  efficient,  if  the  scholasticism  may  be 
pardoned — will  not  lead  us.  far  afield.  We  seek  to  preserve  our 
national  monuments,  because  we  know  that  the  influence  of 
historic  associations  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces  which 
mould  a  nation's  character,  and  that  unhappy  indeed  is  the 
people  which  has  no  past.  They  are  one  of  the  sheet  anchors 
which  keep  a  people  from  drifting  aimlessly  down  the  tide  of 
time,  conscious  of  nothing  but  present  hopes  and  fears. 
Witness  the  affectionate  envy  with  which  Americans  regard 
our  treasures,  an  envy  which  is  sometimes  magnified  by  the 
perfervid  imaginations  of  journalists  into  a  ravenous  hunger, 
which  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  transportation 
of  Stonehenge  to  Chicago.  We  have  then  in  our  hands  this 
potent  force,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  direct  it  into  the  proper 
channels.  We  have  to  employ  it  to  strengthen  the  sense  of 
citizenship  in  our  own  children,  and  to  deepen  the  sense 
of  sonship  in  the  members  of  our  distant  Empire.  In  the 

F 


82  "THE    NATIONAL    TRUST." 

first  instance,  we  have  to  recollect  that  the  steady  increase 
of  our  population,  side  by  side  with  the  growing  tendency  to 
congregate  in  large  masses,  is  rapidly  turning  the  central 
portion  of  our  large  towns  into  a  wilderness  of  offices  and 
eating-houses,  and  the  streets  of  the  suburbs  into  vast 
dormitories,  of  which  monotonous  little  houses  form  the 
cubicles.  In  the  latter  districts  especially,  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  they  are  the  abiding-places  of  the  children, 
nothing  meets  the  eye  which  can  suggest  to  the  mind  anything 
outside  the  dull,  listless  round  of  daily  life.  Street  lamps, 
paving  stones,  hoardings,  sky-signs — what  inspiration  can  be 
drawn  from  these  ?  In  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  a  great 
system  of  national  education  has  been  created  :  to  every 
English  child  are  now  secured  sufficient  intellectual  advantages. 
Is  it  not  time  for  us  to  put  the  coping-stone  on  to  this  great 
edifice,  to  remember  the  power  of  imagination  to  train 
character,  and  the  undoubted  effect  of  circumstances  upon  the 
imagination  ?  If  we  cannot  surround  our  people,  young  or  old, 
with  beautiful  sights  and  sounds,  can  we  not  at  least  make 
sure  that  all  those  places,  an  occasional  visit  to  which  would 
leave  a  beautiful  impression,  are  secured  to  them  and  their 
children  for  ever  ?  A  place  of  natural  beauty,  a  building  of 
historic  interest,  may  be  to  those  who  live  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  a  direct  means  of  education,  to  those  who  visit  them 
but  occasionally,  their  recollection  may  be  "  like  a  breeze* 
bringing  health  from  pleasant  places."  Again,  let  us  remember 
that  we  in  England  cannot  with  justice  prefer  an  exclusive 
claim  to  the  enjoyment  of  our  country.  We  have  to  reckon 
with  the  fact  that  England  is  regarded  as  "  home  "  by  millions 
of  men  speaking  her  language,  sprung  from  her  stock,  but  now 
scattered  over  the  face  ot  the  earth.  These  men  have  a  right 
to  claim  that  the  land  of  their  origin,  the  mother  of  their 
institutions,  the  centre  of  the  Empire  of  which  they  are 
members,  shall  be  preserved  in  a  manner  worthy  of  her  great 
history.  They  are  partakers  with  us  in  a  goodly  heritage, 
and  it  is  our  duty  who  live  upon  that  heritage,  to 
cherish,  guard,  and  develop  it  for  the  common  good.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  that  across  the  Atlantic  is  a  mighty 

*Plato  Repub. 


"THE    NATIONAL    TRUST."  83 

people,  to  whom  the  historic  associations  of  England  are  hardly 
less  dear  than  to  ourselves. 

We  come  at  last  to  the  practical  question,  "  How  is  the 
National  Trust  to  fulfil  its  mission  ? "  Our  first  and  most 
obvious  duty  is  to  make  its  existence,  its  aims  and  methods,  as 
widely  known  as  possible  ;  the  next  is  to  supply  such  machinery 
as  will  enable  it  to  pursue  its  aims  with  the  least  possible 
friction.  The  means  for  making  the  Trust,  its  principles,  and 
practice,  better  known  lie  ready  to  our  hands.  There  exist  all 
over  the  country  a  number  of  societies  archaeological,  scientific, 
literary,  which  are  doing  an  excellent  work  by  accumulating  and 
gradually  disseminating  knowledge  :  it  is  only  necessary  to 
induce  them  to  embark  on  missionary  enterprise.  Let  each 
society  appoint  a  sub-committee  with  an  energetic  secretary, 
and  let  the  function  of  that  sub-committee  be  to  watch  over  all 
places  of  historic  interest  or  natural  beauty  within  a  certain 
area,  compiling  if  possible  a  sort  of  rough  register,  and  let  them 
give  timely  warning  to  the  National  Trust  of  danger  or  of 
opportunities  of  preservation.  Let  the  local  society  obtain 
subscriptions  to  a  central  fund,  of  which  the  Trust  shall  be  the 
guardian,  and  let  the  fund  thus  accumulated  be  applied  to  the 
purchase  of  historic  properties  or  places  of  natural  beauty  in 
this  or  that  district,  as  occasion  arises.  Arrangements  could  be 
made  for  the  representation  of  the  societies  on  the  council  of 
the  Trust,  and  rules  could  be  drawn  up  to  ensure  an  equitable 
distribution  of  the  fund. 

There  is  yet  more  machinery  ready  for  our  use.  County 
Councils,  District  Councils,  Parish  Councils,  have  power  to 
hold  property  for  the  public  benefit.  Nothing  could  be  more 
in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  English  local  government  than 
that  each  local  authority  should  have  under  its  care  such  of 
the  historic  buildings  or  places  of  natural  beauty  within  its 
jurisdiction,  as  might  reasonably  be  entrusted  to  a  public  body. 
It  would  probably  be  found  expedient  at  first  to  vest  the  freehold 
of  such  properties  in  the  Trust,  and  make  the  management  over 
to  the  local  authority.  The  requisite  historical  and  architectural 
knowledge  will  not  always  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  lesser  local 
authorities,  and  a  better  safeguard  against  misuse  is  provided  by 
giving  the  nation  as  well  as  the  locality  an  interest  in  the 
properties. 


84  NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

In  fine,  the  creation  of  a  healthy  and  well-informed  public 
opinion  should  be  our  prime  object ;  it  will  not  be  long 
in  finding  practical  expression.  Abroad,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  the  duties  of  the  National  Trust  are  performed  by  the 
central  government.  We,  with  different  notions  of  private 
property  and  a  wholesome  dislike  of  official  interference, 
should  probably  prefer  to  attain  our  end  by  some  application 
of  the  functions  of  local  authorities.  Let  us  not,  however, 
forget  that,  whatever  provision  we  make  for  their  safety,  our 
historic  buildings  and  places  of  natural  beauty  are  and  will 

remain  a  matter  of  national  concern. 

• 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

THE  MANGLING  OF  PLACE-NAMES. — Mr.  AbelPs  remarks 
on  p.  347,  vol.  i.,  give  illustrations  of  the  change  which  is  in 
progress  in  some  Kentish  place-names.  As  the  same  process  is 
going  on  all  around,  it  is  time  to  raise  a  protest  against  this 
destructive  agency — destructive  so  far  as  it  breaks  the 
continuity  of  local  interest  by  snapping  those  links  with 
the  past  which  the  old  place-names  maintain.  To 
give  many  examples  would  occupy  too  large  a  space,  though 
the  task  would  be  easy.  Two  instances,  which  came 
under  notice  on  the  last  excursion  of  the  Essex  Arch  geological 
Society,  must  suffice :  Woodham  Ferrers  (showing  the 
connection  of  the  manor  with  a  branch  of  the  great  Ferrers 
family),  is  turned  into  Woodham  Ferriss,  Stow  Maries  (derived 
from  an  old  family  name),  becomes  Stow  St.  Mary's.  For 
confirming,  if  not  for  establishing,  these  alterations  we  have  to 
thank  the  Railway  and  Post  Office  Officials  who  thus  spell  the 
names,  but  the  local  authorities  follow  suit  on  the  way-posts. 
That  the  older  forms  of  place-names  should  be  preserved,  will 
be  admitted  by  the  readers  of  The  Home  Counties  Magazine; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  their  influence  will  be  used  in  that 
direction  on  all  available  occasions. — I.  C.  GOULD. 

CROUCH  AND  SANDERSON  FAMILIES  OF  HACKNEY. — Can 
anyone  give  me  information  regarding  these  two  old  Hackney 
families  ?  I  am  endeavouring  to  compile  a  pedigree,  and  shall 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES.  85 

be  most  thankful  for  any  particulars  readers  may  have. 
Both  these  names  frequently  occur  in  the  registers  of  the 
old  parish  church. — CHARLES  H.  CROUCH,  Nightingale  Lane, 
Wanstead. 

STONDON  MASSEY  CHARITIES. — In  the  parish  of  Stondon 
Massey,  Essex,  we  have  a  "bellrope"  charity  :  a  field  given  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  bellropes.  The  donor  has  been 
unknown  from  the  middle  of  the  i8th  century,  which  suggests 
that  the  gift  dates  from  a  time  considerably  earlier.  I  have 
examined  a  number  of  early  wills  connected  with  the  parish,  at 
Somerset  House,  but,  hitherto,  without  result.  Unfortunately, 
during  the  stormy  i7th  century,  Essex  wills,  among  others,  were 
not  too  well  cared  for.  Our  parochial  records  are  meagre  and 
scanty.  Can  any  reader  of  The  Home  Counties  Magazine  assist 
me  in  discovering  our  benefactor?  The  Editor  tells  me  that,  in 
the  calendar  to  the  Charity  Inquisitions,  abstracts  of  which 
inquisitions  he  is  printing  for  Essex,  there  is  no  reference  to 
the  charities  of  Stondon  Massey. — E.  H.  L.  REEVE. 

COURT  HILL  ROAD,  LEWISHAM. — Can  anyone  give  me 
information  about  a  large  old  gabled  house  that  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  Congregational  Church,  Court  Hill  Road,  Lewisham, 
Wilmot  had  the  ground  for  a  nursery,  afterwards  it  was 
Wilmot  and  Chaundy.  They  added  a  counting-house,  using 
the  old  house  as  a  store-house  for  seeds.  The  house  was 
pulled  down  about  50  years  ago,  but  I  believe  the  lease  did  not 
expire  till  some  years  after,  when  the  railway  and  the  road  were 
made  and  the  land  sold.  Also  I  should  be  glad  to  know  the 
origin  of  the  name  Court  Hill  Road.  Had  it  any  connection 
with  Queen  Elizabeth  ? — M.  A.  DOBELL,  Sherard  House, 
Eltham,  Kent. 

WATFORD  FREE  SCHOOL. — In  the  Charity  Inquisition  for 
Hertfordshire,  an  abstract  of  which  I  print  in  this  number,  is  a 
reference — obscure  in  the  original — to  a  free  school  at  Watford 
in  1645.  I  had  an  idea  that  the  free  school,  founded  by  Mrs. 
Fuller  in  1704,  and  ably  described  by  Mr.  W.  R.  Carter  in  the 
pages  of  our  last  volume,  was  the  first  institution  of  the  kind  at 
Watford,  but  apparently  I  am  mistaken.  Can  any  reader 
throw  light  on  the  point  ? — THE  EDITOR. 


86  REPLIES. 

SANDERSON  or  SAUNDERSON  FAMILY. — I  shall  be  extremely 
obliged  to  any  reader  who  can  give  me  genealogical  information, 
no  matter  how  small,  relating  to  any  persons  bearing  this 
name.  There  were  numerous  branches  of  this  family  residing 
in  or  near  London,  during  the  i6th,  I7th,  and  i8th  centuries, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  registers  which  have  been  published  of 
the  London  churches.  Any  particulars  regarding  the  past 
history  of  the  different  members  of  the  Sanderson  family  who 
may  have  lived  in  the  counties  which  this  magazine  embraces, 
will  be  very  thankfully  received.  I  shall  be  pleased  to  exchange 
notes  or  correspond  with  any  person  interested  in  the  family. 
The  usual  books  of  reference  have  been  referred  to. — CHARLES 
H.  CROUCH,  Nightingale  Lane,  Wanstead. 


REPLIES. 

A  CRANFORD  SIGN — PEGGY  BEDFORD  (i.  176,  346). — In 
addition  to  the  reference  given,  I  would  add  the  number  of 
"All  the  Year  Round  "  for  July  ist,  1893,  being  vol.  x.  of  the 
third  series. — EVERARD  HOME  COLEMAN,  71,  Brecknock  Road. 

WILD  BIRDS  SEEN  AT  CATFORD  (i,  p.  304). — In  addition 
to  the  birds  seen  at  Broadmead  Farm,  mentioned  in  October, 
a  gentleman,  who  lived  many  years  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Catford,  tells  me  he  has  seen  there  the  golden  crested  wren, 
siskin,  waxwing,  crossbill,  teal,  magpie,  dabchick,  coot,  tree 
creeper,  and  nuthatch. — M.  A.  DOBELL,  Sherard  House, 
Eltham,  Kent. 

PETER,  THE  WILD  BOY  (i.,  p.  344). — The  undermentioned 
(and  there  may  be  many  more)  contain  particulars  of  this 
celebrated  character  of  days  of  long  ago — Kirby's  "  Wonderful 
and  Eccentric  Museum,"  Grainger's  "  Wonderful  Museum," 
"  Eccentric  Magazine,"  "  Wonders  of  Human  Nature," 
Wilson's  "  Wonderful  Characters,"  "  Penny  Magazine," 
(vol.  iv.),  "Annual  Register"  (1784-5),  "The  Book  of 
Wonderful  Characters,"  Chamber's  "  Miscellany "  (Nos. 
16  and  48),  "  A  Dictionary  of  the  Wonders  of  Nature," 
"  Gentleman's  Magazine  "  (vol.  55),  "  Curiosities  of  Biography," 
"  History  of  Hertfordshire,"  by  Cussans,  Lord  Monboddo's 


REVIEWS.  87 

"  Ancient  Metaphysics,"  "  Notes  and  Queries "  (6th  series, 
vol.  x.) — EVERARD  HOME  COLEMAN,  71,  Brecknock  Road. 
[Replies  to  same  effect  received  from  GEO.  BENSON,  Balham  ; 
and  W.  F.  ANDREWS,  Hertford,  and  "  STRANGER." — ED.J 

PRONUNCIATION  OF  KENTISH  PLACE-NAMES  (i,  pp.  78,  269, 
346). — It  is,  or  was,  very  Kentish  to  pronounce  v  as  w. 
A  villager,  who  was  churchwarden  in  '88,  used  always  to 
speak,  when  he  had  occasion  to  do  so,  of  Wictoria, 
weel,  westry,  etc.  This  pronunciation  was  common  in 
London.  But  it  must  not  be  considered  as  a  modern 
cockneyism.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  old  English 
pronunciation,  time-honoured  since  it  had  been  current  in  this 
country  for  some  1500  years.  This  substitution  of  w  for  v, 
appears  in  some  place-names.  There  are  in  East  Kent  two 
wades:  Iwade,  and  St.  Nicholas-at-Wade,  in  Thanet.  In  both 
places  the  Romans  had  a  vadum  ;  at  St.  Nicholas  across  the 
Stour,  and  at  Iwade  through  the  Swale,  connecting  the  main 
land  and  Sheppey.  The  I  in  Iwade  is  the  initial  letter  of 
Insulce.  The  word  therefore  means  the  crossing  to  the  island. 
Of  similar  meaning,  though  not  a  corruption  of  Latin,  is  Stoke. 
There  are  in  the  country  many  Stokes ;  several  on  the  Thames 
and  one  in  Kent,  in  the  Hundred  of  Hoo.  The  name  seems  to 
mean  that  which  is  staked  up,  and  to  refer  to  crossings  over,  or 
rather  through,  the  water. — M.  T.  P. 


REVIEWS. 

The  Commune  of  London,  and  other  Studies,  by  J.  H.  Bound,  M.A.,  with  a  prefatory  letter 

from  Sir  Walter  Besant  (Constable  &  Co.,  12s.  net). 

With  the  "other  studies"  we  need  not  concern  ourselves  in  these  pages  ;  it  is  as 
a  contribution  to  the  history  of  London,  that  we  have  to  consider  Mr.  Bound's  book. 
In  No.  XI.  of  the  "studies"  now  printed,  he  produces  evidence  of  the  highest 
importance  to  London  history  ;  since  it  shows  that  a  "commune,"  on  the  pattern 
then  widely  spreading  over  the  continent,  was,  as  he  puts  it,  "transplanted  bodily  "  to 
London  early  in  the  reign  of  Bichard  I.  Not  only  did  this  commune  involve  the 
erection  of  the  office  of  mayor,  but,  under  it,  the  Aldermen  of  the  wards  had 
nought  to  do  with  the  civic  organization.  It  was,  in  short,  wholly  unconnected  with 
the  ancient,  and  then  generally  prevailing  system  of  corporate  government  in 
England.  The  documentary  evidence  which  Mr.  Round  has  brought  together, 
and  on  which  he  relies  for  the  assertions  he  makes,  appears,  on  the  whole, 
satisfactory,  and  it  is  indeed  worthy  of  the  closest  study. 

The  new  form  of  government,  the  commune,  which,  some  few  years  before*  the 
close  of  the  twelfth  century,  London  received  appears  to  have  been  modelled  on  that 
then  enjoyed  by  the  capital  of  Normandy — the  city  of  Rouen.  Besides  the  new 
officials — the  mayor  and  "  skivini,"  the  "commune"  of  London  was  composed  of 


88  REVIEWS. 

"  alii  probi  homines."  Mr.  Bound  considers  these  may  be  identified  with  the 
4 '  twenty  -four  "  mentioned  in  another  London  document,  he  has  discovered,  dated 
in  1205-6,  and  with  the  "  vingt  quartre  "  of  the  commune  of  Rouen,  an  annually 
elected  body  which  acted  as  the  mayor's  council.  "It  will  naturally  be  asked," 
writes  Mr.  Bound,  "  what  became  of  these  twenty-four,  the  mayor's  council  in  the 
reign  of  John.  Mr.  Loftie  ....  held  that  they  became  identified  wi'h  the 
aldermen.  My  own  view  is  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  were  the  germ  of  the 
common  council." 

One  thing  Mr.  Round's  scholarly  work  certainly  brings  before  us  :  it  is  that  the 
last  word  as  to  the  origin  and  development  of  the  corporation  has  not  be«  n  said ;  and 
it  cannot  be  8aid  till  all  the  Corporation's  owu  muniments  are  calendared,  and  the 
calandars  to  them  made  available  to  independent  historical  students  Valuable  and 
important  as  are  the  references  to  the  London's  government  in  the  Public  Records, 
the  evidence  in  the  Corporation's  own  documents  is  doubtless  far  more  important. 

Report  by  the  Historical  Manuscripts'  Commission  on  the  Manuscripts  of  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch.    Edited  by  R.  E.  G.  Kirk.     (Eyre  &  Spottiswoode). 

In  the  report  which  Mr.  Kirk  has  made  to  the  Historical  MSS.  Commission  on 
the  papers  at  Montagu  House,  Whitehall,  there  is  a  large  amount  of  matter 
illustrative  of  the  London  Theatre. 

There  was,  in  1722,  some  connection — what  is  not  clear — between  the  Duke 
of  Montagu  and  the  "new"  theatre  in  the  Haymarket ;  and  at  the  outset  of 
the  year  mentioned  Aaron  Hill,  a  theatrical  manager,  writes  to  his  Grace  that 
he  is  in  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  house.  The  writer,  with  Colonel  Horsey 
and  "some  other  gentlemen,"  was  about  to  open  the  theatre  for  the 
performance  of  "  English  Tragedy,"  and  they  had  provided  for  their 
venture  "  new  scenes,  clothes,  and  all  proper  provisions."  Hill  had  agreed  to 
pay  540?.  for  the  house,  for  two  seasons.  Subsequently  to  this  the  agent  for  the 
theatre  had  been  approached  by  "  the  French  actors,"  who  desired  to  take  it.  Hill 
offered  no  objection,  but  stipulated  that  they  should  act  there  only  for  ten  night.s, 
and  "  make  all  those  nights  within  the  month  of  November." 

But  the  foreigners  had  come  at  the  time  of  writing  instead  of  during  the 
previous  Autumn,  and  had  then  already  exceeded  their  "  ten  nights."  Hill's 
company  was  ready  to  begin,  and  had  warned  the  Frenchmen  they  could  no  longer 
have  the  "  new  "  theatre,  telling  them  that  doubtless  they  could  get  permission  to 
act  "  at  the  Opera  House  "  two  or  three  times  a  week,  if  they  desired  so  to  do  ;  and 
reminding  them  that  "if  the  rent  must  be  greater,  the  House  will  hold  more 
company  in  proportion."  In  this  dilemma  Montagu  was  appealed  to,  and  he 
appears  to  have  decided  in  favour  of  the  French  players,  but  Hill  earnestly 
entreated  him  to  reflect  on  his  action  in  refusing  him  admission  to  the  house  '  *  after 
a  very  great  expense  of  money  and  time  for  making  and  painting  entire  new  sets  of 
scenes  and  clothes,  all  which  are  now  ready,  as  also  in  getting  together  an  entire 
new  company  of  actors  fit  for  tragedy,  most  of  whom,  as  well  the  men  as  the 
women,  are  persons  of  some  character  and  distinction,  and  at  least  a  better  company 
than  either  of  the  old  ones."  Hill  was  ready  to  open.  Let  the  French  players,  he 
suggests,  agree  for  the  Opera  House,  and  if  the  rent  be  too  heavy  he  will  pay  part 
of  it  ;  or,  rather  than  disoblige  "his  grace,"  he  will  be  content  to  play  two  days  a 
week  in  Lent,  and  "  they  [the  French]  the  other  two  "  ;  or  three  days  a  week  out 
of  Lent,  and  "they  the  other  three."  There  is  one  more  letter  on  the  subject 
of  this  theatrical  dispute;  it  is  from  Hill.  Montagu  has  informed  him  of  facts  that 
astonished  him,  and  he  wishes  he  had  been  told  of  them  before  the  Duke  had  taken 
those  measures  which  had  "made  such  noise  in  the  town."  He  will  now  try,  in 
accordance  with  his  Grace's  hint,  what  he  can  do  as  to  the  Opera  House  for  his  own 
company,  "though  their  voices  will  be  no  small  sufferers  by  the  exchange."  His 
new  scenery  will,  however,  certainly  not  fit  the  stage,  "  being  made  for  your 
Grace's  house,"  after  a  new  model  "  perfectly  out  of  the  general  road  of  scenery." 

There  is,  in  the  report  under  notice,  much  of  interest  concerning  persons,  places 
and  matters  in  London,  besides  the  theatrical  dispute  which  has  been  here  selected 
for  comment ;  and  we  should  advise  our  readers  to  give  the  report  a  careful  perusal. 


EPSOM    WELLS    AND    EPSOM    DOWNS. 
13 Y  GEORGE  CLINCH,  F.G.S. 

TS1HE  quiet  and  eminently  respectable  town  of  Epsom 
JL  presents  an  appearance  of  peacefulness  and  sleepiness 
which  few  would  be  inclined  to  associate  with  a  highly 
fashionable  inland  watering-place.  Yet,  although  the  fact  has 
become  almost  forgotten,  Epsom  was  for  a  period  the  most 
celebrated  resort  of  some  of  the  best  English  society.  Its 
fame,  during  its  palmy  days,  was  comparable  only  to  that  of 
Tunbridge  Wells  or  Bath.  The  former  was  its  predecessor  as 
a  fashionable  spa;  the  latter  succeeded  it. 

The  commodious  and  substantial  red-brick  houses,  of  which 
several  excellent  examples  are  to  be  found  in  Epsom,  are  clear 
indications  of  that  period  of  prosperity  when  wealth  and 
fashion  flocked  to  the  neighbourhood  in  such  numbers  as  to 
over-flow  the  accommodation  afforded  by  the  hotels  and 
lodging-houses  of  the  time,  and  necessitate  new  buildings  on  a 
somewhat  extensive  scale.  It  is  quite  clear,  in  fact,  that 
Epsom  owes  much  of  its  growth  and  importance  to  the 
medicinal  springs  which  were  discovered  there  nearly  three 
hun&red  years  ago  ;  yet  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  to  find  how 
completely  Epsom  Wells  and  all  the  associations  which 
gathered  around  them  have  become  forgotten.  So  entirely  has 
the  ancient  glory  departed  from  the  mineral  springs,  and  so 
faint  has  their  memory  become,  that  few  of  the  residents  seem 
to  be  able  to  give  any  very  definite  particulars  of  them,  or  to 
say  where  they  are  situated,  or  even  whether  they  still  exist. 

In  the  following  brief  sketch  an  attempt  will  be  made 
to  present  a  picture  of  the  rise,  growth,  and  decline  of  Epsom 
Wells  and  some  of  the  amusements  and  recreations  which 
were  associated  with  them.  It  is  also  proposed  to  give  a  few 
particulars  of  the  origin  of  that  celebrated  institution  so 
popularly  associated  with  Epsom — "The  Derby." 

The  mineral  springs  at  Epsom  are  situated  near  the  highest 
point  of  Epsom  Common,  at  a  distance  of  about  a  mile  west 

G 


go  EPSOM    WELLS    AND    EPSOM    DOWNS. 

of  the  town.  Their  waters,  which  are  charged  with  sulphate 
of  magnesia,  are  derived  from  the  bed  of  London  clay  of  which 
Epsom  Common  is  composed.  The  presence  of  this  tenacious 
and  impervious  bed  is  indicated  pretty  clearly  by  the  large 
number  of  small  pools  and  puddles  on  the  surface  of  the 
Common,  particularly  after  rain. 

The  date  when  the  medicinal  properties  of  these  springs 
were  first  discovered,  and  the  circumstances  under  which  that 
discovery  was  made,  are  both  somewhat  doubtful  points. 
According  to  one  account  their  valuable  properties  were  first 
detected  during  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
In  this  case,  however,  the  water  seems  to  have  been  that  of  a 
pond  on  the  common,  and  it  would  appear  that  it  was  only 
applied  externally  for  such  disorders  as  ulcers.  Upon  this 
discovery  being  made  known  some  physicians  visited  the  place, 
and  found  the  water  contained  a  bitter  purging  salt,  which,  in 
the  chemical  language  of  the  time,  they  pronounced  "  calcareous 
nitre." 

Local  tradition,  however,  asserted  that  the  Epsom  Wells 
were  found  in  1618  by  one  Henry  Wicker,  who,  during  a  dry 
summer,  accidentally  came  across  a  small  hole  filled  with 
water.  This  he  enlarged  so  as  to  form  a  pond  for  watering  his 
cattle,  but  it  then  appeared  that  in  consequence  of  the  bitterness 
of  the  water  the  cattle  would  not  drink  of  it,  and  thus  its 
mineral  character  was  detected. 

The  fame  of  the  waters  soon  grew,  and  so  many  strangers 
visited  Epsom,  that  in  1621  the  owner  of  the  spring  enclosed  it 
with  a  wall  and  built  a  kind  of  shed  for  the  convenience  of  the 
sick  persons  who  were  taking  the  waters.  By  the  year  1640  the 
reputation  of  the  Epsom  Wells  had  extended  to  foreign 
countries,  and  as  a  consequence  persons  of  distinction  from 
France,  Germany,  and  other  parts  of  Europe  visited  this  little 
Surrey  village. 

After  the  Restoration,  Epsom  became  more  famous  than 
ever.  A  regular  system  of  daily  coaches  was  established  in 
order  to  convey  visitors  from  and  to  London.  By  the  year 
1690  the  proprietor  of  Epsom  Wells  found  it  necessary  to 
extend  the  accommodation  for  his  visitors.  He  built  a  ball-room 
seventy  feet  in  length,  as  well  as  other  necessary  apartments; 


The  Old  Epsom  Well. 


O 
O 

C/3 

O, 

w 


EPSOM    WELLS    AND    EPSOM    DOWNS.  91 

and  a  long  walk,  leading  from  the  London  road  through 
Epsom,  was  laid  out  and  planted  with  elm  trees. 

The  increasing  number  of  visitors  who  came  to  Epsom  for 
the  purposes  of  health  or  recreation  produced  a  marked  effect 
upon  the  character  of  the  place  ;  new  inns  and  lodging-houses 
were  erected,  and  one  tavern  especially,  known  as  The  New  Inn, 
and  kept  by  Mrs.  Wright,  was  reputed  to  be  the  largest  in 
England. 

In  the  streets  and  on  the  Common  were  to  be  seen  numerous 
vehicles,  including  sedan  chairs  and  hackney  coaches,  numbered 
in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  metropolis.  The  amuse- 
ments provided  for  the  patients  and  visitors  comprised  public 
breakfasts,  dancing  and  music  every  morning  ;  horse-racing  on 
the  downs  daily  at  noon ;  cudgel-playing,  wrestling  and  foot 
racing  in  the  afternoon  ;  and  assemblies  and  card  parties  in  the 
evening.  A  vivid  picture  of  fashionable  life  at  Epsom  Wells 
has  been  depicted  by  Sir  Walter  Besant  in  one  of  his  well- 
known  romances. 

During  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  Prince  George  of 
Denmark  was  an  occasional  visitor  at  Epsom,  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  his  presence  assisted  very  largely  to  attract 
many  members  of  the  nobility  and  gentry.  John  Toland,  who 
about  this  time  wrote  an  account  of  Epsom  Wells  and  the 
amusements  and  recreations  associated  therewith,  states  that 
he  had  counted  as  many  as  sixty  coaches  in  the  ring  on  Sunday 
evenings,  he  also  mentions  that  one  of  the  elegant  amusements 
of  the  place  popular  among  the  visitors  was  that  of  trying  to 
catch  a  pig  by  the  tail. 

Among  the  various  characters  attracted  to  Epsom  Wells 
was  Sarah  Mapp,  a  celebrated  bone-setter,  or  "  shape-mistress." 
Mrs.  Mapp  is  said  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  one  Wallin,  a 
bone-setter,  of  Hindon,  in  Wiltshire,  and  sister  of  Lavinia 
Fenton,  the  well-known  Polly  Peachum,  who  was  married  to  the 
third  Duke  of  Bolton.  The  latter  statement,  however,  is 
clearly  inaccurate.  Mrs.  Mapp  affected  insanity,  and  was 
popularly  known  as  "  Crazy  Sally."  After  strolling  about 
the  country  for  a  time  she  at  length  settled  at  Epsom, 
where  she  attracted  considerable  attention  by  reason  of 
her  professional  skill  as  well  as  her  eccentric  manner. 


92  EPSOM    WELLS    AND    EPSOM    DOWNS. 

In  fact,  she  acquired  such  notoriety,  and  was  so  skilful  in 
setting  bones  that  it  is  said  the  town  offered  her  one  hundred 
guineas  to  remain  at  Epsom  for  a  year;  and  it  is  also 
stated  that  so  great  was  her  skill,  and  so  numerous  were 
her  patients,  that  she  sometimes  obtained  as  much  as  twenty 
guineas  a  day  by  her  practice.  Her  fame  was  by  no  means 
confined  to  Epsom.  She  was  well-known  in  London ;  and 
Hogarth  introduced  her  into  his  picture  of  "The  Undertaker's 
Arms ;  or  Consultation  of  Physicians." 

An  old  ballad  written  before  1736  has  the  following  lines 
about  the  spa  at  Epsom  : — 

"  To  fashion  our  healths,  as  our  figures,  we  owe  ; 
And  while  'twas  the  fashion  to  Tunbridge  to  go, 
Its  waters  ne'er  fail'd  us,  let  ail  us  what  wou'd ; 
It  cemented  crack'd  bones,  and  it  sweeten'd  the  blood. 
When  Fashion  resolv'd  to  raise  Epsom  to  fame, 
Poor  Tunbridge  did  nought ;  but  the  blind  and  the  lame, 
Or  the  sick,  or  the  healthy,  'twas  equally  one, 
By  Epsom's  assistance  their  business  was  done." 

The  first  indication  of  declining  popularity  is  found  in  the 
year  1706,  when  an  apothecary  named  Levinstone,  who  was 
living  at  Epsom,  conceived  the  idea  of .  setting  up  a  rival 
establishment  in  opposition  to  the  original  wells.  For  a  brief 
season  he  succeeded  in  attracting  customers.  He  gave  it  out 
that  the  waters  of  the  New  Wells,  as  the  place  was  called, 
were  of  equal  mineral  value  to  that  of  the  original  spring. 
This  was  soon  found  to  be  false,  and  when  the  trick  was 
discovered,  both  the  old  wells  and  the  new  were  brought  into 
disrepute. 

Before  the  year  1720  the  fashion  of  visiting  Epsom  for  the 
sake  of  its  mineral  springs  was  rapidly  on  the  decline,  if  it  had 
not  indeed  become  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  town  was  visited 
by  the  influential  and  wealthy  classes  no  longer.  During  the 
excitement  occasioned  by  the  South  Sea  Scheme  it  would 
appear  that  Epsom  enjoyed  a  brief  period  of  popularity,  but 
the  revival,  like  others  which  followed,  was  only  transitory. 
By  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  Epsom  Wells  were  so 
utterly  neglected  that  in  1804  the  buildings  were  pulled  down, 
and  the  ground  was  purchased  or  leased  by  a  Mr.  Kitchener, 
who  built  a  small  house  close  by  for  his  residence. 


«k/>jp*L 


EPSOM    WELLS    AND    EPSOM    DOWNS.  93 

The  old  well  and  the  wall  enclosing  it  were  suffered  to 
remain,  and  the  well  still  exists.  The  engraving  of  the  Old 
Wells,  Epsom,  here  reproduced,  gives  an  idea  of  the 
appearance  of  the  place  early  in  the  present  century. 

The  medicinal  properties  of  the  waters  of  Epsom  Wells 
were  formerly  so  highly  valued  that  the  salts  were  extracted 
from  them  and  sold  at  the  rate  of  five  shillings  an  ounce. 
This  substance,  commonly  called  "  Epsom  Salts,"  was  in 
great  favour  with  the  public,  and  the  demand  for  it  greatly 
exceeded  the  supply.  Even  the  work  of  extracting  these  salts 
is  no  longer  carried  on  at  Epsom,  the  medicine  now  known  as 
Epsom  Salts  being  prepared  at  Middlesborough,  in  Yorkshire. 

Allen's  view  of  Epsom  here  reproduced  gives  a  good  picture 
of  Epsom  as  it  existed  early  in  the  present  century.  The  fine 
red-brick  house  on  the  right-hand  side,  now  known  as  Waterloo 
House,  still  exists  in  good  preservation,  a  noble  example  of 
early  i8th  century  architecture. 

At  the  present  time  Epsom  is  unquestionably  known  most 
widely  for  its  races,  and  especially  for  what  has  been  termed 
"  the  turfs  most-coveted  prize  " — The  Derby.  This  race,  as 
all  the  world  knows,  takes  place  on  Epsom  Downs,  and  is 
attended  by  enormous  crowds  of  spectators.  The  scene  on 
"  Derby  Day "  has  been  so  frequently  and  so  graphically 
depicted  by  writers  and  painters,  that  it  would  be  superfluous 
for  the  present  writer  to  attempt  any  account  of  it.  A  word  or 
two  as  to  the  origin  of  the  race,  however,  may  be  given. 

The  race-course  at  Epsom  is  said  to  have  been  formed  by 
James  I.,  whilst  he  was  living  at  Nonsuch  Palace.  The  place 
is  so  admirably  adapted  by  nature  for  the  purposes  of  a  race- 
course that  it  is  probable  little  preparation  of  the  ground 
was  required.  During  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  races  took  place 
at  intervals,  if  not  regularly,  and  by  the  year  1730  annual  race- 
meetings  were  held.  "  The  Oaks  "  was  instituted  in  1779,  and 
;<  The  Derby  "  in  1780.  Although  racing  was  commenced  at 
Epsom  as  early  as  the  time  of  James  I.,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  the  period  of  popular  racing  there  began  with, 
and  indeed  owed  its  origin  to  the  fashionable  company  at  the 
Wells.  Horse-racing  on  the  Downs  is  described  as  a  regular 
part  of  the  daily  programme  of  the  amusements  of  the  visitors 
to  the  Wells. 


94  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

The  Derby  has  taken  a  very  strong  hold  upon  popular  fancy, 
and  subscription  pools,  or  "  Derby  Sweeps "  as  they  are 
usually  called,  have  existed  in  connection  with  it  for  a 
great  number  of  years.  One  writer  upon  the  subject  states 
that  during  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  there  has  been  scarcely 
a  town  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  which  a  Derby  Sweepstake 
has  not  been  regularly  organized.  In  some  of  the  larger  towns 
pools  of  from  forty  to  t\vo  hundred  are  made  every  year,  the 
subscription  ranging  from  six-pence  to  two  pounds,  and  the 
principal  prize  being  sometimes  as  much  as  five  hundred 
pounds. 

One  of  the  peculiar  features  of  a  "  Derby  Sweepstake  "  is 
that  many  people  take  part  in  this  kind  of  hazard  whose  sense 
of  moral  propriety  would  be  greatly  shocked  by  any  other  form 
of  participation  in  horse-racing. 

The  accompanying  illustrations  reproduced  from  old  prints 
in  the  British  Museum,  and  including  "  The  Derby  Sweep- 
stakes, 1792,  by  Sartorius,"  "  Pollard's  view  of  the  Races, 
early  in  the  present  century,"  "  Allom's  view,  1842,  showing 
the  grand  stand  and  the  booths,"  and  "  Kemp's  Plan  and 
Survey  of  Epsom  Race  Course,  including  the  rise  and  falls, 
1823." 

In  conclusion,  the  writer  desires  to  express  his  thanks  to 
Professor  J.  L.  Lobley,  F.G.S.,  who  has  most  courteously 
placed  at  his  disposal  some  valuable  MS.  notes  on  Epsom. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

The  fewness  of  the  Quarterly  Notes  on  this  occasion  is  not 
due  to  absence  of  material  on  which  to  comment — there  is 
abundance  of  that — but  to  the  large  amount  of  other  material 
that  needed  to  appear  in  the  present  issue. 

On  the  surmise  that  nobody  to-day  will  look  at  anything 
that  has  not  a  war-like  tone,  let  us  commence  by  reminding  the 
ladies  of  the  Home  Counties  that  their  laudable  desire  to 
provide  comforts  for  our  soldiers  in  battle,  and  after  it,  is,  perhaps, 
inherited;  their  grandmothers,  or  great-grandmothers,  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century,  both  in  England,  and  on  such  parts 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  95 

of  the  continent  as  possessed  settlements  of  English  people  did 
the  like  during  the  war  that  then  ravaged  a  great  part  of 
Europe. 

Lord  Ailesbury's  son  writing,  in  the  winter  of  1798,  from 
Naples — where  Sir  William,  and  the  beautiful  Lady  Hamilton 
led  English  society — speaks  of  a  ''waistcoat  club"  such  as 
was  established  in  England,  set  going  in  Naples  by  Lady 
Spencer.  "  The  ladies,"  continues  the  writer,  "  are  employed 
every  evening,  in  a  most  excellent  way,  which  is  in  making 
flannel  waistcoats  for  the  English  now  at  Toulon  ;  it  is  really 
charming  to  see  how  industrious  they  are.  I  am  sure  300  must 
be  made  by  this  time." 

Just  one  more  War  Note.  It  will  be  interesting  to  remind 
our  readers  that  Mr.  Walter  Money,  F.S.A.,  a  gentleman  whose 
name  is  well-known  in  connection  with  Berkshire  antiquities  and 
topography,  points  out  that  Chieveley  in  South  Africa  is  called 
after  a  village  of  similar  name  in  England,  not  far  from 
Newbury,  and  that  it  was  settled  by  Berkshire  emigrants.  The 
Berkshire  Chieveley  also  possesses  war-like  associations ;  it  was 
the  scene  of  some  hard  fighting  during  the  great  Civil  War. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  matters  falling  more  directly  within  our 
observation.  Several  of  the  different  local  societies,  scientific, 
archaeological,  or  topographical,  have  issued  their  reports  since 
the  last  number  of  this  magazine  went  to  press.  We  wish  we 
had  space  to  refer  to  all,  for  each,  in  its  way,  seems  to  be  doing 
its  best,  and  that  best  is  good.  In  Hampstead  has  been  formed 
a  new  society  for  the  promotion  of  scientific  study,  with 
Mr.  Edward  Bond,  M.P.,  as  president,  and  Mr.  Basil  Martin, 
Elm  Lodge,  Elm  Row,  Hampstead,  as  secretary,  and  it 
bids  fair  to  become  as  popular  in  that  delightful  suburb  as  is 
the  Hampstead  Antiquarian  Society. 

The  Surrey  Archaeological  Society,  now  at  home  in  its  new 
and  appropriate  head-quarters,  at  the  Castle  Arch,  Guildford, 
has  issued  its  45th  annual  report.  We  thoroughly  sympathize 
with  the  Society  in  its  loss  of  so  able  a  secretary  as  the  Rev. 
T.  S.  Cooper,  but  we  do  not  fancy  that  an  archaeological  body, 


g6  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

whose  secretarial  duties  will  be  discharged  by  Mr.  Montagu 
Guiseppi,  F.S.A.,  has  much  to  fear.  We  notice  that  the 
Society's  museum  has  been  enriched  with  many  highly 
appropriate  gifts,  amongst  them  some  local  Court  Rolls. 

This  is  as  it  should  be.  No  class  of  local  documents  is 
more  liable  to  destruction — in  these  days  of  general  enfranchise- 
ment— than  the  records  of  manorial  courts  ;  and  no  class  is 
richer  in  matter  of  topographical  value  or  material  for  social 
history,  and  it  is  sad  to  think  of  the  fate  that  has  already 
overtaken  masses  of  these  documents,  and  that  probably  awaits 
the  majority  of  the  remainder. 

Over  and  over  again  we  have  urged,  in  these  pages,  the 
necessity  for  taking  some  action  in  regard  to  the  preservation, 
not  only  of  court  rolls,  but  of  local  records  generally,  and  it 
is  satisfactory  to  notice  that  Government  has  so  far  moved  in 
the  matter  as  to  appoint  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  Bishop 
of  London,  Mr.  Bryce,  Sir  Francis  Mowatt,  Sir  H.  Maxwell 
Lyte,  Sir  C.  P.  Ilbert,  and  Mr.  S.  E.  Spring  Rice,  to  consider 
what  can  be  done  to  ensure  the  safe  custody  of  local  public 
records.  The  question  we  know  is  difficult  and  delicate,  but  it 
can  only  be  dealt  with  by  accepting  the  doctrine,  as  a  basis 
for  operations,  that  all  local  public  records — that  is  records  in 
any  way  affecting  the  public — are  under  the  purview  of  the 
Master  of  the  Rolls.  Inspectors  appointed  by  him  must  see 
that  local  bodies  take  due  care  of  their  documents;  and  if  they 
do  not,  provision  must  be  made  for  all  those  not  actually 
required  for  the  discharge  of  business,  in  central  County  record 
repositories. 

Though  Croydon  is  not  rich  in  buildings  of  architectural 
interest,  it  seems  to  set  little  value  on  the  few  it  possesses. 
Whitgift's  Hospital,  which  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  is 
now  threatened  with  demolition,  though  it  seems  that  the 
increased  accommodation  for  traffic — which,  doubtless,  is 
demanded  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case — could  be  provided 
by  a  connecting  road  at  the  back  of  the  hospital  between  North 
End  and  George  Street.  This  would  effectually  relieve  any 
congestion  in  the  traffic,  and  would  really  add  to  the  appearance 
of  the  hospital  by  isolating  it. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  97 

From  this  threatened  vandalism  it  is  pleasant  to  turn  to  an 
instance  of  a  desire  to  complete  a  work  of  preservation.  Many 
of  our  readers  will  remember  the  Abbey  Gateway  at  Reading 
as  a  happy  example  of  Sir  Gilbert  Scott's  power  of  restoration, 
and  those  who  do  so  will  now  be  gratified  to  learn  that  Dr. 
J.  B.  Hurry,  of  Reading,  is  about  to  complete  the  scheme  of 
restoration  by  having  heads  carved  upon  certain  blocks  of 
stone,  and  some  of  the  columns  foliated.  This  carving  was 
left  undone  at  the  time  of  the  restoration,  some  40  years  ago, 
from  want  of  funds.  No  portion  of  the  ancient  work  is  to  be 
touched. 

We  have  no  space  on  this  occasion  to  refer  to  the  rapid 
demolition  of  old  London  that  has  been  going  on  during  the 
last  month  or  so,  more  especially  along  the  line  of  the  new 
street  from  Holborn  to  the  Strand ;  but  we  must  not  pass 
unmentioned  an  excellent  (save  that  it  was  too  short)  article  in 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  of  February  loth,  which  tells  us  what  has 
become  of  some  demolished  objects  of  interest  that  once  stood 
in  London.  Portions  of  old  London  Bridge  may  be  seen  in 
Victoria  Park  and  in  the  grounds  of  Guy's ;  the  lion  on 
Northumberland  House  keeps  guard  at  Sion  House;  Temple  Bar 
is  in  Theobalds  ;  the  giants  from  St.  Dunstan's,  Fleet  Street, 
ornament  the  gardens  of  St.  Dunstan's  Lodge,  Regent's  Park. 
But  not  all  vanished  landmarks  of  London  that  have  been 
preserved,  are  within  easy  visiting  distance  of  enquiring 
Londoners;  some  have  travelled  as  far  a-field  as  Northum- 
berland. 

A  word  in  conclusion  on  Romney's  portrait  of  William 
Cowper,  a  reproduction  of  which  (from  a  photograph  by 
Messrs.  Walker  and  Boutall),  formed  the  frontispiece  of  our 
last  issue.  As,  thanks  to  Mr.  Robert's  letter  in  the  Athenczum, 
the  authenticity  of  the  original  has  been  the  subject  of  some 
comment,  it  may  be  well  to  draw  special  attention  to  the 
remarks  of  Mr.  Thomas  Wright  (post,  p.  156),  who  gives  a 
useful  hint  as  to  testing  the  genuineness  of  the  picture  as  a 
portrait  of  Cowper. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME     COUNTIES. 
BY  REV.  W.  K.  R.  BEDFORD, 

No.  2.     KENT. 

THAT  Kent  should  be  a  prominent  county  in  supporting  the 
revival  of  the  practice  of  archery  is  not  at  all  surprising, 
remembering  the  traditions  associated  with  its  freedom  in 
Norman  times,  its  motto  "Invicta,"  and  its  device  of  the  armed 
hand  issuing  from  an  oaken  thicket  (see  Hollinshed's  Chronicle). 
Neither  do  we  wonder  that  this  patriotic  county  should  have 
discarded  its  ardour  for  the  bow  in  favour  of  those  modern 
arms  of  precision  which  had  supplanted  the  weapons  of 
chivalric  ages,  at  a  time  when  every  Briton's  spirit  was  aroused 
to  meet  the  threatened  invader  ;  but  in  the  period  between 
1785  and  1802,  one  society  in  particular  maintained  socially 
and  "sportsmanly"  the  pretensions  of  the  "unconquered"  county 
in  the  pastime  of  archery.  This  was  the  association  entitled 
the  Royal  Kentish  Bowmen,  which  met  originally  in  1785-6  at 
Dartforth  Heath,  on  the  invitation  of  Mr.  John  Edward 
Madocks,  of  Vron  Iw,  co.  Denbigh,  who,  however,  resided 
about  that  period  chiefly  at  Mount  Mascal,  co.  Kent. 

The  society  appears  to  have,  in  its  inception,  been  limited  to 
a  party  of  friends,  eleven  in  number;  but  Mr.  Madocks  was  a 
well-known  and  popular  individual,  and  soon  the  numbers  were 
so  considerably  enlarged  that  the  accommodation  provided  for 
the  archers  had  to  extend  its  limits  also,  and — from  a  small 
cottage  where  the  targets  were  kept  when  not  required 
for  practice  upon  the  adjacent  common — expanded  into 
a  well-kept  ornamental  lawn  with  buildings  of  considerable 
dimensions,  not  only  for  convivial  meals,  but  for  musical 
parties,  dances,  and  other  entertainments  more  attractive  to  the 
ladies.  The  founder  himself  was  an  accomplished  musician, 
and  the  best  talent,  professional  as  well  as  amateur,  was 
enlisted  for  the  concerts  given  by  the  society. 

The  reputation  of  "The  Kentish  Bowmen"  as  a  fashionable 
gathering  derived  much  additional  eclat  when  George,  Prince  of 
Wales,  then  in  the  heyday  of  his  "  Florizel "  reputation, 
vouchsafed  them  his  patronage,  presented  them  with  prizes, 


George,  Prince  of  Wales,  as  a  Kentish  Bowman, 
By  Bartolozzi. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  99 

generally  small  silver  bugles  of  elegant  design,  and  on  one 
occasion  at  least,  in  1789,  personally  presided  at  a  meeting 
held  on  August  I2th,  His  Royal  Highness'  birthday,  when  the 
Prince's  prize,  a  bugle,  was  won  by  Mr.  Madocks,  though  the 
Rev.  James  Dodd,  in  his  dedication  of  a  little  book  hereafter 
to  be  referred  to,  Ballads  of  Archery,  "to  the  illustrious  Patron 
of  the  R.K.B.  while  embodied,"  expresses  his  gratification  that 
the  Prince  Regent,  in  1818,  should  have  recognized  the  writer 
as  one,  who  upon  that  occasion  "  triumphantly  enjoyed  the 
honours  of  the  day." 

It  was,  no  doubt,  in  remembrance  of  this  Royal  visit  that 
the  full  length  portrait  of  Prince  George  in  archery  costume 
was  painted  by  J.  Russell,  R.A.,  an  engraving  from  which, 
by  Bartolozzi,  is  one  of  the  finest  of  that  distinguished 
engraver's  works.  Along  with  the  title  of  Royal,  the 
society  distinguished  themselves  by  the  establishment  of 
standards  to  be  carried  on  target  days,  one  of  which  was 
presented  by  the  Hon.  H.  Fitzroy  (third  son  of  the  first  Lord 
Southampton),  the  other  by  George  Grote,  Esq.  For  the  due 
care  and  display  of  these  "  most  sacred  and  honourable " 
colours,  provision  was  made  in  the  rules,  which,  printed  in 
a  little  thumbnail  volume  prettily  bound  in  green  leather  writh 
the  society's  device  in  gold,  are  still  occasionally  to  be  met 
with.  In  addition  to  the  regulations  for  the  meetings,  the  book 
contains  a  list  of  members  interesting  as  recording  names  of 
past  and  present  Kentish  families,  for  it  was  stipulated  that  the 
number  of  ex-county  members  be  limited  to  thirty-six,  other 
candidates  being  required  to  be  Kentish  freeholders  or 
leaseholders  and  their  sons,  or  persons  entitled  to  a  freehold  of 
ao/.  per  annum  in  the  county,  either  in  reversion  or  remainder, 
or  holding  a  house  under  government  in  the  county  of  Kent. 

Under  such  elegant  patronage  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Kentish  Archers  became  great  dandies.  At 
the  first  general  meeting  of  the  Archery  Societies  of  Britain, 
held  in  1789,  the  London  Chronicle  mentions  that  while  the 
archers  generally  wore  uniform,  green  coats,  buff  or  white 
waistcoats,  and  breeches,  Sir  Sampson  Gideon  (afterwards 
Lord  Eardley),  Mr.  Fitzroy  and  others  (Kentish  men),  wore 
the  Prince's  button  and  a  black  cape.  At  this  Blackheath 


loo  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

meeting  the  principal  prize  (in  those  days  obtained  by  the 
most  central  shot)  did  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  R.K.B.  Society, 
and  at  the  second  meeting  in  1790  it  was  gained  by  a 
representative  of  a  rival  club,  the  Kentish  Rangers.  It  was  not 
indeed  until  1793  that  the  R.K.B.  obtained  the  coveted  honour 
by  a  central  Gold,  gained  by  Dr.  Leith,  on  a  measure  with 
Dr.  Jarvis,  of  Hornsey.  This  incident  so  impressed  a 
rhymester  of  the  period  (who  signed  himself  Laureate  to  the 
Royal  Kentish  Bowmen)  that  he  plunged  into  verse :  the 
effusion  afterwards  being  printed  with  the  title  of  the  Bowman's 

prize. 

Survey  the  gay  heath,  what  bright  beauties  appear, 

And  hark  to  the  musical  horn  ; 
The  Archers  are  coming,  behold,  they  are  here 

As  brilliant  as  Phoebus  at  morn. 
Near  Surrey  advance  the  bows  of  St.  George, 

Old  Hornsey  her  Woodmen  has  sent, 
And  next  Chevy-Chase  boys,  see  Aylesford' s  kind  Lord 

Lead  up  the  bold  Bowmen  of  Kent. 

Hark,  the  signal  is  given,  to  targets  they  run, 

E'en  swift  as  the  arrow  that  flies; 
Their  bows  are  all  bent  and  the  pastime  begun 

A  bugle  of  gold  is  the  prize. 
The  Woodman  of  Arden,  how  graceful  he  draws, 

For  the  goal  sure  his  arrow  is  vent ; 
Hark,  hark,  from  above  what  a  burst  of  applause, 

'Tis  hit  by  a  bowman  of  Kent. 

Now  Sol  quits  the  field  for  his  Thetis' s  bed, 

When  Leith  his  unerring  bow  bent; 
The  shaft  seemed  exulting  to  cry  as  it  fled, 

I  win  for  the  Bowmen  of  Kent. 
The  signal  is  given  ;  to  dinner  each  flies, 

Where  Willis  gives  hunger  content; 
Where  the  good  Duke  of  Leeds  presented  the  prize 

To  Leith,  the  bold  Bowman  of  Kent. 

The  Earl  of  Aylesford,  founder  of  the  Woodmen  of  Arden, 
may  on  this  occasion  have  ranked  himself  with  the  Kentish 
archers,  with  whom  he  was  connected  both  by  title  and 
residence  at  the  Friars,  Aylesford,  but  the  Earl  of  Morton, 
a  Scottish  Peer,  was  never  a  member  of  the  Arden  Society, 
though  a  note  to  the  ballad  says  that  he  "  led  them  "  at  this 
meeting.  It  is  probable  as  the  Royal  Company  of  Scottish 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME     COUNTIES.  101 

Archers,  to  which  Lord  Morton  belonged,  had  no  target 
of  their  own  in  this  match,  that  he  shot  as  an  affiliated 
member  with  the  associate  society  of  the  Forest  of  Arden. 
We  find  his  name  as  shooting  with  the  Edinburgh  Archers  at 
Blackheath  in  1790,  and  he  was  president  of  a  general  meeting 
of  Archers,  held  on  Dulwich  Common  in  1794. 

Although  the  verses  j  ust  quoted  were  printed  anonymously, 
there  is  no  doubt  as  to  who  was  the  real  laureate  of  the  Kentish 
bowmen,  whether  author  of  these  lines  or  no.  In  the  days  of 
Garrick,  an  actor  of  more  than  respectable  rank,  named  Dodd, 
played  at  the  London  theatres,  and  throve.  This  gentleman's 
son  went  from  Westminster  School  to  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  in  1779,  and  was  appointed  by  his  College  to  the 
Vicarage  of  Swineshead  in  1800,  but  did  not  reside  either  there, 
or  at  another  benefice,  to  which  he  was  afterwards  appointed, 
continuing  for  34  years  (1784-1818)  usher  of  Westminster 
School.  What  his  classical  attainments  were  we  know  not, 
but  he  had  evidently  some  taste,  and  a  natural  knack  at 
versification,  while  he  was  of  that  easy  going,  good  humoured 
disposition,  made  familiar  to  us  in  the  clerical  portraits  of 
Miss  Austin  and  of  George  Eliot.  Here  is  a  stave  from  one 
of  his  ditties,  which  discloses  the  side  of  archery  he  found  so 

attractive. 

A  Bowman's  life's  the  life  to  court, 

There's  nought  can  charm  so  dearly  ; 
As  roving,  butting,  all  in  sport, 

To  the  sound  of  the  bugle  cheerly. 

Away  he  wends — His  bow  he  bends, 

His  shafts  will  seldom  fail 
Full  thirteen  score, — and  something  more, 

To  steadily  hold  their  flight. 

Anon,  at  the  butt,  with  a  delicate  art, 
He  pops  them  into  the  white. 

And  then  to  hear  them — whack — 

And  the  gazers  cry  good  lack  ! 
Well,  he  does  it  with  such  a  knack. 

Then  he  laughs  a  little — And  quaffs  a  little, 
And  sings  a  little — And  shoots  a  little, 
And  riddles  a  little — And  foots  it  a  little, 
And  sings  himself  home  in  a  crack. 


102  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

These  and  such  like  jovial  rhymes,  with  ballads  commemor- 
ative of  Robin  Hood  and  various  historical  notes,  made  up  a 
nicely  printed  volume  of  175  pages  which,  with  thirty-three 
plates  of  music  to  the  songs,  was  printed  by  Woodfall  in  1818, 
with  a  dedication  to  the  Prince  Regent,  and  a  quotation  from 
Roger  Ascham,  whom  the  author  calls  his  predecessor  in 
bowmanry  and  scholastic  drudgery.  "Both  merie  songes  and 
good  schootinge  delighteth  Apollo." 

The  volume  is  also  embellished  by  some  very  pretty  wood 
cuts,  designed  by  Sir  Edmund  Hungerford  Lechmere  (second 
Bart.)  when  a  boy  at  Westminster  School.  Lord  William 
Lennox  gives  a  sketch  of  the  author  at  this  period,  when 
resident  master  at  the  boarding-house  in  Great  Dean's  Yard 
known  as  "  Mother  Packs."  He  had  on  a  suit  of  sables,  coat, 
waistcoat,  and  continuations  of  black  cloth,  jet  knee  and  shoe 
buckles,  black  silk  stockings,  white  neck-cloth  and  shirt  frill, 
powdered  head  and  a  pig-tail.  He  gave  young  Lennox,  who 
had  come  to  school,  a  glass  of  port- wine  as  he  was  just  about 
himself  to  sit  down  to  a  roast  fowl  and  a  bottle,  and  dismissed 
him  to  supper.  In  spite,  however,  of  the  air  of  comfort  which 
this  description  carries  with  it,  it  is  probable  that  poor  Dodd's 
circumstances  were  at  this  period  somewhat  reduced,  and  like 
many  another  bon  vivant,  his  latter  days  were  saddened  by  the 
memory  of  joys  departed  never  to  return.  He  died  in  the 
same  year,  1818,  aged  57,  and  a  tablet  to  his  memory  is  affixed 
to  the  eastern  wall  of  the  great  cloister  of  Westminster  Abbey. 


THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

BY  THE  EDITOR. 
(Continued   from   p.    77). 

St.  Albans,  Redbourn,  Harpenden,  and  Chipping  Barnet. — 
It  was  found  by  an  Inquisition  taken  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Hall  on 
I4th  July,  1647,  that  Richard  Sampson,  late  Bishop  of 
Chichester,  in  33  Henry  VIII.  [A.D.  1541-2]  made  a  lease  of 
divers  messuages,  lands  and  tenements  in  or  near  Chancery 
Lane,  to  the  then  Master  and  Wardens  of  the  Guild  of  our 
Lady  and  St.  Dunstan  in  the  West,  London,  from  Michaelmas, 
1549,  for  99  years,  rendering  to  the  said  Bishop  and  his 
successors  the  yearly  rent  of  535.  4^.  And  that  the  interest  in 
this  lease  afterwards  came  to  Sir  Richard  Read,  knight,  late  of 
Redbourn,  in  Hertfordshire,  deceased,  who,  by  his  last  will 
dated  7  March,  1559,  bequeathed  all  the  revenue  and  rent  of 
the  aforesaid  lease,  during  the  continuance  thereof,  to  the 
following  charitable  uses  :  to  twenty  of  the  poorest  inhabitants 
of  St.  Albans,  Herts,  towards  their  relief  weekly,  20  groates, 
to  every  of  them  a  groat  a  week ;  to  twelve  of  the  poorest  of 
Redbourn,  in  the  same  county,  12  groats  a  week  ;  to  twenty 
of  the  poorest  of  Harpenden,  within  the  same  county,  35.  4^. 
a  week;  to  eight  of  the  poorest  of  Hadley,  near  Barnet,  in  the 
county  of  Middlesex,  i6d.  a  week  ;  to  twelve  of  the  poorest  of  the 
town  of  Chipping  Barnet,  Herts,  zd.  a  week;  and  to  twenty 
of  the  poorest  within  the  town  of  Okeingham  (sic),  Berks, 
35.  4^.  a  week  ;  and  he  further  bequeathed  30^.  out  of  the  rents 
of  the  aforesaid  lease  during  the  continuance  thereof  to  the 
several  towns  aforesaid  for  the  binding  forth  of  ten  apprentices 
yearly  out  of  the  aforesaid  towns.  And  that  these  sums  thus 
given  by  the  said  will  to  the  charitable  uses  aforesaid,  amounted 
to  83/.  14$.  Sd.  per  annum.  And  that  the  said  Sir  Richard 
Reade  further  bequeathed  the  residue  of  all  the  revenues  of  his 
said  tenements,  "surmounting"  the  former  sums  appointed 
as  aforesaid,  to  be  yearly  bestowed,  "so  far  as  it  will  go 
during  the  term  thereof,  towards  the  help  and  guarding  of  such 
diseased  people  as  lie  by  the  highway  side,  infected  with  some 
great  disease  or  grief,  and  to  the  poor  people  of  the  places 
aforesaid."  And  that  his  executors  in  his  said  will  named 
should  have  the  letting  and  setting  of  all  his  said  tenements 
appointed  to  charitable  uses  as  aforesaid  during  all  the  said 
term,  and  should  make  as  much  yearly  rent  thereof  as  they 
could  to  the  end  that  there  might  be  the  more  bestowed  on  the 
said  last  named  charitable  use. 

The  Inquisition  went  on  to  find  the  several  tenements  and 
houses  subject  and  liable  to  the  said  charitable  uses  given  and 


104  CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

mentioned  in  the  last  will  and  testament  of  the  said  Sir  Richard 
Read,  according  to  the  old  rents  as  they  were  long  since 
generally  let,  either  by  the  said  Sir  Richard  Read  in  his  life 
time,  or  by  his  executors  since  his  death,  amounting  to  the 
yearly  sum  of  8g/.  75.  4^. 

After  the  death  of  the  said  Sir  Richard  Read,  his  executors 
assigned  over  the  remainder  of  the  said  term  of  99  years  then 
to  come  of  and  in  the  aforesaid  several  messuages  or  tenements, 
subject  to  the  aforesaid  conditions,  to  Maurice  Evans,  who  by 
his  last  will,  dated  12  April,  1618,  devised  all  the  right  and  term 
that  he  had  then  to  come  in  the  said  lease,  to  Edward  Kellett, 
who  by  deed  dated  25  September,  1634,  granted  and  assigned 
over  all  his  right  and  interest  in  and  to  the  aforesaid  messuages 
and  tenements  to  Humfray  Rogers,  who  by  deed  dated  13 
February,  1638,  assigned  over  all  his  right  and  term  in  the 
premises  to  Thomas  Waye,  gent.,  who  by  indenture  dated 
— ,  1643,  for  the  sum  of  I2O/.,  granted  and  assigned 
over  all  his  right  and  term  in  the  aforesaid  houses  to  Leonard 
Stockdale,  who  accordingly  entered  thereupon,  and  thereof  was 
possessed  and  interested,  and  the  rents  and  profits  thereof  took 
to  his  own  use,  but  never  satisfied  or  paid  any  of  the  charitable 
uses  aforesaid,  so  that  the  poor  people  of  the  several  towns 
aforesaid  have  been  unpaid  the  said  several  charitable  uses  in 
the  said  will  given  and  bequeathed  for  these  six  years  ending 
Lady  Day  last,  1647,  which  arrears  amounted  to  5O2/.  8s. 

It  was  therefore  ordered  on  22  September,  1647,  by  the  said 
Commissioners,  that  the  said  Thomas  Waye  should  pay  to 
William  Goshawke  and  Nicholas  Hay  ward,  for  the  uses 
aforesaid,  the  said  sum  of  245/.  155.  2d.,  and  the  said  Leonard 
Stockdale,  29O/.  8s.  lod.  ;  and  that  the  said  William  Goshawke 
and  Nicholas  Hayward,  should  from  thenceforth  have  the 
setting,  receiving  and  disposing  of  all  and  every  the  tenements 
and  rents  in  the  said  inquisition  specified,  subject  and  liable  to 
the  charitable  uses  aforesaid,  for  and  during  all  the  residue  of 
the  said  term  of  99  years  therein  yet  to  come  and  unprovided 
for,  and  towards  the  satisfying  and  paying  of  the  said  charitable 
uses  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  said  will. 
"  They  being  men  approved  of,  for  the  trust  aforesaid,  by  several 
persons  of  some  of  the  said  towns  interested  for  the  charitable 
uses  aforesaid,  who  attended  us  at  the  taking  of  the  said 
inquiry."  All  arrears  of  rents  were  also  to  be  paid  to  the  said 
William  and  Nicholas ;  and  the  said  Thomas  Waye  and  Leonard 
Stockdale,  "who  have  misimployed  the  charitable  uses  afore- 
said," were  to  pay  to  them  for  their  charges  in  suing  out  this 
commission,  I5/.  which  appeared  to  us  to  have  been  expended 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  same."  (Petty  Bag  Charity  Inquisition. 
Bundle  19,  No.  26). 


THE    READES    IN    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

BY  A.  C.  BICKLEY. 

THE  Reade  family  is  one  that  genealogists  have  long 
considered  as  being  of  considerable  interest,  not  so  much 
on  account  of  its  members  having  played  parts  of  primary 
importance,  as  because  its  records  have  been  carefully  kept  and 
its  connections  established  with  unusual  clearness.  It  certainly 
produced  one  man  who,  at  the  time  of  the  Great  Rebellion, 
came  near  to  greatness,  but  it  had  to  wait  till  the  present 
century  (I  hold  that  3ist  December,  1900,  is  the  end  of  the 
century),  before  giving  to  the  world  a  man  of  the  first  rank 
which  it  undoubtedly  did  in  Charles  Reade  the  novelist. 
General  Meredith  Reade,  the  late  U.S.  Ambassador  to  Greece, 
reflects  credit  on  the  family ;  and  the  Rev.  Compton  Reade, 
the  present  rector  of  Kenchester,  deserves  a  niche  in  the 
temple  of  Fame,  if  only  because  of  his  having  compiled  at  the 
cost  of  much  labour  "  a  Record  of  the  Reades,"  from  which 
recently  published  erudite  work  nearly  everything  that  appears 
in  the  present  article  has  been  borrowed  or  stolen,  according 
to  the  way  one  looks  at  it. 

Like  that  of  Jeames  de  la  Pluche,  the  origin  of  the  Reade 
family,  is  "  wropped  in  mystery."  Mr.  Compton  Reade  does 
no  more  than  suggest  that  it  may  have  been  an  off-shoot  of  the 
Redes  of  Northumberland,  a  family  of  Royal  origin.  This  at 
best  is  a  conjecture,  and  one  to  which  the  arms  borne  by  the 
respective  families  lends  no  colour. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  there  was  a  family  of  Redes  settled 
in  Reading,  of  which  town  one  member,  William  Rede,  was 
mayor  no  less  than  seven  times,  between  1452  and  1469,  and 
which  borough  he  represented  in  four  parliaments;  from  this 
family  the  Redes  of  Abingdon,  or  rather  of  Barton  Court, 
appear  to  have  descended. 

Thomas  Rede  acquired  the  manor  of  Barton  with  the 
ancient  palace  of  the  Abbots  of  Abingdon  from  Sir  Richard  Lee, 
knight,  in  1550.  This  gentleman  died  in  1556,  and  was  buried 

H 


io6  THE    READES    IN    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

in  the  Rede  aisle,  St.  Helen's  Church,  Abingdon,  leaving  issue 
by  his  wife  Anne,  daughter  of  Thomas  Hoo,  of  Paul's  Walden, 
Herts. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  only  son  Thomas,  who  seems  to 
have  got  up  in  the  world,  for  he  altered  the  spelling  of  his 
name  in  approved  modern  fashion  to  Reade,  and  in  1597 
procured  a  grant  of  arms,  viz.,  gules,  a  saltire  between  four 
garbes,  or.  By  his  wife,  Mary  Stonhouse,  he  had  three  sons, 
the  eldest,  Thomas,  marrying  Mary,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of 
Sir  John  Brocket,  knight,  of  Brocket  Hall,  Hatfield. 

This  Thomas  was  a  busy  and  wealthy  man.  He  was  lord 
of  three  manors  in  Berks,  two  in  Oxfordshire,  one  in  Northants, 
and  two  in  Herts,  besides  Brocket,  which  he  acquired  through 
his  marriage.  He  also  held  land  at  Birchall,  Herefordshire. 
He  served  as  High  Sheriff  of  Berks  in  1606  (gaining  the  honour 
of  a  notice  in  Fuller's  Worthies),  of  Oxfordshire  in  1615,  and 
of  Herts  in  1618.  James  I.  knighted  him  at  Royston  in  1619. 

He  married  in  March,  1597  or  98.  His  wife's  father,  Sir 
John  Brocket,  must  have  been  a  man  of  some  importance,  for 
he  entertained  the  great  Elizabeth  when  a  princess,  and  she 
was  at  his  house  at  Brocket  when  she  was  proclaimed  Queen 
of  England,  according  to  a  Cornewall  pedigree. 

Although  he  was  summoned  at  Bovingdon  in  1625  for  3O/., 
his  share  of  the  forced  loan,  he  seems  to  have  kept  on  good 
terms  with  Charles  I.,  for  he  had  the  honour  of  entertaining 
that  Monarch  and  his  Queen  on  three  several  occasions  at 
Barton  Court.  Barton  was  sometimes  called  the  King's  House 
because  the  Monarch  had  a  right  to  claim  its  hospitality,  an 
honour  no  doubt  very  great  but  dreadfully  expensive. 

It  is  rather  strange  that  two  of  these  visits  took  place  after 
Sir  Thomas  had  refused  to  pay  ship  money  in  1636.  The  last 
Royal  visit  was  in  1644,  when  according  to  Mr.  Compton 
Reade,  "  the  King  fearing  for  the  safety  of  Queen  Henrietta 
Maria,  brought  her  to  Barton,  the  first  stage  of  her  journey  to 
Exeter,  hence  the  historic  mansion  witnessed  the  final  farewell 
of  the  ill-starred  Royal  couple." 

A  good  deal  about  Sir  Thomas  Reade  may  be  gathered  from 
the  newspapers  of  the  time  and  the  calendars  of  State  Papers 
(Domestic  Series).  He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Parlia- 


THE    READES    IN    HERTFORDSHIRE.  107 

mentarians,  when  some  letters  of  importance  were  found  upon 
him.  In  1645  he  was  taken  to  London,  and  thence  remanded 
to  the  committee  at  St.  Albans,  who  were  instructed  to 
examine  into  the  whole  matter  concerning  him  and  to  report. 

Apparently  he  got  off  very  lightly  and,  indeed,  it  was 
probably  intended  that  he  should  or  else  his  third  son  would 
not  have  been  allowed  to  sit  on  the  committee.  He  seems  to 
have  changed  sides  for  the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
record  that  he  was  himself  made  a  member  of  the  committee 
for  Oxfordshire  during  the  following  year.  He  refused  to  act 
on  this  committee  in  1650,  some  three  months  before  his  death, 
but  whether  because  he  was  not  satisfied  with  its  proceedings, 
from  failing  health  or  some  other  cause,  is  not  known. 

By  his  marriage  with  Mary  Brocket,  Sir  Thomas  had  no 
less  than  fourteen  children,  five  sons  and  nine  daughters. 

The  Brocket  family  was  also  indirectly  connected  with  the 
Reades  by  the  marriage  of  Nicholas,  the  younger  brother  of  the 
second  Sir  John  Brocket,  and  grandfather  of  the  above  Mary, 
with  a  sister  of  Anne  How  who  married  Thomas  Rede,  of 
Barton,  Abingdon.  This  Sir  John  lies  buried  in  Wheathamp- 
stead  Church  ;  Wheathampstead  Place  having  been  the  family 
seat  prior  to  the  erection  of  Brocket  Hall. 

Sir  Thomas  was  not  lucky  in  his  sons.  The  eldest,  William, 
died  unmarried  at  the  age  of  24.  The  second  son,  Thomas, 
who  also  pre-deceased  him,  married  when  only  seventeen,  and 
an  Oxford  student,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Cornewall,  of 
Burford,  who  was  his  senior  by  more  than  six  years,  by  whom 
he  had  nine  children.  For  some  reason  or  other  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  on  good  terms  with  his  father,  and  lived  with 
his  wife's  relations.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Ipsden  branch 
of  the  family,  of  which  more  anon. 

The  third  son,  Richard,  seems  to  have  disappeared,  as  does 
the  fifth,  Geoffrey.  Sir  Thomas  was,  therefore,  succeeded  by 
his  son  John,  who  was  born  in  1617. 

This  Sir  John  was  the  first  member  of  the  family  to  achieve 
hereditary  honours.  He  was  knighted  at  Newmarket  on  the 
i2th  March,  1642,  and  four  days  later  created  a  Baronet. 
Cromwell  also  made  him  a  Baronet  in  1656.  Among  other 
things  that  this  gentleman  did,  on  which  one  is  inclined  to  look 
askance,  is  his  changing  his  shield-of-arms. 


io8  THE    READES    IN     HERTFORDSHIRE. 

In  1646  Sir  John,  who  is  described  as  of  Hatfield,  Bart., 
was  assessed  to  contribute  to  the  war  expenses  at  6oo/.,  but  on 
account  of  his  poverty  he  was  let  off.  He  is  described  as  being 
a  "  right  godly  man,  very  active  at  committee,  and,  as  a  J.P.,  in 
suppressing  ale-houses."  He  received  a  pardon  from  Charles 
II.  in  1660. 

Susanne,  his  first  wife,  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Style, 
of  Wateringbury,  Kent,  by  whom  he  had  five  sons  and  four 
daughters.  After  her  death  in  1657,  he  married  Alissimon, 
widow  of  Hon.  Francis  Pierrepont  in  1662.  This  marriage 
appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  profoundest  failures  on  record. 

Mr.  Compton  Reade,  perusing  an  old  printed  account, 
tells  us  that  Sir  John  does  not  appear  to  have  paid  his  wife  her 
allowance.  He  complained  that  she  made  songs  against  him. 
"  She  says  they  were  '  mournful  complaints  to  God  taken  out 
of  the  scriptures,'  and  denies  that  they  were  sung  about  the 
house  by  servants." 

"  She  denies  that  she  procured  one  of  His  Royal  Highness 
guards  to  threaten  Sir  John's  life." 

"He  states  that  differences  began  one-and-a-half  years  after 
marriage.  She  says  that  within  two  months  she  had  to 
withdraw  from  him  (i.e.,  occasionally)  on  account  of  his 
violence,  but  she  stood  it  for  three-and-a-half  years,  e.g.,  he 
slept  with  a  loaded  pistol  under  his  pillow.  Then  she  had  to 
sleep  in  an  "  out-room,"  and  when  she  fell  ill  he  would  not 
allow  her  to  be  moved  to  another  room  with  a  fire  (hers  had  no 
fire-place).  He  had  disowned  her,  sent  away  all  her  servants, 
and  would  not  let  her  engage  more,  threatened  she  should  be 
his  slave,  etc.  He  came  to  her  room  with  a  pistol,  and  the 
servants  sat  up  all  night  for  fear  he  should  murder  her.  He 
kept  a  mistress  in  the  house  and  encouraged  her  to  insult  his 
wife.  He  padlocked  her  into  her  room.  She  has  had  to  get 
up  at  night  for  fear  of  being  burnt  in  her  bed.  He  took  away 
all  her  household  stuff  and  plate,  though  he  accuses  her  of 
having  gone  off  with  it." 

The  quarrel  got  pretty  bitter.  When  he  forbade  her 
tenants  to  pay  her  the  rents  from  her  separate  estate,  and 
denied  her  admission  to  "  his  Herts  house,"  she  sued  him  for 
alimony  in  the  Court  of  Arches  and  won  her  case.  Then  he 


THE    READES    IN    HERTFORDSHIRE.  109 

appealed  to  the  delegates  and  lost.  The  King  tried  to  mediate, 
but  Sir  John,  loyal  subject  though  he  professed  to  be,  would 
have  naught  of  the  Royal  counsel,  whereupon  the  King 
recommended  the  lady  to  go  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Sir  John 
told  his  wife,  when  she  begged  him  to  be  reconciled  to  her, 
that  "she  might  as  well  persuade  him  to  forsake  Jesus  Christ," 
and  further  that  he  should  consider  himself  "  damned  if  he  did 
not  forsake  her,"  yet  he  assured  the  Lords  that  he  never  had 
an  unworthy  thought  of  her. 

How  this  pretty  quarrel  ended  Mr.  Reade  does  not  tell  us, 
but  unless  in  two  centuries  the  people  of  Hatfield  and  St. 
Albans  have  strangely  altered  they  must  have  enjoyed  it  very 
much. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  by  his  first  wife,  Susanne,  this 
cheerful  member  of  the  aristocracy  had  nine  children,  only  one 
of  whom,  Sir  James,  the  second  Baronet,  left  issue.  Of  the 
deaths  of  three  of  them  there  is  no  record,  and  all  that  can  be 
gathered  is  that  it  seems  probable  they  quarrelled  fiercely  with 
their  father,  who,  judging  from  what  we  know  of  him,  was  an 
interesting  study  as  anyone  else's  father,  but  a  failure  as  your 
own. 

Sir  James  seems  to  have  been  a  quiet  sort  of  man,  about 
whom  very  little  is  known  except  that  he  was  a  large  holder  of 
Bank  of  England  Stock,  and  that  he  married  Love,  daughter 
and  co-heir  of  Robert  Bring,  citizen  and  Alderman  of  London, 
by  whom  he  had  one  son  and  five  daughters.  He  died  in  1701, 
and  was  buried  in  the  Reade  Chapel  at  Hatfield. 

To  him  succeeded  his  only  son  John,  who  died  at  Rome  of 
the  small  pox,  on  22nd  February,  1711-12.  He  was  only  21, 
and  unmarried,  consequently  the  Baronetcy  became  extinct. 
Mr  Compton  Reade  tells  us  that  he  was  converted  to  Jacobite 
principles  by  his  maternal  uncle,  Lord  Kingsale,  and  had 
accepted  an  appointment  in  the  suite  of  the  Pretender. 

His  co-heirs  were  his  sisters,  the  fourth  of  whom  Love, 
received  Brocket  Hall  as  part  of  her  portion  of  the  estate. 
In  1719  she  married  Thomas  Winnington,  of  Stanford  Court, 
Worcester,  afterwards  M.P.,  and  successively  holder  of  a 
number  of  government  appointments,  and  a  member  of  the 
Privy  Council.  She  bore  him  one  son,  who  died  while  a 


no  THE    READES    IN    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

baby.  She  died  in  1730,  her  husband  surviving  her  sixteen 
years.  On  his  death  he  left  Brocket  to  some  relations  of  his 
own,  who  sold  it  to  Matthew  Lamb,  M.P.  for  Peterborough. 
Thus  ended  the  connection  of  the  Reades  with  Brocket  Hall. 
The  house  itself  was  pulled  down  in  1760. 

The  other  Hertfordshire  estate,  Minsden,  went  to  Love's 
elder  sister,  Dorothea,  who  married  Robert  Dashwood,  of 
Northbrooke,  Oxfordshire,  by  whom  she  had  issue. 

Although  not  strictly  to  do  with  Hertfordshire,  it  may  be 
interesting  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  other  branches  of  the 
Reades,  I  have  already  mentioned  that  Thomas,  the  heir  of 
Sir  Thomas  Reade,  married  when  very  young,  and  greatly  to 
his  father's  displeasure,  Mary,  second  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas 
Cornewall,  by  whom  he  had  amongst  numerous  other  children, 
Compton,  born  1627,  who  was  created  a  Baronet  by  Letters 
Patent  as  an  acknowledgement  of  his  great  services  to  the 
Royal  cause  during  the  civil  war.  He  married  Mary,  daughter 
of  Sir  Gilbert  Cornewall,  by  whom  he  had  a  family,  and  from 
whom  the  present  Sir  George  Compton  Reade,  gth  baronet,  is 
directly  descended. 

Edward  Reade,  the  younger  brother  of  Sir  Compton  Reade, 
was  a  man  who  believed  in  matrimony,  for  he  had  four  wives, 
by  three  of  whom  he  had  issue.  His  share  of  the  family 
property  was  the  estate  of  Ipsden,  Oxfordshire,  which  was 
bequeathed  to  him  by  his  grandfather,  Sir  Thomas  Reade. 
By  his  first  wife  he  had  a  son  who  died  s.p.  He  seems  to  have 
been  an  oddity  and  quarrelled  fiercely  with  his  father,  who  was 
certainly  lacking  in  desirable  points.  By  his  third  wife  he  had 
four  children,  from  the  second  of  which  the  Ipsden  Reades  are 
descended. 

John  Reade,  of  Ipsden,  who  was  born  in  1775,  married  in 
1796,  Anna  Maria,  daughter  of  Major  Scott- Waring,  M.P., 
Military  Secretary  to  Warren  Hastings  and  his  defender  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  By  this  marriage  John  Reade  had  seven 
sons  and  four  daughters.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  fourth  son, 
William  Barrington  Reade,  who  was  the  grandfather  of  the 
present  squire  of  Ipsden. 

The  sixth  son,  Compton,  was  the  father  of  the  Rev. 
Compton  Reade,  the  present  rector  of  Kenchester,  from  whose 


From  the   drawing  by  Frederick  Waddy,  in  "  Cartoon  Portraits  and  Biographical  Sketches  of 
Men  of  the  Day,  "  London,  Tinsley  Brothers,  December,  1872. 


KENT    ROADS    AND    RIVERS.  in 

admirable   "  Record  of    the    Reades,"  the  particulars  in  this 
article  have  been  taken. 

The  youngest  of  John  Reade's  children  was  Charles  Reade, 
who,  by  his  plays  and  his  novels,  would  have  made  any  family 
illustrious.  Its  members  may  be  far  prouder  of  him  than  of  all 
the  Royal  descents,  and  they  be  many,  put  together.  His 
fame  as  an  author  has  over-shadowed  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
good  scholar,  and  at  one  time  Vice-President  of  Magdalen, 
but  those  who  desire  to  know  more  of  his  career  must  be 
referred  to  "  Charles  Reade,  a  memoir,  by  C.  L.  and  Rev. 
Compton  Reade,  published  in  1887. 


THE    ROADS    AND     RIVERS    OF    KENT    IN 
THE    LAST    CENTURY. 

COMMUNICATED   BY  G.  B.  RASHLEIGH. 

(Continued  from  p.  71). 

AS  all  descriptions  of  countries  as  well  as  the  maps,  must  be 
incorrect  or  difficult  to  be  conceived,  I  therefore  regret  I  had  no 
good  draughtsman  along  with  me  to  have  planned  out  my 
ideas,  so  that  they  might  at  least  be  understood.  Notwithstanding 
as  you  was  (sic)  pleased  to  ask  my  opinion  whether  a  large  body  of 
troops  might  not  be  impeded  and  retarded  on  their  march  and  even 
harrassed  by  a  smaller  number  than  themselves  in  those  parts  of 
Kent  ?  I  shall  very  freely  give  you  my  thoughts,  although  but  weak 
ones : 

I  shall  suppose  that  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  French  are  to  land  on 
the  south-east  part  of  Kent  or  Romney  Marsh,  from  whence  they 
have  but  three  different  ways  to  penetrate  into  the  country  towards 
Chatham  and  the  Medway. 

i st.    By  Hyth,  etc.,  towards  Canterbury. 

2nd.  Across  the  Marsh  of  Romney  and  the  Weald  of  Kent  by 
Ashford,  Maidstone,  etc. 

3rd.  By  Appledore,  Tenterden,  etc.,  across  the  Weald  to 
Maidstone,  etc. 

ist.  In  order  to  prevent  and  retard  their  marching  by  the  first 
route,  there  may  be  parties  in  readiness  in  the  neighbourhood  with 
proper  tools  to  destroy  and  render  Dimchurch  Wall  unpassable,  and 
the  flood  gates  there  may  be  demolished,  by  which  means  all  that 
part  of  the  marsh  of  Romney  will  be  inundated,  besides  a  few 
cannons  on  the  Wall  towards  Hyth  can  easily  be  retired  in  case  of 
superiority. 


H2  KENT    ROADS    AND     RIVERS. 

2nd.  If  failing  in  the  first  they  should  endeavour  to  march  across 
the  marsh  from  Romney  to  Ashford.  that  road  across  the  marsh 
might  be  made  extremely  troublesome  to  them,  for  as  it  is  only  20  or 
30  feet  wide  and  ditches  on  each  side,  a  few  coupuves  across  it  would 
be  a  great  hindrance.  But  what  might  be  still  a  greater  difficulty  to 
them,  would  be  the  getting  out  of  the  marsh  to  the  Weald  by  Hum 
and  Bilsington,  because  parties  placed  there  and  taking  proper  care 
of  their  retreat  might  gaul  them,  and  as  they  retire  might  leave 
those  roads  unpassable  by  cutting  down  the  trees,  etc.,  to  block  it  up, 
and  leaving  small  parties  behind  the  blockades  to  stop  the  avant- 
courreures.  It  would  I  fancy  make  any  wise  enemy  move  slowly. 

N.B.  As  this  route  leads  towards  Charte  Magna  and  those  hills 
that  are  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Weald,  they  might  there 
again  be  harrassed  by  those  parties  cantoned  in  the  villages  that  run 
along  those  high  grounds — who,  if  at  any  time  overpowered  by 
numbers,  have  always  a  safe  and  easy  retreat  to  the  second  ridge  of 
hills  where  they  have  the  same  game  to  play  over  again. 

3rd.  If  the  enemy  should  endeavour  to  pass  by  the  south  parts 
of  Romney  Marsh  towards  Appledore  and  Tenterden,  the  south 
flood  gates  may  there  be  destroyed  and  the  sea  let  in,  which  in  a 
spring-tide  will  lay  a  great  deal  of  ground  under  water ;  but  allowing 
them  to  get  the  length  of  Tenterden,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  see 
them  attempt  to  pass  the  Weald  to  get  at  Maidstone,  as  inevitable 
ruin  must  attend  them.  For  sure  if  two  troops  of  the  Grays  had  a 
difficulty  to  pass  it  one  day  last  week,  and  twice  as  much  to  repass  it 
two  days  thereafter,  I  shall  think  it  a  miracle  if  any  body  of  French, 
unless  from  want  of  knowledge,  attempt  the  Weald  as  they  can 
neither  encamp  nor  cantoon,  or  have  any  provisions  but  what  they 
carry  upon  their  backs,  and  as  the  bridge  may  be  broke,  and  the 
passage  up  the  hills  to  the  villages  rendered  impracticable,  I  really, 
with  reason,  think  that  they  will  be  so  wise  as  not  to  attempt  this 
route,  but  fall  back  into  Sussex  towards  Hastings  and  Battell.  For 
two  days  ago  the  whole  W^eald  from  Smarden  down  to  Yalding  was 
one  continued  inundation,  so  if  they  attempt  any  of  the  two  last 
routes  they  must  leave  their  cannon  behind,  in  which  case  I  flatter 
myself  that  we  will  make  any  parcel  of  troops  equal  to  their  greater 
numbers  by  the  knowledge  of  the  country  and  the  posts  we  shall 
take.  For  I  take  it  for  granted  that  they  will  never  dare,  or  we 
suffer  them,  either  to  send  out  reconnoitring  parties,  or  parties  to 
mend  the  roads.  And  if  so  and  obliged  to  march  in  a  body,  I  can 
no  ways  figure  to  myself  either  how  they  are  to  get  forward,  or 
subsist,  as  no  doubt  H.R.H.  will  take  his  precaution  to  prevent 
both. 

To  conclude  this  long  letter  which  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  write, 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that  bodies  of  infantry  can  annoy  and  harrass 
them  from  the  moment  they  shall  dare  to  land,  and  I  cannot  help 
saying  that  as  far  as  I  have  seen  of  Kent,  it  is  by  nature  the  most 
defensible  country  I  ever  saw,  and  if  the  French  are  to  come,  I  wish 
their  good  advisers  may  counsel  them  to  Romney  Marsh,  where 
indeed  they  may  land  in  smooth  water  on  one  or  the  other  side  of 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  113 

Dungeness,  let  the  wind  blow  from  any  quarter  but  the  south-east. 
But  surely  their  march  from  that  may  be  made  most  disagreeable  to 
them,  although  I  have  not  yet  reconnoitred  the  coast  of  Sussex,  nor 
the  roads  from  Hastings  towards  London  with  that  view,  but  shall 
do  it  at  any  time,  with  pleasure,  when  called  upon. 

There  are  several  things  (now  the  warlike  genius  is  beginning  to 
revive)  that  probably  will  be  thought  of,  such  as  quicker  passage  for 
the  troops  from  Essex  to  Kent  than  by  London,  as  also  how  to  make 
a  proper  use  of  Kentish  men.  But  I  dare  say  that  has  been  thought 
of  by  better  heads  than  ours.  However,  I  must  observe  that  where 
any  descent  is  possible  to  be  made  upon  us,  it  is  much  better  we 
know  the  country  before  hand — than  examining  it  after  the  enemy 
are  in  possession. 

I  shall  be  in  town  two  or  three  days  hence  to  receive  forty 
recruit  horses,  and  shall  then  say  more  in  five  minutes  than  I  can 
write  in  one  hour,  but  I  can  always  say  with  truth  that 

I  am,  dear  Colonel,  your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

Jo.  FORBES. 
Ashford,  Nov.  23rd. 

P.S. — I  called  upon  General  Hawley  and  told  him  most  of  what 
I  have  wrote,  which  he  seemed  to  relish. 

The  villages  and  bridges  along  the  Weald  are  marked  with  an  A, 
and  the  chains  of  the  hills  are  dotted  with  red  ink  on  the  map. 

Villages  along  the  first  ridge  of  hills — Hunton,  Linton,  Sutton 
Valence,  Boughton  Malherb,  Egerton,  Plukely,  and  Charte  Magna. 

Bridges  above  Maidstone — Teston  upon  the  Medway,  Yalding, 
Stiles,  Horsfield,  Hockingbtiry,  Stevens,  and  Smarden.  All 
[except  Teston]  upon  the  great  branch  that  runs  down  the  Weald 
about  two  or  three  miles  from  the  foot  of  the  hills." 


NOTES   ON    CHURCH    PLATE    IN    THE 
DIOCESE    OF    LONDON. 

BY  EDWIN  FRESHFIELD,  JUNIOR. 
INTRODUCTORY. 

IN  these  notes  we  propose  to  give  an  account  of  the  church 
plate  in  the  Diocese  of  London.  A  convenient  plan  to 
adopt  seems  to  be  to  take  the  Diocese  of  London  in  three 
parts,  the  City,  the  County  of  London,  and  the  County  of 
Middlesex,  and  to  take  the  churches  in  alphabetical  order  in 
each  division. 

Before  commencing  with  a  description  of  the  plate  it  will 
be  well  to  give  a  short  historical  review  of  the  subject,  and  to 
explain  a  few  technical  terms. 


ii4  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

The  churches  in  the  diocese  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes ;  first,  the  parish  churches,  that  is  to  say,  the  churches 
of  the  ancient  parishes  which  have  existed  from  time 
immemorial,  and  of  certain  statutory  parishes  created  by  Acts 
of  Parliament  and  Orders  in  Council  during  the  I7th,  i8th,  and 
early  igth  centuries ;  and,  secondly,  the  churches  of 
"ecclesiastical  parishes"  and  districts  created  under  the 
Church  Building  Acts  since  1830.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  that  the  large  majority  of  churches  come  under  the  second 
category,  and,  as  the  plate  to  be  found  in  them  has  acquired  no 
archaeological  interest,  it  is  omitted  from  these  notes  altogether. 
It  is  a  fact  frequently  forgotten  that  prior  to  the  Church 
Building  Acts,  passed  in  the  second  quarter  of  this  century, 
there  was  no  general  Act  in  existence  for  church  building,  and 
the  creation  of  a  new  parish  and  church  involved,  with  one  or 
two  rare  exceptions,  a  private  or  special  Act  of  Parliament. 

At  present  the  sets  of  plate  consist  of  tankards  or  flagons, 
usually  in  pairs,  cups  with  either  conical  covers  or  combination 
paten  covers,  patens,  alms  dishes  and  spoons,  and,  in  the  City 
especially,  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  odds  and  ends  of  plate, 
some  of  it  intended  for  very  secular  purposes.  For  instance, 
there  are  several  snuff  boxes,  three  mazers,  four  beakers,  a 
posset  cup,  an  oyster  knife  and  fork  (the  church  to  which  they 
belong  is  appropriately  in  the  vicinity  of  Billingsgate!),  a  dozen 
teaspoons,  two  sugar  tongs,  a  pepper  pot,  and  muffineer.  With 
the  miscellaneous  pieces  should  be  included  several  fonts  for 
private  baptism  and  baptismal  shells,  sets  of  small  Communion 
plate  for  private  use,  two  or  three  censers,  some  processional 
crosses,  a  pulpit  hour-glass,  a  few  parochial  badges,  and  a  large 
and  very  interesting  collection  of  beadles'  staves  and  wands. 

HISTORICAL. 

The  parish  churches  in  the  Diocese  of  London  possess  a 
very  large  and  interesting  collection  of  plate  made  during  the 
last  350  years,  that  is  to  say  from  the  commencement  of  the 
reign  of  King  Edward  VI.  down  to  the  present  time. 
Unfortunately,  the  sweep  of  old  church  plate  made  during  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  was  so  complete,  that  there  are  only 
six  mediaeval  pieces  left,  namely,  an  alms  dish  and  a  paten  at 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  115 

St.  Magnus,  near  London  Bridge,  an  alms  dish  at  St.  Mary 
Woolnooth,  Hawksmoor's  church,  which  stands  at  the  corner  of 
Lombard  Street,  and  a  chalice  and  paten  at  West  Drayton, 
made  in  1507. 

For  this  clean  sweep  we  are  indebted  in  the  first  instance  to 
the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  of  King  Edward  VI.,  who 
were  appointed  to  carry  out  Church  reforms.  To  them  was 
entrusted  the  duty  of  collecting  from  all  over  England  vessels 
which  had  served  for  Popish  purposes,  chalices,  patens,  cruets, 
monstrances,  and  the  like.  The  Commissioners,  however, 
usually  left  sufficient  plate  in  each  parish  to  provide  a  cup  and 
paten  for  the  new  use,  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  these 
two  articles  were  the  only  vessels  which  the  parish  possessed 
till  the  close  of  the  i6th  century. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  the  parishes  throughout 
the  country  converted  their  old  plate  into  new  plate  to  suit  the 
reformed  service,  but  the  reign  was  too  short  for  the  work  of 
transformation  to  be  completely  carried  out,  and  some  old  plate 
survived.  During  Queen  Mary's  reign,  from  1553  to  1558,  the 
unreformed  service  was  revived  and  the  old  plate  used  to  suit 
its  requirements ;  but  writh  Queen  Elizabeth's  accession  the 
work  of  recasting  and  transforming  recommenced  with  renewed 
and  increased  zeal.  The  parish  books  are  full  of  interesting 
entries  showing  how  the  changes  went  on  ;  I  take  for  example 
the  following  extracts  from  the  parish  record  of  St.  Michael, 
Cornhill.  After  entries  in  1548-1550,  recording  the  removal  of 
the  images  of  Mary  and  John  from  the  rood-loft,  of  the  payment 
of  55.  to  the  schoolmaster  for  writing  the  mass  in  English,  and 
of  the  removal  of  the  High  Altar  and  the  substituting  of  a 
table  for  it,  the  following  entries  appear  in  1551  : — 

"  Item  pd.  for  Muscadell  at  Mr.  Carter's  the  last  day  of  Febrwarye 
at  ye  wh.  tyme  the  church  plate  was  wayed  and  dd*  to  Mr. 
Lodge  in  Mr.  Carter's  howse  in  the  presens  of  dyvers  masters 
of  the  pyshe.f — ij^." 

"  Item  pd.  to  Mr.  AwstenJ  ye  xxvj  daye  of  Mrche  to  pay  the 
Goldsmythe  yt.  made  comnyon  cup  waying  xxj  oz  &  qr.  at 
xxijW.  ye  oz.  ye  workmanshyp  for  the  wh.  cup  was  dd  a  gylt 
challes  waing-xx  oz.  lii  qrs.  and  ij.r.  iiij^.  in  money  for  the 
overwayght.  Sumd.  —  xlijj.  iiijW." 

*  Delivered.         f  Pix  ?         +  One  of  the  wardens. 


n6  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

Almost  as  soon  as  these  alterations  were  made  the  King  died, 
and  in  1553  come  the  following  entries:  — 

"  Pd.  for  men  ryngyng  at  the  p'claymyng  of  the  Quen's  Grace— 


"  Pd.  for  ryngyng  at  ye  coronation  of  the  Quene  —  ijs.  injd." 
Her  Grace,  Queen  Mary,  was  proclaimed  on  the  igth  July  and 
crowned  on  the  ist  October,  1553.     With  her  accession  came, 
as  we  have  said,  a  revival  of  popery,  and  shortly  after  we  have 
the  two  following  entries  :  — 

"  Item  paide  for  makinge  of  the  High  Awlter  vvt.  bryck  and  all  the 
steppes  in  the  quire  before  the  High  Awlter  wt.  dyv's  other 
places  in  the  churche  that  wer  made  and  mended,  for  ij  m.  lo. 
of  bricke  —  xviijj1.  vjW." 

"  Paide  for  a  challyse  wayinge  xij  ounces  a  hallfe  and  hallfe  a 
quarter  at  vjj.  the  ounce  —  iij/z'.  xvs.  iiij^." 

and  in  1556  :  — 

"  Paid  to  Peter  the  Joyner  for  makinge  the  Roode,  Mary  and  John 
—  viij//'.  xj." 

Then  there  was  a  short  lull  until  Queen  Mary's  death,  and  in 
J559  comes  the  entry  relating  to  Queen  Elizabeth's  proclamation 
on  iyth  November,  1558  :— 

"  Paide  to  Ringers  when  the  Quen's  grace  was  proclaimede  —  ijs." 
It  will  be  seen  that  whereas  the  bellringers  received  4^.  at 
Queen  Mary's  proclamation,  they  got  zs.  for  Queen  Elizabeth, 
or  six  times  as  much.  This  increase  may  indicate  the  feelings 
of  the  citizens,  for  Queen  Elizabeth  was  very  popular  in  the 
City.  The  result  of  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  on  the  occasion 
named  is  seen,  a  little  further  on,  in  this  significant  entry  :— 

"  Paide  for  mendinge  the  clapper  of  the  greate  Belle  —  xs." 

With  Queen  Elizabeth's  accession  the  Reformed  service  was 
revived,  and  in  1559  appears  this  entry:— 

"  Paide  to  the  P'cher  when  the  Visyters  were  here  —  viij^." 

These  were  the  Queen's  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners,  and 
they,  like  King  Edward's  Commissioners,  were  appointed  to 
carry  out  reforms.  Shortly  after  their  visit  there  was 

"  Paide  for  removinge  the  smalle  Orgains   and  the   Table  that 

stode  vpon  the  Hight  Aulter  —  vi'ijd." 
and 

"  Paide  for  taking  dowen  the  Roode  —  xLr." 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  117 

The  literature  of  the  unreformed  Church  shared  the  same 
fate  as  the  ornaments,  and  the  St.  Michael's  parish  books 
record  payments  for  the  purchase  of  a  Bible  and  chain,  and  for 
the  "  new  order  of  the  service  book,"  and  for  a  book  of  the 
Injunctions  and  for  a  book  of  the  Articles  and  for  a  book 
called  the  "  Whoale  Book  of  Omeles,"  and  for  "a  boke 
called  the  '  Paraphrasis  of  Erasmus,'  "  and  for  "  Mr.  Calvin's 
Instytucions,"  and  for  "  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs,"  and  also  for 
"a  cheyne  a  lock  and  four  keyes " ;  but  in  spite  of  these 
precautions  the  last  mentioned  book  was  afterwards  stolen,  and 
gs.  was  allowed,  by  consent  of  the  Vestry,  for  expenses 
incurred  in  prosecuting  the  thief. 

The  following  entries  from  the  parish  records  of  St.  Mary 
Woolnoth  and  St.  Mary  Woolchurch  Haw  for  1559  relate  to 
the  same  subject : — 

"  Receyved  of  Robert  Tayleboys  for  ij  Chalcyses  parcell  gilt 
averyging  xxv  ounces  at  \s.  the  ounce  whererin  was  founde 
iij/fr.  of  Leade  so  was  not  of  sylver  xxiij  ounces — vi/i.  ijs.'' 

"  Payed  to  Robert  Tayleboys  for  a  Communion  cuppe  with  a  cover 
gilt  weyinge  xxxiij  ounces  at  vis.  viij<tf.  the  ounce  amounteth 
to — vi//.  iij.v.  injd." 

and  in  1560  :— 

"  Receyved  of  a  stacyioner  for  the  lattyn  service  bookes  which 
weare  sold  by  consent  of  the  perishoners — xxviy.  viij<5?." 

What  between  the  Commissioners  of  King  Edward  VI.  and 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  zeal  of  the  parishes,  the  marvel  is 
that  any  pre- Reformation  plate  at  all  escaped  destruction. 
King  Edward's  reign  was  so  short  that  the  church  plate  made 
in  his  time  is  almost  as  scarce  as  the  pre- Reformation  plate,  and 
even  scarcer,  perhaps,  in  the  provinces.  Queen  Mary's  reign 
was  also  very  short,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  there  is  no 
ecclesiastical  plate  of  her  time  to  be  found  in  the  City.  With 
Queen  Elizabeth's  accession  came  further  alterations,  and  it 
would  seem  that  new  church  plate  was  bought  generally  all 
over  England.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  case  in 
London,  for  the  parish  books  bear  evidence  of  it,  and  there  are 
a  great  many  Elizabethan  cups  and  a  quantity  of  patens  and 
paten  covers  still  in  existence  in  the  diocese. 


u8  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

Archbishop  Laud  was  Bishop  of  London  from  1628  to 
1633,  and  about  his  time  there  was  a  very  large  quantity  of 
plate  made,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  it  was  made  subsequently 
in  any  great  quantity  at  any  particular  time.  In  1648  came  the 
Great  Rebellion,  and  there  are  very  few  pieces  belonging  to 
that  period,  nor  are  there  many  more  between  the  accessions  of 
Charles  II.  and  1666.  In  that  year  occurred  in  the  City  the 
Great  Fire,  when  of  108  churches  standing  on  the  3ist  August, 
only  twenty-three  remained  on  the  following  25th  September. 
Luckily  the  church  plate  escaped  wholesale  destruction,  probably 
because  the  progress  of  the  fire  was  slow,  and  there  was  time 
to  save  it.  There  is  an  entry  in  the  churchwardens'  account 
books  at  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry,  of  a  payment  of  los.  made  to  a 
person  for  saving  the  plate  of  that  church,  and  there  is  the 
following  entry  in  the  churchwardens'  account  books  of  the 
united  parishes  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth  and  St.  Mary 
Woolchurch  Haw  under  date  1666. 

"  Paid  for  removing  the  vestments,  plate,  bookes  and  cushings  in 
the  tyme  of  the  Fyre  to  severall  places  in  the  country  and 
bringin  them  into  London  againe,  and  then  removing  them  to 
severall  places  to  secure  them  and  carriage  about  same." — 
005  ,,  06  ,,  oo. 

But  the  parishes  were  not  always  quite  so  fortunate ; 
speaking  of  St.  Benet  Sherehog,  Stow  says,  ''The  plate,  bells, 
and  other  ornaments  of  the  church  which  they  had  before  the 
fire  were  imbezzled  by  the  churchwardens  many  years  ago. 

During  the  rest  of  the  seventeenth  century  little  plate  was 
made,  but  the  eighteenth  century  contributes  a  considerable 
quantity.  Of  modern  stuff  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  is, 
luckily,  not  much;  five  sets  of  plate  have  been  made  to  replace 
that  which  was  stolen,*  and  as  many  sets  and  a  few  odd  pieces 
are  the  result  of  parochial  vandalismt  of  which  there  has  been, 
on  the  whole,  very  little. 

*  In  each  of  these  cases  the  whole  set  of  plate  was  stolen—  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 
Stolen  from  the  vestry  about  1810.  St.  Mary,  Aldermanbury.  Also  stolen  from 
the  vestry  in  1889.  St.  Andrew,  Holborn.  Stolen  from  the  parish  clerk's  house 
in  1799.  St.  George,  Botolph  Lane.  Stolen  from  the  church.  All  Hallows, 
London  Wall.  (?)  Stolen  from  the  church  about  1830. 

t  The  worst  case  of  vandalism  took  place  at  S.  Bartholomew,  Moor  Lane,  in 
1852. 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  ug 

The  accompanying  illustration,  Plate  A,  contains  a  selection 
of  the  plate  exhibited  at  Merchant  Tailor's  Hall  on  the  I7th 
July,  1893.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  pieces  shown  in  it, 
and  a  fuller  description  of  them  will  be  found  hereafter  in  the 
inventories  of  the  different  churches  to  which  they  belong. 

1.  Cup,  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry,  date  1548. 

2.  Cup,    St.    Botolph,    Aldgate,    date    1559,    with    a    pre- 
Reformation  stem. 

3.  Cup  and  cover,  Christ  Church,  date  1560. 

4.  Cup  and  cover,  St.  Ethelburga,  date  1560. 

5.  Cup  and  cover,  St.  Olave,  Old  Jewry,  date  1562. 

6.  Cup,  St.  Michael,  Cornhill,  date  1550. 

7.  Cup,  St.  Mary  Abchurch,  made  at  Antwerp,  date  1581. 

8.  Cups  and  covers,  All  Hallows  the  Great,  dates  1575  and 
1608. 

9.  Paten  or  dish,  St.  Benet,  Paul's  Wharf,  date  1712. 

10.  Ciborium,  St.  Bride,  date  1672. 

11.  Tankard,  St.  Benet  Fink,  date  1607. 

12.  Dish,  St.  Benet,  Paul's  Wharf,  date  1712. 

13.  Tazza-paten,  St.  Botolph,  Aldgate,  date  1589, 

14.  Cup,  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  date  1617. 

15.  Tazza-paten,  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  date  1586. 

16.  Beadle's  arm  badge,  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  date  1693. 

(To  be  continued). 


ESSEX     CHARITIES. 

(Continued  from  p.  12). 

ESTHORPE,    AND    MUCH    BIRCH. 

By  an  Order  made  at  the  Lion  at  Kelvedon,  igth  January,  43 
Elizabeth  [A.D.  1601]  it  was  directed,  by  John,  Bishop-Suffragan  of 
Colchester,  William  Ayliff,  of  Braxsted,  Ralfe  Wisman,  Andrew 
Pascall,  and  Christopher  Chiborne,  esquires,  in  a  cause  concerning 
the  poor  people  of  the  parish  of  Esthorpe,  against  John  Binder  and 
others,  that — forasmuch  as  it  plainly  appeared  that  by  virtue  of  the 
last  will  of  John  Kingston,  clerk,  sometime  of  Esthorpe,  deceased, 
there  was  payable  for  ever  "  unto  the  poor  people  of  the  said  parish," 
the  yearly  rent  of  75.  2|^.,  issuing  out  of  certain  lands  and  tenements 
called  Winninges,  lately  Garlands,  in  Esthorpe,  containing  by 
estimation  seven  acres,  then  John  Binder's,  of  Esthorpe,  and  out  of 
a  certain  cottage  and  one  rood  of  ground,  parcel  of  the  above 
named  lands  called  Garlands,  now  the  Widow  Owen's,  "  the  same 
sum  to  be  given  by  the  discretion  of  the  parson  or  curate  of  Esthorpe 
for  the  time  being,  with  the  over-sight  of  the  owners  or  tenants  of 
the  said  lands,  the  same  money  to  be  yearly  paid  to  the  said  parsons 
or  curates  for  the  time  being  at  the  Feasts  of  All  Saints,  or  within 
eight  days  next  ensuing" — the  said  John  Binder  and  Widow  Owen, 
"  and  all  and  every  person  or  persons  hereafter  owners,  farmers  or 
occupiers  of  the  lands  and  tenements  aforesaid,  or  of  any  parcel 
thereof,"  should  thereafter  pay  to  the  said  parson  or  curate  the  said 
sum  of  75.  2^d.  according  to  the  said  will,  to  be  employed  according 
to  the  said  will. 

And  it  was  further  ordered  that  if,  at  any  time,  the  said  yearly 
rent  should  be  unpaid,  it  should  be  lawful  for  the  parson  or  curate  of 
Esthorpe  aforesaid  to  enter  into  the  premises  and  distrain,  and  the 
distress  so  taken  to  retain  until  all  the  said  sum  be  fully  paid. 

Appended  to  the  Order  is  the  answer  in  the  suit: — The  said  John 
Binder  says  that  he  is  the  owrner  of  Garlands,  and  that  the  same 
lands  ought  not  to  be  charged  with  the  annuity  of  55.  in  the 
inquisition  mentioned,  for  the  same  annuity  is  limited  absolutely  in 
the  said  last  will  of  John  Kingstone,  for  the  maintenance  of  an  obit 
and  anniversary  for  ever  in  the  church  of  Much  Birch,  and  in  part 
to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  that  should  be  present  at  the  said 
obit  or  anniversary,  so  that  it  is  absolutely  limited  to  superstitious 
uses.  All  which  the  said  John  Binder  was  ready  to  prove  and 
prayed  that,  as  the  same  sum  would  then  be  due  to  the  Queen's 
Majesty,  he  might  be  discharged  of  the  payment  thereof  to  the  poor 
of  Much  Birch  aforesaid. 


ISAAC 


, 


Front  (i  bunt  by  Roubiliuc. 

The  engraving  is  doubtless  that  referred  to  by  John  Thomas  Smith  (in  NoHnkena  ami  hi*  Times'] 
as  executed  Dy  himself  in  early  life  Mr.  Smith  considered  the  bust  one  of  Roubiliac's  best  per- 
formances, and  says  that  Ware,  while  sitting  to  the  sculptor,  related  his  story  to  his  (Mr.  Smith's)  father. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN  :    A    RETROSPECT. 
BY  W.  L.  RUTTON,  F.S.A. 

(Continued  from  p.  23). 
WESTBOURNE  PLACE,  OR  HOUSE. 

Lysons  (Environs  of  London,  III.,  330),  shows  that  in 
1540,  Henry  VIII.  granted  to  one  Robert  White,  a  capital 
messuage  called  Westbourne  Place,  with  certain  lands  thereto 
belonging,  and  the  author  has  no  hesitation  in  concluding  that 
the  grant  had  reference  to  the  property  which  will  now  have 
our  attention.  From  White  it  returned  to  the  Crown  by  sale 
or  exchange  for  other  lands ;  Queen  Mary  sold  it  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Hues,  one  of  her  principal  physicians,  who  gave  it  to 
his  wife  for  life,  with  remainder  to  Merton  College,  Oxford 
(Robins,  Paddington,  pp.  35-37)  ;  and,  coming  down  to  the 
reign  of  George  III.,  it  was  bought  by  Isaac  Ware,  an  architect 
of  considerable  repute  (Lysons). 

ISAAC  WARE,  whose  origin  was  lowly,  is  thus  written  of  in 
Nollekens  and  his  Times,  by  John  Thomas  Smith,  formerly 
Keeper  of  the  Prints  and  Drawings  at  the  British  Museum.  As 
a  thin,  sickly,  little  chimney-sweep,  the  boy  Ware  was  one 
morning  seen  busy  with  a  piece  of  chalk  sketching,  on  its 
basement  stones,  Inigo  Jones's  fine,  classic  work  at  Whitehall, 
drawing  the  design  as  high  as  his  arm  would  reach,  and 
at  intervals  running  into  the  street  to  study  his  model.  The 
observer,  "  a  gentleman  of  considerable  taste  and  fortune  " 
[probably  Lord  Burlington] ,  recognising  that  the  boy's  ability 
rendered  him  superior  to  the  calling  of  a  chimney-sweep, 
found  out  his  master  in  Charles  Court,  Strand,  benevolently 
bought  the  remainder  of  his  apprenticeship,  educated  him,  and 
afterwards  sent  him  to  study  architecture  in  Italy.  Returned 
to  England,  Ware  was  employed  as  an  architect  by  his  patron, 
and  by  him  introduced  to  his  friends.  In  1728  he  was 
appointed  Clerk  of  the  Works  at  the  Tower  of  London,  and  in 
1736  became  Secretary  to  the  Board  of  Works.  His  private 
practice  included — perhaps  as  his  chief  work — Chesterfield 


I22  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

House  in  South  Audley  Street;  we  hear  of  it  in  the  Earl  of 
Chesterfield's  Letters,  and  learn  that  the  marble  columns 
and  magnificent  staircase  were  brought  from  Canons  (near 
Edgware),  the  famous  seat  of  the  Duke  of  Chandos,  demolished 
in  1744.  The  Earl's  mansion  was  finished  in  1749. 

The  successful  architect  made  his  fortune  and  was  enabled 
to  purchase  property  at  Westbourne  Green,  and  thereon  to 
build  his  own  house,  Westbourne  Place ;  the  name  was  old,  for, 
as  has  been  shown,  it  dated  from  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
Lysons  (Environs  III.,  330),  says  that  the  new  house  was  built 
a  little  to  the  south  of  the  old  house  which  was  suffered  to  stand 
several  years  longer,  and  which  is  probably  represented  by  the 
blocks  appearing  in  the  described  position  on  Rocque's  map 
of  1746,  Ware's  new  house  having  probably  been  built  a  little 
before  that  date.  Lysons  also  tells  us  that  when  building, 
or  rebuilding,  Chesterfield  House,  the  architect  was  allowed 
to  transport  certain  material  to  Westbourne  for  use  in  his 
own  house.  His  town  house,  which  he  himself  built,  yet 
stands  at  the  south-west  corner  of  Bloomsbury  Square.  Of 
London  brick,  it  is  externally  very  plain  ;  a  dentilled 
cornice,  and  a  pediment  in  the  Hart  Street  face,  are  the  only 
architectural  features.  On  the  opposite  side  of  Hart  Street, 
eighty  yards  westward  (Nos.  11-13),  is  als°  a  block  attributed 
to  him  and  distinguished  by  some  good  Georgian-classic 
doorways. 

Ware's  work  was  certain  to  be  Palladian  as  far  as  the 
exigencies  of  English  climate  would  permit.  Modified  classic 
was  the  style  of  his  day,  and  so  thoroughly  had  he  studied 
Palladio  that  he  edited  in  English  the  master's  works ;  the 
"advertisement"  of  this  edition  is  dated  from  Scotland  Yard, 
1737.  Another  work  more  specially  his  own  is  A  Complete 
Body  of  Architecture,  with  some  Designs  of  Inigo  Jones  never 
before  published.  It  was  a  posthumous  publication  in  1767, 
for  his  death  occurred  at  his  house  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  on 
5th  January,  1766.  (Gentleman's  Magazine.)* 

*  For  a  more  complete  account  of  Isaac  Ware,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  Dictionary  of  Architecture,  Part  23,  Architectural  Publication 
Society,  1892;  and  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  1899.  The 
house  in  Bloomsbury  Square  was  afterwards  occupied  by  Isaac  D' Israeli, 
whose  son,  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  here  spent  some  years  of  his- 
childhood. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  123 

SIR  WILLIAM  YORKE,  BART.,  purchased  the  house  from 
the  executors  of  Isaac  Ware,  but  could  have  lived  in  it  a 
short  time  only,  for  he  let  it  to  the  Venetian  Ambassador,  and 
sold  it  in  1768.  He  was  a  successful  lawyer,  who,  in  1743, 
became  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  Ireland, 
and  in  1761  was  created  a  Baronet.  He  died  s.p.  September 
3Oth,  1776.  (Gentleman  s  Magazine.) 

JUKES  COULSON,  of  Thames  Street,  London,  eminent  as 
an  iron  merchant  and  anchor  smith,  was  the  purchaser  of  West- 
bourne  Place.  He  held  it  about  twenty-six  years,  and  expended 
much  money  in  enlarging  the  house  and  laying  out  the  grounds ; 
Lysons  says  that  he  spent  i,5OO/.  on  the  library  which  he 
added.  He  died  in  1794,  leaving  a  widow,  but  apparently 
childless,  for  in  1800  the  property  was  sold  by  his  nephew  to 
Mr.  Cockerell. 

SAMUEL  PEPYS  COCKERELL,  the  next  owner  of  Westbourne 
Place,  is  interesting  as  claiming  kindred  with  the  writer 
of  the  famous  diary,  his  mother  being  the  grand-daughter 
of  Mrs.  Jackson,  Pepy's  sister.  Moreover,  besides  his  great- 
great-uncle's  name  he  had  inherited  some  interesting  relics,  and 
a  large  collection  of  letters  and  papers  to  which  Lord  Braybrooke, 
the  Diarist's  editor,  had  access,  as  he  gratefully  acknowledges 
in  his  preface  of  1825.  Mr.  Cockerell  had  considerable  reputation 
as  an  architect,  and  has  now  his  place  in  the  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography.  His  professional  work  lay  chiefly  in  the 
building  or  improvement  of  important  country  seats,  but  with 
other  London  work  he  rebuilt  the  Church  of  St.  Martin 
Outwich,  not  now  existing  to  testify  to  his  skill ;  and  he  held 
the  office  of  surveyor  to  the  Hon.  East  India  Company.  Before 
coming  to  Westbourne  Place,  he  lived  in  a  house  at  the  corner 
of  Savile  Row  and  Burlington  Street,  which  he  occupied  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  there  died  aged  seventy-four,  27th  July,  1827. 
He  extended  the  area  of  the  grounds  by  annexing  a  portion 
of  the  Green,  but  this  he  did  in  an  honest  and  open  manner. 
Mr.  Robins,  in  Paddington  Past  and  Present,  produces  several 
extracts  from  the  vestry  minutes,  showing  the  gradual  absorption 
of  the  Green  ;  for  instance,  one  dated  1801,  July  i5th  :  "Mr. 
Cockerell  applied  to  enclose  part  of  the  waste  of  Westbourne 
Green,  north  and  east  of  the  Harrow  Road."  And  the  next 


124  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

year  he  and  Mr.  White,  another  Westbourne  proprietor,  paid 
4OO/.  and  ioo/.  for  land  they  had  enclosed.  The  lawn  and 
gardens  of  Westbourne  Place,  as  left  by  Mr.  Cockerell,  are 
nicely  depicted  in  our  map.* 

CHARLES  ROBERT  COCKERELL,  one  of  the  five  sons 
of  the  above,  and  the  second  in  three  generations  of 
Cockerell  architects,  was  of  the  three  by  far  the  most 
eminent.  Though  not  born  at  Westbourne  Place,  he  must 
have  enjoyed  his  holidays  there  as  a  Westminster  school-boy. 
He  was  equally  distinguished  as  a  writer  on  his  art  and  in 
the  practice  of  it,  and  his  reputation  was  enhanced  by 
architectural  discoveries  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  in  which 
he  was  associated  with  others.  Returned  to  England  in  1817, 
he  was  in  1819  appointed  surveyor  to  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
and  held  the  office  forty-four  years,  that  is  until  his  death. 
His  London  work  included  Hanover  Chapel,  Regent  Street, 
lately  removed,  and — with  Sir  William  Tite — the  London  and 
Westminster  Bank,  Lothbury ;  in  1833  he  succeeded  Sir  John 
Soane,  as  architect  to  the  Bank  of  England.  In  1847  he 
completed  St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool.  For  many  years  he 
filled  the  chair  of  Professor  of  Architecture  in  the  Royal 
Academy,  delivered  important  lectures,  and  contributed  many 
designs.  In  the  early  part  of  his  career,  doubtless,  he  often 
visited  his  father  at  Westbourne  Green,  but  being  a  younger 
son  did  not  inherit  the  mansion  there.  His  residence  was  13, 
Chester  Terrace,  Regent's  Park,  and  there  he  died  i7th 
September,  1863,  his  interment  being  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Paul's, 
the  resting  place  of  Wren  and  of  others  who  have  been  eminent 
in  their  art.f 

*  A  portrait  of  Samuel  Pepys  Cockerell,  was  painted  by  Sir  William 
Beechey,  R.A.,  and  of  this  an  excellent  mezzotint  engraving  by  Thomas 
Hodges  is  found  with  the  Prints  and  Drawings  of  the  British  Museum. 
The  face  is  of  an  elderly  gentleman,  scarcely  handsome  in  features,  but 
pleasant  and  prepossessing. 

t  In  the  Cathedral  is  a  handsome  tablet  to  the  memory  of  Charles 
Robert  Cockerell,  of  whom  there  is  a  portrait  at  the  Institute  of  Architects. 
His  obituary  in  7^he  Illustrated  London  News  (October  2nd,  1863),  is 
accompanied  by  his  likeness  after  a  photograph  by  M.  Claudet ;  it  is  a 
handsome  face.  With  other  encomiums  it  is  observed  :  "  No  artist  ever 
quitted  life  more  honoured,  beloved,  and  regretted  ;  his  sympathies  were 
as  generous  as  his  love  of  art  was  pure."  His  effigy — between  those  of 
Pugin  and  Barry — appears  on  the  Albert  Memorial  in  Hyde  Park. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  125 

FREDERICK  PEPYS  COCKERELL,  second  son  of  Charles 
Robert  Cockerell,  was  the  third  architect  of  this  family. 
He  also  had  a  considerable  practice,  and  in  London  built 
Freemasons'  Hall,  Great  Queen  Street;  he  died  in  1878. 
The  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  has  enrolled  him  as 
well  as  his  father  and  grandfather. 

JOHN  COCKERELL,  eldest  son  of  Samuel  Pepys  Cockerell, 
inherited  the  Westbourne  property  in  1827,  but  did  not 
reside  at  Westbourne  House,  as  the  mansion  at  that  time 
was  called.  He  had  been  living  at  Fairfax  House,  Putney, 
and  removed  to  "  Little  Westbourne,"  a  house  shown  on  our 
map  of  1834  a  little  eastward  of  the  larger  house,  where 
General,  Lord  Hill  became  his  tenant.  The  Act  obtained  by 
the  Great  Western  Railway  Company  in  1835,  compelled  Mr. 
Cockerell  to  sell  his  estate,  and  Little  Westbourne  gave  place 
to  a  house  built  by  the  Company  for  their  Secretary,  Mr.  Charles 
A.  Saunders,  which  house,  called  Westbourne  Lodge,  is  at 
present  a  music  school.*  It  stands  apart,  a  short  distance  from 
the  public  road  and  over-looking  the  Railway,  a  screen  of  trees 
and  some  green  lawn  attached  giving  it  a  suburban  appearance. 

ROWLAND,  VISCOUNT  HILL,  GENERAL  COMMANDING-IN- 
CHIEF.  The  Rev.  Edwin  Sidney,  Lord  Hill's  biographer, 
is  not  explicit  as  to  the  date  at  which  the  distinguished 
General  "  for  the  benefit  of  his  health  took  a  house  at 
Westbourne."  His  tenancy  of  Westbourne  House,  however, 
seems  to  have  commenced  in  1828,  when  the  veteran, 
whose  renown  had  been  won  in  the  Peninsular  War  (notably  in 
the  taking  of  Almaraz,  an  achievement  signalized  in  his  title, 
Baron  Hill  of  Almaraz,  etc.),  and  at  Waterloo,  succeeded  his 
chief,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  as  Head  of  the  Army.  The 
Duke's  retirement  from  the  command  was  consequent  on  his 
becoming  Prime  Minister,  and  Lord  Hill  became  virtually 
Commander-in-Chief,  though,  not  having  seniority  on  the  army 
list,  he  was  appointed  to  the  command  as  senior  general  on  the 
staff  with  designation  as  above.  His  object  in  coming  to 
Westbourne  was,  so  writes  his  biographer,  "  to  unite  as  much 
as  possible  the  enjoyment  of  the  country  with  the  business  of 
his  command."  As  a  kind,  unostentatious,  hospitable  gentle- 

*  Information  kindly  afforded  by  a  member  of  the  Cockerell  family. 


126  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

man,  he  was  universally  popular  in  the  neighbourhood,  and, 
moreover,  being  the  personal  favourite  of  his  sovereign,  William 
IV.,  the  bluff,  good-natured  old  King  came  to  dine  with  him  at 
West  bourne.  "I  do  not  dine  with  any  body  in  London,  you 
know,"  said  His  Majesty,  "  but  you  do  not  live  in  London,  and 
I  shall  come  and  dine  with  you."  So  the  King  came  without 
state,  but  met  a  distinguished  company  which  included  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  Lord  Melville,  Lord 
Combermere,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  other  notables.  On  another 
occasion,  the  biographer  tells  us,  the  King  and  Queen  engaged 
to  honour  the  old  soldier  by  their  presence  at  a  public 
breakfast ;  King  William  was  unfortunately  prevented  by 
indisposition,  but  good  Queen  Adelaide,  with  great  kindness, 
came  to  the  entertainment,  which  was  distinguished  by  much 
handsome  hospitality. 

But,  alas !  The  palmy  days  of  Westbourne  Green  were 
coming  to  an  end,  and  the  Great  Western  Railway  was  soon  to 
bring  destruction  on  Lord  Hill's  pleasant  house  and  fair  lawns. 
The  veteran  was  obliged  to  leave  them  and  to  seek  another 
residence.  Mr.  Sidney  again  fails  with  the  date,  but  it  was 
probably  in  1835  or  1836,  soon  after  the  Act  was  obtained.  We 
learn  only  that  in  September,  1836,  Lord  Hill  was  at  Hard  wick 
Grange  (a  small  estate  near  Shrewsbury,  which  many  years 
before  had  been  left  to  him  by  his  uncle,  Sir  Richard  Hill, 
Baronet),  that  at  the  beginning  of  1842  he  took  a  villa  at 
Fulham,  that  in  August  of  that  year  he  resigned  his  command 
of  the  army  owing  to  failing  health,  and  that  four  months  later, 
loth  December,  1842,  he  died  at  Hardwick  Grange,  his  age 
seventy  years.  He  had  not  married,  and  by  special  remainder 
his  titles — Viscount  and  Baron — passed  to  his  nephew,  Sir 
Rowland  Hill,  Baronet.  There  have  been  many  Rowlands  of 
this  family ;  one  of  them,  the  famous  minister  and  preacher, 
was  Lord  Hill's  uncle,  and  a  letter  is  extant  in  which  the 
General  proposes  that  his  uncle  should  visit  him  at  Westbourne, 
or  that  he  should  see  the  aged  minister  at  his  own  house.  The 
Rev.  Rowland  Hill  was  then,  1832,  in  his  Sgth  year.* 

*  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  Knt.,  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  1549,  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  Rowland;  he  is  called  the  first  Protestant  Lord  Mayor. 
The  Baronetcy  dates  from  1727,  the  Barony  from  1814,  the  Viscounty  from 
1842. 


Rowland,  Viscount  Hill,  etc.,  General  Commanding  in  Chief  1828-1842. 

Reproduced  from  a  photograph  bi/  Messrs.    Walker  $  Boutall  of  the  sketch  in  watercolours  by 
George  Richmond,  K.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  127 

An  1837  edition  of  our  map  shows  that  the  Railway  had 
then  been  driven  through  the  grounds  of  Westbourne  House, 
and  that  not  satisfied  with  the  space  there  attained,  it  had 
thrust  the  Harrow  Road  some  forty  yards  eastward,  and  to  that 
extent  diminished  the  Green.  The  mansion,  however,  remained 
intact.  The  line  was  opened  to  Maidenhead  in  June,  1838, 
with  a  temporary  station  under  Bishop's  Road  Bridge,  and 
Westbourne  House  partially  survived  until  1846  ;  in  that  year 
it  must  have  been  entirely  demolished,  for  the  map  of  the  1847 
Post  Office  Directory  shows  the  site  occupied  by  new  houses.* 

WESTBOURNE  FARM. 

Having,  as  it  were,  passed  through  a  century  at  Westbourne 
Place,  it  seems  like  putting  back  the  shadow  on  the  dial  of  time 
to  return  to  the  early  days  of  the  next  dwelling  on  Westbourne 
Green  which  claims  our  notice.  On  Rocque's  Map  of  1746,  a 
block  represents  Westbourne  Farm,  but  this  father  of  surveyors 
has  not  attached  a  name  to  the  building,  and  the  block-plan — 
a  mere  oblong — not  resembling  that  in  later  maps  we  are  left  in 
some  uncertainty  as  to  the  identity  of  the  house.  In  all 
probability,  however,  there  was  here  at  that  time  an  old  farm, 
whether  or  not  the  house  was  later  rebujlt.  The  land  about  is 
divided  in  fields,  and,  in  other  maps  than  Rocque's,  certain  of 
the  fields  are  named  "  Desboroughs."  The  origin  of  the  name 
is  probably  undiscoverable.  Naturally,  perhaps,  it  has  been 
thought  to  have  connection  with  Desborough,  Desborow,  or 
Disbrowe,  the  rough,  blustering  general  of  the  army  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Protector,  and, 
as  it  seems  to  many  the  idea  became  fact.  But  no 
evidence  has  been  adduced  to  show  that  "  Ploughman 
Desborough,"  as  Cromwell  is  said  to  have  called  him,  ever 
farmed  at  Westbourne,  although  Robins  says  he  had  met  with 
many  circumstances — unrelated  by  him — which  inclined  him  to 

*  The  article  in  The  Universal  Magazine  of  1793,  referred  to  ante 
p.  1 8,  is  accompanied  by  a  view  of  Westbourne  Place.  The  house  is  rather 
more  ornate  than  it  appears  in  the  general  picture  of  the  Green  which  has 
been  given  ;  and  two  other  small  pictures  in  the  Grace  Collection  show 
variations.  But  it  is  learnt  from  experience  that  in  the  last  century  and 
early  in  the  present,  the  draughtsman  thought  accuracy  in  details  of  little 
moment,  his  object  being  to  make  his  picture  pretty  rather  than  correct. 


128  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

the  belief.  The  known  fact  that  Desborough  had  a  house  at 
Hackney,  where  he  died  in  1680*,  is  somewhat,  though  not 
conclusively,  against  his  residence  at  Westbourne.  But  the 
name,  whatever  its  origin,  was  a  good  one,  and  as  such  has 
not  been  allowed  to  drop,  for  it  yet  survives  in  the  modern 
streets  ;  and  when  it  may  have  been  thought  that  "Westbourne 
Farm  "  was  a  name  inappropriate  to  a  house  severed  from  the 
fields,  and  perhaps  a  little  rustic,  it  was  changed  to  Desborough 
Cottage,  and  finally  became  Desborough  House. 

We  have  no  certain  information  as  to  its  occupants  until 
1805  ;  yet  the  writer  of  the  article  which  has  been  quoted  from 
the  Universal  Magazine  of  1793,  mentions  a  "  farmhouse  close 
to  Mr.  Coulson's  mansion  [Westbourne  Place] ,  occupied  at 
that  time  as  an  occasional  country  residence  by  the  Most  Noble 
George  Grenville  Nugent,  Marquis  of  Buckingham."  This 
seems  to  point  to  Westbourne  Farm,  but  possibly  to  the  small 
house  called  Little  Westbourne,  an  appendage  of  Westbourne 
Place;  the  house  known  as  "The  Manor  House"  hardly 
answers  the  location.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  believe  that 
the  master  of  Stowe  could  have  accommodated  himself,  even 
for  a  short  interval,  in  a  "  cottage,"  so  small  that  the  first 
tenant  we  hear  of  had  to  enlarge  it.  The  Marquis,  a  statesman 
of  his  time — Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  1783,  and  twice 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland — was,  when  residing  at  Westbourne 
Green,  retired  from  political  life;  he  lived,  however,  until  1813, 
and  died  at  Stowe. 

(To  be  continued). 


*  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 
BY  "  PETER  DE  SANDWICH." 

1  1  .  -  LlTTLEBOURNE. 


parish  is  between  three  and  four  miles  east  of 
JL  Canterbury,  and  the  place  is  first  mentioned  in  the  year 
696,  when  Withred,  King  of  Kent  (694-725)  granted  "  five 
ploughsworth  of  the  land  that  belongs  to  me  at  Littelbourne," 
to  the  Monastery  of  St.  Augustine  at  Canterbury.  There  was 
a  church  on  the  manor  when  the  Domesday  Survey  was  made, 
but  the  present  church  was  built  after  that  date,  as  the  chancel 
is  of  Early  English  character,  with  three  lancet  windows  in  the 
east  wall,  and  four  similar  windows  both  in  the  north  and  south 
walls.  The  nave  is  also  early,  and  when  first  built  had  a  north 
aisle,  similar  to  the  present  south  aisle,  but  the  north  aisle  has 
been  destroyed,  and  two  of  the  arches  now  blocked  up,  form 
part  of  the  north  wall.  In  more  modern  times,  the  present 
appendage  was  built  on  half  of  the  original  north  aisle,  the 
arches  and  pillars  being  removed  so  as  to  make  the  interior 
more  open. 

The  following  presentments  were  made  at  the  Visitations 
of  the  Archdeacons  of  Canterbury. 

1578.  "That  we  had  no  quarterly  sermons,  for  we  had  not  a 
sermon  in  our  parish  church  of  Littlebourne  since  Palm  Sunday 
last." 

"William  Bowerman,  for  absence  from  his  church  most  commonly 
upon  the  sabbath  days,  and  also  for  that  he  hath  not  received  the 
Holy  Communion  these  three  last  years  past." 

"  Thomas  Hodgekin,  for  absence  from  church  most  Sundays  and 
Holy  Days."  When  he  appeared  in  the  Archdeacon's  Court,  he 
stated,  "that  he  had  been  but  three  Sundays  from  his  parish  church, 
and  those  days  he  was  at  Wingham,  where  he  heard  a  sermon 
preached." 

"  John  Hilles,  for  his  continual  absence  from  church,  and  also 
that  he  hath  not  received  the  Holy  Communion,  neither  he  nor  his 
wife  the  last  year."  He  stated  "he  mostly  worked  out  of  the 
parish,  and  goeth  to  the  church  where  he  worketh." 


I3o  SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

1579.  "  Richard  Cole,  for  abusing  his  tongue  against  honest  men, 
when  he  is  in  company,  or  frequently  in  the  ale-house,  in  his  drink, 
with  the  blasphemers  of  godly  holy  men,  to  the  great  affront  of  his 
neighbours." 

"  Dame  Barber,  widow  of  Richard  Barber,  for  with-holding  from 
the  parishioners  [payment]  for  her  husband's  grave,  being  within 
the  church."  She  appeared  in  the  Archdeacon's  Court,  8th 
December,  1579,  and  said  "her  husband  was  buried  in  the  Church 
of  Littlebourne,  but  not  at  her  request,  for  the  churchwardens 
expressly  denied  to  her,  to  have  him  buried  there,  but  that  afterwards 
at  the  request,  and  upon  letters  to  them  sent  by  Sir  John  Hales,  he 
was  buried  in  the  church,  but  not  in  the  part  of  the  Church,  where 
she  would  have  had  him  buried,  neither  did  they  demand  anything 
of  her  for  the  breaking  of  the  ground,  nor  at  any  time  since,  but  a 
little  time  before  this  presentment." 

"  Goodwife  Bate,  for  with-holding  certain  duties  belonging  to 
the  Church,  which  she  should  pay,  twelve-pence  by  the  year,  for 
the  six  former  years." 

1585.  "  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Thomas  Waller,  hath  not  been  at  our 
parish  church,  above  four  times  since  Christmas  last,  to  our 
knowledge." 

"Joan,  wife  of  William  Webb,  hath  not  received  the  Holy 
Communion  this  last  year  past." 

"  Thomas  Hodgkin,  for  that  his  father  was  buried  in  our  parish 
church,  and  hath  not  allowed  us  for  the  breaking  up  of  the 
pavement." 

1603.  "  Christina,  wife  of  William  Mott,  and  Anne,  the  wife  of 
William  Hunter,  for  their  uncharitableness,  the  one  with  the  other." 

1607.  "Our  Minister  [Roger  Bristow,  1601-10]  doth  not  wear  the 
surplice,  so  often  as  is  required  in  this  article;  but  he  hath  a  hood, 
being  a  Master  of  Arts.  Neither  doth  he  catechise  the  youth  of  our 
parish,  so  often  as  is  required.  He  administered  not  the  Communion 
but  only  at  Easter-time,  or  at  the  most,  but  once  after  Easter." 

[The  Rubric  at  the  end  of  the  Catechism  in  1552,  required — 
"  The  Curate  of  every  parish,  or  some  other  at  his  appointment, 
shall  diligently  upon  Sundays  and  Holy  Days,  half-an-hour  before 
evensong,  openly  in  the  church,  instruct  and  examine  so  many 
children  of  his  parish  sent  unto  him,  as  the  time  will  serve,  and,  as 
he  shall  think  convenient  in  some  part  of  this  catechism.  This  was 
altered  to  the  present  rubric  in  1662] . 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY.  131 

1608.  "The   wife   of    James  Miller,    of    Littlebourne,    for   not 
receiving  the  Holy  Communion  in  our  parish  church  this  Easter 
last." 

"  Richard   Boykett   doth   very   negligently  resort  to   our   parish 
church,  and  is  very  often  absent  from  our  church." 

1609.  "We  have  not  service  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  not 
being  holy-days,  so  often  as  is  required  in  this  article." 

"  Richard  Boykett  will  not,  nor  hath  not,  received  the  Holy 
Communion,  and  doth  not  frequent  his  parish  church  as  he  ought." 

1610.  "That  our   Vicarage    House   laketh   reparations,    in   the 
default  of  Mr.  Bristow,  our  Vicar.     Our  Vicar  is  not  resident  now, 
or  bestoweth  anything  to  the  poor  of  the  parish,  that  we  know  of." 

1615.  "  WTe  have  no  flaggon  to  put  the  wine  in,  whereby  it  may 
be  set  upon  the  Communion  Table.  Our  Vicar  [Christopher  Cage, 
1610-17]  reads  divine  service  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  on 
the  eves  of  the  Sundays  and  holy-days." 

1617.  "Elizabeth  Weekes,  the  wife  of  Edward  Weekes,  of 
Littlebourne,  for  railing  at,  and  cursing  me  the  said  Christopher 
Cage  and  my  wife,  wishing  the  Pope  and  the  devil  take  me.  She  is 
a  malicious  and  contentious  person,  amongst  her  neighbours,  and 
especially  for  making  discord  between  me  the  minister  and  my 
parishioners." 

The  churchwardens  presented  "Mr.  Cage,  our  Vicar,  that  we 
have  not  had  monthly  on  the  Sundays  a  sermon,  this  last  year  as  by 
the  said  article  is  set  down.  He  also  does  not  instruct  the  youth." 

1620.  "The  wife  of  John  Whitehead,  of  Ickham,  who  coming  to 
our  church  of  Littlebourne,  going  into  the  pew  of  Afra,  the  wife  of 
George  Courthope  of  our  said  parish,  to  hear  divine  service,  was  by 
the  said  Afra  thrust  back,  whereupon  the  wife  of  the  said  John 
Whitehead  began  to  thrust  into  the  pew  with  greater  violence,  at  last 
they  both  fell  together  most  shamefully  to  thrusting  and  rushing, 
pinching  and  pulling  one  another,  at  least  a  quarter-of-an-hour 
together,  to  the  great  offence  of  the  parishioners  there,  and  evil 
example  to  others,  and  to  the  hindrance  of  the  minister  there,  that 
he  could  not  begin  prayers." 

1629.  "We  present  Mr.  Silas  Hawker,  our  Vicar  [1617-52],  for 
that  his  vicarage-house  wanteth  repairing." 

1637.  "The  vicarage-house  is  in  good  repair,  but  as  the  fame  is, 
there  was  formerly  a  barn  to  it,  which  is  altogether  dilapidated." 
The  Vicar,  when  he  appeared  in  the  Archdeacon's  Court,  said  that 
the  said  barn  was  begun  about  forty  years  since,  by  a  former  Vicar 


132  HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY. 

of  Littlebourne,  who  was  also  Rector  of  the  adjoining  parish  of 
Stodmarsh,  and  now  there  is  no  use  for  the  said  barn. 

"  William  Eames,  for  standing  ex -communicate  in  St.  James' 
Church  at  Dover,  and  receiving  the  Communion  at  Littlebourne  on 
Good  Friday  last  past.  Eames  explained  that  about  four  years  ago, 
being  imprisoned  in  London,  he  was  ex-communicated  in  Dover, 
which  he  never  knew  of  till  last  Easter  ;  coming  down  into  the 
country  and  being  altogether  ignorant  thereof,  he  did  frequent  the 
parish  church  of  Littlebourne,  and  received  the  Holy  Communion 
on  last  Good  Friday,  but  would  not  have  done  so,  if  he  had  known, 
until  absolved." 

"  The  churchyard  is  neither  walled,  railed,  or  paled,  but  hedged. 

"  We  present  John  Knott  and  his  wife  Katherine,  for  refusing  to 
come  to  Divine  Service." 


HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY. 
BY  ALAN  F.  GROSSMAN,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S. 

present  list  of  the  native  birds  of  prey  of  Hertfordshire 
JL  is  a  very  small  one,  although,  no  doubt,  in  former  days 
there  were  several  other  species,  which  could  be  included  under 
the  heading.  The  list  of  residents  and  visitors  together  only 
amounts  to  eighteen ;  five  of  these  are  still  regular  breeding 
species  with  us.  Probably  two  more  were  residents  in  bygone 
days,  but  I  question  whether  anyone,  who  is  alive  now,  can 
remember  that  time.  The  chief  cause  of  the  extermination  of 
these  former  residents  is  undoubtedly  game  preserving.  So 
many  keepers  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  killing  a  bird  of 
prey,  and  certainly  from  their  point  of  view  there  is  much  to  be 
said  against  many  of  these  birds.  On  the  other  hand,  however, 
keepers  should  remember  that  hawks  and  owls  do  a  great  deal  of 
good  in  destroying  rats  and  other  vermin,  which  either  destroy 
young  game  birds,  or  else  eat  their  food.  This  fact,  I  am  glad 
to  say,  many  people  are  beginning  to  recognise,  and  consequently 
we  may  expect  a  slight  increase  in  certain  of  the  species  again. 
That  the  Raptores,  or  some  of  them,  take  game  birds  I  do 
not  deny  for  a  moment,  but  what  I  say  is  that  the  harm 


HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY.  133 

they  do  is  amply  atoned  for  by  their  usefulness.  In  addition  to 
game  preserving  the  decrease  of  woodlands  has  something  to 
do  with  the  scarcity  of  birds  of  prey,  but  the  latter  is,  I  am 
afraid,  quite  a  minor  reason  compared  to  the  former.  If  all 
landowners  encouraged  owls  and  other  such  birds  to  breed  on 
their  estates,  as  did  the  late  Lord  Lilford,  I  am  sure  that  in 
the  long  run  they  would  not  be  losers  thereby.  I  now  propose 
to  turn  to  the  actual  list  of  the  owls  and  hawks  of  Hertford- 
shire, and  to  give  some  details  of  their  occurrence  in  the 
county. 

WHITE  OR  BARN  OWL  (Strix  flammea).  This  is  a  fairly  plentiful 
species.  Unfortunately  it  is  a  favourite  bird  to  have  stuffed,  and 
this  fact,  in  addition  to  the  persecution  it  undergoes  from  keepers, 
does  a  great  deal  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  commoner. 

LON GEARED  OWL  (Asio  otus).  The  Longeared  Owl  is  rather 
locally  distributed  in  Hertfordshire,  although,  where  it  does  occur,  it 
is  by  no  means  rare.  As  it  is  partial  to  fir  plantations,  there  are  not 
many  districts  in  the  county  where  it  is  likely  to  be  common.  It  is, 
however,  to  be  found  in  many  of  the  fir  spinnies  to  the  north  of 
Hertfordshire,  more  particularly  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hitchin. 

SHORTEARED  OWL  (Asio  accipitrinus ) .  This  bird  is  only  a  winter 
visitor,  appearing  some  years  in  considerable  numbers,  though 
generally  only  locally.  It  is  often  flushed  out  of  turnips  and  rough 
grass  in  October  and  November. 

TAWNY  OR  BROWN  OWL  (Syntium  aluco).  This  owl  is  very 
partial  to  the  districts  where  there  are  old  trees,  and  in  many  parts  of 
the  county  is  no  doubt  plentiful,  but,  like  its  white  relative,  suffers 
considerable  persecution.  It  is  a  bird  which  seems  much  inclined 
to  make  attacks  on  people  who  are  passing  near  its  nest,  and  at  least 
one  instance  is  on  record  of  this  happening  in  Hertfordshire.  In 
1899,  Mr.  H.  G.  Fordham  sent  me  a  specimen  which  had  been 
killed  by  flying  against  the  telegraph  wires  near  Odsey ;  this  I  think 
is  rather  an  unusual  occurrence  in  the  owl  family. 

LITTLE  OWL  (Athene  noctua).  This  is  a  species  which  should, 
I  think,  so  far  as  this  county  is  concerned,  be  classed  under  the 
heading  "  introduced."  The  first  recorded  specimen  in  the  county 
was  obtained  near  Ashwell  in  May,  1877.  This  example  passed,  I 
believe,  through  the  hands  of  the  late  William  Norman,  of  Royston. 
Nothing  more  appears  to  have  been  heard  of  the  species  in  Hertford- 
shire until  1897,  when  a  pair,  which  reared  two  young  ones,  nested 


I34  HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY. 

in  a  locality  which  shall  be  nameless,  the  nest  being  in  a  hollow 
tree.  In  1898  the  birds  again  nested,  but  on  this  occasion  in  the  loft 
of  a  barn.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  birds  in  the  latter  year  were 
disturbed  and  deserted  their  eggs,  one  of  which  has  been  presented 
to  the  County  Museum  at  St.  Albans.  In  addition  to  the  above 
records,  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  A.  Sainsbury  Verey  of  Heronsgate, 
that  in  the  early  part  of  1898,  a  little  owl  was  shot  at  Bull's  Land 
near  that  place,  while  later  in  the  year  another  was  obtained  at  West 
Hyde  in  the  same  district.  The  head-keeper  at  Moor  Park  also  tells 
me  that  during  1898,  he  saw  a  small  owl,  about  the  size  of  a 
blackbird,  there  on  several  occasions;  this  bird  probably  belonged  to 
the  species  under  notice.  From  the  above  facts  it  would  seem  likely 
that  the  little  owl  is  likely  to  become  a  permanent  resident  in 
Hertfordshire. 

HEN  HARRIER  (Circus  cyaneus).  The  first  record  I  have  of  this 
species  in  Hertfordshire  is  in  1845,  when  a  pair  were  shot  in  the  parish 
of  Sandon,  in  the  north  of  the  county ;  these  birds  passed  into  the 
possession  of  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Fordham.  On  October  28th,  1887, 
and  on  one  or  two  occasions  about  that  date,  Mr.  M.  R.  Pryor  saw  a 
bird  which  he  is  confident  was  of  this  species.  At  Tring  a  hen 
harrier,  which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Sir  V.  H.  Crewe,  of  Calke 
Abbey,  Derbyshire,  was  obtained  many  years  ago,  while  a  female 
was  shot  there  in  December,  1884.  On  November  7th,  1897,  Mrs. 
Brightwen's  bailiff  saw  at  Elstree  Reservoir,  a  bird  which  he  stated 
was  of  this  species  ;  this  remained  in  the  neighbourhood  for  some 
days. 

MONTAGU'S  HARRIER  (Circus  cineraceus).  This  hawk  has  only 
been  recorded  on  one  occasion,  Captain  Young  having  obtained  a 
specimen  at  Hexton,  near  Hitchin,  in  1875. 

BUZZARD  (Butco  vulgaris).  This  fine  species  is,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  only  a  very  occasional  visitor  to  the  county,  although  in  former 
times  it  was  probably  a  fairly  common  resident.  Now-a-days,  it 
usually  comes  to  an  untimely  end.  At  Munden  House,  near 
Watford,  there  is  a  buzzard  in  the  collection  of  the  Hon.  A. 
Holland-Hibbert,  which  was  shot  there  probably  between  1840  and 
1850.  This  may  have  been  a  representative  of  the  buzzards  which 
no  doubt  at  one  time  were  natives  of  Bricket  Wood.  In  1877  a  bird 
of  this  species  was  shot  at  Russell  Farm,  near  Watford,  while  in 
1879  one  was  shot  in  Hatfield  Park,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which 
its  race  had  probably  been  comparatively  common.  In  1881,  Mr. 
H.  Cox  procured  one  near  Harpenden  in  February,  and  in  October 


HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY.  135 

a  buzzard  was  seen  near  Royston,  which,  on  being  fired  at,  dropped 
a  rabbit  it  was  carrying.  On  the  i5th  of  the  same  month  another 
was  shot  near  Royston  whilst  in  pursuit  of  a  pigeon  ;  it  measured 
39^  inches  across  the  wings,  and  19^  inches  in  length.  In  the 
County  Museum  at  St.  Albans,  there  is  a  specimen  which  was 
obtained  at  Cowheath  Wood,  near  Hoddesdon  ;  this  bird  was  caught 
in  a  hedgehog  trap,  and  was  presented  to  the  Museum  by  Mr.  F.  M. 
Campbell.  In  September  or  October,  1897,  a  buzzard  was  shot  at 
Harrington,  while  in  the  latter  month  one  was  seen  flying  over 
Earl's  Wood,  Barkway,  where  another  was  observed  on  October 
7th,  1898. 

ROUGH-LEGGED  BUZZARD  (Buteo  lagopus).  This  bird  was  first 
recorded  in  Hertfordshire  in  1880,  when  one,  which  frequented  a 
high  hill  with  a  large  tree  at  the  top,  through  the  greater  part  of 
October  and  part  of  November,  was  shot  at  Bennington  on  the  gth 
of  the  latter  month.  It  measured  4  feet  7^  inches  across  the  wings, 
and  i  foot  9  inches  in  length.  On  January  3rd,  1881,  Mr.  T.  F. 
Buxton,  while  out  shooting  on  the  Rye  Meads  near  Ware,  saw  a 
rough-legged  buzzard,  which  rose  from  the  ground  near  him.  A 
bird  of  this  species,  which  was  eventually  exhibited  by  the  late  Lord 
Ebury  at  a  meeting  of  the  Herts  Natural  History  Society  on 
February  igth,  1892,  was  trapped  during  that  month  in  Bishop's 
Wood,  near  Rickmansworth,  while  in  the  Autumn  of  the  same  year 
a  male  and  female  were  shot  near  Tring,  where  a  third  was  taken  alive 
a  little  later ;  this  latter  was  kept  alive  for  some  time  in  the  Hon. 
Walter  Rothschild's  aviary. 

WHITE-TAILED  OR  SEA  EAGLE  (Plaliaetus  albicilla).  The  late 
Mr.  Abel  Smith  had  in  his  possession  a  specimen  of  this  bird, 
which  was  obtained  some  years  previously  to  1877  at  Sacombe.  In 
1890  an  eagle  was  shot  near  Hitchin,  which  was  reported  in  the 
papers  as  a  golden  eagle,  but  which  probably  belonged  to  this  species. 
The  history  of  the  latter  bird  I  have  at  present  been  unable  to  trace. 

SPARROW  HAWK  (Accipitev  nisus).  This  is,  perhaps,  one  of  the 
worst  of  the  feathered  offenders  against  the  game  laws,  so  far  as 
birds  of  prey  are  concerned,  being  especially  fond  of  young  birds. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  a  pity  that  any  indigenous  species  should  be 
exterminated  as  this  seems  likely  to  be.  Indeed,  in  some  districts, 
it  is  now  quite  an  unusual  occurrence  to  see  a  sparrow  hawk. 

KITE  (Milvus  ictinns).  This  species  no  doubt  was  at  one  time 
indigenous  to  Hertfordshire,  but  it  has  now  so  completely  vanished 
that  I  am  only  able  to  mention  one  county  specimen.  This  is  now 


136  HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY. 

in  the  collection   at   Munden,  and  was  shot  in  that  neigbourhood 
between  1840  and  1850. 

HONEY  BUZZARD  (Pernis  apivorus).  There  is  also  at  Munden  an 
example  of  this  species  which  was  obtained  in  the  district  about  the 
same  time  as  the  kite  above  referred  to.  In  1881  a  honey  buzzard  was 
obtained  at  Little  Hadham  on  September  23rd.  It  was  recorded  in 
the  Zoologist  for  November  oi  that  year.  The  bird,  which  was  being 
mobbed  by  some  half-dozen  rooks  when  it  was  shot,  measured  53^- 
inches  from  tip  to  tip  of  its  wings.  On  the  29th  of  the  same  month 
another  was  shot  at  Westmill  Rectory,  near  Buntingford. 

PEREGRINE  FALCON  (Falco  peregnnus).  It  is  probable  that  in 
former  days  Falconry  was  carried  on  to  some  extent  in  Hertfordshire. 
Now-a-days,  however,  that  grand  sport  has  so  dwindled,  that  few,  if 
any,  pursue  it  in  this  county.  Certainly  there  are  hardly  any 
districts  except  on  the  northern  boundary  that  are  now  suitable  for 
it.  At  the  present  time  this  bird,  whose  instincts  are  essentially 
sporting,  is  only  seen  as  an  occasional  visitor,  which  in  most  cases 
meets  with  a  most  inhospitable  reception,  and  usually  finds  its  way 
into  the  taxidermist's  hands.  In  the  last  twenty-five  years  this 
species  has  been  recorded  on  some  fifteen  occasions,  but  only  in  three 
instances  does  it  appear  to  have  escaped  destruction.  In  1876  one 
was  shot  at  Hexton,  near  Hitchin,  while  in  1878  a  pair,  which  passed 
into  the  possession  of  a  Mr.  Simpson,  were  killed  at  Newnham,  near 
Baldock.  On  September  i8th,  1891,  a  male  in  fine  plumage  was 
obtained  on  Stoney  Hills,  near  Bengeo,  while  on  November  23rd  of 
that  year  a  specimen  was  shot  at  Bramfield,  near  Hertford.  A 
female,  originally  reported  as  a  buzzard,  was  taken  at  the  end  of 
December,  1891,  at  Cole  Green,  and  on  March  i6th,  1895,  I  saw  a 
bird  of  this  species,  which  from  its  size  was  presumably  a  female, 
stoop  at  a  partridge  at  Pendley  Manor,  near  Tring.  In  August, 
1891,  a  male  was  shot  at  Croxley  Green,  while  Mr.  Sutton,  of 
Northchurch,  has  a  fine  example  in  his  possession,  which  was  killed 
by  a  boy  with  a  stick  while  attacking  Mr.  Sutton 's  fowls  on  August 
6th,  1896.  Mr.  Brown,  of  Newnham,  near  Baldock,  has  a  female 
which  he  killed  there  on  September  3oth,  1897;  this  bird,  which 
was  preserved  by  Mr.  \Vright,  of  Clifton,  Beds,  weighed  four 
pounds  and  measured  43  inches  across  the  wings.  In  the  same  year 
a  peregrine  was  seen  near  Royston  during  the  Autumn,  while  one 
which  remained  some  days  was  observed  near  Elstree,  on  December 
1 6th.  In  addition  to  the  above  occurrences  there  are  some  few 
others  of  which  full  details  have  not  been  kept,  Mr.  Franklin,  of 


HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY.  137 

Sandridge,  owning  one  which  was  obtained  near  there,  while  another 
was  killed  by  a  keeper  called  Pangbourne  at  Marshall's  Wick, 
St.  Albans.  The  late  Norman  Thrale  also  had  two  in  his  possession 
which  were  shot  in  Hertfordshire. 

HOBBY  (Fako  subbuteo).  I  am  afraid  that  this  little  falcon  is 
practically  extinct  as  a  breeding  species  in  this  county ;  in  fact,  at 
the  present  time,  I  know  of  no  locality  where  it  now  nests  with  us, 
nor,  with  one  exception,  am  I  able  to  enumerate  any  very  recent 
occurrences  of  the  bird.  That  it  used  formerly  to  nest  frequently  is 
certain,  as  Mr.  Joseph  Nunn,  of  Royston,  informed  me  that  in  the 
forties  it  was  comparatively  common  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kelshall,  in  the  north  of  the  county;  in  1849,  however,  the  last 
specimen  obtained  in  that  parish  was  shot  off  the  nest  by  a  keeper. 
In  1879  a  hobby  was  obtained  in  Hatfield  Park,  while  in  1881  a  nest 
containing  four  eggs,  was  found  by  a  keeper  in  a  fir  tree  in  Moor 
Park.  Mr.  Latchmore,  of  Hitchin,  also  tells  me  that  he  has  eggs 
of  this  species  which  were  taken  some  years  ago  near  Stevenage. 
Mr.  Norman  Thrale  mounted  one  of  these  birds  which  was  shot 
near  Port  Vale  on  September  i7th,  1885,  while  Mr.  F.  M.  Campbell 
owns  one  that  was  killed  to  the  north  of  Cowheath  Wood,  near 
Hoddesdon,  on  July  3rd,  1887.  The  latest  record  I  have  of  this 
bird  in  Hertfordshire  is  rather  a  doubtful  one.  This  was  a  hawk,  seen 
by  myself  on  July  27th,  1889,  which,  from  its  appearance  and  flight, 
I  am  almost  positive  was  a  hobby,  but  I  could  not  be  absolutely 
sure  on  account  of  the  light. 

MERLIN  (Fako  JEsalon).  This  bird  can  only,  of  course,  be 
considered  as  an  occasional  visitor,  which  has  been  recorded  in 
Hertfordshire  about  six  times.  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  Latchmore 
that  it  has  occurred  near  Hitchin,  and  Mr.  J.  H.  Tuke  also  mentions 
that  it  has  been  obtained  there.  At  Tring  four  specimens  have  been 
obtained,  two  birds  in  immature  plumage  having  been  shot  there 
in  February,  1886,  while  two  adults  were  procured  in  January,  1887. 
The  only  other  record  of  the  bird  which  I  have  is  of  one  seen  at 
Elstree  in  December,  1896. 

KESTREL  (Fako  tinnuncuhis).  This  useful  bird  is,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  being  gradually  exterminated  in  many  parts  of  the  county, 
though  it  is  still  comparatively  common  in  some  of  the  more  open 
districts.  There  is  really  no  excuse  for  killing  this  species ; 
that  it  occasionally  takes  young  game-birds  I  admit,  but  the 
amount  of  mice  and  other  small  vermin  that  it  destroys  quite 
counter-balances  the  damage  it  does.  Unless  some  steps  are  taken 

K 


138  HERTFORDSHIRE    BIRDS    OF    PREY. 

by  landowners  to  stop  their  keepers  killing  this  bird,  I  am  afraid 
that  it  will  gradually  become  a  thing  of  the  past. 

OSPREY  (Pandion  haliaetus).  Hertfordshire  can  boast  of  several 
fine  pieces  of  water,  either  natural  or  artificial,  and  to  some  of  these 
the  osprey  occasionally  comes.  The  reservoirs  of  the  Grand 
Junction  Canal  Company  at  Tring  have  been  favoured  on  two 
occasions,  the  first  being  in  September,  1864,  when  a  pair  of  these 
birds  stayed  there  for  some  days,  and  were  often  watched  while 
fishing.  Eventually,  on  the  3oth  of  the  month,  the  female  was 
shot,  the  male  happily  escaping.  In  September,  1886,  two  more 
visited  the  reservoirs.  In  the  same  month  in  1880,  a  female 
was  obtained  in  Hatfield  Park.  This  bird  was  noticed  there  for 
some  days,  and  obtained  a  supply  of  fish  from  the  River  Lea.  It 
measured  five  feet  six  inches  across  the  wings,  and  two  feet  in 
length,  and  was  in  splendid  plumage.  Another  of  these  birds  was 
obtained  in  the  parish  of  Great  Gaddesden  on  September  lyth, 
1887.  It  was  fired  at  and  wounded,  and  was  with  some  difficulty 
captured,  and  taken  alive  to  the  late  J.  E.  Littleboy  for  identification. 
It  was  kept  alive  for  about  six  weeks,  being  fed  on  live  fish  which 
were  put  in  a  pail  of  water  for  it;  it  refused  to  take  dead  fish.  It 
eventually  died,  and,  being  preserved,  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr. 
W.  M.  Shirreff,  of  Belsize  Park,  London.  This  specimen  measured 
five  feet  two  inches  across  the  wings,  and  was  in  very  good  condition. 
On  the  following  day  a  male  Osprey  was  observed  fishing  in  the 
River  Lea  at  Wheathampstead.  This  bird  was  shot  by  Mr.  Wm. 
Thrale,  and  was  also  preserved. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that,  although  the  list  of 
Hertfordshire  birds  of  prey  is  composed  chiefly  of  visitors,  some 
species  have  occurred  on  numerous  occasions  within  the  last  twenty 
years.  The  probability  is  that  most  of  the  Raptor es  would  never 
become  anything  more  than  visitors,  even  if  they  were  not  shot 
whenever  noticed  ;  but  two  or  three  species  might,  if  unmolested, 
again  return  to  nest  in  the  county. 


ST  MICHAEL  BASSJSHAW. 

(i>r  ffdsuyj   HaH./ 

The  family  of  £a/singj   trauch  rdsbraied   aj    English  Merchants    have  contributed    the  distinctive   trrm 
applied  to  this   Church .  which  from  the  ambiguity  nj    tfrr   record    cannat  be  futrd  with   certainty  at  which  of 
the   fottatnng  perwdj    it  had.  its  foundutuin.    vij   U2S .  1163.  or  U99    thu   was  -me    of  the  fire   Churches,  and 
w«*  rebuilt  1676      Pie  Rrrtar  John  U'»rr  IJ-Jt    Jttju^uUd  Tho '  Uarrwtt   £  D    17HI 


A    HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH     AND     RECTORY 
OF     ST.  MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

BY  W.  B.  PASSMORE. 
(Continued  from  p.  32). 

IN  the  year  1700  it  was  found  that  the  roof  over  the  north  and 
south  aisles  was  very  defective  for  "want  of  covering  the 
same  with  lead,"  and  a  committee  waited  on  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  the  work  done  at  public  expense.  This  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  successful;  for  shortly  afterwards  an  agreement 
was  made  with  a  slater  to  "  amend  the  slates  and  keep 
the  same  in  repair  for  three  years  " ;  he,  however,  came  to  the 
vestry  and  declared  he  had  found  the  repairs  were  greater  than 
he  could  foresee,  and  applied  to  have  the  hard  bargain  taken 
into  consideration;  after  debate  it  was  ordered  that  "as  the 
slater  threw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  the  vestry  they  could 
but  make  respite." 

Much  further  debate  arose  in  1716  as  to  allotting  pews 
"for  families  to  sit  in  and  hear  divine  service,"  and  complaint 
was  made  that  divers  persons  had  keys  to  pews  in  which  they 
had  no  right  to  sit;  which  "  affair  was  enquired  into,"  with 
the  result  that  payment  by  way  of  pew  money  was  enforced ; 
those  who  refused  to  pay  were  ejected  from  their  seats.  The 
sum  paid  for  a  pew  in  the  chancel  and  middle  aisle  was 
io/.,  in  the  "back  aisle"  5/.  This  being  found  a  constant 
source  of  strife,  owing  to  inhabitants  seating  themselves  in 
pewTs  without  permission,  it  was  ordered  that  "those  persons 
who  do  not  choose  to  purchase  their  pews  shall  be  seated  at  the 
discretion  of  the  churchwardens." 

A  committee,  "  with  the  assistance  of  skilful  workmen," 
reported  in  1747,  that  by  the  injudicious  framing  of  the  roof 
and  the  weight  thereof,  "the  bulging  out  of  the  north  and  south 
walls  was  occasioned;  and  in  danger  of  falling";  the  vestry 
thereupon  ordered  that  a  "method  for  the  use  of  iron  bars  should 


I4o  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

be  adopted,  and  at  the  same  time  that  the  church  should  be 
white-washed  and  beautified";  the  workmen  were  paid  by 
means  of  a  rate  at  Sd.  in  the  pound.  The  west  gallery  was 
erected  in  1762,  at  a  cost  of  42/.,  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  an 
"intended  organ,"  and  the  surveyor  was  directed  to  take  a  view 
of  the  church  leads  in  consequence  of  the  rain  coining  in. 

Representation  was  made  to  the  vestry  that  the  churchyard 
and  vaults  were  very  full,  and  that  it  was  high  time  to  consider 
of  some  effective  method  to  prevent  any  inconvenience  .that 
might  happen.  In  connexion  with  this  the  churchwardens' 
account  has  an  item:  spent  155.  $%d.  for  beer  to  workmen  for 
cleaning  out  the  vaults,  and  "  two  shillings  for  burying  the 
bones." 

It  was  decided  by  show  of  hands  in  1777,  that  certain  repairs 
to  the  church  should  be  carried  out  and  paid  for  by  a  sum  of 
money,  not  exceeding  8oo/.,  to  be  borrowed  upon  annuities  on 
lives  of  persons  60  years  of  age  and  upwards.  According  to  the 
vestry  minutes  the  church  was  closed  soon  after,  and  re-opened 
in  February,  1781.  The  illustration  at  the  commencement  of  this 
article  is  taken  from  a  sketch  made  at  the  latter  time.  The  low 
building  in  front  is  the  watch-house  which  was  built  in  1681,  as 
is  stated  in  the  minutes  "after  the  manner  of  St.  Goodfellows" ; 
a  committee  of  eight  parishioners  was  appointed  "  to  oversee 
the  work  done,  and  bargain  for  the  doing  of  it."  A  debate 
having  arisen  over  the  builder's  account,  the  four  common 
councilmen  were  joined  to  the  committee,  "to  adjust  the  same 
and  to  see  that  satisfaction  was  effected " ;  at  a  subsequent 
vestry  it  was  ordered  that  the  builder  "be  paid  28/.  in  full  of  all 
accompts."  Next  to  the  watch-house  is  the  engine-house,  built 
in  1715,  to  keep  two  fire  engines,  according  to  an  Act  of 
Parliament  which  enjoined  every  parish  in  London  to  provide 
two  engines.  There  appears  frequently  in  the  churchwardens' 
accounts  a  charge  for  "cleaning  and  liquoring  the  engine," 
and  also  an  annual  charge  of  3/.  for  "  playing  on  "  the  same. 

The  "  fire  ladders  "  are  shown  attached  to  the  eastern  wall 
of  the  church.  By  order  of  the  vestry  they  were  "to  be 
provided  for  the  use  of  the  parish,  to  prevent  any  accident  to 
the  lives  of  the  inhabitants  by  fire,  and  to  be  deposited  in  a 
convenient  part  of  the  churchyard." 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  141 

The  old  watch-house  being  no  longer  required,  a  conference 
was  held  with  the  Commissioners  of  Sewers  in  1840,  as  to  the 
expediency  of  having  the  footway  widened ;  the  Commissioners 
having  agreed  to  contribute  30^.  towards  the  cost,  the  watch- 
house  was  pulled  down  and  the  ground  given  up  to  the  City. 

The  money  for  the  repairs  prior  to  the  re-opening  of  the 
church  in  1781,  was  borrowed  from  two  persons,  and  annuities 
amounting  to  8o/.  secured  upon  the  parish  estates,  were  granted 
to  them  for  their  natural  lives;  i,35o/.  was  borrowed 
in  the  like  manner  for  repairs  to  the  fabric  in  1800.  Twenty 
years  afterwards  a  report  appears  as  to  the  state  of  the 
church;  the  spire  was  said  to  be  in  a  dangerous  condition 
owing  to  the  sinking  of  graves;  an  application  made  to  the 
Bishop  for  permission  to  take  it  down  met  with  a  refusal, 
whereupon  the  church  and  spire  was  repaired  by  the 
vestry  at  a  cost  of  2,5OO/.,  which  amount  was  as  usual 
borrowed  by  way  of  annuity,  and  charged  upon  the  parish 
estates  in  London  Wall.  The  money  was  lent  by  three 
persons  for  annuities  amounting  to  i85/. ;  one  of  these  annuitants 
survived  until  1853.  In  1835  a  dispute  arose  as  to  warming 
the  church.  The  vestry  had  placed  "  patent  hot-air  dispensers  " 
at  the  east  end,  at  an  expense  of  IQI/.  i8s.  n^.,  without  a 
faculty.  The  Archdeacon  ordered  their  removal,  which  the 
parishioners  resisted  ;  after  much  contention  an  alteration  was 
suggested  by  the  vestry  and  approved  by  the  Archdeacon,  but 
then  the  Rector  refused  his  consent,  and  it  was  resolved  to 
abandon  the  said  patent  and  to  warm  and  light  the  church  with 
gas;  this,  however,  was  found  to  be  insufficient  for  warming 
purposes,  and  the  vestry  fell  back  upon  a  former  resolution  to 
repair  the  stoves. 

The  churchyard  was  closed  for  burials  in  1853,  and 
covered  with  quick  lime  by  order  of  the  Home  Office ; 
shortly  afterwards  the  vaults  were  filled  up  under  the 
direction  of  Dr.  Letheby.  The  attendance  upon  Divine  Service 
had  now  become  very  small,  as  the  number  of  residents  in 
the  parish  had  greatly  fallen  off;  the  vestry,  however, 
liberally  provided  for  the  repairs  and  decoration  of  their  parish 
church,  defraying  the  expenses  of  public  worship,  and  also  the 
support  of  the  aged  poor ;  but  with  the  year  1891  came  a  new 


142  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

order  of  things  by  the  passing  into  law  of  the  Parochial 
Charities  Scheme,  which  deprived  the  vestry  of  an  annual 
income  derived  from  the  parish  estates  of  700^.,  and  allotting, 
in  lieu  thereof,  the  sum  of  i8o/.  per  annum  for  church 
expenses,  plus  45^.  towards  repairs  of  the  fabric.  The  vestry 
considered  this  a  very  insufficient  provision  for  the  church, 
especially  in  view  of  the  large  income  derived  from  the  old 
parish  estates,  and  an  effort  was  made  to  obtain  an  increase ; 
but  the  Charity  Commissioners  stated  that  they  had  no  fund 
out  of  which  any  further  payment  could  be  provided,  and 
refused  to  entertain  the  application. 

The  plan  of  the  church  and  surroundings  here  reproduced  is 
copied  from  the  parish  map  made  in  1815,  by  order  of  the  vestry. 
In  1865  the  churchyard,  by  agreement  with  the  Bishop  and 
the  Commissioner  of  Se\vers,  was  levelled,  and  the  space  laid 
into  the  street. 

On  the  chancel  floor  is  a  slab  with  a  Latin  inscription, 
translated  as  follows: — "Here  lies  Edward  S.  Smith,  M.A.,  and 
rector  of  this  church,  where  for  27  years  he  faithfully  served 
his  Master,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  just  and  most  humble 
piety  in  the  administering  of  Divine  things.  He  lived  honestly, 
usefully,  and  very  lovingly,  molested  by  no  one,  dear  to  all,  for 
he  was  of  a  most  mild  and  agreeable  temper.  He  leaves  a  widow 
and  one  son,  blessed  by  the  fates  in  external  things,  but  mourning 
within  their  inmost  hearts,  inasmuch  as  both  husband  and 
father  was  much  yearned  for.  He  died  October  22nd,  1708, 
aged  58."  The  following  is  also  cut  on  a  stone  in  the  chancel, 
"  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Sir  Rowland  Aynsworth,  Knt.,  who 
departed  this  life  January  nth,  Anno.  1702,  aged  48,  also  three 
children,  Eleonora,  Richard,  and  a  son  who  dyed  before 
baptism."  On  the  north  side  of  the  altar  there  is  a  grave-stone 
bearing  the  name  of  Bassill  Hearne,  1692,  the  inscription  is  worn 
away,  but  is  given  in  Seymour's  History  of  London.  There  is 
a  stone  in  memory  of  Hugh  Wilbraham,  gent.,  county  of 
Chester.  A  fragment  on  the  south  side  of  the  altar  bears  a 
long  Latin  inscription  to  the  memory  of  Paris  Slaughter  and 
his  two  wives,  Elizabeth  and  Anne,  Anno.  1673.  A  slab  on  the 
chancel  floor  bears  this  inscription,  "  Here  lies  interred  the 
body  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Tahourdin,  daughter  of  John  Chappell, 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  143 

of  the  city  of  Norwich,  where  she  was  born  in  the  year  1688, 
married  to  Mr.  Gabriel  Tahourdin,  merchant  of  London  in 
1707,  and  on  the  23rd  May,  1729,  in  giving  life  to  a  son  she  lost 
her  own.  Near  this  place  also  lyeth  the  body  of  Mr.  Gabriel 
Tahourdin,  who  died  the  26th  November,  1730,  aged  52. 
John  Chappell  also  died  in  1729,  and  Mary,  his  relict,  in  1746, 
aged  respectively  83  and  86,  buried  in  the  same  grave."  Also 
cut  on  a  grave-stone  on  the  chancel  floor,  "  Sacred  to  the 
memory  of  the  Rev.  William  Brackenridge,  D.D.,  formerly 
rector  of  this  parish,  and  librarian  of  Sion  College,  ob.  anno. 
1762 ;  also  of  Helen,  his  wife ;  the  Rev.  Archibald  Brackenridge, 
his  son,  and  several  others  of  his  children.  This  stone  is 
inscribed  by  George  Brackenridge,  of  Brislington,  in  the  county 
of  Somerset,  Esq."  Amongst  memorials  on  the  floor  are 
are  those  of  Matthew  Beachcroft,  Esq.,  1759 ;  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Beachcroft,  1767;  Thomas  Sutton,  vestry  clerk,  1803;  Mrs. 
Jane  Sutton,  1771 ;  Dame  Forrester;  James  Winstanley,  1684; 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Dawe,  and  others  which  cannot  be  deciphered. 
There  is  a  tablet  on  the  chancel  wall  to  the  memory  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Wharton,  1673,  whose  long  connection  with  the 
parish  has  been  described  in  the  pages  of  the  magazine  of  which 
this  publication  is  the  successor,*  but  the  following  extracted 
from  Munk's  College  of  Physicians  will  be  of  interest.  Wharton 
was  educated  at  Cambridge.  He  removed  to  Oxford,  being 
tutor  to  John  Scrope,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Sunderland.  When 
the  Civil  War  began  Mr.  Wharton  removed  to  London  and 
studied  physic,  under  Dr.  John  Bathurst,  physician  to  Oliver 
Cromwell.  In  1646,  when  Oxford  had  surrendered  to  the 
parliamentary  forces,  Wharton  returned  to  London  and  was 
created  Doctor  of  Medicine  in  virtue  of  letters  from  Sir  Thomas 
Fairfax.  He  was  censor  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  in 
1658,  1661,  1666,  1667,  1668,  and  1673,  and  was  held  in  the 
highest  estimation.  He  remained  during  the  whole  time  of  the 
plague  and  attended  to  the  poor  at  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  of 
which  he  was  physician.  Dr.  Wharton's  resolution  swerved  for 
a  moment  when  a  panic  seized  the  profession,  but  he  was 
induced  to  persevere  in  the  line  of  duty  by  a  promise  from 
Government,  that  if  he  would  persist  in  attending  the  Guards, 
who  were  sent  to  St.  Thomas's  as  fast  as  they  fell,  he  should 

*  Middlesex  and  Hertfordshire  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  iv.,  p.  22. 


144  METEOROLOGY. 

receive  the  first  vacant  appointment  of  Physician  in  Ordinary 
to  the  King.  Soon  after  the  plague  had  ceased  a  vacancy 
occurred,  and  Wharton  proceeded  to  Court  to  solicit  the 
fulfilment  of  the  engagement.  He  was  answered  that  H.M. 
was  under  the  necessity  of  appointing  another  person,  but  to 
show  his  sense  of  Dr.  Wharton's  services,  he  would  order  the 
Heralds  to  grant  him  an  augmentation  to  his  paternal  arms. 
The  other  tablets  affixed  to  the  walls  are  as  follows : — The 
Heylyn  family,  1791.  Wife  of  Richard  Smith,  1804.  Thomas 
Loggin,  1810.  Joseph  Wolfe,  1821.  Solomon  Wadd,  1820— 
he  represented  the  Ward  in  Common  Council  for  40  years. 
Wife  and  five  children  of  Christopher  Packe,  rector,  1831. 
Edward  Frisby,  1821.  Henry  Woodthorpe,  LL.D.  Thomas 
and  Susannah  Wheeler,  1834.  Wife  and  children  of  William 
Bird,  1835,  and  Drew  Wood,  1868.  These  memorials  will  be 
preserved  at  St.  Lawrence  Jewry,  the  church  of  the  united 
parishes. 

(To  be  continued). 


METEOROLOGY     OF     THE     HOME     COUNTIES. 
BY  JOHN  HOPKINSON,  F.R.MET.Soc.,  Assoc.lNST.C.E. 

October  to   December,  1899. 

NO  report  having  been  received  from  Cranleigh  School,, 
Surrey,  that  station  is  omitted,  reducing  the  number  of 
the  climatological  stations  to  nine.  On  the  other  hand  a  former 
rainfall  station,  Sandhurst  Lodge,  Berks,  has  been  reinstated, 
and  another  rainfall  station,  Throcking  Rectory,  Buntingford, 
has  been  added.  This  is  the  station  of  the  Rev.  C.  W.  Harvey, 
who  takes  other  observations  besides  that  of  the  rainfall,  and 
has  a  complete  record  for  20  years.  The  height  of  this  station 
above  sea-level  is  484  feet,  the  rim  of  the  rain-gauge  is  one 
foot  above  the  ground,  and  its  diameter  is  five  inches. 

The  counties  are  distinguished  as  usual: — i,  Middlesex;  2, 
Essex  ;  3,  Herts  ;  4,  Bucks  ;  5,  Berks  ;  6,  Surrey  ;  7,  Kent. 
The  observations  are  taken  at  nine  a.m. 


METEOROLOGY. 


145 


October  was  rather  warm,  had  an  atmosphere  of  average 
humidity,  a  rather  bright  sky,  and  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
less  rainfall  than  the  average  for  the  Home  Counties  for  the 
ten  years,  1881-90.  November  was  very  warm,  had  a  rather 
dry  atmosphere,  about  the  average  amount  of  cloud,  and  nearly 
three-quarters  of  an  inch  more  than  the  average  rainfall. 
December  was  rather  colder  than  usual,  had  an  atmosphere  of 
average  humidity,  a  very  cloudy  sky,  and  about  half-an-inch 
less  than  the  average  rainfall.  The  mean  rainfall  for  the  quarter 
was  therefore  about  the  average.  There  was  a  remarkable 
variation  of  the  rainfall  in  October,  the  fall  at  Harefield  in 
Middlesex,  for  example,  being  nearly  double  that  at  Halstead 
in  Essex,  and  that  at  Royston  being  only  two-thirds  that  at 
Hitchin ;  both  of  these  stations  are  in  the  north  of  the  same 
county,  Hertfordshire.  There  were  several  heavy  falls  of  rain, 
falls  exceeding  an  inch  occurring  on  the  ist  and  27th  of 
October,  and  the  3rd  and  5th  of  November. 

Three  stations  in  Berks — Cookham,  Bracknell,  and 
Sandhurst — show  a  mean  temperature  each  month  about 
two  degrees  lower  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Home  Counties, 
the  mean  of  the  three  in  October  being,  47*5°;  in  November, 
44*9°  ;  and  in  December,  34*4°. 

October,    1899. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

0 

1—  I 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

d 

0 

Mean 

Min 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

ft 

5 

Am't 

Days 

o 

o 

0 

o 

0 

c 

O  / 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

50-8 

45-0 

56-6 

11-6 

38-3 

6-2-7 

86 

5-9 

2-03 

9 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

48-4 

38-9 

57-9 

19-0 

30  0 

65-0 

89 

4-8 

1-81 

11 

,,  Chelmsford.. 

47-8 

38-2 

57'4 

19-2 

27-8 

62-8 

87 

7-0 

2-18 

13 

3.  Bennington 

49-1 

40-2 

58-0 

17-8 

33-2 

63-4 

88 

5-9 

'2-30 

10 

,,  Berkhamsted 

48-9 

38-8 

58-9 

20-1 

30  1 

65-2      yi 

6-0 

3-05 

10 

,,  St.  Albans.  . 

48  9 

40-5 

57-4 

16-9 

31-2 

64-9 

88 

5-3 

3-02 

13 

6.W.  Norwood 

49-4 

41-5 

57'3 

15-8 

33  5 

62-4    j  86 

5-5 

2  39 

14 

,,  Addington.  . 

49-5 

43-0 

56-0 

13-0 

32-6 

62-0    j  83 

6-0 

2  31 

16 

7.  Margate    .  . 

51-1 

45-1 

57-1 

12-0 

36-0 

63-7    j  85 

6-1 

2-31 

11 

Mean  

49-3 

41  2 

57-4 

16  2 

32  5 

63-6 

87 

5-8 

2-38 

12 

z46 


METEOROLOGY. 


November,    1899. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

0 

Rain 

Stations 

Means                    !     Extremes 

1 

*- 

Mean 

Min 

Max 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

w 

s 

Am't 

Days 

Q 

0 

0 

0 

0 

o 

°/« 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

49-4 

45-3 

.33-5 

8-2 

37  1 

62-1 

83 

8-2 

4-06 

10 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

46-5 

40-2 

52  8 

12-6 

28-2 

61  5 

90 

6-7 

3-15 

9 

,,  Chehtisford.. 

46-4 

39-9 

53-0 

13*1 

25-0 

61-7 

88 

7-5 

3-33 

7 

3.  Benning-ton 

46-0 

40-4 

51  6 

11-2 

28-8 

60  8 

89 

7-9 

3-72 

11 

,,  Berkhamsted 

46-0 

39-5 

52  4 

12-9 

28  0 

60-3 

90 

8-0 

3-40 

9 

,,  St..  Albans.. 

45-9 

40  2 

ol-6 

11-4 

29  2 

58-8 

89 

7-2 

3-77 

10 

6.W  Norwood 

47-5 

41  9 

a3'l 

11-2 

31-2 

62-3 

86 

7'9 

4-17 

12 

,,  Addington.  . 

47-2 

42-9 

')!•/) 

8-6 

34  2 

60-4 

85 

8-2 

4-54 

15 

7.  Margate     .  . 

48-7 

43-8 

53-6 

9-8 

31-5 

63-3 

90 

7'8 

1-95 

10 

Mean  

47-1 

41-6 

52-6 

11-0 

30-4 

61-2 

88 

7-7 

3  57 

9 

December,    1899. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

f 

0 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

3 

1 



Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

w 

i 

Am't 

Days 

i 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o  / 

. 

i  O 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

384 

34-6 

42-3 

7-7 

24-3 

55-7 

83 

8-9 

1-09 

16 

2   Halstead   .. 

36-0 

31-1 

40-8 

9-7 

14-0 

52-8 

94 

7-5 

1-53 

15 

,,  Chelmsford  . 

36-0 

30-8 

41-2 

10-4 

14-6 

53-4 

92 

8-0 

1-38 

13 

3.  Bennington 

35-5 

30-8 

40-2 

9-4 

16'6 

53-7 

91 

8-3 

1-45 

19 

,,  Berkhamsted 

35-4 

30-3 

40-4 

10-1 

15-8 

54-4 

91 

7-9 

1-44 

18 

,,  St.  Albans.. 

35-5 

31-1 

40-0 

8-9 

19-2 

52-4 

88 

7-9 

1-50 

18 

6.W.  Norwood 

36-8 

32-0 

41-5 

9-5 

20-4 

54-5 

90 

8-1 

1-37 

19 

,,  Addington.  . 

35-1 

30-5 

39-7 

9-2 

19-5 

53-6 

95 

8-6 

1-76 

22 

7.  Margate    .  . 

37-5 

32-9 

42  2 

9-3 

22-6 

52-8 

88 

7*  t 

2-12 

18 

Mean    . 

36-2 

31-6 

40-9 

9-3 

18-6 

53-7 

90 

8-1 

1-52 

18 

Rainfall,  October  to  December,  1899. 


Stations 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

Stations 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

ins. 
2  03 

ins. 
4-13 

ins. 
1  05 

4    Sl-.u^h 

ins. 
2  93 

ins. 
3  36 

ins. 
•35 

Harefield 

3  56 

3-71 

1-34 

5.  Abingdon 

2-18 

2  45 

•32 

2   Newport 

2-41 

3-61 

1  73 

,  Cookham  .... 

2-04 

3-61 

•19 

,  Southend       .  .  . 

1-80 

3-98 

1-47 

,  BrackneU  

2-58 

3-58 

•43 

3.  Royston  

1  91 

3-03 

1-54 

,  Sandhurst  .... 

2-96 

4-21 

•47 

,,  Hitchin  

3  14 

3-53 

1-69 

.  Dorking    .... 

2-48 

5-62 

•61 

Throoking 

2  16 

3-83 

1-60 

.  Tenterden 

2-33 

3-18 

2-22 

4.  Winslow    . 

2-27 

2-69 

1-51 

,  Birchin^ton.  . 

1-74 

2-04 

2-09 

Mean  (25  stations)  :    Oct.,  2'44  ins.  ;  Nov.,  3-54  ins;  Dec.,  T53  ins. 


KEW:     ITS    PALACES    AND    ASSOCIATIONS. 

WRITTEN    AND    ILLUSTRATED    BY  A.  LEONARD    SUMMERS. 

T  INHERE  is  so  much  that  is  rural,  and  such  a  soothing  air  of 
JL  tranquility  and  indifference  to  the  turmoil  and  progression 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  about  the  pretty  little  village  of  Kew, 
in  Surrey,  that  it  is  difficult  to  fully  realize  the  fact  that  it  lies 
within  half-a-dozen  miles  of  the  greatest  city  in  existence; 
and  this,  in  spite  of  such  unmistakeable  signs  of  the  times  as  the 
opening  up  of  its  tramway,  and  the  erection  of  modern  villas  at 
intervals,  for  the  adequate  accommodation  of  its  two  thousand 
r.nd  more  inhabitants.  But  its  quietude  is  due  in  a  great 
measure  to  immediate  surroundings,  bounded  as  it  is  by  the 
Thames  on  the  north,  by  Mortlake  on  the  south-east,  and  by  the 
Botanical  Gardens,  the  Old  Deer  Park,  and  Richmond  on  the 
south  and  west. 

Kew  was  formerly  a  hamlet  belonging  to  Kingston,  and  in 
ancient  records  is  variously  called  Kayhough,  Kayhoo,  Keye, 
Kewe,  etc.  Lysons  says  "  its  situation  near  the  water-side 
might  induce  one  to  seek  for  its  etymology  from  the  word  key, 
or  quay."  At  the  time  of  Henry  the  Seventh  it  is  mentioned 
under  the  appellation  of  Kayhough. 

There  is  not  much  left  of  its  earliest  greatness,  however; 
nearly  all  the  noble  structures,  royal  and  otherwise,  having 
been  long  ago  demolished.  The  principal  mansions  erected  at 
Kew  were  :  (i)  Old  Kew  Palace,  or  the  "White  House  "  ;  (2) 
"  The  Dutch  House  "  (at  present  known  as  Kew  Palace) ;  (3) 
"George  the  Third's  Castellated  Palace";  (4)  "The  Dairie 
House";  and  (5)  "The  Lodge,"  in  Old  Deer  Park,  or 
"  Ormond  House,"  named  after  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  who 
once  owned  it.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  the  "  Dairie 
House"  was  held  by  Sir  Henry  Gate,  knight;  in  Elizabeth's 
time  this  mansion  belonged  to  Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  and  later,  to  Sir  Hugh  Portman,  the  Dutch 
merchant  who  was  knighted  by  Queen  Elizabeth. 


148  KEW. 

"  Suffolk  Place,"  mentioned  in  a  court-roll  of  Elizabeth's 
time  as  having  just  been  pulled  down,  is  thought  to  have  been 
the  residence  of  Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and  his 
third  wife,  widow  of  Louis  XII.  of  France,  lived  here.  Sir 
John  Pickering,  Lord- Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  resided  at  Kew,  and  frequently  entertained 
Her  Majesty  there.  (See  Sydney  State  Papers,  Vol.  i,  p.  376). 

"The  White  House";  or,  as  it  afterwards  became  called, 
"Kew  House,"  belonged  to  Richard  Bennett,  Esq.  (son  of 
Sir  Thomas  Bennett,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  1603),  in  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  eventually  descended 
to  the  Capel  family;  Lady  Capel,  wife  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
of  Ireland,  1692-6,  died  here  in  1721,  and  was  interred  in  the 
chapel,  now  the  parish  church.  Samuel  Molyneux  next  came 
into  the  property,  and  died  in  1728.  About  1730,  Frederick, 
Prince  of  Wales,  obtained  a  lease  of  Kew  House,  and  made 
many  additions  and  improvements  thereto.  When  Frederick 
died,  in  1751,  the  Princess- Dowager  of  Wales,  made  still 
further  improvements  to  the  place.  At  the  death  of  the 
Princess,  in  February,  1772,  Kew  House  became  the  frequent 
residence  of  her  son,  King  George  the  Third,  who  bought  the 
estate,  which,  in  due  course,  was  inherited  by  his  family,  and 
enlarged  from  time  to  time.  His  Majesty  was  very  fond  of  the 
old  house,  and  stayed  in  it  about  three  months  of  each  year. 
Kew  House,  or  "  The  Old  Palace,"  as  afterwards  described, 
was  demolished  in  1803,  a  castellated  palace  having  been 
commenced,  by  command  of  the  King,  upon  a  spot  adjacent  to 
the  Thames,  in  "  Richmond  Gardens."  This  palace,  however, 
was  never  finished  internally,  although  a  considerable  amount 
of  money  had  been  expended  on  its  exterior,  nor  was  it  ever 
inhabited  by  the  King ;  and  after  his  decease  it  was  sold  by 
order  of  George  the  Fourth.  The  Castellated  Palace  was 
pulled  down  in  1828. 

The  house  at  present  existing,  and  called  Kew  Palace 
(originally  the  Dutch  House),  stands  on  a  site  adjoining  the 
Botanical  Gardens,  one  side  facing  the  river,  and  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  the  green.  It  was,  probably,  erected  in  the 
time  of  James  the  First,  by  Sir  Hugh  Portman,  who  also 
owned  the  "  Dairie  House."  His  descendant,  Sir  John 


KEW.  149 

Portman,  sold  it  in  1636  to  Samuel  Fortrey,  Esq.,  and,  in 
1697,  we  find  it  was  alienated  to  Sir  Richard  Levett.  Queen 
Caroline,  when  making  her  "improvements  in  Richmond 
Gardens,"  in  George  II.'s  reign,  took  a  long  lease  of 
the  house,  which  had  not  expired  in  1781,  when  the  freehold 
was  purchased  for  Queen  Charlotte,  by  whom  it  had  been 
previously  used  as  a  nursery  for  the  royal  offspring.  Here  it 
was  that  the  Prince  of  Wales — afterwards  George  IV. — was 
educated  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Markham.  At  a  later  period,  this 
house  became  known  as  "Queen's  Lodge";  and,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  apartments  are  inconveniently  small, 
it  appears  to  have  been  a  favourite  residence  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  family.  Queen  Charlotte  died  there  on  the 
i7th  November,  1818,  after  a  long  illness.  Kew  Palace  is  a 
red-brick  building,  in  the  Dutch  style  of  architecture,  and  of 
pleasing  appearance ;  but  not  particularly  imposing,  either 
outside  or  inside,  and  scarcely  strikes  one  as  being  a  "  Palace," 
in  the  modern-day  sense  of  the  word ;  neither  would  one 
expect  it  to  have  been  held  in  such  high  esteem  by  royalty. 
Over  the  door-way  may  still  be  seen  the  initials  "F.S.C.,"  with 
the  date  1631.  Inside,  the  massive  brass  door-plates  yet 
remain,  with  the  royal  arms,  the  Prince  of  Wales'  feathers,  and 
"F.P.W."  (Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales)  engraved  thereon. 
The  interior  is  of  panelled  oak,  and  painted  white  throughout. 

There  is  an  old  sun-dial  on  the  lawn  in  front  of  the  Palace, 
which  denotes  the  precise  spot  where,  in  1725,  the  Rev.  James 
Bradley  made  the  first  observations  which  resulted  in  his 
discovery  of  the  aberration  of  light,  and  the  nutation  of  the 
earth's  axis. 

Kew  Green,  close  by,  forms  the  site  of  other  famous  houses, 
the  principal  of  those  remaining  at  present  being  "  Cambridge 
Cottage"  and  "The  Herbarium."  Cambridge  Cottage  occupies 
a  site  upon  which  Lord  Bute's  house  once  stood,  on  the  green, 
in  immediate  proximity  to  Kew  Church — the  roadway  only 
dividing — and  is  at  present  the  most  important  house  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Subsequently  it  belonged  to  Mr.  Planta,  and 
in  1837  came  into  the  possession  of  the  late  Duke  of 
Cambridge,  who  was  instrumental  in  enlarging  and  improving 
it.  It  is  a  plain  brick  building,  almost  completely  covered 


I5o  KEW. 

with  ivy,  the  effect  of  which  adds  greatly  to  the  charm  of  the 
delightful  grounds.  The  house  contains  a  fine  library,  well  filled 
with  good  books;  and  many  valuable  oil-paintings  and  portraits 
of  various  branches  of  the  royal  family  adorn  its  walls.  It  is 
now7  owned  by  the  present  Duke  of  Cambridge,  who  courteously 
gave  me  his  permission  to  make  the  accompanying  drawing 
of  the  place,  showing  the  tower  of  Kew  Church  in  the 
immediate  back-ground.  His  Royal  Highness  seldom  stays 
there  now  ;  he  resides  for  the  major  portion  of  the  year  at  his 
Park  Lane  mansion,  Gloucester  House. 

"The  Herbarium"  (one  of  Lord  Bute's  "houses")  was 
built  in  1771,  close  to  the  site  of  Cambridge  Cottage,  and 
belonged  to  Robert  Hunter.  In  1830,  William  IV.  granted 
it  to  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland;  after  the  late  Duke's 
accession  to  the  throne  of  Hanover  it  was  known  as 
the  "  King  of  Hanover's  House,"  and  he  stayed  there 
occasionally  until  his  death,  in  1851.  The  blind  King  of 
Hanover  (Duke  Ernest's  son)  also  lived  in  this  house.  Close 
by,  there  stood,  nearly  200  years  ago,  the  house  of  Sir  Peter 
Lely. 

Quite  a  number  of  great  and  famous  people  have  from  time 
to  time  made  the  picturesque  little  Green  their  home  :  the 
Lord  Boston,  the  Lord  Chamberlain ;  General  Graeme,  the 
Queen's  Secretary;  and  the  Master  of  the  Horse.  Dr.  Turner, 
the  botanist,  lived  there  in  1560,  and  in  our  own  day,  Sir  Arthur 
Helps,  the  essayist.  The  Green  once  formed  the  scene  of  the 
celebrated  fair  (Kew  Fair  was  ordered  by  the  Vestry  to  be 
abolished  on  the  i8th  of  May,  1781),  in  the  days  when  Kew 
boasted  a  pound,  a  cage,  a  pair  of  stocks,  and  a  watch- 
house  for  law-breakers;  and  it  was  not  until  about  1845 
that  the  last  trace  of  these  quaint  things  had  entirely 
disappeared  from  the  vicinity.  The  watch-house  is  described 
as  having  been  close  to  the  "  chappie  yard,"  and  the  cage  was 
on  the  north  side  of  the  present  church. 

Kew  Church,  built  of  red  brick,  stands  on  the  open  area 
of  the  Green,  on  a  plot  of  ground  granted  by  Queen  Anne, 
who  also  gave  one  hundred  pounds  towards  the  building 
expenses  (about  5oo/.)  It  was  completed  and  consecrated 
as  the  "  Chapel  of  St.  Anne,  of  Kew  Green,"  on  the  I2th 


Old  Kew  Bridge. 


Kew  Church. 
From  drawings  by  A.  Leonard  Summers. 


KEW.  151 

of  May,  1714.  As  early  as  1522  there  was  a  small,  private 
chapel  at  Kew  licensed  by  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  but 
that  license  reserved  the  rights  of  the  vicar  of  Kingston— 
of  which  parish  Kew  then  formed  part.  The  present 
church  was  greatly  enlarged  and  restored  in  1837-8,  by 
Sir  Jeffry  Wyattville ;  and  King  George  III.  (said  to  have 
been  very  fond  of  this  church)  built  the  royal  gallery  at  its 
west  end.  In  1883  a  new  chancel  was  added,  and  a  mortuary 
chapel,  crowned  with  a  small  cupola.  In  this  mausoleum  rest 
the  remains  of  the  late  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Cambridge. 
The  monuments  have  been  affixed  against  the  walls  in  a 
uniform  style,  the  pews  are  of  grained  oak,  and  the  roof  is 
supported  at  the  sides  by  Doric  columns,  and  at  the  ends 
by  pilasters.  The  alter-recess  contains  tables  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  Commandments,  and  in  a  specially  constructed 
recess  there  is  a  small  organ  supposed  to  have  belonged  to 
Handel,  and  presented  to  the  church  in  1823.  Many  handsome 
and  interesting  memorials  may  be  seen  in  the  church,  including 
those  to  the  Dowager  Lady  Capel ;  Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Derby 
(daughter  of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Ossory) ;  Sir  John  Day,  F.R.S., 
Advocate-General  of  Bengal;  Joshua  Kirby,  F.R.S.  (author  of 
"  Perspective  of  Architecture,"  1761);  and  Francis  Bauer, 
F.R.S.,  who  died  at  his  house  on  the  Green  in  1840;  while 
Gainsborough,  Zoffani,  Meyer,  and  other  celebrated  people  lie 
buried  in  the  churchyard. 

Kew  Observatory  stands  in  the  Old  Deer  Park,  adjoining 
the  Botanical  Gardens.  This  building  was  erected  at  the 
expense  of  George  III.  in  1768-9,  from  designs  of  Sir 
William  Chambers — who  also  erected  the  "  Alhambra,"  the 
"  Mosque,"  the  Gothic  Cathedral,  and  other  ornamental 
buildings  at  Kew,  long  since  taken  down.  It  is  a  three-storied 
building,  on  an  elevated  base,  and  surmounted  by  a  moveable 
dome.  Here  were  made  some  of  the  earliest  astronomical 
observations. 

Coming  now  to  matters  relating  to  the  river  at  Kew,  it  is  a 
particularly  opportune  moment  to  take  a  survey  of  the  means 
of  communication  which  the  inhabitants  of  Kew  have  had 
with  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  Thames,  for  this  year  of 
grace,  1900,  will  see  the  last  of  the  present  old  stone  bridge 


i52  KEW. 

that  has  stood  there  for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  Even 
now,  as  I  write,  the  work  of  demolition  is  in  active  progress, 
and  in  a  very  brief  period  the  whole  structure  will  have  become  a 
thing  of  the  past.  A  new  and  much  wider  bridge  will  be  erected 
in  place  of  this  stone  bridge,  which,  though  of  picturesque 
appearance,  was  dangerously  narrow  and  of  inconveniently 
steep  approach. 

Originally  there  was  a  horse-ferry  between  the  shores 
of  Kew  and  Brentford,  and  the  owner  of  that  ferry,  Robert 
Tunstall,  petitioned  Parliament  on  February  the  I2th,  1757, 
for  permission  to  erect  a  bridge.  An  Act  was  passed,  on  the 
I7th  March  in  the  same  year  (receiving  royal  assent  on  the 
28th  June)  to  construct  a  bridge ;  and  in  the  following  year 
another  Act  was  passed  to  alter  the  site  of  the  proposed  bridge. 
Accordingly  the  work  was  commenced,  the  first  stone  of  the 
bridge  being  laid  on  the  2Qth  April,  1758.  The  bridge,  when 
finished,  consisted  of  no  less  than  eleven  arches,  mostly  of 
wood.  It  was  neither  successful  as  a  financial  speculation, 
nor  as  a  bridge,  and  had  but  a  short  existence.  As 
might  have  been  expected,  it  began  to  rot,  necessitating 
temporary  repairs  in  1782,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards 
it  appears  to  have  been  disused.  TunstalPs  son  next  tried  his 
hand  at  bridging;  and,  entirely  at  his  own  cost,  erected  a 
stone  bridge,  that  now  being  destroyed.  The  first  stone 
was  laid  on  the  4th  June,  1783.  It  was  completed 
and  thrown  open  to  the  public  on  September  22nd,  1787. 
Mr.  Thomas  Robinson,  another  enterprising  speculator,  bought 
the  bridge  in  1819,  for  22,ooo/.,  and  retained  the  property  until 
the  year  1873,  when  it  was  finally  purchased  by  the  joint 
committee  of  the  Corporation  of  London  and  the  Metropolitan 
Board  of  Works,  and  the  tolls  abolished. 

Present-day  interest  in  Kew,  so  far  as  concerns  the  general 
public,  is  principally  centred  in  the  Botanical  Gardens,  the 
average  visitor,  possibly,  knowing  little  else  about  the 
neighbourhood — beyond  that  it  is  a  sleepy  little  place  with  a 
large  green  and  a  pleasant  promenade  beside  the  river. 

The  Royal  Gardens  at  Kew  are,  of  course,  a  study  in 
themselves,  and,  quite  apart  from  a  botanical  point  of  view, 
interesting  and  lovely  in  the  extreme ;  they  cover  270  acres. 


COWPER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY.  153 

Admirers  of  flowers  may  spend  whole  days  here  midst  a 
seemingly  endless  variety  of  the  choicest  flowers  and  plants  of 
all  countries  and  climes  ;  and  particularly  pretty  sights  in  this 
direction  are  the  water-lily  house  and  the  rhododendron  walk. 
In  the  Kew  portion  of  the  grounds,  one  of  the  principal 
buildings  is  the  Museum  commenced  in  the  fifties  and  extended 
in  1881,  in  which  are  three  floors  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
fine  collection  of  foods,  drugs,  timber,  and  miscellaneous  things 
of  both  scientific  and  botanical  interest.  Facing  this  building, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  ornamental  lake  which  divides  them, 
is  the  Palm  House,  built  in  1845,  at  a  cost  of  something  like 
33,ooo/.  This  structure  is  entirely  of  glass,  362ft.  in  length  and 
looft.  broad.  The  Chinese  Pagoda,  one  of  the  remaining 
buildings  of  Sir  William  Chambers,  stands  at  the  Richmond 
end  of  the  gardens,  and  is  a  picturesque,  ten-storied  octagonal 
building.  Being  163  feet  high,  a  good  view  is  commanded 
from  its  top,  which  is  reached  by  a  spiral-staircase. 
Unfortunately,  the  public  are  now  no  longer  allowed  the 
privilege  of  entering  it. 


COWPER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY. 

BY  THOMAS  WRIGHT,  AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  LIFE  OF 
WILLIAM  COWPER,"  ETC. 

ON  the  25th  of  April  it  will  have  been  just  one  hundred 
years  since  William  Cowper  died,  and  on  that  day,  we 
may  be  sure,  the  thoughts  of  tens  of  thousands  will  be  directed 
to  the  little  town  of  Olney,  and  the  old-fashioned  red-brick 
house  in  its  Market  Place  where  so  many  of  the  poet's  best 
years  were  spent,  and  so  much  that  is  precious  was  given  to  the 
world. 

Cowper  is  dear  to  the  hearts  of  Englishmen,  not  only 
because  they  cherish  his  works,  but  because  also  they  love  the 
man.  His  sweet  and  kindly  nature  has  captivated  all  who  have 
enquired  into  his  life's  story,  whilst  the  terrible  belief  that 
haunted  him  and  the  anguish  that  rent  his  soul,  have  excited 
their  constant  wonder  and  fervent  pity. 

L 


154  COWPER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY. 

A  shy — a  painfully  shy — and  sensitive  man,  Cowper  could 
scarcely  have  found  a  spot  more  suited  to  his  nature  than  the 
quiet  and  secluded  town  of  Olney,  for  here  he  was  completely 
cut  off  from  the  great  world  from  which  he  was  so  anxious  to 
separate  himself.  Much,  however,  has  since  been  changed ; 
the  tootling  of  the  Wellingborough  coach,  for  one  thing,  has 
given  place  to  the  snort  of  the  locomotive,  and  Olney  is  now 
less  than  two  hours  distant  from  the  metropolis. 

"  Orchard  Side,"  as  Cowper's  House  was  often  called, 
situated  on  the  south  side  of  Olney  Market  Place,  is  a  building 
of  red-brick  with  stone  dressings,  and  in  Cowper's  day  boasted 
a  "  mimic  face  of  architrave  and  frieze,"  removed  about  1820. 
To  its  castellated  appearance  Cowper  himself  refers  in  a  letter 
of  July  3rd,  1786.  William  Unwin  called  it  a  prison.  The 
part  occupied  by  Cowper  and  his  beloved  friend  Mrs.  Unwin— 
for  they  never  occupied  the  whole — was  the  western  half 
entered  by  the  door- way  above  the  pair  of  steps.  The  two 
windows  to  the  left  of  this  doorway  are  those  of  Cowper's 
famous  parlour  ;  the  window  on  the  right  is  that  of  his  hall. 
The  eastern  half  the  house  I  have  thought  fit  to  call  Dick 
Coleman's  House,  because  it  was  inhabited  by  Cowper's 
protege,  Dick  Coleman  (brought  as  a  lad  from  St.  Albans)  and, 
as  Cowper  adds,  Dick's  wife  and  a  thousand  rats. 

The  passage  into  which  the  front  door  of  Cowper's  house 
now  opens,  and  the  small  room  on  the  right  were  originally 
one  and  formed  Cowper's  Hall.  At  the  back  of  the  Hall  was 
a  "  port-hole,"  through  which  the  hares,  Puss,  Tiney,  and  Bess, 
whose  sleeping  box  seems  usually  to  have  stood  in  the  kitchen, 
used  to  come  leaping  out  to  their  evening  gambols.  As  the 
hall  door  opened  into  the  street,  visitors,  when  the  hares  were 
out,  were  "  refused  admittance  at  the  grand  entry,  and  referred 
to  the  back  door  as  the  only  possible  way  of  approach."  The 
furniture  of  the  hall  consisted  of  a  box  sometimes  used  for  the 
hares,  a  dove  cage  converted  into  a  cupboard,  and  a  paralytic 
table,  all  three  Cowper's  own  workmanship,  and  prized 
accordingly. 

The  illustrious  parlour  is  about  thirteen  feet  square,  the 
walls  are  wainscotted  for  about  a  yard  from  the  floor,  and  the 
windows  retain  their  original  inside  shutters. 


COV/PER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY.  155 

Cowper's  favourite  seat  in  the  daytime  was  at  the  second 
window  from  the  front  door,  and  here  the  ruddy-faced  blue- 
eyed  poet  may  be  pictured,  sitting  in  his  parrot-like  green  and 
buff  suit,  the  familiar  white  cap  on  his  head,  his  silver  stock 
buckle  at  his  neck,  and  his  silver  shoe  buckles  on  his  square- 
toed  shoes.  It  was  from  this  window  he  saw  the  post-boy 

"  With  spattered  boots,  strapped  waist,  and  frozen  locks, 
News  from  all  nations  lumbering  at  his  back." 

deliver  his  "  expected  bag"  at  the  Swan,  a  balconied  inn  a  few 
score  yards  distant ;  and  it  was  from  this  window,  too,  he  first 
beheld  Lady  Austen — at  whose  suggestion  he  wrote  the  Task — 
who,  with  her  sister,  was  entering  the  draper's  shop  opposite. 
The  shop  is  still  a  draper's,  and  I  have  suggested  that  the 
following  lines  should  be  set  over  the  door : 

Had  Lady  Austen  never  stood 

Within  this  famous  portal, 
The  Poet  never  might  have  penned 

His  masterpiece  immortal. 

But  it  is  in  the  evening  when  the  shutters  are  closed  and 
the  sofa  is  wheeled  to  the  fire  that  we  like  best  to  see  the  poet, 
with  Mrs.  Unwin,  Lady  Hesketh,  Lady  Austen,  Newton  or 
Bull  for  companion,  and  the  aroma  of  tea  and  toast  loading  the 
atmosphere. 

"  Now  stir  the  fire,  and  close  the  shutters  fast, 
Let  fall  the  curtains,  wheel  the  sofa  round, 
And  while  the  bubbling  and  loud  hissing  urn 
Throws  up  a  steamy  column,  and  the  cups 
That  cheer  but  not  inebriate,  wait  on  each, 
So  let  us  welcome  peaceful  evening  in." 

The  large  room  above  the  hall  and  part  of  the  parlour  was 
Cowper's  bedroom. 

In  the  autumn  of  1899  Mr.  W.  H.  Collingridge,  of  London, 
who  for  many  years  had  owned  Cowper's  house,  earned  the 
gratitude  of  all  lovers  of  Cowper  by  presenting  the  property  to 
the  town  of  Olney.  It  was  a  generous  act,  performed  at  a 
fitting  moment,  for  the  house  can  now  be  turned  into  a  Cowper 
Library  and  Museum  ready  for  the  influx  of  visitors  on  Cen- 
tenary Day.  It  is  proposed  to  remove  the  present  wooden 


156  COVVPER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY. 

partition  dividing  the  hall,  and  to  re-open  the  hares'  "port-hole," 
and  so  restore  Cowper's  hall  to  its  former  appearance.  The 
hall  and  the  parlour,  and,  possibly  Cowper's  bedroom,  would 
form  the  museum.  The  contents  will  consist  of  various  relics 
of  Cowper — some  gifts,  others  loans — portraits  of  himself,  and 
his  friends,  views  of  the  scenery  he  describes,  copies  of  the 
various  editions  of  his  works,  and  of  works  relating  to  him ;  in 
short  anything  and  everything  that  such  a  sanctuary  should 
contain.  As  Carlyle's  house  at  Chelsea,  or  Shakespeare's  at 
Stratford,  so  Cowper's  at  Olney. 

There  are  in  existence  at  least  eight  different  portraits  of 
Cowper — (i)  Cowper  as  a  lad  (in  the  possession  of  Sir  Charles 
Dilke)  ;  (2)  A  pastel  by  John  Russell,  R.A.,  drawn  about  1763; 
(3)  A  shadow  taken  at  Olrey  ;  (4)  An  oil  painting  by  Abbot, 
1792  ;  (5)  A  portrait  in  crayons  by  Romney,  1792  ;  (6)  An  oil 
painting  by  Romney  (in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery);  (7)  The 
Sketch  by  (Sir)  Thomas  Lawrence  ;  (8)  The  portrait  by  Jackson 
(at  Panshanger). 

A  word  respecting  No.  6,  which  was  reproduced  from 
a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Walker  and  Boutall,  in  the 
January  number  of  The  Home  Counties'  Magazine.  I  had  seen 
the  original,  but  always  doubted  whether  it  was  genuine.  On 
receiving  the  magazine  I  was  still  unconvinced,  when  the  idea 
occurred  to  me  to  turn  the  picture  sideways.  I  did  so,  raising 
slightly  the  nearer  edge.  It  was  Cowper  in  a  moment.  Let 
anyone  else  acquainted  with  the  various  portraits  of  the  poet  do 
the  same,  and  he  will  be  startled  with  the  strikingness  of  the 
likeness.  Yet,  looked  at  in  the  ordinary  way,  there  is,  to  my 
mind  at  least,  very  little  that  suggests  the  "  dear  original." 

A  gravel  walk  of  thirty  yards  led,  in  Cowper's  time,  from 
the  house  to  the  famous  summer-house,  a  tiny  building,  "not 
much  bigger  than  a  sedan  chair,"  in  which  the  poet  wrote  many 
of  his  minor  compositions.  This  is  now  on  a  separate  property. 
Between  the  summer  house  and  the  vicarage  extends  an  orchard 
which,  on  account  of  the  sum  paid  annually  by  Cowper  and 
Newton  for  right  of  way  through  it,  is  generally  called  "Guinea 
Field."  Such  are  a  few  of  the  associations  of  Cowper's  House, 
but  many  others  will  be  recalled  by  students  of  his  poems  and 
letters,  the  most  beautiful  of  which,  such  as  the  Lines  "  On  the 


I56 


COVVPER'S    HOUSE    AT    OLNEY. 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.          157 

Receipt  of  my  Mother's  Picture,"  "The  Lines  to  Mrs.  Unwin," 
the  Descriptive  Passages  in  the  Task,  and  the  Letters  to 
Lady  Hesketh,  are,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  among  the 
finest  things  in  literature. 


The  manuscript  of  Cowper's  "  Yardley  Oak,"  the  first  page 
of  which  is  reproduced  opposite,  came  into  my  possession 
many  years  ago.  Yardley  Oak  is  still  in  existence.  It 
is  situated  on  the  outskirts  of  Kilwick  Wood,  about  two 
miles  and  a  half  from  Olney.  In  a  letter  to  Lady  Hesketh, 
dated  September  I3th,  1788,  the  poet  wrote :  "  I  walked  with 
Mr.  Gifford  yesterday  on  a  visit  to  an  oak  on  the  border  of 
Yardley  Chase,  an  oak  which  I  often  visit,  and  which  is  one  of 
the  wonders  that  I  show  to  all  who  come  this  way,  and  have 
not  seen  it.  I  tell  them  it  is  a  thousand  years  old,  believing  it 
to  be  so,  though  I  do  not  know  it."  The  poem  was  written  in 
1791,  but  was  not  published  during  Cowper's  life-time.  It  was 
discovered  among  his  papers  by  his  biographer,  Hayley,  with 
the  following  memorandum  :  "  Yardley  Oak  in  girth,  feet  22, 
inches  6 J ;  the  Oak  at  Yardley  Lodge,  feet  28,  inches  5." — 

W.    H.    COLLINGRIDGE. 


THE    MANOR   AND    PARISH    OF   LITTLEBURY. 
BY  REV.  H.  J.  E.  BURRELL. 

THE  village  of  Littlebury,  in  Essex,  is  traversed  by  the 
main  road  between  London  and  Newmarket,  and  at  one 
time  enjoyed  from  its  position  some  small  importance;  but  now 
the  old  coaching  inns  with  ample  stabling  possibilities  are 
but  shadows  of  their  former  greatness,  and  the  parish  is 
practically  unknown,  save  perhaps  to  bicyclists,  who  skim 
unheeding  through  its  streets,  far  more  intent  upon  creating 
a  "  new  record,"  than  interested  in  any  record  of  the  past 
which  the  place  may  happen  to  possess. 

We  will  begin  by  clearing  up  the  history  of  the  manor  of 
Littlebury;  for,  like  the  historj-  of  scores  of  manors  throughout 


158  THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY. 

England,  it  has  been  much  confused  by  county  historians. 
Morant  states  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
Littlebury  "  belonged  to  a  religious  house  in  the  Isle  of  Ely, 
and  was  inhabited  by  eight  priests  and  their  wives  and 
families  " — an  interesting  statement,  reminding  us  that  at  that 
period  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  did  not  everywhere  prevail. 

In  the  year  970,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  bought  the  Isle 
of  Ely,  and  at  once  spoiled  this  little  scene  of  domestic 
happiness  by  ejecting  the  then  inmates  in  favour  of  an  Abbot 
and  his  more  ascetic  monks.  Later  still  we  read  that  the  fifth 
abbot,  Leofric,  let  out  the  farms  of  the  monastery  on  condition 
that  the  tenants  should  find  the  house  maintenance  all  the  year. 
Littlebury  was  to  find  two  week's  provision.  The  Domesday 
account  also  states  that  the  monastery  holds  "  Litelbyriam," 
and  that  there  was  there  "pannage"  (feeding  for  pigs),  four 
mills,  three  hives  of  bees  (vasa  opium) ;  that  the  manor  was 
worth  20/.,and  possessed  a  "berewick,"  called  Strathola,"  which 
two  individuals,  William  and  Elwin,  held.  In  this  ''berewick," 
or  hamlet,  we  recognise  the  neighbouring  parish  of  Strethall. 

In  1108  the  Bishopric  of  Ely  was  formed,  and  was  endowed 
in  part  with  lands  taken  from  the  Ely  Monastery,  which  was 
considered  to  have  grown  too  powerful.  Littlebury  was  in  all 
probability  included  among  the  estates  then  transferred.  For 
in  1286,  on  a  vacancy  occurring  in  the  see  of  Ely,  and  the 
usual  return  of  the  Episcopal  property  being  made  to  the 
Crown,  Littlebury  is  mentioned  as  belonging  to  the  Bishop. 
In  this  return,  it  seems  that  the  rents  of  the  free  and  villain 
(serf)  tenants  amounted  to  4/.  195.  10^.,  that  the  mill 
brought  in  il.  6s.  6d.,  and  also  that  the  apples  sold  for 
7s.  2d.  Twelve  years  later  we  find  from  a  similar  source 
that  the  tenants  were  called  upon  to  render  "whytepund," 
"war-silver,"  and  "average."  Whytepund  and  war-silver 
are  evidently  taxes,  the  latter  being  levied  for  purposes 
of  war,  but  "  average,"  which  is  derived  from  a  word 
meaning  a  beast  of  burden,  imposed  the  service  of  carting,  or 
conveying  the  landlord's  goods.  There  were  then  in  the  manor 
two  water  mills,  and  the  further  detail  is  added  that  the  sale  of 
85  hens  yielded  IDS.  fyd.,  from  which  it  would  seem  that  at 
present  prices  poultry  farming  was  not  a  profitable  occupation. 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.  159 

We  must  remember  though  that  the  purchasing  power  of  money 
was  then  vastly  greater  than  at  present. 

Amongst  other  miscellaneous  information,  the  record  tells 
us  that  there  were  in  Littlebury  8  "  virgarii."  A  virgarius  was 
the  holder  of  a  "  virgate  " — a  piece  of  land  of  varying  size, 
sometimes  amounting  to  as  much  as  40  acres.  In  return  for 
his  holding,  he  was  obliged  to  perform  for  his  over-lord  certain 
"works"  or  services,  connected  with  the  tilling  of  the  soil. 
At  Littlebury  the  tenants  appear  to  have  been  as  liberally 
treated  in  the  way  of  holidays  as  an  Eton  school-boy ;  for  they 
were  excused  "  one  work "  on  every  feast  day  falling  on  a 
Monday,  Wednesday,  or  Friday,  and  during  the  octaves  of  the 
four  great  church  festivals. 

A  year  later,  a  more  interesting  survey  of  the  manor  occurs, 
which  proves  the  existence  there  of  a  hall,  where  the  Bishop 
sojourned  on  his  visits  to  the  manor.  The  building  contained  a 
principal  chamber,  and  another  chamber  annexed,  for  the 
use  of  the  Bishop's  Chamberlain.  There  were  two  chapels — a 
large  and  a  small,  probably  adjoining  the  hall.  The  stabling 
was  extensive,  and  there  was  a  granary  with  other  farm 
buildings.  The  dove-cote,  usually  an  important  manorial 
appendage,  is  not  referred  to.  Possibly  this  hall,  or  part  of  it, 
may  survive  in  the  quaint  old  building  known  as  Gatehouse 
Farm,  in  the  garden  of  which  there  is  still  the  ruined  bowl  of 
an  old  font.  This  font  could  not  have  been  removed  from 
the  parish  church  by  some  primitive  "restorer,"  since  the 
example  still  there  belongs  to  an  earlier  period,  so  that  it  is 
probably  the  font  from  one,  or  other,  of  the  Bishop's  two 
chapels,  of  which  no  traces  are  now  visible. 

We  must  now  pass  by  200  years,  for  I  have  been  unable  to 
discover  any  information,  illustrative  of  the  history  of  Littlebury 
during  the  I4th  and  I5th  centuries.  But  in  the  year  1600 
Martin  Heton,  then  Bishop  of  Ely,  exchanged  with  Queen 
Elizabeth  various  lands  belonging  to  his  See,  and  with  them 
Littlebury.  The  Queen  on  September  soth,  1601,  for  the  sum 
of  7,ooo/.,  granted  to  Thomas  Sutton,  the  famous  merchant, 
and  the  founder  of  Charterhouse,  the  same  manor  of  Littlebury, 
and  also  that  of  Hadstock.  Sutton,  by  his  will  (December 


160  THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY. 

nth,  1611)  bequeathed  these  two  manors  to  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Suffolk,  on  condition  that  within  one  year  of  his  decease,  the 
Earl  should  pay  to  his  executors  the  sum  of  io,ooo/.  The 
Earl  appears  to  have  paid  the  money,  since  he  died  possessed 
of  the  manors  in  1626.  If  these  manors  were  a  desirable 
bequest  at  the  cost  of  io,ooo/.,  it  is  evident  that,  in  the  first 
instance,  Sutton  must  have  made  a  very  profitable  bargain  with 
a  Queen  who  was  notorious  for  her  closeness  and  keen  business 
capabilities ;  but  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  Sutton 
may  have  obtained  the  lands  for  the  small  sum  of  7,ooo/.  in 
consideration  of  the  great  financial  services  he  is  known  to  have 
rendered  to  the  Crown  during  the  Spanish  War. 

Having  spoken  of  the  history  of  the  chief  manor,  a  few 
lines  on  the  sub-manors  will  be  interesting.  There  were 
two  sub-manors,  Burdeux  or  Netherhall,  and  Catmere  Hall. 
It  seems  that  Edward  III.  allowed  the  grant  to  the  Prior  and 
Convent  of  Ely  of  "  certain  lands  and  rents  in  Nether 

Hall for  an  anniversary  of  John  de  Hothum, 

late  Bishop  of  Ely,  to  be  celebrated  in  the  Priory 
aforesaid;"  i.e.,  the  lands  were  granted  to  sustain  an  annual 
celebration  of  mass  on  behalf  of  the  departed  prelate.  At  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  they  passed  to  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  by  grant  of  King  Henry  VIII.  The  Dean  and 
Chapter,  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  kept  a  too  exact 
account  of  their  possessions ;  for  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
some  Chancery  proceedings  show  that  one  William  Marshall, 
farmer  of  the  rectory  or  parsonage  of  Littlebury  (the  Bishop  of 
Ely  being  patron),  disputed  the  payment  of  his  tithe  to  the 
Cathedral  Body ;  and  that  the  only  evidence  which  they  were  able 
to  produce  in  favour  of  their  claim  was  that  "  their  predecessors 
had  time  out  of  mind  had  out  of  the  same  rectory  a  portion  of 
tithes  from  a  parcel  of  ground  within  the  parish  of  Littlebury, 
but  not  certainly  known  what  ground  !  "  Even  at  this  early 
time,  it  is  evident  that  the  collection  of  tithe  was  not  always 
unattended  with  difficulty. 

The  second  sub-manor,  Catmere  Hall,  or  Gatemere,  after 
being  in  various  hands,  became  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of 
Suffolk,  whom  we  have  already  noticed  as  lord  of  the  chief 
manor  of  Littlebury.  The  Hall,  which  must  have  been  of 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.  161 

considerable  size,  was  long  ago  demolished,  though  traces  of 
the  moat  which  surrounded  it  still  remain. 

The  chief  manor,  and  the  two  subinfeudations  became, 
subsequently  to  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  property  of  the 
Earls  of  Bristol,  from  whom  they  were  purchased  in  the 
early  part  of  this  century  by  Richard  Aldworth,  second  Baron 
Braybrooke,  to  whose  family  they  now  belong. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  deal  with  the  history  of  Littlebury 
as  a  parish,  and  our  remarks  will  centre  in  the  church,  which 
stands  within  the  area  of  a  Roman  encampment,  and  dates 
from  the  middle  of  the  i2th  century.  At  one  time  there  was 
attached  to  it  a  chantry,  of  which  there  is  now  no  trace.  The 
existence  of  a  chantry  does  not,  however,  of  necessity,  imply  a 
structural  addition  to  a  church ;  for  frequently  it  was  founded 
at  an  existing  altar,  though  it  sometimes  took  the  form  of 
an  independent  building  in  the  churchyard,  or  even  at  some 
distance  from  the  parent  building.  At  Littlebury  there  is  a 
hamlet  called  Chapel  Green,  where  once  stood  a  chapel.  This 
was,  perhaps,  the  chantry  chapel,  but  it  may  equally  well  have 
been  one  of  the  two  chapels  already  alluded  to  in  reference  to 
the  Bishop's  house. 

Whether  a  chantry  was  a  mere  "annexe"  to  the  church, 
or  was  an  entirely  separate  edifice,  it  is  clear  that  its  priest  was 
always  subordinate  to  the  priest  of  the  parish,  and  frequently 
helped  him  in  his  ministrations — an  arrangement  which  many 
a  hard  worked  clergyman  might  be  now  disposed  to  envy. 
But  the  main  duty  of  the  chantry  priest,  for  the  performance 
of  which  he  received  his  stipend,  was  to  sing  masses  for 
the  soul  of  the  founder,  and  for  the  alleviation  of  his  sufferings 
in  purgatory.  In  course  of  time,  howrever,  at  Littlebury,  as  in 
other  places,  the  founder's  name  became  forgotten,  though  no 
such  lapse  of  memory  occurred  as  regards  his  benefaction. 
For  the  returns  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  show  that  "  lands 
and  tenements  had  been  given  for  the  maintenance  of  a  priest 
for  ever,"  and  that  "  the  said  priest  doth  say  divine  service 
within  the  parish  church";  and  in  the  returns  of  the  next  reign 
it  is  stated,  in  addition,  that  the  Chantry  Commissioners  were 
unable  to  discover  for  what  purpose  the  said  lands  were  put  in 
feoffment,  for  that  we  cannot  see  any  foundation  thereof."  It 


162  NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

was,  however,  "  supposed  that  the  parishioners  of  Littlebury 
upon  devotion  did  find  the  priest  to  serve  the  cure  there  "; — a 
conjecture  to  the  credit  of  the  village  indeed,  but  one  which 
the  founder  of  pious  memory  would  scarcely  have  approved  (!) 
We  are  also  informed  that  Sir  John  Holy  well,  clerk,  "  of  good 
conversation,  litterate,  and  having  none  other  provision,"  was 
then  the  incumbent  of  the  Chantry,  and  that  he  received  yearly 
2os.  from  the  rent  of  a  "garden  plott  called  ClyfTes."  No 
goods,  plate  or  chattels  belonged  to  the  chantry. 

(To  be  continued). 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

BROMLEY  AND  LEWISHAM,  KENT. — Can  any  genealogist 
contribute  further  information  relating  to  the  persons  mentioned 
in  the  following  records  ?  Common  Roll,  No.  51,  Hilary  14 
Hen.  VIII.  [A.D.  1522-3],  m  2id.,  Kent.  Sir  James  Yarford, 
knight,  gives  6s.  8d.  for  licence  to  make  an  agreement  with 
William  Poynton  and  Johanna  his  wife,  and  Thomas  More 
and  Katharine  his  wife,  daughters  and  co-heiresses  of  Hugh 
Vyolett,  otherwise  called  Hugh  Ferrour,  concerning  a  messuage, 
a  garden,  four  acres  of  land,  14  acres  of  meadow,  four  acres  of 
pasture,  and  six  acres  of  wood  in  the  above  parishes.  Amongst 
the  Feet  of  Fines  for  Kent  in  the  same  Term,  No.  29  relates 
to  this  property,  and  is  between  Sir  James  Yarford,  knight, 
John  Cowland,  Robert  Clerkson,  and  Edmund  Kemp  of  the 
one  part,  who  give  4O/.,  and  William  Poynton  and  Thomas 
More,  with  their  respective  wives  of  the  other  part.  Sir  James 
was  Mayor  of  London  in  1519,  and  was  buried  at  St.  Michael's 
Bassishaw.  His  will  was  proved  in  1527  (P.C.C.  20,  Porch),  and 
that  of  his  widow,  Dame  Elizabeth  (formerly  Style)  in  1548 
(P.C.C.  13,  Populwell).  At  the  dates  of  their  wills  they  still  held 
property  in  these  parishes,  and  the  widow  left  it  to  the  family 
of  Style ;  they  also  had  possessions  in  London,  Essex,  Surrey, 
and  Middlesex.  The  other  persons  named  I  have  at  present 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES.  163 

failed  to  trace.  In  Harl.  MS.  6072,  Brit.  Mus.,  there  is  a  drawing 
of  the  Yarford  coat-of-arms,  and  mention  of  the  monumental 
inscription. — E.  M.  POYNTON. 

THE  OLD  FIVE  HORSE  SHOES,  MARKYATE,  HERTS. — In  the 
ceiling  of  the  bar  parlour  is  a  beam  spanning  from  front  to 
back  walls,  about  12  feet  long,  which  is  literally  a  tree  as  felled, 
with  only  the  lower  segments  roughly  axed  off,  leaving  the  trunk 
about  i  foot  6  inches  across,  and  gradually  widening  out  to 
about  3  feet  at  the  base  of  the  root.  The  building  is  now  in  a 
state  of  decay,  and  the  licence  has  been  renewed  to  new 
premises. — PERCIVAL  C.  BLOW,  A.R.I.B.A.,  St.  Albans. 

GRIM'S  DYKE  NEAR  PINNER  STATION. — Few  travellers 
on  the  London  and  North  Western  Railway,  from  the  direction 
of  Watford  and  Bushey  towards  London,  are  aware  that  very 
shortly  after  passing  the  county  boundary  of  Herts  and 
Middlesex,  when  approaching  the  station  of  "  Pinner  and 
Hatch  End,"  about  300  yards  to  the  north  of  it,  the  line 
intersects  the  ancient  earthwork  called  Grim's  dyke  or  Grim's 
ditch.  The  mound  and  ditch  were,  till  recently,  distinguishable 
on  both  sides  of  the  line;  but  those  on  the  east  side  are  now 
in  course  of  rapid  obliteration,  owing  to  the  modern 
earthworks  in  connexion  with  the  formation  of  new  streets 
cutting  across  the  old  dyke  at  right  angles  by  two  parallel 
roadways,  part,  apparently,  of  Royston  Park  Building  Estate. 
Attention  is  now  directed  to  the  fact  in  the  hope  that  some 
resident  antiquary  or  archaeologist  may  take  interest  in  the 
matter,  and  be  on  the  alert  to  watch  for  any  article  turning  up 
under  the  spade  calculated  to  throw  light  on  the  dim  history 
of  the  old  earthworks. — G.P.N. 

THE  UNWIN  FAMILY  IN  ESSEX. — Can  any  reader  give  me 
information  as  to  the  early  history  of  this  family  ?  I  have  for 
some  years  past  been  collecting  material  for  a  complete 
pedigree,  but  find  great  difficulty  with  the  I5th  and  i6th 
centuries.  At  Castle  Hedingham  the  earlist  reference  is  to 
"  Martha  Onwyn,  alias  Onion,  daughter  of  Matthias  Onwyn, 
alias  Onion,  was  baptised  24th  August,  1606,"  then  follow 
baptisms  of  eight  other  children.  Did  this  Matthias  come  from 


164  REPLIES. 

Stephen  Bumpstead  ?  I  think  so.  Who  was  his  father  ?  I 
shall  be  pleased  to  place  any  information  I  have  at  the  disposal 
of  any  correspondent  who  may  be  interested. — GEORGE 
UNWIN,  27,  Pilgrim  Street,  Ludgate  Circus,  E.G. 

FARLEIGH  COURT,  SURREY. — I  am  just  now  very  much 
interested  in  the  history  of  the  village  of  Farleigh  (or  Farley), 
Surrey,  which  lies  just  four  miles  south  of  Croydon.  Can  anyone 
tell  me  where  information  can  be  found  with  regard  to  the  old 
moated  grange  of  Farleigh  Court,  which  only  survives  in  the 
farm  house  of  that  name  ?  Or,  are  there  any  records  of  what 
family  lived  there  ? — WALTER  H.  GODFREY,  "  Farleigh," 
Berlin  Road,  Catford,  Kent. 


REPLIES. 

PRONUNCIATION  OF  KENTISH  PLACE-NAMES  (i,  pp.  78,  269, 
346  ;  ii,  p.  87). — It  is  very  possible  that  it  is,  or  was,  a  Kentish 
practice  to  pronounce  v  as  w,  but  the  instances  given  by  your 
correspondent  M.T.P.  are  not  in  point.  The  Latin  vadum 
(more  properly,  uadum),  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  place-names 
Iwade  and  St.  Nicholas-at-Wade,  nor  is  the  i  in  Iwade  the 
initial  letter  of  Insula.  Both  these  names  are  English,  and  are 
derived  from  the  A.S.  wadan.  Germ,  waten,  to  wade.  The  A.S. 
subst.  is  gewczd,  plur.  gewadu,  a  ford,  which  regularly  becomes 
iwade  in  Middle-English.  Later  on  the  initial  i  is  dropped, 
and  we  get  the  form  wade.  The  similarity  to  uadum  depends 
on  the  curious  fact  that  Latin  throws  an  original  Indo-Germanic 
dh  into  d,  when  it  comes  between  two  vowels.  By  the  same 
law  the  Indo-Germanic  neuter  sb.  wadhom  is  necessary  to 
account  for  the  German  form  waten,  and  the  A.S.  form  wadan. 
By  this  law,  therefore,  commonly  known  as  Grimm's  Law,  we 
know  that  though  the  Latin  uadum  is  cognate  with  the  English 
wade,  neither  is  derived  from  the  other,  but  both  are 
independent  vocables.  The  Anglo-Saxons,  doubtless,  had  a 
ford  at  both  the  places  mentioned  by  your  correspondent,  but 
there  is  nothing  in  the  names  of  the  places  to  show  that  the 
Romans  had.  The  word  Stoke  may  perhaps  have  the  meaning 


REPLIES.  165 

of  a  water-crossing,  as  your  correspondent  no  doubt  speaks 
from  personal  knowledge.  The  A.S.  stoc,  however,  has 
generally  the  meaning  of  a  place  which  originally  was  palisaded 
round  for  purposes  of  defence.  A  preliminary  study  of  Professor 
Skeat's  very  valuable  little  book,  "A  Primer  of  Etymology," 
is  necessary  before  taking  up  such  a  thorny  subject  as  the 
derivation  of  English  place-names. — W.  F.  PRIDEAUX. 

STANDON  MASSEY  CHARITIES  (p.  85). — The  Bell-rope 
Charity  in  this  parish  is  not  unique.  By  an  entry  in  an  old 
book  of  the  parish  of  Thruxton,  Herefordshire,  an  acre  of 
land  called  the  Bell  Acre,  situate  in  a  field  called  Windmill, 
was  given  towards  the  buying  of  bell-ropes  annually.  The  land 
is  inclosed  with  the  glebe,  and  let  to  the  Rector,  at  a  yearly 
rent  of  55.  Report  on  Charities,  vol.  xxxii,  p.  309. — EVERARD 
HOME  COLEMAN,  71,  Brecknock  Road. 

CHARLES  I.  STATUE  AT  CHARING  CROSS  (Middlesex  and 
Herts  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  iv.,  p.  i). — I  notice  reference, 
under  date  6th  May,  1692,  to  a  ''Yorkshire"  tavern  (i.e,  a 
tavern  which  visitors  from  Yorkshire  frequented),  with  the 
sign  of  "  The  King  on  Horseback "  at  Charing  Cross.  This 
sign,  no  doubt,  had  reference  to  Le  Sueur's  famous  statue,  so 
ably  described  by  Lord  Dillon,  and  figured  in  the  pages  of  this 
magazine  for  January,  1898.  The  tavern  in  question  was  in 
1692,  suspected  as  a  sojourning  place  for  Jacobites  (Home 
Office  Warrant  Book  6,  p.  321). — M.H. 

WESTBOURNE  GREEN  (pp.  6,  19).— I  read  in  Mr.  Rutton's 
able  article:  "Tybourn,  however,  gained  an  unenviable  notoriety 
by  becoming  at  an  early  time — as  far  back  at  least  as  the  reign 
of  Edward  III. — the  place  of  public  execution."  This  statement 
requires  evidence  to  establish  it.  My  own  researches  make  the 
"  Elms  at  Smithfield,"  the  place  of  execution  until  the  reign  of 
Henry  V.,  when  it  was  by  St.  Giles  Hospital,  and  called  the 
"  Novelles  furches,"  where  in  1417,  Sir  John  Oldcastle  was 
hanged,  and  burnt  whilst  hanging.  It  is  clear  from  the  term 
affixed  that  the  place  was  newly  appointed  for  the  purpose 
of  execution.  Some  writers  have  imagined  that  this  was 
once  called  "  Tyburn,"  which  is  altogether  wrong.  My  belief 


i66  REPLIES. 

is  that  Tyburn  did  not  become  the  place  of  execution  until 
London  had  advanced  to  St.  Giles's,  also  that  it  was  a  humane 
custom  to  have  the  place  of  public  execution  away  from  the 
dwellings  of  the  living.  This  could  easily  be  shown  to  have 
been  the  practice  abroad  as  well  as  at  at  home.  I  think  also 
it  is  time  that  we  gave  up  the  term  "  River  Fleet  "  as  this 
can  only  apply  to  where  the  tide  flowed,  which  was  up  to 
Holborn  Bridge.  The  true  name  of  the  stream  was 
"  Holebourne,"  as  I  have  long  since  proved. — J.  G.  WALLER. 

NETHER  HALL,  ROYDON,  ESSEX  (i,  p.  216). — Perhaps  a  few 
words  may  be  admissible  with  reference  to  this  subject. 
First,  as  to  the  date  of  erection,  1470 :  It  can  hardly  refer  to  the 
visible  remnant  of  this  charming  specimen  of  brick-work,  and  it 
appears  more  likely  that  this  was  the  handiwork  of  one  of  the 
Colt  family  not  earlier  than  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  From 
its  general  appearance  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  we  owe 
this  gatehouse  to  Sir  George  Colt,  who,  according  to  Morant, 
inherited  the  manor  in  1521,  and  died  in  1578,  but  it  may 
possibly  be  the  work  of  his  immediate  predecessor.  The  sad 
mutilation  of  the  erection  can  be  judged  by  a  comparison  of  the 
picture  in  Grose's  Antiquities  of  England  and  Wales,  taken 
in  1769,  engraved  in  1775,  or  of  the  picture  drawn  in  1790  for 
The  Beauties  of  England  and  Wales,  with  that  published  in 
Britton's  Architectural  Antiquities  in  1809.  In  the  latter,  as  in 
the  illustrations  to  the  Excursions  in  the  County  of  Essex,  1818, 
Wright's  Essex,  1835,  and  others,  we  see  that  the  \vhole  face  of 
the  projecting  eastern  bay  of  the  tower  had  gone.  It  is 
a  matter  for  congratulation  that  no  very  serious  change  has 
taken  place  since  ;  but  for  the  mantling  ivy  and  the  loss  of  a 
few  details,  the  view  given  in  these  pages  (i,  p.  216)  is  as 
that  last  mentioned.  The  loop-holing  of  the  wall  above  the 
moat,  the  guard-room  and  the  battlements  must,  like  the 
machicolations,  be  regarded  as  mere  architectural  survivals  of 
a  time  when  defence  was  more  a  necessity  than  in  the  i6th 
century.  As  Mr.  Gerish  says,  local  history  [or  tradition] 
gives  1470  as  the  date  of  erection  of  Nether  Hall,  and  tradition 
is  probably  right  as  to  the  hall,  but  not  as  to  the  beautiful  gate- 
house. Grose's  view  dated  1775,  shows  the  hall  adjoining  the 
western  side  of  the  gate  tower,  this  has  totally  disappeared  and 


REPLIES.  167 

was  probably  older,  for  it  is  recorded  by  Grose  that  within  it, 
"  on  a  door-case,"  were  the  arms  of  Colt  and  Trusbutt,  similar 
to  those  on  the  tomb  of  Thomas  Colt  in  Roydon  Church. 
Thomas  Colt  married  Joan  Trusbutt,  and  died  in  1476. 
Probably  much  older  than  the  i6th  century  gate-house  or  the 
I5th  century  hall  is  the  moat  which  still  surrounds  so  much  of  the 
ancient  enclosure  ;  this  may  have  been  dug  by  the  canons  of 
Waltham  when  they  bought  the  manor  in  1280,  or  may  indeed 
date  from  an  earlier  age. — I.  CHALKLEY  GOULD. 

DENE-HOLE  (p.  43). — The  article  on  this  subject 
leads  me  to  think  that  a  few  notes  by  one  who  is  engaged  in 
making  "  Dene-Holes,"  may  perhaps  be  of  interest.  In  the 
neighbourhood  of  Hemel  Hempstead  a  considerable  quantity 
of  lime  used  to  be  burnt,  but  owing  to  the  development  of 
lime-kilns  more  advantageously  situated  for  delivery  by  rail, 
there  is  but  one  kiln  now  at  work.  The  method  still  in  use  for 
raising  the  chalk  is  to  sink  pits  50  to  90  feet  deep,  and  drive 
galleries  out  in  all  directions ;  some  of  these  galleries  are  20  feet 
high  and  more  to  the  roof.  Recently  two  galleries  fell  in,  in  an 
old  and  disused  pit,  and  an  old  workman  who  had  helped  to  get 
chalk  from  this  pit,  told  me  that  about  the  spot  where  the  fall 
took  place,  the  roof  was  worked  out  "  as  big  as  a  wheat-cock," 
and  that  as  the  chalk  in  that  spot  came  down  "easy  "  they  used 
to  have  a  long  ladder  and  poke  down  all  they  could  reach.  I 
know  of  four  separate  shafts  which  have  been  sunk  in  a  space  of 
about  three  acres,  and  on  other  brickyards  in  the  neighbourhood 
the  same  thing  has  been  going  on  probably  for  centuries. 
Local  workmen  tell  me  of  chalk  pits  sunk  and  worked  as 
described,  and  the  chalk  carted  to  the  canal  about  two  miles 
distant  to  be  sent  to  the  Midlands  for  glass-making ;  one  of 
these  old  pits  fell  in  a  few  years  back,  carrying  down  an  apple 
tree  growing  over  it.  In  all  the  instances  of  collapse  of  arches 
which  I  have  mentioned,  it  has  been  necessary  to  fill  up  the 
cavity,  as  its  position  was  dangerous  to  people  and  cattle, 
but  had  they  been  left  I  expect  they  would  have  been 
typical  "  Dene-Holes." — R.  A.  NORRIS,  43,  Charles  Street, 
Berkhampstead. 


REVIEWS. 

Luton  Church,  Historical  and  Descriptive,  by  the  late  Henry  Cobbe,  M.A.    (Geo.  Bell  &  Sons). 

It  is  always  with  a  certain  degree  of  reverence  that  we  first  open  the  book  of 
one  who  has  not  lived  to  see  his  work  through  the  press.  "With  such  a  feeling  we 
take  up  the  History  of  Lutou  Church,  by  the  late  Rev.  Henry  Cobbe,  which  recalls 
to  those  who  knew  the  author  that  kindly  impetuosity  and  energy  of  manner  which 
was  so  characteristic  of  him,  and  which  is  exemplified  by,  perhaps,  an  over 
eagerness  to  include  in  his  history  every  scrap  of  information  bearing  directly  or 
indirectly  upon  the  subject  in  hand.  The  reason  for  including  a  notice  of  this  book, 
which  would  appear  to  be  outside  the  purview  of  our  magazine,  is  that  it  contains 
so  much  relating  to  the  Abbots  of  St.  Albans,  who  were  lords  of  a  large  portion  of 
the  parish,  and  exercised  considerable  rights  there  from  a  very  early  date.  The 
book  is  divided  into  three  parts,  the  first  deals  with  the  life  of  the  parish,  its  vicars, 
and  inhabitants,  the  second  with  the  architectural  details  of  the  church,  and  the 
third  includes  a  number  of  essays  in  the  form  of  appendices  on  subjects  referred  to 
in  the  two  earlier  parts.  Luton  is  fortunate  in  having  a  history  which,  by  the 
researches  of  Mr.  Cobbe,  carries  us  back  to  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century. 
The  real  history  commences  with  the  grant  by  King  Offa  to  St.  Albaus  Abbey  of 
lands  within  the  town,  although  Mr.  Cobbe  speculates,  and  with  a  considerable 
amount  of  probability,  as  to  the  earlier  possessors  of  land  there.  Mr.  Cobbe 
has  collected  a  great  mass  of  information  relating  to  the  Saxon  and  Early 
Norman  periods,  which,  although  his  conclusions  will  not  always  bear  a  critical 
examination  in  the  light  of  recent  investigations,  particularly  his  use  of  the  term 
parish,  and  his  estimate  of  a  carucate,  yet  the  information  is  brought  before  us  in 
such  a  pleasa,nt  manner  that  such  slips  can  be  passed  over.  We  are  carried  through 
the  history  of  Luton  by  a  series  of  lives  of  those  who  were  connected  with  the 
town,  and  this  includes  the  lives  of  no  inconsiderable  persons,  such  as  the  faithful 
follower  of  Richard  I.,  Baldwin  de  Bethune,  the  wickedest  of  all  King  John's 
wicked  barons,  Falkes  de  Breaute,  the  famous  Sir  John  Wenlock,  and  others. 
Many  ancient  customs  of  the  parish  are  recorded  such  as  the  yearly  procession  from 
Lutou  to  St.  Albans  Abbey.  The  architecture  and  heraldry,  the  brasses  and  tombs 
in  the  church  appear  to  have  been  worked  out  with  great  care  by  Mr.  Cobbe.  His 
interpretation  of  the  arms  over  the  sedilia  (p.  297)  is  open  to  criticism,  shields 
numbers  3,  4,  and  5  are,  it  would  eeem,  the  arms  of  St.  Oswyn,  St.  Alban,  and 
St.  Amphibalus,  the  three  saints  whose  shrines  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Alban, 
and  which  appear  in  various  parts  of  the  Abbey  Church.  "We  can  conscientiously 
recommend  the  book  to  those  who  are  interested  in  parochial  history  g-enerally,  and 
the  history  of  the  parish  of  Luton  in  particular. 

The  old  Inns  of  St.  Albans,  with  an  illustrated  account  of  the  Peahen  Hotel,  past  and  present 
by  F.  G.  Kttton,  St.  Albans.  (Printed  and  published  by  the  Proprietor  of  the  Peahen,  1809), 

Map  of  St.  Albans  and  its  immediate  neighbourhood  by  C.  Wilton,  Abbey  Cloisters,  St. 
Albans,  3d. 

Both  these  publications  will  be  of  considerable  interest  and  use  to  the 
visitor  to  St.  Albans  of  an  archaeological  turn  of  mind.  Mr.  Wilton's  map 
marks  the  position  of  most  of  the  interesting  surviving  features  in  and 
about  the  City,  and  the  sites  of  many  of  those  that  do  not  survive,  whilst  Mr. 
Kitton  describes,  hi  very  interesting  language  the  hostelries  of  St.  Albans.  Many 
as  are  the  existing  Inns,  there  were  yet  many  more  prior  to  the  introduction  of 
railways,  for  St.  Albans  was  one  of  the  most  important  coaching  towns  011  the 
North  Road.  This  fact  furnishes  Mr.  Kitton  with  an  excellent  excuse  for  telling 
what  he  knows  (and  it  is  much)  of  incidents  in  coaching  history.  There  are,  of 
course,  in  various  records  connected  with  St.  Albans,  many  references  to  the 
different  signs  by  which  the  inns  were  known,  and  these  references  Mr.  Kitton  has 
collected  together  with  assiduous  care.  The  sign  of  '•  The  Peahen  "  is,  he  tells  us, 
(but  we  confess  we  do  not  believe  him)  unique.  Anciently  the  inn  was  not  of  much 
note  ;  but,  in  1852,  it  absorbed  its  neighbour,  "  The  Woolpack,"  which  was  one  of 
the  earliest  and  most  important  hostelries  in  the  town.  Though,  within  the  last 
year  or  two,  re -built,  "The  Peahen"  still  retains  some  relics  of  the  ancient 
"  Woolpack;  "  these  include  carved  beams  of,  as  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  considered,  the 
fifteenth  century.  It  is  therefore  worthy  a  visit  from  archaeologists  who  (but,  of 
course,  they  have  souls  above  such  sordid  trifles),  will  find  hospitable  treatment  at 
the  hands  of  the  ho*t,  Mr.  Walter  Piioe. 


c 
o 

£  ,. 


W 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN, 
BY  W.  PALEY  BAILDON,  F.S.A. 


"  You  enter  Lincoln's  Inn  under  a  fair  antient 
Gate-home."     STRYPE'S  STOW. 


that  the  Rolls  House  and  Chapel  are  no  more,  the 
Gate  House  of  Lincoln's  Inn  and  the  chambers  on  the 
south  of  it,  are  the  only  buildings  of  any  antiquity  left  in 
Chancery  Lane.  It  will  be  within  the  recollection  of  many 
that  some  ten  years  ago  these  relics  of  the  past  had  themselves 
a  very  narrow  escape  from  destruction,  but  all  must  rejoice 
that  they  have  been  preserved,  and  are  now,  thanks  to  recent 
repairs,  likely  to  last  for  many  years  to  come.  The  chambers 
may  perhaps  in  course  of  time  be  removed  to  make  room  for 
others  more  in  accordance  with  modern  requirements,  but  there 
seems  no  reason  why  the  Gate  House  should  not  remain, 
time  and  decay  permitting,  to  interest  many  future  generations 
of  lawyers  and  antiquaries. 

In  the  days  when  every  man's  house  was  his  castle,  not 
only  in  theory,  but  also,  not  infrequently,  in  practice,  a 
gate-house  was  an  absolute  necessity  to  every  dwelling  built  on 
the  court-yard  plan.  Many  gate-houses  still  remain  scattered 
about  England;  not  a  few  still  form  the  entrances  to  country 
mansions  and  colleges,  while  others,  mostly  those  belonging  to 
monastic  houses,  bear  pathetic  witness  to  the  departed  glories 
of  the  buildings  they  once  guarded.  London's  gates  have  all 
disappeared,  and  of  her  once  numerous  gate-houses  but  four 
remain.  These  are  St.  James's  Palace,  Lambeth  Palace, 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  St.  John's,  Clerkenwell. 

When  the  society  of  lawyers  first  took  up  their  abode  in 
Lincoln's  Inn,  they  found  there  a  Chapel,  a  Hall,  and  a 
Gate  House,  all  of  which  have  long  since  been  rebuilt.  This 
older  gate  is  first  mentioned  in  the  records  of  the  society  in 

M 


170  THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN. 

1487,  when  $d.  was  paid  for  two  iron  bolts  for  it  (i,  87).*  It 
did  not  stand  on  the  site  of  the  existing  gate,  but  probably 
lay  to  the  south  of  it,  about  where  No.  25,  Old  Square,  now  is. 
It  was  pulled  down  shortly  after  the  erection  of  the  new  gate, 
and  the  Pensioner,  in  his  accounts  for  1521-2,  notes  the 
receipt  of  7$.  for  the  old  gates  (i,  201) : 

1522,  Nov.  20.  Agreed  by  all  my  Masters  of  the  Bench  that 
Harry  See  shall  be  assigned  to  the  chamber  in  which  George 
Barratt  and  William  Roper  f  are  admitted,  and  which  of  late  was 
occupied  by  Serjeant  Willoughby ;  for  which  assignment  he  gave 
205.,  and  also  'resigned  and  surrenderyd  to  the  said  Company  a 
chamber  beyng  over  the  old  Gate,'  which  he  and  William  Hey  don 
had,  *  which  schalbe  in  profytt  to  the  seid  Company  vjs.  viij^.' 
(i,  203). 

No  formal  resolution  for  the  building  of  a  new  gatehouse  is 
recorded  in  the  books  of  the  Society,  and  the  first  intimation 
that  such  a  work  was  in  progress  is  derived  from  the  Treasurer's 
accounts  for  1517-8. 

The  Treasurer  accounts,  inter  alia,  for  2O/.  received  from 
Sir  Thomas  Lovell  for  the  new  works  about  the  gate ;  and  for 
ijl.  6s.  3d.,  the  estimated  value  of  a  gold  chain  bequeathed  by 
John  Strange  in  the  previous  year,  apparently  for  the  same 
object.! 

The  gold  chain,  as  we  are  told  later,  consisted  of  116  links, 
and  when  sold  realized  £16  135.  4^.  (i,igi). 

The  name  of  the  designer  of  the  Gate  House  is  not  recorded, 
but  no  doubt  Lovell  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  it.  William 
Suliard,  a  Barrister  of  the  Inn,  was  appointed  "  Supervisor  of 
the  Works."  In  1523,  mention  is  made  of  "  the  payne  and 
labor  that  the  said  William  Sulyarde  haith  taken  abowte  the 
byldyng  of  the  newe  Gate  Howse  of  the  saide  Inne."  (i,  204). 
It  is  from  his  accounts  that  most  of  the  following  items  are 
taken. 

*  Where  nothing  appears  to  the  contrary,  references  are  to  the  printed 
volumes  of  the  Black  Books. 

t  The  son-in-law  and  biographer  of  Sir  Thomas  More ;  he  was 
admitted  to  Lincoln's  Inn  in  1518  ;  called  to  the  Bench,  1535. 

j  The  accounts  relating  to  the  Gate  House  will  be  found  in  detail  in 
Vol.  I.  of  the  Black  Books  ;  it  has  therefore  been  considered  unnecessary 
to  print  them  in  full ;  the  principal  items  only  are  here  mentioned. 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN.  171 

The  first  thing  done  was  to  pull  down  the  old  house  then 
occupying  the  site  ;  this  cost  il.  is.  yd.  (i}igi).  The  bricks  were 
made  in  what  is  now  the  garden  of  the  inn,  but  which  was  then 
a  rough  piece  of  ground  known  as  the  "  Coney-Garth,"  from  the 
number  of  rabbits  in  it.  There  must  have  been  a  considerable 
bed  of  clay  there,  for  most  of  the  old  buildings  of  the  Inn  were 
built  of  bricks  made  on  the  spot.  The  clay  seems  to  have  been 
finally  worked  out  in  1582-3,  when  the  chambers  above  and 
adjoining  the  old  kitchen  were  erected.  23^.  155.  id.  was  paid 
to  Thomas  Nortriche,  the  "  brykmaker,"  in  1518-19  (i,  191); 
and  a  further  sum  of  4/.  us.  for  19,000  bricks  in  1520-1,  while 
the  cartage  from  the  garden  called  the  "  Connyng  Garth  "  to 
the  gate  cost  zl.  75.  Sd.  (i,  200). 

It  is  stated  in  most  of  the  books  on  the  history  of  the  Inn, 
that  the  timber  for  the  Gate  House  was  brought  from  Henley- 
on-Thames.  Timber  was  certainly  brought  from  Henley  in 
1505,  6  and  7  (i,  143,147),  but  this  was  before  the  Gate  House 
was  begun,  and  was  intended  for  other  new  buildings.  It  seems 
unlikely  that  sufficient  remained  over  for  the  purposes  of  the 
Gate  House.  There  is  in  1520-1  a  payment  of  ill.  gs.  Sd.  for 
19  wagon-loads  of  timber,  and  for  "  hordes,"  and  "quarteres," 
and  for  sawing  (i,  200),  but  it  does  not  appear  where  this  came 
from. 

The  stone  work  of  the  six  windows  towards  the  highway 
and  other  great  stones  cost  22/.  los. ;  and  a  further  sum  of 
i6/.  75.  5^.  was  paid  for  43  wagon-loads  of  free-stone,  and  for  the 
"  apparels,"  that  is,  the  fittings,  of  the  hearths,  and  for  cutting 
the  arms  above  the  Gate  (i,  200).  The  lead  for  the  roof  cost 
46^.,  in  addition  to  lol.  for  the  "  wurkemanschyppe  "  of  it,  and 
61.  8s.  $d.  to  John  Burwell,  the  King's  Serjeant  Plumber. 
Henry  Smyth  of  the  Savoy  supplied  the  iron-work  at  a  cost  of 
7/.  us.  2d.  About  136^.  was  paid  to  the  workmen,  and  5/.  gs. 
to  the  carpenter. 

The  accounts  are  not  very  easy  to  follow,  and  it  is  not  clear 
that  some  of  the  receipts  do  not  occur  twice  over ;  but  as  nearly 
as  can  be  ascertained,  the  Gate  House  cost  some  345^.  This 
amount  includes  certain  payments  for  woodwork  for  the  Library, 
but  these  do  not  appear  to  have  amounted  to  more  than 
/.  i6s.  ^. 


i72  THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN. 

The  greater  part  of  the  cost  was  paid  out  of  the  common 
funds  of  the  Society,  some  I33/.  6s.  8d.  was  subscribed  for  the 
purpose,  and  63^.  135.  4^.  seems  to  have  been  borrowed. 

The  largest  loan  was  that  of  Sir  John  Spencer,  of  which  we 
find  the  following  interesting  note. 

1520.  "  Md  that  where  as  John  Spenser,  Esquyer,  of  his  good 
and  benyvolent  mynde,  by  the  handes  of  William  Spenser,  his  son, 
hath  lent  and  betaken  to  the  company  and  Felyship  of  Lyncolles 
Inne  the  some  of  Forty  powndes  sterlynges  for  the  furtheraunce  of 
the  byldyng  of  the  newe  Gatehowse  of  the  seid  Inne,  yt  is 
enactted  and  agreyd  by  vs,  John  Ropper,*  John  Skewes,  Richard 
Clarke,  and  Robert  Norwyche,  Rewlers,  and  Benchers,  of  the  said 
Inne,  and  in  the  name  and  by  the  consent  of  the  hole  Company, 
that  the  seid  John  Spenser,  his  heires  and  Executours,  for  the  true 
and  feythfull  repayment  of  the  seid  somme  at  conuenyent  dayes, 
shall  haue  suche  good  and  substanciall  suertes  by  his  obligacions  as 
the  said  Spenser  will  requyre  and  thynk  sufficient ;  And  this  to  be 
done  in  Michelmas  terme  nex  comeyng  after  the  date  herof ;  wher 
vnto  we  bynde  vs  and  all  the  hole  companye  and  Felyship  of  the 
seid  Inne  by  thes  presentz  subscribeyd  w*  oure  owne  handes,  the 
xiijth  day  of  Julye,  in  xijth  yere  of  the  Raygne  of  Kyng  Henry 
the  viijth  "  (i,  194). 

1523,  October  12.  William  Spenser,  son  and  heir  and  executor 
of  John  Spenser,  knight,  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  61.  135.  4^.  on 
account  of  the  sum  of  40^.  lent  by  his  father  "  toward  the  beldyng 
of  the  newe  Gate  Howse  "  (i,  206). 

The  balance  of  the  40/.  was  paid  to  Sir  William  Spenser,  as 
appears  by  the  Treasurer's  accounts  for  1529-30  (i,  227). 

This  Sir  John  Spencer  was  of  Wormleighton,  co.  Warwick, 
ancestor  of  the  family  of  Spencer-Churchill,  Dukes  of 
Marlborough.  He  was  specially  admitted  to  the  Inn  in  1507, 
and  gave  a  hogshead  of  "  claret  wine  "  for  his  admission  fee 
(i,  144).  William  Spencer,  the  son,  was  admitted  in  1515. 

By  far  the  largest  benefactor  to  the  new  gate  was  Sir  Thomas 
Lovell,  who  gave  nearly  one-third  of  the  whole  cost,  viz. :  io6/. 
135.  4^.,  unless,  as  is  possible,  some  of  the  items  appear  twice 
over.  It  is  commonly  stated,  indeed,  that  Sir  Thomas  "built  " 
the  Gate  House,  but  this  is  incorrect.  His  large  donations, 

*  The  father  of  William  Roper;  admitted  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  1486; 
called  to  the  Bench,  1504. 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN.  173 

however,  seem  to  have  induced  the  Benchers  of  the  time  to  put 
his  arms  over  the  archway  as  a  record  of  his  liberality,  and 
this,  no  doubt,  has  led  to  the  erroneous  assumption  that  he  was 
the  "builder." 

Sir  Thomas  Lovell  was  the  fifth  son  of  Sir  Ralph  Lovell,  of 
Barton  Bendish,  co.  Norfolk.  He  entered  at  Lincoln's  Inn  in 
1464,  when  he  was  called  le  terce,  showing  that  two  other 
members  of  his  family  already  belonged  to  the  Inn.  Ir>  1468-9 
he  served  the  office  of  Christmas  Butler ;  in  1469-71  he  was 
Pensioner;  he  was  Treasurer  from  1472  to  1475  ;  Bencher  and 
Autumn  Reader  in  1475 ;  Lent  Reader  in  1482.  He  was  attainted 
by  Richard  III,  and  fought  at  Bosworth  Field  under  Henry, 
Duke  of  Richmond,  afterwards  Henry  VII,  who,  in  1485,  made 
him  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  for  life.  He  was  returned  as 
M.P.  for  Northamptonshire  in  1485,  and  was  elected  Speaker. 
In  1502  he  was  Treasurer  of  the  Household  and  President  of 
the  Council.  In  1503  he  was  made  K.G.,  and  in  1509,  Constable 
of  the  Tower,  Surveyor  of  the  Court  of  Wards  and  Steward 
and  Marshal  of  the  Household.  He  was  one  of  the  executors 
of  Henry  VII's  will. 

Lovell  was  a  great  builder.  Besides  the  Gate  House  at 
Lincoln's  Inn,  he  built  East  Harling  Hall,  co.  Norfolk, 
contributed  to  the  building  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College, 
Cambridge,  and  was  a  large  benefactor  to  the  Benedictine 
Nunnery  of  Holywell,  or  Haliwell,  in  the  parish  of  Shoreditch. 
Stow  says  that  this  house  was  "  reedified  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lovell,  Knight  of  the  Garter,  who  builded  much  there  in  the 
raignes  of  Hen.  the  Vllth,  and  of  Hen.  the  Vlllth.  He 
endowed  this  house  with  fayre  lands,  and  was  there  buried  in  a 
large  chappell  by  him  builded  for  that  purpose."  Weever,  in 
his  Funeral  Monuments,  says  he  was  a  benefactor,  "  not  onely  in 
building  a  beautifull  chappell,  wherein  his  body  was  interred, 
but  in  many  other  goodly  buildings."  He  adds,  "  In  most  of 
the  glasse  windowes  of  this  House  these  two  verses  following 
(not  long  since  to  be  read)  were  curiously  painted : 

All  the  nunnes  of  Holywell 

Pray  for  the  soul  of  Sir  Thomas  Lovel." 

Blomefield  in  his  History  of  Norfolk  gives  another  version  of 


174  THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN. 

the  rhyme,  which  was,   he  says,  inscribed    on  a  wall  of  the 

Priory  House : 

11  All  ye  nunns  of  HaliAvell 
Pray  ye  both  day  and  night ; 
For  the  soul  of  Sir  Thomas  Lovel, 
Whom  Harry  the  seventh  made  knyght." 

Lovell  had  a  mansion  house  near  this  nunnery,  and  another  at 
Enfield,  co.  Middlesex,  where  he  was  visited  by  Margaret,  the 
Dowager  Queen  of  Scotland,  in  1516. 

Sir  Thomas  was  twice  married,  but  left  no  issue.  He  died 
at  his  Enfield  house  on  May  25th,  1524,  and  was  buried  in  his 
chantry  at  Holywell  under  a  tomb  of  white  marble. 

A  long  and  interesting  account  of  the  funeral  is  preserved 
at  the  Herald's  College,  parts  of  which  have  been  printed. 

No  portrait  of  him  is  known.  One  formerly  existed  in  glass 
in  a  window  in  Malvern  Church,  and  Blomefield  says  that  "  a 
brass  bust  of  his  own  likeness  surrounded  with  the  garter,"  still 
adorned  the  tower  of  East  Harling  Hall,  when  he  wrote  in 
1739.  Window  and  bust  have,  alas!  both  disappeared. 

The  occasion  of  building  the  new  gate  was  used  for  the 
more  stringent  collection  of  arrears  due  to  the  society  from  its 
members,  and  the  sums  so  got  in  were  to  be  devoted  to  that 
purpose. 

Thus,  on  Ascension  Day,  1519,  the  Pensioner  was  ordered 
to  collect  all  pensions  *  from  Fellows  in  commons,  under  pain 
of  expulsion,  and  to  deliver  the  money  to  the  Master  of  the 
Works  for  the  new  gate  (i,  190). 

Fines  were  also  utilised  to  swell  the  building  fund  : — 

1520,  Autumn  Vacation.  The  following  gentlemen  were 
amerced  for  a  doe  [dama]  seized  and  taken  away  at  the  Gate  of 
Lincoln's  Inn,  from  a  certain  poor  man  who  was  coming  to  speak 
with  Danastre,  and  who  left  his  horse  standing  at  the  Gate, 
bearing  the  said  doe :  Master  Curzon,  35.  4^. ;  Master  Tounesend, 
2od.  ;  Master  Burgh,  35.  4^. ;  Master  Lane,  20^. ;  Master 
Smyth,  2od. ;  Master  Lee,  2O^f. ;  Master  Menell,  2od.  ;  Master 
Talbot,  zod.  Of  these  sums,  145.  was  given  to  Master  Sulyard 

*  The  pension  was  a  small  annual  payment  made  by  the  members  of 
the  Society,  and  was  originally  instituted  to  provide  for  the  rent  of  the 
house  due  to  the  Bishops  of  Chichester,  and  for  the  repair  of  the 
buildings. 


Lincoln's  Inn  Gate,  igoo 

Drawn  by  Hanslip  Fletcher. 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN.  175 

for  the  building  of  the  new  gate ;  the  rest  was  given  to  the 
poor  man  in  satisfaction  for  his  doe.  As  the  fines  only  amount 
to  i6s.  8d.,  the  poor  man  only  received  2s.  Sd.  (i,  194). 

The  chambers  in  the  Gate  House  were  ready  for  occupation 
early  in  1521.  Here  are  some  of  the  first  admissions. 

Feb.  loth,  1520  [-21]  "  Md  that  it  is  agreid  and  graunted  by  all 
my  Masters  of  the  Benche  that  Sr.  William  Barantyne,  knyght,  and 
Drue  Barantyne,  his  son,  shalbe  admitted  in  the  great  chambre 
directly  over  the  grett  Gate  of  the  newe  Toure  or  Gate-howse,  wt 
the  chambre  and  study  next  adioynyng  one  the  southside  of  the  said 
chambre;  also  they  shall  have  all  th'oder  chambre  from  the  steire 
dore  of  the  said  middle  chambre  upward  on  the  southside  to  the 
dore  of  the  ledes  wtin  the  said  Toure,  except  the  studye  in  the  toppe 

of  the  steire  of  the  southside For  the  whiche  speciall 

admyttaunce,  as  is  rehersid,  in  the  chambers  afforsaid,  the  said  Sr 
William  hathe  geven  to  th'use  of  the  place  viij/t.  xiijs.  iiij^.  in  money, 
and  also  hathe  bestowed  xx/f.  in  reparacions  in  the  said  romes." 
(i,  196,  197.) 

On  March  4th,  1521,  John  and  Thomas  Rotheram  were 
admitted  to  the  upper  chamber  on  the  north  side  of  the  new 
gate,  and  on  June  2Oth  following,  Edward  Stubbys,  pro- 
thonotary,  was  admitted  to  another  chamber  on  the  north  side 
(i,  198). 

Doubts  have  been  expressed  as  to  whether  the  main 
passage  of  the  Gate  House  was  ever  vaulted.  The  arrange- 
ments of  the  brick-work  seem  to  leave  little  room  for  doubt  on 
the  subject,*  while  the  fact  that  in  1542,  305.  was  paid  for 
pointing  the  vaulting  of  the  archway  [circa  estoppac'  le  vaute 
ibidem]  (i,  261),  should  suffice  to  settle  the  question. 

The  illustrations  render  any  detailed  description  unnecessary. 
The  very  interesting  armorial  tablet,  however,  requires  a  few 
words. 

This  consists  of  three  compartments  ;  that  in  the  centre  has 
the  arms  of  Henry  VIII,  France  and  England  quarterly, 
within  the  Garter,  and  surmounted  by  a  crown ;  on  the  left  are 
the  arms  of  Henry  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  the  reputed  founder 
or  patron  of  the  Society  (or,  a  lion  rampant  purpure) ;  and  on 
the  right  are  the  arms  of  Sir  Thomas  Lovell,  Lovell  quartering 

*  This  is  shown  in  the  illustration  opposite. 


176 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN. 


Muswell  (vert,  two  chevronels  argent,  each  charged  with  a 
cinq-foil  gules),  also  within  the  Garter.  Underneath  is  a  label, 
inscribed  ANNO  DNI  1518. 

These  arms  were  formerly  painted  and  gilt,  though  little  if 

any  trace  of  such  decora- 
tion now  remains. 

Below  is  another  tablet, 
bearing  the  following 
inscription  : 

"  Insignia  haec  refecta  et 
decorata,  Johanne  Hawles, 
Armig.,  Solicitat.  General., 
Thesaurario,  1695." 

Sir  John  Hawles  also 
placed  a  small  marble 
tablet  on  the  west  side. 
This  bears  his  arms  and 
initials,  with  the  date  1695. 
The  arms  are  somewhat 
weathered,  and  are  now 
difficult  to  make  out.  Le  Neve  (Knights,  p.  450),  describes 
them  as  Quarterly;  i  and  4,  sable,  three  greyhounds'  heads, 
erased,  argent;  2  and  3,  or,  a  fess  between  three  crescents, 
gules.  According  to  the  1623  Visitation  of  Dorset,  the  fess  in 
the  quartering  should  be  sable  and  the  field  argent.  No  name 
is  given  for  this  coat. 

In  1656-7,  during  the  treasurership  of  William  Prynne, 
405.  was  paid  to  William  Herrenden,  stone  mason,  for  a  sun- 
dial over  the  Great  Gate  (iii,  439).  This  must  have  been  on 
the  western  front,  but  has  long  since  been  removed. 

(To  be  continued). 


QUARTERLY  NOTES. 

Most  of  the  Topographical  and  Archaeological  Societies  in 
the  Home  Counties  have  held  their  annual  meetings  during  the 
past  quarter,  and  nearly  all  can  show  a  good  record  of  work 
completed  or  in  hand ;  but  we  are  sorry  to  see  that  the  people 
of  Reading  do  not  give  quite  so  lively  a  support  to  the 
Berkshire  Archaeological  Society  as  could  be  desired ;  with 
Mr.  C.  E.  Keyser  as  president,  and  the  Rev.  P.  H.  Ditchfield 
as  honorary  secretary,  the  Society  ought  to  thrive.  We  notice, 
too,  that  the  Buckinghamshire  Society  shows  no  very  large 
increase  of  membership.  We  can,  however,  specially  con- 
gratulate the  Surrey  Society ;  aided,  no  doubt,  by  a  local 
habitation,  this  excellent  body  grows  apace,  and  its  activity 
and  usefulness  increase  proportionately. 

In  Essex  and  Hertfordshire  we  find  very  attractive 
programmes  put  forth  by  the  different  societies  devoted  to 
subjects  with  which  this  magazine  is  particularly  concerned. 
Specially  glad  are  we  to  notice  the  two  Hertfordshire  Societies 
pulling  well  together,  and  that  the  East  Herts  Society  was 
entertained  on  June  27th  by  the  body  which  has  it  head-quarters 
at  St.  Albans. 

Just  now,  in  the  advent  of  the  excursion  season,  we  may  be 
permitted  to  remind  our  readers  of  two  facts  :  one,  that  thanks 
to  the  arrangements  of  Messrs.  Thomas  Cook  and  Son,  special 
facilities  are  offered  to  Londoners  for  day-trips  to  places  of 
historic  interest ;  and  the  other,  that  in  a  work  which  will  very 
shortly  be  published,  Mr.  George  Clinch  will  provide  a  vade 
mecum  for  the  visitor  to  ancient  churches  in  the  shape  of  a  short 
treatise  on  ecclesiastical  architecture,  furniture,  decoration, 
and  monuments ;  many  of  Mr.  Clinch's  illustrations  are  drawn 
from  sacred  edifices  in  the  Home  Counties. 

The  Hampstead  Antiquarian  Society  continues  to  flourish, 
and  makes  its  members  and  their  friends  more  and  more  familiar 


178  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

with  the  history,  literary,  and  artistic  associations  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood. We  notice  that  it  has  been  urging  the  Hampstead 
Vestry  to  establish  a  museum  for  local  collections  and  an  art 
gallery.  We  feel  sure  that  the  courteous  manner  in  which  the 
Hampstead  Vestry  expressed  its  inability  to  do  this  at  present, 
will  leave  an  open  door  for  a  renewed  application. 

Talking  of  local  collections  we  must  not  pass  unnoticed 
the  very  excellent  catalogue  of  Essex  books  and  Essex  authors 
which  has  been  compiled  by  Mr.  Z.  Moon,  F.R.Hist.  Soc., 
librarian  of  the  Leyton  Public  Libraries.  No  local  library  has 
a  keener  seeker  after  local  material  than  Mr.  Moon,  and  we 
wish  his  example  was  more  widely  imitated.  Essex  folk  will 
appreciate  his  labours  as  much  as  they  will  the  labours  of  their 
Archaeological  Society  in  publishing  an  index  to  its  proceedings 
from  1852  to  1895  ;  applications  for  this  work  should  be 
addressed  to  Mr.  G.  F.  Beaumont,  F.S.A.,  at  Coggeshall. 

The  Kyrle  Society,  too,  has  been  busy  during  1899  in 
brightening  the  walls  of  school-rooms,  club-rooms,  halls,  and 
the  like,  in  many  dreary  parts  of  London — All  Saints  Girls' 
Club,  Caledonian  Road,  Poplar  and  Stepney  Sick  Asylum,  and 
St.  John's  Mission  Hall,  Copenhagen  Street,  to  mention  some. 
Not  only  within  doors  has  its  instrumentality  been  in  evidence  ; 
it  paid  jbgl.  out  of  the  1,640^.,  the  price  of  Ide  Hill,  the  breezy 
Kentish  hillside  depicted  in  these  pages  last  year,  and  described 
by  Miss  Octavia  Hill.  The  Society  appeals  for  help  to  raise 
700^.  to  acquire  an  addition  to  Postmans'  Park,  and  to  add 
some  40  acres  to  Brockwell  Park,  for  which  over  4,ooo/.  is  still 
needed. 

It  is  pleasing  on  these  sultry  days  to  read  of  such  efforts  to 
secure  breathing  spaces  for  Londoners.  The  Corporation  is 
active  in  regard  to  Finsbury  Gardens,  and  the  Middlesex 
County  Council  has  determined  to  give  substantial  help  towards 
the  efforts  of  various  local  bodies  in  North  London  to  acquire 
for  the  public  the  Alexandra  Palace  and  Park.  Let  the  reader 
of  fifty  years,  who  for  one  moment  doubts  the  urgent  need 
of  securing  this  delightful  spot,  gaze  to-day  from  the  high  land 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  179 

at  Highgate,  and  remember  the  appearance  of  the  expansive 
view  as  it  was  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  The  Alexandra 
Palace  then  stood  in  fields  and  woods,  with  but  a  stray  house, 
or  cluster  of  houses  around  it,  and  Hornsey  was  still  a  village. 
Now  villas  have  swallowed  up  this  village,  and  woods  and 
fields  have  fallen  a  prey  to  the  greedy  builder.  The  grounds 
of  the  Alexandra  Palace  alone  remain  an  open  spot. 

Whilst  striving  to  acquire  fresh  open  spaces  we  must  also 
be  mindful  to  preserve ;  a  study  of  the  local  press  to-day 
reveals  a  growing  number  of  references  to  instances  of 
"  filching"  of  open  land.  A  timely  warning  on  this  point  was 
recently  (June  7th),  uttered  by  the  "  Globe."  When,  says  the 
writer,  motor-cars  come  into  general  use,  our  roads  will  need 
to  be  as  wide  as  when  stage-coaches  rattled  along  them,  and 
then  the  ground  on  either  side  of  the  "  made  "  road,  so  often 
left  "  unmade,"  will  be  needed.  "  Riparian  "  owners  have  a 
remarkable  fondness  for  this  roadside  waste  and,  as  the 
probability  of  its  being  valuable  increases,  the  desire  for 
possession  will  also  increase.  Local  public  bodies  should 
remember  that  they  may  rely  on  assistance  from  the  Commons 
and  Foot-paths  Preservation  Society  and  kindred  institutions. 
Amongst  these  we  may  congratulate  the  Watford  Field  Path 
Association,  whose  first  annual  report  shows  much  good  work 
done. 

Obliteration  of  rustic  beauty  is  always  deplorable  ;  it  is  more 
so  when  wanton.  Reckless  lopping  of  trees  is  a  very  frequent 
cause  of  the  disfigurement  of  pleasing  landscapes,  and  we  are 
glad  to  notice  protests  against  it  from  many  parts  of  the  area 
to  which  these  pages  are  devoted.  The  appearance  of  Morden 
College,  near  Blackheath,  has  been  recently  spoilt  by  lopping 
the  beautiful  limes  that  form  the  avenue  to  it.  The  clergy 
frequently  offend  in  the  matter  of  tree-destruction,  and  many 
of  them  will  do  well  to  study  the  charge  recently  delivered  by 
the  Archdeacon  'of  Bucks,  in  which  he  points  out  the  illegality 
of  committing  waste  in  churchyards. 

Destruction  of  the  beautiful  goes  on  as  rapidly  in  regard  to 
works  of  art  as  it  does  in  regard  to  works  of  nature.  In  almost 


i8o  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

every  town  buildings  of  dignity  and  beauty  are  giving  place  to 
erections  that  possess  neither  quality.  We  are  reminded  of 
the  number  of  picturesque  buildings  in  London,  that  have 
vanished  within  the  past  few  years,  by  the  appearance  of  the 
third  part  of  the  "  Illustrated  Topographical  Record,"  issued 
by  the  London  Topographical  Society.  The  "  Record  "  is  but 
one  of  the  publications  to  which  members  of  this  excellent 
Society  are  entitled.  Its  issue  of  maps  and  plans  of  ancient 
London  has,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  formed  the  subject  of 
a  note  in  these  pages,  so  we  will  now  only  invite  our 
readers,  who  are  earnest  in  the  study  of  London  topography,  to 
call  at  16,  Clifford's  Inn  and  enrol  themselves  members  of  this 
Society. 

By  the  newly  opened  line  from  South  Croydon  to  near 
Earlswood,  the  Brighton  Railway  Company  gets  a  line  of  its 
own  from  Croydon  to  the  South  Coast ;  hitherto  it  has  had  but 
a  joint  occupation  with  the  South-Eastern  of  the  metals  between 
Croydon  and  Redhill.  With  the  opening  of  the  new  line  the 
local  service  has  been  continued  from  South  Croydon  to  Stoate's 
Nest,  a  newly  opened  station  a  little  south  of  Purley.  Some 
of  our  readers  may  perhaps  remember  the  station  at  Stoate's 
Nest  that  was  used  when  first  the  Brighton  line  was  opened. 
The  remains  of  this  have  now,  we  fancy,  vanished,  as  have  the 
remains  of  the  old  Brighton  engines  that  used  to  lie  huddled 
together  near  Horley. 

We  referred  in  our  last  issue  to  the  Government  commission 
appointed  to  enquire  into  the  custody  of  local  records — civil 
and  ecclesiastical.  Various  bodies  corporate  and  individuals 
have  been  invited  by  the  Commissioners  to  express  opinions  as 
to  the  best  means  of  preserving  local  records,  and  we  hope  soon 
to  see  the  Commissioners'  report,  and  to  learn  what  steps 
Government  propose  to  take  thereon. 

Pending  the  issue  of  this  report,  it  is  a  little  surprising  to 
observe  that,  on  May  the  2ist,  a  bill,  introduced  by  Lord 
Belper,  passed  the  House  of  Lords,  by  which  bill  the  custody 
of  diocesan  records  all  over  England  is  vested  in  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners,  who  are  empowered  to  spend  money  for  the 


THE    REAL    VICAR    OF    BRAY.  181 

due  preservation  of  such  records.  No  doubt  the  custody 
named  is  very  excellent,  but  why  is  a  portion  of  the  whole 
question,  on  which  we  await  the  report  of  the  Local  Records 
Commissioners,  dealt  with  by  a  special  Act  ?  An  explanation 
should  be  demanded  when  the  bill  comes  before  the  Commons. 

A  good  deal  has  been  done  since  our  last  issue  in  the  way 
of  making  certain  local  records  available  to  the  student  by 
means  of  transcription  and  publication.  At  Harrow-on-the- 
Hill  the  parish  register  has  been  transcribed  and  printed.  As 
may  be  supposed,  numerous  interesting  names  occur  in  the 
register,  and  the  work — which  may  be  obtained  from  the 
Rev.  W.  D.  Williams,  Byron  Villa,  Harrow — possesses  more 
than  ordinary  genealogical  interest. 

One  of  the  "  outcomes  "  of  the  attack  of  war-fever  through 
which  the  country  is  passing  is  an  increased  interest  in  regi- 
mental history,  especially  as  regards  our  yeomanry  and  militia 
regiments.  A  great  deal  of  valuable  material  has  been  gathered 
together  and  published  ;  but  much  of  it,  in  a  no  more  permanent 
form  than  newspaper  articles.  This  is  a  pity,  and  we  hope  that 
the  local  newspapers  in  which  these  historical  sketches  have 
appeared,  will  see  their  way  to  issue  them  in  book  form  after 
the  manner  of  Lord  Harris'  excellent  sketch  of  the  history  of 
the  East  Kent  Militia. 


THE    REAL    VICAR    OF    BRAY. 
BY  J.  CHALLENGE  SMITH,  F.S.A. 

A  perusal  of  the  excellent  introduction  prefixed  by  Mr. 
James  Gairdner  (whose  name  so  worthily  appears  in  the 
recent  list  of  Birthday  Honours)  to  his  edition  of  the  "  Paston 
Letters  "  makes  clear  to  us  that  the  sixteenth-century  pourtrayal 
of  Sir  John  FalstafFs  character  formed  a  caricature  rather  than 
a  portrait  of  the  veritable  Sir  John  Fastolf,  the  doughty  old 
warrior  of  King  Henry  the  Sixth's  reign. 

In  the  case  of  Symon  Alen,  the  famed  Vicar  of  Bray,  Berk- 
shire, a  similar  tendency  to  exaggerate  the  shortcomings  of  an 


182  THE    REAL    VICAR    OF    BRAY. 

unpopular  person  was  supplemented  by  the  poetic  licence  of  an 
anonymous  song-writer  who,  proprio  suo  motu,  associated  the 
story  of  the  tergiversating  vicar  with  the  seventeenth  instead 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

As  so  very  little  of  Symon  Alen's  history  has  been  known,  I 
have  brought  together  a  few  notes  of  a  biographical  character. 

I  have  been  able  to  find  no  allusion  to  him  prior  to  his 
graduating  at  Oxford  in  1539,  but  the  home  of  his  family  is 
perhaps  indicated  in  the  will  of  his  kinsman  Thomas  Alleyn, 
parson  of  Stevenage,  Herts.,  dated  12-24  May,  1558,  and  proved 
17  February  following :  The  testator  desires  to  be  buried  at 
Stevenage,  between  the  chancel  and  the  "  quere  called  Saint 
Tebalde's  quere  "  .  .  .  .to  have  convenient  stone  .... 
his  soul  to  be  prayed  for  at  Stevenage,  Thorne  Hill,  Yorks,  and 
Sherlande,  co.  Derby.  He  mentions  "  cosyns  "  Langley  and 
Edwards  ....  James  Allen,  of  Sherland,  etc.;  and  gives 
to  his  "  Kuynnesman  Mr.  Simo,  vicare  of  Cookesom  and  Braye, 
one  littill  white  silver  cuppe,  with  a  fetherbedde,  bolster,  and  a 

coveringe  and  also  one fyne  surples."     He  also 

devised  various  lands  at  Wryttelsham,  etc.,  Kent,  and  in  the 
counties  of  Leicester,  Herts,  Suffolk,  and  Lincoln,  to  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  for  the  maintenance  of  schools  at  Uttoxeter 
and  Stone,  in  Staffordshire,  and  at  Stevenage.  These  endow- 
ments are,  I  believe,  still  in  operation. 

In  October,  1553,  Symon  Alen  was  instituted  to  Cookham, 
when  his  sureties  for  payment  of  first  fruits  were  John  Langley, 
of  St.  Vedast,  London,  goldsmith,  and  William  Edwards,  of 
St.  Michael  Quern,  London,  vintner.  Both  these  surnames 
occur  amongst  the  "cosyns"  mentioned  in  the  above  quoted 
will  of  Thomas  Alleyn. 

Perhaps  Symon  became  vicar  of  Bray  in  1551,  for  in  that 
year  his  predecessor — presumably  William  Staverton,  who 
was  instituted  in  February,  1548-9 — died.  At  any  rate  Symon 
held  Bray  and  Cookham  conjointly  in  1558,  as  has  already 
been  shown.  In  June,  1559,  he  was  made  Canon  of  Windsor. 
The  canonry  and  the  vicarages  of  Bray  and  Cookham 
were  all  void  by  his  death  in  June,  1565.  He  had  made 
his  will  on  the  loth  of  that  month,  directing  to  be  buried  in 
the  "  quenes  free  chappell  of  Windsore,"  his  wife  to  pay  for 


THE    REAL    VICAR    OF    BRAY.  183 

the  honest  expenses  of  his  burial  according  to  the  order  of  his 
degree,  having  a  consideration  to  the  poor.  He  mentions  three 
sons,  William,  Robert,  and  Symon.  The  will  was  proved  by 
his  widow,  Elizabeth.  The  entry  of  his  burial  occurs  in  the 
parish  register  of  St.  John's,  Windsor,  under  date  I5th  June, 
1566,  i.e.,  a  whole  year  after  his  death,  but  a  comparison  of 
that  register — which  is  of  course  a  transcript  made  thirty  years 
later — with  testamentary  records  of  the  period,  proves  that  the 
former  must  be  very  inaccurate  as  well  as  being  imperfect,  and 
in  at  least  three  other  instances,  1565-7,  the  burial  of  a  person 
is  recorded  several  months  (presumably  a  full  year)  subsequent 
to  his  decease.  Although  the  entry  of  Symon  Alen's  burial 
occurs  in  the  register  of  the  parish  church,  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  he  was  buried,  in  accordance  with  the  injunctions 
of  his  will,  at  St.  George's  chapel,  for  the  vicar  of  St.  John's 
tells  me  that  it  was  then  customary  to  record  the  St.  George's 
burials  in  the  register  of  the  adjacent  church.* 

The  identity  of  Symon  Alen's  wife  is  established  by  an 
inscription  which  was  formerly  in  St.  John's  Church,t  but 
which  is  apparently  now  lost :  "  Here  lyeth  buried  Elizabeth 
Harden,  dau  :  of  Richard  Harden  t,  of  Farneth,  in  par.  Prescott 
co.  Lane,  sometime  wife  of  Mr.  Symond  Allen  canon  of 
Windsor,  late  the  wife  of  Henry  Walker,  peticanon,  son  of 
John  Walker,  of  Otford,  co.  Kent,  gent.,  by  whom  this  mont. 
was  erected  for  her  that  lived  vertuously  50  years,  beloved  of 
all,  and  departed  this  world  in  a  constant  approved  faith, 
13  Oct.,  1580." 

"Elizabeth  Walker"  was  buried  on  Oct.  I5th,  1580.  Her 
nuncupative  will,  dated  Oct.  loth,  1580,  and  proved  July  6th, 
1582,  reads  thus  :  "  Elizabeth  Walker  late  the  wiffe  of  Henrye 
Walker  one  of  her  majesty's  gentlemen  of  her  free  chappell  of 
Windesour  .  .  her  son  William  Allen  .  .  .  Mr.  Symon 
Alen  his  father  ...  to  said  William  two  dozen  and  the 

*  Veracious  local  tradition  at  Bray  points  out  another  resting-place 
(with  monumental  brass)  of  the  renowned  vicar  in  the  church  there  !  The 
monument  selected  for  the  purpose  is  one  (the  inscription  plate  of  which  is 
lost)  placed  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Little,  1507. 

t  See  Ashmole's,  Berks. 

|  New  Windsor  Register  contains  an  entry  of  burial  May  i6th,  1563, 
Elizabeth  Harden. 


i84  THE    REAL    VICAR    OF    BRAY. 

half  of  fyne  napkyns,  a  long  wasshing  towell  for  a  table  .  .  . 
twoe  newe  Spanyshe  saddles  with  theire  furniture  with  two 
newe  bridles  with  theire  bittes  and  bosses  ...  a  newe 
cloke  of  her  husband  Mr.  Symon  Alen  faced  broade  withe 
velvett  .  .  .  her  son  Robert  Alen  prentize  to  Mr.  Richard 
Needeham  ....  her  daughter  Rachell  ....  Item 
she  bequeathed  to  her  husband  Henry  Walker  whom  she  made 
executor  .  .  .  one  indenture  withe  an  obligacion  of  twoe 
hundred  poundes  for  the  perfourmance  thereof  whiche  writinges 
did  concerne  a  promise  of  marriage  to  be  donne  betwene  her 
and  Mr.  Paule  Frenche,  the  whiche  beinge  broken  of  his  parte 
she  then  revealed,  whereas  a  longe  tyme  before  she  had  con- 
cealed the  same  for  divers  consideracions,  the  whiche  indenture 
and  bonde  she  saide  laye  withe  her  husband  maister  Alen  his 
patent  of  his  prebend  of  Windsor  with  other  writinges  also,  in 
a  rounde  blacke  boxe  in  her  greate  chest,  amongst  her  lynnen." 

This  faithless  Paule  Frenche  was  also  a  canon  of  Windsor, 
1560-1600,  and  his  will  shows  that  he  married  some  other  lady. 
A  brass  which  was  placed  in  St.  George's  Chapel  to  com- 
memorate him  has,  with  some  twenty  others,  disappeared  since 
Ashmole's  time. 

Symon  Alen  was  merely  one  of  a  large  number  of  clergy 
who  were  able  from  time  to  time  to  conform  their  religious 
principles  (assuming  that  they  had  any)  to  temporal  exigencies. 
In  many  cases  they  made  one  more  volte  face  than  did  Symon 
Alen,  so  as  to  "  live  and  die  "  parsons  or  vicars  of  their  respec- 
tive parishes. 

I  have  to  thank  both  Mr.  C.  W.  Holgate,  Registrar  to  the 
Bishop  of  Salisbury,  and  Mr.  Maiden,  his  deputy,  for  some 
kind  help. 


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RICHARD    TOTTELL,    THE    PRINTER,   AND    HIS 
CONNECTION    WITH    BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 

BY  HENRY  R.  PLOMER. 

SOME  of  those  who  read  The  Home  Counties  Magazine  may  be 
interested  in  the  accompanying  pedigree,  or  rather  attempt 
at  a  pedigree,  of  the  Tottell  family,  whose  descendants  are 
still  settled  at  Shardeloes  in  the  county  of  Bucks.  I  do  not 
profess  to  have  much  skill  in  the  making  of  pedigrees,  and  this 
one  was  only  undertaken  in  order  to  unravel,  if  possible,  the 
family  connections  of  Richard  Tottell,  a  noted  sixteenth 
century  printer.  In  the  process,  however,  some  interesting 
documents  have  been  seen,  and,  generally  speaking,  the  utter 
worthlessness  of  most  of  the  heraldic  authorities  has  been 
demonstrated.  I  may  say  at  once  that  I  have  not  tested  every 
link  in  the  chain.  To  do  so  would  mean  a  considerable  outlay 
of  time  and  money,  so  that  I  do  not  pretend  that,  as  it  stands, 
the  pedigree  is  correct ;  in  fact,  it  is  my  conviction  that  there 
are  several  weak  links  in  it  that  has  tempted  me  to  send  it  to 
The  Home  Counties  Magazine  in  the  hope  that  someone  more 
familiar  with  the  history  of  Buckinghamshire  may  be  able  to 
fill  up  the  blanks  or  correct  the  errors.  For  whatever  I 
have  tested  I  have  given  chapter  and  verse.  I  can  only  regret 
that  the  present  owner  of  Shardeloes,  in  answer  to  my 
inquiries,  replied  that  he  could  give  me  no  information  on  the 
subject.  The  family  name  Tottell  is  spelt  in  an  infinite 
variety  of  ways,  such  as  Tothill,  Tottyl,  Tuthill,  Tottle  and 
Tathyll.  The  Devonshire  form  appears  to  be  generally  Tothill ; 
in  Norfolk  it  comes  out  Tuthill ;  and  in  London  it  was 
generally  Tottell  or  Tottyl. 

From  this  pedigree  it  appears  that  Richard  Tottell  was  the 
third  son  of  William  Tothill,  mayor  of  Exeter  in  1552.  The 
standard  topographical  works  on  Devonshire  have  very  little  to 
say  about  these  Exeter  Tothills,  and  I  should  be  very  glad  if 


i86  RICHARD    TOTTELL,   THE    PRINTER. 

any  Western  antiquary,  who  knows  anything  about  them, 
would  communicate  with  me  on  the  subject.  After  all  the 
year  1552,  the  first  authentic  date  in  this  pedigree,  is  very 
late ;  and  if  the  family,  as  appears  probable,  was  one  of  some 
importance  in  Exeter,  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  carry  this 
pedigree  back  several  generations,  and  certainly  to  obtain  more 
reliable  information  than  is  given  in  Harleian  MS.,  1169. 

At  some  date  previous  to  1552  Richard  Tottell  came  to 
London  and  was  apprenticed  to  a  printer.  There  was  nothing 
derogatory  in  a  gentleman  following  this  calling  in  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  indeed,  most  of  the  important  printers  were  men  of 
good  social  position,  and  Tottell  was  as  often  described  as 
gentleman  of  London,  as  "  citizen  and  stationer  "  of  London. 
There  are  no  records  to  tell  us  to  whom  he  was  apprenticed, 
but  it  is  just  possible  it  was  to  Richard  Grafton,  whose  daughter 
Joan  he  married,  according  to  the  pedigree  of  Grafton  at  the 
Herald's  College.  As  yet  I  have  been  unable  to  find  either 
the  date  or  place  of  this  marriage,  but  later  documents  shew 
a  close  intimacy  between  the  two  families,  and  Joan  was 
certainly  the  name  of  TottelPs  wife. 

According  to  Hazlitt  (Handbook  p.  639)  Richard  Tottell 
set  up  in  business  at  the  sign  of  the  Hand  and  Star  in  Fleet 
Street,  between  the  two  Temple  Gates,  in  1552,  in  which  year 
he  printed  in  octavo,  Gilbert  Walker's  Manifest  detection  of 
Dice  Play,  a  copy  of  which  was  sold  at  the  Beauclere  sale  ; 
and  in  the  following  year  a  small  quarto  entitled  The  Historic 
of  Quintius  Curcius.  This  book  has  at  the  foot  of  the  colophon 
a  privilege  for  seven  years,  and  it  was  clearly  about  this  time 
that  he  obtained  the  royal  patent  to  print  all  books  concerning 
the  common  law,  to  which  was  added  the  further  privilege  of 
printing  any  other  book  which  he  might  first  take  in  hand  out 
of  any  written  copy,  or  might  buy.  This  patent  no  doubt  he 
obtained  by  favour  of  Grafton ;  it  was  renewed  in  1556  by  Philip 
and  Mary,  again  by  Elizabeth,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
lucrative  of  all  the  printing  monopolies.  In  1556  Tottell 
purchased  the  two  houses  in  Fleet  Street,  which  formed  his 
shop  and  dwelling  house,  of  Robert  Holbech  (Indenture 
2  &  3  Ph.  &  Mary  &  Feet  of  Fines  Midd.,  Easter,  2  &  3 
Ph.  &  Mary).  These  documents  incidentally  mention  that 


RICHARD    TOTTELL,    THE    PRINTER.  x87 

this  property  was  "  parcell"  of  the  possessions  of  the  Priory 
and  Hospital  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.  In  1557  Tottell 
printed  the  collection  of  English  poetry  which  has  ever  since 
been  known  as  Tottell's  Miscellany  though  its  real  title  was 
Songes  and  Sonnettes,  written  by  the  Ryght  Honorable  Lorde  Henry 
Hawarde,  late  Earl  of  Surrey,  and  others — the  others  being 
Sir  Thomas  Wyat,  Thomas  Churchyard,  Thomas,  Lord  Vaux, 
John  Heywood,  and  Nicholas  Grimald.  Altogether  there  were 
271  poems  in  this  edition,  which  were  increased  to  280  on  the 
appearance  of  the  second  edition  in  July  of  the  same  year.  So 
popular  was  this  work  that  eight  editions  of  it  were  published 
during  Elizabeth's  reign. 

But  the  object  of  this  paper  being  to  shew  Tottell's  con- 
nection with  the  county  of  Bucks,  I  must  leave  the  interesting 
subject  of  his  work  as  a  printer.  It  is  not  clear  when  or  how 
he  became  possessed  of  his  Buckinghamshire  property.  He 
may  have  acquired  some  of  it  on  his  marriage  with  Grafton's 
daughter.  I  have  never  been  able  to  find  out  in  what  part  of 
the  county  Grafton  lived.  At  any  rate  he  acquired  some  of  it 
by  purchase,  as  we  learn  from  certain  actions  in  Chancery  that 
were  afterwards  instituted.  Thus  from  one  (Chan.  Proc.  Eliz. 
L.  2,  No.  45),  we  read  that  on  the  i7th  April,  1574,  John 
Lovatt,  of  the  parish  of  Chesham,  in  Bucks,  sold  one  "  more  " 
of  land  called  Mylls  More,  alias  Mary's  More,  and  one  close 
pasture  called  by  the  name  of  More  Piece,  in  the  parish  of 
Little  Missenden,  to  Richard  Tottell,  of  London,  gentleman, 
for  the  sum  of  56/.  Again  we  find  he  held  some  nine  acres  of 
land  of  William  Hawtrey,  lord  of  the  manor  of  Wendover 
Forens,  over  which  there  was  much  turmoil  (Chan.  Proc. 
Eliz.  T.  6/16,  1/16,  Star  Chamber  Proceedings,  T.  36/19). 
Another  document  of  the  same  kind  (Chan.  Proc.  Eliz.  W. 
21/49),  was  an  action  brought  by  Edward  Wyer,  of  London, 
yeoman,  to  recover  a  moiety  of  premises  known  as  the  Three 
Cranes  in  the  Vintry,  which  he  purchased,  by  exchange,  of 
Richard  Tottell,  stationer,  giving  lands  in  Wendover,  in  Buck- 
inghamshire, to  the  value  of  four  hundred  pounds.  But  the 
most  authentic  account  of  his  possessions  in  this  county  is  given 
in  the  inquisition  taken  after  his  death  in  1593.  (Inq. 
P.M.  36,  Eliz.  No.  18.)  In  this  it  is  stated  that  he  was  seized 


i88  RICHARD    TOTTELL,    THE    PRINTER. 

of  the  manors  of  Wedonhill  and  of  divers  lands,  tenements 
and  hereditaments  belonging  to,  near,  or  being  in  Wedonhill, 
Chesham,  Amersham,  and  Little  Missenden,  and  in  the  manor 
of  Mantellor  Mantels,  in  Little  Missenden,  of  divers  lands  and 
tenements  in  Wendover,  and  a  farm  called  Braisers  End  in 
Cholsbury  Bucklands. 

The  Inquisition  goes  on  to  state  that  the  lands  in  Wedonhill 
and  Amersham  was  held  of  the  Castle  of  Berkhampstead,  the 
land  in  Little  Missenden  of  the  Earl  of  Oxford  as  of  his  manor 
of  Whitchurch,  those  in  Chesham  of  Milone  Sands  of  his 
manor  of  Chesham  Higham,  while  that  at  Wendover  was  held 
of  William  Hawtrey,  of  his  manor  of  W7endover.  The  total 
value  of  these  lands  was  stated  to  be  I3/.  6s.  8d.  But  the 
most  interesting  of  these  holdings  was  that  of  the  manor  of 
Mantells,  which  was  held  of  the  Queen,  by  great  serjeanty  ; 
by  acting  as  the  Queen's  "  naparius  "  at  her  coronation. 

In  1584  Richard  Tottell  took  as  an  apprentice  Jeffrey  Tottell, 
son  of  William  Tottell,  of  Shellingford,  co.  Devon,  perhaps  a 
grandson  of  his  brother  John  (see  pedigree). 

Tottell  was  Master  of  the  Stationers'  Company  in  1578, 
and  again  in  1584.  Shortly  before  his  death,  i.e.,  in  1588,  he 
bought  some  houses  in  Weston,  or  Wiston,  in  the  co.  of  Pem- 
broke, where  he  died  on  the  ist  Sept.,  1593.  His  will,  if  he 
made  one,  has  not  been  found,  but  the  Inquisition  above  noted 
shews  that  in  addition  to  his  Buckinghamshire  property  he  held 
lands  in  Devonshire,  possibly  his  share  of  the  family  property. 
His  eldest  son  was  William,  who  frequently  figures  in  Chancery 
Proceedings.  How  many  more  children  he  had  is  not  clear. 
In  Tuckett's  Devonshire  Pedigrees  (pp.  162,  163),  only  the 
direct  line  is  given,  and  Richard  TottelPs  issue  is  not  shewn  at 
all.  The  best  authority  I  have  found  is  Meyrick's  edition  of 
Lewis  Dwynn's  Heraldic  Visitations  of  Wales  (Vol.  i,  p.  183), 
where  he  is  credited  with  eleven  children,  four  sons  and  seven 
daughters,  and  William  is  said  to  have  married  Catherine,  the 
daughter  of  John  Denham.  Lipscombe,  in  his  History  of 
the  County  (Vol.  III.,  pp.  153, 154),  makes  the  same  statement. 
But  in  the  will  of  John  Cheyne,  of  Agmondesham  (Amersham), 
co.  Bucks,  proved  on  the  2nd  January,  1578  (P.C.C.  4  Bakon), 
occurs  this  passage. 


RICHARD    TOTTELL,   THE    PRINTER.  189 

"  Item,  for  as  moche  as  before  this  time  there  hath  bin  a  comuni- 
caton  betwene  me  and  Richard  Totill,  of  London,  gent.,  for  a 
marriage  to  be  had  and  made  betwixt  Willyam  Totill  sonne  and 
heire  of  the  said  Richard,  and  Jane  Cheynie,  my  youngest  daughter, 
yf  therefore  yt  shall  please  Almightie  God  that  the  same  marriage 
take  effect,  and  that  they  twaine  may  be  knitt  together  as  man  and 
wief  according  to  God's  laws  and  the  laws  of  this  realm,  my  will  and 
mynde  is,  and  I  do  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  said  daughter  Jane 
Cheynie  for  the  furtheraunce  of  the  said  marriage  all  those  my  several 
grounds  and  parcels  of  land  lying  and  being  in  the  parish  of  Agmon- 
desham,  in  the  county  of  Bucks,  called  or  known  by  the  name  and 
names  of  Pipers,  .  .  .  but  if  it  shall  happen  that  my  said 
daughter,  Jane  Cheynie,  doe  not  marrye  with  the  said  William  Tottill 
within  three  years  next  after  my  decease  or  being  married  to  the 
said  William  in  maner  aforesaide  do  dye  without  yssue  of  her  bodie 
lawfully  begotten  then  my  will  and  mynde  is  that  all  the  said 
groundes  called  Pypers  .  .  .  shall  be  to  the  use  and  behoofe  of 
my  eldest  son  Henry." 

I  have  no  evidence  that  this  marriage  ever  took  place. 
Perhaps  the  registers  of  Amersham  would  clear  up  the  point. 
Lipscombe  states  that  William  Tothill  had  thirty-three 
children.  Common  sense  tells  us  that  if  this  number  is  right 
he  must  have  been  married  more  than  once.  I  have  only  found 
a  record  of  two  of  his  children,  a  daughter  named  Katherine 
and  another  named  Joan,  who  married  Francis  Drake,  by 
whom  she  had  a  son  William,  to  whom  livery  was  granted  on 
the  loth  February,  3  Charles  i,  all  the  lands  of  William 
Tothill  in  the  co.  of  Bucks,  by  right  of  his  mother,  and  from 
whom  no  doubt  the  present  holder  of  Shardeloes  claims 
descent. 

Of  the  remainder  of  Richard  Tottell's  children  I  have  only 
the  evidence  of  Meyrick  and  Lipscombe,  and  a  stray  note  in 
Add  MS.  5524,  f.  2o8b.  I  shall  gladly  welcome  any  other 
information  concerning  them,  and  trust  the  readers  of  the 
Home  Counties  Magazine  will  pardon  this  amateur  attempt 
at  genealogy. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN  :    A    RETROSPECT. 

BY  W.  L.  RUTTON,  F.S.A. 

(Continued  from  p.   128.) 

WESTBOURNE  FARM. 

MRS.  SIDDONS.  "  In  the  April  of  1805  Mrs.  Siddons  took 
possession  of  a  pleasant  cottage  at  Westbourne  near  Padding- 
ton."  This  we  learn  from  her  intimate  friend  and  biographer, 
Thomas  Campbell,  the  poet ;  and  that  the  cottage  was  called 
"Westbourne  Farm  "  we  know  from  her  own  letters.  Doubt, 
indeed  error,  has  obscured  the  site.  Peter  Cunningham  (1850) 
notices  the  cottage  and  Mrs.  Siddons's  tenancy  of  it,  and 
also  Lord  Hill's  residence  "  pleasantly  situated  in  the  fields, 
with  country  air  all  around  it."  He  then  says  "  the  Great 
Western  Railway  has  altered  the  whole  position  of  the  place," 
which  was  undoubtedly  the  case  ;  but  he  does  not  say  that  the 
cottage  was  levelled  by  the  Railway,  as  his  somewhat  ambiguous 
paragraph  has  been  understood  to  imply  by  all  late  biographers 
of  Mrs.  Siddons,  down  to  the  latest  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography.  The  Railway  did  not  touch  the  cottage,  for  it  was 
not  in  its  way.  Robins  (Paddington  Past  and  Present,  p.  183). 
writing  in  1853,  represents  it  as  "  still  standing  in  the  Harrow 
Road,  a  little  south  and  east  of  the  second  Canal  bridge,"  nowr 
called  the  "  Lock  Bridge,"  from  the  adjacent  hospital.  This 
definition  of  the  site,  which  the  present  writer  has  been  at 
much  pains  to  verify,  is  perfectly  correct.  We  shall  find,  as  we 
proceed  in  our  account  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  reference  to  the  near- 
ness of  her  house  to  the  Canal ;  and  on  our  map  there  is  really 
but  one  house,  "  south  and  east  "  of  the  Canal  which  answers 
the  site  described.  The  identification  is  ensured  by  comparing 
the  "block-plan"  of  the  house  with  its  "elevation"  in  the 
pretty  little  picture  we  have  fortunately  acquired.  In  plan  the 
house  has  a  projecting  annex  or  outbuilding  at  either  end,  and 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  191 

these  are  plainly  apparent  in  the  picture.  Further,  the  Canal, 
opened  in  1801,  being  a  feature  common  to  maps  both  of  that 
time  and  our  own,  we  are  enabled  by  measurement  from  it  to 
fix  precisely  the  site  once  occupied  by  the  cottage. 

The  picture  is  a  reproduction  kindly  allowed  by  Mr. 
Dethridge  (Vestry  Clerk  of  Paddington),  of  a  coloured  engraving 
in  his  possession.  Where  the  drawing  by  "  P.  Galindo,  Esq.  " 
may  be,  is  unknown.  The  view,  which  is  of  the  garden  or 
eastward  side  of  the  house,  is  evidently  the  same,  with  slight 
alterations,  as  that  given  by  Mr.  Walford  in  Old  and  New 
London,  v.  216,  of  which  he  does  not  note  the  source.  The 
field  in  the  foreground  is  part  of  the  land  called  "  Des- 
boroughs  "  mentioned  ante  p.  127,  which  name  was  afterwards, 
though  not  in  Mrs.  Siddons's  time,  transferred  to  the  cottage, 
and  is  yet  found  in  the  vicinity.* 

Sarah  Kemble,  the  child  of  respectable  strolling-players,  or 
perhaps  we  should  say  travelling  comedians,  was  born  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  stage  ;  in  her  earliest  years  she  showed  the 
talent  which,  developed,  made  her  famous  ;  and  great  histrionic 
ability  was  at  the  first  and  always  enhanced  by  the  attraction 
of  personal  beauty.  At  the  age  of  twelve  her  father,  Roger 
Kemble,  presented  her  to  a  public  audience  as  a  youthful 
phenomenon,  and  when  at  eighteen  she  married  William 
Siddons,  a  handsome  young  actor,  she  commenced  with  him  at 
Bath,  towards  the  end  ot  1773,  her  professional  career.  Two 

*  The  name  Galindo  attached  to  the  engraving  is  associated  with  an 
incident  in  Mrs.  Siddons's  life  which  brought  on  her  considerable  trouble. 
Galindo  was  a  fencing-master,  and  his  wife  an  actress,  at  the  Dublin  theatre 
when  Mrs.  Siddons  played  there  in  1802.  Of  a  too  effusive  disposition, 
although  generally  reserved  to  strang'ers,  she  conceived  a  warmth  of 
attachment  to  these  people  disproportionate  to  her  acquaintance  with  them 
or  to  their  merits.  She  travelled  with  them  in  Ireland,  and  encouraged 
them  to  follow  her  to  London,  promising  Mrs.  Galindo  an  engagement  at 
Covent  Garden.  But  that  promise  Mrs.  Siddons  was  unable  to  fulfil,  for 
the  manager,  John  Kemble,  her  brother,  opposed  the  hastily  formed  friend- 
ship, and  refused  the  engagement.  The  disappointment  turned  the  friend- 
ship to  enmity,  which  culminated  in  a  pamphlet — yet  extant — by  Mrs. 
Galindo,  in  which  she  accused  Mrs.  Siddons  of  deception  and  meanness, 
and,  moreover,  of  improper  relations  with  her  husband.  These  accusations 
have  universally  been  considered  as  malignant  inventions.  In  1805,  when 
the  cottage  was  taken,  the  friendship  had  not  come  to  an  end,  and  it  is 
therefore  probable  that  the  drawing  was  by  the  fencing-master,  who 
in  it  shows  that  he  had  other  skill  than  that  of"  the  foil. 


i92  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

years  of  struggle  for  a  living  were  spent  in  the  West,  and  then 
Garrick — nearing  the  close  of  his  career — heard  of  her  promise, 
and  sent  a  subordinate  actor  to  judge  her  ability.  The  result 
was  an  engagement  for  Drury  Lane,  where,  for  the  first  time, 
she  acted  as  Portia  on  the  2gth  December,  1775.  But  it 
was  too  soon  ;  her  powers,  as  said  a  London  newspaper,  were 
not  yet  equal  to  a  London  theatre,  and  after  five  weeks'  playing 
failure  compelled  her  return  to  the  provinces. 

Audiences  were  kinder  to  her  at  Manchester,  at  Liverpool 
and  at  York.  By  and  bye  she  got  back  to  Bath,  which  had 
been  her  nursery ;  there  her  powers  developed,  and  success  was 
achieved,  so  that  rumour  of  it  having  reached  London,  the 
capital  again  claimed  the  service  of  her  genius.  The  interval 
of  growth  had  been  six  years,  and  now  there  was  no  failure. 
On  the  loth  October,  1782,  as  "  Mrs.  Siddons  from  Bath,"  she 
re-appeared  on  the  boards  of  Drury  Lane,  then  under  the 
management  of  the  brilliant  but  erratic  Sheridan  ;  soon  success 
was  followed  by  triumph,  "all  London  was  at  her  feet,"  and 
henceforth  for  thirty  years  the  lustre  of  her  fame  was  undimmed. 
During  the  winter  seasons  she  played  in  London,  and  in  the 
spring  or  summer  she  favoured  audiences  at  the  principal 
English  towns,  and  at  Edinburgh  and  Dublin. 

It  was  during  her  second  visit  to  Dublin,  in  June,  1784, 
that  our  portrait  was  taken ;  it  has  been  chosen  among  many  as 
perhaps  less  known  than  others,  as  representing  her  while 
3'oung  (her  age  was  twenty-nine),  and  as  being  non-theatrical 
and  therefore  natural.  The  picture  was  painted  by  Horace 
Hone,  A.R.A.,  who  gained  distinction  in  London  and  Dublin  as 
a  miniature  painter ;  it  was  engraved  by  Bartolozzi,  and  our 
reproduction,  same  size  as  the  original,  is  of  a  copy  of  the 
engraving  at  the  British  Museum.  Mrs.  Siddons,  during  this 
visit  to  Dublin,  was  not  happy  in  her  relations  either  with  the 
manager  of  the  theatre  or  the  people.  A  certain  austerity  of 
demeanour  did  not  suit  the  Irish  temperament,  and  a  tendency 
to  hard  pecuniary  dealings  with  managers  brought  trouble  to 
the  great  actress.  Ill  reports  were  circulated  at  this  time,  and 
one  of  these  related  to  the  picture,  viz.,  that  the  artist  having 
asked  the  favour  of  a  sitting  was  discourteously  refused,  and 
that  on  his  expressing  indifference  the  lady  boxed  his  ears  ! 


O/  /A?' 
<U 
*-Ss/i 

-n&r-/ 


tnorfr 


•ff- 


fr 


(f7?n  & 


•  -fmon 


London,  1785.    Published  as  the  Act  directs  by  F.  Bartolozzifor  H.  Hone  in  Dublin. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  193 

But,  says  Mr.  Percy  Fitzgerald  (The  Kembles,  I,  188),  this 
story  is  disproved  by  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Siddons  did  sit,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  greatly  pleased  with  the  picture.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  engraving  is  dedicated  by  Horace  Hone, 
to  "  The  Honourable  Mrs.  O'Neill,"  the  possessor  of  the 
miniature.  This  lady  when  Miss  Boyle  (of  the  Earl  of  Cork's 
family),  had  kindly  assisted  Mrs.  Siddons  at  Cheltenham  in  her 
early,  struggling  days  ;  she  had  married  Mr.  O'Neill,  afterwards 
Lord  O'Neill,  of  Shane's  Castle  in  County  Antrim,  and  the 
now  famous  actress  was  there  hospitably  received  as  a 
distinguished  visitor ;  in  one  of  her  letters  she  describes  the 
beauties  of  Shane's  Castle,  and  the  profuse  entertainment  of 
the  guests.  It  is  sad  to  remember  that  a  few  years  later  the 
Castle  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  that  Lord  O'Neill  died  of 
wounds  received  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  of  1798. 

We  may  not  here  follow  closely  Mrs.  Siddons's  career,  but 
as  the  lack  of  cordiality  towards  her  in  Dublin  has  been  noticed 
it  may  be  added  that  in  1802-3  she  again  played  in  the  Irish 
capital,  and  also  at  Cork  and  Belfast ;  that  a  fourth  visit  to 
Ireland  was  made  in  1805,  shortly  after  coming  to  Westbourne; 
and  that  although  Mrs.  A.  Kennard  (in  Eminent  Women)  is 
perhaps  right  in  saying  that  the  great  actress  never  won  Irish 
hearts,  she  certainly  commanded  Irish  admiration. 

When  Mrs.  Siddons  sought  the  quietude  of  Westbourne 
Green  she  was  fifty  years  of  age,  and  had  been  on  the  stage 
thirty-two  years,  twenty-three  of  which  had  elapsed  since  she 
had  taken  a  leading  position  in  London.  That  position,  how- 
ever, had  not  been  gained  at  once  nor  without  effort,  neither 
had  it  been  maintained  without  toil,  professional  vexations,  and 
personal  troubles,  some  of  her  own  making,  some  inflicted  by 
others.  As  an  affectionate  mother,  also,  she  had  suffered  in  the 
loss  of  two  of  her  three  daughters.  Cecilia,  the  youngest  of 
her  children,  alone  remained  to  live  with  her  at  Westbourne, 
and  she  had  besides  the  companionship  of  her  constant  friend 
and  "  dresser,"  Miss  Martha  ("  Patty  ")  Wilkinson,  daughter 
of  Tate  Wilkinson,  her  business  manager.  Of  her  two  sons, 
Henry,  the  elder,  was  manager  of  the  Edinburgh  Theatre, 
George,  the  younger,  had  entered  the  civil  service  of  the  East 
India  Company.  Her  husband,  William  Siddons,  is  said  by 


IQ4  WESTEOURNE    GREEN. 

Boaden  to  have  become  "  impatient  of  the  crown  matrimonial  " ; 
of  this  there  is  too  much  evidence,  nor  was  it  unnatural  that  it 
should  be  so.  The  usual  relations  were  reversed,  the  wife's 
talent  and  consequent  position  overshadowed  the  husband's, 
and  she  was  the  purse-filler.  They  were  a  good  deal  apart,  and 
this,  doubtless,  was  often  caused  by  professional  engagements. 
But  there  was  no  formal  division,  and  they  were  together 
at  the  Westbourne  cottage  when  it  was  taken;  some  humorous 
verses  then  written  by  Mr.  Siddons  are  preserved  contrasting 
the  diininutiveness  of  the  place  w7ith  the  "  greatness  "  of  his 
wife.  Soon  afterwards,  however,  he  went  to  live  at  Bath, 
ostensibly,  and  perhaps  truly,  to  seek  relief  from  rheumatism, 
and  there  he  died  three  years  later  (n  March,  1808)  shortly 
after  Mrs.  Siddons,  who  had  stayed  with  him  for  six  weeks,  had 
been  obliged  by  engagement  to  go  to  Edinburgh,  where  she 
was  when  his  death  occurred. 

Many  years  before  coming  to  Westbourne  Green  she  had 
expressed  her  desire  "  that  the  Great  Disposer  would  permit 
her  to  spend  the  evening  of  her  toilsome,  bustling  day  in  a 
cottage."  Now  that  evening  was  coming  on,  and  although 
complete  retirement  was  yet  seven  years  distant  in  the  future, 
she  found  in  her  cottage  partial  rest,  with  sweet  country  air 
around,  and  a  quietude  which  musthave  been  very  welcome  after 
town  life  in  Prince's  Street,  Hanover  Square.  "The  cottage," 
says  Campbell,  "  was  small,  but  contained  more  accommo- 
dation than  its  appearance  indicated,  and  the  new  tenant, 
with  the  aid  of  her  trusty  upholsterer,  Nixon  [who  had  been 
her  landlord  in  Prince's  Street] ,  fitted  it  up  very  elegantly,  built 
an  additional  room  for  a  studio,  and  laid  out  the  shrubbery  and 
garden  with  great  taste.  She  was  surrounded  with  fresh  air 
and  green  fields,  and  described  herself  as  delighted  with  her 
retreat." 

The  year  of  her  coming  (1805)  was  a  busy  one,  and  soon 
after  arrival  in  April  she  had  engagements  in  Edinburgh  and 
Dublin.  Probably  it  was  during  her  absence  that  Nixon  effected 
the  improvement  of  the  cottage,  and  weary  with  professional 
toil,  and  tedious  the  journeys  it  entailed  by  coach  and  "  packet- 
boat  "  (ten  miles  an  hour  in  cramped  discomfort  contrasting 
with  our  sixty  miles  an  hour  in  comparatively  luxurious  roomi- 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  195 

ness),  how  sweet  to  return  to  that  peaceful  haven,  and  in  it  to 
rest  awhile  before  entering  on  the  work  of  the  winter  season  in 
London.  A  letter  written  in  1807  thus  expressed  her  satisfaction 
in  "the  dear  hut,  my  home,"  to  her  friend,  James  Balantyne,  of 
Edinburgh  :  "  You  would  scarcely  know  this  sweet  little  spot 
it  is  so  improved  since  you  saw  it.  I  believe  that  I  wrote  to 
you  about  my  new  dining-room,  and  the  pretty  bed-chamber  at 
the  end  of  it,  where  you  are  to  sleep  unannoyed  by  your  former 
neighbours  in  their  mangers,  stalls  I  should  say.  All  the  laurels 
are  green  and  flourishing,  all  the  wooden  pales  hidden  by  sweet 
shrubs  and  flowers  that  form  a  verdant  wall  all  around  me. 
Oh !  it  is  the  prettiest  little  nook  in  all  the  world,  and  I  do 
hope  you  will  soon  come  and  say  you  think  so.''  (Thibaudeau, 
Catalogue  of  Autograph  Letters  formed  by  Alfred  Morrison. 
Siddons.*} 

Of  the  many  visitors  who  came  out  to  see  Mrs.  Siddons  in 
her  retreat,  we  hear  of  Miss  Berry,  Madame  D'Arblay,  and 
Incledon,  the  singer,  who  sang  The  Storm  after  dinner  with 
such  feeling  as  drew  the  tears  of  his  hostess.  Poet  Campbell 
also  came  to  see  "  the  great  Queen  of  Tragedy,"  and,  as  he 
relates,  having  walked  all  the  way  from  "  The  Elephant  and 
Castle,"  whither  a  coach  had  conveyed  him  from  Sydenham, 
he  arrived  at  "  the  picturesque  banks  of  the  Paddington  Canal." 
Somewhat  tired  and  heated  after  his  long  walk,  although  the 
month  was  January  (1810),  he  had  thrown  off  his  great  coat 
which  hung  over  his  left  arm,  while  in  his  right  hand  he  held  a 
pair  of  yellow  gloves  which  he  had  bought  in  order  to  appear 
genteelly  before  the  object  of  his  expedition.  Thus  proceeding 
he  raised  his  eyes,  and  beheld  on  the  bank  at  a  distance  of  200 
yards  two  female  figures  approaching.  They  were  Mrs.  Siddons 
and  Miss  Patty  Wilkinson!  Taken  rather  aback,  he  had 
hastily  to  whip  on  his  great-coat  and  adjust  himself  for  the  inter- 
view. And,  although  he  knew  the  ladies  at  the  first  glimpse, 
he  affected  an  enamoured  contemplation  of  the  scene,  looked 
on  the  fields  and  dust-barges  as  if  ruminating  on  their  beauties, 

*  A  contemporary  in  The  Ambulator  of  1811  refers  to  Westbourne 
and  "  the  villa  of  Mr.  Cockerell  surrounded  by  picturesque  and  park-like 
grounds,  commanding-  a  view  of  the  Paddington  Canal,"  adding  "and 
opposite  is  the  secluded  cottage  of  the  unrivalled  Siddons,  who  here 
dedicates  her  morning's  to  study." 


ig6  WESTBOURNE    GREEN. 

and  in  the  meantime  wiped  the  "  dew"  from  his  face,  arranged 
his  cravat,  and  got  his  hat  read}'  for  the  salutation.  All  came 
off  well,  "the  Queen"  was  very  glad  to  see  him,  and  here  the 
letter- writer  could  no  longer  joke,  for  the  meeting  was  affecting 
to  both,  they  had  not  met  for  a  long  time,  and  much  had 
happened  in  the  interval.  He  adds:  "The  affection  in  her 
behaviour,  the  perfect  dignity  and  propriety  of  all  her  words 
and  looks,  were  to  me  irresistible."  He  then  alludes  to  his 
reception  at  the  cottage  where  he  met  her  youngest  daughter, 
Cecilia,  and  had  much  interesting  talk  with  his  old  friend ;  and 
when  the  time  for  parting  came  she  took  both  his  hands  and 
prayed  him  that  they  should  not  lose  sight  of  one  another.* 
Cyrus  Redding,  the  journalist,  was  also  a  pilgrim  to  Westbourne, 
and  writes  in  his  Recollections  of  early  walks  out  of  town  to  "an 
inn  near  Mrs.  Siddons's  villa,  a  little  on  the  town  side  of  Kensal 
Green  then  far  in  the  green  fields."  The  inn,  where  seemingly 
he  did  his  reverence  at  a  distance,  was  probably  "  The  Spotted 
Dog,"  which,  as  the  present  writer  has  with  other  information 
gathered  from  an  inhabitant  old  enough  to  remember  it,  stood 
close  to  Westbourne  Farm;  a  block  on  our  map  seems  to 
represent  it.  The  nearness  of  the  inn  we  might  scarcely  think 
an  advantage,  but  perhaps  the  innkeeper  was  the  farmer  of  the 
adjoining  Desborough  fields,  and  he  may  have  been  welcome  as 
a  neighbour  affording  some  protection  to  the  lady  who  lived  so 
far  out  in  the  country. 

Mrs.  Siddons's  stay  at  Westbourne  Farm  was  twelve-and-a- 
half  years,  during  seven  of  which  she  continued  to  act  in  the 
seasons  at  Covent  Garden,  where  her  famous  brother,  John 
Philip  Kemble,  had  been  manager  since  September,  1803. 
That  theatre,  however,  had  been  in  the  interval  destroyed  by 
fire  (September,  1808),  and  while  it  was  being  rebuilt  the 
services  of  the  great  actress  were  transferred  to  the  Opera 
House  and  the  Haymarket  Theatre.  Her  retirement  from  the 
stage  was  on  the  2gth  June,  1812;  the  whole  length  of  her 
professional  career  had  been  thirty-nine  years.  "  Her  acting," 
writes  Henry  Crabb  Robinson  in  his  Diary,  "  wras  as  good  as 
ever,  but  her  voice  had  lost  its  brilliancy,"  and  probably  other 

*  Life  and  Litters  of  Thomas  Campbell,  edited  by  William  Beattie, 
M.D.  (1849)  II.,  189. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN.  197 

signs  of  physical  failure  prompted  the  advisability  of  retire- 
ment. So  for  the  last  time  she  played  her  great  part  Lady 
Macbeth  to  an  immense  concourse,  who  accorded  to  her  an 
enthusiastic  farewell. 

Mrs.  Siddons  still  lived  on  at  Westbourne  Green  another 
live  years,  the  whole  of  her  sojourn  there  being  twelve-and-a- 
half.  From  her  retirement  she  emerged  several  times  to  play 
for  the  benefit  of  others.  Thus  in  1813  for  the  Theatrical 
Fund,  and  in  the  same  year  she  read — not  for  the  first  time — 
to  the  Royal  Family  at  Windsor;  in  November,  1815,  she 
played  ten  times  at  Edinburgh  to  aid  the  family  of  her  son 
Henry,  whose  loss  she  had  had  recently  to  mourn ;  in  1816, 
1817,  and  finally  in  1819,  when  on  the  gth  of  June  she  made 
her  very  last  appearance  on  the  stage,  for  the  benefit  of  Charles 
Kemble,  her  brother ;  it  was  late  enough,  her  years  were 
sixty-four,  and  we  learn  regretfully  that  her  once  tall,  slender, 
and  eminently  graceful  figure  had  become  unwieldy. 

In  the  autumn  of  1817  she  gave  up  Westbourne  Farm  and 
returned  to  town  in  order  that  Cecilia  (afterwards  Mrs.Coombe), 
now  her  only  child  in  England,  might  have  the  advantage  of 
more  society.  She  then  took  the  house  in  Upper  Baker  Street 
now  marked  by  a  medallion  noting  her  residence  and  close  of 
life.  The  house  looked  pleasantly  over  Regent's  Park,  so  that 
refreshing  verdure  still  greeted  her  eyes.  Here,  with  her 
daughter  and  Miss  Wilkinson,  she  lived  fourteen  years,  in  the 
first  two  acting  twice,  and  afterwards  continuing  to  charm  her 
friends,  either  in  their  drawing-rooms  or  her  own,  with  readings 
of  the  parts  she  had  formerly  so  vividly  personified.  She  died 
from  an  acute  attack  of  erysipelas  on  the  8th  of  June,  1831, 
and  Nixon,  "  her  trusty  upholsterer,"  who  had  arranged  the 
Westbourne  cottage,  was  by  her  own  desire  entrusted  with  the 
duty  of  laying  her  body  in  Paddington  churchyard.  The  place 
was  then  favoured  for  its  retirement,  and  now,  intramural  and 
disused  for  burial,  it  is  prettily  planted  and  laid  out  for  the 
service  of  the  Paddington  children  and  their  elders.  The 
simple  tomb  of  Sarah  Siddons  remains  undisturbed.  An  iron 
railing  surrounds  the  plain  slab  which,  according  with  her  own 
direction,  covers  the  grave ;  and  some  vases  holding  flowers  or 
shrubs,  of  late  years  placed  on  it,  do  not  obscure  the  inscription, 


ig8  METEOROLOGY. 

which,  in  simple,  formal  words,  is  read  on  the  edge  of  the  slab. 
And  at  the  head  is  a  small  upright  stone  which  tells  that  "  the 
body  of  Martha  Wilkinson,  who  died  in  her  76th  year, 
December  3ist,  1847,  rests  in  the  vault  of  her  most  beloved 
friend,  S.  S." 

A  white  marble  seated  figure  of  Mrs.  Siddons  was  unveiled 
on  Paddington  Green  by  Sir  Henry  Irving,  on  I4th  June,  1897. 
London  has  not  been  thought  happy  in  its  statues,  but  this 
one  at  least  may  be  considered  worthy  of  the  capital,  and  of 
the  lady  commemorated. 


METEOROLOGY    OF    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 
BY    JOHN    HOPKINSON,    F.R.MET.Soc.,    Assoc.lNST.C.E. 

January  to  March,  1900. 

IT  has  been  necessary  to  make  one  alteration  this  quarter 
in  the  rainfall  stations  owing  to  reports  for  Throcking 
Rectory  having  been  received  for  January  and  February  only. 
For  this  station,  Rothamsted,  Harpenden,  the  Experimental 
Station  of  Sir  John  Lawes  and  Sir  Henry  Gilbert,  has  been 
substituted.  There  are  three  gauges,  one  being  five  inches  in 
diameter,  one  eight  inches,  and  one  a  thousandth  of  an  acre. 
It  is  the  first  of  these  of  which  the  reading  is  here  given.  The 
height  of  the  station  is  420  feet  above  sea-level,  and  the  rim  of 
the  gauge  is  nine  inches  above  the  ground.  Having  presented 
my  own  instruments  to  the  Hertfordshire  County  Museum  at 
St.  Albans,  they  were  removed  there  from  "  The  Grange  "  on 
the  last  day  of  February.  They  are  in  a  well-exposed  position 
about  386  feet  above  sea-level,  being  six  feet  higher  than  in 
their  former  position.  The  observations  are  taken  by  the 
caretaker  of  the  Museum,  Mr.  Polman. 

The  counties  are  distinguished  as  before,  i,  Middlesex;  2, 
Essex ;  3,  Herts ;  4,  Bucks  ;  5,  Berks  ;  6,  Surrey  ;  7,  Kent. 
The  observations  are  taken  at  9  a.m. 


METEOROLOGY. 


199 


The  weather  was  very  mild  in  January,  both  days  and 
nights  being  warmer  than  usual,  the  atmosphere  was  of  average 
humidity,  the  sky  rather  cloudy,  and  the  rainfall  very  heavy. 
In  February  the  temperature  was  about  the  average,  but  the 
days  were  rather  colder  than  usual,  and  there  were  a  few  very 
cold  nights ;  there  was  more  than  usual  moisture  in  the 
atmosphere,  the  sky  was  of  average  brightness,  and  the  rainfall 
was  excessively  heavy.  March  was  a  cold  month,  the  days 
especially  being  cold,  the  atmosphere  was  of  average  humidity, 
the  sky  rather  bright,  and  the  rainfall  very  small.  The  mean 
temperature  usually  increases  about  one  degree  from  January 
to  February  and  about  four  degrees  from  February  to  March, 
but  this  year  February  was  the  coldest  month,  and  March  was 
colder  than  January.  Although  the  rainfall  in  March  was 
more  than  an  inch  below  the  average,  that  of  the  whole  quarter 
was  nearly  double  the  average. 

Three  stations  in  Berks — Cookham,  Bracknell,  and  Sand- 
hurst— show  a  mean  temperature  for  January  of  38*3° ; 
February,  36'  i° ;  and  March,  38*7°  ;  the  mean  for  the  quarter 
being  nearly  a  degree  lower  than  that  for  the  rest  of  the  Home 
Counties. 

January,    1900. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

o 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

0 

Mean 

Min 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

w 

1 

Ain't 

Days 

0 

o 

o 

0 

o 

c 

p/e 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

41-4 

37-3 

45-5 

8-2 

29-8 

53-4 

88 

8-9 

2-70 

22 

2.  Halstead   .. 

38-2 

32-9 

43-6 

10-7 

24-0 

51-8 

93 

7-6 

2  73 

21 

,,  Chelmsf  ord.  . 

38-5 

32-8 

442 

11-4 

22-4 

51-8 

92 

8-0 

2-83 

19 

3.  Bennington 

38-5 

33-9 

43  2 

9-3 

25-1 

51-3 

93 

8-2 

2-67 

21 

,,  Berkhamstedi  39-1 

34-0 

44-3 

10-3 

24-2 

52-6 

93 

8-5 

3-92 

22 

,,  St.  Albans.  . 

38-5 

33-4 

43-6 

10-2 

25-5 

51-6 

91 

8-0 

3-59 

21 

6.W.  Norwood 

40-0 

35-0 

45-0 

10-0 

25  9 

53-0 

90 

8-4 

2  59 

22 

,,  Addington.,1  39  -2 

35-0 

43-4 

8-4 

28-0 

51-5 

90 

8-8 

3  03 

23 

7.  Margate    .  . 

39-9 

35-3 

44-6 

9-3 

27-6 

52-3 

90 

7-2 

2-88 

24 

Mean 

39-3 

34  4 

44-2 

98 

25  8 

52-1 

91 

8-2 

2-99 

22 

METEOROLOGY. 
February,  igoo. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

>>  1  2 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

o 

—           —  —  _ 

•  

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

3 
o 

Am't 

Days 

0 

o 

o 

0 

o 

o 

9j- 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

39-5 

35-5 

43-6 

8-1 

23-3 

56-2 

83rt 

8-1 

3-77 

19 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

37-2 

31-2 

43-1 

11-9 

14-0 

57-5 

9  "2 

7-8 

3-41 

16 

,,  Chelmsford.. 

37-3 

31-3 

43-3 

12-0 

15-6 

59-2 

92 

3-16 

19 

3.  Bennington 

36-6 

31-3 

41-8 

10-5 

13-1 

56-1 

92 

7-9 

3-91 

18 

,,  Berkhamsted 

36-5 

30-6 

424 

11-8 

11-0 

56-9 

91 

7-8 

5-60 

19 

,,  St.  Albans.. 

36-6 

31-3 

42-0 

10-7 

16  8 

56-8 

91 

7-1 

4-87 

20 

6.W.  Norwood 

38-3 

33-1 

43-5 

10-4 

18-5 

56-4 

89 

7-4 

4-50 

21 

,,  Addington.  . 

37'3 

32-8 

41-8 

9-0 

19-2 

56-0 

89 

8-6 

4-15 

21 

7.  Margate    .  . 

39-0 

33-7 

44-3 

10-6 

21-6 

60-3 

90 

7'5 

4-09 

17 

Mean  

37-6 

32-3 

42-9 

10-6 

17-0 

57-3 

89 

7'7 

4'16 

1  Q 

March,  igoo. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

0 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

| 

o 

i 

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

w 

5 

Am't 

Days  ' 

0 

o 

o 

o 

o 

0 

°/o| 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

404 

35-6 

45-2 

9-6 

28-3 

56-2 

78 

7-3 

•84 

1 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

38-6 

32-2 

45-0 

12-8 

21-5 

56-0 

80 

7-3 

1-09 

13 

,,  Chelmsford  . 

38-1 

31-5 

44-7 

13-2 

20-2 

55-1 

80     6'0 

•89 

8 

3.  Bennington 

37-9 

31-8 

44-0 

12-2 

20-3 

56-4 

85     7-5 

•66 

10 

,,  Berkhamsted 

38-2 

31-7 

44-7 

13-0 

20-5 

57-3 

85     6-9 

•80 

12 

,,  St.  Albans.. 

38-5 

32-2 

44-8 

12-6 

21-6 

55-1 

85 

6-0 

•83 

11 

6.W.  Norwood 

39-1 

33-3 

44-9 

11-6 

23-5 

56-0 

81 

7-5 

•89 

11 

,,  Addington.  . 

37-5 

32-4 

42-5 

10-1 

24-3 

56-7 

84     9-0 

•92 

14 

7.  Margate    .  . 

39-5 

35-0 

43  9 

8-9 

24-9 

51-4 

82     6-6 

1-05 

14 

Mean  

38-6 

32-8 

44-4 

12-6 

22-8 

55-6 

82     7-1  1    -89 

11 

Rainfall,  January  to  March,  igoo. 


Stations 

Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

Stations 

Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

1    Oamden  Square 

ins. 
2  9*> 

ins. 
3-99 

ins. 
79 

4.  Sloujrh  

ins. 
2-88 

ins. 

3-88 

ins. 
•73 

,,  Harefield  

3  42 

3-69 

•60 

o.  Abingdon 

2-32 

3  74 

•«52 

2.  Newport     

3-00 

5-53 

•84 

,,  Cookham  .... 

3  13 

1-65 

•78 

,  Southend  

2-80 

3-54 

•88 

,,  Bracknell  .... 

3-00 

3-41 

1-U6 

3   Royston 

2-64 

4-38 

'71 

,,  Sandhurst.  .  .  . 

2-62 

4-93 

roo 

,,  Hitchin    .  . 

3  11 

4-49 

•86 

6.  Dorking    .... 

4-10 

6-44 

1-02 

,,   Harpenden    .... 
4.  Winslow    . 

3  54 
3-42 

4-82 
4-54 

•95 

•66 

7.  Tenterden     .  . 
,  ,  Birchin^ton  .  . 

3-31 

2-98 

5-57 
4-54 

1-17 
•99 

Mean  (25  stations)  :    Jan.,  3'0o  ins.  ;  Feb.,  4'38  ins.  ;  March.,  0-86  in 


Lord  Mountstuart. 

From  a  painting  after  Ramsay. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 
BY  THE  REV.  W.  K.  R.  BEDFORD. 

No.  3.     MIDDLESEX. 

IT  would  be  impossible  to  deal  with  the  archery  of  the 
Metropolis  within  the  limits  of  a  single  number  of  this 
magazine,  so  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  the  county  outside 
London,  and  to  a  period  later  than  that  at  which  the  "butts" 
were  still  an  institution  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  City. 
Then  patriotic  Englishmen  practised  archery  so  assiduously 
that,  as  Bishop  Latimer  tells  us,  the  turf  was  "eaten  bare"  by 
the  shafts.  In  many  of  our  old  town-walls  the  grooves,  worn 
in  the  stones  by  sharpening  the  steels,  may  yet  be  traced. 

That  era  closed  with  the  introduction  of  fire-arms,  and 
probably  the  latest  trace  of  it  in  Middlesex  is  to  be  found 
in  the  account  book  of  Sir  John  Franklyn,  of  Willesden, 
quoted  by  Hansard  in  his  Book  of  Archery,  where  the  sums 
paid  by  the  worthy  knight  for  bows,  arrows,  and  other  archery 
gear  in  the  year  1627,  are  set  out  with  most  laudable  minute- 
ness. 

Still  archery  continued  to  be  in  evidence  not  very  far  from 
the  residence  of  this  careful  devotee  of  the  ancient  sport  more 
than  a  century  after  the  date  just  quoted — its  perpetuation 
being  due  to  the  bequest  by  John  Lyon,  founder  of  Harrow 
School,  of  a  silver  arrow  value  3/.,  which  he  desired  should  be 
shot  for  by  the  Harrovian  pupils  every  August.  A  paragraph 
in  the  Craftsman  of  August  5th,  1727,  informs  its  readers  of  the 
occurrence  of  this  contest  between  six  of  the  scholars,  when 
"  Mr.  Chandler,  a  captain  in  the  tame  army,  marched  thither 
from  London  with  about  thirty  or  forty  of  his  company,  and 
performed  a  fine  exercise  in  honour  of  the  day,  and  his  son, 
who  is  one  of  the  scholars."  This  celebration  took  place  on  a 
piece  of  ground  called  the  Butts,  a  very  pretty  arena  (worthy, 


202  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

said  Dr.  Parr,  of  a  Roman  amphitheatre),  steps  being  cut  for 
spectators  in  the  grassy  side  of  a  wooded  knoll  on  the  left  of 
the  road  which  entered  Harrow  from  London.  Here  six,  eight, 
and,  in  later  years,  twelve  competitors  in  fancy  dresses  of  green, 
white,  or  scarlet  satin,  with  green  silk  sashes  and  caps,  exhibited 
their  skill  before  the  masters  of  the  school,  arrayed  in  full 
academicals,  and  a  crowd  of  interested  spectators  of  all  ranks. 
The  winner  was  the  archer  who  obtained  the  greatest  number 
of  central  shots,  each  hit  being  signalized  by  a  fanfare  of 
French  horns.  A  procession  conducted  the  winner  back  to  the 
school,  where  a  ball  was  often  given  to  the  families  in  the 
neigbourhood. 

In  1757  the  winner's  name  was,  according  to  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  Earle.  In  1758,  Middleton.  In  1759,  among  the 
names  of  the  competitors,  are  those  of  the  youthful  Duke 
of  Gordon,  his  brother  Lord  William  Gordon,  and  Lord 
Mountstuart,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Bute.  In  1760  the  name  of 
Earle  again  occurs,  and  in  1761  the  winner  was  the  Earl  of 
Barrymore.  We  find  a  young  gentleman  named  Mee  as  winner 
in  1764,  and  another  named  Davies  in  1765.  It  was  on  that 
occasion  that  the  Iroquois  Indians,  then  in  England,  were 
among  the  spectators,  and  expressed  a  desire  to  compete.  An 
Indian  Chief  had  been  present  in  1744,  and  remarked  that  the 
boys  shot  well,  but  that  he  could  have  beaten  them.  The 
winner  in  1766  was  Charles  Wager  Allix,  whose  son,  in  after 
years,  presented  the  prize  arrow  to  the  Vaughan  Library.  "  Here, 
says  the  historian  of  Harrow  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  1867, 
also  may  be  seen  an  old  print  of  the  contest,  in  one  corner  of 
which  is  a  figure  going  off  the  ground  with  an  arrow  sticking  in 
his  face,  to  which  he  applies  his  hand.  Tradition  states  that  it 
represents  one  Goding,  a  barber  of  Harrow,  who  (through  his 
own  or  an  archer's  carelessness)  was,  on  one  of  these  occasions 
shot  either  in  the  eye  or  the  mouth ;  on  this  point  the 
authorities  differ.  It  has  been  said  that  this  unlucky  accident 
led  to  the  suppression  of  the  custom.  The  expense  of  the 
costumes  and  entertainment  is  also  said  to  have  been  the 
cause,  but  the  real  reasons  were  that  the  practice  which  the 
competitors  required  was  found  to  be  a  serious  interruption 
to  the  work  of  the  school,  and  the  shooting  day  also  brought 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  203 

down  an  influx  of  undesirable  company  from  London." 
When  Dr.  Heath  became  headmaster  in  1772,  he  suggested 
some  curtailment  of  the  practice  days  and  other  archers' 
privileges,  whereupon  the  boys  declined  to  shoot  at  all.  The 
last  arrow  was  won  by  Lord  Althorpe,  afterwards  the  second 
Earl  Spencer,  in  1771.  The  memory  of  the  custom  is  still, 
however,  retained  in  the  crossed  arrows  placed  on  the  school 
prize  books  by  Dr.  Butler.  George  Agar  Hansard,  "Gwent 
Bowman,"  denounces  the  destruction  of  the  old  Butts  (shooting 
fields,  as  they  were  styled  at  Eton)  with  amusing  vehemence, 
and  valiantly  defends  the  practice  of  archery  as  a  wholesome 
exercise  for  youths. 

Less  than  a  dozen  years  after  the  cessation  of  the  Harrow 
contest,  the  northern  environs  of  London  experienced  quite 
a  wave  of  fervour  for  the  noble  art  of  archery.  Societies  were 
formed  at  Highgate,  Hornsey,  and  several  other  places  where 
grounds  for  practice  were  procurable,  and  a  resident  at 
Highgate  was  the  champion  Toxophilite.  Though  possessed 
of  the  Scottish  name  of  Anderson,  he  claimed  Flemish 
nationality,  and  although  he  was  a  little  under  the  average 
height,  shot  with  one  of  those  long  bows  of  self-yew,  in  the 
manufacture  of  which  the  bowyers  of  Flanders  excelled.  The 
poet  of  the  Blackheath  gathering  held  in  1793,  found  him  in 
the  zenith  of  his  reputation.  Two  prizes  fell  to  his  lot. 

See  Anderson  triumph,  like  Robin  of  old 
His  arrows  with  judgement  are  sent, 

And  Jarvis,  like  Midas,  turns  all  into  gold, 
While  Leith  fills  the  targets  for  Kent. 

The  days  work  is  over,  the  targets  are  told 
When  Anderson  mounts  o'er  the  rest. 

While  Jarvis  of  Hornsey,  for  merit  enrolled, 
And  Green,  win  the  gems  for  the  breast. 

Anderson's  Flemish  bow  was  six  feet  three  inches;  this 
would  include  the  horn  nock  to  hold  the  bow  string,  which 
in  these  bows  was  generally  shaped  into  a  cockatoo's  head,  and 
the  possession  of  one  of  these  peculiar  ends  indicates  an 
imported  bow  of  that  period.  It  is  said  that  he  never 
declined  a  challenge,  and  in  1795  shot  a  famous  three-days' 
match,  with  a  Kentish  archer  named  Gibson,  from  the  Isle  of 


204  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

Thanet,  and  won  it  by  a  score  of  1390  to  1120  (old  scoring,  which 
was  about  three-fifths  only  of  the  present  rate).  What  was 
his  exact  position  in  society  there  is  no  means  of  ascertaining ; 
for,  although  he  certainly  bought  and  sold  bows, — he  bought 
four  for  i6l.  at  a  Custom  House  sale  in  1794,  and  the  writer 
possessed  for  many  years  one  sold  by  him  to  the  first  Sir 
Edmund  Hartopp — he  lived  in  good  style  at  Highgate,  gave 
archery  parties  in  his  own  grounds,  and  was  captain  (perhaps 
founder)  of  the  society  called  the  Robin  Hood's  Bowmen,  which, 
with  another  club,  the  Woodmen  of  Hornsey,  practised  at 
shooting  grounds  in  the  north  of  London. 

The  privately  printed  record  of  the  Royal  Toxophilite 
Society  (1867),  states  that  at  Mr.  Anderson's  grounds  the 
popinjay  game  was  practised ;  the  sport  usually  began  by 
shooting  at  the  Flemish  blazon  or  square  target,  somewhat 
larger  than  ours,  with  its  face  divided  into  50  small  squares 
each  marked  with  a  blank  or  prize,  the  latter  progressively 
increasing  in  value  from  one  to  twenty-six.  Five-and-twenty 
years  ago  the  writer  saw  the  work-people  on  the  Due 
d'  Aumale's  estate  at  Chantilly,  in  blouses  and  sabots,  shooting, 
one  October  Sunday  afternoon,  at  a  similar  mark  with  bows 
and  arrows. 

The  record  continues  "At  a  meeting  there  [that  is  to 
say  in  Mr.  Anderson's  grounds]  in  September,  1792,  various 
members  of  the  Royal  Toxophilites,  Robin  Hood's  Bowmen, 
and  Woodmen  of  Arden  shot ;  the  shooting  lasted  three  hours, 
when  J.  Palmer,  Esq.,  of  the  Woodmen,  won  the  medal  for  the 
central  shot,  and  Dr.  Haworth  (Howarth,  Hansard  calls  him), 
a  Royal  Toxophilite  won  that  for  the  greatest  number  of  prizes. 
The  figure  of  an  eagle  fixed  to  a  perch,  140  feet  high,  was  also 
shot  at  for  about  an  hour,  affording  much  amusement  from  its 
novelty ;  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  Mr.  Peacock,  Robin 
Hood's  Bowman,  shot  it  off  the  perch  and  thereby  won  a 
gold  medal.  After  dining  with  his  friends  in  the  lodge,  Mr. 
Anderson  amused  them  with  fireworks  emblematical  of  the 
archery  of  the  day." 

The  eagle  in  this  pastime  evidently  took  the  place  of  the 
papingo  or  popinjay  which  is  still  the  mark  for  archers  both 
with  long  and  cross  bows  in  Belgium  and  Northern  France. 


Shooting  at  the  Popinjay  at  Kilwinning. 

Frotn  an  old  print. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  205 

Travellers  may  notice  the  masts  to  which  these  objects  are 
attached  in  the  environs  of  provincial  towns.  Upon  closer 
examination  it  will  be  found  that  the  masts  are  furnished  with 
slender  yards  or  cross  pieces,  and  have  a  penthouse  some 
twelve  feet  up  the  stem.  The  shooter  stands  about  six  feet 
from  the  foot  of  the  mast,  and  discharges  a  blunt  arrow  at  the 
object  of  aim,  a  wooden  bird,  so  constructed  as  to  fall  asunder 
if  hit  in  a  particular  spot.  There  are,  moreover,  minor  prizes 
suspended  from  the  yards,  and  should  an  arrow  dislodge  one  of 
these  it  earns  a  consolation  premium  of  a  few  francs  value.  As 
soon  as  the  bow  is  loosed  the  bowman  makes  for  the  penthouse 
to  shelter  from  the  falling  arrow. 

It  does  not  appear  that  this  type  of  competition  ever  became 
popular  in  England,  but  in  the  town  of  Kilwinning,  in  Ayrshire, 
it  was  practised  for  many  years,  the  three-hundred-and-eighty- 
third  anniversary  being  celebrated  in  1865.  Here  the  wooden 
figure  of  a  parrot  was  suspended  from  a  long  pole  projecting 
from  the  ancient  tower  of  the  ruined  Abbey  church.  The  bird 
was  shot  at  with  many  antique  ceremonies  every  July.  Soon 
after  the  date  quoted  the  Borough  Council  decided  to  abolish  the 
competition  as  dangerous  to  the  public.  In  this  connection  it 
may  be  remarked  that  instead  of  an  entrance  payment,  each 
competitor  was  bound  to  purchase,  and  wear,  a  Scottish  bonnet 
of  extremely  stout  material  as  a  protection  from  falling  arrows. 
There  seems  no  prospect  of  a  revival  of  this  kind  of  contest, 
however  numerous  may  become  the  archers  who  practice  at 
targets  in  Middlesex.  Still  less  likely  is  it  that  the  Scoto-Flemish 
custom,  described  by  Daines  Harrington  (in  1784),  will  ever 
be  revived,  except  in  the  modified  form  which  he  suggests : 
"  A  living  goose  was  enclosed  in  a  turf  butt,  having  its  head 
alone  exposed  to  view ;  and  the  archer  who  first  hit  the  goose's 
head  was  entitled  to  the  bird  as  his  reward.  But  this  custom, 
on  account  of  its  barbarity,  has  long  been  laid  aside,  a  mark 
about  an  inch  in  diameter  being  fixed  upon  each  butt." 

Since  the  paragraphs  relating  to  the  Harrow  archery  contest 
were  written  and  put  into  type,  I  have,  by  the  kindness  of  the 
headmaster  of  Harrow,  been  allowed  to  study  the  archery  relics 
preserved  in  the  Vaughan  Library. 


206  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

The  principal  object  of  interest  among  these  is  the  portrait 
of  Lord  Mountstuart,  of  which  a  reproduction  accompanies 
this  article.  It  is  a  copy  of  a  portrait  by  Allan  Ramsay,  son  of 
Allan  Ramsay,  the  famous  Scotch  poet,  who,  in  1767  was 
appointed  principal  painter  to  George  III.,  and  who  was  a  protege 
of  the  Marquis  of  Bute.  Lord  Mountstuart's  portrait  is  con- 
sidered to  be  one  of  the, finest  specimens  of  Ramsay's  work. 
The  coat  is  of  a  delicate  pink  colour.  In  a  glass  case  beneath 
the  picture  is  preserved  a  specimen  of  a  similar  garment, 
faded  by  age,  but  identical  in  form  and  ornament.  The.  cap, 
which  is  not  shown  in  the  portrait,  is  of  silk  of  the  same  colour, 
in  shape  like  a  jockey's  with  an  exaggerated  peak  ;  not  elegant, 
but  well  adapted  to  shade  the  eyes  of  the  wearer. 

Two  of  the  silver  arrows,  each  twenty-four  inches  long,  are 
also  shown,  as  are  two  of  the  bows ;  these  are  not  like  the  bow 
shown  in  the  painting,  which  bow  is  of  normal  length;  but 
scarcely  measures  three  feet  six  inches. 

Near  the  case  is  displayed  an  engraving  (reproduced  in  the 
Badminton  Archery  book)  which  represents  the  Harrow  boys 
shooting  with  arrows.  This  engraving  is  described  in  the 
Badminton  volume  as  an  admission  ticket  to  the  Harrow  con- 
test. It  may  be  so,  but  the  rudeness  of  execution  and  the 
antiquated  costume  represented,  suggest  that  it  was  probably 
only  a  printer's  vignette  which  had  for  long  been  used  for 
various  purposes  connected  with  archery.  The  vignette 
represents  the  competitors  shooting — after  the  manner  now 
followed  by  the  Royal  Scottish  Archers — at  a  small  circular 
target  which  is  placed  on  a  butt  of  turf  or  straw  probably  only 
some  thirty  yards  away ;  the  number  of  hits  in  the  small  disc 
would,  of  course,  be  few. 


SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS    IN    MIDDLESEX 
AT    THE    TIME    OF    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  BRISTOL. 
(Continued  from  p.  64). 

HAMPTON. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  with  a  barn 
of  five  bays,  the  glebe  land  and  other  profits,  tithes  and  rights 
thereto  belonging,  worth  about  forty-five  pounds  per  annum, 
which  one  Edmond  Pigeon,  deceased,  purchased  of  Michael 
Cole  and  John  Rowden,  unto  whom  the  same  was  given  by 
King  James  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  to  be  held  of  the 
manor  of  East  Greenwich  in  free  socage  only,  and  not  in  capite 
or  [by]  knights  service. 

And  the  said  premises  are  now  in  the  possession  of  one 
Edmond  Pigeon,  who  has  the  presentation  of  our  vicarage,  and 
by  his  predecessor,  one  William  Mainstone,  was  presented 
thereto  in  Anno  1608,  and  has  duly  and  orderly  served  the 
cure  himself  until  about  six  years  since ;  that  by  reason  of  his 
age  and  infirmities  of  his  body  he  was  necessitated  to  get 
one  Mr.  Hales  to  assist  him,  who  now  officiates  as  curate 
for  him,  and  is  allowed  by  the  said  Mr.  Mainstone  twenty 
pounds  for  his  salary  out  of  the  profits  of  the  said  vicarage, 
which  with  the  small  tithes  and  eighteen  acres  of  glebe  land, 

and  a  pension  of  thirty-six  pounds 

and  eight-pence  a  year  allowed  by  the  said  King  in  lieu  of 
glebe  and  tithes  of  the  Courtfield  then  taken  into  the  said 
(sic)  park,  are  worth  about  sixty-five  pounds  per  annum. 

BEDFONT. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  within  our  parish  one 
vicarage  and  two  parsonages,  one  of  them  worth  four-score 
pounds  per  annum  impropriate  to  Mrs.  Scott,  widow, 
who  has  the  same  by  lease  from  the  late  Bishop  of  London, 
for  two  lives  in  being,  paying  a  reserved  rent  of  eight  pounds 

shillings   and   four-pence  a  year ;    the  other 

worth  about  thirty  pounds  per  annum,  in  the  possession  of  one 


208  SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS. 

Francis  Page,  yeoman,  who  held in  free 

socage  of  the  manor  of  East  Greenwich  by  fealty  only.  And 
that  one  Mr.  Robert  Bincks  is  the  present  incumbent,  a 
constant  [preach]  ing  minister,  who  hath  for  his  salary 
the  whole  profits  of  the  said  vicarage,  which,  with  thirteen 

acres  of  glebe  land  and  the  small  tithes,  amount  to 

nine  pounds  a  year  or  thereabouts;  and  that  our  said  parish 
is  not  of  extent  fit  to  be  divided,  nor  so  little  as  to  be  [united] . 

FELTHAM. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  which  is 
worth  about  one  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  and  that  one  Mr. 
Job  Iggleton  is  our  constant  preaching  minister,  and  hath  for 
his  salary  the  whole  profits  of  the  vicarage  worth,  i$l.  6s.  Sd. 
per  annum,  which  was  formerly  in  the  presentation  of  Lord 
Cottington,  but  now  in  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  of 
State ;  and  our  church  being  situated  about  the  middle  of  our 
parish,  all  the  parishioners  may  with  good  convenience  repair 
thereunto. 

STANWELL. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  impropriate 
which,  with  the  tithes  thereto  belonging,  and  three-score  acres 
of  glebe  land,  is  worth  two  hundred  and  sixty  pounds  per 
annum.  Tbe  one  moiety  thereof  belongeth  to  Sir  Humphrey 
Tracey,  Bart.,  and  the  other  moiety  belongeth  to  John  [C]arey, 
Esq.  Also,  that  we  have  one  vicarage  and  about  six  acres  of 
glebe  land  thereunto  belonging  which,  with  the  small  tithes, 
is  valued  at  thirty-five  pounds  per  annum.  And  one  Mr. 
Edward  Richardson  is  our  present  incumbent,  and  a  pious 
minister,  observing  all  commands  of  parliament,  put  in  by  the 
Committee  for  Plundered  Ministers,  who  has  the  aforesaid  profits 
of  the  vicarage  for  his  salary,  as  also  fifty  pounds  a  year  granted 
as  an  augmentation  out  of  the  sequestered  part  of  the  said 
impropriation  ;  and  as  we  humbly  conceive  our  parish  is  of  a 
reasonable  extent,  and  our  church  of  a  sufficient  capacity  to 
receive  all  the  inhabitants. 

SHEPPERTON. 

Item. — We  present  that  our  sequestered  parsonage  is 
presentative,  and  formerly  in  the  presentation  of  Sir  Henry 


SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS.  209 

Spiller,  Knt,  which,  with  the  tithes  thereunto  belonging  and 
nineteen  acres  of  glebe  land  we  conceive  to  be  worth  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds  per  annum ;  and  that  one  Mr.  John 
Dodridge  is  incumbent  and  our  present  minister,  who  has  for 
his  salary  the  said  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  a  year.  Also 
that  we  have  within  our  said  parish  a  farm  formerly  belonging 
to  the  Queen,  now  in  the  occupation  of  William  Westbrooke, 
the  tithes  of  which  farm  are  worth  twenty  pounds  per  annum, 
out  of  which  is  due  to  the  minister  sixteen  shillings  a  year. 
Likewise  we  have  six-and-twenty  acres  of  meadow  in  the 
possession  of  William  Stiles  and  Clement  Gregory,  the  tithe  of 
which  is  worth  about  twenty-four  shillings  per  annum,  but  no 
part  thereof,  as  we  can  find,  is  or  has  been  paid  to  the  minister, 
and  [we]  conceive  our  parish  no  ways  convenient  to  be  divided 
nor  fit  to  be  united. 

LALEHAM. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  paisonage  valued  at 
one  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  now  in  the  occupation  of  Mr. 
Tompson  Stapley,  tenant  unto  George  Homes  and  Robert 
Homes,  owners  thereof;  and  also  one  vicarage  which,  with  the 
house,  orchard,  small  tithes  and  seventeen  acres  of  glebe  land, 
is  worth  about  twenty-two  pounds  a  year,  of  which  Sir  Thomas 
Reignolds,  Knt.,  has  the  presentation,  and  presented  one  Mr. 
William  Croft,  our  present  incumbent,  thereto,  who  was 
instituted  and  inducted  according  to  ordinance  of  parliament. 

ASHFORD. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage,  of  which 
the  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Great  Seal  of  England  have  the 
presentation,  and  one  vicarage,  and  that  one  Mistress  Feilden 
hath  the  said  parsonage  or  impropriation,  but  whether  by  lease 
or  otherwise,  we  know  not.  We  conceive  the  same  to  be 
worth  about  three-score  pounds  per  annum,  as  it  is  now  let  to 
John  Whiting,  her  tenant;  and  we  conceive  the  annual  value  of 
the  said  vicarage,  together  with  the  small  tithes  and  glebe  land 
thereto  belonging,  to  be  about  twenty-four  pounds  per  annum, 
which  Mr.  George  Bonieman,  our  present  minister,  brought  in 
by  the  consent  and  with  the  approbation  of  the  parish,  hath  for 
his  salary. 


210  SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS. 

LITTLETON. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  and  about 
fifty  acres  of  glebe  land,  which  together  with  the  whole  tithes 
thereto  belonging,  we  conceive  to  be  worth  ninety  pounds  per 
annum,  and  that  Nicholas  Townley,  Esq.,  has  the  right  of 
patronage ;  and  one  Mr.  John  Leare  is  our  constant  preaching 
minister,  put  in  by  order  of  the  Committee  for  Plundered 
Ministers  bearing  date  2Oth  September  last,  who  hath  all  the  said 
ninety  pounds  a  year  for  his  salary.  And  that  our  parish 
church  is  very  convenient  for  the  parishioners  to  repair  unto. 

STAINES. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  and  one 
vicarage,  and  that  one  Mr.  Thomas  Bartholomew  purchased 
the  said  parsonage  or  impropriation  to  him  and  his  heirs  for 
ever,  which  we  conceive  to  be  worth  about  four-score  pounds 
per  annum,  as  it  is  now  let  to  one  William  Ludgall ;  and 
we  value  the  vicarage  house  with  twenty  .  .  .  acres  of 
meadow  and  pasture,  and  thirty  acres  of  arable  land  at 
four-score  pounds  per  annum,  which  Mr.  Gabriel  Price,  our 
present  incumbent,  placed  by  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  the 
Great  Seal,  has  for  his  salary;  and  that  our  church  being 
spacious  enough  to  receive  all  the  parishioners,  we  conceive  it 
not  fit  to  be  divided  nor  convenient  to  be  [united] . 

WOXB  RIDGE. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  a  chapel-of-ease  in  our 
populous  market  town  of  Woxbridge,  within  the  parish  of 
Hillingdon,  without  presentation,  which  is  above  a  mile 
from  the  church  of  Hillingdon  aforesaid,  and  which  said 
church  is  not  able  to  contain  the  multitude  of  people  belonging  to 
our  chapel  if  they  should  repair  thereunto ;  and  the  maintenance 
within  our  said  town  of  Woxbridge,  arising  out  of  orchards 
and  other  petty  tithes,  amounts  not  to  above  eight  pounds  per 
annum,  by  which  means  we  are  altogether  destitute  of  a  settled 
preaching  minister,  and  we  conceive  it  fit  and  humbly  pray,  if 

no  neighbouring  parish  be  joined  to  us,  that  our 

parish  may  be  established  a  distinct  parish  of  itself,  and  we 
allowed  a  competent  maintenance  for  a  deserving  minister 
according  to  the  act  of  parliament  in  that  behalf. 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY.  211 

COWLEY. 

Item. — We  present  that  there  is  one  parsonage  house  and 
twenty  acres  of  glebe  land,  which,  with  great  and  small  tithes, 
if  duly  paid,  we  conceive  to  be  worth  about  three-score  and  ten 
pounds  per  annum,  and  that  Mistress  Francklyn,  having  the 
right  of  patronage,  conferred  the  same  upon  Mr.  William 
Beare  (? )  the  present  preaching  minister,  who  has  all  the 
aforesaid and  profits  for  his  salary. 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

BY  "  PETER  DE  SANDWICH." 
III. — ST.  MARY'S,  SANDWICH. 

[1557  ?],  Thomas  Rutton  presented  for  withholding  of  28  cwt. 
of  lead,  more  or  less,  and  one  kine  belonging  to  the  church  of  Our 
Lady  there. 

Mr.  Warren  presented  for  withholding  of  eight  acres  of  land 
from  the  said  church,  which  was  given  by  one  Graves ;  and  also  he 
doth  withhold  thirteen  acres  of  land  and  a  barn  given  for  an  obit 
to  be  kept  in  the  said  church,  by  one  Aldred's  widow. 

Thomas  Corkwell  for  withholding  of  a  house  from  the  said 
church,  which  was  given  by  the  said  Aldred's  widow  towards  the 
obit  aforesaid. 

[The  above  occur  in  a  volume  of  undated  presentments  made  by 
commissioners,  probably  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Queen 
Mary.  In  1557  Nicholas  Harpesfield,  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury 
(1554-9)  visited  all  the  churches  in  the  diocese,  even  those  exempt 
from  the  visitation  of  the  Archdeacon.  Perhaps  the  volume  may  be 
a  part  of  that  visitation]. 

1569.  That  their  Bible  is  not  of  the  largest  volume. 

That  the  Sacrament  is  ministered  in  fine  manchet  bread. 

That  there  are  goods  pertaining  to  their  church  in  the  hands  of 
one  William  Lothbery,  Esq.,  of  London,  dwelling  in  Terns  (sic) 
Street  at  the  Gilten  Cross,  to  the  value  of  2ol.  and  more,  he  then 
being  churchwarden,  and  hath  made  no  account  for  it.  Mr.  Lothbery 
is  now  at  St.  Stephen's. 


212  SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

That  these  persons  have  not  received  the  Holy  Communion — 
Edmond  Darnell  and  his  wife,  Peter  Pattynson's  wife,  Edward 
Young.  That  their  Vicar  is  parson  of  Ham.  Peter  Pattynson  is  a 
blasphemer  and  a  railer.  Edmond  Darnell  a  drunkard  and 
blasphemer.  That  their  schoolmaster  teacheth  grammar  by  another 
work  than  is  set  forth  by  public  authority. 

1579.  Our  minister  [Thomas  Pawson]  doth  not  wear  a  surplice. 

1584.  We  have  not  a  surplice. 

1594.  Thomas  Pawson,  our  minister,  for  very  often  omitting  the 
wearing  of  the  surplice  in  reading  service  and  administering  the 
sacrament. 

[Thomas  Pawson  was  vicar  of  Preston  next  Wingham,  1560-65, 
where  four  of  his  children  were  baptised.  Vicar  of  St.  Mary, 
Sandwich  1565-97,  where  he  was  buried  23  February,  1596-7 : 
"Thomas  Pawsone  minister  and  preacher."  Next  year  his  widow 
(and  fourth  wife)  Christian  Pawsonne  was  married  at  St.  Mary's, 
Sandwich,  to  William  Willesnal], 

1597.  The  butchers  of  their  parish  do  sell  meat  openly,  and  keep 
open  their  shops  upon  Sundays,  and  in  time  of  divine  service. 

1608.  Christopher  Leggatt,  miller,  did  by  himself  or  his  servant 
grind  corn  in  his  mill  on  the  nth  September  last,  being  a  Sunday, 
in  the  time  of  divine  service   or  sermon  in  the  parish  church  of 
St.  Mary,  to  the  affront  of  well  disposed  persons. 

Robert  Smith  and  Robert  Richards  being  butchers,  do  kill  and 
sell  flesh,  and  keep  open  their  shop  windows  on  Sundays  and  holy 
days  in  the  time  of  divine  service. 

1609.  Stephen    Huffam,   clerk,    of  St.    Mary's,    Sandwich,    for 
marrying   William    Hayward   and   his   wife   on   the   ninth   day   of 
January,  1609,  which  was  in  the  times  prohibited,  without  licence  or 
dispensation. 

[Stephen  Huffam  (or  Hougham)  vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  1600-24, 
was  also  vicar  of  St.  Nicholas  at  Wade,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet, 
1616-29.  He  died  6th  May,  1629,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of 
St.  Nicholas  at  Wade,  leaving  issue  six  sons  and  seven  daughters.] 

1614.  Mr.  Openshaw  and  Mr.  Cedred  have  preached.     We  have 
a  font  in  the  usual  place.     One  bell  is  broken  and  sent  to  London  to 
be  new  cast,  and  we  crave  a  reasonable  time  to  place  it  again. 

1615.  We  do  every  year  walk  the  circuit  of  our  parish,  but  in 
certain  places  anciently  known  to  be  ours,  we  are  denied  both  the 
cess  for  our  poor,  and  church  dues,  and  therefore  we   do  present 


SOME    EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY.  213 

them : — Thomas  Deane,  of  St.  Mary's,  for  his  malt-house  ;  Daniel 
Barnes  for  his  malt-house  ;  Nicholas  James  for  his  dwelling-house  ; 
and  John  Wilson  for  his  dwelling-house. 

1617.  Elizabeth  Carter,  of  the  parish  of  St.  Mary's,  and  Margaret 
Kennett,  of  St.  Peter's  (the  daughter  of  John  Kennett),  for  fighting  in 
our  church  in  time  of  divine  service  upon  the  Sabbath  Day,  the  2ist 
day  of  September,  1617,  as  we  stand  informed  by  John  Amye,  our 
clerk,  and  William  Hamden,  one  of  the  Serjeants  of  our  town. 

1624.  Abraham  Rutton,  late  of  our  parish,  now  of  St.  Peter's,  for 
refusing  to  pay  his  cess  to  our  poor,  he  being  cessed  at  25.  a  year, 
and  being  behind  for  three  quarters,  before  his  departure  out  of  our 
parish. 

1625.  Christopher  Leggatt  for  refusing  to  pay  his  cess  to  the 
church  for  his  mill,  which  is  five  shillings  ;  and  it  hath  been  lawfully 
demanded  of  him. 

1626.  John  Bowdon  for  not  paying  the  sum  of  four  shillings,  he 
being  lawfully  cessed  towards  the  use  of  the  poor. 

1632.  Jane  Barham,  of  St.  Clement's  parish  in  our  said  town, 
coining  to  our  parish  church,  hath  intruded  into  a  pew,  contrary  to 
our  advertisement,  and  thereby  disturbed  and  kept  out  of  the  same 
pew  some  of  our  parishioners  of  good  rank  who  used  to  sit  therein  ; 
she  being  by  some  of  us  required  to  refrain  and  come  out  of  the  said 
pew,  not  only  refused  so  to  do,  but  likewise  laughed  in  a  jeering 
manner,  as  we  conceived,  in  time  of  divine  service,  sermon,  and 
administration  of  the  sacrament,  for  which  being  in  a  few  words 
reproved  by  Robert  Dunkin,  one  of  the  churchwardens,  she  called 
him  "Jack  in  an  office,"  and  such  other  unseemly  words. 

1636.  We  have  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  Bible  of 
the  largest  volume,  well  and  fairly  bound. 

1638.  The  churchwardens  and  sidesmen  say  that  there  is  one 
Mr.  Robert  Jagger  that  refuseth  to  pay  his  cess  made  for  the  church 
and  churchyard  repairs,   being  one  quarter's  cess,  the  sum  of  six 
shillings. 

And  also  one  Katherine  Goager,  widow,  that  refuseth  to  pay  her 
cess  made  for  the  reparations  of  the  church  and  churchyard  aforesaid, 
being  one  quarter's  cess,  the  sum  of  eight  shillings. 

1639.  Christopher    Verrall,    of    St.    Mary's    parish,    and   John 
Markham,    of   St.  Clement's,  for   quarrelling   and   fighting   in   the 
churchyard. 


214  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

IV. — ST.  JAMES'S,  SANDWICH. 

This  was  a  chapel-of-ease  attached  to  St.  Mary's  Church, 
and  under  the  control  of  the  churchwardens  of  that  parish.  It 
was  generally  known  as  the  chapel  of  St.  Jacob,  and  had  a 
burial  ground,  afterwards  used  as  a  cemetery  for  the  parish  of 
St.  Mary.  The  chapel  was  served  by  a  hermit,  whose 
hermitage,  at  the  south-west  corner,  was  in  the  gift  of  the 
Mayor  and  Jurats  of  Sandwich.  When  suppressed  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.,  the  last  hermit,  John  Stewart,  became 
vicar  of  St.  Mary,  until  his  death  in  1564. 

The  book  of  undated  presentments  (1557  ?)  first  referred  to 
under  St.  Mary's  parish,  contains  the  following  : — 

Thomas  Burwell  and  Thomas  Watson  presented,  for  that  when 
they  were  churchwardens  of  the  said  church,  they  sold  all  the 
ornaments. 

Thomas  Burwell  withholds  two  garden  plots,  with  one  little 
shed  belonging  to  the  said  church  of  St.  James. 

John  Broke,  of  Denton,  for  that  he  with-holds  one  garden  plot, 
given  to  St.  James. 

John  Huggesson,  withholds  one  vestment  belonging  to  St. 
James'  church. 


A    HISTORY    OF     THE     CHURCH     AND    RECTORY 
OF    ST.  MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

BY  W.  B.  PASSMORE. 
(Continued  from  p.   144). 

AS  already  stated  this  is  a  rectory  of  remote  foundation, 
the  date  being  uncertain ;  it  appears  to  have  remained 
in  the  gift  of  the  Prior  and  Canons  of  St.  Bartholmew 
until  1327.  In  the  year  1437  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of 
St.  Paul's  presented  to  the  living,  and  they  have  continued 
to  do  so  until  the  present  time.  A  chantry  was  founded  by 
John  of  London,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  to  which  a 
chaplain  was  admitted,  but  as  it  was  of  no  great  value  the 
chaplain  was  collated  to  another  chantry  for  his  better  mainten- 
ance. In  the  year  1636  the  annual  profits  of  the  rectory, 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  215 

including  tithes,  casualties,  Sir  Wolston's  gift  and  parsonage, 
were  returned  at  I55/.  Under  the  Act  of  1804,  the  rectorial 
tithe  produces  22O/.  i8s.  4^.  The  rector  also  receives  4O/.  as 
rent  of  a  former  rectory  house,  and  58^.  for  a  divinity  lecture. 

Of  the  rectors,  Newcourt  gives  a  very  incomplete  list, 
without  assigning  any  reason  for  its  being  so  imperfect.  From 
a  careful  study  of  the  old  parish  registers  and  churchwardens* 
books,  Dr.  Sharpe's  calendar  of  Wills,  and  after  consulting  the 
late  Dr.  Sparrow  Simpson  at  St.  Paul's  Library,  but  especially 
from  some  very  learned  notes  which  the  Rev.  George  Hennessey 
sent  me,  the  following  list  of  rectors,  and  references  to  the 
church  have  been  compiled. 
A.D. 

1275  Thos.  de  Basinge  gives  to  Margery,  his  wife,  the  advowson  of  St.  Michael 
Bassiughall,  for  life,  with  remainder  to  Richard,  his  brother. 

1286  Ralph  de  Pelham.  His  quit  rent  of  half  a  mark  to  be  sold  by  his 
executors. 

1310  William,  died  1318.  He  bequeathed  certain  houses  and  rents  in  Pentecoste 
Lane,  in  the  Shambles,  to  be  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  a  chantry  here. 

1327     Randolphus  de  Waltham,  died  1327. 

1335  Henry  de  Bydyke  made  a  bequest  to  Thomas  de  Karlisle,  rector  of  the 
church  of  Bassyngeshawe,  and  left  the  adowson,  to  Johanna,  his  wife. 

1337  Thomas  de  Karlisle ,  alias  Cardinal,  presented  4  April,  was  rector  in  1342. 
He  died,  it  appears,  in  1350,  bequeathing  to  God  and  St.  Michael  an  annual 
rent  of  twenty  shillings  charged  on  his  tenement  in  the  churchyard,  in  aid 
of  a  chantry  founded  by  "William  de  Sydemauton,  his  predecessor. 

1351  If  offer  de  Tahvorth,  he  had  license  from  the  King  to  exchange  the  living  with 
William  de  Wakefield,  for  the  church  of  Wotton,  Lincolnshire;  by  his 
will  in  1353,  he  made  pecuniary  bequests  to  every  priest  serving  in  the 
church  of  St.  Michael  de  Bassyngeshawe,  and  to  William,  clerk  of  the 
same,  a  robe  of  bluet. 

*354  W.  de  Wakefield,  by  his  will  desired  to  be  buried  in  the  church 
if  convenient.  After  leaving  to  Johanna,  wife  of  William  Tydyman,  his 
best  bed  and  two  entire  robes,  one  being  red  and  the  other  of  a  mixed 
colour,  a  cup  of  mazer,  etc.,  and  to  Thomas  Godard,  for  life,  his  garden 
which  he  had  bought  of  Richard  El  sing,  mercer,  he  left  the  remainder  of 
his  property  to  the  aforesaid  church,  on  condition  that  the  rectors 
celebrated  mass  every  Friday  with  Requiem  and  collect  Inclina.  The  will 
is  dated  at  the  hostel  of  John  (Thoresby)  Archbishop  of  York. 

1356     Thomas  de  Cornhill  was  here  at  this  date. 

1359     Richard  Savich  was  buried  where  the  Communion  table  stands. 

1362     Thomas  Godard,  died  in  1374. 

1375     Thomas  Caysho,  died  1378. 

1392     William  Sent  was  here  at  this  date,  and  in  1405. 


216  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

1435  Thomas  Galle,  died  1437.  He  was  rector  of  St.  Mary's,  Whitechapel, 
in  1410. 

'437  John  Scotte,  per  mortem  Galle,  Presented  by  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of 
St.  Paul's.  To  John  Scott,  the  rector  and  churchwardens  and  their 
successors,  John  Asshe  leaves  his  brewery  called  "  la  Cok  on  the  Hoope," 
situate  in  the  parish,  charged  with  the  observance  of  the  obit  of 
John  Willis.  This  is  now  a  valuable  property  situate  at  the  corner  of 
Basinghall  Street  paid  London  Wall. 

1460     John  Olstan,  alias  Colt,  here  1460,  died  1489. 

1500  Rolt.  Radclyffe,  died  1500,  desired  to  be  buried  before  the  image  of 
Christ  on  the  north  wall. 

1510     Simon  Robynson  here  at  this  time. 

1517     /.  Kendall  leaves  a  bequest  to  the  church. 

1542  Sir  John  Andertcn  died  1561,  buried  in  the  chancel  The  number  of 
"  houseliug  "  people  [communicants]  living  in  the  parish  at  this  time  was 
500. 

1561     Alexander   Wymshurst  instituted  9  August. 

1569     William  Palmer,  23  June,  by  Bishop's  certificate. 

1572     George  Gardiner,  4  April,  by  Bishop's  certificate. 

B575     Roger  Barker,  he  resigned  June  10th. 

1575     Roger  Greene,  also  vicar  of  Edmonton,  Bishop's  certificate. 

1588  Edward  Griffith  was  licensed  to  serve  the  cure. 

1589  William  Hutchinson,  30  September,  Bishop's  certificate. 

1604  Rowland  Burrell,  2  November,  Dean  and  Chapter's  certificate;  he  was 
rector  of  Brompton  Ralph,  Somerset. 

1607  Dr.  John  Gifford,  10  November,  lie  remained  rector  until  1642,  when, 
upon  the  petition  of  the  inhabitants,  he  was  removed  by  the  Parliament 
at  the  great  rebellion.  There  is  an  entry  in  the  churchwardens'  book  in 
1645  of  a  payment  of  6J.  13s.  4rf.  to  the  "  old  doctor;"  this  is  the  last 
time  his  name  appears  in  the  parish  records. 

1642  Charles  Newton  was  appointed  by  Parliament  to  discharge  the  cure  upon 
the  removal  of  Dr.  Gifford.  It  is  doubtful  if  he  was  canonically 
instituted.  He  died  in  1645. 

1646     Simeon  Aah,   Commonwealth  minister,  was  appointed;  he  remained  until 
1651.     Probably  this    Simeon    Ash   was  the  person  named   by   Calamy 
in  his  account  of  the  ministers   ejected   after  tLe  restoration  in    1660. 
"  Good  old  Simeon  Ash  from   St.  Austin,  member  of  the   assembly 
divines,  he  went  to  heaven  at  a  seasonable  time  and  was  buried  on  the  eve 
of    St.    Bartholomew."     A,-h  was  chaplain  to   the   Earl  of   Manche8t< 
during  the  lebellion,  and  was  one  of  the  divines  who  framed  the  solemi 
league  and  covenant.     He  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor 
wrote  an  account  of  it. 

1653  Philip  Edlin  was  "parson  of  the  parish"  until  the  restoration. 
Upon  Mr.  Ash  leaving  the  parish  in  1651,  there  appears  a  curious  account 
of  srane  negotiations  with  the  Parliament  as  to  the  election  of  a  new 
minister..  There  were  two  candidates  in  the  field,  Mr.  Jaggard  and 
Mr.  Edlin,  and  much  complication;  going*  to  and  fro,  with  "boat  hire  " 


ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW.  217 

and  coach  hire  to  Westminster  to  visit  the  "  Lord  Whitelock,"  the  Lords  of 
the  Council,  the  Commissioner  of  the  Great  Seal,  and  so  on.  The 
inter-regnum  must  have  existed  for  a  lengthened  period,  for  there  is  a  list  in 
the  vestry  minutes  of  twenty-eight  ministers  who  preached  58  sermons  in 
church  to  fill  up  the  gap  between  the  going  of  Mr.  Ash  and  the  coming  of 
Mr.  Edlin.  He  must  have  been  elected  in  1652,  from  which  time  he  performed 
his  duty  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  parishioners.  The  Commonwealth 
marriages  averaged  from  20  to  30  a  year,  nearly  all  being  specified  as  taking 
place  before  a  justice,  "and  in  the  church  of  Mr.  Edlin,  parson." 
Whether  he  died  or  resigned  his  living,  does  not  appear ;  he  is  not 
mentioned  as  one  of  the  ejected  ministers. 

1660     William  Hall,  prebendary  of  Isledon,  died  soon  after  of  the  dropsy. 

1662  Francis  Hall.  He  was  prebend  of  St.  Paul's,  chaplain  to  Charles  II., 
and  incumbent  of  Market  Deeping.  Newcourt  says  he  resigned  his 
cure,  but  that  is  not  entirely  correct.  He  left  the  parish  for  his  country  cure 
on  the  first  appearance  of  the  plague  in  1665  and  did  not  return  until  1670, 
when  the  question  of  augmentation  of  tithe  came  up.  He  then  put  in  a 
claim  for  his  tithe  and  for  the  said  augmentation,  although  he  had  not 
visited  the  parish  or  performed  any  duty  therein  during  those  years. 
Upon  this  the  parishioners  assembled  in  vestry,  and  unanimously  resolved 
"  that  no  such  augmentation  could  possibly  be  made."  They  appealed  to 
the  committee  to  "discountenance  all  further  attempts  of  this  nature  "  ; 
meantime  they  undertook  to  pay  Mr.  Hall  one  half  the  tithe  assessed  upon 
them  until  the  parish  church  should  be  rebuilt.  He  retained  the  living 
nntil  1675,  receiving  the  emoluments  but  performing  no  duty. 

1675  Edward  Smith  was  appointed  to  the  cure  on  the  17th  November  in  this 
year,  Mr.  Hall  having  at  length  resigned.  The  present  church  was 
erected  under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Smith. 

1701     fir.  Roderick  on  the  death  of  Smith. 

1730     Dr.  Laving  ton  on  the  death  of  Roderick. 

1742     Dr.  Brackenridge  on  the  death  of  Lavington. 

1762     Thomas  Marriott  on  the  death  of  Brackenridge. 

1781  John  Moore,  on  the  death  of  Marriott.  He  was  also  rector  of  Langdon 
Hill,  Essex,  canon  of  St.  Paul's,  and  one  of  the  King's  chaplains.  He 
disputed  the  right  of  the  vestry  to  appoint  the  Divinity  Lecturer,  a  founda- 
tion of  Sir  Wolstone  Dixie  and  Mr.  Vaughan,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
lecture  was  in  abeyance  for  some  years. 

1 82 1     Christopher  Packe  on  the  death  of  Moore. 

1835     JE.  G.  A.  Beckwith  on  the  resignation  of  Packe. 

1857     John  finley  on  the  death  of  Beckwith. 

1865     John  E.  Me  Caul  on  exchange  with  Finley. 

1892     /.  Stephen  Ban-as  on  the  death  of  McCaul.     Present  rector. 

The  Charity  Commissioners  under  their  scheme  of 
union  had  provided  the  sum  of  i,3io/.  for  repairs  to  the 
fabric  of  the  church,  if  claimed  within  twelve  months.  The 
specification  of  repairs  required  having  been  approved  by  Mr. 


218  ST.    MICHAEL    BASSISHAW. 

Christian,  architect  to  the  Commissioners,  the  church  was 
closed  on  the  27th  April,  1892,  and  the  work  proceeded  with 
until  June,  when  the  City  Sanitary  Authority  intervened  and 
stopped  further  progress,  requiring  the  removal  of  the  human 
remains  from  beneath  the  floor  of  the  church.  After  six  months 
of  correspondence  an  order  was  received  from  the  Privy 
Council  on  the  3Oth  January,  1893,  for  the  removal  forthwith 
of  the  remains,  and  for  reburial  in  consecrated  ground.  This 
order  was  confirmed  by  the  Home  Office,  the  Secretary  of 
State  advising  that  "no  further  sanction  was  required  from  any 
other  authority."  Upon  this  a  site  was  secured  at  the  Great 
Northern  Cemetery,  and  the  exhumation  proceeded  with. 
The  Chancellor  of  the  Consistory  Court,  however,  gave  it  as 
his  opinion  that  the  removal  could  not  be  carried  out  without 
a  faculty,  and  stated  that  "  if  the  parish  acted  solely  under  the 
order  of  the  Home  Office,  the  churchwardens  would  be 
admonished  for  so  doing  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  and 
condemned  in  costs."  The  vestry  taking  the  matter  into 
consideration,  decided  to  apply  for  a  faculty. 

The  soil  in  the  south  arcade  was  excavated  to  a  depth  of 
eight  feet,  nineteen  lead  coffins  with  name  plates  attached, 
nineteen  without  names,  and  twenty-four  cases  of  loose  bones 
were  taken  out  and  re-interred  at  Southgate,  when  Dr.  Tristram, 
Chancellor  of  the  Diocese,  delivered  an  order  suspending  all 
further  excavation  upon  the  ground  that  further  removal  would 
endanger  the  stability  of  the  structure.  He  also  directed  that 
no  further  work  should  be  proceeded  with,  but  that  the  church 
should  be  taken  down  and  the  rectory  united  to  a  neighbouring 
parish.  He  reported  his  grounds  for  this  order  to  the  Home 
Office,  and  intimated  that  the  costs,  already  incurred  and  to  be 
incurred,  should  be  defrayed  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners, 
as  they  would  receive  the  purchase  money  for  the  site  of  the 
church.  The  Bishop's  commission  as  to  the  union  with  St. 
Lawrence  Jewry,  was  issued  on  the  22nd  December,  1893,  and 
the  Commissioners  reported  on  the  23rd  February,  1894,  tnat 
the  proposed  union  was  expedient.  The  vestries  of  the  two 
parishes  met  and  signified  their  assent  to  the  Bishop's  scheme 
with  certain  modifications.  The  scheme  was  ultimately  carried 
into  effect,  and  its  provisions  are  given  in  detail  by  the  Rev. 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.  219 

H.  W.  Clark  in  his  book,  "The  City  Churches,"  under  the 
heading  of  "St.  Michael  at  Bassing  Hall." 

Owing  to  differences  that  had  arisen  with  reference  to  the 
scheme  of  union  of  the  two  benefices,  the  emptying  of  the 
vaults  was  not  resumed  until  1899.  When  this  work  was 
completed,  the  fabric  of  Wren's  church  and  tower  was  sold  by 
auction  and  produced  378^  Its  demolition  is  now  being 
proceeded  with,  and  the  site  has  been  purchased  by  the  City 
Corporation  for  36,ooo/. 


THE  MANOR  AND  PARISH  OF  LITTLEBURY. 

BY  REV.  H.  J.  E.  BURRELL. 
(Concluded  from  p.  162), 

LET  us  now  come  to  the  church  as  it  stands  to-day.  In  the 
year  1745,  the  Rev.  William  Cole,  the  Cambridge  anti- 
quary (born  1714,  died  1782),  paid  a  visit  to  the  parish  and 
left  a  record  of  his  impressions  in  the  form  of  a  roughly 
illustrated  manuscript  now  in  the  British  Museum.  He 
describes  the  exterior  as  "  handsome  and  regular  built,  with  a 
square  tower  containing  five  bells,"  and  says  that  the  building 
is  "  dedicated  to  St.  Nicholas."  We  must,  however,  take 
exception  to  the  latter  statement.  For  certainly,  as  early  as 
1484,  the  dedication  was  to  the  Holy  Trinity,  when  a  certain 
George  Nicholl  desired  by  his  will,  "to  be  buried  in  the  parish 
church  of  Holy  Trinity,  Littlebury,  before  the  altar  of  St. 
Peter  in  the  south  aisle  of  the  same  church,"  and  left  bequests 
"  to  the  Guild  of  St.  Peter  of  the  same  church  and  to  the  lights 
of  the  torches  (i.e.  the  hearse  light)  and  to  the  rood  light." 

Since  Cole's  visit  the  church  has  been  greatly  altered. 
The  churchwardens'  accounts  show7  that  in  1818  much  money 
was  spent  upon  the  fabric,  principally  upon  the  roof.  Besides 
this,  the  body  of  the  building  was  restored  in  1870,  and  the 
chancel  in  1875.  These  restorations  were  generously  carried 
out,  but  they  were  not  happy  from  an  antiquarian  point  of  view. 
For  much  of  the  ancient  work  was  then  smoothed  over,  and  the 


220  THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY. 

chancel  entirely  rebuilt  on  a  larger  scale  with  much  careful 
elaboration  of  detail,  but  with  no  attempt  to  make  use  of  the 
old  material,  or  to  preserve  original  features.  As  regards  the 
exterior  we  need  add  nothing  to  Cole's  description,  except 
to  notice  the  two  striking  porches  which  seem  to  have  been 
added  about  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Some  early 
architectural  notes  in  the  British  Museum  point  out  that  the 
porch  windows  are  ''destitute  of  weatherings,"  and  certainly 
the  absence  of  dripstones  above  the  windows  presents  a 
somewhat  unusual  appearance.  In  both  porches  a  scheme  of 
vaulting  is  suggested,  but  the  work  was  never  carried  to 
completion.  About  the  same  date  several  windows  appear  to 
have  been  inserted  in  the  tower  and  elsewhere.  The  main 
fabric  of  the  church,  however,  belongs  to  the  I2th  century,  and 
its  decoration  is  transitional  in  character.  The  south  doorway 
contains  a  round  Norman  arch  on  which  is  cut  a  deep  Early 
English  Moulding,  and  the  foliage  of  the  capitals  beneath  are 
also  of  the  later  style,  but  the  reverse  of  this  may  be  seen  in 
the  nave  arcades  where  pointed  arches  are  associated  with 
plain  Norman  columns  and  capitals  of  differing  designs. 

The  old  font  still  remains  simple  and  unpretentious,  and  on 
this  account,  as  it  would  seem,  unsuited  to  the  ideas  of 
the  I5th  century  villagers.  For  it  was  then  enclosed  and 
entirely  hidden  from  view  by  what  is  now  the  most  interesting 
feature  of  the  church,  viz.,  a  very  fine  oaken  case,  some  16  feet 
in  height,  with  folding  doors  opening  to  the  back,  and  crowned 
by  a  richly  carved  canopy,  containing  niches  (the  figures  are 
lost),  and  possessing  the  wealth  of  minute  detail  which  is 
characteristic  of  the  period.  Both  case  and  doors  seem  at  first 
sight  to  be  panelled,  but  in  reality,  the  panels  with  their 
framing  are  cut  from  solid  wood.  They  are  carved  with  a 
curious  variation  of  the  linen  pattern,  the  folds  of  which,  in 
some  instances,  are  marked  at  the  ends  with  an  incised  cross. 
The  folding  doors  are  held,  and  connected  by  long  jointed 
hinges,  pierced  at  intervals  with  the  emblems  of  the  Passion. 
The  wood-work  is  in  excellent  order,  and  its  preservation  is  no 
doubt  due  to  the  repeated  coats  of  whitewash  to  which  it  has 
been  treated.  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  the  canopy  formerly 
resembled  an  immense  and  solid  cone  of  white  sugar  !  This 


THE  FONT  COVER.  LJTTLEBURY 


Brass  of  an  Ecclesiastic,  circa  1510,  at  Littlebury. 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.  221 

disfigurement  was  very  skilfully  removed  about  thirty  years 
ago.  For  this  unique  piece  of  church  furniture,  the  parish 
has,  in  all  probability,  to  thank  the  wool-workers  of  the  period, 
a  class  which  (as  Norfolk  churches  bear  witness)  was  very 
generous  in  all  church  matters.  Littlebury  was  once  a  seat  of 
the  woollen  trade,  and  on  the  fine  old  north  door,  above  the 
wicket,  are  carved  two  pairs  of  shears — the  trade-sign  of  the 
guild.  Their  benefactions  were  not  confined  to  the  font 
cover ;  in  1745  the  chancel  was  rich  in  oak,  for  Cole  describes 
it  as  "  stalled  round,  and  pretty  large,  and  divided  from  ye  nave 
by  a  very  elegant  screen,  finely  carved  and  gilt."  All  this  has 
been  at  some  time  "  restored  "  away,  and  doubtless  much  be- 
sides ;  the  base  and  support  of  the  old  lectern,  however,  still 
exist. 

The  brasses  were  once  numerous,  but  they  are  now  reduced 
to  seven,  one  being  only  an  inscription.  Several  have  dis- 
appeared during  the  last  150  years,  and  at  the  more  recent 
restoration  the  remainder  were  removed  from  their  slabs,  which 
are  now  buried  beneath  the  tiled  pavement  of  the  chancel. 
Lately  the  surviving  brasses  have  been  fixed  on  oak  and  fastened 
to  the  walls,  since  it  was  not  found  possible  to  replace  them  in 
their  old  positions.  A  brief  description  is  appended. 

1.  A  civilian,  circa  1480,  with  cap  and  scarf. 

2.  A  priest,  circa  1510,  robed  in  stole,  chasuble,  maniple, 
and  apparelled  alb,  and  amice,  and  holding  in  his  hands  a  host 
and  chalice  (see  illustration).     The  chalice  is  unusual,  in  that 
it  has  a  small  projecting  ornament  at  each  angle  of  the  foot. 
Mr.  Cripps,  in  his  took  on  old  English  plate,  says  that  such 
ornaments  usually,  though  not  invariably,  take  the  form  of  an 
ornamental  letter  M  (thus  indicating  the  name  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin),  and  that  only  fifteen    specimens  are   known.      Here, 
however,  there  is  no  resemblance  to  any  letter  of  the  alphabet. 

3.  A  civilian  and  wife  (scrolls  lost)  circa  1510. 

4.  A  civilian  (inscription  lost)  circa  1520. 

5.  A  woman,  1578.     This  is  a  good  example  of  costume. 
The  inscription  states  that  she  was  "  Jane  Bradbury,  wife  of 
Henry  Bradbury,  gent.,  and  daughter  of  one  Gyles  Poulton,  of 
Dysborough,  in  ye  Countie  of  Northaton,  gent."     Cole  tells  us 
that   in  his  time  there  were  also  effigies  of  a  son  and  three 


222  THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY. 

daughters,  and  under  them  the  arms,  "a  chevron  Er  :  int. 
three  buckles  for  Bradbury,  impaling  a  fess  int.  two  mullets  for 
Polton."  Henry  Bradbury,  the  husband,  owned  at  one  time 
the  manor  of  Catmere  Hall,  before  referred  to. 

6.  A  woman,  1624,  wearing  a  broad  brimmed  hat  with  a 
wreath  round  the  Crown,  and  dressed  in  a  ruffle  and  gown  with 
hanging  sleeves.     By  the  inscription,  she  was  Anne  Byrd,  wife 
of  Thomas  Byrd.     The  arms  are  lost,  but  were,  according  to 
Cole,    "  Qrty.    in  ye   ist  Qr.  an    eagle   displaid."     This   lady 
belonged  to  a  family  of  some  local  distinction,  which  included 
among  its  members  Sir  William  Ryrd,  Dean  of  Arches,  and 
Dr.  William  Bird,  Governor  of  Charterhouse,  1614. 

7.  An  inscription  as  follows  :   "  Hie  jacet  Jacobus  Edwards 
quodam  Satelles  de  Hadstock  et  Hadam  tune  |  hujus  Ville,  qui 
omni    morum    probitate  hoc    munus    gessit,    et    candidissimo 
Favo-  |  re  Domini  Redman  Episcopi  Eliens.  hoc  funts  (?)  officio 
tandem  fatali  Peste   pie  |  Expirans    1111°    Calendas  Octobris 
anno  Gracie  1522." 

James  Edwards,  who  died  of  the  plague  in  1522,  was 
evidently  some  sort  of  official  (satelles)  under  Bishop  Redman, 
of  Ely,  but  what  his  office  exactly  may  have  been  is  difficult  to 
say.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  and  postscript  from 
Strype,  the  famous  historian,  may  be  of  ,  interest  as  dealing 
with  the  question. 

"  To  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kilburne  at  Saffron  Walden, 

Leyton,  January  2ist,  1705. 

Sir, — I  thank  you  for  your  antient  and  curious  inscription. 
The  date  is  undoubtedly  1522.  The  figure  5  was  formerly 

made  after  that  manner But  at  the  word  satelles 

I   stick,  because  it  cannot  here  be  taken  in  the  common  sense 

of  the  word Hoc  Munus  puts  it  out  of  doubt 

that  it  was  some  office,  and  hence  I  first  thought  this  person 
might  have  been  a  guard  or  some  honourable  attendant  or 
sergeant  to  the  Bishop.  But  [there  are]  the  words  that  follow, 

de  Hadstock  and   Hadham and  so  he  might 

first  have  been  his  steward  for  Hadham,  as  afterwards  he  might 
be  steward  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely  for  your  village  of  Littlebury, 
tune  hujus  mile.  And  the  account  it  gives  of  his  honest  behaviour 
in  the  office  (Omni  Morum  Probitate  hoc  munus  gessit)  agrees 


THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY.  223 

with   the   office   of   steward.      But    I  acknowledge  I  am    not 
satisfied  with  this  signification  of  the  word,  though  I  cannot 

produce  a  better 

Your  affectionate  Brother,  and  humble  servant, 

JOH.  STRYPE. 

Sir, — I  fancy  the  engraver  was  mistaken  in  putting  the 
word  satelles  for  seneschallus  :  or,  unless  you  viewed  the  word 
exactly,  it  may  be  wrote  by  abbreviation  sen'allus,  for 
seneschallus,  which  sense  will  agree  with  what  follows,  as 
implying  great  trust,  viz.  omni  morum  Probitate,  etc.  But  as  for 
the  word  satelles  taken  in  a  military  sense,  I  never  heard  of  any 
such  office  under  the  Bishops  of  Ely,  and  if  taken  in  a  civil 
sense  for  bailiff,  or  rent-gatherer,  the  meaning  of  the  word  is 
new  and  altogether  forced 

We  will  not  presume  to  offer  an  opinion  as  to  the  precise 
rank  of  this  worthy  man,  but  will  pass  on  to  the  Church 
Registers,  which  commence  with  the  year  1559,  though  there 
is  a  transcript  dating  back  to  1545.  Unfortunately,  they 
contain  nothing  worthy  of  quotation,  save  perhaps  the  following 
allusion  to  the  Restoration  "  Januarie,  ye  6th  1660  after 
thirteene  years  and  halfe  sequestration  the  old  vicar  Henry 
Tucker  enters  againe  upon  the  vicarage  and  supplies  the  cure." 

Another  vicar,  John  Hutton,  became  the  first  Master  of 
Charterhouse,  the  famous  foundation  of  Thomas  Sutton. 

The  church  bells  are  six  in  number.  Originally  there  were 
four,  three  of  which  were  re-cast  in  1763,  and  the  fourth  in 
1789,  at  which  time  a  treble  was  added  in  commemoration  of 
the  recovery  of  George  III.  from  his  serious  illness.  It  was 
inscribed  with  the  following  couplet,  more  remarkable  for 
loyalty  of  sentiment  than  elegance  of  rhythm — "  Unfeigned 
praise  to  Heaven's  Almighty  King  for  health  restored  to  George 
the  Third  we  sing."  The  next  year  the  sixth  bell  was  added. 

And  now  this  paper  may  well  be  concluded  with  a  few  words 
about  the  one  famous  inhabitant  of  whom  Littlebury  can 
boast — Henry  Winstanley,  a  man  of  eccentric  genius  and 
quaint  conceits,  and  the  designer  and  builder  of  the  ill-fated 
Eddystone  Lighthouse,  which  was  blown  down  in  a  gale  in 
1703.  He  was  the  son  of  Charles  and  Penelope  Winstanley 
and  the  entry  of  his  baptism,  dated  I3th  October,  1677,  may 


224  THE    MANOR    AND    PARISH    OF    LITTLEBURY. 

be  found  in  the  register  of  Saffron  Walden  Church.  He  lived, 
however,  at  Littlebury,  which  is  distant  from  Saffron  Walden 
ij  miles.  A  few  mounds  are  all  that  now  remain  of  his 
house,  a  building  which  at  one  time  excited  a  considerable 
interest  in  the  neighbourhood.  Cole  describes  it  thus :  "  He 
built  also  near  ye  south  wall  of  ye  churchyard  a  very  handsom 
though  whimsical  house  of  brick,  in  every  room  of  which  was  some 
ingenious  contrivance  or  other,  but  these  oddities  are  now  out 
of  repair  and  useless,  and  the  house  is  let  to  a  gentleman  who 
resides  in  it.  In  some  of  the  rooms  were  easy  chairs,  which,  if 
anyone  had  the  curiosity  to  sit  down  in,  he  was  immediately 
conveyed  by  springs  and  pulleys  underground,  and  did  not  get 
out  of  them  till  he  was  at  ye  further  end  of  ye  garden.  Here 
was  likewise  an  attempt  to  show  perpetual  motion,  and  various 
other  contrivances  too  long  to  be  here  inserted."  Among  these 
contrivances  was  doubtless  a  brick  tunnel  under  the  river 
Granta,  a  fragment  of  which  is  still  visible  beneath  the  water. 
There  was  also  a  model  of  the  Eddystone  lighthouse,  for  Cole 
states  that  an  exact  model  of  it,  used  when  he  went  to  school 
to  Mr.  Butt's  at  Saffron  Walden,  "  some  20  years  since,  to  stand 
in  a  field  to  ye  south  of  ye  church  about  two  furlongs."  In 
reference  to  this  model,  there  was  a  tradition,  that  at  the  time 
of  the  fatal  storm,  Mrs.  Winstanley  was  at  Littlebury,  and 
nervous  and  anxious  for  her  husband  became  imbued  with  a 
presentiment  that  the  safety  of  the  great  light-house  on  the 
Eddystone,  was  bound  up  with  the  preservation  of  the  little 
model  in  her  garden.  One  morning  she  awoke  to  find  that  the 
latter  had  succumbed  to  the  violence  of  a  sudden  gale,  and  she 
at  once  abandoned  hope  and  resigned  herself  to  the  belief  that 
she  would  never  see  her  husband's  face  again.  Only  too  surely 
was  her  premonition  realised.  For  that  night  the  lighthouse, 
a  fantastic  structure  and  as  little  suited  as  a  Chinese  pagoda 
to  withstand  the  fury  of  a  storm,  was  swept  away,  and  with 
it  perished  its  ill-fated  founder. 

Winstanley's  fertile  imagination  had  brought  him  no  fortune, 
and  his  widow  was  left  without  provision.  In  the  end  she  was 
forced  to  desecrate  her  husband's  house,  with  its  store  of 
mechanical  freaks  and  fanciful  inventions,  by  opening  it  as  a 
place  of  attraction,  to  the  public.  We  quote  from  the  Essex 


THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE.  225 

Review  (Vol.  ii.  p.  63),  the  following  advertisement,  which  is 
copied  from  the  Postboy  of  December  18,  1712.  "  The  fam'd 
house  of  the  late  ingenious  Mr.  Winstanley  is  opened  and 
shown  for  the  benefit  of  his  widow,  with  all  the  curiosities  as 
formerly  ;  and  is  lately  butifi'd  and  well  furnish'd,  and  several 
new  additions  made  by  her;  it  is  on  the  Coach  Road  to 
Cambridge,  Newmarket,  Berry,  Norwich,  Lynn  and  Yarmouth, 
and  is  shown  for  izd.  each,  and  to  liverymen  6d.  This  is 
known  by  a  lanthorn  on  the  top  of  it ;  and  was  built  and 
contrived  by  the  same  Winstanley  that  made  the  famous 
Water  Theater  at  the  lower  end  of  Piccadily  near  Hide  Park, 
and  are  both  in  possession  of  his  widow." 


THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

BY  THE  EDITOR. 
(Continued  from  p.  124). 

Buntingford. — Order,  made  at  "The  Bear"  inn  at  Cambridge, 
21  April,  1652,  in  a  suit  brought  by  Thomas  and  Charles 
Hobson  on  behalf  of  the  "  poor  kindred  "  of  Thomas  Hobson, 
of  Cambridge,  carrier,  deceased,  and  "  the  poor  inhabitants  " 
of,  inter  alia,  Buntingford,  against  Christopher  Rose,  gentleman, 
executor  of  the  last  mentioned  Thomas. 

The  testator  by  his  will,  dated  24  December,  1630,  and  by 
codicil  dated  i  May,  1631,  gave  the  residue  of  his  estate  to  his 
daughter,  Anne  Knight,  and  to  his  grand-children,  the  aforesaid 
Thomas  and  Charles  Hobson,  "to  be  distributed  amongst  his 
poor  kinsfolk  and  the  poor  people"  of,  inter  alia,  Buntingford. 

The  said  executor  had  withheld  of  the  said  residue  the  sum 
of  i,74O/.  155.  5^.  for  twenty  years  past,  and  it  was  ordered 
that  he  should  pay  that  sum,  with  interest  at  the  rate  of  five 
per  cent,  by  the  year,  to  the  afore-named  Charles  and  Thomas, 
to  be  distributed  as  aforesaid.  No  direction  is  given  as  to  the 
investment  of  the  money.  (Petty  Bag  Charity  Inquisition. 
Bundle  27,  No.  5). 

Broxbourne  and  Hoddesdon. — Inquisition  taken  at  Broxbourne 
3  June,  1653.  The  jury  say  that  Mr.  William  Thorogood,  by 
his  will,  dated  6  August,  1602,  gave  to  his  son  Thomas  (whom 
he  made  one  of  his  executors)  his  heirs  and  assigns,  the  yearly 
rents  of  40$.  and  i6s.  from  two  houses  in  the  parish  of  St. 


226  THE    CHARITIES    OF    HERTFORDSHIRE. 

Antholin,  in  the  city  of  London,  on  condition  that,  so  long  as 
the  religion  then  established  continued,  they  should  pay  yearly 
to  the  churchwardens  of  the  parish  of  Broxbourne  the  said  rent 
of  405.,  to  be  given  by  those  churchwardens  to  the  vicar,  or 
some  other  godly,  learned,  or  religious  preacher,  to  preach  six 
sermons  in  the  said  parish  church  or  in  the  chapel  of 
Hoddesdon.  After  the  death  of  the  executors  the  rent  was  to 
be  applied,  at  the  discretion  of  the  said  churchwardens,  and  six 
of  "the  chiefest  and  most  substantial  parishioners,"  who  had 
been  churchwardens,  for  preaching  six  "godly  and  religious" 
sermons  in  the  parish  church  of  Broxbourne,  or  in  the  chapel 
of  Hoddesdon. 

The  jury  said  that  both  the  executors  named  were  dead,  and 
that  the  two  houses  had  descended  to  Elizabeth  Rawden,  sole 
daughter  of  the  executor  Thomas  Thorogood,  and  the  arrears  of 
the  405.  rent  amounted  to  38/.,  and  ought  to  be  paid  by  the  said 
Elizabeth. 

The  jury  further  found  that  the  said  i6s.  a  year  rent  was 
bequeathed  for  the  repair  of  the  windows  of  the  parish  church 
of  Broxbourne,  and  that  the  arrears  of  that  rent  amounted  to 
4/.,  and  ought  to  be  paid  by  the  said  Elizabeth. 

The  jury  further  found  that  Bevill  Mouldsworth,  Esq.,  by 
his  will,  gave  50$.  a  year  "to  the  parish  of  Broxbourne"  in 
these  words  :  "  Whereas  I  have  certain  poor  houses  lying  in 

the  parish  of  Broxbourne at  a  rent  of  50$.  a 

year  "  ;  20$.  of  this  rent  was  to  be  paid  yearly  to  the  vicar  of 
Broxbourne  for  preaching  a  sermon,  "  by  way  of  commemo- 
ration," of  the  testator  in  the  said  parish  church  ;  2os.  yearly 
to  be  divided  to  such  "poor  persons"  of  the  said  parish,  who 
should  be  present  at  that  sermon,  and  "  present  themselves  "  to 
the  vicar  and  churchwardens  to  receive  it;  and  the  los.  balance 
was  to  be  bestowed  upon  the  said  tenements,  and  upon  the 
"  fayre  and  descent  mayntayning  of  the  pavements  in  the 
church,  about  the  stone "  under  which  the  testator's  body 
should  be  buried. 

The  jury  found  that  Martha  Mouldsworth  was  the  testator's 
widow  and  executrix,  and  received  the  said  rent  till  about  13 
years  before  the  date  of  the  enquiry  when  the  houses  were 
accidentally  burnt ;  that  she  had  till  then  duly  paid  the  said 
2os.  and  205.,  but  not  the  said  los.  They  also  said  that  after 
the  said  fire  there  remained  unconsumed,  a  great  quantity  of 
bricks  and  other  materials  worth  about  405.  which  she  converted 
to  her  own  use.  The  said  Martha  was  dead,  and  the  said 
Elizabeth  Rawden  was  her  executrix. 

The  Order  states  that  the  said  Elizabeth  appeared,  by 
counsel,  and  informed  the  commissioners  that  the  said  rents  of 


First  floor. 

Half  plan  through  pilaster  and  jamb. 
Quarter  full  size. 


nn 


mm 


r     ~j 

[^w— — ~ qv-jll 


Pilaster,  first  floor. 


floo 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  227 

405.  and  i6s.  had  been  paid  by  her  to  Mr.  Thomas  Hassell,  "  a 
godly,  learned,  and  religious  preacher  "  for  preaching,  yearly, 
six  sermons  in  Hoddesdon  chapel,  until  about  five  years 
before  the  date  of  the  enquiry ;  whereby  the  will  of  the  said 
William  Thorogood  had  been  performed,  "though  not  according 
to  the  express  letter."  She  also  contended  that  she  did  not  own 
the  houses  (from  which  the  rents  arose)  under  the  will  in 
question,  but  by  conveyance  from  her  said  father,  Thomas 
Thorogood,  who  was  himself  a  purchaser  thereof  from  the 
Crown  ;  and  she,  therefore,  denied  her  liability  to  pay  over  the 
rents,  etc. 

The  Commissioners  held  that  the  said  Elizabeth  possessed 
this  property  by  descent,  that  there  was  no  proof  of  any  such 
conve}rance  ac  that  alleged,  and  that  the  payment  by  the  said 
Elizabeth  to  Mr.  Hassell  was  a  "  misemployment "  of  the  money 
left  by  her  grandfather  [i.e.,  that  it  was  not  bestowed,  after  the 
executor's  death,  by  the  churchwardens,  etc.,  of  Broxbourne] . 

It  was,  therefore,  ordered  that  the  said  Elizabeth,  her  heirs 
and  assigns,  should  pay  to  the  churchwardens  of  Broxbourne 
the  sum  of  38/.,  the  arrears  of  the  said  405.  yearly  rent,  and  4/. 
the  arrears  of  the  said  i6s.,  and  continue  to  pay  the  said  sum 
of  405.  and  1 6s.  "  forever  hereafter." 

With  regard  to  Mouldsworth's  gift  it  was  ordered  that  the 
said  Elizabeth  should  pay  all  arrears  to  the  churchwardens  of 
Broxbourne,  to  be  by  them  employed  towards  building  a 
tenement  or  dwelling-house  on  the  site  of  the  tenements 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  that  the  rent  received  therefrom  should 
be,  by  the  said  churchwardens,  for  ever  employed  according  to 
the  will  of  the  said  Bevill  Mouldsworth.  (Ibid.  Bundle  22, 
No.  2). 


No.   17,    FLEET    STREET,    SOMETIMES   CALLED 
THE    INNER    TEMPLE    GATE-HOUSE. 

BY  PHILIP  NORMAN,  TREAS.  S.A. 

1  LL  of  us  who  take  any  interest  in  the  architectural  relics 
£JL  of  old  London  are  familiar  with  that  notable  house — 
No.  17,  Fleet  Street,  extending  over  the  Inner  Temple 
Gateway,  which,  through  the  energetic  action  of  the  London 
County  Council,  aided  by  the  City  authorities,  has  been 
secured,  in  part  at  least,  for  the  pleasure  and  instruction  of  our 
own  and  future  generations.  With  the  exception  of  Crosby 


228  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

Hall,*  it  is  perhaps  the  oldest  house  in  the  city,  and  from  its 
architectural  merit  alone  well  worthy  of  preservation.  Besides, 
it  has  an  interesting  history,  and  one  by  no  means  easy  to 
unravel ;  therefore,  in  spite  of  the  many  previous  allusions 
which  have  found  their  way  into  print,  I  venture  to  make  it  the 
subject  of  an  article. 

First  as  to  the  actual  structure.  The  house,  until  quite 
recently,  occupied  a  considerable  space  along  the  east  side  of 
Inner  Temple  Lane,  but  the  back  part,  with  one  staircase,  had 
already  been  pulled  down  before  it  was  suggested  that  the 
London  County  Council  should  save  from  demolition  the  far 
more  interesting  portion  which  remains.  The  existing  front 
has  been  much  modernised.  The  massive  rusticated  arch,  with 
the  Pegasus  of  the  Inner  Temple  on  the  spandrels,  is  thoroughly 
Jacobean  in  character,  as  are  the  carved  wooden  panels  between 
the  first  and  second  floor  windows,  two  of  which  are 
ornamented  with  plumes  of  feathers;  but  all  the  rest  of  the 
front  now  visible  from  Fleet  Street  is  of  comparatively  recent 
date.  Inside,  fortunately,  there  are  fragments  which  prove  to 
us  what  was  the  appearance  of  the  original  building.  The  first 
storey,  overhanging  the  ground-floor  and  archway,  but  con- 
siderably less  than  at  present,  had  carved  pilasters  at  the  sides, 
and  two  bay  windows  with  transoms,  which  were  divided  in  the 
middle  by  a  similar  pilaster.  The  second  storey  projected  gj 
inches  beyond  the  first,  the  bay  windows  being  carried  up. 
Here  again  a  fragment  of  a  carved  pilaster  has  been  found,  and 
remains  of  the  other  two  are  probably  in  existence  behind  the 
modern  house  front.  Mr.  W.  A.  Webb  lately  made  most  careful 
measured  drawings  of  these  features  in  the  building,  which  had 
not  before  been  studied,  and  he  has  kindly  allowed  me  to  use 
them  for  purposes  of  illustration.  We  give  here  a  view  of  the 
house  with  the  windows  still  unaltered ;  it  seems  fairly  accurate, 
and  appears,  with  other  views,  on  a  map  by  Bowles,  issued  late 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  is  doubtless  very  much  older. 
I  have  not  yet  come  across  it  as  a  separate  print. 

When  the  house  was  remodelled,  now  long  ago,  the  old 
front  was  completely  covered  and  concealed  by  a  new  one 

*  We  might  mention,  also,  part  of  the  Charterhouse  Buildings,  used  for 
some  time  as  a  private  dwelling  by  members  of  the  Howard  family. 


n&s  near  ~v  Temple  Gate  in.  Tie  e 


Earliest  known  view  of  No.    17,  Fleet  Street. 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  229 

brought  slightly  forward,  and  projecting  equally  before  the 
rooms  of  the  first  and  second  floors ;  the  bays  being  removed. 
The  present  flat  windows  were  inserted  and  the  original  panels 
re-arranged.  On  the  first  floor  there  is  a  space  of  about  i  foot 
9  inches  between  the  old  front  and  the  present  one.  The  top 
storey  or  attic,  structurally  but  little  changed,  consists  of  two 
gables  with  their  tiled  roofs  slightly  hipped.  This  hipping 
back  is,  however,  a  modern  alteration  as  is  proved  by  an 
engraving  of  Prattent's  in  the  European  Magazine,  vol.  x, 
1786,  where  the  bay  windows  have  already  disappeared,  the 
front  being  arranged  as  at  present,  but  the  points  of  the 
gables  are  not  hipped.  The  gables  stand  back  about  seven 
feet  from  the  frontage  of  the  second  floor ;  thus  there  is 
a  platform,  which,  in  Prattent's  view  is  shown  protected 
by  a  railing  with  turned  balusters,  and  must  have  formed  a 
pleasant  and  useful  adjunct  to  the  building ;  but  all  this  is  now 
concealed  by  a  screen  of  a  more  or  less  temporary  nature,  built 
up  so  as  to  form  a  small  front  room.  The  old  houses  near  St. 
Dunstan's  church,  numbered  184  and  185  Fleet  Street,  had 
platforms  of  this  kind ;  and  there  is  a  gabled  wooden  house, 
still  standing  on  the  east  side  of  Bishopsgate  Street  Without, 
which  has  a  similar  arrangement. 

Passing  through  the  shop,  from  which  all  trace  of  age  has 
been  eliminated,  one  mounts  by  a  staircase,  with  massive  turned 
balusters,  which  may  be  original,  to  the  first  floor,  where  is  a 
room  facing  the  street  and  occupying  the  whole  width  of  the 
house.  It  is  nearly  square,  being  about  23ft.  in  length  from 
east  to  west,  about  2oft.  in  breadth,  and  loft.  6in.  high.  This 
room  contains  two  features  of  very  great  interest.  The  west 
end  has  fine  oak  panelling,  while  its  frieze  or  cornice  and  two 
pilasters  of  the  same  material  richly  carved,  are  good  examples 
of  early  seventeenth  century  design.  But  the  glory  of  the 
room  is  the  plaster  ceiling  elaborately  ornamented ;  as  far  as  I 
am  aware,  the  only  specimen  of  the  kind  now  left  in  the  city, 
though  there  was  one  very  similar  in  Oldbourn  Hall,  Shoe 
Lane,  with  the  date  1617,  and  another  quite  recently  of  some- 
what earlier  date  in  Sir  Paul  Pindar's  house,  Bishopsgate  Street 
Without.  There  was  also  a  fragment  in  Crosby  Hall  Chambers. 

As  the  art  of  decorative  plaster-work  was  one  for  which 


230  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

Englishmen  were  famous,  I  may  here  perhaps  be  allowed  a 
slight  digression.  Our  mediaeval  plasterers  were  fine  craftsmen ; 
but  the  kind  of  ornamental  stucco  work  so  well  exemplified  in 
this  ceiling  did  not  come  into  fashion  in  England  until  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII.,  being  first  produced  by  Italians  at  his  palace  of 
Nonsuch.  Used  both  for  internal  and  external  decoration,  it 
was  soon  taken  up  by  native  workmen,  who  seem  to  have 
travelled  about  the  country  more  or  less  supplying  their  own 
designs.  The  first  Englishman,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  who  is 
known  to  have  practised  this  art,  was  Charles  Williams,  who  in 
1547  offered  his  services  at  Longleat  to  supply  internal  plaster 
decorations  "after  the  Italian  fashion";  he  may  have  been 
employed  at  Nonsuch.  Our  English  plasterers  soon  learned 
to  excel,  and  most  houses  of  importance,  built  during  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.,  were  adorned,  to  some  extent 
at  least,  with  their  work.  Some  of  the  late  Gothic  roofs  of 
Henry  Vllth's  reign,  with  their  radiating  ribs  and  pendentives, 
at  first  no  doubt  helped  to  give  suggestions.  Geometric  patterns 
of  projecting  ribs,  as  a  rule,  formed  the  basis  of  the  designs, 
which  soon  became  highly  varied ;  small  emblems,  armorial 
bearings  and  personal  devices  being  used  to  fill  up  vacant  spaces 
in  these  patterns.  In  the  earlier  work  the  ribs  were  plainly 
moulded  after  the  manner  of  groin  ribs,  but  later  their  flat 
surfaces  were  ornamented.  The  ceiling  of  No.  17,  Fleet  Street 
is  of  this  kind.  In  what  seems  to  have  been  the  centre  of  the 
principal  design,  enclosed  by  a  star-shaped  border,  are  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  feathers  and  the  letters  P.H.  Surrounding 
the  centre  is  a  well  arranged  system  of  patterns  with  appropriate 
ornament.  Along  the  south  side  of  the  room  a  series  of  small 
oblong  panels  occur,  forming  no  necessary  part  of  the  general 
design  ;  on  one  of  them  are  the  arms  of  the  Vintner's  Company 
— a  chevron  between  three  tuns.  There  is,  however,  no  record 
of  this  Company  having  been  connected  with  the  house ;  perhaps 
its  first  owner  belonged  to  the  Company,  but  the  early  lists  of 
members  were  destroyed  in  the  Great  Fire.  The  ceiling  is  now 
elaborately  coloured ;  and  although  the  paint  has,  no  doubt, 
been  renewed  again  and  again,  and  the  delicacy  of  the  ornament 
is  thereby  somewhat  obliterated,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
there  is  here  something  of  the  original  effect,  for  in  the  old 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  231 

stucco  work  colour  and  gilding  were  largely  employed.  Spenser 
reminds  us  of  this  in  his  well-known  lines  :— 

"  Gold  was  the  parget,  and  the  ceiling  bright, 
Did  shine  all  scaly  with  great  plates  of  gold." 

A  striking  characteristic  of  the  Fleet  Street  ceiling  is  the 
extraordinary  tenacity  with  which  it  holds  together,  though  in 
parts  it  has  sunk  many  inches.  This  is  owing  to  the  fine  quality 
of  the  plaster,  far  superior  to  any  now  produced,  perhaps  also 
to  an  admixture  of  hair  and  of  some  glutinous  substance  which 
holds  it  together.  Among  his  excellent  illustrations  of  "  Van- 
ishing London,"  Mr.  Roland  Paul  has  given  a  measured  drawing 
of  this  ceiling,  in  which  it  is  shown  that  a  strip  of  decorative 
plaster  work  at  the  east  end  has  disappeared,  the  ceiling  in  this 
part  now  being  unadorned.  There  is,  however,  just  space  for 
sufficient  ornament  to  make  it  correspond  with  that  which  is 
opposite.  The  mantelpiece  of  wood  and  marble,  at  the  east 
of  the  room,  dates  from  the  eighteenth  century,  which  is  also 
the  case  with  the  panelling  on  that  side.  The  panelling  on  the 
south  side,  though  not  precisely  similar,  is  also  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  the  wall  here  is  partly  an  external  one,  the  room 
extending  over  the  Inner  Temple  Gateway. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  the  historical  associations  of  this 
old  Gate-house  ;  and  first  a  few  words  on  the  great  legal  foun- 
dation with  which  it  is  to  a  great  extent  associated.  That  part 
of  the  district  lying  between  Fleet  Street  and  the  Thames, 
which  is  called  the  Temple,  was  the  home  of  the  Knights 
Templars  in  London  from  1184,  till  "they  decayed  through 
pride  "  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century.  After  their 
downfall  it  came  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  by 
whom  the  Inner  and  Middle  Temples  were  leased  to  the  students 
of  the  Common  Law.  No  change  in  their  tenure  took  place 
when,  at  the  dissolution  of  religious  houses,  the  property  passed 
to  the  Crown  ;  but  in  1608  James  I.,  by  letters  patent,  granted 
it,  at  a  nominal  rent,  to  certain  high  legal  officials  and  to  the 
benchers  and  their  successors  for  ever.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
in  Wolsey's  young  days,  when  he  came  to  take  possession  of 
the  benefice  of  Lymington,  in  Hampshire,  Sir  Amyas  Paulet 
clapped  him  in  the  stocks,  and  that,  many  years  afterwards, 
when  he  was  chancellor,  in  revenge  for  the  indignity  which 
had  once  been  put  upon  him,  he  ordered  Paulet,  then  treasurer 


232  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

of  the  Middle  Temple,  not  to  quit  London  without  leave,  and  so 
the  latter  had  to  live  in  the  Middle  Temple  for  five  or  six  years. 
To  propitiate  Wolsey,  when  the  Gateway  was  restored  he  is 
said  to  have  placed  over  the  front  of  it  the  cardinal's  arms,  hat, 
and  other  insignia.  This  tends  to  show  the  early  existence  of 
the  Middle  Temple  Gate-house,  which  was  re-built  by  Wren  as 
it  now  appears  in  1684.  The  Inner  Temple  Records  tell  us 
how,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Temple  Authorities,  28  Jan.,  1538-39, 
"  hit  was  agreid  that  a  nue  yate  shalbe  made  corny ng  from  the 
streitt  to  the  Tempell."  It  does  not  appear,  however,  to  which 
gate  this  applies.  In  Ralph  Agas's  plan  of  London,  thought 
by  the  best  authorities  to  have  been  prepared  not  earlier  than 
the  year  1591,  the  Middle  Temple  Gate-house  and  Lane  are 
marked  quite  distinctly,  but  there  are  no  signs  of  an  Inner 
Temple  Gate-house;  and  Mr.  Pitt  Lewis,  Q.C.,  in  his  "History 
of  the  Temple,"  p.  79,  says  : — "  Tanfield  Court  had  been  erected 
20  Henry  VIII.,  but  with  this  exception  the  Inner  Temple  had 
no  buildings  of  importance,  nor  gateway  into  the  Strand.  In 
1610  a  gateway  was  opened."  Nevertheless,  one  probably 
existed  long  before,  as  seems  proved  by  the  following  extract 
from  the  Inner  Temple  Records,  a  Calendar  of  which  has  been 
printed  under  the  able  editorship  of  Mr.  F.  A.  Inderwick,  Q.C. 

Inner  Temple,  Parliament  held  on  loth  June,  8  James  I.,  A.D. 
1610,  before  Andrew  Gray,  Ralph  Radcliffe,  Hugh  Hare,  George 
Wylde,  John  Hare,  Richard  Brownelowe,  William  Towse,  Edward 
Prideaux,  and  others ;  George  Croke,  treasurer. 

"  Whereas  John  Bennett,  one  of  the  King's  sergeants-at-arms, 
has  petitioned  that  the  Inner  Temple  Gate,  in  some  vacation  after  a 
reading,  may  be  stopped  up  for  a  month  or  six  weeks  in  order  that 
it  may  be  rebuilt,  together  with  his  house  called  the  Prince's  Arms, 
adjoining  to  and  over  the  said  gate  and  lane,  and  that  he  may  jettie 
over  the  gate  towards  the  street.  Which  building  over  the  gate  and 
lane  will  be  in  length  from  the  street  backwards  19  feet  upon  the 
ground,  besides  the  'jettie'  towards  the  street,  which  will  be  2  feet 
4  inches  besides  the  window.  And  in  consideration  of  the  same 
being  granted,  the  said  Bennett  promised  to  raise  the  gate  and  walls 
thereof  to  be  in  height,  1 1  feet  and  in  breadth  9  feet,  and  to  make 
the  same  according  to  a  plot  under  his  hand,  to  make  the  gates  new 
(he  being  allowed  the  old  gates),  and  he  will  pave  the  street  against 
the  said  house  and  gate."  Calendar  of  Inner  Temple  Records, 
vol  ii.  p.  51. 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  233 

Permission  was  accordingly  granted  and  the  work  soon 
afterwards  carried  out.  This  document,  therefore,  shows  clearly 
the  age  of  the  present  Gate-House,  and  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  built,  with  its  stories  "  jettying,"  or  jutting,  over 
the  pavement  in  front.  It  also  furnishes  an  explanation  of  the 
plumes  of  feathers,  outside  and  on  the  ceiling,  and  of  the 
initials  P.  H.,  which  apply  to  Henry,  elder  son  of  James  I., 
and  Prince  of  Wales  when  the  house  was  rebuilt,  and  would 
have  been  put  there  in  compliment  to  him.  For  although  it  is 
true  that,  strictly  speaking,  a  plume  of  feathers  borne  in  a  coronet 
represents  the  Prince's  badge  and  not  his  arms,  sufficient 
reason  for  their  existence  here  is  doubtless  supplied  by  the 
fact  that,  as  appears  from  the  above  extract,  the  house  on  this 
site,  even  before  the  present  structure,  was  called  the  Prince's 
Arms. 

There  is,  however,  a  strong  belief  that  this  house — No.  17, 
Fleet  Street,  was  originally  the  office  and  council  chamber  of 
the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  and  the  reason  for  this,  apart  from  or 
in  addition  to  the  presence  of  the  plumes  of  feathers  and  initials, 
is  the  fact  that  in  the  various  seventeenth  century  documents 
proof  is  given  that  there  was  a  "  Prince's  Council  Chamber  " 
in  Fleet  Street.  One  with  this  heading  is  mentioned  in  the 
Calendar  of  the  State  Papers  (Vol.  X.,  1619-23),  edited  by  Mrs. 
Green  and  Mr.  Robert  Lemon.  It  is  an  order  of  the  Council 
of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall  to  the  keepers  of  Brancepeth,  Raby, 
and  Barnard  Castles,  the  date  being  February  25,  1619.  More 
important  still  is  a  proclamation,  now  at  the  Record  Office, 
dated  1635,  which  runs  thus : — "Our  pleasure  is"  that  those  of 
our  subjects  who  seek  to  have  defective  titles  made  good  shall, 
before  Hilary  term  next,  ''repair  to  our  now  Commissioners  at 
a  house  in  Fleet  Street  (where  our  Commissioners  for  our 
Revenue  while  we  were  Prince  of  Wales  did  usually  meet) 
where  our  now  Commissioners  will  have  their  frequent  meetings." 
Other  such  examples  could  be  given  from  documents  at  the 
present  office  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall.  Here,  amidst  a  few 
original  records,  are  eleven  volumes  of  old  copies,  entitled  "Acts 
of  Council,  Prince  Charles,"  1615  to  1625.  Transcribed  from 
the  first  minutes  or  memoranda  of  what  took  place  at  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Council,  they  are  dated  from  various  places.  Among 

Q 


234  No-    !7»    FLEET    STREET. 

them  several  of  the  year  1617  are  from  "the  Counsell  Chamber 
in  Fleete  Streete";  there  is  also  one,  dated  from  "the  Commis- 
sion Howse  in  Fleet  Street,"  on  June  22,  1625,  a  few  weeks 
after  Charles  ascended  the  throne.  Besides  these  bound  volumes 
of  memoranda,  there  are  many  old  copies  of  warrants,*  dated 
between  the  years  1625  and  1641.  Again,  at  the  Record  Office, 
is  a  volume  in  which  are  bound  successive  letters  of  the  Council. 
Among  them  are  letters  of  various  dates  from  June  20,  1620,  to 
April  25,  1621,  which  were  written  at  "the  Council  Chamber 
in  Fleet  Street."  It  has  thus  been  shown  that  there  are  plenty 
of  references  to  a  Council  Chamber  in  Fleet  Street  between  the 
years  1617  and  1625,  described  as  "  His  Majesty's  Commission 
House  "  from  the  time  that  Charles  I.  ascended  the  throne  in 
the  latter  year,  until,  at  the  earliest,  1641 ;  although  not  one  has 
yet  been  forthcoming  of  the  time  of  Henry  Prince  of  Wales, 
whose  initials  appear  on  the  ceiling. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  strong  reason  for  supposing  that 
the  Council  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  during  part  of  this 
period  at  least,  had  no  regular  office,  but  transacted  its  business 
in  various  hired,  leased,  or  lent  places.  Thus,  beginning  October 
14,  1615,  and  continuing  through  part  of  1616  are  letters  and 
minutes  dated  from  Salisbury  Court  (near  the  bottom  of  Fleet 
Street).  November  25,  1617,  is  the  date  of  a  meeting  at  "  the 
Dutchie  Howse,"  which  is  mentioned  again  in  the  following 
year,  while  a  letter  of  February  22,  1619-20  is  written  from 
Whitehall,  and  in  1622  and  1623  papers  are  dated  from  "  the 
Counsell  Chamber  at  Denmark  House,  in  the  Strand." 

Some  seventeenth  century  documents  relating  to  the  Duchyt 

*  These  warrants  deal  indiscriminately  with  the  Manors  belonging"  to 
the  Crown  and  the  Duchy,  because  Charles  I.  (who  no  doubt  wanted  the 
revenue),  did  not  give  up  possession  of  the  Duchy  to  his  eldest  son  until 
January  i3th,  1645.  His  own  case  had  been  somewhat  similar,  Prince 
Henry  dying  in  November,  1612,  whereas  Charles  did  not  succeed  to  the 
revenue  of  the  Duchy  till  June  21,  1615.  It  may  be  mentioned  by  the 
way,  that  the  eldest  son  of  the  reigning  monarch  is  born  Duke  of  Cornwall, 
but  created  Prince  of  Wales.  The  only  grandson  who  has  ever  held  the 
title  was  Richard  JI.  after  the  death  of  his  father,  the  Black  Prince,  and 
that  was  by  special  charter. 

t  It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  note  that  from  the  time  of  Charles  I. 
until  the  Hanoverian  succession  the  title  of  Duke  of  Cornwall  remained  in 
abeyance,  because  it  happens  that  for  this  long  period  there  was  no  one 
recognised  as  eldest  son  of  the  reigning  monarch.  The  regular 
minutes,  now  preserved  at  the  office  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  begin  in 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  235 

were  issued  at  places  other  than  London — at  Windsor,  Wan- 
stead,  etc.  If,  immediately  before  the  advent  of  the  common- 
wealth, the  Duchy,  had  possessed  a  house  (its  own  freehold)  for 
the  purposes  of  its  office,  that  house  would  have  been  sold  by  the 
Parliament  (1646-1650)  as  King's  or  Prince's  forfeited  property, 
or  at  least  would  have  been  mentioned  in  the  careful  survey  of 
the  Duchy's  possessions  then  made  and  still  in  existence.  There 
is  a  deed  of  sale  of  the  "  Duchy  House  in  the  Savoy  "  (that  is 
the  home  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster),  but  no  sale  of  the  house 
or  office  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall.  And  there  is  neither  record 
forthcoming  of  that  Duchy  having  owned  a  house  in  Fleet 
Street,  nor  of  their  having  rented  one,  although,  if  they  had 
done  so  for  any  length  of  time,  surely  some  notice  of  the  fact 
would  have  been  preserved.  The  most  that  we  can  say  at 
present,  pending  the  possible  discovery  of  further  documents,  is 
that,  on  and  off,  from  1617  to  1625,  tne  Commissioners  of  the 
Duchy  of  Cornwall,  afterwards  until  1641  or  later,  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  King's  Revenue,  met  at  an  office  in  Fleet 
Street,  and  that  this  office  lent  or  hired,  was  perhaps  the  hand- 
somely decorated  first-floor  room  of  the  Inner  Temple  Gate 
House,  which  had  been  built  by  John  Bennett  on  the  site  of 
his  previous  house  called  the  Prince's  Arms ;  the  sign  being 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that,  until  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  plan  of  numbering  houses  not  having 
been  invented,  it  was  necessary  to  give  to  each  one  its  special 
designation.  As  a  somewhat  parallel  case,  we  know  that  in 
the  sixteenth  century  there  were  houses  called  the  "  Talbott  " 
and  the  "  Olyvaunte"  (or  Elephant),  within  the  precinct  of  the 
Inner  Temple.  Here  I  would  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that 
this  gentleman  was  not  a  legal  Serjeant,  but  a  "  King's  sergeant- 
at-arms"  (the  patent  granting  him  this  office,  is  still  in  exis- 
tence), and  that  it  would  have  been  one  of  his  duties  to  keep 
prisoners  in  safe  custody  at  his  house  or  elsewhere.  His  will 

1715.  The  first  is  dated  from  "  the  Prince's  Councell  Chambers,  Whitehall," 
others  of  the  same  year  are  from  St.  James's,  and  they  are  continued  un- 
interruptedly till  now.  By  an  act  passed  in  1775  the  office  of  the  Duchy 
was  established  in  the  present  Somerset  House,  which,  however,  was  not 
begun  until  the  following  year.  This  office  being  required  for  the  Inland 
Revenue  Department,  a  piece  of  land  near  Buckingham  Palace  was  pur- 
chased, and  the  present  office  built  in  1854,  from  the  designs  of  Sir  James 
Pennethorne. 


236  ESSEX    CHARITIES. 

was  proved,  August  10,  1631.  In  it  he  is  described  as  "  Ser- 
giant-at-Armes  to  our  Souveraigne  Lord  the  King,"  from  whom 
he  claims  TOO/.  He  owned  a  little  property  at  Farnham  and  at 
Southampton,  but  there  is  no  mention  of  the  house  in  Fleet 
Street;  so  doubtless  he  had  parted  with  his  interest  in  it.  One 
of  his  executors — Ralph  Marshe — is  described  as  "citizen  and 
vintner,"  which  strengthens  the  idea  that  Bennett  was  con- 
nected in  some  way  with  the  Vintner's  Company.  The  inquisi- 
tion on  him  is  taken  at  the  Quest  House  in  St.  Clement  Danes. 
Before  quitting  this  branch  of  the  subject  I  would  add  that 
the  design  of  the  Inner  Temple  Gate  House  has  of  late  been 
attributed  to  Inigo  Jones,  partly  because  in  1610  he  was 
appointed  Surveyor  General  to  Henry  Prince  of  Wales  ;  but 
as  the  house  was  built  for  John  Bennett,  this  fact  does  not 
increase  the  probability  of  its  being  his  work. 
(To  be  continued). 


ESSEX    CHARITIES. 

(Continued  from  p.  120). 

BERGHOLT,    COLCHESTER,    MUCH    AND    LITTLE    HORKSLEY, 
BOXTED    AND    LEXDEN. 

Inquisition  taken  at  the  Lion  at  Kelvedon,  12  August,  43  Eliz. 
[A.D.  1601].  It  was  found  that  Robert  Frankham,  of  the  parish  of 
St.  Nicholas,  Colchester,  by  his  will  dated  20  July,  1577,  demised  a 
messuage  or  tenement  called  Nycolls,  in  West  Bergholt  to  Alice,  his 
wife,  for  her  life,  on  condition  that  she  gave  to  the  maintenance  of 
an  "  Allmesse  House  "  in  Bergholt  aforesaid,  if  any  should  be  there 
erected  within  two  years  then  next  following,  the  sum  of  35.  4^.;  and 
if  the  said  house  should  not  be  so  erected  that  then  the  said  sum 
should  be  given  to  "the  collectors  for  the  poor"  of  the  said  parish  to 
the  use  of  the  poor,  yearly,  so  long  as  she  should  live.  He  also 
willed  that  after  the  decease  of  his  said  wife  the  premises  should  go 
to  his  daughter,  Elizabeth  and  the  heirs  of  her  body  under  the 
condition  that  they  should  give  yearly  either  to  an  almshouse,  or  to 
the  use  of  the  poor,  35.  4^.  If  the  said  Elizabeth  should  die  without 
heir,  then  the  churchwardens  of  Bergholt,  "with  four  other  honest 
men  appointed  and  chosen  by  the  said  parish,"  should  appoint  a 
tenant  for  the  said  messuage  or  tenement  and  keep  it  in  repair,  and 
out  of  the  rent  thereof  give  yearly  to  "  the  poor  people  of  the  parish 


ESSEX    CHARITIES.  237 

of  St.  Nicholas,  Colchester,  135.  4^.,  and  distribute  any  surplus  of 
the  said  rent  (all  repairs,  etc.,  being  paid  for)  to  the  use  of  the  poor 
people"  in  Bergholt  "where  most  need  requireth,"  as  the  said  "six 
men  "  [i.e.  the  two  churchwardens  and  the  four  other  men]  should 
decide.  The  testator  died  at  Colchester  on  the  day  of  making  his 
will,  and  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  died  during  the  lifetime  of  the  said 
Alice,  without  leaving  issue,  about  16  years  before  the  date  of 
the  inquisition. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  the  said  Alice,  Jeffery  Mott  and 
John  Bernard,  then  churchwardens  of  Bergholt,  with  the  consent  of 

four  other   honest  men,  appointed Hawkes,  of  Bergholt, 

farmer  of  the  said  messuage,  etc. ;  and  afterwards  Henry  Wilson, 
gentleman,  of  Bergholt,  confederating  with  Hawkes,  got  possession 
of  the  premises,  and  took  the  issues  thereof  to  his  own  use  to  the 
value  of  over  $L  a  year. 

It  was  further  found  that  Thomas  Love,  deceased,  by  his  will, 
charged  certain  lands,  etc.,  called  Whitlocks,  in  Bergholt,  with  the 
payment,  within  a  year  of  his  death  of  his  wife,  of  265.  Sd.  to  the 
poor  people  of  the  following  parishes :  Much  and  Little  Horksley, 
Boxted,  Lexden,  and  West  Bergholt.  Testator's  said  wife  is  dead 
and  the  lands  are  in  the  possession  of  the  said  Henry  Wilson,  but 
the  sum  aforesaid  has  not  been  paid. 

Order  made  at  the  Lion,  30  September,  1601,  recites  that  the 
said  Henry  Wilson,  who  was  present  at  the  taking  of  the  fore- 
going inquisition,  alleged  that  after  the  death  of  Alice  Frankham, 
there  was  a  suit  concerning  the  land  in  question  in  Chancery,  between 
Alice  Dyster,  widow,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Bergholt,  complainants 
and  one  Lane  and  his  wife,  who  pretended  herself  to  be  next  heir 
of  the  said  Frankham,  defendants. 

At  the  hearing  of  that  cause  on  23  June,  1585,  it  was  ordered 
that  the  defendants,  in  recompense  of  the  said  land,  should 
assure  a  rent-charge  of  105.  in  perpetuity  to  the  poor  people  of 
Bergholt ;  which  said  order  by  another  order  of  1 1  February, 
1587,  was  confirmed,  with  a  clause  that  the  plaintiffs  might 
exhibit  a  new  bill  to  reverse  the  former  orders  or  take  such  other 
remedy  as  the  common  law  might  afford.  The  said  Henry  Wilson 
confessed  that  a  new  bill  was  shortly  after  exhibited  against  the  said 
Lane  and  his  wife  and  himself,  he  being  "  terr-tenant,"  for  reversing 
the  former  orders;  and  that  he  the  said  Wilson,  "the  said  rent 
hanging,"  and  knowing  of  the  said  orders,  compounded  with  the  said 
Lane  and  his  wife  for  the  said  lands,  etc.,  and  gave  3/.  in  money 
"  underhand  "  to  one  that  followed  that  cause,  to  the  intent  that  the 
bill  should  be  no  further  prosecuted. 

In  respect  of  these  orders  the  said  Commissioners,  with  consent 
of  counsel  for  the  poor  of  the  said  parishes  and  inhabitants  of  Berg- 
holt, requested  the  said  Mr.  Wilson  that  he  would  make  security  for 
the  payment  of  the  said  annuity,  and  also  pay  to  the  use  of  the  poor 
of  St.  Nicholas,  Colchester,  all  arrears  of  the  said  135.  4^.  since  the 
death  of  the  said  Alice  Frankham,  which  happened  more  than  sixteen 
years  ago,  and  give  security  for  the  regular  payment  thereof  for  the 


238  THE    OLD    MILL    AT    MITCHAM. 

future,  according  to  the  honest  meaning  of  the  said  Robert  Frankham, 
so  that  the  said  commissioners  should  not  differ  from  the  said  orders, 
but  the  said  Wilson  altogether  refused  to  comply  with  these 
suggestions. 

We,  the  said  Commissioners — reverenceing  the  said  orders  as  is 
meet,  but  rather  according  to  the  said  Act  of  Parliament  (the  Act  for 
Charitable  Uses),  and  according  to  our  commission,  endeavouring 
that  the  good  will  and  meaning  of  the  said  Robert  Frankham  might 
be  performed  in  full — do  order  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  Thomas 
Marten  and  George  Hayward,  now  churchwardens  of  Bergholt,  and 
Robert  Colton,  gent.,  John  Smyth,  Edward  Spark,  and  Thomas 
Patch,  overseers  of  the  poor  of  Bergholt,  or  four  other  honest  men  to 
be  chosen  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  parish,  to  appoint  a  tenant 
of  the  messuage  in  question,  and  with  the  rent  thereof  to  keep  the 
same  in  good  repair  and  pay  to  the  churchwardens  and  overseers 
of  the  poor  of  St.  Nicholas,  Colchester,  the  sum  of  135.  4^.  yearly 
to  be  by  them  distributed  to  the  poor  of  the  said  parish,  and  135.  4^. 
to  the  poor  of  Bergholt  aforesaid,  "where  most  need  requireth,"  the 
same  course  to  be  yearly  taken  by  those  who  shall  hereafter  be 
churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor  of  Bergholt  "  so  long  as 
the  world  endureth."  The  said  Wilson  was  moreover  to  enfeoff 
twelve  of  the  "chiefest  inhabitants"  of  Bergholt  with  the  aforesaid 
messuage,  etc.,  that  they,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  should  for  ever 
bestow  all  the  issues  and  profits  thereof  according  to  the  last  will  of 
the  said  Robert  Frankham. 

There  is  no  order  of  the  Commissioners  in  regard  to  Thomas 
Love's  bequest  to  the  poor  of  Much  and  Little  Horksley,  Boxted, 
Lexden,  and  West  Bergholt. 

(To  be  continued). 


THE  OLD  MILL  AT  MITCHAM. 
BY  GEORGE  CLINCH. 

THE  old  windmill  on  Mitcham  Common  is  likely  to 
disappear  before  long.  For  so  many  years  it  has  been 
one  of  the  chief  landmarks  of  the  Mitcham  district,  and 
especially  of  the  heath  upon  which  it  stands,  that  its 
removal  can  hardly  fail  to  produce  that  feeling  of  regret  which 
is  inseparable  from  the  destruction  of  old  and  familiar  features 
in  a  landscape. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  old  mill  has  outlived  its  period 
of  usefulness,  for  it  is  upwards  of  thirty  years  since  it  was 
employed  in  the  grinding  of  corn.  Of  late  years,  too,  it  has 
suffered  much  from  the  ravages  of  lightning  and  the  slower 


Old  Mill  at  Mitcham,   Surrey. 


THE    OLD    MILL    AT    MITCHAM.  239 

but  not  less  surely  destructive  influences  of  the  weather ;  and 
quite  recently  some  fractures  have  appeared  in  some  of  the 
main  timbers  which  are  either  the  cause  or  the  effect  of  a  some- 
what serious  settlement  of  the  structure. 

This  example  is  what  is  known  as  a  turret  post  mill,  an 
interesting  and  picturesque  form  through  which  the  windmill 
passed  in  its  development  from  the  earliest  recorded  type — the 
tripod  post  mill — to  the  most  complete  and  comparatively  recent 
shape  known  as  the  tower  mill. 

One  of  the  earliest  representations  of  an  English  windmill 
is  that  on  the  Walsokne  brass  at  Lynn,  Norfolk.  The  date  is 
1349,  and  the  form  is  that  known  as  the  tripod  post  mill.  In 
time  the  tripod  legs  were  covered  by  a  roof  and  the  sheltered 
space  thus  obtained  was  found  to  be  convenient  for  the  storage 
of  corn,  etc.  In  the  very  earliest  examples  the  body  of  the 
mill  seems  to  have  been  capable  of  being  moved,  so  that  the 
sails  should  catch  the  breeze,  by  means  of  a  long  lever  or  beam, 
generally  placed  near  the  ladder  which  led  to  the  mill,  and 
furnished  with  a  small  wheel  at  the  end  by  means  of  which  it 
passed  easily  and  smoothly  along  the  ground.  This  method  of 
turning  the  chief  part  of  the  structure  round  in  order  to  bring 
the  sails  into  play  appears  to  have  been  in  vogue  for  several 
centuries.  In  the  Mitcham  example  the  upper  part  of  the 
beam  still  remains. 

Owing  to  the  growth  of  trees  around  the  mill  only  the  roof 
or  upper  part  of  the  turret  is  visible,  but  upon  entering  it  the 
details  of  the  construction  are  clearly  seen.  First,  we  find  an 
apartment  below  the  level  of  the  ground,  from  the  sides  of 
which  rise  four  strong  piers  of  brick.  These  carry  two  massive 
beams,  placed  horizontally  and  crossed  in  the  middle.  From 
the  point  where  the  beams  meet  a  fine  octagonal  post  of  oak  or 
chestnut  rises  perpendicularly.  This  is  the  main  support  and 
pivot  of  the  whole  building.  It  is  kept  in  position  by  four  strong 
struts  or  stay-beams  which  reach  from  the  top  of  the  brick  piers 
and  are  fixed  into  the  main  post  at  the  top  of  the  pointed  roof 
of  the  turret.  The  movements  of  the  mill  were  once  communi- 
cated to  mill-stones  in  this  lower  part  of  the  mill,  where  some 
of  the  corn-grinding  was  done.  The  upper  or  main  part  of 
the  mill  was  approached  by  means  of  a  ladder  as  will  be  seen 


240  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

in  the  photograph.  The  mill  is  probably  of  early  eighteenth 
century  date,  and  was  in  use  until  well  past  the  middle  of  the 
present  century. 

The  further  development  of  the  windmill  to  what  is  known 
as  the  tower  type,  in  which  the  turret  was  enlarged  to  a  tower- 
like  structure  and  surmounted  by  a  revolving  cap  to  suit  the 
changing  winds,  was  so  natural  that  it  is  surprising  to  find  that 
the  newer  form  did  not  in  a  short  space  supersede  all  the  mills 
of  the  Mitcham  type.  The  retention  of  the  older  form  for  so 
many  years  is,  in  fact,  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the  conserva- 
tism of  English  mill-wrights. 

With  the  increasing  application  of  steam  to  milling  purposes, 
and  the  improved  means  of  transport  of  foreign  flour,  it  is 
pretty  clear  that  the  days  of  windmills,  if  not  quite  over,  are 
rapidly  becoming  fewer,  and  at  no  very  distant  date  most  of 
the  numerous  picturesque  examples  now  left  in  the  Home 
Counties  will  have  fallen  victims  to  neglect  and  decay,  or  have 
been  swept  away  to  make  room  for  more  utilitarian  buildings. 


NOTES  ON  CHURCH  PLATE  IN  THE 
DIOCESE  OF  LONDON. 

BY  EDWIN  FRESHFIELD,  JUNIOR. 

INTRODUCTORY. 
(Continued  from  p.  119.) 

During  the  first  30  years  after  the  Reformation  the  parishes 
possessed  only  cups  and  patens,  and  it  is  therefore  necessary  to 
speak  of  these  first. 

Not  one  of  the  least  important  alterations  introduced  at  the 
Reformation,  was  the  revival  of  the  practice  of  the  early 
church  of  administering  the  Blessed  Sacrament  to  the  laity  in 
both  kinds.  The  reformers,  therefore,  were  called  upon  to 
replace  the  small  mediaeval  chalice,  which  had  served  for  the 
priest  alone,  by  a  cup  large  enough  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of 
the  whole  congregation,  and  this  distinguishes  for  antiquarian 
purposes  a  chalice  from  a  communion  cup.  It  is  not  known 
whether  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the  day  prescribed 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  241 

any  particular  size  and  shape  for  the  new  cup,  but  from  the 
close  resemblance  of  the  early  examples  to  one  another,  it  is 
probable  that  there  was  a  common  official  model. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI.  was  so  short  that  very  little  could 
be  done  towards  plate  making.  In  fact,  only  15  cups  are 
known  to  exist  in  England,  and  of  these  no  less  than  nine  are 
in  this  diocese. 

EDWARD  VI.  CUPS. 

The  cup  at  St.  Mildred,  Bread  Street,  and  the  two  cups  at 
St.  James',  Garlickhythe,  three  of  the  rare  Edwardian  cups, 
were  purchased  by  the  parishes  to  replace  the  pre- Reformation 
chalice ;  they  have  plain  bowls  purposely  made  very  large,  and 
plain  stems  without  ornament  or  decoration.  These  early 
Communion  cups  were  all  designed  on  the  same  simple  model, 
and  the  oldest  is  at  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry,  made  in  1548.  It  is 
interesting  to  compare  this  style  of  large,  deep-bowled  vessel — 
it  might  almost  be  called  clumsy — with  that  of  the  shallow 
tazza  cups,  very  like  the  modern  champagne  glass,  introduced 
by  the  Reformers  into  Scotland*  and  Switzerland, t  for  each 
in  its  way  was  an  invention  to  suit  a  new  reed. 

The  Edwardian  cups  in  this  diocese  will  be  found  at : — 
St.  Lawrence,  Jewry  ;  St.  Mildred,  Bread  Street ;  St.  James, 
Garlickhythe  (2)  ;  St.  Peter,  Cornhill ;  St.  Michael,  Wood 
Street,  now  in  the  custody  of  the  Bishop  of  London ;  St. 
Margaret,  Westminster  (2) ;  and  St.  Michael,  Cornhill. 

THE  EDWARD  VI.  PATEN. 

The  size  of  the  patens  required  no  alteration,  but  Popish 
ornaments  and  engravings  were  ordered  to  be  defaced,  and 
though  occasionally  a  mediaeval  paten  can  be  found  with  the 
design  hammered  out,  it  was  apparently  thought  more 
satisfactory  to  have  the  patens  recast.  The  earliest 
"  Reformed "  patens  were  exactly  like  their  predecessors, 
merely  flat  plates.  The  City  possesses  only  two  of  them. 

THE  ELIZABETHAN  CUPS. 

In  Queen's  Elizabeth's  reign  the  cup  was  altered  in  two 
.respects ;  first,  the  bowl  was  engraved  with  a  conventional  and 

*  A  cup  of  this  kind  was  exhibited  some  years  ago  by  Lord  Rosebery 
n  the  New  Gallery  at  the  Stuart  Exhibition. 

f  Cups  of  this  kind  will  be  found  at  the  Cathedral  at  Lausanne. 


242 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLALE. 


stiff  design  called  the  strap  pattern,  and  secondly,  the  stem  was 
divided  by  a  knot.  The  flat  paten  was  raised  on  to  a  short 
stem  or  foot,  and  made  to  fit  as  a  cover  for  the  cup. 

In  describing  the  cups  in  this  general  way,  it  will,  of  course, 
be  understood  that  no  two  pieces  were  exactly  alike  in  detail, 
and  each  artist  introduced  varieties  according  to  his  own 
fancy. 

During  the  iyth  and  i8th  centuries  the  style  of  cup  was 
continually  changing,  and  the  mediaeval  revival  in  this  century 
has  brought  back  once  again  the  shape  of  the  ancient  chalice 
copied  from  one  or  other  of  the  few  surviving  examples, 
notably  that  at  Nettlecombe. 

To  avoid  descriptive  repetition  the  cups  are  classified  into 
different  types,  commencing  with  a  mediaeval  chalice  and  the 
cup  introduced  during  the  Reformation  in  the  reign  of  King 
Edward  VI.  To  make  this  classification  intelligible,  the  reader 
is  asked  to  refer  to  the  plate  opposite,  containing  a  group  of 
cups,  and  to  the  reference  which  follows  : — 


REFER- 
ENCE TO 
THB 

PLATE. 

CHURCH. 

DATE. 

TYPE. 

PERIOD. 

! 

"West  Drayton  

1504 

Mediseval  chalice 

2 

S.  Mildred,  Bread  Street      . 

1549 

Typel     .     . 

Edward  VI. 

3 

S.  Margaret,  Lothbury   . 

15S7 

Type  2     .     . 

Elizabeth. 

4 

S.  Anne  and  S.  Agnes     . 

1619 

Type  2     .     . 

Jaines  I. 

6 

S.  Anne  and  S.  Agnes 

1570 

Type  4     .     . 

Elizabeth. 

6 

All  Hallows,  Lombard  Street 

1642 

Tvpe  5     .     . 

Charles  I. 

7 

All  Hallows,  Lombard  Street 

1663 

Type  6     .     . 

Commonwealth. 

8 

S.  Katharine  Coleman     .     . 

1685 

Transition    . 

Restoration. 

9 

S   Margaret.  Lothbury   . 

1715 

Transition    . 

Anne. 

10 

S  Edmund,  King  and  Martyr 

1757 

Type  8     .     . 

Georgian. 

11 

S    A]  ph  age 

1803 

TV  HP  ft 

Early  19th  century 

12 

S.  Olave.  Stoke  Newington  . 

1S15 

Type  7     '     ! 

Early  ISth  century 

13 

S.  Mary,  Aldermanbury  . 

1889 

Type  9     .     . 

Present  time. 

The  chalice  at  West  Drayton  is  taken  to  illustrate  the  Pre- 
Reformation  style  and  the  cup  at  S.  Mildred,  Bread  Street,  is 
taken  to  illustrate  the  Edwardian  style  which  I  call  type  i. 

I  now  come  to  the  Elizabethan  period,  when  a  vast  quantity 
of  cups  were  made.  Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  Edwardian 
cups  these  cups  were,  practically  the  immediate  outcome 
of  the  Reformation,  that  is  to  say,  the  immediate  successors  of 
the  unreformed  chalice ;  they  are  to  be  found  literally  by  the 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  243 

score  all  over  England,  and  they  testify  to  the  very  complete 
way  the  reformers  carried  out  their  work.  The  fact  that  they 
were  made  more  or  less  on  one  model  seems  to  point  to  the 
issue  of  some  general  order  or  prescribed  pattern  by  the 
Ecclesiastical  authorities.  But  so  far,  in  spite  of  many 
searches  by  the  learned  author  of  Old  English  Plate  and  others, 
no  evidence  of  this  has  been  obtained. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  cups  belong  to  type  2.  The 
distinctive  features  of  type  2  are  a  deep  bowl,  ornamented  in 
the  first  part  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  by  strap  pattern  round 
the  body  of  the  bowl,  in  the  last  part  of  her  reign  by  strap 
pattern  round  the  lip,  and  in  King  James  I.  and  Charles  I. 
reign  by  absence  of  ornament  on  the  bowl  altogether ;  a  stem 
divided  into  two  equal  parts  by  a  knop,  an  invariable  feature  in 
these  cups ;  a  foot,  flat  in  the  early  part  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
reign,  and  subsequently  bell-shaped ;  examples,  S.  Margaret, 
Lothbury  (a),  and  S.  Anne  and  S.  Agnes.  Type  3,  a  variety  of 
type  2,  with  a  pointed  instead  of  a  round  base,  is  rarely  met 
with  and  may  be  practically  ignored. 

The  cup  of  S.  Margaret,  Lothbury  (a),  made  in  1567  and 
presented  by  John  Belgrave,  a  vicar,  is  a  good  example  of  the 
early  Elizabethan  cup.  The  general  appearance  of  the  bowl  is 
the  same  as  that  of  the  Edward  cup,  and  the  chief  difference, 
apart  from  the  engraved  ornament,  is  the  introduction  of  a  knop 
dividing  the  stem  into  two  parts. 

The  cup  at  S.  Anne  and  S.  Agnes,  made  in  1619  and  given 
by  William  Small,  shows  the  next  development ;  the  bowl  is 
more  conical  and  has  no  ornament,  and  the  foot,  instead  of 
being  flat,  is  bell-shaped.  This  was  the  style  of  cup  adopted 
during  Archbishop  Laud's  revival,  and  there  are  a  great  many 
to  be  found  all  over  the  country. 

The  next  three  cups  belong  to  a  style  easily  distinguished  by 
the  pear  or  trumpet  stem  with  a  flange  or  hilt  on  it,  put,  I 
suppose,  to  give  the  communicant  a  firm  grip  of  the  cup.  This 
was  one  of  the  earliest  post- Reformat  ion  styles,  and  existed 
concurrently  with  the  plainer  Edward  and  Elizabeth  models  of 
types  i  and  2. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  type  4  is  in  the  pear-shaped  stem 
with  a  hilt  on  it.  The  bowls  were  either  conical  or  like  those 


244  NOTES    ON     CHURCH    PLATE. 

of  the  preceding  types;  example,  S.Anne  and  S.  Agnes  (a).  The 
cup  at  S.  Anne  and  S.  Agnes  was  made  about  1570.  There  is 
no  date  mark  on  it;  the  bowl  is  inscribed  :  "This  cup  was  in 
use  in  1591  ";  but  it  is  earlier  than  that  date  by  at  least  twenty 
years.  It  has  the  pear-shaped  stem,  but  the  conical  bowl  is  a 
later  addition.  The  earliest  cup  of  this  kind  I  have  seen  is  at 
S.  Margaret,  Westminster,  made  in  1551.  There  is  also  one  at 
S.  Mary-le-Bow  made  in  1559,  and  at  S.  Mary  Aldermary  made 
in  1609. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  type  5  is  also  in  the  trumpet  stem 
with  a  hilt  on  it ;  example.  All  Hallows,  Lombard  Street  (a). 
The  cup  at  All  Hallows,  Lombard  Street,  made  in  1642  and 
given  by  William  Clarke,  shows  the  Jacobean  variation  of  the 
pear  into  the  trumpet-shaped  stem.  There  are  many  of  these 
cups  to  be  found  about  the  country  and  in  London,  and 
examples  will  be  found  at  S.  James,  Garlickhythe,  1641,  and 
S.  Helen,  Bishopsgate,  1634.  A  cup  of  this  variety  converted 
into  a  flagon  by  the  addition  of  a  spout  was  exhibited  by  its 
owners,  the  parish  of  Fen  Ditton,  Cambs.,  at  the  exhibition  of 
College  plate  in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum  at  Cambridge 
in  1895. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  type  6  is  the  plain  straight-sided 
bowl  and  the  plain  trumpet  stem  devoid  of  any  kind  of  ornament ; 
example,  All  Hallows,  Lombard  Street  (b).  The  cup  at  All 
Hallows,  Lombard  Street,  1663,  presented  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Masters,  is  a  simplification  of  William  Clarke's  cup  and  very 
appropriate  to  the  severe  Puritan  period  when  it  was  made. 

The  next  cup,  at  S.  Katherine  Coleman,  1685,  shows  the 
transition  from  the  Commonwealth  style  of  Mary  Masters'  cup 
to  the  modified  copies  of  types  i  and  2  which  came  into  fashion 
in  Queen  Anne's  reign.  The  knop  of  the  Coleman  cup  is  really 
a  flange  bent  down  so  as  to  make  it  look  like  a  knop. 

The  distinctive  features  of  type  8  are  the  same  as  those  of 
types  i  and  2.  The  examples  are  for  type  i  S.  Margaret,  Lotk- 
bury  (b),  and  for  type  2  5.  Edmund  and  S.  Alphage.  The  two 
cups  at  S.  Edmund  and  S.  Alphage,  1757  and  1803  respectively, 
are  constructed  on  the  same  principle  as  the  cups  of  type  2. 
They,  too,  were  very  common  throughout  the  eighteenth  century 
and  up  to  the  first  few  years  of  this  century,  when  they  were 
replaced  by  the  thistle  cups. 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES.  245 

The  distinctive  feature  of  type  7  is  in  the  shape  of  the  bowl, 
and  for  lack  of  a  better  description  I  call  it  the  thistle  shape; 
example,  S.  Olave,  Stoke  Newington.  This  cup,  made  in  1815, 
belonged  to  S.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  and  has  been  assigned  to 
the  parish  of  S.  Olave,  Stoke  Newington.  I  have  called  these 
thistle-shaped  cups  from  the  profile  of  a  bowl,  and  I  believe 
they  represent  an  attempt  to  produce  a  classical  design  during 
the  period  when  the  classical  art  was  so  much  in  favour.  In 
later  days  this  shape  was  very  commonly  used  for  athletic  and 
sporting  prize  cups. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  type  9  is  the  mediaeval  model ; 
examples,  West  Drayton  and  S.  Mary,  Aldermanbury.  The  cup 
at  S.  Mary,  Aldermanbury,  made  in  1889,  is  copied  from  a 
mediaeval  chalice,  and  for  the  moment  all  the  modern  ready- 
made  shop  chalices,  and  indeed  most  of  those  designed  to  order, 
are  taken  from  one  or  other  of  the  well-known  ancient  examples 
of  that  period.  Unfortunately  the  makers  rarely  copy  the 
beautiful  ancient  examples  accurately,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten  where  they  introduce  variations  of  their  own  design  the 

result  is  a  failure. 

(To  be  continued). 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

THE  MARGATE  GROTTO. — Attention  is  so  often  called  in 
i  llustrated  papers  and  magazines  to  this  curious  piece  of  work, 
and  a  remote  pre-historic  antiquity  is  so  confidently  claimed  for 
it,  that  a  note  on  the  subject  may  not  be  out  of  place  here. 
The  grotto  is  situated  in  the  Dane,  a  valley  running  from  the  sea, 
about  half-a-mile  inland.  An  arched  passage  has  been  excavated 
in  the  chalk,  of  from  fifty  to  sixty  feet  in  length,  sloping 
towards  the  valley,  and  terminating  in  a  rectangular  chamber 
about  twelve  feet  square  covered  by  an  ordinary  plaster  ceiling. 
This  passage  and  room  are  lined  with  a  mosaic  of  shells  such 
as  are  common  on  the  shores  of  Pegwell  Bay,  the  cockle  being 
used  most  freely,  set  in  Roman  cement.  The  space  covered 
contains  about  2,000  square  feet.  The  design  is  set  in  panels 
with  geometrical  and  simple  floral  devices.  The  conception 
appears  to  have  been  clearly  derived  from  the  shell  grotto  at 


246  NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

Versailles,  a  print  of  which  may  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  Margate  artist.  Apart  from  external  evidence,  examination 
of  the  grotto  will  leave  no  doubt  that  the  work  is  modern.  A 
small  row  of  houses  called  Bellevue  Place  faces  the  Dane. 
The  front  entrance  of  one  of  these  has  been  walled  up,  and  the 
basement  room  forms  the  so-called  chamber  or  temple  of  the 
grotto,  the  original  ceiling  being  retained.  From  this  room  a 
tunnel  has  been  driven  upwards  through  the  garden  of  the 
villa,  and  access  is  now  obtained  at  the  top  of  the  garden.  It 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  this  passage  is  exactly  contained  in 
the  garden,  a  most  remarkable  coincidence,  if,  as  the  story 
goes,  a  former  proprietor  discovered  the  grotto  accidentally, 
when  digging  in  his  garden.  Further,  as  the  roof  of  the 
passage  is  carried  up  in  one  place  to  some  height,  and 
terminated  by  a  miniature  dome  constructed  above  the  level  of 
the  soil,  the  original  discoverer  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  a 
man  of  acute  observation !  I  believe  the  work  dates  from  about 
1820-30.  Charles  Knight,  in  "  The  Land  we  Live  in,"  published 
about  1850,  says  "the  shell  work  was  done  by  an  ingenious 
artisan  of  Margate,  who  some  years  ago  went  to  America." 
Persons  living  in  Margate  as  late  as  1875  remembered  the 
making  of  the  grotto.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  if  any 
of  them  still  survive.  Such  then  is  the  place  which  we  are 
every  now  and  then  bidden  to  admire  as  the  eighth  wonder  of 
the  world.  Miss  Marie  Corelli  in  her  "  Cameos,"  is  inclined 
to  attribute  the  execution  to  the  Vikings.  Hardly,  perhaps, 
one  of  that  gifted  lady's  happiest  inspirations.  One  would 
have  thought  such  tedious  and  minute  work  peculiarly  dis- 
tasteful to  those  rude  warriors.  A  writer  in  Temple  Bar  on  the 
other  hand  considers  the  grotto  the  creation  of  a  Roman 
colonist,  of  some  "comes  littoris  Saxonici"  we  may  suppose, 
who  in  the  intervals  of  watching  for  the  Jutish  or  Frisian 
pirate,  "  dubiis  venturum  Saxona  ventis,"  filled  in  his  leisure 
moments  with  this  highly  original  occupation.  It  is  fair  to  add 
that  the  proprietor  makes  no  assertion  as  to  the  antiquity  of  the 
work,  but  leaves  visitors  to  draw  their  own  conclusions,  which 
they  have  certainly  done  with  considerable  freedom.  The 
grotto  is  well  worth  the  trifling  sum  charged  for  admission, 
and  it  should  be  seen  by  anyone  who  has  an  opportunity.— 
C.  H.  WOODRUFF. 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES.  247 

THE  SERPENT  OF  EAST  HORNDON,  co.  ESSEX. — I  should 
like  to  know  if  there  is  in  print  any  reference  to  a  curious 
tradition  which  was  written  down  in  1695  by  John  Tyrell,  of 
Billericay,  co.  Essex,  and  of  Barnard's  Inn,  London,  Esq. 
(d.  20  September,  1712,  and  bur.  Great  Burstead,  co.  Essex). 
He  says  he  had  often  heard  his  father,  Thomas  Tyrell,  of 
Buttesbury,  and  others  say,  that  it  was  related  to  them  by  his 
great  grandfather,  old  Sir  Henry  Tyrell,  of  Heron,  co.  Essex, 
who  died  20  May,  1588  ;  and  that  Sir  Henry  said  he  had  it 
"  as  a  very  truth  from  his  ancestors."  It  is  as  follows  : — 
"That  the  merchants  of  Barbary  having  brought  home  a 
serpent  in  a  ship  which  lay  upon  the  Thames,  within  twelve 
miles  of  Heron  (the  antient  seat  of  the  TyrelPs  ever  since  Sir 
James  Tyrell  married  the  heir  of  Sir  William  Heron  *),  which 
escaping  out  of  the  ship,  lived  and  haunted  about  those  woods, 
'twixt  Heron  and  Horndon  Parish  Church,  devouring  such 
passengers  as  came  that  way,  which  made  the  country  seek 
redress  from  Sir  James  Tyrell,  a  great  man  in  those  parts.  He 
armed  himself  and  hung  a  looking-glass  before  his  breast,  and 
going  to  the  aforesaid  churchyard  (or  near  unto  it),  the  serpent 
came  hovering  at  the  glass,  and  playing  at  her  own  shadow, 
whereat  Sir  James  taking  his  best  advantage,  stroke  the  serpent 
and  slew  it,  cut  off  his  head  and  carried  it  to  his  wife's  bedside 
before  she  arose  in  the  morning.  But  he  so  over-heated  himself 
with  his  combat,  that  he  shortly  after  dyed,  and  his  son  coming 
that  way,  where  the  serpent's  bones  lay,  spurned  one  of  them 
saying,  '  This  is  the  bone  of  the  serpent  that  was  the  death  of 
my  father,'  but  the  bone  piercing  the  summer  shoe,  so  hurt 
his  toe,  which  gangrened,  and  his  leg  was  cut  off  at  the  knee. 
The  picture  of  which  Tyrell  t  with  one  leg,  is  now  to  be  seen 
in  the  glass  windows  at  Heron,  thereby  causing  the  tradition  to 
be  often  mentioned." — F.  BULKELEY-OWEN." 

SIGN  OF  THE  "  PEAHEN."— I  note  that  in  the  last  issue  of 
the  Home  Counties  Magazine  the  reviewer  of  my  little  book  on 
"  The  Old  Inns  of  St.  Albans,"  throws  doubt  upon  the  assertion 
that  the  sign  of  the  "  Peahen  "  in  St.  Albans  is  unique,  my  own 

*  In  the  1 4th  century.  They  lived  at  Heron  until  the  middle  of  the  last 
century. 

t  This  must  have  been  Sir  Walter  Tyrell.  Probably  the  glass  is  gone, 
as  is  most  of  the  old  house. 


248  REPLIES. 

words  were  "probably  unique".  In  support  of  my  conjecture 
I  may  observe  that  this  sign  is  not  mentioned  in  Larwood  and 
Hotten's  "  History  of  Signboards,"  nor  is  it  included  in  the 
long  list  of  signs  of  inns  and  public-houses  (extending  to  about 
fifty  columns)  which  appears  in  the  London  Directory.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  know  if  any  reader  of  the  Home  Counties 
Magazine  is  aware  of  the  existence  of  an  inn  bearing  the  sign 
of  the  "  Peahen  "  besides  that  at  St.  Albans.— F.  G.  KITTON. 


REPLIES. 

LITTLEBURY,  ESSEX  (p.  157). — The  interesting  paper  on 
"  The  Manor  and  Parish  of  Littlebury,"  states  that  the 
church  "  stands  within  the  area  of  a  Roman  encampment." 
Having  met  with  this  statement  in  various  descriptions  of  the 
county  I  vainly  sought,  on  occasional  hurried  visits,  to  find  some 
traces  of  this  encampment.  May  I  ask  your  contributor,  the 
Rev.  H.  J.  E.  Burrell,  whether  any  evidence  of  its  existence  is 
visible  ? — I.  CHALKLEY  GOULD. 

TYBURN  GALLOWS,  AND  THE  FLEET  (p.  165). — Having 
occupied  my  allotted  space  in  this  month's  issue  I  can  only 
very  briefly  reply  to  Mr.  Waller's  objections,  "  Westbourne 
Green."  My  remark  as  to  Tyburn  was  based  on  Holmshed's 
account  of  Mortimer's  execution  in  1330,  which  I  now  find 
corroborated  by  (e.g.)  the  contemporary  chronicler,  Adam 
Murimuth.  In  regard  to  the  name  "  Fleet,"  although  Mr. 
Waller  in  his  excellent  article,  "  The  Hole  Bourne  "  (London 
and  Middlesex  Archaeological  Society's  Transactions  iv.  97,)  has 
certainly  shown  that  the  latter  name  applied  to  part  of  the 
brook,  I  cannot  think  it  was  ever  given  to  the  whole,  or  even 
to  all  of  the  course  from  the  sources  to  Holborn  Bridge. 
Wanting  a  comprehensive  name  the  stream  has  become,  as 
Mr.  Waller  allows,  "  best  known  as  The  River  Fleet,"  and  this 
name  though  philologically  wrong  is,  so  it  appears  to  me,  too 
firmly  attached  to  be  now  altered. — W.  L.  RUTTON. 

KEW  (p.  147). — Richard  Bennet,  the  owner  of  Kew  house, 
was  not  son  of  Sir  Thomas,  the  Lord  Mayor,  but  of  Thomas, 


REPLIES.  249 

the  sheriff,  1613-14.  After  his  death,  April  15,  1658,  the 
property  reverted  to  the  Capell  family  by  reason  of  the  marriage 
of  Henry,  Baron  Capell,  of  Tewkesbury,  to  his  (Richard 
Bennet's)  daughter,  Dorothy.  The  initials  over  the  doorway 
of  the  "  Dutch  House"  should  be  read  as  S.C.F.,  not  F.S.C. 
The  date  1631  appended  to  them  implies  that  Samuel  Fortrey 
and  Catherine,  his  wife — whose  initials  they  were — possessed 
the  house  at  an  earlier  date  than  1636,  the  year  that  Mr. 
Summers  ascribes  to  their  acquisition  of  it. — J.  CHALLENOR 
SMITH. 

In  Mr.  A.  L.  Summers'  paper  on  Kew  I  find  some  inaccuracies 
which  I  should  like  to  correct.  Writing  away  from  my  books 
and  notes  I  must  content  myself  with  noting  in  somewhat 
general  terms  a  few  of  the  points  which  struck  me  when 
reading  the  article  in  question.  I  begin  with  mentioning 
that  the  sale  of  what  is  now  called  Kew  Palace  to  Samuel 
Fortrey  must  have  taken  place  in  1631,  not  in  1636.  The 
Herbarium  belonging  to  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  has  for  some 
years  past  been  lodged  in  an  entirely  new  building  behind  "  the 
King  of  Hanover's  House,"  which  now  contains  a  fine  botanical 
library.  I  do  not  see  how  this  enlarged  building  can  be  said  to 
be  "  close  to  the  site  of  Cambridge  Cottage,"  since  the  two 
structures  are  on  opposite  sides  of  Kew  Green.  We  now  come 
to  the  church.  This  is  not  built  of  red  brick,  but  of  London 
stock  bricks,  with  red  brick  quoins  and  facings,  the  western 
portico  and  bell  turret  being  of  stone.  The  gallery  was  given 
by  William  IV.,  not  by  George  III.  The  mausoleum  for  the 
Cambridge  family  was  not  first  constructed  in  1883,  but  was 
then  removed  and  rebuilt  further  to  the  east.  The  church  pews 
are  not  of  grained  oak,  but  of  stained  and  varnished  pine.  The 
"  altar-recess  "  does  not  contain  "  Tables  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  Commandments."  In  the  organ-chamber  is  an  organ, 
built  by  Gray  and  Davison,  in  which  have  been  incorporated 
some  of  the  pipes  from  the  small  instrument  "  supposed  to 
have  belonged  to  Handel."  Leaving  Kew  Church  I  cannot 
help  saying  that  Mr.  Summers  might  have  improved  upon  the 
account  he  gives  of  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  without  devoting 
more  space  to  this  important  subject.  The  Great  Winter- 
Garden  or  Temperate  House  deserved  mention.  There  are 

R 


250  REPLIES. 

three  museums,  all  assigned  to  economic  and  scientific  botany, 
but  none  containing  the  "  miscellaneous  things  "  referred  to 
by  the  author  of  the  paper.  If  the  Pagoda  were  once  again 
accessible  to  the  general  public,  as  Mr.  Summers  wishes, 
the  presence  would  be  needed  of  half-a-dozen  attendants  on 
the  staircase,  to  prevent  the  renewed  disfigurement  of  its  walls 
by  inane  and  obscene  scribblirigs. — A.  H.  CHURCH. 

Mr.  A.  Leonard  Summers,  relying  too  much  on  Lysons 
when  drawing  up  his  interesting  account  of  Kew,  has  fallen 
into  one  or  two  unimportant  errors  which  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  correct.  Richard  Bennet,  the  owner  of  Kew  House 
in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  not  the  son  of 
Sir  Thomas  Bennet,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  1603-4,  but  his 
great  nephew.  His  father  was  Thomas  Bennet,  citizen  and 
mercer,  who  was  Sheriff  of  London  and  Middlesex  in  1613-14, 
and  younger  brother  of  Sir  John  Bennet,  Judge  of  the 
Prerogative  Court,  the  ancestor  of  the  Barons  Ossulston  and 
Earls  of  Tankerville  (a  title  still  existing)  and  of  the  Earl 
of  Arlington,  a  title  which  has  merged  in  the  dukedom  of 
Grafton.  Richard  Bennet,  of  Kew,  was  therefore  first  cousin 
of  Henry  Bennet,  Earl  of  Arlington  and  Secretary  of  State  to 
King  Charles  II.  (See  G.  E.  Cokayne's  "  The  Lord  Mayors 
and  Sheriffs  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.") 
The  present  Kew  Palace  seems  to  be  the  successor  of  the 
old  "  Dairy  House,"  and  was  probably  built,  not  by  Sir  Hugh 
Portman,  but  by  Samuel  Fortrey  who  was  in  possession  of 
the  property  before  1636,  the  date  recorded  by  Lysons  as  that 
in  which  he  purchased  it.  I  have  given  these  corrections  in 
The  London  Argus  for  January  20th,  1900,  where  I  expressed 
the  hope  that  this  fine  old  Jacobean  building  might  be  utilized 
to  some  good  purpose,  such  as  a  Guelph  Museum  of  pictures, 
furniture,  and  other  specimens  of  decoration  and  applied  art, 
belonging  to  the  period  of  the  three  earlier  Georges,  including 
George  IV.,  who  though  born  and  educated  at  Kew,  hated 
the  place  and  would  not  live  in  it.  The  house  in  its  existing 
state  presents  a  bare  and  desolate  appearance,  which  is  not 
merited  by  its  antecedents. — W.  F.  PRIDEAUX. 

COWPER'S  "  BIRTHPLACE."  (p.  153). — The  house  at  Olney 
here  figured  is  not  the  Poet's  birthplace ;  he  was,  as  is  well 
known,  born  at  Berkhampstead  in  1731. — W.  F.  NEWTON. 


REVIEWS. 

The  Cartes  Antique  of  Lord  Willoughby  de  Broke.  Part  II.  Hertfordshire.  Edited  by  Rev. 
J.  Harvey  Bloom,  M.A.,  Rector  of  Whitchurch,  and  published  by  C.  Turner,  Hemsworth. 

The  present  volume  of  abstracts  of  Lord  "Willoughby  de  Broke's  charters  has 
a  special  claim  to  notice  in  this  Magazine  as  the  documents  dealt  with  concern  the 
property  of  the  Cheney  family  at  Cottred,  Herts.  The  various  spellings  of  the 
word  Cottred,  and  the  numerous  place-names  within  the  manor,  which  occur  in  the 
charters  from  the  1 3th  to  the  loth  century,  are  interesting  to  note. 

The  Hampstead  Annual,  for  1899,  Edited  by  Greville  E.  Matheson  and  Sydney  C.  Mayle. 
Hampstead.  (S.  C.  Mayle). 

Like  its  predecessor,  issued  last  year,  the  present  volume  is  charming  both  in  its 
appearance  and  contents.  Under  the  title,  ''The  King  of  Bohemia— a  Hampstead 
inn-name,"  Professor  Hales  tells  the  story  of  the  Elector-Palatine  husband  of 
the  beautiful  Princess  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I.  Dr.  G-arnett  writes 
of  poets  connected  with  Hampstead  ;  and  Canon  Ainger  on  the  artist  and  intimate 
friend  of  Wordsworth,  Miss  Margaret  Gillies,  once  a  resident  in  Church  Row, 
Hampstead.  Other  articles  on  local  subjects  add  to  the  value  of  the  work,  and  the 
illustrations  are  even  better  than  those  which  appeared  in  the  last  issue. 

Index  to  the  Charters  and  Rolls  in  the  Department  of  Manuscripts,  British  Museum,  edited  by 
Henry  J.  Ellis  and  Francis  B.  Bickley.  Vol.  1— Index  Locorum.  Printed  by  Order  of  the 
Trustees. 

The  labour  of  compiling  this  index  must  have  been  enormous,  but  Mr.  Ellis  and 
Mr.  Bickley  will  be,  we  feel  sure,  repaid  by  the  appreciation  with  which  their  work 
will  be  received  ;  no  more  important  contribution  towards  this  study  of  topography 
has  ever  appeared.  The  issue  of  the  work  is  singularly  opportune,  just  at  this 
time  ;  for  already  many  hands  are  busy  on  the  new  Victorian  County  Histories, 
which  Messrs.  Constable  and  Co.  are  about  to  publish.  In  these  days  of  wholesale 
enfranchisement  of  copyholds,  the  need  of  preservation  of  Court  Rolls  grows  less 
and  lees,  with  the  result  that  numbers  are  yearly  sacrificed.  It  is  comforting  to  see 
by  the  Calendar  under  notice  that  many  of  these  valuable  records  are  safely  housed 
in  the  British  Museum  ;  others,  too,  are  at  the  Public  Record  Office,  and  Sir  H.  C. 
Maxwell-Lyte  recently  issued  a  catalogue  to  these  which  should  be  possessed  by  the 
man  who  values  Messrs.  Ellis  &  Bickley's  laborious  compilation. 

TJie  Homeland  Series  Association's  Handbooks—"  Guildford."  by  J.  E.  Morris  (London, 
Beechings,  6d.) 

Mr.  J.  E.  Morris  has  given  us  a  charming  picture  of  "  Astolat,  that  is  in 
English  called  Guildford"  in  the  Homeland  Series  of  Handbooks.  Guildfordians 
will  find  a  sound  history  of  their  town,  and  a  full  account  of  the  benefactions  of 
Archbishop  Abbot,  the  town's  pride.  Objects  of  antiquarian  interest. are  described 
and  depicted,  not  only  for  casual  ramblers,  but  also  for  those  who  linger  intelligently 
over  the  architectural  beauties  of  bygone  days.  Nor  has  the  author  in  his  zeal  for 
the  past  forgotten  the  wants  of  to-day,  and  the  cyclist  will  find  his  route  for  miles 
around  clearly  defined  by  a  cycling  authority.  Angling,  too,  and  boating  have  their 
fair  share  of  attention.  The  guide  is  well  and  plentifully  illustrated  by  Gordon 
Home.  We  have  also  received  k<  Lyonesse  "  and  "  Dulverton"  in  the  same  series, 
which  are  delightful  little  books,  but  cannot  be  appropriately  reviewed  in  a 
magazine  which  confines  its  attention  to  the  Home  Counties. 

Hertford  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  by  W.  F.  Andrews.     (Hertford,  Austin  &  Sons). 

To  put  on  record  the  history  of  his  town  during  the  last  hundred  years,  is  Mr. 
Andrews'  motive  for  producing  this  little  pamphlet,  and  we  heartily  commend  him 
for  doing  what  he  has  done.  The  history  of  our  own  time,  and  the  time  of  our 
fathers  and  grandfathers,  is  just  that  about  which  most  of  us  know  exceedingly  little. 
A  century  ago  Hertford,  with  its  population  of  5,000,  was  probably  no  worse  off  than 


252  REVIEWS. 

the  majority  of  country  towns  of  a  similar  size  in  other  parts  of  England,  so  Mr. 
Andrews  need  not  feel  unhappy  at  the  unsatisfactory  conditions,  at  that  period,  of 
the  town  in  which  he  takes  so  lively  an  interest.  A  fire  engine  was  provided  in 
1809  ;  gas  in  1825  ;  police  replaced  watchmen  in  1830  ;  and  railway  communication 
was  provided  some  twenty  years  later.  The  drainage  was  improved  after  an  alarming 
outbreak  of  cholera  in  1849.  Till  1809,  the  students  of  the  East  India  Company's 
College  were  taught  and  resided  at  the  Castle  ;  they  then  moved  to  Haileybury. 
The  pamphlet  records  the  demolition  of  various  old  buildings,  and  the  discovery  of 
the  remains  of  some  that  had  long  since  disappeared.  In  writing  what  he  has 
written.  Mr.  Andrews  has  set  an  example  which  residents  in  other  parts  of  the 
Home  Counties  may  advantageously  follow. 

History  of  Strood,  by  Henry  Smetham,  Chatham.      (Barrett  &  Neves,  8vo.,  7.?.  6d.) 

Mr.  Smetham  has  produced  a  book  that  is  reliable  and  pleasant  to  read, 
although  it  partakes  more  of  the  nature  of  a  guide-book  than  of  a  parochial 
history.  He  has  devoted  comparatively  little  space  to  the  history  of  .Strood, 
properly  so  called,  and  seems  to  have  been  anxious  to  make  it  interesting  rather 
than  complete.  The  account  of  early  times  is  strikingly  meagre,  and  the 
derivation  of  the  name  from  strata  seems  very  far-fetched.  The  chapter  on  Strood 
manors  is  good,  but  we  fancy  that  it  might  easily  be  amplified  in  a  second  edition, 
if  the  author  will  consult  records.  An  inspection  of  the  Lambeth  MSS.  would 
probably  enable  Mr.  Smetham  to  make  considerable  additions  to  his  account  of 
Strood  hospitals,  and  the  pilgrims.  Notwithstanding  these  omissions,  the  book  must 
be  allowed  to  be  a  valuable  contribution  to  Kentish  topography,  and  the  author  has 
placed  a  large  number  of  curious  and  valuable  facts  at  the  command  of  the  student 
of  custom.  The  book  is  amply  illustrated,  but  suffers  from  the  want  of  a  map. 
One  is  glad  to  see  included  a  sympathetic  and  fairly  copious  biography  of  the  late 
C.  Roach  Smith,  F.S.A.  With  singularly  good  taste  the  builders  who  purchased 
his  .estate  after  his  death,  and  laid  it  out  in  streets,  have  named  them  respectively, 
Charles  Street,  Roach  Street,  Smith  Street,  and  Antiquary  Street. 

A.  Calendar  of  Letter  Books,  A  and  B  of  the  City  of  London.  Edited  by  Reginald  R.  Sharpe, 
D.C.L.,  etc.  Printed  by  order  of  the  Corporation  under  the  direction  of  the  Library 
Committee. 

It  is  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  that  we  are  able  to  note  the  efforts  of  the 
Library  Committee  of  the  Corporation  of  London  to  make  accessible  to  the  historical 
student  the  contents  of  their  most  valuable  muniment  room.  The  calendars  which 
have  just  been  issued  under  the  able  and  careful  editorship  of  Dr.  Reginald  R. 
Sharpe,  are  devoted  to  the  class  of  records  called  Letter  Books,  not  because  they 
contain  correspondence,  but  on  account  of  their  having  been  designated  by  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet.  The  volumes  before  us  extend  from  1275  to  1312,  and  con- 
tain principally  recognizances  for  debts,  which,  though,  perhaps  not  individually 
containing  much  of  general  historical  value,  yet  taken  collectively  are  of  the  greatest 
service  to  the  student  of  economic  history."  We  have  also  here  recorded  many 
incidents  throwing  a  side  light  upon  civic  life  and  customs  of  the  times,  viz. : — the 
treatment  of  the  Jews  just  before  their  expulsion  from  England,  the  procedure  in 
the  City  Courts  of  Law,  notices  of  various  offences  such  as  "  night  walking  after 
curfew,"  robbery  with  violence,  frequenting  of  taverns  and  houses  of  ill-fame,  and 
gambling,  the  supervision  by  the  corporation  of  all  trades,  and  many  other  matters 
which  would  occupy  too  much  space  to  enumerate.  It  would  be  difficult  here  to 
give  any  critical  analysis  of  the  contents  of  the  calendar,  suffice  it  to  say  there 
appears  to  be  everything  requisite  in  it  for  the  student,  and  this  is  all  that  could  be 
desired  as  the  work  is  essentially  one  for  the  student  and  not  for  the  general  reader. 

Who's  Who,  1900— An  Annual  Biographical  Dictionary  (A.  &  C.  Black,  3s.  6rf). 

So  many  of  the  celebrities  figuring  in  Who's  Who,  reside  in,  or  are  connected 
with,  the  Home  Counties,  that  a  notice  of  the  work  may  appropriately  find  a  notice 
in  these  pages.  The  edition  for  the  present  year  is  fuller  than  ever,  and  conse- 
quently more  useful ;  in  it  the  reader  will  find  all  he  wants  to  know  (and  perhaps 
something  besides)  concerning  men  and  women  of  the  present  day  who  are  famous 
in  any  particular  walk  of  life.  The  book  is  equally  useful  in  the  library,  the 
drawing-room,  or  the  office. 


Chaucer  and  his  Contemporaries. 

Richard  II.  Chaucer. 

Gower.  John  o'  Gaunt. 

Henry  IV.  Wyckcliff. 


CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE. 
BY  PROFESSOR  HALES,  F.S.A. 

OF  the  poets  that  are  intimately,  both  by  birth  and  by 
residence,  associated  with  London,  Chaucer  is  certainly 
one  of  the  chief  after  Milton ;  he  must  be  mentioned  along 
with  Spenser,  Ben  Jonson,  Herrick,  Pope,  and  Browning.  He 
was  born,  it  is  fairly  certain,  in  Thames  Street ;  he  spent 
some  dozen  of  the  best  years  of  his  manhood  not  far  from  the 
spot  of  his  birth  ;  he  was  buried  in  the  Cloisters  of  the  Abbey 
Church  of  Westminster.  And  from  his  writings  and  from  what 
records  there  are  of  his  life,  we  are  assured  of  his  familiarity 
with  London  and  its  neighbourhood — with  Old  St.  Paul's,  with 
the  Temple,  with  the  Custom  House,  with  Charing  Cross,  with 
Cheapside,  with  Smithfield,  with  Friday  Street,  with  Aldgate, 
with  the  Savoy  Palace,  with  the  Black  Friars'  Monastery,  with 
Southwark  and  the  Tabard  Inn,  and  the  Bell,  with  Westminster 
and  its  Palace  and  its  Courts  of  Law,  with  the  Old  Kent 
Road,  with  Hatcham  and  its  "  Foul  Oak,"  with  Greenwich, 
with  Bow  and  with  Stratford,  with  Eltham,  with  Sheen  (now 
Richmond).  Thus  he  was  a  Londoner  born  and  bred,  and 
much  as  he  loved  his  books,  and  the  flowers  of  the  field,  not 
less  loved  he  his  fellow-men,  and  delighted  to  move  among 
them  and  with  keen  but  not  unkindly  eyes,  however  little  they 
might  suspect  that  "a  chield"  was  "amang"  'em  "takin  notes," 
to  observe  their  ways  and  humours,  their  frauds  and  their 
benevolences,  the  good  and  the  ill  which  form  "  the  mingled 
yarn  of  the  web  of  our  life."  He  too,  might  say,  with  "the 
Spectator  "  of  Queen  Anne's  time  :  "  As  I  am  a  great  lover  of 
mankind,  my  heart  naturally  over-flows  with  pleasure  at  the 
sight  of  a  prosperous  and  happy  multitude,  insomuch  that  at 
many  publick  solemnities,  I  cannot  forbear  expressing  my  joy 
with  tears  that  have  stolen  down  my  cheeks."  At  least,  he  was 
of  like  passions  with  the  Spectator,  though  his  feeling  would 
not  exhibit  itself  quite  in  the  same  fashion.  He  had  yet  more 
in  common  with  Charles  Lamb  than  with  Addison.  He  could 
justly  appropriate  as  Elia  could  have  appropriated  and  did  in 
sense,  if  not  verbis  ipsissimis,  appropriate  that  catholic — that 
admirable,  however  hackneyed — line,  that,  by  a  man  nothing 
human  should  be  regarded  as  alien. 

S 


254  CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE. 

"  The  lighted  shops  of  the  Strand  and  Fleet  Street,"  writes  Lamb 
to  Wordsworth  ;  "  the  innumerable  trades,  tradesmen  and  customers, 
coaches,  waggons,  playhouses  ;  all  the  bustle  and  wickedness  round 
about  Covent  Garden  ;  the  watchmen,  drunken  scenes,  rattles  ;  life 
awake,  if  you  awake,  at  all  hours  of  the  night ;  the  impossibility 
of  being  dull  in  Fleet  Street ;  the  crowds,  the  very  dirt  and  mud, 
the  sun  shining  upon  houses  and  pavements,  the  print  shops,  the 
old  book-stalls,  parsons  cheapening  books,  coffee-houses,  steams  of 
soups  from  kitchens,  the  pantomimes — London  itself  a  pantomime 
and  a  masquerade — all  these  things  work  themselves  into  my  mind, 
and  feed  me  without  a  power  of  satiating  me.  The  wonder  of  these 
sights  impels  me  into  night-walks  about  her  crowded  streets,  and  I 
often  shed  tears  in  the  motley  Strand  from  fulness  of  joy  at  so 
much  life." 

Not  Walt  Whitman  was  more  comprehensive  in  his 
catalogue  of  interests,  or  clasped  the  world  to  his  bosom  with 
a  more  generous  embrace ;  and  Chaucer,  we  may  be  sure,  was 
not  less  attached  to  the  London  of  his  day.  He  is  not  only 
one  of  London's  most  distinguished  natives,  but  like  Dr. 
Johnson,  and  Dickens,  and  many  another,  one  of  London's  most 
ardent  lovers.  And  in  The  Home  Counties  Magazine  for  this 
October,  which  is  exactly  500  years  since  he  was  laid  to  rest  in 
what  was  then  a  suburb  of  the  city  that  was  his  birth-place, 
and  for  so  long  his  home,  let  us  think  of  him  as  a  Londoner. 

London  has  still,  and  will  we  may  be  assured  always  have, 
its  enthusiastic  friends  and  adherents  in  whose  eyes  it  is,  and 
will  be,  the  only  place  where  life  is  worth  living,  whatever  its 
uglinesses  in  whatever  districts ;  but  it  need  scarcely  be  said 
the  London,  whose  streets  Chaucer  paced  so  observingly  while 
he  seemed  to  be  noticing  nothing,  was  of  a  very  different  aspect 
from  the  London  we  know.  The  city  was  only  beginning  to 
out-grow  its  ancient  precincts.  Within  and  without  the  walls 
rose  many  monastic  buildings,  some  of  great  architectural 
interest  and  beauty :  Holy  Trinity  Priory,  St.  Helen's 
Nunnery,  the  residences  of  Friars  Gra}r,  Black,  Crutched, 
and  Austin,  The  Charterhouse,  St.  Bartholomew's,  and  its 
Austin  Canons,  the  headquarters  of  the  Knights  Hospitallers, 
and  many  another  '  religious  '  establishment ;  and  close  by  there 
were  fields  where  the  grass  was  fresh  and  green,  and  streams 
of  water  yet  undefiled  and  clear.  And,  however  unsatisfactory 


CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE.  255 

the  sanitary  condition  of  the  houses  was  already,  or  was  very 
soon  to  be,  externally  they  were  highly  attractive,  and  the 
tout  ensemble  of  the  old  thoroughfares  picturesqueness  itself. 
It  needs  no  slight  effort  to  recall  the  London  of  the  last 
Plantagenets. 

Forget  six  counties  over-hung  with  smoke  ; 

Forget  the  snorting  steam  and  piston  stroke; 

Forget  the  spreading  of  the  hideous  town. 

Think  rather  of  the  pack-horse  on  the  down, 

And  dream  of  London  small  and  white  and  clean, 

The  clear  Thames  bordered  by  its  gardens  green. 

Think  that  below  bridge  the  green  lapping  waves 

Smite  some  few  keels  that  bear  Levantine  staves 

Cut  from  the  yew  wood  on  the  burnt  up  hill, 

And  pointed  jars  that  Greek  hands  toiled  to  fill, 

And  treasured  scanty  spice  from  some  far  sea, 

Florence  gold  cloth,  and  Ypres  napery, 

And  cloth  of  Bruges,  and  hogsheads  of  Guienne, 

While  nigh  the  thronged  wharf  Geoffrey  Chaucer's  pen 

Moves  over  bills  of  lading. 

Till  recently,  most  biographers  and  critics  of  Chaucer  have 
accepted  The  Testament  of  Love,  as  one  of  Chaucer's  Works, 
though  it  is  difficult  indeed  to  believe  that  such  an  acceptance 
could  be  based  on  any  intelligent  perusal ;  and  a  passage  used 
to  be  quoted  from  it  as  authorizing  the  statement  that  Chaucer 
was  born  in  London,  and  that  he  dearly  loved  the  place  of  his 
nativity.  The  research  and  the  acuteness  of  Professor  Skeat 
and  Mr.  Henry  Bradley,  have  proved  beyond  question  that  The 
Testament  of  Love  was  in  fact  written  by  one  Thomas  Usk, 
who  was  a  collector  of  Customs  during  part  of  the  time  when 
Chaucer  was  the  Comptroller,  and  so  must  have  known  the 
great  poet  personally,  though  there  was  probably  not  much 
sympathy  between  them,  as  Usk's  political  conduct  was  as 
dubious  as  his  literary  style,  and  the  unfortunate  man  was 
condemned  and  executed  in  1388.  Suspensus  ac  incontinent* 
depositus,  ac  post  xxxa  mucronis  ictus  fere  decapitatus.  It  was 
while  in  prison  that  Usk  wrote  The  Testament  of  Love,  so 
blindly  attributed  to  Chaucer,  and  in  it  occur  words  about 
London  that  are  worth  re-quoting  as  showing  the  devotion  to 
London  of  one  of  Chaucer's  contemporaries  and  acquaintances. 


256  CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE. 

He  is  describing  how  the  peace  of  the  commonalty  was  "  in 
point  to  be  broken  and  annulled,"  and  in  London,  too,  how 
disturbances  were  rife  : 

"  Also  the  Citee  of  London  that  is  to  me  so  dere  and  swete,  in 
whiche  I  was  forth  growen  (and  more  kyndely  love  have  I  to  that 
place  than  to  any  other  in  erthe,  as  every  kyndely  creature  hath  ful 
appetyte  to  that  place  of  his  kyndely  engendure,  and  to  wilne  reste 
and  pees  in  that  stede  to  abyde) — thilke  pees  shulde  thus  there  have 
ben  broken,  and  of  al  wyse  it  is  commended  and  desyred." 

All  his  life  long  Chaucer  must  have  been  a  well-known 
figure  in  the  London  Streets,  and  must  often  have  encountered 
with  friendly  greetings,  or  at  least  with  recognition,  such  notable 
persons  as  Gower,  Wicliffe,  Langland,  Philpot,  Walworth, 
Whittington.  But  we  will  confine  ourselves  to  the  period  of 
his  middle  life  when  he  actually  dwelt  in  London,  the  tenant  of 
one  of  the  old  city  gates,  viz.,  from  1374  to  J386. 

In  May,  1374,  about  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  Con- 
troller of  the  Customs,  when  it  became  necessary  that  he  should 
be  housed  near  his  place  of  business,  the  Mayor,  the  Aldermen, 
and  the  Commonalty  of  the  City  of  London  "granted  and 
released  unto  Geoffey  Chaucer  " — we  quote  Mr.  Riley's  translation 
of  the  original  Latin  document — "  the  whole  of  the  dwelling- 
house  above  the  Gate  of  Algate,  with  the  rooms  built  over  and 
a  certain  cellar  beneath  the  same  gate  on  the  south  side  of  that 
gate  and  the  appurtenances  thereof,  to  have  and  to  hold  the 
whole  of  the  house  aforesaid  with  the  rooms  so  built  over  and" 
the  said  cellar  and  the  appurtenances  thereof,  unto  the  aforesaid 
Geoffrey,  for  the  whole  life  of  him,  the  same  Geoffrey."  Chaucer 
is  to  keep  the  rooms  in  repair ;  and  he  is  to  surrender  them  for 
the  time  if  the  City  has  to  be  put  in  state  of  defence  against  any 
enemy ;  but  otherwise  he  is  to  have  them  to  himself,  no  gaol 
being  "made  thereof,  for  the  safe  keeping  of  prisoners  therein 
during  the  life  of  the  said  Geoffrey,  "gate- towers  being  commonly 
enough  used  for  incarceration.  His  official  duties  were  exact- 
ing. It  was  strictly  ordered  that  he  should  write  his  own  rolls 
with  his  own  hand — manu  sua  propria  scribat,  et  continue  moretur 
ibidem,  et  omnia  que  ad  officium  suum  pertinent  in  propria  persona 
sua  et  non  per  substitutum  suum  facial  et  exequatur.  Some  eight 
years  later,  in  1382,  he  was  appointed  Controller  also  of  the  Petty 
Customs  (Contrarotulator  parve  custume  nostre  in  portuLondinie), 


CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE.  257 

but  in  this  case  he  was  permitted  to  nominate  a  substitute  on  the 
understanding  that  he  was  responsible  for  him,  that  is,  the 
work  might  be  done  per  se  vel  sufficientem  deputation  suum  pro 
quo  respondere  voluerit.  At  last  in  February,  1385,  he  received 
permission  to  nominate  a  deputy  for  the  first  appointment  also; 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  he  at  once  availed  himself  of  an 
indulgence  for  which  it  may  be  confidently  presumed  he  had 
petitioned,  and  that  probably  he  changed  his  domicile  to 
Greenwich.  At  all  events  we  know  that  in  October,  1386,  one 
Richard  Forster  became  the  lessee  of  the  Algate  premises,  and 
the  place  that  had  known  Chaucer  for  some  eleven  or  twelve 
years  knew  him  no  more. 

The  old  tower  in  which  Chaucer  lived  was  pulled  down  in 
1606,  and  its  successor  suffered  the  same  fate  about  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  So  only  the  site  survives  ;  and  we  must 
imagine  the  old  poet's  abode  and  its  surroundings  and  its  inner 
arrangements  as  best  we  may.  His  face  we  know  well,  and  it 
is  not  so  difficult  to  picture  it  to  ourselves  looking  forth  from 
some  quaint  lattice  on  the  motley  crowd  as  it  bustled  to  and  fro 
beneath,  towards  Whitechapel,  or  London  Bridge,  or  the  Tower, 
or  Leadenhall  Street  and  Cornhill. 

We  may  picture  him  going  forth  to  his  labour  till  the  evening 
by  several  routes — down  the  Minories  and  then  by  the  Tower, 
and  the  Church  of  All  Hallows,  Barking,  and  so  to  Customers' 
Key ;  or  down  Aldgate  and  Fenchurch  Street  as  far  as  Mark 
Lane  and  so  to  his  destination ;  or  more  commonly  perhaps 
proceeding  down  Jewry  Street  and  Crutched  Friars  and  Hart 
Street  (to  use  the  now  current  names)  and  so  into  Mark  Street 
and  on  to  his  official  desk. 

The  Custom  House,  where  he  worked  most  of  his  time,  is 
as  non-existent  as  the  Aldgate  tower.  It  stood  very  near  the 
present  one,  but  was  removed  in  1385,  just  when  Chaucer  was 
securing  his  manumission.  And  the  present  one  is  the  fifth 
successor  of  the  scene  of  Chaucer's  labours. 

One  of  the  brightest  lyric  poets  of  our  literature  was  made 
an  exciseman ;  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  our  poets,  one 
William  Wordsworth,  acquired  an  income  as  a  stamp-distributor ; 
and  he  whom  Stow,  not  yet  fully  conscious  of  the  splendour  of 
his  own  age,  justly  calls  "the  most  famous  poet  of  England," 


258 


CHAUCER    AT    ALDGATE. 


drudged  away  many  of  his  best  years  as  the  Controller  of 
Customs  !  Probably  all  three  poets  were  thankful  for  what  they 
could  get ;  but  certainly  they  were  thankful  for  small  or  at  least 
scarcely  apt  and  well-considered  mercies.  Whatever  compen- 
sations there  may  be,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  seems  far 
from  an  ideal  management  of  things  to  turn  the  most  brilliant 
geniuses  of  the  country  into  gaugers  and  clerks. 

No  doubt  in  Chaucer's  case  there  were  compensations. 
What  varieties  of  life  and  character  must  have  come  to  his 
knowledge,  as  he  sat  at  the  receipt  of  Customs!  The  wide 
world  itself  must  have  filed  past  him,  and  revealed  itself  to  him 
on  the  quay,  or  in  his  counting-house.  And  in  those  daily 
walks  to  and  fro  how  many  forms  and  phases  of  human  nature  he 
must  have  seen  and  noted !  We  may  well  suppose  that  all  the 
hours  spent  over  those  endless  rolls — those  cockets  and  dockets 
— was  not  time  wasted.  He  was  carrying  on  mankind's  proper 
study — the  study  of  man.  He  was  heaping  up  knowledge, 
some  part  at  least  of  which  he  was  himself  to  gather  and  to 
leave  behind  him  in  an  imperishable  shape. 

Certainly  every  evening  he  went  back  hungering  and  thirsting 
not  only  physically  but  intellectually,  eager  to  turn  to  his  books, 
and  the  better  able  to  understand  them  through  the  insight  into 
men  and  into  life  obtained  on  the  Custom  House  wharf  and  by 
contact  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  And  late  into 
the  night  we  may  imagine  this  official,  his  business  hours  over, 
reading  and  writing.  He  draws  for  us  just  such  a  picture 
of  himself,  when  in  the  House  of  Fame,  he  represents  the 
Eagle  who  is  transporting  him  to  another  region,  as  addressing 
him  in  this  wise  : — 

When  thy  labour  doon  al  is, 

And  hast  ymaad  thy  rekenynges, 

In  stede  of  reste  and  newe  thynges, 

Thou  gost  hoom  to  thy  hous  anoon, 

And  also  domb  as  any  stoon, 

Thou  sittest  at  another  boke, 

i.e.  another  book  than  the  ledger  you  have  been  poring 
over  all  day  long — 

Tyl  fully  daswyd  is  thy  looke, 

And  lyvest  thus  as  an  heremyte, 

Although  thyn  abstynence  is  lyte. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  259 

However  weary  his  hand  with  writing  out  those  matter-of- 
fact  documents,  it  was  now  addressed  to  other  and  delightful 
labours — to  labours  of  love.  And  it  was  in  the  old  tower  of 
Aldgate  that  he  made  himself  a  supreme  master  of  the  poetic 
craft,  and  turned  his  mastery  to  immortal  account  in  the  pro- 
duction of  so  exquisite  a  piece  as  Troilus  and  Cressida,  and  in 
the  designing  of  a  work  that  should  give,  yet  ampler  expression 
to  his  manifold  gifts  and  graces,  to  his  maturest  thought  and 
his  highest  inspiration. 


QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

Since  our  last  issue  two  measures,  which  intimately  concern 
the  interests  to  which  these  pages  are  devoted,  have  become 
law:  the  Ancient  Monuments'  Protection  Bill,  and  the  Land 
Dedication  Bill.  The  former  amends  that  of  1882,  and  by  it 
County  Councils  are  enabled  to  purchase,  or,  at  the  request  of 
the  owner,  become  guardians  of,  ancient  monuments,  and  to 
maintain  and  manage  them.  They  may  also  receive  con- 
tributions towards  the  cost  of  purchase  or  maintenance  of 
such  monuments.  The  Land  Dedication  Bill  enables  the 
owner  of  property  to  dedicate  it  to  the  public  for  specific 
purposes,  without  surrendering  the  ownership. 

Both  these  measures  have  been  materially  helped  by  those 
two  excellent  institutions,  the  National  Trust  and  the  Society 
for  the  Protection  of  Ancient  Buildings.  Each  body  may  con- 
gratulate itself  on  other  good  work  accomplished.  The  former 
has,  indeed,  cause  to  lament  the  death  of  its  late  president, 
the  Duke  of  Westminster ;  but  it  may  surely  look  for  good 
things  from  so  politic  and  artistic  a  man  as  the  Earl  of  Dufferin 
and  Ava,  who  has  suceeded  him. 

The  Trust  needs  about  3OO/.  to  acquire  and  preserve  a  very 
remarkable  building,  possibly  of  fourteenth  century  construction, 
the  Old  Court  House  at  Long  Crendon,  in  Buckinghamshire. 
The  building  was  probably  erected  as  a  wool-store  ;  but  being 
commodious  was,  from  early  times,  used  for  holding  the 
manorial  courts — hence  its  name.  Such  courts  will  still  be 


260  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

held  there  if  the  building  is  preserved,  so  that  the  historical 
associations  of  the  place  will  be  maintained ;  a  portion  of  the 
building  will  be  leased  to  the  vicar  for  parochial  purposes. 

The  annual  report  of  the  other  society  named,  that  which 
safe-guards  ancient  buildings,  is  exceptionally  interesting. 
A  vigorous  protest  is  made  against  the  threatened  destruction 
of  a  great  part  of  the  west  side  of  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  new  street  from  Holborn  to  the  Strand, 
where  every  house,  though  none  are  more  than  a  couple  of 
centuries  old,  possesses  interesting  associations,  and  is  a  fine 
example  of  the  builder's  art.  It  is  devoutly  to  be  hoped  that 
the  London  County  Council  will  not  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  this 
protest,  even  though  the  preservation  of  the  buildings  may 
necessitate  some  sacrifice  in  regard  to  the  new  street. 

Nothing  is  said  in  this  report  about  the  Whitgift  Hospital 
at  Croydon  which  seems  in  imminent  danger  of  destruction. 
As  we  mentioned  before  (p.  96),  the  almshouses  project 
beyond  the  new  building  line  of  George  Street,  and  constitute 
a  real  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  traffic.  The  suggestion  to 
preserve  the  whole  structure  by  constructing  a  road  at 
the  rear  of  the  hospital  is  good,  but  costly  ;  a  cheaper,  though 
not  so  satisfactory  a  plan,  would  be  to  sacrifice  the  extreme 
corner  cottage,  and  thus  round  off  the  sharp  angle.  In  any  case 
all  who  are  interested  in  the  preservation  of  this  very  fine  and 
beautiful  example  of  sixteenth  century  almshouses  should  do 
their  utmost  to  bring  influence  to  bear  upon  the  authorities,  and 
vigorously  oppose  the  present  proposals  of  demolition.  An 
article  on  the  Hospital  buildings,  written  and  illustrated  by 
Mr.  Walter  H.  Godfrey,  will  appear  in  the  next  issue  of 
this  magazine. 

There  was  another  bill  before  Parliament  to  which  we 
referred  in  these  notes  for  July — the  Diocesan  Records'  Bill. 
That  has  not  found  its  way  into  the  Statute  Book,  and,  for 
reasons  already  stated,  we  do  not  regret  its  absence.  It  only 
dealt  with  a  portion  of  a  very  important  subject  which  demands 
attention  as  a  whole,  namely,  the  proper  custody  and  preserva- 
tion of  local  public  records.  Perhaps  before  next  session  the 
Government  Commission  enquiring  into  the  matter  will  have 


QUARTERLY    NOTES.  261 

made  its  report.  If  it  has  not  done  so  we  fancy  that  enquiries 
as  to  the  progress  of  the  Committee's  work  will  be  made  by 
more  than  one  honourable  member. 

Meanwhile  it  is  satisfactory  to  note  that  certain  local  bodies 
are  paying  some  heed  to  their  documents  ;  the  parochial  records 
of  Westminster  are  (witness  the  new  calendar  and  press-list  to 
them  reviewed  in  the  present  number  of  this  magazine),  evidently 
carefully  preserved,  and  we  notice  that  in  various  parts  of  the 
home  counties — as  for  instance,  at  Hungerford,  in  Berkshire,  and 
Hillingdon,  in  Middlesex,  local  bodies  are  providing  safes  in 
which  to  place  their  muniments. 

It  is  to  be  wished  that  such  bodies,  District  Councils 
and  the  like,  were  equally  alive  to  their  duties  in  regard  to 
another  matter  which  has  often  formed  the  subject  of  these 
notes — the  preservation  of  open  spaces.  The  sentiments  of 
the  Uxbridge  Rural  District  Council,  as  evidenced  in  the  recent 
discussion  over  contesting  the  publicity  of  Charville  Lane,  are 
most  unsatisfactory.  Surely  the  Council  should  be  as  desirous 
as  Lord  Hillingdon  himself,  to  get  the  question  settled. 
Equally  unsatisfactory  is  the  Council's  attitude  about  No 
Man's  land  at  Cowley.  The  Council  seems  ready  to  agree  to 
a  scheme  of  enclosure  sooner  than  be  at  trouble  or  expense  in 
maintaining  an  open  space.  At  Brill,  in  Buckinghamshire, 
the  common  rights  (which  appear  in  danger)  seem  more 
zealously  looked  after  by  local  bodies. 

This  really  grievous  lethargy  emphasizes  the  necessity  for 
the  existence  of  the  Commons  and  Footpaths  Preservation 
Society.  That  energetic  body  continues  to  do  much  useful 
work,  both  as  to  commons  and  footpaths.  The  Berkshire 
branch  seems  to  be  particularly  active,  and  besides  discharging 
its  own  functions  is,  we  are  glad  to  see,  helping  the  movement 
in  Reading  for  preventing  a  further  disfigurement  of  the  Thames- 
side  thereabouts,  and  also  that  which  seeks  to  restrain  the 
Corporation  from  pulling  down  part  of  the  hospitium  of  the 
Abbey  in  order  to  enlarge  the  Town  Hall. 

Equally  active  is  the  Kent  and  Surrey  branch  of  the  Society. 
In  its  report  it  dwells  upon  the  value  of  the  Commons'  Regula- 


262  QUARTERLY    NOTES. 

tion  Act  of  last  year,  which  simplifies  the  placing  of  commons 
under  the  control  of  Urban  and  Rural  District  Councils,  which 
can  frame  rules  for  the  general  good  government  of  open  spaces, 
including  power  to  deal  with  the  gipsy  nuisance.  The  action 
of  Lord  Onslow  in  regard  to  many  Surrey  commons  shows 
that  lords  of  manors  thoroughly  approve  of  the  Act,  and  grasp 
its  advantages  for  themselves,  and  for  the  public.  Speaking  of 
Surrey  Commons,  we  may  express  regret  that  Croham  Hurst  is 
not  yet  secured  as  an  open  space. 

The  memory  of  an  old-time  champion  of  public  rights-of- 
way,  Timothy  Bennett,  has  been  kept  green  by  the  erection 
of  a  monument  at  Hampton  Wick,  the  gift  of  Mr.  J.  C.  Buck- 
master.  Timothy,  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  lived  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood about  a  century-and-a-half  ago,  and  was  much 
distressed  at  seeing  his  fellow  villagers  denied  their  passage 
across  Bushey  Park.  He  determined  to  try  the  legality  of  the 
"  closure  "  and  the  Ranger  of  the  day  gave  way  under  the 
shadow  of  an  action — so  the  story  goes. 

Since  Timothy's  day  public  rights  in  Bushey  Park  have  not 
been  obstructed ;  but  they  had  been  before,  on  more  than  one 
occasion.  Lord  Carrington,  in  unveiling  the  shoe-maker's 
effigy,  forgot  to  remind  his  hearers  that  a  flagrant  culprit  in 
the  matter  of  obstructing  public  rights-of-way  in  and  about 
Bushey  Park  was  Oliver  Cromwell,  who,  during  the  ten  years 
or  so  that  the  Crown  property  was  in  his  hands,  placed  poles 
across  "the  highway  for  horse  and  foot,"  leading  from  "the 
Wick  to  Hampton  Court  through  the  Hare  Warren." 

At  the  Richmond  Public  Library  there  is  being  brought 
together  a  collection  of  local  books — books  locally  written, 
published  or  printed.  The  idea  of  forming  such  a  collection  is 
good,  and  we  are  glad  to  see  that  it  is  being  taken  up, 
by  individuals  as  well  as  by  libraries.  If  residents  in  different 
parts  of  the  home  counties  would  set  to  work  to  collect 
books  and  pamphlets,  not  only  about  their  particular  localities, 
but  produced  in  them,  many  interesting  bibliographical  facts 
would  come  to  light,  and  the  existence  of  some  early 
printing  presses  in  little  expected  towTns  and  villages  would, 
we  fancy,  be  revealed.  The  Kentish  Express  tells  us  that  such 
collections  are  now  quite  the  fashion  in  Kent. 


A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY.  263 

We  must  not  close  these  necessarily  short  notes  without 
bidding  welcome  to  a  publication  that,  running  much  on  the 
lines  on  which  this  magazine  runs,  will  deal  exclusively  with 
East  Anglia.  We  mean  "The  Eastern  Counties  Magazine  and 
Suffolk  Note  Book,"  edited  by  the  Hon.  Mary  Henniker.  Miss 
Henniker  is  a  lady  well  qualified  by  family  connection  with  the 
Eastern  Counties,  and  by  her  literary  ability  to  edit  such  a 
work.  The  first  number  is  full  of  excellent  matter — old  and 
new. 


A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY.  * 

IT  is  no  light  task  that  Mr.  Maiden  has  attempted,  to  set 
forth  within  the  limits  of  a  popular  series,  and  with 
scholarly  accuracy  and  completeness,  the  history  of  such  a 
county  as  Surrey.  The  county,  as  he  tells  us,  unlike  several 
others,  never  corresponded  to  the  territory  of  a  people  nor  of  a 
tribe.  With  the  exception  of  the  Thames  in  the  north,  and, 
for  a  few  miles,  of  the  Blackwater  in  the  west,  the  county  has 
no  natural  boundary.  Consequently,  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Domesday  Survey,  its  limits  appear  but  ill-defined,  the  line  of 
demarcation  in  the  south,  between  it  and  Sussex,  through  the 
great  and  sparsely  inhabited  forest,  the  Andredesweald,  being 
then  hardly  determined. 

Its  name,  Surrey,  whether  we  are  to  derive  it  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  rice  a  kingdom,  or  with  Camden — probably  wrongly — 
from  rea  a  river,  suggests  that  it  was  named  by  people  who  lived 
to  the  north  of  it.  In  the  earliest  times  it  must  have  been 
regarded  as  an  appendage  of  something  greater  to  the  north  of 
it,  very  much  as  in  the  present  day  it  has  become  to  the 
dwellers  and  workers  in  London,  their  most  delightful  rural 
suburb. 

It  is,  indeed,  to  its  position  between  London  and  the  south 
coast  that  Surrey  owes  its  importance  in  the  general  history  of 
England.  Every  army  which  approached  London  from  the 

*  A  History  of  Surrey,  by  Henry  Elliot  Maiden,  M.A.  Popular  County 
Histories.  Elliot  Stock,  London,  1900. 


264  A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY. 

south  had  to  march  through  Surrey,  and  thus  the  county 
became  the  theatre  of  more  than  one  of  those  great  struggles 
which  played  their  part  in  the  making  of  the  English  people. 

Passing  over  the  period  of  the  Roman  rule  and  the 
extremely  intricate  history  of  the  period  immediately  subsequent 
to  it,  we  come,  in  the  year  568,  to  the  first  recorded  war 
between  two  English  Kings.  The  battle  of  Wipandune  was 
fought  between  the  West  Saxons  and  the  Kentish  men  for  the 
possession  of  Surrey,  and  resulted  in  the  over-throw  of  the 
latter.  The  site  of  the  battle  is  a  vexed  question,  historians  on 
the  whole  being  inclined  to  favour  the  claims  of  Wimbledon. 
But  Wimbledon,  as  Mr.  Maiden  points  out,  in  the  older  forms 
of  its  name,  Wimbaldon  or  Wymbalton,  hardly  suggests 
Wippa's  or  Wibba's  dun.  Moreover,  if  the  story  be  true  that 
Ethelbert,  the  Kentish  King,  was  invading  Ceawlin's  territory, 
we  should  look  for  the  scene  of  the  battle  further  west,  and 
hence  Worplesden  has  been  suggested,  but  at  a  venture.  Mr. 
Maiden  has  yet  a  third  claimant  for  the  site,  and  advances  his 
views  with  no  little  plausibility.  In  a  charter  of  Chertsey 
Abbey  of  675,  edited  in  post-conquest  times,  the  name 
Wipsedone,  which  would  be  the  more  modern  form  of 
Wipandune,  occurs  in  a  list  of  the  boundaries  of  the  manors  of 
Chertsey,  Thorpe,  Egham,  and  Chobham.  On  the  strength 
of  this  charter,  Mr.  Maiden  would  place  the  site  of  the  battle 
on  the  heaths  near  Chobham,  on  the  line  of  the  Roman  road 
from  Staines  to  Silchester. 

Barely  three  hundred  years  after  this  event  Surrey  was 
again  to  become  the  scene  of  a  conflict,  which  was  yet  more 
fully  to  confirm  the  permanence  of  West  Saxon  rule.  This 
time  the  invaders  were  a  new  foe,  now  first  appearing  in  the 
country.  A  large  body  of  the  Danes  having  passed  up  the 
Thames  and  sacked  London,  were  marching  through  Surrey  by 
the  Roman  Stone  Street  when  they  were  met  by  Ethelwulf, 
and  exterminated  in  a  great  battle  hard  by  Ockley  Wood. 
Local  tradition  used  to  call  the  British  camp  on  Anstiebury  the 
Danish  camp,  but  although  the  Danes  had  slept  in  the  camp 
during  the  night  before  the  battle,  it  is  certain  that  they  did 
not  make  it.  The  camp  is  not  fashioned  after  Danish  methods, 
and  is  moreover  too  elaborate  for  a  passing  body  of  invaders. 


A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY.  265 

Through  the  subsequent  years  of  intermittent  warfare  with 
the  Danes,  Surrey  must  have  suffered  in  common  with  the 
whole  country.  Once,  indeed,  before  the  coming  of  the 
Normans,  it  was  the  scene  of  a  mysterious  historical  event. 
The  Etheling  Alfred  on  his  way  from  Normandy  to  Winchester, 
to  secure  the  succession  of  his  half  brother  Harthacnut,  was 
treacherously  arrested  and  put  to  death  at  Guildford. 

After  the  battle  of  Hastings,  Surrey  was  to  be  traversed  by 
the  Conqueror's  army  on  its  march  towards  London.  The  line 
of  ravage  can  be  traced  from  the  Domesday  Survey  by  the 
deterioration  in  value  of  the  manors  which  suffered,  and  forms 
an  interesting  study.  The  confiscation  and  change  of  conditions 
of  holding  in  Surrey  were  extensive  but  not  universal.  At 
that  time  nothing  larger  than  what  we  should  call  a 
village,  appears  in  the  survey.  Guildford  is  not  specially 
distinguished,  and  there  is  no  indication  of  a  county  capital. 
If  Kingston  had  retained  any  importance  since  the  Danish  wars, 
it  was  lost  by  now.  Leatherhead,  which,  in  Henry  Ill's  reign, 
was  stated  on  doubtful  evidence  to  have  always  been  the  place 
of  meeting  of  the  County  Court,  is  a  place  of  no  importance 
in  Domesday.  South wark  had  suffered  much  from  the  ravage 
inflicted  in  1066. 

Guildford  became  a  royal  residence  much  frequented  by  John 
and  Henry  III.  The  royal  manor  was  probably  not  undefended 
even  before  1066.  Stone  castles  can  hardly  have  existed  in 
England  before  then,  because  even  in  Normandy  itself  the  art  of 
building  them  was  at  that  time  a  recent  and  barely  acquired 
one.  Previously  the  method  of  fortification  had  been  to  heap  up 
an  artificial  mound,  to  surround  it  with  a  ditch,  and  to  guard  its 
slopes  all  round  with  palisades.  Such  an  earthwork  had 
probably  existed  at  Guildford  from  an  early  date.  The  Norman 
stone  keep  which  is  still  standing  bears  evidence  of  having 
been  erected  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  It  is  an  interesting 
example,  of  which  the  castles  of  Christchurch  and  Clun  are 
the  only  others  known  in  England,  of  a  solid  keep  partly 
planted  upon  an  artificial  mound.  To  have  placed  the  keep 
entirely  upon  such  a  mound  would  have  been  an  impossibility, 
but  at  Guildford,  whilst  the  east  wall  alone  is  based  upon  the 
solid  ground,  it  is  constructed  of  an  extraordinary  thickness  to 


266  A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY. 

help  in  holding  up  the  three  sides  built  on  the  mound.  These 
three  sides  are  further  lightened  with  frequent  piercings  for 
doors  and  windows. 

The  elaborate  directions  given  by  Henry  III.  for  preparing 
the  castle  for  the  reception  of  the  Court  and  of  his  son 
Edward,  when  a  boy  of  barely  seven  years,  can  still  be  read, 
and  throw  a  most  interesting  light  on  the  domestic  manners 
and  architecture  of  his  time.  It  is  only  possible  here  to  refer 
the  reader  to  Mr.  Maiden's  book  for  a  knowledge  of  their 
contents. 

Guildford  Castle  and  the  other  ancient  castles  of  Surrey, 
Farnham,  Reigate  and  Blechingley,  all  play  a  part  more  or  less 
important  in  the  course  of  the  Barons'  wars.  These  wars  were 
waged,  perhaps,  none  the  less  keenly  in  Surrey,  because  ever 
and  again  there  would  be  mixed  up  with  them  the  hereditary 
rivalries  of  the  two  most  powerful  baronial  families  in  the 
county — the  De  Warennes  and  the  De  Clares. 

Whatever  benefit  Surrey  may  have  derived  from  the 
patronage  bestowed  by  John  and  his  successors  on  Guildford, 
it  is  certain  that  in  other  respects  the  county  had  little  cause  to 
be  grateful  for  its  close  relations  with  royalty.  Its  proximity 
to  Windsor  subjected  it  to  every  attempt  of  the  sovereign  to 
extend  the  bounds  of  that  royal  forest,  and  within  the  forests 
the  King  was  still  master  as  he  was  not  elsewhere.  Henry 
II.  afforested  firstly  his  own  demesne  at  Guildford  and 
Woking,  and  ended  by  afforesting  the  whole  county  in  1226, 
and  making  it  an  appendage  to  the  Forest  of  Windsor.  So 
strongly  was  this  resented  that  Richard  I.  agreed  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  county  should  be  disafforested,  a  concession 
however  which  he  left  to  his  successor  to  carry  out.  This  left 
the  country  west  of  the  Wey  and  north  of  the  Hog's  Back  as 
forest,  and  for  some  centuries  later  this  tract,  known  as  the 
Bailiwick  of  Surrey,  was  a  fruitful  cause  of  debate  between  the 
Crown  and  its  subjects.  Not  until  1642  was  it  finally  decided 
that  the  posts  and  rails  of  the  park  at  Guildford  had  been  in 
James  I.'s  reign  the  bounds  of  the  only  part  of  the  Forest  of 
Windsor  within  the  limits  of  the  county  of  Surrey,  and  that 
the  grant  by  King  Charles  of  this  park  to  the  Earl  of 
Annandale  had  distinctly  disafforested  the  only  part  of  the 
bailiwick  which  had  not  been  disafforested  long  before. 


A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY.  267 

Of  the  town  life  of  Surrey  in  the  early  and  middle  ages, 
says  Mr.  Maiden,  there  is  little  to  be  said.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  Surrey  might  have  had  one  great  city  of  its  own  if  there 
had  not  been  a  greater  in  Middlesex.  Guildford  and  Southwark 
were  the  only  two  places  in  the  county  that  had  any  claims  to 
be  considered  as  towns.  Of  these  the  latter  early  began  to  be 
subjected  to  the  city  of  London,  the  commencement  of  the 
process  by  which  London  is  at  the  present  day  absorbing 
Surrey.  Southwark  at  first  an  ecclesiastical,  then  a  theatrical, 
was,  throughout,  a  disorderly  suburb  of  London.  Kingston  had 
a  certain  importance  as  being  on  the  river  and  commanding, 
till  the  last  century,  the  nearest  bridge  above  London,  but 
with  all  its  ancient  dignity,  it  was  never  a  large  and  busy  town. 
Only  during  certain  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  did  it  send 
members  to  Parliament,  the  inhabitants  having,  as  the  story 
goes,  successfully  petitioned  to  be  relieved  of  the  burden. 
Down  to  the  first  Reform  Act  the  Parliamentary  boroughs  of 
Surrey  were  Guildford,  Southwark,  Reigate,  Blechingley, 
Gatton,  and  Haslemere ;  Reigate  and  Blechingley  because 
they  were  the  strongholds  in  the  county  of  the  De  Warennes 
and  De  Clares  respectively.  Gatton  was  almost  as  much,  and 
with  more  cause,  a  by-word  for  a  rotten  borough  as  Old  Sarum. 
Haslemere  is  a  fair  example  of  a  rotten  borough  created  by  the 
Tudors  as  a  means  of  strengthening  their  influence  in  the 
Lower  House. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  here  the  history  of  Surrey  through 
the  concluding  portion  of  the  middle  ages.  Every  rebellion  or 
war  which  affected  London  had  its  effect  on  the  county  adjoin- 
ing it  on  the  south.  The  Peasant's  Revolt  of  1381,  Jack  Cade's 
Rebellion,  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  were  all  felt  in  Surrey;  but 
all  this  is  matter  of  general  history. 

Under  the  Tudors  Surrey  again  became  a  county  of  habitual 
royal  residence.  Henry  VII.  rebuilt  the  old  palace  of  Sheen, 
at  which  Edward  III.  had  died,  and  gave  it  the  name  of 
Richmond  from  the  earldom  which  he  had  held  before  his 
accession.  In  1539,  Henry  VIII.  began  the  great  palace  of 
Nonsuch,  of  which,  says  Mr.  Maiden,  language  seems  scarcely 
sufficient  to  express  the  splendours  as  it  appeared  to  its  con- 
temporaries. But  the  royal  favour  thus  shown  to  Surrey  does 


268  A    NEW    HISTORY    OF    SURREY. 

not  appear  to  have  been  considered  an  unmixed  benefit.  In  a 
remonstrance  from  the  county  to  Queen  Elizabeth  we  are  told 
that  the  shire  was  among  "the  least  and  barrenest  in  England" 
and  "  the  most  charged  of  any  by  reason  that  her  Majesty  lieth 
within  or  about  the  shire  continually,  and  thereby  it  is  charged 
with  continual  removes  and  carriages  of  coals,  wood  and  other 
provision  to  the  Court ;  and  likewise  with  continual  carriage 
for  the  Admiralty  and  the  Master  of  the  Ordnance ;  also  by 
my  Lord  Treasurer  for  the  reparations  of  Her  Majesty's 
houses." 

As  to  the  internal  condition  of  the  county,  Mr.  Maiden  has 
much  to  say  that  is  interesting.  The  bad  condition  of  the 
roads,  down  to  the  end  of  the  first  half  of  the  last  century, 
was  a  serious  drawback  to  the  prosperity  of  any  industry  in 
the  county.  In  the  memory  of  living  men  we  are  told  that 
fat  pigs,  sold  at  a  farm  in  the  Weald,  had  to  be  killed  on 
the  spot,  because  it  was  impossible  to  remove  them  alive  either 
on  their  own  feet  or  on  wheels.  In  a  petition  from  the  people 
of  Horsham  to  Parliament  in  1750  for  a  passable  carriage-road 
to  London,  they  gravely  declared  that,  if  they  wanted  to  drive 
to  London,  they  had  to  go  down  to  the  coast  and  round  by 
Canterbury.  It  is  partly  to  this  state  of  things  that  Surrey  is 
indebted  for  the  honour  of  being  the  first  county  in  England 
to  canalise  one  of  its  rivers  by  means  of  locks.  In  1651  Sir 
Richard  Weston,  of  Sutton  Place,  near  Guildford,  who  had 
seen  the  invention  of  locks  in  the  Low  Countries,  obtained  an 
Act  of  Parliament  for  making  the  Wey  from  Guildford  to  its 
junction  with  the  Thames,  navigable  by  means  of  locks. 


WESTBOURNE    GREEN:     A    RETROSPECT. 
BY  W.  L.  RUTTON,  F.S.A. 

(Concluded  from  p.  198). 
WESTBOURNE  FARM,  OR  DESBOROUGH  COTTAGE. 

From  1817,  when  Mrs.  Siddons  gave  up  this  house,  until 
1845 — a  space  of  twenty-eight  years — we  have  no  sure  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  its  occupation.  It  is  rumoured  that  Giulia 
Grisi,  the  prima  donna,  who  came  to  London  in  1834,  had  it 
for  a  time,  and  this  as  a  proved  fact  would  be  welcome,  but  it 
is  no  more  than  rumour. 

CHARLES  JAMES  MATHEWS  AND  MRS.  MATHEWS  ("MADAME 
VESTRIS").  Charles  Dickens  (the  second),  like  too  many 
biographers,  takes  little  pains  to  tell  us  where  the  brilliant 
actor  lived  from  time  to  time,  and  of  Westbourne  Green  as 
once  his  home  we  should  probably  have  no  more  than  rumour, 
as  in  the  case  of  Grisi,  were  it  not  that  the  time  was  later,  and 
London  blessed  with  a  Directory.  One  other  proof  of  the  fact 
is  peculiar.  Mathews,  a  clever  draughtsman,  had  a  humorous 
way  of  acquainting  his  friends  with  the  situation  of  his  abode 
by  making  a  sketch  of  it  in  his  letters.  Two,  at  least,  of  such 
sketches  have  been  preserved,  and  that  here  reproduced  is 
invaluable  to  us  in  showing  not  only  that  he  did  live  at 
Westbourne  Green,  but  in  putting  the  identity  of  the  house 
beyond  doubt.  Our  sketch  accompanies  an  undated  letter  to 
his  friends  the  Keeleys,  and  fortunately  another  letter  similarly 
illustrated  is  dated  "  Westbourne  Green,  August  2ist,  1845."* 
Thus  we  are  assured  that  Mathews  was  living  here  in  1845, 
though  the  precise  time  of  his  arrival  is  not  discovered.  The 
Post  Office  London  Directory,  now  so  ponderous,  had  then 
scarcely  reached  maturity.  The  infant  volume,  born  in  1800, 
measured  at  its  birth  but  7ins.  by  4jins.  by  fin.  thick,  and 
these  modest  dimensions — though  growing  in  thickness — it 
maintained  until  1840  when  it  underwent  considerable 
expansion.  Its  object  is  commercial  only  until  1841  when,  for 

*  Our  reproduction  is  from  The  Keeleys  on  the  Stage  and  at  Home, 
by  Walter  Goodman,  1895.  The  second  letter  referred  to  is  mentioned  in 
Notes  and  Queries,  8th  S.  III.  469. 

T 


270  WESTBOURNE     GREEN. 

the  first  time,  a  Court  Directory  includes  private  residences  ;  in 
1842  Westbourne  Green  has  first  mention,  but  although  we 
know  from  Mathews's  letter  that  he  was  there  in  1845,  it  is  the 
volume  of  1847  which  first  announces  on  the  Harrow  Road 
"  Charles  James  Matthews  (sic)  Esq.,  Madame  Vestris";  this 
again  appears  in  the  issue  of  1848,  but  not  in  that  of  1849,  so 
it  may  be  presumed  that  in  the  latter  year  they  lived  elsewhere. 

The  sketch  reproduced  clearly  shows  "  Desborough 
Cottage  " — as  Mathews  names  the  former  "  Westbourne 
Farm  " — to  be  the  house  nearest  to  the  Canal,  on  the  right 
hand  side  of  the  Harrow  Road  as  his  friends  the  Keeleys,  in 
their  one-horse-chaise,  approach  from  London.  To  explain  the 
position  the  spire  of  Harrow  Church,  though  eight  miles  off, 
appears  on  the  horizon,  a  fictitious  milestone  states  the  distance 
from  Tyburn  as  a  mile  and  a-half,  while  two  finger-posts  and  a 
man  pointing  with  his  stick  direct  the  travellers,  to  whose 
question  ''Is  Mathews  at  home"?  the  reply  is  "  Always  on 
Sundays."  The  sketch  makes  it  clear  to  us  that  Desborough 
Cottage  was  identical  with  Westbourne  Farm,  and  that  the 
home  of  "  The  Queen  of  Tragedy  "  became  that  of  the  light 
comedians. 

Mathews,  whose  age  in  1845  was  forty- two,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  in  his  prime  when  he  lived  at  Westbourne  Green. 
Before  becoming  an  actor  he  had  followed  the  life  of  a 
leisured  gentleman  at  home  and  abroad,  and  the  ease  and 
courtesy  thus  rendered  habitual  served  afterwards  on  '.the  stage 
as  his  special  distinction  and  charm.  Son  of  a  famous  actor 
it  had  not  been  intended  that  he  should  follow  in  his  father's 
footsteps,  but  the  faculty  inherited  was  in  private  exercised, 
and  when,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  his  father's  failure  com- 
pelled him  to  earn  his  living,  he  with  facility  took  his  place  on 
the  stage.  The  earning  of  his  living,  however,  was  the  least 
successful  part  of  his  career,  for  although  he  could  fill  houses 
by  the  charm  of  his  gentlemanly  acting,  the  spending  of  his 
income  was  achieved  with  equal  ease.  In  September,  1835  he, 
with  Yates,  opened  the  Adelphi,  and  in  November  of  the  same 
year  was  introduced  by  Liston  at  the  Olympic  ;  he  there  played 
George  Rattleton  in  the  Humpbacked  Lover,  written  by  himself. 
There  is  an  excellent  portrait  of  him  in  that  character,  but 


1 


Charles  James  Mathews  in  his  75th  year. 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.,  Ltd. 


WESTBOURNE     GREEN.  271 

here  it  is  preferred  to  give  him  "  in  his  habit  as  he  lived," 
although  a  somewhat  younger  likeness  would  have  been  chosen 
had  it  been  available.  This  portrait,  probably  the  last  taken, 
may,  however,  have  the  advantage  of  representing  him  as 
remembered  by  the  greater  number  of  the  readers  of  this 
notice. 

In  July,  1838,  he  married  Madame  Vestris  then  managing 
the  Olympic.  This  fascinating  actress  was  some  six  years 
older  than  her  husband,  and  had  been  a  widow  about  fifteen 
years ;  had  her  beauty  and  cleverness  been  equalled  by  careful 
management  of  resources  she  would  have  been  a  treasure  to 
Mathews,  but  her  extravagance  kept  time  with  his;  nevertheless 
during  eighteen  years  of  married  life  they  appear  to  have  been 
affectionately  attached  to  each  other.  Together  they  made  an 
unprofitable  visit  to  America,  and  in  September,  1839  they 
opened  Covent  Garden,  a  venture  which  terminated  in  bank- 
ruptcy in  April,  1842.  Next  they  were  for  a  very  short  time 
with  Macready,  at  Drury  Lane,  and  afterwards  at  the  Hay- 
market,  where  they  played  until  October,  1843,  when  occurred 
another  collapse,  and  Mathews  to  escape  his  creditors  took 
refuge  on  the  Continent ;  but  in  December  of  the  same  year 
they  were  back  again  at  the  same  theatre,  and  continued  there 
until  July,  1845.  We  now  come  to  the  time  when  they  Hved 
at  Westbourne  Green,  but  are  without  the  means  of  dating 
their  arrival.  The  circumstances  of  the  undated  letter  which 
has  been  noticed  point  to  the  spring  of  1845,  and  we  know 
from  the  dated  letter  that  they  were  here  in  August  of  that 
year.  During  their  sojourn  at  Westbourne  Green  they  played 
at  the  Surrey,  the  Princess's,  and  provincial  towns,  and  it  was 
probably  consequent  upon  their  taking  the  Lyceum  in  October, 
1847,  that  they  gave  up  Desborough  Cottage  the  next  year ; 
thus  the  duration  of  their  stay  was  between  three  and  four 
years. 

The  beauty  and  seclusion  of  the  locality  had  been  impaired 
when  Mathews  and  Madame  Vestris  resided  in  Desborough 
Cottage.  Scarcely  200  yards  northwards,  though  at  the  other 
side  of  the  canal,  a  portion  of  the  Lock  Hospital  had  been 
opened  in  1842,  and  blocks  of  houses  gradually  arose  along  the 
Harrow  Road ;  the  steady  though  not  very  rapid  advance  of 


272  WESTBOURNE     GREEN. 

town  can  be  followed  in  the  annual  map  of  the  Post  Office 
London  Directory.  So  to  avoid  the  encroachment,  or  perhaps 
in  order  to  live  nearer  the  Lyceum  where  their  occupation  lay, 
Mathewrs  and  his  wife  gave  up  Desborough  Cottage  apparently 
early  in  1848.  For  seven  years  the  Lyceum  was  profitably 
worked,  but  poor  Mathews  never  could  clear  himself  of  debt, 
and  bankruptcy  persistently  dogged  him.  The  break-down  of 
Madame  Vestris's  health  probably  conduced  to  the  termination 
of  their  career  at  the  Lyceum  ;  her  last  appearance  there  was 
on  the  26th  July,  1854,  and  Mathews  resigned  the  management 
in  March,  1855.  In  1856  he  was  playing  in  the  country  when 
he  was  arrested  for  debt  and,  on  4th  July,  lodged  in  Lancaster 
Castle,  i.e.,  Jail,  and  there  continued  a  month.  During  that 
month  his  wife  was  dying,  and  many  letters  written  at  this 
time  testify  to  his  anxiety  and  affection  for  her  ;  a  week  after 
his  release  she  died  at  Gore  Lodge,  Fulham,  August  8th,  1856. 
As  an  actress  she  was  famous  for  beauty,  grace,  sprightliness, 
and  her  winsome  manner  of  acting ;  her  rich  contralto  singing 
was  an  additional  charm,  and  her  taste  in  stage  scenery, 
Equipment,  and  costume  was  in  advance  of  her  time. 

Further  reference  to  the  career  of  Mathews,  as  not  coming 
within  our  limits,  must  be  very  brief.  He  found  a  second  wife 
in  Mrs.  Davenport  \vhen  playing  at  New, York  in  1857.  In 
1870  he  again  forsook  London  and  played  in  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  Honolulu,  the  United  States,  and  Canada.  Then  five 
or  six  years  more  in  England,  with  an  interlude  at  Calcutta,  and 
so  working  on  until  late  in  life  he  was  overtaken  by  death,  when 
playing  at  Staleybridge,  in  his  75th  year.  Struck  by  illness  he 
returned  to  the  Queen's  Hotel  at  Manchester,  and  there  died 
on  the  24th  June,  1878.  His  body  removed  thence  to  his  last 
London  residence,  59,  Belgrave  Road,  S.W.,  was  taken  to 
Kensal  Green,  where  a  host  of  sorrowing  friends  assembled  at 
his  grave  which  adjoins  those  of  his  first  wife,  Madame  Vestris, 
and  of  Anne  Mathews,  the  mother  whom  he  had  affectionately 
cherished.  His  second  wife  died  in  January,  1899,  and  was 
buried  with  him. 

It  W7ould  scarcely  be  interesting  even  were  it  possible  to 
name  the  tenants  of  the  house  at  Westbourne  Green  after  it 
was  vacated  by  Mathewrs.  It  stood  some  eight  years  longer, 


WESTSOURNE     GREEN.  273 

and  rose  in  dignity  (?)  to  be  "  Desborough  House."  The  last 
map  of  the  Post  Office  London  Directory  which  shows  it  is  that 
of  1856,  when  doubtless  it  gave  way  to  the  new  and  debased 
order  of  things,  of  Cirencester  and  Woodchester  Streets. 

DESBOROUGH  LODGE. 

The  next  house  to  be  noticed  on  Westbourne  Green  is  that 
numbered  3  on  our  map,  a  little  southward  of  Mrs.  Siddons's 
cottage,  and  a  little  further  trom  the  Canal.  It  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  old  for  it  is  not  shown  on  Gary's  map  of  1810, 
which,  however,  in  a  map  of  that  time  is  not  positive  proof  of 
its  non-existence.  In  later  times  it  seems  to  have  been  called 
Desborough  Lodge. 

CHARLES  KEMBLE.  That  this  clever  actor — the  youngest 
brother  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  her  junior  by  twenty  years — ever  lived 
on  Westbourne  Green  would  now  be  unknown  were  it  not 
set  down  in  his  daughter's  Record  of  a  Girlhood.  Thus  writes 
Fanny  Kemble  (Mrs.  Pierce  Butler)  :  "  Our  next  house  after 
Newman  Street  was  at  a  place  called  Westbourne  Green.  .  . 
.  .  .  The  site  of  our  dwelling  was  not  far  from  the  Paddington 
Canal,  and  was  then  so  far  out  of  town  that  our  nearest  neigh- 
bours, people  of  the  name  of  Cockerell,  were  the  owners  of  a 
charming  residence  in  the  middle  of  park-like  grounds  of  which 

I  have  still  a  faint  pleasurable  remembrance 

Mrs.  Siddons  at  that  time  lived  next  door  to  us,"  the  distance 
between  the  houses  was  about  sixty  yards.  Mrs.  Fanny 
Kemble  (she  was  not  called  by  her  marriage  name)  was  born  in 
November,  1809,  and  as  she  tells  us  that  at  the  time  referred 
to  she  was  four  years  old,  the  year  must  have  been  1813  or 
1814.  Her  childish  memories  as  well  as  being  amusing  have 
local  interest  ;  it  is  pleasant  to  hear  of  the  kind  daughters  of 
Mr.  Cockerell  who  delighted  her  with  toys,  and  to  observe  on 
our  map  the  carriage-drive  down  which  as  "a  tailless  monkey  of 
four  years,"  wearing  a  foolscap  in  disgrace,  she  danced,  nothing 
daunted,  to  meet  her  friend  the  postman.  Interesting  it  is  also 
to  hear  of  Aunt  Siddons,  "  Melpomene,"  as  she  calls  her,  who 
having  taken  the  child  on  her  knee  to  reprove  for  bad  behaviour, 
is  interrupted  in  her  lecture  by  little  Fanny's  exclamation, 
"  What  beautiful  eyes  you  have!"  Whereon  the  aunt,  not  to  be 
seen  laughing,  has  hastily  to  release  the  culprit. 


274  WESTBOURNE     GREEN. 

Charles  Kemble  was  in  his  prime  when  he  took  the  cottage 
at  Westbourne  Green,  probably  as  a  retreat  for  his  wife  and 
children  during  a  space  of  two  years  in  which  he  played  in  the 
provinces  and  on  the  continent.  He  had  been  associated  with 
his  famous  brother  and  sister  at  Covent  Garden  for  ten  years, 
and  although  considered  second  to  his  brother  in  the  great 
tragic  characters  of  Shakspeare,  his  representation  of  lighter 
parts,  such  as  Romeo  and  Mercutio,  were  of  exquisite  finish, 
while  his  masterly  versatility  enabled  him,  says  Dr.  Doran,  to 
play  a  greater  number  of  parts  than  any  actor  save  Garrick. 
Fie,  too,  was  one  of  the  handsome  Kembles,  and  this  personal 
advantage  enhanced  the  effect  of  his  brilliant  acting.  The 
family  at  Westbourne  consisted  of  Mrs.  Kemble  (who  had  been 
Miss  De  Camp),  an  actress  of  merit  in  secondary  parts,  and 
three  children,  viz.,  John  Mitchell  Kemble,  who  as  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  student  and  historian  made  his  reputation,  Frances 
Anne  ("  Fanny"),  who  fora  few  years  figured  brilliantly  on  the 
stage,  but  early  retired  from  it,  and  Henry,  a  handsome  boy 
who  died  young.  Adelaide  (Mrs.  Sartoris),  distinguished 
chiefly  as  a  vocalist,  was  not  born  until  later. 

They  seem  to  have  been  a  shifting  family  in  regard  to 
residence,  and  the  early  memories  of  the  authoress  of  Record 
of  a  Girlhood  embrace  another  house  in  Paddington,  one  near 
the  churchyard,  in  which  the  children  made  "  play-tables  "  of 
the  flat  tombstones.  Kemble  returned  from  his  wanderings  to 
Covent  Garden  in  September,  1815,  and  then  fixed  his  residence 
near  the  theatre  in  a  house,  the  site  of  which  was  in  after-times 
covered  by  "  Evans's,"  doubtless  remembered  by  elder  readers 
as  dedicated  to  song  and  supper.  His  elder  brother  retiring  in 
1817  left  him  his  share  in  the  theatre,  but  the  generous  gift  did 
not  prove  an  advantage,  Charles  Kemble  not  proving  to  be  a 
successful  manager,  and  in  1829  collapse  was  only  saved  by  the 
brillant  acting  of  Fanny  Kemble,  who  made  her  debut  that 
year.  With  this  daughter  of  high  promise  he  went  to  America 
in  1832  on  a  professional  expedition,  which  in  1834  was 
terminated  by  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Pierce  Butler,  a  union  not 
in  its  result  felicitous.  In  1835  Kemble,  returned  to  London, 
played  at  the  Haymarket.  At  the  end  of  1836  he  nominally 
retired,  but  a  great  favourite,  both  as  an  actor  and  in  his  private 


WESTBOURNE     GREEN.  275 

capacity,  royal  mandate  recalled  him  to  Covent  Garden  in  the 
spring  of  1840,  and  having  played  twelve  times  he  made  his 
last  appearance  on  the  loth  April.  He  lived  fourteen  years 
longer,  a  familiar  and  much  esteemed  frequenter  of  the  Garrick 
Club,  and  at  the  age  of  seventy-nine  died  beloved  and  regretted, 
I2th  November,  1854.  Thirty-eight  years  later,  January,  1893, 
his  grave  at  Kensal  Green  was  opened  to  receive  the  remains  of 
his  good  daughter,  Fanny,  "the  last  of  the  Kembles."  The 
house  at  Westbourne  Green  where  she  had  been  a  merry  child, 
had  then  been  demolished  about  forty  years. 

"THE  MANOR  HOUSE." 

This  house  is  not  quite  a  satisfactory  subject  to  the  writer 
inasmuch  as  its  origin  remains  hidden.  In  a  drawing  preserved 
of  it  the  appearance  is  venerable,  yet  Lysons  a  hundred  years 
ago  had  nothing  to  say  about  it,  and  Robins  half  a  century  later 
is  equally  uninstructive.  But  although  it  has  been  said  in  this 
article  (ante  p.  22)  that  in  1746  there  was  no  house  nearer 
Kensal  Green  than  Westbourne  Farm,  the  correction  must  be 
made  that  in  Rocque's  map  there  is  a  block  which  may  represent 
the  house  in  question.  The  name  is  attractive  but  questionable, 
for  it  does  not  appear  that  the  nominal  manor  of  "  Knights- 
bridge  with  Westbourne  "  (or  "  with  Westbourne  Green  ")  ever 
had  a  true  manorial  status,  or  a  representative  manor-house. 
This  house,  however,  as  the  principal,  if  not  only  one  on  the 
estate  (Westbourne  Place  being  other  property)  received  the 
appellation. 

The  writer's  information,  gathered  from  a  late  agent  for 
building  leases  on  the  estate,  is  as  follows  : — That  early  in  the 
century  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Westminster  leased  the  estate 
to  Rundell  of  the  firm  Rundell  and  Bridge,  the  King's  gold- 
smiths, and  that  Rundell's  heir  was  his  nephew,  Mr.  Joseph 
Neeld.  Robins  (Paddington  p.  52)  says,  in  1853  :  "  Mr.  Neild 
(sic.)  is  the  lessee  of  all  the  land  claimed  by  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  of  Westminster  in  this  parish."  Subsequently  the 
lease  was  surrendered  on  condition  of  a  partition  of  the  estate, 
which  effected  left  it  divided  between  the  Dean  and  Chapter 
(represented  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission),  and  the  Neeld 
family,  now  represented  by  Sir  Audley  Neeld,  Bart.,  of 
Grittleton,  near  Chippenham,  Wilts. 


276  WESTBOURNE     GREEN. 

The  old  house  stood  on  the  Neeld  moiety,  but  long  before 
that  became  their  property  it  had  got  its  name,  for  on  our 
map  of  1834  we  see  it  designated  "Westbourne  Manor  House." 
It  had  no  distinctive  features,  but  was  old  enough  to  have 
become  picturesque;  while  standing  amidst  fine  trees,  and 
encompassed  by  four  acres  of  tastefully  laid  out  grounds,  it  was 
a  pleasant  residence.  The  place  was  minutely  surveyed  by  the 
Ordnance  Corps  in  1865,  the  year  before  its  destruction,  so  that 
an  accurate  plan  on  the  largest  scale  is  preserved,  and  our  own 
smaller  map  shows  one  of  the  chief  features,  viz.,  "  The  Long 
Walk  "  of  330  yards,  which  wound  through  a  belt  of  trees 
down  to  the  pure  running  stream,  the  Westbourne.  The 
occupants  of  the  house  within  the  knov/ledge  of  the  writer's 
informant  were  the  following : — 

JOHN  BRAITHWAITE,  a  famous  mechanical-engineer,  was 
living  here  some  years  before  his  death  in  1818.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  successful  constructors  and  practical  employers  of 
the  diving-bell.  By  means  of  it  he,  in  1783,  rescued  from  the 
Royal  Geoi'ge,  sunk  at  Spithead  the  previous  year,  many  of  her 
guns,  and  the  sheet-anchor.  Subsequently  among  other  rescues 
he,  in  1788,  recovered  from  the  Hartwell,  an  East  Indiaman 
wrecked  off  Ronavista,  one  of  the  Cape  Verd  Islands,  38, GOO/. 
in  dollars,  and  other  valuable  cargo ;  and  another  great  salvage 
achieved  in  1806  was  also  from  the  wreck  of  an  East  Indiaman, 
the  Abergavenny,  sunk  off  Portland,  when  the  value  of  dollars 
and  freight  rescued  amounted  to  105, ooo/.  His  engine-factory 
was  on  the  New  Road  (near  Fitzroy  Square),  and  his  private 
residence,  latterly  at  least,  was  at  Westbourne  Green,  where 
according  to  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  he  died  in  June,  1818 
after  a  short  illness  which  followed  a  paralytic  stroke.  The 
obituary  records  his  principal  achievements,  and  observes  that 
in  private  life  Mr.  Braithwaite  was  highly  respected. 

JOHN  BRAITHWAITE  (the  second),  son  of  the  above,  was 
born  at  i,  Bath  Place,  New  Road,  in  March,  1797 ;  we 
therefore  suppose  that  the  family  had  not  yet  moved  to 
Westbourne  Green,  but  lived  near  the  engine-works.  He 
succeeded  his  father  in  their  management  just  after  he  had 
come  of  age,  and,  according  to  the  old  inhabitant,  in  the 
occupation  of  the  house  in  which  we  are  interested.  His  chief 


WESTBOURNE     GREEN.  277 

mechanical  achievement  was — in  association  with  Captain 
John  Ericson — the  construction  of  the  Novelty,  one  of  the 
earliest  steam  locomotives,  and  in  the  invention,  or  at  least 
manufacture,  in  1830,  of  the  first  practical  steam  fire-engine. 
When  the  demand  for  railways  became  general  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  construction  of  the  Eastern  Counties  (now  the 
Great  Eastern)  Railway,  opened  in  June,  1839.  During  the 
latter  twenty  years  of  his  life  his  practice  was  chiefly  that  of  a 
consulting  engineer,  especially  in  regard  to  mechanical  questions 
and  patents,  his  office  being  18,  Great  George  Street,  West- 
minster. His  private  residence,  after  he  left  Westbourne  Green 
about  1840,  was  at  39,  Bedford  Square,  and  in  1860  he  moved 
to  6,  Clifton  Gardens,  Maida  Hill,  where  he  died  on  the  25th 
of  September,  1870. 

WILLIAM  CHARLES  CARBCNELL,  the  next  occupant  of  "The 
Manor  House,"  represented  the  firm  of  wine  merchants  long 
established  in  Regent  Street,  and  now  represented  by  his  son, 
Mr.  John  Carbonell,  who  first  saw  light  at  Westbourne  Green. 
He  preserves  a  sketch  of  the  old  house,  the  accompanying  copy 
of  which  he  has  kindly  allowed  us  to  reproduce. 

SIR  JOHN  HUMPHREYS.  Mr.  Carbonell  having  vacated  the 
house  in  1854,  its  next  and  last  tenant  was  Mr.  Humphreys,  the 
coroner  for  East  Middlesex.  He  was  of  the  legal  profession 
and  a  parliamentary  agent,  also  eventually  J.P.  and  D.L.  for 
the  Tower  Hamlets,  and  in  1881  received  the  honour  of 
Knighthood.  He  lived  in  the  house  about  eleven  years,  and 
left  it  in  1865  or  1866,  just  before  the  destruction,  not  waiting 
to  hold  a  post  mortem  on  its  remains  !  Afterwards  his  house  in 
London  was  13,  Stratford  Place,  and  in  the  country,  Riverden, 
Wargrave,  Berks.  He  died  2Oth  November,  1886. 

The  1866  map  of  the  Post  Office  London  Directory  shows 
"  The  Manor  House,"  still  standing  in  its  handsomely  laid  out 
grounds,  but  on  the  map  of  1867  it  is  seen  no  longer,  advancing 
London  has  overwhelmed  it,  and  Sutherland  Avenue  traverses 
the  site. 

BRIDGE  HOUSE. 

JOHN  WHITE,  architect,  and  Surveyor  of  the  Duke  of 
Portland's  Marylebone  Estate,  seems  to  have  used  this  house, 
which  stood  between  "  The  Manor  House  "  and  the  Canal,  as  a 


278  WESTBOURNE     GREEN. 

country  lodge,  having  his  principal  house  and  office  on  the 
estate  he  managed,  at  2,  Devonshire  Place.  He  had  land  here 
at  Westbourne  Green  which  comprised  Westbourne  Farm,  and 
after  his  death  in  1850,  his  son,  John  Alfred  White,  also  an 
architect,  and  District  Surveyor  of  Marylebone,  occupied 
Bridge  House  until  it  was  demolished. 

OTHER  HOUSES. 

Other  houses  existing  as  far  back  as  1834  were  ten  detached 
blocks  west  of  the  Lock  Hospital  (which  was  not  built  until 
1842),  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  Harrow  Road.  They 
carried  the  name  "  Orme's  Green,"  and  perhaps  had  the  same 
founder  as  Orme  Square,  Bayswater,  viz.,  Mr.  Orme,  a  print 
seller  of  Bond  Street.  The  block  nearest  the  Hospital  is  "  The 
Windsor  Castle,"  and  that  at  the  other  extremity  was  called 
"  Mountfield  House"  (now  a  Roman  Catholic  Home  for  Boys), 
where  in  1843  and  after  years,  lived  Henry  Robert  Abraham, 
solicitor.  Another  early  settler  was  Charles  Woodroffe,  whose 
extensive  nursery-garden  existed  until  overwhelmed  by  the 
building  of  new  streets  in  1880.  At  the  southern  end  of  the 
district  is  a  pleasant  house  isolated  in  nicely  tended  grounds, 
and  built  probably  a  little  later  than  Pickering  Place,  immedi- 
ately north  of  which  it  stands.  On  the „  Ordnance  Survey  of 
1865  it  is  called  "  Westbourne  Green,"  and,  as  a  last  vestige  of 
the  Green,  it  might  be  wished  that  it  had  preserved  the  name. 
But  it  has  become  "The  Lodge,  Porchester  Square,"  its 
occupant  being  Sir  Henry  Charles  Burdett,  K.C.B.,  whose  name 
is  honourably  connected  with  London  hospitals. 

As  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  article,  the  name  West- 
bourne  Green  is  now  practically  obsolete,  and  this  is  to  be 
regretted  for  reasons  practical  as  well  as  sentimental.  Even 
business  people  are  not  without  regard  for  an  old  name,  which, 
moreover,  may  have  a  commercial  value,  and  in  this  case  there 
is  a  practical  loss,  for  the  district  has  been  left  nameless.  It 
would  have  been  well  had  even  the  ancient  name  Westbourne 
been  preserved,  but  now  were  a  Londoner  to  say  at  Westminster 
that  he  was  going  to  Westbourne,  his  destination  would  not  be 
understood.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  the  name  has  been  so 
much  applied  to  component  parts,  to  terrace,  square,  crescent, 
grove,  park,  gardens,  road,  villas,  and  mews,  as  to  be  thought 


WESTBOURNE     GREEN.  279 

too  much  "  used  up  "  to  define  the  whole.  The  southern  part 
of  ancient  Westbourne  is  now  known  as  Bayswater,  a  pretty 
and  convenient  name,  although  originally  it  designated  only  "a 
shallow'  bay-water  where  cattle  might  drink  at  the  way-side." 
(Canon  Isaac  Taylor.  Words  and  Places.)  North  of  Westbourne 
Grove  the  district  is  now  without  a  general  name.  If  it  be 
desirable  to  perpetuate  an  old  name,  as  is  often  done  notwith- 
standing altered  circumstances,  it  should  be  Westbourne  Green 
(and  we  are  glad  to  see  it  thus  written  on  the  Ordnance  -Map), 
or  if  that  be  thought  too  primitive  and  rustic  by  the  refined 
Londoner,  Westbourne  Park  would  serve  as  a  compromise. 
But  better  still  perhaps  that  it  should  be  known  simply  by  its 
original  designation,  Westbourne. 

The  Retrospect  may  now  fitly  close  with  a  record  of  the 
sites  once  occupied  by  the  houses  which  have  interested  us  : — 

i. — WESTBOURNE  PLACE  (or  HOUSE,  or  PARK)  stood  28 
yards  west  of  Westbourne-Park  Chapel,  and  covered  the  ground 
now  occupied  by  the  houses  or  gardens  of  Westbourne-Park- 
Villas,  Nos.  6-18. 

2. — WESTBOURNE  FARM  (or  DESBOROUGH  COTTAGE)  stood 
84  yards  south  of  the  Canal,  on  the  ground  now  covered  by 
"The  Spotted  Dog,"  and  Nos.  12-18,  Cirencester  Street,  the 
school  in  the  rear,  and  Nos.  15-21,  Woodchester  Street. 

3. — DESBOROUGH  LODGE  was  where  is  now  the  south  end 
of  the  blind-alley  called  Desborough  Street.  Oliver  Mews, 
close  by,  was  probably  named,  not  after  the  Protector,  but  after 
James  Oliver,  the  last  tenant. 

4. — "  THE  MANOR  HOUSE  "  occupied  the  ground  of  Nos. 
69-71,  Amberley  Road,  and  Nos.  13-21,  Sutherland  Avenue. 
The  stables  stood  across  Sutherland  Avenue,  70  yards  east  of 
the  Harrow  Road  frontage. 

5. — BRIDGE  HOUSE  stood  on  the  site  of  the  existing  Electric 
Supply  Company's  premises,  between  Amberley  Road  and  the 
Canal. 

Addenda  et  Corrigenda. 

ISAAC  WARE,  p.  122.  The  house  No.  5,  Bloomsbury 
Square  (at  S.W.  corner,  the  hall-door  being  in  Hart  Street), 
has,  internally,  handsome  features.  It  is  proposed  to  make 
special  reference  to  the  house  in  a  future  number  of  this 


23o  SURVEY     OF     CHURCH     LIVINGS. 

Magazine.  In  regard  to  the  block  in  Hart  Street,  for  "  Nos. 
II — 13  "  read  "  Nos.  12  and  13." 

SAMUEL  PEPYS  COCKERELL  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries  in  1805.  He  lived  twenty-seven  years 
at  Westbourne  Place,  and  died  there  I2th  July,  1827.  To  this 
effect  the  sentence  commencing  "  Before  coming,"  p.  123, 
requires  transposition. 

ROWLAND,  VISCOUNT  HILL.  It  is  found  in  Boyle's  Court 
Guide  that  Lord  Hill  came  to  reside  at  Westbourne  House  in 
the  spring  of  1829,  that  he  left  it  in  1837,  and  that  afterwards, 
until  his  death,  his  London  residence  was  24,  Belgrave  Square. 


SURVEY    OF    CHURCH    LIVINGS    IN   MIDDLESEX 
AT    THE    TIME     OF    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  BRISTOL. 
(Continued  from  p.   7/7.) 

HILLINGDON. 

We  present  that  we  have  one  vicarage  to  which  a  cure 
of  souls  is  annexed,  and  one  rectory  without  cure  of  souls,  now 
leased  out  by  John  Clarke,  Esq.,  the  impropriat  [or] ,  for  three 
hundred  pounds  per  annum,  who  holds  the  same  by  lease  for 
certain  lives  from  the  late  Bishop  of  Worcester  at  a  reserved  rent 
of  thirty-three  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight  pence  per  annum, 
and  that  one  Mr.  Philip  Taverner,  a  godly  preaching  minister, 
is  our  present  incumbent  presented  by  the  Lords  Commissioners 
of  the  Great  Seal  of  ....  the  16  May  last  past.  And  we 
conceive  our  said  vicarage  and  profits  which  consisteth  of  one 
house,  gardens,  back  sides,  two  acres  of  ground,  privy  tithes, 
and  two  foggs  of  ...  and  thirteen  shillings  and  four  pence  in 
money  yearly  issuing  out  of  the  said  rectory,  altogether  to  be 
worth  about  thirty-five  pounds  per  annum,  which  the  said  Mr. 
Taverner  has  for  his  salary.  Also  the  said  Bishop's  reserved 
rent  of  thirty-three  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight  pence  allowed 
him  as  an  augmentation  by  order  of  the  Honourable  Committee 
for  plundered  ministers.  And  we  present  that  in  the  populous 
market  town  of  Woxbridge,  about  a  mile  distant  from  our 
town,  there  is  a  fair  chapel  vacant  for  want  of  maintenance 


SURVEY     OF     CHURCH     LIVINGS.  281 

belonging  to  our  church  of  Hillingdon,  and  that  the  precincts 
of  Woxbridge  are  certainly  known,  and  are  and  have  been  long 
distinct  from  .  ...  in  the  election  of  parochial  officers 
amongst  themselves,  and  in  partaking  of  service  and  sacrament 
in  the  said  chapel,  and  do  make  distinct  assessments,  and  have 
several  rights,  benefits,  and  privileges,  proper  to  themselves  and 
apart  from  Hillingdon,  and  are  numerous,  and  their  said  chapel 
very  fitt  to  be  made  a  parish  church,  and  that  Hillingdon  is  not 
of  so  large  an  extent,  but  that  the  parishioners  may  conveniently 
repair  to  our  said  church  to  partake  of  the  public  worship  and 
service  of  God,  and  no  part  thereof  is  so  fit  to  be  joined  to  any 
other  church  or  chapel. 

HARFIELD. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  impropriate 
to  the  Lord  Shandois  [Chandos]  in  fee  (who,  as  we  are  informed, 
has  the  right  of  patronage).  And  we  conceive  the  same  to  be 
worth  about  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds  per  annum  in  small 
and  great  tithes,  and  find  that  by  order  of  the  committee  at 
Goldsmith's  Hall,  upon  the  said  Lord  Shandois,  his  com- 
position, he  is  to  allow  towards  the  maintenance  of  an  able 
minister  amongst  us,  the  yearly  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds, 
which  is  of  late  settled  upon  one  Mr.  Hoare,  our  present 
incumbent  and  constant  preaching  minister. 

RUISLIPP. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  which  is  an 
impropriation  held  of  the  Dean  and  Prebends  of  Windsor, 
which  is  worth  about  three  hundred  pounds  per  annum, 
now  in  the  possession  of  John  Hawtrey,  Esq.,  by  lease,  but 
when  his  lease  began  or  when  it  ends,  we  know  not.  Also  we 
present  that  we  have  one  vicarage  presentation  possessed  by 
Robert  Cresswell,  our  present  and  constant  preaching  minister, 
who  has  for  his  salary  the  vicarage  house  with  a  barn,  stable, 
orchard,  garden,  and  twenty-nine  acres  of  glebe  land,  worth 
thirty-seven  pounds,  and  privy  tithes  worth  twenty-three 
pounds  per  annum,  the  profits  in  toto  being  three-score  pounds 
per  annum;  also  2i/.  formerly  paid  to  the  said  Dean  and 
Chapter  allowed  as  an  augmentation.  And  that  we  have  one 
church  sufficient  to  receive  all  our  parishioners  without  the 
help  of  any  chapel. 


282  SURVEY     OF     CHURCH     LIVINGS. 

ICKENHAM. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  in  the 
presentation  of  Richard  Shoreditch,  Esq.,  which,  with  the 
tithes  thereto  belonging,  twenty-five  acres  of  glebe  land,  in 
several  fifteen  lands  in  the  common  fields,  and  two  leets  of 
meadow  we  value  at  one-hundred- and-thirty-eight  pounds  per 
annum,  and  that  one  Mr.  Nathaniel  Nicholls  is  our  present  and 
constant  preaching  minister  put  in  by  the  Honourable  Committee 
for  plundered  ministers  (shortly  after  the  sequestration  of  Dr. 
Clare),  who  has  all  the  aforesaid  profits  for  his  salary  ;  .and  we 
humbly  conceive  our  said  parish  too  little  to  be  divided,  am 
too  big  and  too  far  distant  to  be  joined  to  any  other. 

CRANFORD. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  house  with 
fifteen  acres  of  glebe  land  and  the  whole  tithes  thereunto 
belonging  worth  fourscore  pounds,  which  is  in  the  presentation 
of  George  Berkley,  Esq.,  who  presented  one  Mr.  Ashford,  an 
aged,  sickly  man,  that  has  taken  to  his  assistance  one  Mr. 

William  Bridgewater painfully  performs  the 

cure,  and  that  our  church  is  situated  about  the  middle  of  our 
parish,  and  the  furthest  inhabitant  not  much  above  a  mile 
distant  from  it. 

WEST    DRAYTON. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  in  the 
possession  of  the  Lady  Dowager  Pagett  for  term  of  her  natural 
life,  and  after  her  decease  is  the  inheritance  of  William  Lord 
Pagett  and  his  heirs,  and  has  been  held  in  fee  farm  by  their 
predecessors  ever  since  the  reign  of  Henry  eighth.  And  also 
that  we  have  one  vicarage  worth  thirty  pounds  per  annum  in 
the  possession  of  one,  Mr.  Jacob,  our  present  incumbent  and 
constant  preacher,  put  in  by  the  said  Lady  Pagett,  who  has  for 
his  salary  the  said  thirty  pounds  per  annum. 

HARMONDSWORTH. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  worth  two- 
hundred-and-twenty  pounds  per  annum,  which  belongs  to  the 
Lady  Pagett  during  her  life,  and  after  her  decease  to  the  Lord 
Pagett,  who  then  has  the  same  by  right  of  inheritance ;  and  also 
that  we  have  one  vicarage  house  and  orchard  and  twenty  acres 
of  glebe  land,  which  with  the  privy  tithes  are  worth  forty  pounds 


SURVEY     OF     CHURCH     LIVINGS.  283 

per  annum,  and  that  one,  Mr.  Emmanuel  Hodge,  is  our  present 
incumbent  presented  thereunto  by  the  Lord  Pagett,  deceased, 
and  has  for  his  salary  the  said  sum  of  forty  pounds  per  annum. 

[HANWORTH.] 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  house  with 
out-houses,  tithes,  and  thirty  acres  of  glebe  land  worth  sixty 
pounds  per  annum  in  the  presentation  of  the  Lord  of  the  Manor 
of  Hanworth  aforesaid,  and  one  Symon  Rumney  is  our  present 
incumbent,  instituted  and  inducted  thereto  by  authority  of 
parliament  about  May,  1648,  and  has  for  his  salary  the  said 
parsonage  house  and  whole  profits  thereto  belonging,  but  doth 
neglect  his  preaching  diverse  Lord's  days  and  days  of 
humiliation  and  thanksgiving,  especially  on  Tuesday,  the  8th  of 
this  instant  October,  and  the  Lord's  day  before ;  and  we 
humbly  conceive  our  parish  to  be  of  that  fit  distance  from 

as  that  it  need  not  be  divided,  neither  is  it  fit 

to  be  united. 

[HARLINGTON]  . 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  house  with 
barns,  out-houses,  orchards,  and  the  tithes  thereto  belonging, 
worth  about  one-hundred-and-forty  pounds  per  annum,  and  36 
acres  of  glebe  land  worth  twenty  ....  pounds  per 
annum,  which  Sir  John  Bennett,  Knight,  holds  by  lease  from 

one  Mr sometime  minister  of  Harlington,  but 

when  the  said  lease  began  or  expires  we  know  not;  and  one 
Mr.  Pritchett  is  our  present  minister,  put  in  by  the  said  Sir 
John  Bennett,  who  allows  him  forty-two  pounds  in  money, 
besides  the  small  tithes  and  his  dwelling  in  the  parsonage, 
which  together  are  worth  fifty-two  pounds  per  annum. 

GREENFORD. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  presentative, 
which  with  the  barns,  stables,  outhouses  and  fifty  acres  of  glebe 
land  is  worth  forty  pounds  per  annum,  and  also  parochial  tithes 
thereto  belonging  worth  one-hundred-and-twenty  pounds  per 
annum,  and  that  one,  Mr.  Edward  Terry,  our  present  incum- 
bent, has  the  right  of  patronage  and  receives  the  whole  profits 
for  his  salary ;  and  as  we  humbly  conceive  our  parish  church  is 
very  convenient  of  itself  as  now  it  is  for  the  parishioners  to 
repair  unto  for  the  worship  and  service  of  God. 


284  SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY. 

PERIVALE. 

Item. — We  present  that  we  have  one  parsonage  in  the 
presentation  of  Thomas  Lane,  Esq.,  who  presented  one  Mr. 
Edward  Read,  our  present  incumbent  thereto,  who  has  for  his 
salary  the  whole  profits  of  the  said  parsonage  which  amount 
to  about  fifty-five  pounds  per  annum. 


SOME     EAST    KENT    PARISH    HISTORY. 

BY  "  PETER  DE  SANDWICH." 
VI. — ST.    CLEMENT'S,    SANDWICH. 

[Undated,  probably  1557].  Thomas  Pynnocke  for  that  he  hath 
not  accounted  for  the  goods  of  the  Church,  this  two  years. 

Walter  Shuttenden  for  that  he  hath  not  accounted  for  the  church 
goods  this  two  years. 

Mr.  Tyler  for  that  he  hath  not  accounted  for  the  arrearage  of  the 
church  goods  for  two  years. 

Thomas  Cotton  and  Richard  Orpen,  churchwardens  there,  have 
not  accounted  for  two  years. 

1569.  That  the  Communion  is  ministered  in  fine  white  common 
bread.  That  the  Chancel  is  somewhat  uncovered,  and  the  windows 
ungiazed. 

1577.  That  our  churchyard  is  not  well  fenced  and  enclosed. 

1579.  That  we  want  a  surplice. 

1590.  The  Church  now  by  the  last  tempest  wanteth  reparations. 

1594.  Mr.  George  Joye,  their  minister,  for  omitting  the  wearing 
of  the  surplice  in  the  time  of  divine  service  and  administration  of 
the  sacrament. 

Also  Mr.  Joye  for  removing  a  tombstone  out  of  the  middle  chancel ; 
removing  it  to  Elmested  without  knowledge  and  consent. 

[The  Rev.  George  Joye,  M.A.,  was  rector  of  St.  Peter's,  Sandwich, 
1570-77;  vicar  of  St.  Clement's,  1574-1600;  and  also  rector  of  Elmsted, 
1580-1600,  where  three  of  his  children  were  baptised.  He  was  a  son  of 
George  Joy  (a  native  of  Bedfordshire)  the  protestant  controversalist  who 
died  in  1553.  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  in  June,  1573,  presented  him 
to  Higham  Vicarage  in  Kent,  which  he  resigned  two  years  later.  By  his 
will  he  desired  to  be  buried  in  the  chancel  of  St.  Clement's,  Sandwich. 
His  widow,  Mary  Joye,  married  24th  October,  1603,  at  Elmstone  Church, 
the  Rev.  John  Stebbing,  vicar  of  Ash-next-Sandwich,  1593-1615.] 


SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY.  285 

1602.  Alexander  Woodcock,  of  our  parish,  for  that  he  living  in 
our  parish,  and  he  having  a  child  born  in  our  parish,  he  caused  the 
same  to  be  christened  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary,  contrary  to  law. 

1603.  John  Gates  and  George  Parker  for  playing  at  "  cailes  "*  in 
a  victualling  house  in  the  time  of  divine  service,  in  the  morning  of 
the  seventh  day  of  August,  being  the  Sabbath  Day. 

Thomas  Godfrey  for  travelling  into  the  Island  [of  Thanet]  to  sell 
fruit,  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  August,  being  the  Sabbath  day. 

Also  William  Barber  for  carrying  and  selling  fruit. 

William  Oveland  for  selling  victuals  and  entertaining  company 
in  his  house,  in  the  time  of  divine  service  on  the  fourteenth  day  of 
August,  being  the  Sabbath  day. 

1604.  Thomas     Morrice  withholds  5/.    of   money,  and    sixteen 
ewes,  being  part  of  the  Stock  belonging  to  the  church  and  poor  of 
the  parish. 

1605.  George  Wood  for  that  he  hath  taken  away  a  certain  tomb- 
stone out  of  the  churchyard  which  did  lie  over  his  father,  and  it  was 
taken  away  five  years  ago,  and  although  he  hath  promised  to  lay  a 
better  in  place  for  it,  yet  hath  laid  none. 

1607.  We  present  Mr.  Simons  [vicar,  1 600-16]  for  not  repairing 
the  chancel  and  parsonage  house. 

Isaak  Goger  for  not  keeping  his  fence  repaired,  next  to  the  church- 
yard. 

George  Richard  our  clerk  for  teaching  children,  not  being  licenced. 

1608.  The  Vicar  doth  not  repair  his  chancel  and  vicarage-house. 
[Peter  Simon,  M.A.,  was  vicar,  1600- 16.     In  1615   it  was  stated  that 

the  parsonage  and  vicarage  had  no  glebe  land,  more  than  a  little  garden, 
together  with  the  backside  and  stable  adjoining  thereto,  belonging  to  the 
vicarage  house,  which  paid  three  shillings  a  year  to  St.  Bartholomew's 
Hospital  in  Sandwich]. 

1608.  The  late  churchwardens,  John  Amye  and  William  Griffin, 
for  that  they  suffered  the  churchyard  of  St.  Clement's  to  be  digged 
by  hogs,  annoyed  by  dunghills,  and  in  some  places  unfenced,  and 
also  suffered  clothes  to  be  washed  in  it  and  spread  in  it,  to  the  great 
annoyance  of  the  churchyard. 

The  said  churchwardens  have  suffered  one  John  Burfoot,  an 
excommunicated  person  to  be  buried  in  the  said  churchyard.  They 
have  not  repaired  the  windows  of  the  Church  with  glass,  so  that  it  is 
annoyed  with  birds.  They  have  suffered  the  north  aisle  in  our  church 
to  be  stopped  up  and  straightened,  by  building  of  a  seat  or  pew,  to 

*  Cailes  is  the  Kentish  name  for  skittles  and  ninepins 

L1 


286  SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY. 

farm  out  the  same,  which  both  Mr.  Archdeacon  and  Mr.  Commissary 
being  with  our  views,  gave  commandment  that  it  should  be  removed 
and  amended,  which  as  yet  is  not. 

Adam  Hayward,  miller  of  St.  Clement's  in  Sandwich,  did  permit 
his  mill  to  go,  and  did  by  himself  or  his  servant,  grind  corn  in  his 
mill,  being  within  the  parishes  of  St.  Clement  and  St.  Peter  on  the 
eleventh  day  of  September,  being  the  Sabbath  day,  in  the  time  of 
divine  service  and  sermon  to  the  affront  of  well  disposed  persons. 

Isaak  Goger  and  Nicholas  Joanes  for  not  keeping  their  fence 
sufficiently  repaired  next  to  the  churchyard,  whereby  the  churchyard 
is  annoyed  very  much. 

Jane  Moore,  wife  of  John  Moore,  householder  of  St.  Clement's 
parish,  for  disturbing  the  minister  in  the  administration  of  the  Holy 
Sacrament  of  Baptism,  by  violent  taking  away  of  the  child, 
immediately  upon  the  sprinkling,  before  the  admission,  and 
obstinately  refused  to  bring  it  again. 

Also  Jane  Moore  refuses  to  kneel  at  prayer,  and  stand  at  the 
saying  of  the  Creed  according  to  the  accustomed  order  and  uniform 
practice  of  our  congregation,  whereof  being  gently  admonished  she 
with  others  of  her  faction,  most  impudently  stand  at  prayer  and 
kneel  at  profession  [the  Creed] ,  giving  out,  as  the  report  is,  both  this 
and  the  other  disorder  will  be  safely  answered.  These  abuses  were 
committed  on  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  November,  1608. 

1615.  Two  houses  encroach  on  the  churchyard  by  making  a  door; 
the  house  of  Widow  Iden,  and  the  house  of  Nicholas  Jones  do 
annoy  the  churchyard  by  passages  and  dung  hills. 

1617.  Isaac  Goger  for  refusing  payment  for  six  acres,  being  a 
piece  of  land  called  Larrupps,  and  four  acres  being  late  Mr.  Symons, 
paying  eleven  pence  per  acre  at  a  cess  made  the  eight  day  oi 
November,  1616. 

John  Broker,  alias  Carley,  for  ten  acres  of  land. 

Richard  Style,  for  twenty-nine  acres  of  a  piece  of  land,   call* 
Archer's  Lowe. 

We  present  William  Richardson,  gent.,  of  the  parish  of  St.  Peter'j 
in  Sandwich,  for  a  certain  cess  made  by  the  consent  of  th< 
parishioners  of  St.  Clement  in  the  town  aforesaid,  the  twenty-thin 
day  of  February,  1617,  for  three  score  and  one  acres  of  land  whicl 
he  occupieth  in  our  parish  of  St.  Clement,  being  therein  cessed 
four-pence  the  acre  towards  the  reparation  of  our  church,  the  making 
a  new  pulpit  there,  and  also  for  other  necessary  and  ordinj 
ornaments  to  the  said  church  belonging. 


SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY.  287 

1618.  Thomas  Fyle  for  denying  to  pay  the  duties  belonging  to 
our   clerk,    whose   wages   due    from    him    are   two    shillings    and 
eightpence. 

Nicholas  Castaker  for  two  shillings  being  for  certain  land  at 
fourpence  the  acre,  cessed  towards  the  reparation  of  the  church 
aforesaid. 

Mr.  Edward  Chilton,  jurat,  doth  refuse  to  pay  part  of  his  cess, 
being  cessed  at  twenty-six  shillings,  and  he  will  pay  twenty  shillings, 
so  that  the  sum  due  is  six  shillings. 

1619.  John  Pett,   George   Cornish,  and   Joseph    Hatch,   of   the 
parish  of  St.  Clement  in  Sandwich,  kiddle-men,*  did  take  and  catch 
fish  on  the  Sabbath  days,  and  did  take  and  carry  the  same  from  the 
sea  side  to  their  own  houses,  and  often  in  the  time  of  church  service. 
And  that  they  have  also  this  manner  of  taking  and  carrying  of  fish 
on  the  Sabbath  day  these  four  years  at  the  least,  to  the  offence  of 
well  disposed  people. 

William  Smithley  hath  not  paid  his  share  of  the  clerk's  wages 
for  one  half-year  due  at  Michaelmas  last,  eightpence.  And  when 
fourpence  for  one  quarter  was  demanded  of  him  by  the  parish-clerk, 
he  denied  payment  and  reviled  the  parish-clerk,  calling  him  knave 
and  paltry  begging  fellow. 

1621.  That  our  churches  of  St.  Clement's  and  St.  Mary  should  for 
four  months  in  every  two  years,  each  of  them  observe  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays  prayers,  and  St.  Peter's  should  observe  them  eight 
month  in  every  year.  Now  for  the  other  two  churches  we  have  not 
to  answer ;  but  for  our  own  minister  doth  not  observe  them,  and  as 
for  the  Commination  he  hath  never  read  it  since  he  was  our  vicar. 

[The  rubric  then  was  "a  Commination  against  sinners,  with  certain 
prayers,  to  be  used  divers  times  in  the  year."  The  service  was  "  After 
Morning  Prayer  ended,  the  people  being  called  together  by  the  ringing  of 
a  bell,  and  assembled  in  the  Church,  the  English  litany  shall  be  said  after 
the  accustomed  manner ;  which  ended,  the  Priest  shall  go  into  the  pulpit 
and  say  thus  ":] 

Our  minister  hath  two  benefices,  and  hath  a  sufficient  curate 
at  his  other  benefice,  but  hath  none  at  our  parish  church,  he  being 
absent  himself. 

We  present  Mr.  Francis  Fotherby,  our  minister  or  vicar,  for 
particularly  and  purposely  impeaching  a  point  of  doctrine  preached 
by  Mr.  Richard  Marston,  our  late  lecturer,  in  our  church  concerning 

*  In  the  Dictionary  of  Sussex  Dialect.  KEDDLE-NETS  is  the  word 
used  for  stake  nets.  The  Anglo-Saxon  CITELIAN  meaning  to  tickle,  to 
entice,  to  coax. 


288  SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY. 

•  drunkenness,  wherein  Mr.  Fotherby,  by  comparison  of  a  quart  and 
pint  pot,  made  such  an  apology  for  drunkenness,  saying  a  man  could 
not  be  said  to  be  drunk,  so  long  as  he  could  get  out  of  a  waggon 
way,  or  hold  up  his  finger ;  whereupon  divers  young  folks  that  heard 
him  said  they  might  now  drink  by  authority,  so  long  as  they  could 
bear  it  away. 

[In  the  year  1611  the  Corporation  of  Sandwich  allowed  3 o/.  to  a  Mr. 
Richard  Marston,  preacher  of  God's  word,  to  be  entertained  to  preach  a 
weekly  lecture  in  the  town.  He  died  in  1620  and  was  buried  at  St. 
Clement's]. 

He  doth  sometimes  wear  his  surplice  at  the  administration  of 
the  Holy  Communion  ;  as  for  his  hood,  we  know  not  of  any  he  hath. 

He  did  refuse  to  visit  the  wife  of  Adam  Trickhearne,  being 
thereunto  earnestly  required. 

Our  minister  hath  not  to  our  knowledge  denied  to  baptise  ; 
but  he  refused  to  bury  the  child  of  John  La  Motte,  referring  it  to 
his  clerk  to  do  it,  which  the  clerk  also  peremptorily  refused  to  do, 
until  he  might  first  be  paid  for  the  burial,  and  so  the  child  was  left 
unburied  for  that  night. 

We  have  the  Book  of  Canons,  whereof  our  minister  readeth 
thereof  this  last  year,  but  when  in  reading  he  met  with  any  canon 
that  concerned  his  duty,  he  skippeth  over  it,  and  readeth  it  not  at  all. 

He  doth  sometimes  resort  to  such  houses,  where  (as  we  hear 
by  common  report)  he  doth  sometimes  behave  himself,  not  so  well 
for  example  as  he  ought  to  do,  but  distinguished  himself  by 
immoderate  drinking  to  the  grief  and  affront  of  the  beholders. 

Our  minister  is  seldom  resident  with  us,  neither  keepeth  he 
any  hospitality  to  our  knowledge,  whereupon  we  have  cessed  him  at 
forty  shillings  a  year  to  the  poor,  whereof  he  will  pay  the  thirty-two 
shillings,  but  refuseth  to  pay  the  forty  shillings. 

[Francis  Fotherby,  vicar  of  St.  Clement's,  1618-42,  was  ejected  by  the 
Puritans;  he  was  also  vicar  of  Linstead  near  Sittingbourne,  1618-49, 
where  he  was  sequestered ;  being  presented  to  both  livings  by  the  Arch- 
deacon of  Canterbury.  Charles  Fotherby  was  both  Archdeacon  (1596- 
1619)  and  Dean  of  Canterbury  (1615-19)  and  in  addition  held  the  rectories 
of  Aldington  and  Bishopsbourne  in  Kent  until  his  death  29  March,  1619. 
Francis  Fotherby  was  evidently  of  the  same  family,  although  his  name  does 
not  appear  in  the  Fotherby  pedigree.  On  the  28  June,  1628  a  marriage 
licence  was  granted  to  Francis  Fotherby,  clerk,  vicar  of  Linstead, 
bachelor,  about  thirty-four  ;  and  Anne  (or  Agnes)  Hatch,  of  Bapchild, 
widow  of  John  Hatch  ;  to  marry  at  Bapchild.] 

1621.  We  have  a  Register  Book,  but  whether  it  be  parchment  or 
paper,  we  know  not,  for  as  it  hath  been  used  before  our  time  so  it 


SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY.  289 

continueth,  that  is  that  John  Shearman,  our  parish  clerk,  keepeth  it  at 
his  own  house,  nor  tending  or  shewing  it  to  us  the  wardens  and 
sidesmen,  to  take  note  of  anything  therein,  but  writeth  and  certifieth 
himself  at  his  own  pleasure,  and  then  he  telleth  us  we  must  put  our 
hands  thereto,  but  whether  it  be  right  or  wrong,  we  must  rely  upon 
his  credit  for  it. 

We  have  a  Book  of  Martyrs  belonging  to  our  church,  but  our 
clerk  hath  lent  it  out  we  know  not  where,  so  that  our  parishioners 
can  have  no  benefit  thereof. 

We  have  a  strong  and  sufficient  box  or  chest  for  the  alms  of 
the  poor,  conveniently  placed  and  kept  locked  under  two  locks  and 
keys,  the  one  in  the  keeping  of  the  clerk  for  the  minister  as  he  saith, 
and  the  other  in  the  keeping  of  one  of  the  wardens.  For  the  clerk 
will  keep  what  he  can,  and  order,  dispose,  and  rule,  at  his  own 
pleasure,  without  the  acquaintance  or  knowledge  either  of  the 
wardens,  or  sidesmen,  or  parishioners;  which  we  hereto  complain, 
present,  and  desire  reformation. 

We  earnestly  and  humbly  desire  that  John  Shearman,  our 
parish  clerk,  may  be  charged  and  taught  to  meddle  less  with  sworn 
men's  office,  and  the  church  goods,  and  to  let  them  remain  and 
execute  their  charge  and  duty  according  to  their  own  care,  and  not 
to  be  taught  by  him,  as  they  refuse  to  do ;  and  he  shall  not  hereafter 
open  and  frame  his  mouth  of  foul  language  in  their  face,  as  he  hath 
formerly  and  lately  done. 

That  John  Brook  professeth  to  serve  the  cure  of  St.  Clement's  in 
Sandwich,  having  no  licence  from  the  Ordinary,  nor  having 
subscribed  according  to  the  Canons,  nor  bringing  any  testimonial 
from  the  Ordinary  of  the  diocese  from  whence  he  came.  That  he 
hath  served  within  the  diocese  of  London  at  Hendon,  under  Doctor 
Paske.  That  he  refuseth  not  to  subscribe,  but  desireth  to  be  spared 
from  subscription,  until  he  came  before  the  Lord  of  Canterbury,  his 
Grace,  when  he  will  subscribe  as  he  saith. 

[Thomas  Paske  was  Vicar  of  Hendon,  1611-26,  and  Rector  of  Much 
Hadham  in  Herts  ;  and  afterwards  Archdeacon  of  London,  1626-62.] 

1622.  That  John  Brook,  curate,  hath  served  the  cure  in  St. 
Clement's,  Sandwich,  three  quarters  of  a  year  and  more,  now 
surpliced. 

He  suffers  men  to  receive  the  Communion  without  kneeling, 
and  never  advised  them  to  kneel,  neither  publicly  or  privately. 

He  baptized  the  child  of  one  Mr.  Wilson  of  another  parish, 
without  making  the  sign  of  the  cross,  of  which  Mr.  Wilson's 


2go  SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY. 

minister  understanding  before-hand,  willed  him  to  desist,  but  he 
would  not. 

He  caused  John  Dirand  and  Richard  Saunder,  convicted  of 
perjury  in  the  earlier  court,  to  do  their  penance  with  their  hats  on 
their  heads. 

He  administered  the  Communion  at  St.  Bartholomew's  hospital, 
[just  outside  the  town  of  Sandwich],  last  Sunday,  whither  many  of 
other  parishes  resorted,  who  would  not  kneel  to  receive  the  Com- 
munion, and  accordingly  received  it. 

He  baptized  five  children  at  once,  and  signed  none  of  them 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross. 

He  always  curtailed  the  Common  Prayer,  and  is  sometimes 
hours  in  his  sermon. 

In  the  time  of  receiving  the  Communion  he  chargeth  the 
churchwardens  to  gather  money  from  the  communicants,  and 
causeth  them  to  lay  it  down  at  the  communion  table,  before  service 
be  ended,  to  the  great  offence  of  them  which  are  there  present. 

1623.  There  is  a  breach  in  the  [churchyard]  wall,  through  which 
the  tenants  of  Richard  File  come  into  the  churchyard,  and  much 
annoy  it,  making  it  an  ordinary  back-side  ;  also  a  door  which  the 
said  Richard  File  hath  made  into  the  churchyard,  wherein  he  putteth 
straw  usually. 

We  present  Adam  Hayward  or  Hooward,  son-in-law  or  servant 
to  John  Polhill,  miller,  for  grinding  upon  the  sabbath  day  in  time  of 
divine  service  ;  and  going  to  him  to  request  him  to  leave  off,  he  told 
me  he  would  grind  in  spite  of  the  minister,  or  he  that  said  nay,  and 
told  me  that  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

1624.  Specifing   the   presentment  -made   at   the   last   Visitation 
concerning  the  annoyance  of  our  churchyard,  I  further  declare  that 
Richard  File  hath  of  late  broken  down  a  hole  or  passage  into  the 
churchyard  of   St.   Clement,  whereby   divers  of  his  under-tenants 
whose  names  cannot  be  safely  known,  do  pass  and  repass  into  the 
churchyard  and  much  annoy  and  defame,  as  well  by  the  sullage  of 
their  houses,  as  by  the  most  noisome  excrements  of  their  bodies, 
and  otherwise.     Richard  File  upon  his  appearance,  upon  interro- 
gation must  declare  their  names  that  are  the  offenders  therein  ;    and 
the  said  Richard  File,  I  present  as  the  main  agent  and  instrumental 
cause  in  the  premises. 

When  Richard  File  appeared  in  the  Archdeacon's  Court,  he 
alleged  that  now  the  hole  or  passage  is  stopped,  and  a  door  instead 
thereof  placed  and  kept  shut ;  and  that  he  hath  no  under-tenant  at 


SOME     EAST     KENT     PARISH     HISTORY.  291 

all  now  dwelling  in  the  place,  nor  any  annoyance  now  made  by  him 
the  resident,  and  of  his  under-tenant,  nor  shall  hereafter  be  made. 

1625.  The  vicarage -house  is  somewhat  in  decay. 

1626.  In  the  year  1624,  at  a  vestry,  we  the  churchwardens  of  the 
parish  of  St.  Clement  in  Sandwich,  with  the  assistance  of  many  of 
the  parishioners,  did  make  a  cess  for  the  repair  of  our  church,  and 
at  that  time  did  cess  and  tax  one  Thomas  File  for  a  certain  house 
which  he  had  in  his  occupation,  which  Thomas  File,  before  the  cess 
was  paid,  died,  after  him  his  brother  Richard  File  as  heir,  entered  on 
all  his  brother's  lands,  which  Richard  we  have  often  entreated  to  pay 
the  cess,  but  will  not.     Whereupon  we  desire  that  you  would  take 
cause  by  order  of  law  against  him,  that  payment  may  be  made. 

1627.  John  Jones,  of   Sandwich,  executor  of   the  last  will   and 
testament  of  Richard  Jones,  late  of  Deal,  deceased,  for  refusing  to 
pay  a  legacy  of  twenty  shillings,  given  by  the  said  Richard  Jones, 
to  the  parishioners  of  the  parish  of  S.  Clement,  in  Sandwich,  although 
hath  often  been  demanded  it. 

1629.  Mr.  Francis  Fotherby,  our  vicar,  for  that  he  hath  let 
the  vicarage-house  and  the  stables  go  to  ruin. 

1632.  Christopher  Stare  and  William  Smithley,  of  the  parish  of 
St.  Clement,  for  that  they  will  not  pay  their  cesses  made  towards  the 
repairs  of  our  parish  church.  William  Smithley,  three  shillings  and 
sixpence  ;  Christopher  Stare,  two  shillings. 

Also  William  Smithley  for  not  receiving  the  communion  in  our 
parish  church,  or  elsewhere  that  we  know  of,  by  the  space  of  two 
years  last  past,  and  when  the  minister  exhorted  him  to  come,  he 
answered  that  the  Word  of  God  taught  him  not  to  come,  because  he 
was  not  in  charity.  The  minister  replied  that  the  Word  of  God 
taught  him  to  be  in  charity  and  to  come,  and  not  to  neglect  the 
ordinance  of  God,  as  it  was  a  fearful  sin  to  live  so  long  in  malice, 
and  that  he  could  not  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  any  comfort 
to  himself,  except  he  were  in  charity. 


THE    OLD    GATE-HOUSE    OF    LINCOLN'S    INN. 

BY  W.  PALEY  BAILDON,  F.S.A. 

(Concluded  from  p.  176). 

To  our  modern  ideas,  one  of  the  most  objectionable 
customs  of  our  forefathers  was  that  of  disfiguring  important 
buildings  by  erecting  small  shops  or  sheds  in  front  of  them. 
In  England  these  have  mostly  disappeared,  but  some  can  still 
be  seen  nestling  round  continental  cathedrals.  Those  familiar 
with  old  prints  will  readily  re-call  instances  in  this  country. 
I  may  mention  two  London  examples,  the  south  side  of  the 
Temple  Church,  and  the  north  front  of  Westminster  Hall. 

Lincoln's  Inn  Gate  was  not  exempt  from  these  parasitic 
growths.  Sheds  or  shops,  at  first  of  wood  but  afterwards  of 
brick,  were  built  against  the  east  front,  in  the  exterior  angles  of 
the  towers.  These  were  occupied  from  time  to  time  by  dealers 
in  various  wares,  and  at  different  dates,  a  "  skinner  "  (probably 
a  dealer  in  parchment),  a  clock  maker,  a  girdler,  a  stationer,  a 
"  semester,"  and  one  who  sold  "ribons  of  the  best  sorte,"  have 
all  plied  their  trades  under  the  shadow  of  the  Gate-house. 
There  was  also  a  shop  within  the  arch-way  itself,  generally 
occupied  by  a  stationer.  This  was  on  the  north  side  of  the 
main  passage,  and  was  converted  into  a  footway  and  a  side 
entrance  in  1834. 

Some  of  the  notes  concerning  these  various  shops  are  of 
sufficient  interest  to  print  here  in  detail. 

In  May,  1601,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  "  consider  of 
the  place  without  the  Gate,  whether  it  be  fitt  that  a  shop 
shall  be  sett  up  there  for  Hull,  the  skinner  "  (ii,  68).  And  on 
October  22nd  following,  •"  it  is  thought  not  fitt  that  Hull,  the 
skinner,  shall  have  a  place  at  the  Gate"  (ii,  69).  "Skinner" 
here  probably  means  a  dealer  in  parchment ;  a  sheet  of  parch- 
ment is  still  always  called  a  "  skin  "  by  lawyers. 

Five  years  later  the  shop  question  came  up  again.  On 
November  28th,  1606,  Mr.  Hugh  Hughes  and  two  other 
Benchers  were  directed  to  "  take  the  view  of  the  corner  of  the 
place  nere  the  Gate-house,  on  the  streete  syde  of  Lyncolne's 


i.  g 

^  2. 

"*!  3 

£  OB" 


THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN.          293 

Inne,  to  see  yf  a  shoppe  may  be  convenyentlye  builded  there  " 
(ii,  102).  Their  report  does  not  appear,  but  apparently  a  shop 
was  built  on  one  side  of  the  Gate,  probably  in  the  angle  of  the 
tower.  For  on  February  I4th,  1609,  it  is  recorded  that 

"  Henry  Colte's  peticion  is  graunted  that  he  shall  have  leave  to 
builde  a  shoppe  in  such  manner  as  Mr.  [Thomas]  Spencer  and  Mr. 
[Hugh]  Hughes  shall  limitt,  soe  they  stoppe  no  lightes,  agreable  to 
the  shoppe  one  the  other  side  of  the  Gate-howse"  (ii,  119). 

1614,  July  nth.  "  Whereas  John  Cermoys,  clockmaker,  by  his 
petition  humblie  desired  the  Mrs.  of  the  Bench  to  allowe  him  the 
little  shedd,  shopp,  or  standinge,  built  by  the  wall  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Great  Gate  of  this  Howse  in  Chauncery  Lane,  paying  there- 
fore as  the  Mrs.  of  the  Bench  shall  thinke  reasonable."  It  was 
referred  to  a  Committee  of  two,  who  "  reported  their  opinions  at  this 
Counsell  that  they  conceived  it  would  be  very  fitt  and  necessarye  for 
the  Howse  to  give  allowaunce  of  the  peticioner's  request."  Ordered 
that  the  shed,  shop,  or  standing-place  shall  be  let  to  the  said 
Cermoys  at  a  yearly  rent  of  5$.  "as  tenant  at  sufferance  onlie, 
duringe  the  pleasure  of  the  Mrs.  of  the  Bench"  (ii,  164). 

1616,  June  igth.     "  Uppon  the  petition  of  Samuell  Smallman, 
servant  to  the  Steward  of  this  House,  for  a  shoppe  on  the  north  syde 
of  the  Great  Gate  of  this  House  in  Chauncery  Lane; — It  is  ordered 
that  he  shall  have  the  said  shoppe,  payinge  five  shillinges  yearelye 
to  the  House.     Provided  that  yt  be  used  for  a  girdler's  shoppe  onlye, 
and  that   the  streete  and  places   thereaboutes  be  cleanelye   keept, 
wthout  annoyance"  (ii,  185). 

1617,  Oct.  1 4th.     "Frauncys  Parke,  stacioner,  is  admytted  to 
have  a  standynge  in  the  fore  gate  next  Chauncery  Lane,  as  Colt  had 
formerlye  the  same,  but  not  to  breake  anye  walle  "  (ii,  196).     On 
Nov.  6th,  leave  was  given  for  him  to  make  a  "  convenyent  shopp  " 
there ;  and  on  Nov.  I3th  the  rent  was  fixed  at  405.,  and  permission 
given  to  begin  at  once,  under  the  directions  of  the  Chief  Butler,* 
"soe  as  there  be  noe  disgrace  to  the  said  Gate  thereby,  neyther  anye 
inconvenyence  to  the  passage  there  "  (ii,  198). 

1618,  June  24th.    Margaret  Claxton  is  to  have  the  shed  adjoining 
the  Great  Gate,  "  soe  as  she  use  therein  the  trade  of  a  semester,  or 
els  place  such  a  convenient  and  fitt  man  therein  as  the  Chief  Butler 
shall  thinke  fitt "   (ii,  206).     This  shed  had   been   lately   built   by 
Richard  Hussey,  Margaret's  late  husband,  (ii,  205). 

*  At  this  time  the  Chief  Butler  performed  most  of  the  functions  now 
exercised  by  the  Steward,  while  the  Steward  was  concerned  solely  with  the 
catering. 


294          THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN. 

1618,  Oct.  2oth.  Hearzie  Wayt  may  occupy  the  shed  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Great  Gate  until  the  end  of  Hilary  Term,  when 
the  petition  of  Thomas  Rymer  and  Anne  his  wife,  as  to  the  same 
shed,  shall  be  considered.  "  Samuell  Smallman,  for  takeinge  pewter 
from  the  Reader,  and  other  misdemeanors  is  expelled  for  havinge 
anyething  to  doe  with  the  shop  or  aboute  the  House"  (ii,  207). 

The  petition  of  the  Rymers  was  apparently  successful,  for  in 
1624  it  was  ordered  that  Thomas  Rymer  might  "  build  up  his  shed 
or  shop,  soe  it  be  done  with  brick  sutable  to  the  rest  of  the  building 
of  the  Howse."  The  former  rent  was  to  be  continued  (ii,  252). 

In  1660,  Mistress  Winsper  was  admitted  tenant  of  the  stationer's 
shop  under  the  Gate,  upon  the  like  terms  as  her  late  husband  had 
it.  (iii,  3). 

The  Great  Fire  of  London  broke  out  on  September  2nd, 
1666,  and  lasted  until  the  5th.  Fanned  by  a  strong  east  wind, 
it  spread  steadily  west-ward.  It  crossed  Fetter  Lane,  consumed 
part  of  Clifford's  Inn,  and,  it  is  believed,  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  Rolls  Estate.* 

The  Benchers  of  Lincoln's  Inn  took  energetic  steps  to 
preserve  their  property,  the  wooden  sheds  or  shops  adjoining 
the  Gate  were  pulled  down,  and,  by  an  arrangement  with  the 
owners,  the  S.  John's  Head  Tavern,  otherwise  known  as  the 
Baptist's  Head,  shared  the  same  fate,  thus  completely  isolating 
the  Inn  on  the  south  side,  t  These  sensible  precautions  were 
rendered  unnecessary  by  the  wind  veering  to  the  west,  as  is 
well-known,  but  the  sound  and  practical  wisdom  of  the  action 
thus  taken  by  the  Benchers  commands  our  admiration  just  the 
same.  If  similar  drastic  measures  had  been  taken  at  an  earlier 
stage,  the  damage  done  by  the  fire  would  probably  have  been 
much  less. 

On  February  7th,  1667,  it  was  ordered  "  that  the  shopps  without 
the  Gate  be  built  of  brick"  (iii,  53). 

On  January  26th,  1671,  a  petition  was*  presented  to  the  Bench  by 

*  When  the  Rolls  Chapel  was  pulled  down  a  few  years  ago,  it  was 
found  that  the  then  east  wall  contained  a  walled-up  chancel  arch,  and  that 
the  previous  chancel  had  entirely  disappeared.  Many  of  the  stones  in  this 
portion  of  the  building  showed  traces  of  having  been  subjected  to  great 
heat.  The  remains  of  the  chancel  arch  have  been  preserved,  and  are  now 
built  up  against  part  of  the  new  building's  of  the  Record  Office,  vide  an 
illustrated  article  in  Midd.  and  Herts  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  ii.  pp.  49-68. 

t  The  site  of  this  tavern  is  now  occupied  by  Messrs.  Moss  and 
Jameson's  premises. 


Gateway  of  Lincoln's  Inn. 

Drawn  by  Hanslip  Fletcher. 


THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN.          295 

"  Heph-Zibah  Smith,  widdow  and  relict  of  Nicholas  Smith,  late  one 
of  the  Buttlers,  shewing  that  her  husband,  Nicholas  Smith,  held  as 
Buttler  a  shop  under  the  said  Inne  in  Chancery  Lane,  which  was 
pulled  downe  by  order  of  the  said  Society  in  the  tyme  of  the  late 
dreadfull  fire  in  London  ;  and  that  her  said  husband  rebuilt  the 
same  some  tyme  after,  att  his  owne  charge,  but  dyed  before  he 
reimbursed  himselfe  the  charge  by  reception  of  the  rents  ;  and  the 
peticioner  desired  some  satisfaccion."  The  matter  was  referred  to 
a  committee,  but  the  result  does  not  appear  (iii,  72). 

On  May  nth,  1730,  "  upon  the  petition  of  Mr.  Nath :  Moody, 
stationer,  setting  forth  that  he  was  admitted  into  a  shop  under 
Chancery  Lane  Gate  about  5  years  agoe,  which  said  shop  was  very 
much  out  of  repair,  and  cost  the  said  Mr.  Moody  near  2o/.  It  is 
ordered  that  Mr.  John  Willoughby,  who  was  lately  admitted  into 
the  said  shop,  do  pay  the  said  Mr.  Moody  the  sum  of  5/.,  and  in 
default  thereof  that  he  be  discharged  from  the  said  shop  "  (iii,  294). 

On  May  gth,  1740,  it  was  ordered  "  that  the  shop  under  Chancery 
Lane  Gate  be  forthwith  removed"  (iii,  321);  but  apparently  the 
order  was  not  carried  out. 

On  February  I2th,  1753,  Luke  Robinson,  Esq.,  Barrister,  who 
had  lately  purchased  one  whole  ground  chamber  at  No.  25,  Gate 
House  Court,  Chancery  Lane  Row,  complained  "  that  there  is 
erected  a  shop  or  shed  in  Chancery  Lane,  joining  to  the  said 
chambers,  and  part  thereof  under  the  window  of  the  said 
chamber  and  other  part  thereof,  close  to  the  said  window, 
which  is  a  great  nusance  and  darkens  the  windows,  and  is 
otherwise  greatly  inconvenient,"  and  prayed  that  it  might  be 
removed.  It  was  ordered  on  February  27th  following  that  it  should 
be  removed  at  the  expense  of  the  Society,  on  payment  by  Mr. 
Robinson  of  lol.  los.  to  the  Second  Butler,  in  consideration  of  his 
interest  therein  (iii,  353,354)- 

Probably  all  frequenters  of  Chancery  Lane  have  noticed 
that  an  apple  woman  is  allowed  to  pitch  her  stall  on  the  north 
side  of  the  arch  in  Chancery  Lane,  but  probably  few  passers-by 
are  aware  that  her  predecessor  followed  the  same  humble 
calling  in  the  same  place  more  than  three  centuries  and  a  half 
ago.  Such,  however,  seems  to  be  the  fact ;  for  though  the 
"  wyff "  in  the  first  of  the  following  extracts  is  not  expressly 
referred  to  as  a  fruit-seller,  yet  the  subsequent  notes  leave  little 
doubt  that  the  stall  at  the  Gate  has  always  been  a  fruit  stall. 


296          THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN. 

1531,  May  i8th.  "The  wyff  next  the  Gate  shall  avoyde 
bytwene  this  and  Witsondaye  at  her  perell,  and  yf  she  will  not 
avoyde  by  that  daye,  then  to  avoyd  her  by  the  lawe;  and  Mr. 
Curson  hath  takyn  upon  hym  to  geve  her  warnyng  "  (i,  230). 

The  Mr.  Curson  here  named  was  Robert  Curson,  a  Bencher 
of  the  Inn,  who  was  appointed  a  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  in 
1547.  The  text  somehow  suggests  that  the  "  wyff"  was  by  way 
of  being  a  termagant,  and  not  a  person  to  be  lightly 
encountered. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  fruit-stall  was  found  to  be  a 
convenient  institution,  and  therefore  continued.  Mention  is 
made  of  it  from  time  to  time.  Under  date,  July  8th,  1614, 
we  read : 

"  Whereas  one  Roger  Levett  by  his  peticion  humblie  desired 
that  in  regard  hee  hath  a  longe  tyme  served  the  gentlemen  of  this 
Howse  wth  ribons  of  the  best  sorte,  and  cheaper  then  can  bee  bought 
in  any  shopps,  and  thereby  gotten  such  good  will  and  favour 
amongest  them  as  that  hee  doubteth  nott  butt  they  will  afforde  him, 
the  saide  Roger  Levett,  their  best  furtherance  in  what  may  tende  to 
his  good ;  And  for  that  the  poore  woman,  wch  lately  solde  fruyte 
wth  in  the  Great  Gate  of  this  Howse,  is  nowe  dead  ;  that  therefore 
the  Mrs  of  the  Benche  woulde  bee  pleased,  in  commiseracion  of  his 
estate,  being  a  poore  man,  charged  wth  a  wif&and  familye,  to  allowe 
him  the  same  roome  wch  the  deceased  widdowe  injoyed,  to  sell  his 
saide  ribbons,  and  other  commodityes  as  the  saide  widdowe  solde  " 
(ii,  164).  It  does  not  appear  whether  the  petition  was  granted  or 
not. 

On  October  26th,  1671,  it  was  ordered  that  "  Alexander  Croome, 
one  of  porters  at  the  Gate,  have  the  proffitt  of  selling  apples  and 
other  fruit  under  the  Gate  added  to  the  imployment  he  hath  of 
sweeping  and  cleaning  the  Court ;  and  no  other  to  sell  apples  or 
other  fruit  there  "  (iii,  75). 

On  June  5th,  1676,  it  was  ordered  that  Hugh  Pattle,  the  Chief 
Porter,  should  have  ''the  place  of  sitteing  and  selling  fruit  at  the 
foregate,  by  the  guift  of  the  Bench,"  during  pleasure,  "  and  that 
Croome's  wife  have  liberty  till  Michaelmas  terme  to  remove " 
(iii,  107). 

On  February  3rd,  1738,  it  was  ordered  "that  the  fruit  shop 
under  the  Gate  in  Chancery  Lane  he  removed,  and  the  Gate  kept 
open  in  the  day  time  "  (iii,  315).  It  appears  from  this  that  the  fruit 
stall  had  been  placed  inside  the  Gate,  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent 
one  leaf  from  opening. 


THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN.          297 

In  1885  the  Gate-house  was  threatened  with  destruction. 
The  old  chambers  to  the  north  of  it  had  been  pulled  down  and 
rebuilt,  and  the  scheme  of  reconstruction  included  a  new  Gate- 
house. A  petition  \vas  presented  to  the  Bench,  praying  them 
"  to  countermand  the  further  destruction  of  the  buildings  of 
the  Gate-house  Court,"  which  was  largely  signed  by  members 
of  the  Inn.  The  Society  of  Antiquaries  and  the  Society  for 
the  Preservation  of  Ancient  Buildings  passed  resolutions  to  the 
same  effect.  Again  in  1890  rumours  were  started  that  the 
Bench  intended  to  pull  down  the  Gate  and  the  old  buildings 
adjoining  it  on  the  south.  The  late  Mr.  A.  C.  Ranyard,  then 
editor  of  "  Knowledge,"  took  the  matter  up  warmly,  in  an 
interesting  article  which  appeared  in  that  Magazine  for  June, 
1890.  Mr.  Ranyard  obtained  the  professional  opinions  of  Mr. 
G.  R.  Crickmay,  Mr.  J.  T.  Micklethwaite,  and  Mr.  Philip 
Webb*,  who  all  considered  that  the  Gate-house  was  capable  of 
being  put  into  a  sound  structural  condition. 

At  length,  after  an  interval  of  nine  years,  this  has  been 
done.  In  the  Long  Vacation  of  1899,  the  Gate-house  was  placed 
in  the  able  hands  of  Mr.  Dennett  Barry,  the  Surveyor  to  the 
Inn,  and  underwent  a  thorough  and  sympathetic  repair.  The 
parapet  and  some  of  the  chimney-stacks  had  to  be  taken  down 
and  rebuilt,  the  rest  of  the  brick  work  was  pointed  and,  where 
necessary,  renewed.  The  fine  old  oak  gates  were  denuded  of 
their  paint,  repaired  with  old  oak  saved  from  other  parts  of  the 
inn,  and  wax-polished. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  smaller  or  northern 
entrance  from  Chancery  Lane  was  made  in  1834,  by  taking 
down  the  south  wall  of  the  stationer's  shop.  This,  no  doubt, 
necessitated  the  removal  of  the  vaulting  over  the  main  passage, 
and  took  away  the  solid  support  from  the  wall  above.  A 
bressummer  was  inserted  to  carry  the  wall,  and  this  was 
supported  by  an  iron  pillar  in  the  middle.  Mr.  Webb  stated 
that  these  alterations  were  done  ''in  a  clumsy,  unworkman-like 
.manner,  and  a  settlement-crack  was  the  result."  Mr.  Barry 
has  now  encased  the  iron-pillar  in  a  substantial  brick  pier,  and 
has  placed  two  brick  arches  under  the  bressummer.  The 
appearance  of  the  passage  is  greatly  improved  in  consequence, 

*  Knowledge,  July,  1890. 


298          THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN. 

and  the  structure  rendered  much  more  stable.  It  may,  perhaps, 
be  regretted  that  the  vaulting  was  not  replaced  at  the  same 
time. 

The  care  of  the  Gate,  the  principal  entrance  to  the  Inn,  was 
always,  as  now,  the  duty  of  the  Chief  Porter,  though  the  office 
was  sometime  delegated  temporarily  to  other  servants  of  the 
Inn.  Thus,  in  the  autumn  of  1603  the  Reading  was  abandoned 
and  special  precautions  taken,  "  in  regard  the  sicknes  growes 
daungerous  and  the  terme  being  therefore  adjorned."  One  of 
the  butlers,  the  two  panniermen  and  their  boy,  and  the  second 
cook  were  appointed  to  look  after  the  house  during  the  vacation. 
They  were  all  to  sleep  within  the  Inn  every  night,  in  different 
parts,  all  the  gates  were  to  be  kept  locked,  one  of  the  pannier- 
men  was  to  remain  in  the  day  time  at  or  nigh  the  Great  Gate* 
and  at  night  to  lie  in  the  Porter's  Lodge ;  no  strangers  were  t< 
be  suffered  to  lodge  in  the  House,  no  one  was  to  be  admitt< 
except  on  business,  and  no  women  were  to  be  allowed  in  at  all 
(ii,  80). 

At  ordinary  times  the  Chief  Porter's  duties,  as  laid  down  in 
1613,  were  as  follows  : — 

"  First,  that  hee  shall  not  suffer  any  wandringe  or  idle  persons, 
rogues,  vagabondes  or  beggers,  to  walke  or  wander  up  and  down  in 
any  parte  of  the  Howse,  or  to  lurke  or  abide  about  the  Gate,  but  th; 
hee  ridde  the  Howse  of  them ;    and  if  they  shall  make  resistance, 
carry    them    to   the   constable,   to    be  further    proceeded    again; 
accordinge  to  the  lawe.     .     .     . 

"  Item,  that  in  the  day  tyme  hee  shall  diligently  attende  about 
the  Gate  .  .  .  and  that  hee  shutt  and  locke  up  the  Great  Gat 
at  eleaven  of  the  clocke  in  the  night  in  sommer,  and  at  term  of  th< 
clocke  in  wynter. 

"  Item,  for  preventinge  such  trouble  and  annoyans  as  are  done  fr 
coaches  wthin  the  house,  that  he  contynuallie  in  the  daye  tyme  keej 
one  leafe  of  the  gate  shutt,  wth  the  barr  of  yron  soe  extern 
towardes  the  other  leafe  of  the  gate  that  noe  coaches  maye  come  ii 
onely  while  the  Lord  Chiefe  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  *  lodgetl 
in  the  Howse,  he  shalbee  ready  to  open  the  gate  for  the  comming 
or  goinge  out  of  his  LOPP'S  coach,  and  not  otherwise  "  (ii,  160,  161). 

*  Sir  Henry  Hobart,  a  member  of  the  Inn,  had  just  been  appointee 
November   I3th,  1613,  and  had  not  yet  given  up  his  chambers  there. 


The  Guard   Room,   Lincoln's  Inn  Gate  House. 

Drawn  by  Hanslip  Fletcher. 


THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN.          299 

In  1652,  July  yth,  it  was  ordered  "  that  all  the  gates  of  the  House 
be  locked  up  by  eleaven  of  the  clocke  att  night,  and  not  opened  till 
three  of  the  clocke  next  morninge"  ;  and,  November  loth,  "that  the 
gates  of  the  House  be  shutt  upp  att  ten  of  the  clocke  in  the  wynter 
tyme,  and  not  to  be  opened  till  foure  in  the  morning  duringe 
winter  "  (ii,  396). 

During  the  great  plague  of  1665-6  special  regulations  were 
made  for  the  safe-keeping  of  the  Inn. 

On  May  26th,  1665,  it  was  ordered  "that  every  Lord's  Day,  and 
alsoe  upon  other  speciall  dayes,  during  the  time  of  divine  service  or 
sermon,  both  the  back  gates  of  this  House  shall  be  safely  locked  up 
by  the  Porter  of  the  House,  who  alsoe  is  to  see  that  the  fore  gate  be 
shutt  before  service  time  on  those  dayes,  to  the  end  that  none  but 
persons  of  quality  may  be  admitted  to  come  unto  the  Chappell 
during  the  time  of  the  infeccion  "  (iii,  46). 

In  the  following  June  the  Inn  was  shut  up,  a  few  servants 
and  some  others  being  left  in  charge,  amongst  whom  was  John 
Durfey,  stationer  at  the  Gate.  These  were  placed  under 
Richard  Brownley,  the  Chief  Butler,  and  a  stringent  set  of 
regulations  was  drawn  up.  The  "  watchers  by  night  "  were  to 
go  round  the  Inn  twice  each  night,  and  "  to  goe  up  every  story 
in  each  staire  case  ";  the  "  warders  by  day  "  were  to  do  the 
same  twice  each  day.  Strangers  coming  to  the  Inn  on  business 
were  to  be  accompanied  by  a  "  warder  "  "  unto  the  chamber 
which  he  or  they  inquire  for."  "Noe  gentleman  of  the  Society 
or  other  person  after  tenn  a'clocke  at  night  (when  the  fore  gate 
is  peremtorily  to  be  shutt  upp,  and  to  be  opened  noe  more 
untill  the  next  morning)  shall  expect  to  have  the  gate  opened 
for  him  "  (iii,  47,  48). 

John  Whatley,  or  Whateley,  the  Porter,  who  was  one  of 
those  left  in  charge,  died,  whether  or  not  of  the  plague  does 
not  appear.  On  February  8th,  1666,  when  the  Society  re- 
assembled, it  was  ordered  "  that  whosoever  shall  be  Porter  of 
this  House  shall  permitt  and  suffer  Amy  Josselyn,  widdowe, 
to  make  use  of  the  benche  and  place  under  the  Gate,  as  formerly 
she  hath  donne,  freely  and  without  any  interrupcion  "  (iii,  49). 

On  November  8th,  1 700,  it  was  ordered  "  that  from  henceforth 
no  coach  be  admitted  to  come  within  he  Gates  of  this  House  after 


300 


THE     OLD     GATE-HOUSE     OF     LINCOLN'S     INN. 


10  a'clock  at  night;  and  that  the  keyes  of  the  Great  Gates  of  this 
House  be  left  at  the  chamber  of  the  Black  Book  Keeper  every  night 
immediately  after  10  a'clock"  (iii,  206). 

Space  will  not  permit  of  any  detailed  account  of  the  many 
distinguished  men  who  have  occupied  the  chambers  in  the 
Gate-house ;  but  there  is  a  tradition  connected  with  the 
principal  set  over  the  archway,  which  merits  some  examination. 
It  is  stated  in  several  works  that  Oliver  Cromwell  occupied 
these  chambers  at  some  time  or  other.  *  I  have  failed  to  trace 
the  story  to  its  origin,  and  a  careful  search  in  the  records  of  the 
Inn  has  not  produced  any  facts  tending  to  verify  the  statement. 
The  Protector  was  never  a  member  of  the  Society,  and  the 
rules  against  the  under-letting  of  chambers,  were,  until  quite 
modern  times,  of  a  very  stringent  nature.  Under  these 
circumstances,  we  are  compelled,  however  reluctantly,  to 
discredit  the  story  altogether.  It  probably  arose  from  a  jumble 
of  several  facts.  Five  near  relatives  of  the  Protector  were 
members  of  the  Inn,  namely,  Henry  (grandfather),  admitted 
in  1557  ;  Oliver  (uncle)  and  Robert  (father),  admitted  in  1582  ; 
Richard  (uncle),  admitted  in  1592  ;  while  Richard,  son  and 
heir  apparent  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  of  Ely,  in  the  Isle  of  Ely, 
in  the  county  of  Cambridge,  Esquire,  was  admitted  on  May 

27th,  1647.  This  last  was  "  tumble- 
down Dick,"  the  son  and  successor 
of  the  Protector.  Now  when  we 
consider  that  Thurloe,  Cromwell's 
Secretary  of  State,  had  chambers  at 
No.  25,  nearly  adjoining  the  Gate- 
house, where,  without  any  great 
straining  of  probability,  we  may 
imagine  that  Cromwell  himself  was 
an  occasional  visitor,  we  seem  to  have 
got  at  the  nucleus  of  fact  around 
which  the  tradition  in  question  has, 
not  unnaturally,  grown. 


*  Ireland,  Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery,  p.  108  ;  Spilsbury,  Lincoln's 
Inn,  1850  ;   p.  38  ;    etc. 


RICHARD    CANDELER    OF    TOTTENHAM. 

BY  JOHN  CHANDLER. 

IN  the  parish  church  of  Tottenham  in  Middlesex  is  a  very 
beautiful  Elizabethan  monument  of  veined  marble,  which, 
fortunately,  escaped  destruction  when  the  old  church  was 
rebuilt.  It  has  two  arches.  Under  the  one  on  the  left  hand 
side  are  the  effigies  of  Richard  Candeler  and  his  wife.  They  are 
both  represented  in  a  kneeling  attitude.  He  is  habited  in  the 
gown  of  a  merchant,  and  between  the  two  figures  is  that  of  their 
infant  son  in  swaddling  clothes.  Under  the  arch  on  the  right 
are  the  effigies  of  their  daughter  Anne  and  her  husband,  Sir 
Ferdinando  Heybourne,  both  also  represented  kneeling,  he  in 
armour.  The  monument  bears  the  following  inscription  : — 

"  Here  resteth  in  peace  ye  bodye  of  Richard  Candeler  |  Esq. 
Justice  of  Peace  within  ye  contye  of  Middel.  borne  |  at  Walsingham 
in  ye  cov[n]tie  of  Norf:  he  married  to  wife  |  Eliza:  Lock,  ye  daughter 
and  sole  heire  of  Matthew  Lock  sea  cond  son  to  Sir  Will :  Lock 
Knig  :  they  lived  togeather  in  holie  |  wedlock  26  yeares,  they  had 
yssue  one  son  and  one  daugter  |  Edw.  died  in  his  infantciee  and  Ann 
ye  first  wife  of  Sr  Ferdi  |  nando  Heybourne  Knig.  He  ended  this 
life  ye  24  of  |  October  Ao  Doni.  1602,  aged  61  yeares  and  the  said  | 
Eliza,  deceased  ye  second  day  of  January  1622  Heer  under  buried. 
"  Heere  also  resteth  in  peace  ye  bodye  of  Sr  Ferdinando  Hey- 
borne  Knig  [ht].  Justice  of  Peace  and  corarn  in  ye  coun.  of  Midd.  he 
wayted  |  at  ye  feete  of  Q.  Elizabeth  of  famous  memorye  and  our 
Soveraigne  |  Lo  :  King  James  in  ther  Privie  Chamber.  He  was 
a  careful  maies  |  trate  wthout  respect  of  p  [er]  sons  and  a  true  friend 
to  ye  cause  |  of  ye  poore.  He  married  Dame  Anne  ye  daughter  and 
heire  of  Richard  |  Candeler,  Esq.  They  lived  together  in  holy 
wedlock  23  |  yeares,  he  ended  this  life  ye  4  of  June  A.D.  1618 
aged  60  |  yeares  and  Dame  Anne  ended  this  life  ye  24  of  June  Ao 
Dni  1615  I  aged  44  yeares. 

"  Elizabeth  Candeler 

In  Testimonie 
of  Her  Love  erec  : 
ted  this  monu  : 
ment  at  her  one 
charges 
16  .  .  " 


302  RICHARD    CANDELER    OF    TOTTENHAM. 

This  Richard  Candeler  came  of  a  good  Norfolk  family, 
closely  allied  to  the  Greshams.  In  the  Visitation  of  London, 
1568 — Howard  and  Armytage,  Harleian  Society — his  arms  are 
thus  given  : — "  Ar  :  three  pellets  in  bend  cotised,  between  two 
pellets ;  impaling  (for  Lock)  quarterly  i  and  4.  Per  fesse  azure 
and  or,  a  pale  counter-charged,  in  the  first,  three  falcons  rising 
and  holding  in  their  mouths  a  padlock  of  the  second;  2  and  3. 
Sable,  a  chevron  between  three  conies  heads  erased  argent 
(Spencer).  Crest — A  goat's  head  couped,  sable,  attired  argent. 

The  following  pedigree  from  Vincent  MSS.,  No.  ng-fF.  236, 
309,  Heralds'  College,  will  elucidate  the  above. 

Sir  Wm.  Loke  knt. 

and  alderman  of  London  "y     1.     Alice  Spencer  d.    1522.  bur  :  in 

Born  1480.     d.  1550.  Mercers'  Chapel. 


Matthew  of  London,  merchant. 
Born  23  Feb.  1521,  ninth  &  last  child 


Elizabeth 

Sole  heir  d.  2  Jan. 

1622,  bur.  at  Tottenham. 


Elizabeth    d.    of  Baker 


Rich  :  Candeler  of  London  Esq. 

merchant  d.  24  Oct   1602. 
oat  61.  Bur:  in  Tottenham  Church. 


Sir    Ferdinando    Richardson     alias 


Anne  d.  24  June  1615. 
Aged  44.  Bur.  in  Tottenham  Church. 


Hey  bourne,  knt.,  Groom  of  the  Privy 
Chamber  to  Queen  Eliz:  d.  4  June 


1618  aged  60. 

In  comparing  the  dates  in  the  monumental  inscriptions,  the 
Visitation  of  London  and  Vincent's  pedigree,  with  one  another, 
a  discrepancy  will  be  noticed.  According  to  the  inscriptions 
Richard  Candeler  died  in  1602,  after  "  26  yeares  of  holy  wed- 
lock." Therefore  he  was  married  in  1576.  From  the  same 
source  and  also  from  Vincent's  pedigree  we  learn  that  his 
daughter  and  heire  died  in  1615,  aged  44  years.  This  makes 
her  out  to  have  been  born  four  years  before  the  marriage  of  her 
parents,  but  in  the  Visitation  of  London  we  find  them  married 
in  1568.  A  mistake  has  evidently  been  made  in  the  inscription 
as  to  the  number  of  years  of  her  parents'  married  life.  The 
number  of  years  there  assigned  them,  viz.  26,  must  be  incorrect. 
If  they  were  married  in  1568  and  he  died  in  1602,  the  number 
would  be  34.  In  the  Visitations  of  Essex  from  1552  to  1634 
(Harleian  Soc.  vol.  14)  is  as  follows,  from  pedigree  of  Heyborne 
of  Waltham,  Essex.  "  Marriage,  1596,  38  Eliz.:  Sir  Ferdinando 
Heyborne,  Knt.,  Groom  Porter  of  the  Privy  Chamber  to  Queen 


RICHARD    CANDELER    OF    TOTTENHAM.  303 

Eliz.,  married  Elizabeth  [?]  daughter  of  Richard  Chandler  of 
London,  mercer,  by  the  daughter  of  ...  Bromley."  This 
Bromley  is  most  likely  Bromley  by  Bow.  The  surname  Candeler 
is  one  of  the  many  variants  of  Chandler  and  a  family  using  the 
latter  form  and  bearing  the  same  coat-of-arms  as  Richard 
Candeler  have  long  been  settled  at  Witley  in  Surrey,  where, 
to  borrow  a  phrase  of  Philpot's,  "  they  have  been  of  some 
eminence  in'this  track."  But  I  have  not,  as  yet,  been  able  to 
trace  the  connection.  In  Norfolk  the  name  is  frequently  met 
with  and  mostly  in  the  form  of  "  Candler." 

Richard  Candeler's  family  was  connected  with  the  Gresham 
family  through  Susan,  daughter  of  William  Gresham  of  Wal- 
singham,  who  married  William  Chaundler  or  Candeler  of  the 
same  place.  She  was  first  cousin  to  Sir  Richard  Gresham  and 
Sir  John  Gresham ;  each  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  uncle 
to  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  founder  of  the  Royal  Exchange.  Three 
children  of  William  and  Susan  Chaundler  are  mentioned  in  the 
wills  of  Sir  Richard  and  Sir  John ;  viz.,  Richard,  Thomas  and 
a  daughter,  The  will  of  Sir  John  Gresham  is  dated  1554,  and 
he  leaves  "  x.  li.  to  my  kynnswoman's  daughter,  Thomas 
Candler's  sister,  sometyme  dwelling  with  Mystress  Cresswell, 
widdowe,  to  her  marriage.  Also  to  Thomas  Candler  my 
apprentice  x.  li" 

Richard  Candler  is  mentioned  in  Sir  Richard  Gresham's 
will,  1548,  thus  "  To  every  of  my  cosyn  Chaundler's  children, 
except  Richd.  vi.  li.  xiijs.  iiid.,  and  to  the  said  Richard  x.  li." 
and  again  in  the  will  of  Isabel,  1565,  widdow  of  Sir  Richard. 
"  To  Richard  Candler  v.  li.  in  money  and  a  black  gowne." 

This  Richard  Candeler  was  the  London  factor  to  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham  and  is  mentioned  as  such  in  the  State  Papers,  Domestic 
Series,  p.  232,  Dec.  20,  1563.  I  cannot  think  that  this  is  the 
same  Richard  as  the  one  buried  at  Tottenham  for  the  latter  was 
born  in  1541  and  this  would  make  him  only  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  when  he  held  the  responsible  position  of  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham's  London  representative.  He  of  Tottenham  was 
probably  the  son  of  the  London  factor.  An  earlier  entry  in  the 
State  Papers,  p.  156,  date  1560,  refers  to  an  account  of  munitions 
already  in  the  Tower  and  of  quantities  to  be  shipped,  with 
request  of  Ric.  Candeler  for  a  warrant.  We  have  seen  from 


304  RICHARD    CANDELER    OF    TOTTENHAM. 

his  monument  that  Richard  Candeler  of  Tottenham,  who  died  in 
J&l?  Aft^-.no  mate  jj>fii\?,  j^Ar  AhpJiame  series  of  State  Papers 
p.  141,  James  I.,  1604,  there  is  a  grant  to  Chris.  Hey6urn  antf1 
Rich.  Candeler  in  reversion,  after  Ferdinando  Richardson,  of  the 
office  of  making  and  registering  assurances  on  ships  and  mer- 
chandize in  London.  This  same  office  was  held  in  1576  vide 
State  Papers,  Elizabeth,  p.  523,  by  Richard  Candeler,  probably 
either  the  London  factor  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  or  the  Richard 
Candler  of  Tottenham.  The  Richard  Candeler  who  applies  for 
the  office  in  1604  was  without  doubt  a  member  of  the  same 
family  and  probably  descended  from  Thomas  Candeler,  the 
apprentice  to  Sir  John  Gresham. 

I  cut  the  following  paragraph  from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  May 
22,  1899  : — "Among  the  literary  treasures  at  Hatfield  House, 
recently  overhauled  by  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission, 
is  the  following  note,  dated  September  24,  1597,  of  the  exam- 
ination of  John  Dewrance,  of  Enfield,  gentleman,  touching  a 
head  found  in  Enfield  Chase.  'About  a  month  past  one  John 
Lane  brought  the  said  head  to  my  house  in  Enfield,  saying  it 
was  the  head  of  '  Ferogh  Makehewe  '  an  arch-traitor  of  Ireland, 
who  was  slain  by  Captain  Thomas  Lee  and  his  company,  and 
the  head  brought  into  England  by  John  Lane  to  the  Earl  of 
Essex,  who  referred  him  to  Mr.  Secretary  for  his  reward.  But 
as  the  head-money  had  already  been  paid  in  Ireland,  John  Lant 
was  told  he  might  bestow  the  said  head  where  he  would.  And, 
having  it  with  him,  he  came  to  my  house  and  wished  to  leave 
it  there.  This  I  would  not  permit,  nor  let  it  be  buried  in  my 
garden.  He  then  gave  the  head  to  his  boy  to  bury  in  Enfield 
Chase,  who,  instead,  put  it  on  a  tree,  where  it  was  found  on 
Wednesday  last  by  two  boys,  who  went  to  fetch  their  cattle." 
The  deposition  is  endorsed  "Taken  before  me,  Richard  Candeler, 
September  24,  1597."  There  is  no  clue  to  the  ultimate  dis- 
position of  the  ill-used  head  !  " 

This  Richard  Candeler  is  he  who  lies  beneath  the  monument 
in  Tottenham  Church,  "  ye  Justice  of  Peace  within  ye  contye 
of  MiddelfsexJ." 


METEOROLOGY    OF    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

BY    JOHN    HOPKINSON,    F.R.MET.Soc.,    Assoc.lNST.C.E. 

April  to  June,  igoo. 

flpHE  omission  of  the  rainfall  at  Abingdon,  through  the 
JL  return  not  having  been  received,  is  the  only  alteration  in 
the  report  for  this  quarter.  Two  additional  returns  promised 
have  not  yet  been  received. 

The  counties  are  distinguished  numerically  as  usual : — i, 
Middlesex;  2,  Essex;  3,  Herts;  4,  Bucks;  5,  Berks;  6,  Surrey; 
7,  Kent.  The  observations  are  taken  at  9  a.m. 

The  mean  temperature  during  the  quarter  was  about  the 
average,  the  air  was  rather  dry,  the  sky  more  cloudy  than 
usual,  and  the  rainfall  small,  though  there  was  quite  the 
average  number  of  wet  days.  April  was  rather  warm,  chiefly 
owing  to  the  mean  night  temperature  being  high,  although  a 
few  nights  were  very  cold ;  the  air  was  unusually  dry,  the  sky 
rather  bright,  and  the  rainfall  very  small.  May  was  rather 
cold,  owing  to  the  low  day  temperature,  the  nights  being  about 
as  warm  as  usual ;  the  air  was  rather  dry,  the  sky  cloudy,  and 
the  rainfall  small.  June  was  rather  warm,  the  nights  being 
especially  so,  while  the  days  were  a  little  colder  than  usual ; 
the  air  was  of  average  humidity,  the  sky  cloudy,  and  the 
rainfall  heavy,  the  number  of  wet  days  also  being  large.  Early 
in  the  month  the  weather  became  very  warm,  and  Monday  the 
nth  was  the  hottest  day  of  which  I  can  find  any  record  so 
early  in  the  year,  all  stations  in  the  Home  Counties  recording 
a  maximum  shade  temperature  above  80°,  with  an  average 
above  84°  and  the  maximum  in  London  varying  from  about 
86°  to  90°.  There  were  several  deaths  from  sunstroke.  During 
a  field-day  of  the  troops  at  Aldershot  four  men  died  and  about 
300  fell  out  of  the  ranks  from  exhaustion,  the  effects  of  the 
heat  being  augmented  by  want  of  sufficient  food  and  by 
unsuitable  clothkig.  There  was  a  severe  thunderstorm  on  this 
and  also  on  the  following  day  when  the  lightning  struck  a 
public-house  at  Bucks  Hill,  Chipperfield,  throwing  down  the 
chimney,  damaging  an  iron  grate  and  an  iron  bedstead,  taking 
the  lip  off  a  quart  measure,  and  drilling  a  small  hole  in  the  side 


306 


METEOROLOGY. 


of  it.  During  a  thunderstorm  on  the  25th  the  tower  of  Little 
Hallingbury  Church,  Bishop's  Stortford,  was  damaged  by 
lightning,  and  an  ash  tree  in  Winch  Hill  Wood,  King's 
Walden,  was  rooted  up  and  shivered  into  long  thin  splinters. 

Cookham,  Bracknell,  and  Sandhurst  give  a  mean  temperature 
for  April  of  47°'9;  May,  52°'2  ;  and  June,  6o°'2;  being  nearly 
a  degree  higher  for  the  quarter  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
Home  Counties. 

April,    1900. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

& 

o 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

o 

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

0 

Ain't 

Days 

P 

Q 

0 

0 

o 

c 

°/e 

ins. 

1  .  Old  Street  .  . 

49-2 

42-0 

56-5 

14-5 

30-8 

75-0 

73 

5-7 

•79 

15 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

43-8 

32-9 

53-6 

20-7 

24-0 

75-1 

66 

6-4 

1  04 

9 

,,  Chelmsford.. 

46-8 

36-8 

56  8 

20-0 

21-1 

75-8 

72 

5-3 

•73 

7 

3.  Beniiington 

46-9 

37-6 

56-2 

18-6 

24-9 

73-8 

75 

6-1 

1-21 

14 

,,  Berkhamsted 

43-5 

36-2 

56-8 

20-6 

24-1 

75-5 

74 

6-5 

1-02 

15 

,,  St.  Albans., 

46  8 

38-3 

55-3 

17-0 

25-4 

73-7 

75 

6-0 

1-27 

14 

6.W.  Norwood 

4S-0 

38-6 

57-3 

18-7 

26-5 

77-5 

72 

6-4 

•83 

15 

,  ,  Addington  .  . 

46-7 

39-0 

54-4 

15-4 

27-6 

74-0 

70 

7-4 

•89 

14 

7.  Margate    .  . 

47-0 

40-3 

53-6 

13-3 

32-8 

72-0 

75 

6-0 

•63 

10 

Mo.'in         . 

46-8 

38  0 

55-6 

17  6 

26  4 

74-7 

72 

6-2 

•93 

13 

May,  1900. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£ 

o 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

1 

0 
H 

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

0 

a 

Am't 

Days 

Q 

o 

p 

0 

o 

0 

01 

'  o 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

53-8 

47-1 

60-5 

13-4 

37-4 

71-0 

67 

7-1 

1-05 

12 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

51-7 

43-1 

60-4 

17'3 

30-5 

71  2 

68 

7-1 

•83 

10 

,,  Chelmsford.  . 

51-1 

42-0 

60-2 

18-2 

28-7 

72-8 

72 

7-0 

•83 

10 

3.  Bennington 

50-7 

42-5 

58-9 

16-4 

33-9 

68  7 

70 

7-7 

1-08 

12 

,,  Berkhamsted 

50-6 

41-6 

59-6 

18-0 

31-1 

69-0 

71 

6-6 

1-09 

12 

,,  St.  Albans.  . 

50-4 

42-5 

58-4 

15-9 

33  2 

67-5 

71 

69 

1-10 

12 

6.W.  Norwood 

52-3 

43  9 

60-8 

16-9 

34-5 

70-4 

73 

7-4 

1-24 

13 

,,  Addington.  . 

50-9 

43-6 

58-1 

14-5 

34-7 

67-7 

71 

8-0 

1-43 

12 

7.  Margate    .  . 

51-8 

41-6 

59-0 

14-4 

38-8 

72-8 

73 

7-2 

•88 

10 

Mean  

51-5 

43'4 

59-6 

16-2 

33-6 

70-1 

71 

7-2 

1-06 

11 

METEOROLOGY. 


307 


June,  igoo. 


Temperature  of  the  Air 

£> 

o 
1 

Rain 

Stations 

Means 

Extremes 

!3 

3 

p^ 

Mean 

Min. 

Max. 

Range 

Min. 

Max. 

W 

s 

Am't 

Days 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

0 

o  / 

ins. 

1.  Old  Street.. 

61-4 

53-8 

69-0 

15-2 

47-1 

86-2 

70 

7-3 

1-94 

12 

2.  Halstead   .  . 

60-1 

51-4 

68-8 

17-4 

45-8 

84-0 

72 

7-4 

2-66 

16 

,,  Chelmsford  . 

59-6 

50-2 

69-0 

18-8 

43-2 

83-5 

74 

7-6 

2-20 

18 

3.  Bennington 

58-8 

50-2 

67-4 

17-2 

44-2 

84-1 

75 

7-7 

2-40 

16 

,,  Berkhamsted 

58-7 

49-7 

67-7 

18-0 

43-4 

85-9 

75 

7-2 

2-13 

15 

,,  St.  Albans.. 

58-3 

50-2 

66-4 

16-2 

43-7 

84-4 

75 

7-1 

2-95 

18 

6.W.  Norwood 

60-4 

51-4 

69-4 

18-0 

45-3 

86-9 

71 

6-3 

2-78 

15 

,,  Addington.  . 

58-3 

50-6 

66-0 

15-4 

43-0 

83-5 

75 

7'3 

2-91 

16 

7.  Margate    .  . 

58-9 

51-8 

66-0 

14-2 

47-6 

80-1 

76 

7-4 

2-62 

*    15 

Mean  

59-4 

51-0 

67-7 

16-7 

44-8 

84-3 

74 

7-2 

2-51 

16 

Rainfall,  April  to  June,  1900. 


Stations 

April 

May 

June 

Stations 

April 

May 

June 

1    Camden  Square.  . 

ins. 
•98 

ins. 
•93 

ins. 
2  26 

4.  Slough  

ins. 
•64 

ins. 
1-69 

ins. 
2-08 

Harefield 

•68 

T03 

2*67 

2   Newport         .... 

•90 

T30 

2-55 

,,  Cookham  .... 

•89 

1-04 

2-04 

,  Houthend   

•64 

•84 

2-68 

,,  Bracknell  .... 

•89 

1-37 

2-69 

3.  Royston  
,,  Hitchin  

•83 
1-43 

1-20 
•99 

2-44 
2-30 

,,  Sandhurst.  .  .  . 
6.  Dorking    .... 

•89 
Ml 

1-41 

1-06 

2-66 
3-43 

,,  Harpenden   .... 
4.  Winslow    . 

1-33 
•55 

1-06 
1-45 

2-56 
3'90 

7.  Tenterden 
.  Birchinsrton  .  . 

•82 
•54 

•98 
•92 

2-14 
2-36 

Mean  (24  stations)  :    April,  0'90  in.  ;  May,  1-12  in. ;  June,  2-56  ins. 


NOTES    ON     CHURCH    PLATE    IN    THE 
DIOCESE    OF    LONDON. 

BY  EDWIN  FRESHFIELD,  JUNIOR. 

INTRODUCTORY. 
(Continued  from  p.  245). 

Before  leaving  chalices  and  cups  it  will  be  convenient  to 
mention  a  number  of  cups,  some  made  for  sacred  use  and 
others  made  for  secular  purposes,  and  appropriated  or  presented 
at  various  times  to  churches  for  use  as  communion  cups. 

In  the  first  category  are  first — 

At  S.  Saviour's  Church,  Sunbury  Green,  a  German  silver- 
gilt  chalice  made  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
obtained  from  a  private  collection  by  the  rector  of  Sunbury, 
the  late  Dr.  Vigne,  and  presented  by  him  to  .this  district  church. 
It  has  been  restored  and  there  are  no  marks  on  it. 

At  S.  Botolph,  Aldgate,  a  cup,  illustrated  in  the  first  article 
of  this  series;  the  bowl  is  in  the  style  of  type  i,  and  was  made 
in  1559  ;  the  stem  belongs  to  a  pre- Reformation  chalice,  but 
has  no  mark  on  it  to  fix  the  date.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  upper  part  is  an  example  of  a  stemless  cup  with  a 
rudimentary  foot.  This  is  possible,  but  the  cup  must  have 
been  very  top  heavy. 

A  V-shaped  cup,  the  only  ecclesiastical  cup  of  its  kind  in 
the  diocese,  also  belonging  to  S.  Botolph,  Aldgate ;  presented 
by  Robert  Dow,  merchant  tailor,  in  1606. 

A  silver-gilt  cup  at  Kensington.  The  V-shaped  bowl  is 
ornamented  with  scallop  shells.  The  bowl  is  joined  to 
the  baluster  stem  by  a  collar,  and  the  hilt  or  flange  usually 
found  in  the  cups  of  type  4.  The  knop  of  the  stem  is  decorated 
with  the  peculiar  scratches,  called  the  hyphen  ornament, 
usually  found  on  the  stems  of  early  Elizabethan  chalices.  The 
stem  ends  in  a  flange,  and  the  foot,  engraved  with  scallop 
shells,  is  bell-shaped  like  those  of  the  spire  cups.  The  date 
mark  is  that  for  1599,  and  the  maker's  mark,  a  squirrel  in  a 
plain  shield.  Cups  of  this  kind  will  be  found  at  S.  Giles, 
Camberwell,  1597,  and  at  Dulwich  College,  1599. 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  309 

At  Ealing,  a  silver-gilt  cup  made  in  1639  by  Thomas  Bird. 
This  cup  belongs  to  a  group  made,  as  I  believe,  during  Arch- 
bishop's Laud's  revival,  and  in  imitation  of  the  pre- Reformation 
chalice.  The  bowl  has  straight  sides  and  a  flat  base,  and  round 
the  centre  is  a  band  with  a  conventional  leaf  design,  repousse". 
The  stem  is  hexagonal  and  divided  by  a  knop.  The  lower  part 
of  the  stem  rests  on  a  curved  hexagonal  foot,  similar  to  that  of 
the  chalice  at  Coomb  Keynes,  in  Dorset.  Each  angle  of  the 
foot  is  finished  off  with  a  cherub's  head  and  wings.  Mr.  St. 
John  Hope  gives  me  the  following  list  of  these  cups  in  different 
parts  of  England :  Staunton  Harold,  Leicestershire  ;  Peter- 
house,  Cambridge,  made  of  gold,  one  of  the  rare  pieces  of 
church  plate  in  that  metal ;  and  a  pair  in  the  cathedral  church 
at  Rochester.  There  are  also  a  group  of  five  (formerly  seven) 
given  to  as  many  churches  in  Derbyshire  by  Lady  Frances 
Kniveton,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  They  remain  at 
Muggington,  1640  ;  Osmaston  by  Ashbourne  ;  Kirk  Langley  ; 
Bradley  and  Kniveton ;  the  lost  ones  were  at  Ashbourne  and 
Brailsford.  Besides  these  I  have  come  across  the  following : 
Kingswood,  Surrey,  1675  ;  Barking,  Essex,  1680,  and  Mr. 
Markham  has  noted  one  at  Cottesbrook,  Northants,  1635. 

At  Hampton,  there  is  another  silver  cup  in  the  same  style, 
but  made  as  late  as  1704,  by  George  Lewis.  This  cup  has  a 
large  bowl  similar  to  those  found  in  the  late  seventeenth 
century  variety  of  type  2.  The  stem  is  divided  by  a  knop,  and 
the  curved  foot  ends  in  six  points,  and  is  similar  to  the  foot  of 
the  Ashby-de-la-Zouch  cup,  illustrated  in  Old  English  Plate, 
but  without  the  angels'  heads.  This  is  an  interesting  late 
example  of  an  imitation  of  the  foot  of  a  mediaeval  chalice,  and 
should  be  compared  with  the  chalice  at  West  Drayton,  and  the 
cup  at  Ealing,  1639,  which  has  just  been  mentioned. 

Two  silver  cups  at  S.  George  in  the  East,  made  in  1729, 
classed  under  type  3,  with  peculiar  bell-shaped  feet. 

Two  glass  cups  at  S.  John,  Clerkenwell,  with  hemispherical 
bowls  and  trumpet  stems. 

At  Hayes,  a  silver  French  chalice  and  paten  made  probably 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  the  marks  on  them  are  not 
distinguishable.  This  is  a  priest's  chalice  and  has  a  small 
U-shaped  bowl  decorated  with  three  cherubs'  heads  and  foliage 


3io  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

and  fruit.  The  pear  knop  on  the  stem  is  also  covered  with 
foliage  and  fruit,  repousse.  The  foot,  decorated  like  the  bowl 
with  three  cherubs'  heads  and  the  emblems  of  the  Passion,  has 
a  perforated  rim. 

At  Ealing,  two  silver  gilt  cups,  belonging  to  the  late  seven- 
teenth century  variety  of  type  2,  very  finely  chased  and  repousse, 
one  made  in  1674,  and  a  copy  of  it  made  in  1890.  These  were 
presented  anonymously,  or  rather  left  at  the  Vicarage  door  by 
a  stranger  one  Christmas  morning.  The  cup  has  a  straight- 
sided  bowl,  a  flat  base,  and  a  trumpet  stem  divided  by  a  knop, 
and  is  in  shape,  a  compromise  between  types  i  and  2  ;  but 
the  poverty  in  design  is  made  up  for  by  the  elaborate  decoration, 
and  nearly  the  whole  surface  is  covered  with  scrolls,  foliage  and 
bunches  of  fruit,  repousse".  There  are  three  panels  on  the  bowl, 
one  containing  the  sacred  monogram,  the  other  two  repre- 
sentations of  (?)  the  Flight  into  Egypt  and  the  Temptation. 
The  panels  on  the  ne\v  cup  contain  representations  of  the 
Woman  of  Samaria,  and  the  Ascension. 

The  maker's  mark  on  the  old  cup  is  G.G.  with  a  fleur-de- 
lys  below  in  a  shaped  shield.  The  makers  of  the  copy  were 
J.  Wakely  and  Frank  Wheeler. 

At  Stanmore,  a  modern  French  silver-gilt  cup  and  cover, 
presented  by  Arthur  Neverre  in  1850,  with  a  French  mark 
for  this  centur}',  and  two  other  indistinguishable  marks.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  it  was  intended  for  use  as  a  ciborium.  I 
do  not  think  it  was,  though,  in  support  of  that  theory,  I  notice 
that  the  cover  is  decorated  with  a  representation  of  the  Children 
of  Israel  gathering  manna  in  the  wilderness ;  but  if  it  is  a  cup, 
as  I  believe,  it  is  unusually  large  for  a  popish  chalice.  The 
bowl  is  U-shaped,  and  the  lower  part  decorated  with  repouss6 
work.  Three  cherubs'  heads  separate  three  medallions, 
containing  representations  of  the  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  the 
Resurrection,  and  the  Ascension.  The  stem  has  an  inverted 
pear-shaped  knop ;  the  six-lobed  foot,  much  splayed,  is  decorated 
with  cherubs'  heads  in  high  relief,  and  has  three  repouss6 
medallions  representing  Elijah  being  taken  up  into  heaven, 
Jonah  and  the  whale,  and  the  Judgment  of  Solomon.  The 
cover  is  shaped  like  a  pear  with  the  lower  half  cut  off,  and  on 
the  top  is  a  little  circular  pedestal  with  a  statuette  of  Our 
Saviour  holding  a  plain  cross. 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  311 

At  Acton,  a  modern  silver  chalice  made  in  France.  The 
model  is  not  a  bad  one,  but  the  metal  is  very  thin.  It  is  made 
in  imitation  of  the  mediaeval  shape  of  type  9  with  a  U-shaped 
bowl  supported  on  a  hexagonal  stem  divided  by  a  knop.  The 
stem  ends  in  a  globe  and  a  curved  circular  foot.  The  decoration 
on  it  is  original,  pretty  and  quite  foreign  in  character. 

At  S.  Mary,  Abchurch,  a  little  cup  made  in  1581  at  Antwerp, 
and  illustrated  in  the  plate  in  the  first  article,  p.  119. 

Two  silver  cups  made  in  1575  aod  1608,  formerly  at  All 
Hallowes,  Thames  Street,  and  now  at  S.  Michael  Royal,  also 
illustrated  in  the  plate  in  the  first  article,  p.  119.  One  of  these 
was  recently  presented  to  the  French  Hospital  in  Victoria 
Park  Road,  N.E.,  made  in  the  same  period.  This  was  exhibited 
at  the  Church  Congress  in  London  in  1899,  and  illustrated 
in  the  catalogue.  These  cups  are  really  beakers  fitted  on  to  a 
stem  with  grotesque  brackets ;  each  has  a  little  cover. 

Then  come  the  following  cups  made,  as  I  believe,  for 
secular  purposes,  which  may  be  divided  into  two  classes ; 
those  made  in  England  and  those  made  abroad. 

In  the  first  category  are — 

Two  cups  at  S.  Margaret's  Pattens,  the  only  examples  of 
their  kind  in  the  City.  The  smaller  of  the  two  has  the  date 
mark  for  1545,  but  the  maker's  mark  is,  unfortunately,  not 
distinguishable  ;  probably  it  is  a  plant  or  tree  in  a  circular 
stamp.  It  was  made,  no  doubt,  for  secular  purposes,  purchased 
by  the  parish,  and  adapted  to  sacred  use  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
VI.  Round  the  lip  is  a  scroll  ornament  with  three  medallions 
engraved  rather  roughly  with  human  heads.  There  are  men's 
heads  in  profile ;  one,  a  head  crowned  with  a  laurel  wreath, 
the  other  helmeted;  the  third  is  that  of  a  woman,  full  face, 
with  her  hair  done  in  two  large  nets,  or  bags,  on  each  side  of 
the  head.  The  other  cup,  an  exact  copy  of  the  older  cup,  was 
made  in  1649.  A  cup  of  the  same  style  as  these  will  be  found 
at  Gatcombe,  Isle  of  Wight,  illustrated  on  p.  206  of  Old 
English  Plate.  The  engraved  helmeted  head  on  these  cups 
may  be  compared  with  a  similar  head  on  the  tazza  patens  at 
S.  Giles,  and  S.  Botolph,  Aldgate. 

At  Willesden,  a  cup  made  in  1606,  with  an  egg-shaped  bowl, 
decorated  with  repousse  work  containing  the  conventional 


312 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 


chrysanthemum,  and  a  baluster  stem  and  foot  decorated  with 
the  egg  and  tongue  pattern.  This  is  an  unusual  style  of  cup 
to  find  used  as  a  chalice  in  1606,  no  doubt  it  was  originally 
made  for  secular  purposes. 

A  cup  with  two  handles  and  a  conical  cover,  at  S.  Helen, 
Bishopgate,  also  the  only  piece  of  ecclesiastical  plate  of  its 
kind  in  the  diocese. 

At  Hadley,  a  silver-gilt  standing  cup,  with  a  cover  and  a 
spire  to  it,  illustrated  on  the  plate  opposite,  made  in  1615  by  a 
maker  whose  mark  was  T.  F.  in  monogram  in  the  plain  shield. 
This  is  one  of  many  cups,  called  spire  cups  from  the  shape  of 
the  cover  of  the  same  pattern  to  be  found  all  over  England, 
used  as  chalices  or  for  secular  purposes.  In  the  following  list 
of  these  cups  the  first  thirteen  are  used  as  chalices  : — 

Date.  Maker. 

Greeting,  Suffolk 
Corby,  Northants 
Aldgate  S.  Botolph,  London 
First   Church,    Boston,  Mass:    U.S. A 

"  Governor  John  "Winthrop  "  cup 
Barford,  Wilts     .. 
Welland,  Worcester 
Hadley,  Middlesex 
Fulham,  All  Saints  (2) 
Worplesdon,  Surrey 
Ambleside.  Westmoreland 

Playford,  Suffolk 

Hampstead,  S.  Mary,  Middlesex 


Date. 

1593 

1601     TO  and  pellet,  shaped  shield. 

1609     ?  S  F,  in  monogram. 
)  i  a  i  f\  (  T.  C.  3  pellets  above  and  one  below, 
/  161°  i      plain  shield. 

1611 

1613 

1615  T  F,  in  monogram,  plain  shield. 
1615 

1616  T  F,  in  a  shaped  stand. 
1618     IS,  pellet  below,  plain  shield. 

Illegible. 

R  B,  mullet  below  shaped  shield. 


1619 
1629 


The  following  are  used  for  secular  purposes  :  — 


Date. 
1608 
16Q9 

1608 


Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge 
Corpus    Christi    College,    Cambridge  :  } 

"  fiishop  Jegon  "  cup  . .          . .  f 

Armourer's  Co:  London:  "Ley croft' 'cup 
Trinity    Hall,    Cambridge  :     ' '  Bishop  ) 

Barlow  "  cup    . .          . .          . .          . .  J 

Sidney     Sussex    College,    Cambridge  : 

"Earl  of  Kent  "cup 

\  1609 
Carpenters'  Co:  London,  four  cups.  The  f  1611 

second  is  the  «'  Edmonds  "  cup         . .  f  1613 

J  1628 
Trinity  House.  London  . .          . .          . .     1611 

Cutler's  Co:  London,  "  Gilbert  Clarke'" 

cup 


Maker. 
T  W,  in  monogram. 

I  S,  over  crescent,  pla: 

L  K,  plain  shield. 
T  C,  three  pellets  above   and  one 
below,  plain  shield. 

W  R,  over  a  rainbow. 

T  F  monogram,  plain  shield. 

R,  S,  with  pellets,  quatre-foil  stamp 

T  F  moiiogram,  plain  shield. 


1616 


Earl 


Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge 

of  Westmoreland"  cup          ..          ..  / 

Painter's  Co.,  London,  "  W.  Campden" 
cup          

Trinity  House,  London  . .          , .          . .      1627 

Christ   College,   Cambridge:    "Earl  of 
Manchester  "  cup         


J  j  g       ^  ^          ^ 
( 


C  B  monogram,  plain  shield 
1629  j  T  F  monogram,  plain  shield. 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  313 

Armourers'  Co:  London:  ''Foster"  cup     1631 
Haberdasher's  Co..  London.  "  Jewett "  )  ,„„- 

cup          J1637 

Vintners'  Co  :  London  :  ^ ••  Eawlin-on  »  J  1646  J  A  F>  p]ain  ^^ 

In  addition  to  these  the  following  cups  of  this  kind  are 
mentioned  in  the  Appendix  of  Old  English  Plate  :  Northleach, 
Gloucestershire,  1619 ;  Linton,  Kent,  1619 ;  Bodmin,  Corn- 
wall, 1617  ;  Odcombe,  Somersetshire,  1614  ;  Romanoff  House, 
Moscow,  1613;  Holm  Cultram,  Cumberland,  1613;  Bongate 
Church,  Appleby,  1612  ;  and  the  Cutlers'  Company,  1607. 

At  Hadley  there  is  another  silver-gilt  cup  made  in  1610  by 
an  unknown  maker,  whose  mark  was  T  C  with  three  pellets, 
and  one  below  in  a  shaped  shield  ;  it  is  like  the  last  with  the 
same  spire  cover,  but  without  the  grotesque  brackets.  Illus- 
trated on  the  plate  opposite. 

Also  at  Hadley,  a  silver  gilt  cocoanut  cup  made  in  1586. 
This  is  a  very  interesting  piece  of  Elizabethan  secular  plate,  in 
a  style  made  to  imitate  the  cocoanut-shell  cups  frequently 
found  in  collections  of  mediaeval  plate.  The  maker's  mark  will 
be  found  in  the  appendix  to  Old  English  Plate,  under  date  1613. 
Illustrated  on  the  plate  opposite. 

I  take  the  following  remarks  on  cups  of  this  kind  from  Old 
English  Plate,  4th  edition,  p.  275. 

"  Turning  now  to  standing  cups  as  we  find  them,  precedence 
must  be  given  to  those  made  of  ostrich  eggs  and  cocoanuts, 
mounted  in  silver  and  having  feet  of  the  same  metal.  These 
were  very  popular  in  early  times,  and  they  are  classed  together 
because  they  are  of  similar  size  and  shape,  and  their  mounting 
is  of  the  same  character.  Sometimes  the  cup  itself  was  formed 
of  silver  or  silver  gilt,  shaped  as  an  egg  or  nut,  and  in  these 
cases  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  two  it  is  intended  to 
represent.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  silver  examples  only 
occur  when  the  earlier  nut  or  egg  has  been  broken,  and  the 
owner,  not  being  able  to  procure  another,  has  refilled  the  mount 
with  a  silver  bowl  or  lining  of  similar  shape  ;  but  to  set  against 
this,  it  may  be  said  that  some  of  the  silver  linings  are  found  01 
the  same  date  and  fashion  as  the  feet  and  other  mountings 
with  which  they  are  fitted. 

"  Cocoanut  cups  of  the  fifteenth  century  are  to  be  seen  at 
Oriel  and  New  Colleges,  Oxford,  the  latter  society  owning  two 


3i4  NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE. 

specimens.  The  great  City  Companies  possess  several ;  the 
Vinters,  the  Armourers,  and  the  Ironmongers  each  have  one. 
The  example  at  Vinter's  Hall  bears  the  hall  mark  of  1518. 
Ostrich  egg  cups  are  not  so  common,  perhaps  because  they  are 
rather  more  easily  broken.  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  possesses 
an  egg-cup  of  the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
the  Earl  Howe  another  of  earlier  date.  There  is  a  very  ancient 
ostrich  egg  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  the  history 
of  which  can  be  traced  to  the  fourteenth  century.  It  was 
originally  used  for  carrying  about  the  host." 

Two  silver-gilt  English  cups,  at  Fulham,  designed  after 
the  grace  cups  of  the  period ;  the  stems  are  plain  balusters, 
with  three  little  brackets  ;  the  bowls  are  circular,  and  the 
lids  dome-shaped,  with  the  same  triangular  spire  as  on  the 
German  cup.  One  of  them  has  the  date  mark  for  1615,  and 
the  London  maker's  mark  A  B  in  linked  letters  in  a  shaped 
shield  ;  the  other  has  no  marks. 

These  may  have  been  made  for  use  as  chalices,  but  I  have 
mentioned  them  here  owing  to  their  resemblance  to  spire  cups. 

I  now  come  to  the  cups  made  abroad :: — 

The  silver-gilt  Fulham  cup,  by  far  the  finest  piece  of  church 
plate  in  London,  has  two  marks — (i)  the   Nuremberg  letter  N, 
and  (2)  the  maker's  mark  T  W  in  monogram   in  a  circular 
stamp,  the  mark  of  Tobias   Wolf,    1604.       It  is  not  unlikely 
that  this  is  one  of  the  models  from  which  the  Carpenters'  cu] 
and  the  others   of  the  same  type  were  copied.     There  are  th< 
same   bell-shaped   foot,  the  brackets  on    the    stem,    and    th( 
cover  with  the  triangular  spire.     As  a  work  of  art,  by  a  lonj 
way  the  finest  piece  of  church  plate  in  London. 

Then  come  three  foreign  beaker  cups  on  stems  : 

At  Bromley,  a  silver-gilt  cup.  This  beautiful  piece  has  tw< 
marks — (i)  N  in  a  square  stamp,  the  Nuremberg  mark,  and  (2] 
K  B  in  an  oval  stamp,  the  mark  of  the  maker  Rasper  Bauch, 
1567-83  ;  this  maker's  name  and  mark  will  be  found  on  p.  24^ 
of  Rosenburg's  Der  Goldschmeide  Merkzeichen,  published  ii 
1890  by  Keller  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine.  From  an  inscriptioi 
it  appears  that  it  was  the  gift  of  the  women  of  Bromley  in  1617, 
In  general  appearance  the  cup  is  very  like  one  at  S.  Michae 
Bassishaw  (mentioned  below),  made  at  Augsburg  about  1600, 


NOTES    ON    CHURCH    PLATE.  315 

but  rather  larger ;  the  bowl  is  deep,  narrow,  considerably 
splayed  at  the  lip,  and  hammered  into  conventional  scroll  and 
medallion  pattern,  with  cherubs'  heads,  fruits  and  flowers ;  the 
stem,  three  female  half  figures  back  to  back,  ends  in  a  chased 
bulb  and  a  flat  circular  foot,  as  in  the  Bassishaw  cup.  The 
cover  is  an  ordinary  paten  cover  of  the  usual  type. 

Another  silver-gilt  cup,  also  at  Bromley,  has  two  marks  (i) 
the  Augsburg  pine-cone  mark,  and  (2)  I  G  in  a  circular  stamp. 
The  cup  is  inscribed,  "  The  gift  of  David  Annan,  ex-church- 
warden 1887."  The  bowl  is  straight  sided,  splayed  at  the  lip, 
flat  at  the  base,  and  hammered  into  simple  scrolls  and  foliage. 
The  plain  baluster  stem  ends  in  a  bell-shaped  foot,  similar  in 
outline  to  the  lower  part  of  the  stem  and  the  foot  of  the  spire 
cups. 

A  very  fine  silver-gilt  cup  or  hanap  at  S.  Michael  Bassishaw. 
The  bowl  is  straight-sided,  very  long  and  deep,  with  a  slightly 
splayed  lip,  and  flat  at  the  base.  The  stem  is  short,  divided  by 
a  knop,  swelling  first  into  a  bulb  and  then  into  a  broad  foot. 
The  cover  is  shallow,  with  a  small  pedestal  on  the  top  and  a 
statuette  of  S.  Michael.  The  bowl,  the  cover,  and  the  foot  are 
elaborately  decorated  with  repousse  work  and  chasing.  The 
cup  is  of  foreign  make,  of  the  early  seventeenth  century,  and 
there  are  two  marks  :  first,  two  sceptres  in  saltire  on  a  plain 
shield,  and  secondly,  the  Augsburg  pine  cone.  By  the  kindness 
of  the  churchwardens  I  have  been  able  to  give  a  note  in  the 
inventory  of  the  information  which  has  been  obtained  up  to  the 
present  concerning  it. 

It  is  now  in  the  possession  of  S.  Lawrence  Jewry  the  church 
with  which  S.  Michael,  Bassishaw  was  united  after  the  latter 
was  demolished. 

Finally.  At  Southgate  there  is  a  silver  tumbler  used  as  a 
chalice  with  an  Austrian  silver  eighteenth-century  dollar  in  it. 
On  the  obverse  is  the  head  of  the  Empress,  and  the  initial 
letters  of  her  titles,  "  Maria  Theresa  Romanorum  Imperatrix, 
Germaniae  Hungariae  Bohemiae  Regina,  Archiducissa 
Austrias,  Ducissa  Burgundiae,  Comitissa  Tirolis,"  and  on 
the  reverse,  "  Sta  Maria  Mater  Dei  Patrona  Hungariae,  1747.'* 
Coins  in  the  bottom  of  goblets  or  secular  drinking-cups  are 
very  common,  and  this  cup,  no  doubt  originally  made  for 


316  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

secular  purposes,  was  presented  to  the  church  at  a  period  when 
any  sort  of  vessel  was  considered  suitable  for  the  Holy 
Communion. 


Index  to  the  plate  at  Hadley  Monken,  illustrated  with  this 
article  : — 

1.  Silver-gilt  flagon  ..,          ...          ...          ...  1609 

2.  Parcel-gilt  cup        1562 

3.  Silver  spire  cup  ...          ...          ...          ...  1615 

4.  Silver-gilt  spire  cup  ...  ...         ...  1610 

5.  Standing  cup          1586 

The  first  and  third  were  presented  by  Thomas  Emerson, 
Lord  of  the  Manor  in  1619 ;  the  second  is  the  original  Eliza- 
bethan chalice  made  after  the  Reformation  ;  the  fourth  was 
presented  by  Cecil  Walker  in  about  1612,  and  the  fifth  by 
James  Quilter  in  about  1733. 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 
BY  THE  REV.  W.  K.  BEDFORD. 

No.  4.  SURREY  AND  BERKS. 

fTHHE  county  of  Surrey  contains  so  many  romantic  expanses 
JL  of  wood  and  heath,  that  while  its  archers,  doubtless, 
have  been  generally  drawn  from  the  metropolis,  they  naturally 
preferred  to  locate  their  shooting  grounds  on  some  wider 
range  than  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Southwark  or  Clapham 
could  afford;  they,  therefore,  chose  Epsom  Downs  for  their 
rendezvous,  when  shooting  for  the  silver  arrow  presented  by 
their  patroness,  Mrs.  Crespigny,  of  Grove  House,  Camberwell. 
This  lady's  fetes  at  her  private  grounds,  then  rural  and 
beautiful,  gave  a  vast  amount  of  pleasure  to  the  archery  world, 
and  led  to  her  election  as  patroness  of  the  Toxophilite  Society 
in  1801. 

From  the  historical  volume,  printed  for  circulation  among 
the  members  of  the  last  named  Society,  we  find  that  she  was  the 
daughter  and  heir  of  a  Mr.  Clarke,  and  that  she  married  Mr. 
Claude  Champion  Crespigny,  who,  on  being  created  a  baronet 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  317 

in  1805,  resumed  the  prefix  of  "de"  before  his  name.  A 
biographical  sketch  of  the  lady,  with  a  portrait,  appeared  in  the 
European  Magazine.  She  was  not  only  handsome,  witty,  and 
accomplished,  but  full  of  active  benevolence  and  charity,  in  aid 
of  which  she  enlisted  the  guests  at  her  "Archery  breakfasts"  in 
the  grounds  of  Grove  House.  It  was  probably  due  to  her  taste 
that  the  "  ball  costume  "  of  ladies  of  the  Royal  Surrey  Archers 
in  1801,  was  settled  in  a  fashion  thus  described  in  a  contemporary 
publication,  "white  muslin  round  gown  with  green  and  buff 
sash,  white  chip  hat  bound  with  narrow  green  riband.  Riband 
of  the  same  colour  as  the  sash  encircled  the  crown,  on  which 
were  two  bows  rising  one  above  the  other.  A  magnificent  snow 
white  ostrich  plume  waved  over  this  tasteful  headgear,  and  a 
sprig  of  box  was  so  arranged  beneath  as  to  appear  just  above 
the  wearer's  left  eyebrow." 

Although  ladies  in  tall  "  chimney  pot "  hats  and  long  gloves 
are  shown  with  bows  in  their  hands  in  our  plate,  there  is 
nothing  like  the  above-described  costume.  The  date  of  the 
engraving,  1794,  suggests  that  it  represents  the  contest  for  a 
silver  bugle  given  by  the  Duke  of  Clarence  (William  IV.),  and 
won,  on  August  2Qth,  1793,  by  Mr.  Starkie. 

Mrs.  Crespigny  figured  not  unsuccessfully  in  the  literary 
world.     Her  letters  to  her  son  were  published  and  appreciated, 
and  so  were  sundry  epigrams  and  occasional  stanzas  from  her 
pen.     Here  is  a  specimen  from  a  song  in  praise  of  Archery. 
"  For  no  devastation  here  follows  our  game ; 

Our  pleasure's  to  one  productive  of  pain : 

Though  we  pierce  through  the  centre,  and  bear  off  the  prize, 

The  wound  never  rankles,  the  victim  ne'er  dies. 

Where  humanity  points  you  will  sure  lead  the  way — 

So  the  pleasures  of  Archery  carry  the  day. 
Then,  sons  of  the  bow, 
'Tis  meet  ere  we  go. 

That  to  wish  it  success  ev'ry  glass  should  o'erflow." 

Surrey  Archery  may  also  claim  a  connection  with  a  poet  of 
undoubted  reputation,  Thomson,  the  bard  of  the  "  Seasons  " 
and  the  "  Castle  of  Indolence."  About  1725  he  kept  an  academy 
at  Kew,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  practising  at  the  target  with 
some  of  his  pupils.  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  then,  as 
readers  of  our  April  number  will  remember,  resident  at  Kew 

w 


3i8  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES. 

Palace,  and  probably  joined  (for  he  was  fond  of  Archery)  in 
the  sport ;  at  any  rate  he  certainly  witnessed  the  practice. 
One  of  the  boys,  Littlejohn  by  name,  attracted  the  special 
notice  of  the  good-natured  prince,  who  said  to  him  one  day: 
"When  I  am  King,  Littlejohn,  you  shall  be  our  bow-bearer-in- 
chief,  and  have  Sherwood  Forest." 

The  prince,  no  doubt,  remembered  the  companion  of 
Robin  Hood. 

This  infant  was  called  John.  Little,  quoth  he, 

Which  name  shall  be  changed  anon  ; 
The  words  we'll  transpose,  and  wherever  he  goes 
He  sure  shall  be  called  Little  John. 

From  the  days  of  the  Queen's  great  grandfather  we 
may  trace  the  attachment  of  the  Royal  House  of  Hanover  to 
the  national  sport  of  Archery ;  and  although  the  figure  of  her 
Majesty  as  an  archeress,  which  forms  the  frontispiece  to 
Hansard's  Book  of  Archery,  is  probably  as  fanciful  in  costume 
as  in  the  landscape  and  accessories,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact 
that  our  Queen,  when  Princess  Alexandrina  Victoria  of  Kent, 
was  a  member  of  the  St.  Leonard's  Archery  Society,  and 
exercised  her  skill  upon  its  grounds.  The  introduction  of 
Windsor  Castle  into  the  engraving  may  be  an  artistic  licence, 
but  the  spirit  of  the  drawing  is  unquestionably  true,  and 
limns,  though  perhaps  not  in  exact  similitude,  the  graceful 
and  gentle  air  of  the  maiden  monarch. 

Berkshire  was  at  one  time  a  county  in  which  archery  enjoyed 
an  exceeding  popularity.  In  addition  to  the  Windsor  Archers, 
of  whom  we  know  little  more  than  the  name,  each  point  of  the 
compass  North,  South,  East,  and  West  has  had  its  archery 
club.  The  last-named,  however,  has  existed  the  longest,  and 
certainly  attained  the  widest  celebrity,  though  its  meetings  are 
but  seldom  held  within  the  county  from  which  it  takes  its 
name,  and  it  is  now  only  a  small  club  of  gentlemen. 

If  not  the  actual  founder  of  the  present  society,  which 
claims  to  be  coeval  with  the  century,  one  of  its  chief  revivers 
and  supporters  was  John  Hughes,  of  Donnington  Priory,  whose 
father  was  a  canon  of  St.  Paul's  and  friend  of  Walter  Scott. 
The  son  went  from  Westminster  School  to  Oriel  College, 
Oxford,  where  he  began  to  be  known  as  a  composer  of  apt  vers 


Portrait  of  H.M.  the  Queen  as  a  Windsor  Archer. 

From  Hansard's  ''''Book  of  Archery  " 


ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME    COUNTIES.  319 

de  societe,  and  associated  with  Richard  Barham  (author  of  the 
Ingoldsby  Legends),  and  men  of  the  same  stamp.  In  a  humorous 
epistle  to  the  late  Mr.  Spedding,  he  tells  him  how,  in  1830, 
"  hearing  that  there  were  certain  scattered  people  here  and  there 
who  shot  occasionally  at  home,  we  managed  to  get  them  and 
others  together  in  a  tent  on  my  premises.  Some  three  hours  work 
was  done  at  60  yards,  the  blind  leading  the  blind,  we  were  all 
in  good  humour  with  our  noble  selves  after  dinner ;  our  best 
'  bon  parti '  saw  our  prettiest  Berkshire  belle  for  the  first  time, 
and  in  five  months  the  usual  conjugal  consequences  ensued 
(but  this  is  an  episode).  In  short  I  proposed  that  we  should 
found  a  gentlemen's  and  ladies'  club,  and  two  divisions  were 
established,  one  in  the  Wantage,  one  in  the  Newbury  neighbour- 
hood and  sometimes  we  mustered  250  or  280." 

"  The  second  year,  by  giving  a  cup  for  100  yards,  I  con- 
vinced them  that  they  could  shoot  the  distance ;  and  an  all 
England  subscription  handicap  was  established  at  Benham 
Park,  near  Newbury,  at  100  yards,  as  an  additional  feature  to 
our  meetings.  Men  came  from  the  Windsor  and  Maidenhead 
end  of  the  county,  so  did  certain  distinguished  Toxophilites  ; 
then  the  former  founded  an  East  Berks  Club  on  similar  rules, 
which  was  highly  prosperous." 

One  of  the  modes  by  which  Mr.  Hughes  promoted  his  pet 
society  was  by  sonnets  and  ballads  from  his  own  lively  pen. 
He  composed  the  brochure,  published  in  1832,  entitled  the 
Pindar  of  Wakefield's  Legend,  in  which,  in  the  words  of  its 
own  preface,  "  The  names  of  the  outlaws  of  Robin  Hood's  band 
seem  assumed  to  designate  the  members  of  some  Archery 
Society  of  the  date  and  (as  it  should  appear  from  the  local 
allusions)  abiding  not  far  from  the  royal  residence  of  Windsor." 

He  introduces  his  theme  with — 

The  Pindar  of  Wakefield  is  my  style, 

And  what  I  list,  I  write. 
Whilome,  a  clerk,  of  Oxenford, 
But  now  a  wandering  wight. 

He  tells  us  that,  when  birds  are  singing  and  "  sports  are  to 
the  fore,"  he  sallies  forth  "  with  fiddle  and  long-bow." 
By  those  fair  spots  of  earth, 

Where  Chaucer  conned  his  minstrelsy, 
And  Alfred  drew  his  birth." 

(viz.,  Wantage  and  Donnington  Castle). 


320  ARCHERY    IN    THE    HOME     COUNTIES. 

The  Pindar  goes  on  to  assert   that  he  must  needs  indite 
every  chance  conceit  of  his  brain,  even  as 
My  godfather  of  Greece, 

Whose  worthy  name  I  bear, 
Of  a  cock  or  a  bull  or  a  whale  would  sing, 

And  seldom  stopped  to  care. 
Like  him  it  listeth  me  to  tell 

Some  fytte,  in  former  years 
Of  the  merry  men  all,  and  yeoman  tall 

Who  were  my  jovial  freres. 

This  he  proceeds  to  do  with  greater  elaboration  than  will 
suit  our  space — nevertheless  a  specimen  is  worth  giving 
Clerk  Thomaline  was  like  Friar  Tuck 

Most  apt  at  heathen  lore : 
Of  Sir  Teucer,  and  Earl  Pandarus, 

Those  bowmen  bold  of  yore. 
And  how  their  clothyard  arrows  flew 

On  battlefields  of  Troy ; 
And^how  Count  Paris  wrought  the  bane 

Of  Thetis'  princely  boy. 
How  stout  Duke  Hercules  got  swamped, 

A  shooting  carrion  game, 
With  Earl  Strongbow,  in  an  Irish  bog, 

Lough  Styonphalus  by  name,. 
And  smote  point  blank  at  thirteen  score 

Through  hide  and  carcass  sheer, 
Some  son  of  a  black  horse  godmother, 

Who  would  trot  off  his  dear. 

Some  fifty  stanzas  in  this  airy  strain  depict  the  worthies  of 
the^Vale  of  White  Horse,  and  with  good  taste,  he  thus  winds 

up  his  fytte. 

Fain  would  I  sing  of  those  fair  dames 

Who  graced  our  archers'  hall, 
And  the  good  Lord  William's  gentle  bride 

The  flower  and  pride  of  all. 
But  ladies  names  are  touch-me-nots, 

To  my  rude  minstrelsy, 
More  wont  to  sing  of  sturdy  feat, 

Quaint  jest,  and  revelry. 
Sing  Honi  soit  qui  mat  y  pense 

And  who  will  quarrel  may. 
For  in  pure  good  fellowship  and  troth 

The  Pindar  has  said  his  saye. 


No.  17,  Fleet  Street,  in  1786. 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  321 

The  writer  of  these  papers  on  Archery  in  the  Home 
Counties,  may  perhaps  close  with  these  words  his  discursive 
gossip,  lest  his  readers  should  be  aweary.  But  he  will  be  ever 
ready  to  record  the  feats  of  old  time  in  a  sport  which  he  has 
enjoyed  for  fifty  years,  and  to  commend  it  to  ladies  as  well  as 
men. 

Archery  is  no  doubt — even  more  than  angling  has  been  said 
to  be — the  contemplative  man's  recreation.  Many  a  sermon  or 
a  stanza  has  been  turned  between  the  targets ;  and  the  art  of 
the  bow  is  also  one  of  the  most  innocent,  healthful  and 
sociable  of  enjoyments. — Experto  crede. 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET,     SOMETIMES      CALLED 
THE    INNER    TEMPLE    GATE-HOUSE. 

BY  PHILIP  NORMAN,  Treas.  S.A. 
(Concluded  from  p.  236). 

THE  Gate-house  was  from  the  first  a  freehold  in  the  parish 
of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the  West.  At  the  same  time,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  stood  over  the  Inner  Temple  Lane  and  also 
extended  for  some  distance  along  the  east  side  of  it,  the 
authorities  of  the  Inner  Temple  had  certain  rights  over  the 
property,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  fully  recognised  by 
Mr.  Sergeant  Bennett.  It  is  unfortunate  that  no  early  deeds 
of  the  house  are  at  present  forthcoming,  nor  can  I  find  much 
direct  allusion  to  it  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
From  the  list  of  names  for  the  Poll  Tax  of  1666  no  special 
information  can  be  obtained,  nor  from  that  of  the  Hearth  Tax 
levied  in  1666,  when  apparently  Mary  Coke  was  the  occupant. 
At  that  time,  however,  the  back  part,  if  not  the  whole,  must 
already  have  been  used  for  a  tavern,  with  an  entrance  from 
Inner  Temple  Lane ;  for  in  1665  Monsieur  Angiers  advertises 
his  famous  remedies  for  stopping  the  plague,  to  be  had  at 


32*  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

Mr.    Drinkwater's,  at  die    Fountain,*   Inner    Temple    Gate 


m.  i      i  •"    i.rir.  ~i.    2.  m.  i  r.  «r   i  r.  ~    _  r.  r.  ~  ~    .  r  m  7  .  ~    .r  .  7  ~  ~  r  L  ~  !     i  v  T  n  c 

_•!  1  1".  1  !~.  ~  r  r    II     T  I".  ~    !  ~-I  r.  ~  r.I    r~    ~r.  rTr    -    1~_    ^  ___  I'^-TZ    "I    ~  '.''.'.  ~—  '.'.    1     I  ~  "•  • 

references  from  them,  wind  wfll  appear  in  the  third  volume  of 
die  Calendar,  now  in  course  of  publication  under  the  able 
editorship  of  Mr.  F.  A.  Inderwkk,  Q.C.  They  refer  largely  to 
the  power  of  control  over  the  windows.  Thus,  among  the 
Bench  Table  orders  is  one  of  23rd  May,  1693,  "  that  Soatherby 
have  notice  to  aft^rnH  IJM*  committee  of  the  ii**«f^i  at  thg  Library 
on  Friday  next,  to  make  oat  his  title  to  the  windows  of  the 
Fountain  Tavern  that  look  into  the  Temple,  and  that  in  the 
meantime  the  order  of  the  table  for  shotting  np  the  windows 
be  suspended  till  farther  order."  And  on  July  2,  4,  and  5  it  is 
ordered  "  that  the  lights  of  the  Fountain  Tavern,  next  the 
Inner  Temple  Lane,  be  shot  op."  This  has  the  desired  effect, 
for  we  find  that  on  the  230!  of  July  :—  "  Upon  consideration  of 
the  petition  of  Edward  Dixon,  the  vintner  at  the  Fountain 
Tavern  by  the  Temple  Gate,  whereby  he  owns  the  right  of  this 
society  in  permitting  the  lights  of  his  house  that  are  next 
the  Inner  Temple  Lane,  and  prays  that  the  obstruction  lately 
r  "IT  M7  rr.iY  i't  Ti"±:rn  i:"-"-7.  ini  TJLIT  hr  •  :..  firm  IT  r..~.>^.~  TI 


cknowkdgment  for  the  lights  as  the  table  shall  think  fit, 
whereupon  it  is  ordered  that  the  obstruction  of  the  said  tights  I 
be  t^trtfti  down,  and  that  the  said  Mr.  Dixon,  in  consideration  ] 

Tr.rTr  .  I.    rhll"    .<~-~    17  ITT    '.'."  Tf.t    "J.5f    if  TJlr   mi.~Trrf    I  f  TT.t    Ir^lh 

of  this  society  the  best  room  in  his  house  upon  any  public  show  \ 
or  occasion  (when  required)  and  that  he  pay  yearly  2s.  64.  on  the  j 
Feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  as  a  rent  and  further  ackoow-  j 
ledgement,  and  that  he  pay  the  charges  of  putting  np  the 
blind  against  the  said  lights,  and  subscribe  this  order  in  the  I 


_  Ife  Cafcadai  ::  S:i:e  Pipers  I  tea  ^: 
Xacwera  in  Fleet  Street  connected  with  a. 


i  the  foOowing  extract :— "  1637,  June  22.    Warrant  foam  the 

::'    — :n::ri    _-~:    :.     .-,::-:'-    S.-irr-e.  -rr.s-rzrtr    ::^e 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  323 

book  of  orders  belonging  to  the  house."  This  may  be  accepted 
as  a  proof  that  the  room  on  the  first  floor  with  the  fine  ceiling 
and  panelling  then  formed  part  of  the  tavern,  for  it  was  the 
"  best  room  "  in  the  house  facing  Fleet  Street. 

The  benchers,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  soon  exercised  their 
privilege,  for  in  the  General  Account  Book,  16  Nov.,  1701,  to 
15  Nov.,  1702  are  the  following  entries  :  "  Expenses  at  the 
Fountain  Tavern  by  the  treasurer  and  masters  of  the  bench 
while  the  Queen  was  proclaimed  los. : — at  the  Fountain  Tavern 
(29  Oct.)  by  the  masters  of  the  bench  when  the  Queen  went  to 
the  Mayor's  feast: — at  the  Fountain  Tavern  (12  Nov.)  spent  this 
day  being  thanksgiving."  I  learn  from  other  sources  that  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries,  or  the  founders  of  that  learned  Society 
— Mr.  Humphrey  Wanley,  Mr.  Bagford,  and  ?  Mr.  Talman, 
first  met  at  the  Bear  Tavern,  in  the  Strand,  December  5th,  1707. 
They  shortly  afterwards  changed  their  quarters  to  the  Young 
Devil  Tavern  ;  but  the  host  failed,  and,  as  Browne  Willis  tells 
us,  the  Society,  in  or  about  1709,  "  met  at  the  Fountain  Tavern, 
as  we  went  down  into  the  Inner  Temple  against  Chancery 
Lane."  In  1739  their  place  of  assembly  was  the  no  less  historic 
Mitre,  in  Fleet  Street. 

Referring  again  to  the  Inner  Temple  Records,  I  find  that  in 
July,  1731,  Mr.  James  Sotheby  (in  whose  family  the  freehold 
has  continued  until  now),  renewed  his  agreement  with  the 
Treasurer  of  the  Temple  in  the  following  words  : — "  I  am  con- 
tent to  pay  2s.  6d.  per  annum  to  the  Society  for  the  privilege 
of  the  lights  belonging  to  the  Prince's  A  rms  or  Fountain  Tavern, 
looking  or  opening  into  the  Inner  Temple  Lane,  and  promise 
to  make  good  the  shops  under  or  near  the  Inner  Temple  Gate, 
if  damaged  by  my  repairing  the  said  tavern.  I  do  also  agree 
that  the  best  room  of  the  said  house  shall  be  from  time  to  time 
set  apart  for  the  use  of  the  masters  of  the  said  society  on  public 
shows  or  occasions,  as  long  as  and  whenever  the  said  house  is 
used  as  a  tavern  or  public-house,  so  long  as  two  days'  notice  be 
given  for  setting  apart  such  room  to  the  tenant  or  occupier  of  the 
said  house."  In  the  deed  of  the  partition  of  certain  properties 
between  the  societies  of  the  Inner  and  Middle  Temples  dating 
from  November  2nd,  1732,  is  conveyed  "  all  that  gate  opening 
into  the  street  called  Fleet  Street  towards  the  north,  opposite 


324  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

south  end  of  the  street  called  Chancery  Lane,  and  the  ground  and 
soil  of  the  gate  and  gate  place,  with  the  sole  custody  of  the  keys 
thereof,  and  all  that  lane  called  the  Inner  Temple  Lane,  leading 
from  the  said  gate  to  the  Temple  Church  porch,"  saving  a  right- 
of-way  to  the  Middle  Temple  ;  "  and  all  those  two  small  shops, 
the  one  in  and  the  other  near  the  said  gateway  on  the  west 
side  of  the  said  Inner  Temple  Lane."  The  shops  seem  to  have 
remained  till  the  earlier  part  of  the  present  century. 

During  many  years  Fleet  Street  was  noted  for  exhibitions 
of  various  kinds,  and  for  a  time  the  old  Gate-house  was 
occupied  by  one,  a  short  account  of  which  may  here  be 
appropriately  inserted.  Perhaps  the  most  famous  wax-work 
exhibition  before  Madame  Tussaud's  was  that  first  formed  by 
Mrs.  Salmon,  which  in  the  days  of  Queen  Ann  was  to  be  seen 
at  "The  Golden  Salmon"  in  St.  Martin's,  near  Aldersgate 
(Harl.  MS.  5931).  In  the  Spectator  for  2nd  April,  1711,  No.  28, 
is  the  following  sentence : — It  would  have  been  ridiculous  for 
the  ingenious  Mrs.  Salmon  to  have  lived  at  the  sign  of  the 
trout ;  for  which  reason  she  has  erected  before  her  house  the 
figure  of  the  fish  that  is  her  name-sake.  Further  allusions  to 
this  lady  are  made  in  No.  31,  5th  April,  1711,  and  in  No.  609, 
28th  October,  1714.  The  wax-works  migrated  to  Fleet  Street, 
where  they  were  shown  "  near  the  Horn  Tavern,"  now 
Anderton's  Hotel.  A  handbill  describing  them,  mentions  "  140 
figures  as  big  as  life  all  made  by  Mrs.  Salmon,  who  sells  all 
sorts  of  moulds  and  glass  eyes  and  teaches  the  full  art."  The 
death  of  the  original  proprietor  is  thus  recorded: — "March, 
1760,  died  Mrs.  Steers,  aged  90,  but  was  generally  known  by 
the  name  of  her  former  husband,  Mrs.  Salmon.  She  was  famed 
for  making  several  figures  in  wax  which  have  long  been  shown 
in  Fleet  Street."  The  collection  was  then  bought  by  Mr. 
Clark  or  Clarke,  a  surgeon,  of  Chancery  Lane  (said  to  have 
been  the  father  of  Sir  Charles  Mansfield  Clarke,  M.D.),  and 
when  he  died  his  wife  continued  the  exhibition  under  the 
name  of  Salmon.  In  1788  we  find  the  wax-works  some  little 
distance  west  of  the  Horn  Tavern,  at  an  old  house,  No.  189, 
Fleet  Street,  the  site  of  which  was  afterwards  occupied  by 
Praed's  Bank.  There  is  a  view  of  it  in  the  European  Magazine 
for  that  year,  and  another  by  J.  T.  Smith  (1793),  in  his 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  325 

"  Antiquities  of  London."  At  the  beginning  of  1795,  Mrs. 
Clark  shifted  her  quarters  to  No.  17  over  the  way.  Her  removal 
is  announced  as  follows  in  the  Morning  Herald  for  January 
28th,  1795  (not  1785  as  we  are  told  by  Timbs).  "The  house 
in  which  Mrs.  Salmon's  Waxworks  have  for  above  a  century  been 
exhibited,  is  pulling  down :  the  figures  are  removed  to  the 
very  spacious  and  handsome  apartments  at  the  corner  of  the 
Inner  Temple  Gate,  which  was  once  the  Palace  of  Henry 
Prince  of  Wales,  the  eldest  son  of  King  James  the  First,  and 
they  are  now  the  residence  of  many  a  royal  guest.  Here  are 
held  the  Courts  of  Alexander  the  Great,  of  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  of  Caractacus,  and  the  present  Duke  of  York.  Happy 
ingenuity  to  bring  heroes  together  maugre  the  lapse  of  time ! 
The  levees  of  each  of  these  persons  are  daily  very  numerously 
attended,  and  we  find  them  all  to  be  of  very  easy  access,  since 
it  is  insured  by  a  shilling  to  one  of  the  attendants."  At  the 
door  was  placed  the  figure  on  crutches  of  a  well-known  person, 
Ann  Siggs  by  name,  and,  according  to  J.  T.  Smith,  if  a  certain 
spring  were  trodden  on,  the  counterfeit  presentment  of  Mother 
Shipton  kicked  the  astonished  guest  when  he  was  in  the  act  of 
leaving.  John  Timbs  and  C.  T.  Noble  both  say  that  Mrs. 
Clark  died  at  an  advanced  age  in  1812,  and  that  the  figures 
were  then  sold  for  50^.  or  less,  and  removed  to  No.  67,  at  the 
corner  of  Water  Lane.  However,  in  a  parish  tithes-book  I  find 
the  name  at  No.  17  three  years  later.  In  1811,  Mrs.  "  Biddy  " 
Clark  paid  ios.,  while  Messrs.  Gosling  and  Sharpe  on  the  east 
side  paid  2/.  45.  4^.,  Messrs.  Groom's  contribution  at  No.  16 
was  only  45.,  and  Mrs.  Deeme,  of  the  Rainbow,  paid  135.  4^. 
In  1814,  Mrs.  Biddy  Clark  is  replaced  by  William  Reed,  or  Read. 
Next  year  the  name  of  Clark  is  seen  again,  but  in  the  fourth 
quarter  "  Charlotte  "  is  substituted  for  "  Biddy."  The  following 
year  Reed's  name  re-appears,  and  so  ends  the  Clark  connection. 
There  is  a  view  of  the  house  with  the  sign  of  a  salmon  in  front, 
old  houses  adjoining,  a  reproduction  of  which  is  given.  It  is  by 
Schnebbelie,  and  first  appeared  in  Hughson's,  London,  1807. 
I  would  here  remark  that  the  apocryphal  statement  now  on  the 
front,  that  it  was  "formerly  the  palace  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Cardinal  Wolsey,"  probably  grew  in  part  out  of  the  more  modest 
claim  that  it  was  "  once  the  palace  of  Henry  Prince  of  Wales,'* 


326  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

in  part  out  of  the  tale  already  referred  to  of  Wolsey's  arms 
having  been  placed  on  the  old  Middle  Temple  Gate-house. 

We  have  reached  the  time  when  Mr.  Reed  became  tenant 
in  place  of  Mrs.  Clark,  and  we  can  now  gather  fresh  information 
from  documents  at  the  Inner  Temple,  which  prove  that  after 
Mrs.  Clark's  time  the  house,  or  part  of  it,  was  known  by  its 
old  sign  as  the  Fountain  Tavern.  In  1817  Mr.  Reed,  who 
replaced  Mrs.  Clark,  paid  a  small  sum  for  the  privilege  of 
opening  fresh  lights  into  Inner  Temple  Lane.  In  1822 
difficulties  arose  between  the  authorities  of  the  Inner  Temple 
and  the  tenant,  and  Mr.  James  Sotheby  received  notice 
that  unless  certain  of  his  windows  opening  on  to  Inner 
Temple  Lane  were  blocked  up  within  a  given  period  the 
Society  would  block  them.  Against  this  he  petitioned, 
and  in  the  Society's  note  of  his  petition  he  is  described  as 
"  owner  of  the  Fountain  Tavern,  heretofore  called  the  Prince's 
Arms,"  in  the  occupation  of  Mr.  Parlour,  "  part  whereof  is 
built  over  the  Gateway."  At  Lady  Day,  1823,  the  account 
book  shows  rent  for  windows  looking  on  Inner  Temple  Lane, 
as  follows: — "Fountain  Tavern,  35.  9^.,  Mr.  Reed,  is.  6^.," 
which  proves  that  at  this  time  the  house  "had  two 
separate  tenants.  About  this  time  or  shortly  afterwards  the 
windows  were  shut  off,  and  in  1831  a  wall  was  ordered  to  be 
built  on  the  east  side  of  Inner  Temple  Lane,  "  next  to  the 
Fountain  Tavern,"  in  lieu  of  the  scaffolding  which  had  pre- 
viously been  erected.  Here  we  have  the  last  mention  of  this 
sign.  In  a  document  of  the  previous  year  the  house  is  described 
as  "  all  that  messuage  or  tenement  with  the  buildings,  offices 
and  appurtenances  to  the  same  belonging,  formerly  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Fountain  Tavern,  situate  standing  and  being 
in  Fleet  Street — heretofore  in  the  tenure  or  occupation  of 
Abraham  Stevens — afterwards  of  Peter  Robinson — and  now  of 
Joseph  Parlour."  It  will  be  observed  that  there  is  no  mention 
of  Reed  or  of  Mrs.  Clark,  so  it  seems  probable  that  during  the 
time  of  the  wax-works  the  house  was  divided,  and  that  part 
continued  to  be  used  as  the  Fountain  Tavern.  Again  turning 
to  the  Records,  we  find  that  in  1842  there  is  a  memorial  from 
the  owner  and  from  Tom  Skelton  (hairdresser)  who  has  become 
the  occupant,  which  reveals  the  cause  of  the  trouble  that 


No.  17,  Fleet  Street. 

From  a  phoiograph  taken  by  Mr.  W.  Strudivick  in  i  i 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  327 

had  led  to  the  second  shutting  off  of  the  windows ;  for  in  it,  is 
set  forth  that  "  a  previous  tenant  had  converted  several  of  the 
rooms  on  the  east  side  of  the  Inner  Temple  Lane  into  billiard 
rooms,"  by  which  he  had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Society, 
and  that  a  wall  had  therefore  been  built  up,  excluding  light 
from  the  ground  floor  windows.  They  prayed  that  this  wall 
might  be  removed  or  cut  through.  Shortly  afterwards  they 
were  allowed  to  re-open  the  five  ground-floor  windows  on  pay- 
ment of  55.  a  year,  and  provided  that  no  part  of  the  house 
should  be  used  "  as  a  tavern,  eating  house,  hotel,  coffee  house, 
or  for  public  exhibitions  or  entertainments,  or  for  billiard-rooms." 
As  we  learn  from,  a  note  of  1862,  the  Society's  party  wall  had 
afterwards  been  removed.  In  1848  the  firm  occupying  the 
house  was  Honey  and  Skelton.  The  hairdressing  business  has 
been  for  many  years  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Carter,  the  present 
tenant,  to  whom  the  writer  is  obliged  for  his  courtesy.  Our 
view  of  the  house  in  1869,  is  from  an  excellent  photograph 
taken  by  Mr.  Strudwick,  one  of  many  which  he  did  about 
that  time :  it  is  reproduced  by  his  kind  permission. 

I  have  left  till  last,  reference  to  Nando's  coffee-house  and  its 
connection,  real  or  supposed,  with  No.  17,  Fleet  Street.  We  all 
know  what  is  told  about  Nando's  in  books  of  London  topo- 
graphy, namely  that  it  was  at  the  east  corner  of  Inner  Temple 
Lane,  which  implies  that  it  was  in  the  Inner  Temple  Gate- 
house. Timbs  says  positively  that  No.  17,  Fleet  Street,  "  was 
formerly  Nando's — also  the  depository  of  Mrs.  Salmon's 
Waxwork."  Mr.  H.  B.  Wheatley  (following  Peter  Cunningham) 
is  on  surer  ground  when  he  tells  us  that  Nando's  was  frequented 
by  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow  when  a  briefless  barrister  ;  *  the 
charms  of  punch  and  the  landlady's  daughter  rendering  it  at 
that  time  popular,  and  that  here  Thurlow's  skill  in  argument 
obtained  for  him,  from  a  stranger,  the  appointment  of  a  junior 
counsel  in  the  famous  case  of  Douglas  v.  the  Duke  of  Hamilton. 
No  one  explains  the  origin  of  the  name,  which  wras  probably 
a  contraction  for  Ferdinands,  or  Ferdinando's ;  it  being  much 
the  fashion  to  call  coffee-houses  after  the  name  of  the  owner  or 
occupant  as  Tom's,  Dick's,  etc. :  compare  also  Don  Saltero's. 

*  "  There  was  no  one  who  could  supply  coffee  or  punch  better  than 
Mrs.  Humphries ;  and  her  fair  daughter  was  always  admired  at  the  Bar 
and  by  the  bar." — Cradock's  Memoirs,  p.  71. 


328  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

"  Nando's  coffee  house  in  Fleet  Street  "  already  existed  in 
1697,  when  a  fourth  part  of  it  was  conveyed  to  the  trustees  of 
the  free-school  at  Hampton  "for  the  maintenance  of  an  able 
schoolmaster  to  teach  the  Latin  tongue  (Lysons'  Middlesex 
Parishes,  p.  90).  As  "  Nondoes  (sic)  coffee-house  near  Temple 
Bar,"  it  appears  in  an  advertisement  in  the  Post  Boy  of  May 
7-9, 1700,  and  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Universal  British  Directory 
as  late  as  1798,  as  still  "  much  frequented  by  the  professional 
gentlemen  in  the  law."  But  what  is  the  original  authority  for 
connecting  it  with  the  Inner  Temple  Gate-house  ?  That 
authority,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  is  confined  to 
the  fact  that  Bernard  Lintot,  the  well-known  publisher,  in 
1707,  advertised  a  list  of  his  books  "  from  the  Cross  Keys  and 
Cushion,  next  Nando's  Coffee  House,  Temple  Bar,"  again  that 
the  imprint  of  Colley  Gibber's  "  Lady's  Last  Stake,"  with  I 
suppose  many  other  works,  is  at  the  same  address,  and  that 
when  announcing  the  issue  of  Pope's  translation  of  the  four 
books  of  the  Iliad,  and  elsewhere,  described  his  place  of  business 
as  being  "between  the  Two  Temple  Gates."  True!  Mr.  John 
Ashton,  in  his  list  of  London  coffee-houses  during  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne,  mentions  "  Nando's  at  the  Inner  Temple  Gate,"  but 
this,  even  if  taken  from  original  documents,  would  apply  equally 
to  Groom's  Coffee-house  or  the  Rainbow,  both  of  which  have 
windows  on  the  west  side  of  Inner  Temple  Lane  for  which 
they  pay  rent.  On  referring  to  Mr.  F.  G.  Hilton  Price's  paper 
on  Fleet  Street  Street  Signs  (Archaeological  Journal,  Dec., 
I^95)>  I  find  that  the  Cross  Keys  and  Cushion  was  No.  16, 
the  site  now  occupied  by  Groom's  Coffee  House,  and  therefore 
next  to  No.  17.  But  what  proof  is  there  that  it  did  not  occupy 
No.  15  or  part  of  it — the  famous  Rainbow  Coffee  House — which 
is  approached  by  a  long  passage  ?  or  the  house  in  front  of  the 
Rainbow,  both  next  to  Bernard  Lintot's  ?  As  in  the  case  of 
No.  17,  I  have  tried  if  old  deeds  would  throw  any  light  on  the 
matter  but  none  are  forth-coming.  The  earliest  extant  shows 
that  in  1807  the  "  Rainbow  or  Rainbow  Coffee  House," 
consisted  of  two  tenements,  "  one  the  Rainbow  Public  House 
in  tenure  of  Mrs.  Deeme,"  the  other  occupied  by  "Mr.  Barber, 
printer." 

I  shall  now  give  some  evidence  which  favours  the  notion  that 
the  Rainbow  and  the  coffee-house  named  after  the  mysterious 


> 


No.    17,    FLEET    STREET.  329 

Nando  were  one  and  the  same,  or  at  any  rate  were  immediately 
adjoining  each  other,  as  was  the  case  with  Dick's  (No.  8), 
and  the  Young  Devil  Tavern  which  were  approached  by  the 
same  narrow  passage ;  and  I  will  begin  by  saying  that  there  is 
no  mention  of  Nando's,  under  that  name,  either  (as  one  would 
expect  to  be  the  case  if  it  were  at  No.  17)  in  the  Inner  Temple 
Records,  or  apparently  in  the  parish  rate-books. 

On  March  22nd,  1769,  occurred  the  "  Battle  of  Temple 
Bar,"  when  some  600  sober-minded  people,  merchants,  bankers, 
and  others  opposed  to  Wilkes,  set  out  from  the  Guildhall, 
headed  by  the  City  Marshall,  to  deliver  an  address  at  St. 
James's.  The  mob  attacked  them,  took  possession  of  Temple 
Bar,  and  drove  them  out  of  their  carriages,  and  Mr.  Boehm  and 
several  others  had  to  retreat  into  Nando's  Coffee  House.  A 
caricature  of  the  scene  exists,  showing  the  south  side  of  Fleet 
Street  near  Temple  Bar.  It  is  not  strictly  accurate,  various 
houses  being  omitted,  still  there  is  a  foundation  of  fact  in  it. 
Nando's,  or  the  entrance  to  it,  is  shown,  the  structure  above 
bearing  no  resemblance  to  the  Inner  Temple  Gate-house,  while 
the  entrance  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  Rainbow.  The  Devil 
Tavern  is  slightly  to  the  west  and  close  to  Temple  Bar. 

In  the  history  and  description  of  London  by  David 
Hughson  (1807),  from  which  we  have  reproduced  the  illustration 
by  Schnebbelie,  where,  not  only  the  Inner  Temple  Gate-house, 
but  the  entrance  to  the  Rainbow  appears,  we  are  told  that 
"  James  Farr,  a  barber,  who  kept  the  coffee-house,  now  the 
Rainbow,  or  Nando's  coffee-house,  by  the  Inner  Temple  Gate, 
one  of  the  first  in  England,  was  in  the  year  1667,  presented  by 
the  inquest  of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the  west,  for  making  and 
selling  a  sort  of  liquor  called  coffee,  as  a  great  nuisance  and 
prejudice  of  the  neighbourhood." 

In  "  Tavern  Anecdotes,  etc.,  by  one  of  the  Old  School " 
(a  book  referred  to  with  perhaps  undue  disparagement  in  Notes 
and  Queries  for  December  9th,  1899),  there  is  a  notice  of  the 
house  to  some  extent  repeating  what  is  said  by  Hughson.  It  is 
headed  :  "The  Rainbow  ;  or  Nando's  Coffee- House." 

In  "The  Every  Night  Book,  or  Life  after  Dark"  (1827),  by 
the  author  of  Cigar  (really  William  Clarke  who  compiled  "  The 
Boy's  Own  Book"),  there  is  an  account  of  the  Rainbow,  in  which 


330  No.    17,    FLEET    STREET. 

we  are  told  that  "  this  tavern  which  stands  near  the  Temple 
Gate,  opposite  Chancery  Lane,  in  Fleet  Street,  once  bore  the 
title  of  Nando's  as  well  as  that  of  the  Rainbow." 

It  has  been  shown  that  Nando's  was  already  in  existence 
at  the  end  of  the  i7th  century.  Therefore,  if  it  were,  here  it 
must  have  been  under  the  same  roof  as  the  Fountain,  when,  as 
shown  in  the  Inner  Temple  Records,  difficulties  were  being 
adjusted  between  Mr.  Sotheby  and  the  benchers.  And  yet  it 
must  have  had  an  entirely  separate  existence,  for  a  fourth  part 
of  it  was  conveyed  to  the  Hampton  free-school.  Again,  it 
survived  at  least  until  1798,  and  so  must  have  been  in  the  same 
building  as  Mrs.  Salmon's  Waxworks;  yet  no  record  of  the  fact 
is  forthcoming.  Other  arguments  could  be  used  on  the  same 
side  of  the  question.  But  space  is  limited  and  this  paper  has 
been  a  long  one;  perhaps  taking  it  as  a  starting-point,  some 
one  will  be  able  still  further  to  extend  our  knowledge  of  the 
fine  old  Inner  Temple  Gate-house.  I  will  conclude  by  express- 
ing my  thanks  for  their  kindly  assistance  to  Mr.  G.  H.  Birch, 
F.S.A.,  to  Mr.  J.  Hebb,  to  Mr.  F.  A.  Inderwick,  Q.C.,  to 
Mr.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  F.S.A.,  to  Mr.  F.  G.  Hilton  Price, 
Dir.S.A.,  to  Colonel  W.  F.  Prideaux,  to  Mr.  W.  A.  Webb, 
and  to  the  Sub-Treasurer  and  Librarian  of  the  Inner  Temple. 

Note. — In  the  July  number  of  the  Home  Counties  Magazine  (frontis- 
piece of  this  article),  Mr.  Webb's  measured  drawings  of  the  pilasters  are 
wrongly  named ;  that  in  front  of  the  first  floor  is  described  as  belonging  to 
the  second  floor,  and  vice  versa.  On  page  232,  Edward  Prideaux 
should  be  Edmund  Prideaux.  An  illustration  of  the  gate-house  in  its 
unaltered  condition  occurs  on  a  copy  by  George  Vertue,  dated  1723,  of  a 
plan  of  London  after  the  Great  Fire. 


NOTES     AND     QUERIES. 

"ToM  KING,"  AND  DRURY  LANE  THEATRE.— By  a  deed 
poll  in  my  possession  dated  i6th  September,  1784,  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan,  Thomas  Linley,  and  James  Ford,  as 
Patentees  and  Proprietors  of  the  Theatre  Royal,  Drury  Lane, 
granted  to  Thomas  King,  of  Gerrard  Street,  Soho,  Esq.,  a  rent 
of  two  shillings  for  every  day  or  night  wherein  any  performance 
shall  be  exhibited,  together  with  free  admission  to  any  part  of 
the  Theatre,  except  the  stage  and  behind  the  scenes,  and  private 
boxes,  for  twenty-one  years,  in  consideration  of  250^.  And  by 
a  deed  of  assignment  indorsed  thereon,  dated  i6th  December, 
1785,  Thomas  King  assigned  such  rent  and  free  admission  to 
Nathaniel  Middleton  in  consideration  of  230^.  Can  any  of 
your  readers  inform  me  if  this  Thomas  King  was  the  actor  and 
manager  of  Drury  Lane  Theatre  (1782-87)  commonly  called 
"  Tom  King,"  the  "pleasant  wag,"  whose  love  of  fun  suggested 
and  executed  the  prank  recorded  in  the  well-known  verses 
"  Monsieur  Tonson,"  by  John  Taylor,  illustrated  by  Robert 
Cruikshank,  London  :  Alfred  Miller,  Oxford  Street,  1830  ? 
the  lines  begin, 

"  There  liv'd,  as  Fame  reports,  in  days  of  yore, 
At  least  some  fifty  years  ago  or  more, 

A  pleasant  wag  on  town,  yclep'd  Tom  King." 

And  can  he  be  identified  as  living  in  Gerrard  Street  ? — E.  J. 
BARRON. 

EMIGRANTS  FROM  ST.  ALBANS,  1635. — Can  any  reader  give 
me  information  about  the  locality  from  which  the  emigrants 
who  sailed  from  England  in  The  Planter,  2nd  April,  1635,  may 
have  proceeded  ?  The  statement  (Hotten  p.  45)  that  they 
embarked  under  a  certificate  from  the  minister  of  St.  Albans 
appears  to  imply  that  they  were  the  parishioners  of  the  St. 
Albans  minister  for  1635.  In  what  registers  may  the  following 
names  be  found  as  belonging  to  fellow-townsfolk  of  the  same 
period :  Tuttell,  Lawrence,  Antrobus,  Wrast,  Chittwood, 
Olney,  Giddins,  Beardsley.  The  uncommon  name,  Perley 
Feloe,  baker,  may  afford  some  clue. — VINCENT  B.  REDSTONE. 


332  NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

HUBERT  DE  BURGH. — I  should  esteem  it  a  favour  if  any 
of  your  readers  could  give  me  any  information  as  to  the  name 
of  the  smith  who  refused  to  put  fetters  on  Hubert  de  Burgh 
when  he  was  arrested  at  Brentwood. — Z.  MOON,  Leyton  Public 
Library. 

OAK  PANELS  AT  ST.  PETER'S  CHURCH,  THANET. — In 
the  vestry  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Thanet,  are  some  oak 
panels  that  originally  one  may  reasonably  conjecture  formed 
part  of  the  rood  screen.  Some  six  panels  have  been  highly 
decorated,  but  are  so  rubbed  and  defaced  that  it  is  rather 
difficult  to  make  out  the  subjects  with  accuracy  :  Queen  Bertha, 
The  Blessed  Virgin,  St.  Augustine,  St.  George,  and  perhaps 
King  Ethelbert  may  represent  some  of  the  subjects.  But  a 
skilful  hand. and  one  accustomed  to  mediaeval  ornamentation 
should  depict  these  panels  properly,  and  I  earnestly  hope  this 
may  be  carried  out  and  the  results  placed  over  the  originals 
that  the  subjects  may  be  distinctly  regarded  and  appreciated. 
I  have  heard  that  in  Kent  similar  panels  in  fair  preservation 
exist,  but  in  what  church  I  know  not.  These  panels  and  the 
underground  chapels  in  Thanet  are,  I  contend,  objects  of  great 
interest  and  might  be  better  known.  That  at  St.  Nicholas  Court 
and  the  one  in  the  Garden  at  Nash  Court  are  excellent  examples. 
I  believe  that  others  exist  in  Thanet.  It  would  gratify  me 
to  hear  the  opinion  of  a  noted  antiquary  upon  these  chapels. — 
ALFRED  J.  COPELAND,  Lieut. -Col.,  F.S.A.,  Ramsgate. 

CHIPCHASE  FAMILY. — I  desire  to  trace  the  antecedents  of 
members  of  this  north-country  family  who  settled  in  the  eastern 
parts  of  London,  and  to  learn  whether  there  are  any  ot 
their  tombs  or  gravestones  in  existence. — JOHN  WORTLEY 
CHIPCHASE,  14,  Clover  Street,  Chatham. 

BRAWLING  IN  BRAUGHING  CHURCH,  HERTS. — Among  the 
Star  Chamber  Proceedings  of  Henry  VIII.  (Bundle  19,  Nos. 
294,  316,  319),  is  a  petition  by  Robert  Philipson,  the  vicar, 
alleging  that  on  the  29th  May,  1520,  Humphrey  Fitzherbert, 
one  of  the  churchwardens,  and  others,  attacked  him  while  he 
was  standing  before  the  crucifix,  and  "  made  a  terrible  assaute 
and  affraye  and  drewe  blod  on  hym."  They  continually 
threatened  him,  and  he  was  unable  to  perform  his  duties. 


NOTES    AND    QUERIES.  333 

Fitzherbert  in  his  examination  admits  having  said  that 
petitioner  was  a  "  simple  and  a  lewd  preest  "  and  divers  other 
words  "  that  were  of  small  effect." — ERNEST  F.  KIRK. 

GEORGE  ELIOT  AT  RICHMOND.— An  illustrated  article  on 
George  Eliot's  house  at  Richmond  appeared  in  the  January 
number  of  this  Magazine.  In  1855  George  Eliot  took  small 
lodgings  on  the  second  floor  of  8,  Parkshott,  Richmond,  close  to 
the  station ;  and  soon  after,  amid  the  beauties  of  Richmond 
Park,  determined  on  attempting  a  novel.  In  these  lodgings  she 
produced  all  the  "  Scenes  of  Clerical  Life,"  and  wrote  nearly  the 
whole  of  "  Adam  Bede."  This  is  to  say  that  not  only  was  her 
career  fixed  in  these  lodgings,  but  that  the  whole  of  her  freshest 
and  very  nearly  her  best  work  (I  am  thinking  of  "  Middlemarch  " 
in  my  reservation)  was  produced  here.  The  tiny  lodgings  in 
the  little  house  so  entirely  represent  a  great  and  fruitful  career 
that  I  plead,  before  it  be  entirely  too  late,  that  an  effort  be  made 
for  the  acquisition  of  it ;  and  for  its  conversion  to  some  public 
end  in  Richmond  in  commemoration  of  George  Eliot.  The 
sands  are  running  out  as  the  property  may  at  any  moment  be 
purchased.  If  this  be  entirely  impossible  it  ought  now  at  once 
to  be  taken  care  that  on  the  exact  site,  in  any  new  house  which 
is  erected,  a  tablet  be  placed  stating  the  facts  of  her  residence, 
and  the  work  produced  here  ;  or  that  a  tablet  or  small  memorial 
opposite  the  site,  and  detached  from  the  house,  should  be  so 
erected. — C.  S.  OAKLEY. 

RAMSGATE. — The  origin  of  the  name  of  Ramsgate  is  involved 
in  much  obscurity.  Every  topographer  who  has  dealt  with 
the  subject  has  recognized  the  difficulty,  but  no  satisfactory 
solution  has  ever  been  made.  Lewis,  in  his  "  History  of 
Tenet,"  ed.  1736,  p.  174,  says  that  "  the  Vanity  of  the 
Inhabitants  has  fancied  the  name  to  be  Romans-gate,  from  its 
being  used  as  a  Port  or  Landing-place  by  the  Romans."  He 
does  not  mention  that  the  vanity  of  one  or  two  tradesmen 
carried  them  so  far  as  to  have  tokens  struck  towards  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  with  the  name  "  Romans-gate " 
upon  them,  and  although  I  agree  with  him  in  rejecting  this 
etymology,  he  is  incorrect  in  inferring  that  the  Romans  were 
never  at  Ramsgate  from  the  apparent  absence  of  any  coins  or 
other  remains.  As  a  matter  of  fact  a  considerable  number  of 

x 


334  NOTES    AND    QUERIES. 

Roman  antiquities  have  been  discovered  within  recent  years  at 
Ramsgate.  Later  authorities  have  fancied  that  the  first 
syllable  of  the  word  represents  the  Celtic  Riiim,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  the  original  name,  some  say,  of  Richborough, 
some  of  the  Isle  of  Thanet.  I  think  it  extremely  unlikely  that  a 
hybrid  formation  of  this  kind  would  have  given  a  permanent 
name  to  the  place.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  ever  adopted  such  a  word  as  Ruim.  The  chief  difficulty 
lies  in  the  fact  that  no  very  ancient  form  of  the  name  seems  to 
be  discoverable.  The  earliest  mention  of  it  in  Dr.  Cotton's 
valuable  "  History  of  St.  Laurence"  occurs  in  "The  Hundred 
Roll  of  Kent,"  when  Cristina  de  Remmesgate  is  mentioned, 
with  others,  as  having  stopped  a  common  road  at  Remisgate 
(1274).  ^n  the  list  of  the  payers  of  Romescot,  temp.  Edw.  I., 
several  persons  with  the  surname  of  Raunsgate  are  included. 
Up  to  the  time  of  Lewis,  the  name  was  spelt  Ramesgate. 
This  uncertainty  leads  one  to  have  recourse  to  analogy. 
Several  places  in  England  bear  the  same  prefix.  One  of  the 
most  important  was  Ramsbury  in  Wiltshire,  which  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  times  was  an  episcopal  See.  This  place  was  originally 
Hraefnesburh,  or  Ravensbury,  and  it  is  also  found  in  the 
softened  form  Hremnes-burh  ("  Crawford  Charters,"  vii.  13). 
Hremmes-den  or  Ramsdean  in  Hants,  and  Ramnes-mere  or 
Ramsmere  in  Hants,  are  also  found  in  the  Charters  (Thorpe's 
"  Diplomatarium,"  pp.  146,  252).  It  is  therefore  easy  to  see 
how  from  the  prefix  Hrsefen  or  the  softened  form  Hremn  we 
arrive  at  the  name  of  Ramsgate  in  the  earliest  known  spelling 
of  Rauns-gate  or  Remmes-gate.  The  name  may  possibly 
point  to  a  Danish  occupation  in  very  early  times,  which 
considering  the  geographical  position  of  the  port,  would  be 
not  an  unlikely  occurrence. — W.  F.  PRIDEAUX. 

OLD  BLENHEIMS. — In  an  article  on  "  Charles  and  Mary 
Lamb"  ("  Midd.  and  Herts.  N.  and  Q.,"  Jan.  1897,)  the  writer 
refers  to  a  cottage  near  Blakesware  House,  known  as 
Blenheims,  where  had  lived  a  young  girl  by  name  Ann 
Simmons,  the  gentle  maid,  Anna,  of  Lamb's  poems  [the  Alice 
Witnterton  of  his  Essays  of  Elia]  who  appears  to  have  been 
the  only  person  for  whom  he  had  a  sentimental  attachment. 
In  visiting  Old  Blenheims,  last  July,  I  learnt  with  regret  that 


REPLIES. 


335 


the  cottage  had  been  wantonly  destroyed — eight  months 
before — by  the  present  owner  of  Blakesware.  It  stood 
within  a  short  walk  of  Helham  Green,  across  the  upland, 
near  a  group  of  trees.  A  few  heaps  of  scattered  bricks 
and  the  remains  of  an  old  well  are  all  that  is  now  left. 
In  a  short  time  every  trace  will  be  lost,  and  future  pilgrims  to 
Widford  will  seek  in  vain  the  cottage  of  the  fair-haired  maid. 
One  can  only  echo  Lamb's  own  words  on  the  demolition  of  Old 
Blakesware. — How  shall  they  build  it  up  again  ? — H.  H., 
Royal  Societies  Club. 


REPLIES. 

P  R  I  N  C  E'S 

COURT  TABLET 
(Middlesex  and 
Herts  Notes  and 
Queries,  Vol.  i., 
p.  103). — It  may 
be  of  interest  to 
those  who  were 
readers  of  the 
Middlesex  and 
Herts  Notes  and 
Queries,  to  know 
that  the  tablet 
in  s  c  r  i  b  e  d 
"  P  r  i  n  c  e's 
Court,"  which  is 
mentioned  in 
"Vanishing 
Landmarks,"  is 
r  -l-  still  in  existence, 
having  been  re- 
placed by  the  Clerk  of  the  Works  during  the  building  operations 
that  were  going  on  in  Prince's  Street  some  time  ago.  The 
shield,  which  is  of  excellent  design  and  workmanship,  is  shown 
in  the  accompanying  sketch. — WALTER  H*  GODFREY,  Fair- 
leigh,  Berlin  Road,  Catford. 


336  REVIEWS. 


REVIEWS. 

The  Early  History  of  English  Poor  Relief.    By  E.  M.  Leonard,  Cambridge.    (The  University 
Press,  1900.    Is.  6d.  net.) 

The  tendency  of  the  present  day  is  to  pay  increasing  attention  to  the  social 
aspects  of  English  History,  some  of  the  most  important  of  which  form  the  subject 
matter  of  the  work  before  us.  In  its  earlier  stages  the  public  organisation  of  poor 
relief  was  closely  connected  with  the  maintenance  of  social  order.  A  bad  harvest 
or  a  crisis  in  the  cloth  trade  produced  a  riot  or  an  insurrection,  and  it  was  to  a  great 
extent  out  of  the  measures  taken  to  grapple  with  disorder  that  our  system  of 
public  poor  relief  arose. 

The  present  work  is  the  result  of  much  original  research,  chiefly  among  the 
municipal  records  of  London  and  Norwich,  and  the  very  numerous  reports  returned 
by  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  now  preserved  among  the  State  papers.  One  of  the 
chief  points  which  Miss  Leonard  seeks  to  establish  is  that  the  English  system  of 
poor  relief  was  not  derived  from  the  statutes  and  imposed  from  above,  but  was 
established  antecedently  to  the  statutes  by  municipal  regulations  which  grew  up 
gradually  to  meet  social  necessities  ;  in  fact,  that,  like  other  English  institutions, 
it  was  "  a  growth,  not  a  creation." 

The  first  Act,  providing  for  compulsory  assessment  for  poor  relief,  was  passed  in 
1572,  but  as  early  as  1547  the  Common  Council  of  the  City  of  London  had  levied 
half  a  fifteenth  from  their  own  citizens  for  that  purpose,  while  in  1524  vagabonds 
'•  mighty  of  body  "  were  to  be  whipped  "  at  a  cart's  tayle,"  and  in  1533  the  alder- 
men were  to  gather  "  the  devotions  of  the  parishioners  for  the  poor  folk  weekly, 
and  to  distribute  them  to  the  poor  folk  at  the  church  doors."  Again  the  Royal 
Palace  of  Bridewell,  chiefly  through  Bishop  Ridley's  influence,  was  set  apart  to 
provide  work  "wherewith  the  willing  poor  may  be  exercised,  and  wherewith  the 
froward,  strong  and  sturdy  vagabond  may  be  compelled  to  live  profitably  to  the 
Commonwealth . ' ' 

The  connection  between  the  early  methods  of  poor  relief  and  the  provision  and 
enforcement  of  work  is  traced  throughout  the  work  before  us.  Miss  Leonard  has 
endeavoured  to  show  that,  notably  during  the  personal  Government  of  Charles  I., 
a  series  of  measures  were  undertaken  by  the  Privy  Council  with  the  object  of  im- 
proving the  condition  of  the  poorer  classes',  and  that  these  were  enforced  with 
considerable  vigour  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace.  Among  those  expedients  were  the 
distribution  of  corn  to  the  poor  at  reduced  prices  during  years  of  scarcity,  the  pro- 
vision of  work  for  the  unemployed,  the  stringent  enforcement  of  the  apprenticeship 
of  pour  children,  and  the  improvement  of  wages  by  Government  regulation.  Where 
measures  of  repression  failed  to  cope  with  the  evils  of  vagrancy,  measures  of 
organised  relief  to  a  great  extent  succeeded  in  transforming  the  idle  and  disorderly 
into  industrious  members  of  the  community.  Indeed  the  importance  of  this  action 
by  the  Privy  Council  can  scarcely  be  over-rated,  and  we  certainly  do  not  think  that 
Miss  Leonard  has  gone  too  far  in  the  statement  of  her  case,  however  much  it  may 
conflict  with  the  preconceived  ideas  of  a  certain  school  of  economic  wiiters. 

Space  prevents  our  alluding  further  to  the  interesting  conclusions  discussed  in 
this  book  and  supported  by  a  mass  of  evidence  patiently  and  judiciously  gathered 
from  original  sources. 

We  heartily  commend  the  work  before  us  to  all  interested  in  the  study  of 
economics  and  poor  relief.  It  adds  largely  to  our  knowledge  of  a  very  obscure 
subject,  and  forms  a  valuable  addition  to  the  still  somewhat  scantily  furnished 
library  of  social  and  economic  history.  It  will  be  useful  alike  to  the  student  and 
the  social  reformer,  and  will  be  heartily  welcomed  by  philanthropic  workers  who 
take  an  intellectual  interest  in  the  problems  which  confront  them. 

Sweet  Hampstead  and  its  Associations,  by  Mrs.  Caroline  White.     (Elliot  Stock,  15s.) 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  that  there  could  be  no  room  for  another  book 

treating  of    Hampstead,   but    Mrs.    White's    work    discovers    certain    points    in 

Hampstead  history  that  have  not  yet  received  the  notice  they  deserve,  and  deals 

with  them  pleasantly  and  instructively.     The  writer  is  clearly  an  ardent  lover  of 


REVIEWS.  337 

this  once  rural  and  still  attractive  suburb  of  London.  Of  Hampetead  worthies  and 
unworthies  (there  were  many  of  each)  she  has  much  to  tell  us.  Mrs.  White  does 
not  know  for  certain  whether  the  fine  continental  glass,  placed  by  the  late  Thomas 
Neave  in  Branch  Hill  Lodge,  still  remains  there  ;  we  are  glad  to  inform  her  that  it 
does,  and  that  it  is  prized  and  admired  by  the  present  owner  of  the  house,  Mr. 
Basil  Woodd  Smith,  J.P.,  whose  intended  departure  from  Hampstead  will  be 
regretted  by  all  who  are  aware  of  the  lively  interest  he  has  always  taken  in  every- 
thing that  tended  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  place. 

A  Catalogue  of  "Westminster  Records  in  the  custody  of  the  Vestry.    Edited  by  J.  E.  Smith, 
F.S.A.,  Vestry  Clerk.     (Wightman  &  Co). 

This  is  a  really  sumptuous  volume  ;  it  is  illustrated  by  numerous  facsimiles  of 
portions  of  the  records  dealt  with,  and  is  tastefully  bound  and  printed.  As  a  con- 
tribution to  London  topography  it  will  be  most  valuable.  The  custodians  of  the 
parish  records  in  past  years  seem  to  have  been  unusually  zealous  in  the  care  of  the 
archives  in  their  charge,  and  to  have  expended  money  for  the  repair  and  binding 
of  those  archives  at  a  period  when  little  heed  was  paid  to  such  things.  As  a  result 
Mr.  Smith  has  in  his  custody  Churchwardens'  Accounts  going  back  to  1460.  This  is 
the  principal  series  of  records,  but  the  Overseers'  Accounts,  Vestry  Minutes,  and 
Kate  Books,  and  some  of  the  miscellaneous  classes,  are  of  respectable  antiquity. 

In  compiling  his  calendar  Mr.  Smith  has  followed  the  logical  practice  of  giving 
a  complete  list  of  the  records  in  his  custody ;  so  that  the  enquirer  for  a  particular 
fact  may  see  at  once  from  the  list  what  there  is  for  the  date  he  requires  to  search. 
A  list  like  this  is  invaluable,  but  it  is  "dry"  reading.  Mr.  Smith  is  conscious 
of  the  fact,  and  so  he  has  given  us  from  some  of  the  classes  copious  extracts,  and 
has  edited  these  extracts  with  explanatory  notes. 

It  is  difficult  to  know  what  to  refer  to  here  as  the  most  interesting  extracts,  all 
abound  with  illustrations  of  domestic  life  and  manners,  and  many  entries  refer  to 
individuals  famous  in  history,  as  for  instance  those  relating  to  Caxton  and  his 
father,  and  the  former's  bequest  of  books.  Ecclesiolo gists  will  certainly  be  interested 
in  the  inventories  of  goods,  jewels  and  ornaments  in  St.  Margaret's  Church  in  1511, 
1572,  and  1614-15  ;  the  earliest  fills  three  pages  ;  the  second  and  last  together  only 
occupy  the  like  space. 

Pedigree  "Work— a  Handbook  for  the  Genealogist,  by  "W.  P.  "W.  Phillimore,  M.A.  (Phillimore  & 
Co.,  1*.  net). 

Mr.  Philliraore  has  compiled  a  most  useful  vade  mecum  for  the  genealogist ;  he 
tells  him  (or  her)  how  to  collect  material  for  family  history  and  what  to  do  with  it 
when  collected.  His  short  accounts  of  the  different  record  repositories  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland  are  very  concise,  and  his  chapter  on  "chronology,"  with  a 
table  of  regnal  years  of  the  King*  and  Queen«  of  England  will  be  found  exceedingly 
useful.  The  book  will  fit  comfortably  in  the  coat  pocket. 

Farnham  and  its  surroundings,  written  and  illustrated  by  Gordon  Home,  with  introduction,  by 
Edna  Lyall.  (Homeland  Association,  St.  Bride's  Press,  6rf.)  "Week  Ends  in  Uoplands, 
written  and  illustrated  by  Duncan  Moule.  (Homeland  Association,  Is.) 

There  is  an  obvious  reason  why  the  publications  of  the  Homeland  Association 
should  receive  notice  in  these  pages  :  the  object  of  the  Association  »nd  of  this 
magazine  is  identical  -  the  spread  of  knowledge  of  English  topography.  No  greater 
incitement  to  visit  the  Farnham  district  in  Surrey  and  the  Tonbridge  district  of 
Kent,  can  the  stay-at-home  Londoner  receive  than  the  study  of  the  two  little  hand- 
books before  us.  Mr.  Moule's  skill  as  a  draftsman  is  already  known  to  the  readers 
of  the  "  Home  Counties  Magazine,"  and  his  illustrations  of  Ightham  Mote, 
Chiddingstone,  and  Hever  in  the  present  volume  are  particularly  pleasing  examples 
of  his  work.  In  a  different  style,  but  also  attractive,  are  Mr.  Gordon  Home's 
Surrey  pictures  that  appear  in  the  Farnham  book.  This  volume,  be  it  said,  in  a  most 
remarkable  production.  How  it  can  be  issued  for  the  money  is  more  than  we  can 
fathom.  The  amount  of  really  valuable  topography  gathered  together  in  it  (some 
from  original  records)  is  wonderful.  That  "Edna  Ly  all's "  introduction,  in 
which  she  describes  her  own  connection  with,  and  recollections  of  Farnham,  is 
charmingly  written  goes  without  saying. 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Aldgate,  Chaucer  at,  253. 
Aldgate,  Holy  Trinity,  45. 
Aldham,  charities  of,  9. 
America,  emigrants  to,  331. 
Archery  in  the  Home  Counties,  12,  98, 

201,  316. 
Ashford,  209. 


Baildon,  W.  Paley,  169. 

Barren,  E.  J.,  331. 

Bedfont,  207. 

Bedford,  Rev.  W.  K.  R.,  12,  98,  201, 

316. 

Berghold,  charities  of,  236. 
Berkhampstead,  charities  of,  75. 
Berkshire,  archery  in,  316. 
Bickley,  A.  C.,  105. 
Binfield,  Pope  at,  53. 
Birds  cf  Prey  in  Hertfordshire,  131. 
Blakistor',  Hugh,  78. 
Blenhiems,  Old,  334. 
Boxted,  charities  of,  236. 
Braughing  Church,  332. 
Bray,  the  Real  Vicar  of,  181. 
Bromley  (Kent),  162. 
Broxbourne,  charities  of,  225. 
Buckinghamshire,    Richard     Tottell's 

connection  with,  185. 
Bulkeley-Owen,  F.,  247. 
Buntingford,  charities  of,  225. 
Burrell,  Rev.  H.  J.  E.,  157,  219. 


Caudeler,  Richard,  tomb  of,  301. 
Carbonell,  William  Charles,  277. 
Catford,  wild  birds  at,  86. 
Chalfont    St.    Peter's,      Church     and 

Church-house  at,  35-36. 
Chandler,  John,  301. 
Charing  Cross,  Charles  I's  statue  at, 

165. 


Charities,  Essex,  9,  120,  236. 

,  Herts,  75,  103,  225. 

Charles  I.,  statue  of  at  Charing  Cross, 

165. 

Chaucer  at  Aldgate,  253. 
Chipchase  family,  332. 

,  J.  W.,  332. 

Chipping  Barnet,  charities  of,  103. 
Christ     Church,    Aldgate,    or     Holy 

Trinity,  Priory  of,  45. 
Church   Livings  in  Middlesex  at  the 

time  of  the  Commonwealth,  Survey 

of,  62,  207,  280. 
Church  Plate,  hi  the  Diocese  of  London 

Notes  on,  113,  240,  308. 
Clinch,  George,  89,  238. 
Cockerell,  Samuel  Pepys,  280. 
Colchester,  charities  of,  236. 
Colne  Wake,  charities  of,  10. 
Copeland,  A.  J.,  332. 
Cowley,  211, 
Cowper,  William,  house  of,  at  Olney, 

153. 

,  Birthplace  of,  250. 

,  Portrait  of,  1. 

Cranford,  282. 

,  Sign  of  the  "  Peggy  Bed- 
ford "  at,  86. 
Grossman,  Alan  F.,  132. 
Crouch,  Family  of,  84. 


De  Burgh,  Hubert,  332. 
Dene  Holes,  43,  167. 
Desborough  Lodge,  273,  279. 
Drury  Lane  Theatre,  331. 


E 


East  Horndon,  Story  of  the  Serpent 

of,  247. 

East  Kent,  see  Kent. 
"Eliot,  George,"  65,  333. 
Epsom  Wells  and  Epsom  Downs,  89. 
Essex  Charities,  9,  120,  236. 
Esthorpe,  120. 


INDEX, 


339 


Farleigh  Court,  Surrey,  164. 

Feltham,  208. 

Fitzgerald,  Lucius,  53. 

Fleet,  the,  248. 

Fleet  Street  (No.  17),  sometimes  called 

the  Inner  Temple  Gate-house,  227, 

321. 
Freshfield,  E.  H.,  113,  240,  308. 


Greenford,  283. 
Grim' s  Dyke,  163. 


H.,  H.  335. 
Hackney,  84. 
Hales,  Professor,  253. 
Hampton,  207. 
Han  worth,  283. 
Harefield,  281. 
Harlington,  282. 
Harmondsworth,  282. 
Harpenden,  103. 
Hertford,  charities  of,  75 
Hertfordshire,  archery  in,  12. 

,  Birds  of  prey  in,  131. 

,  Charities  of,  75,  103,  225. 

Heston,  62. 

Hill,  Rowland,  Viscount,  280. 

Hillingdon,  280. 

Holy  Trinity  or  Christchurch  Priory, 

at  Aldgate,  45. 
Home  Counties,    archery  in,    12,  98, 

201,  316. 
,  meteorology  of,  33,  144,  198, 

305. 

Hopkinson,  John,  33,  144,  198,  305. 
Humphreys,  Sir  John,  277- 


Ickenham,  282. 
Isleworth,  62. 


Kemble,  Charles,  273. 

Kent,  archery  in,  98. 

,  roads  and  rivers  of  in  the  last 

century,  69,  111. 
,  East,  parish  history  of,  23,  129, 

211,  284. 
Kentish    Place-names,    pronunciation 

of,  87,  164. 
Kew,  its  palaces  and  associations,  147, 

248. 

King,  Tom,  331. 
Kirk,  E.  F.,  333. 


Laleham,  209. 
Lethaby,  W.  R.,  45. 
Lewisham,  162. 

,  Court  Hill  Road,  at  85. 

Lexden,  charities  of,  236. 

Lincoln's  Inn,  the  old  gate -house  of, 

169,  292. 
Littlebury,  manor  and  parish  of,  157, 

219,  248. 
Littleton,  210. 
Little  Dunmow,  visit  to,  71. 
Little  Horksley,  charities  of,  236. 


Margate  Grotto,  245. 

Markyate,  Herts,  the  Old  Five  Horse 

Shoes  at,  163. 
Mathews,  Charles  James,  269. 

,  Mrs.,  269. 

Meteorology  of  the  Home  Counties, 

33,  144,  198,  275. 
Middlesex,  Archery  in,  201. 
,  survey  of  church  livings  in, 

at  time  of  Commonwealth,  62,  207, 

280. 

Mitcham,  old  mill  at,  238. 
Moon,  Z.,  332. 
Moul,  Duncan,  71. 
Much  Birch,  charities  of,  120. 
,  Horksley,  charities  of,  236. 


N 


National  Trust,  the,  78. 

Nether  Hall,  Roydon,  166. 

Norman,  Philip,  227,  321. 

Notes  and  Queries,   84,  162,  245,  331. 


Oakley,  C.  S.,  333. 

O'Donoghue,  F.M.,  1. 

Old  Blenhiems,  334. 

Olney,  Cowper's  house  at,  153,  250. 


Passmore,  W.  B.,  27,  139,  214. 
"  Peahen,"  the  sign  of,  24ft 
Perivale,  284. 
Peter,  the  wild  boy,  86. 
Place-Names,  mangling  of,  84. 

-,  Kentish,  pronunciation  of, 

87,  164. 

Plomer,  Henry  R.,  185. 
Pope  at  Binfield,  53. 
Prideaux,  W.  F.,  334. 


340 


INDEX. 


Q 


Quarterly  Notes,  2,  94,  177,  259. 


Ramsgate,  333. 
Rashliegh,  G.  B.,  69,  111. 
Read,  family  of,  in  Hertfordshire,  105. 
Redbourne,  charities  of,  103. 
Redstone,  Vincent  B,  331. 
Replies,  86,  164,  248,  335. 
Reviews,  87,  168,  251,  336. 
Richmond,    "George  Eliot's"   house 

at,  65,  333 
Roads  and  Rivers  of  Kent  in  the  last 

century,  69,  111. 
Roydon,  Nether  Hall  at,  166. 
Ruislip,  281. 
Rutton,  W.  L.,  17,  121,  190,  269. 


S 


St.  Albans,  charities  of,  75,  103. 

,  emigrar-ts  from,  331 

St.  Michael  Bassishaw,  history  of  the 

church  and  rectory  of,  27,  139,  214. 
St.  Peter's,  Thanet,  paintings  in,  332. 
Sanderson  or  Saucderson  Family,  84, 

86. 

Sandwich,  214,  284. 
Sandwich,  Peter  de,  23,  129,  284. 
Smith,  J.  Challenor,  181. 
Staines,  210. 

Standon  Massey  Charities,  85,  165. 
Stanwell,  208. 
Shepperton,  208. 
Summers,  A.  Leonard,  147. 
Sunbury,  62. 
Surrey,  archery  in,  316 
,  a  new  history  of,  263. 


Teddington,  62. 

Thanet,  St.  Peter's  Church  in,  332. 

Tottell,  Richard,  the  printer,  and  his 

connection   with   Buckinghamshire, 

185. 

Turner,  F.,  65. 
Twickenham.  62 
Tyburn  Gallows  and  the  Fleet,  248. 


U 


Unwin  family,  the,  163. 
Uxbridge,  210. 


W 


Waller,  J.  G.,  43. 
Ware,  Isaac,  279. 
Watford  Free  School,  85. 

School,  75. 

Westbourne  Farm,  27^. 
Westbourne  Green,  17,  121,  165,  190, 
269. 

House,  279. 

Park,  279. 

Place,  279. 

West  Drayton,  282. 

White,  John,  277. 

Wild  birds  seen  at  Catford,  86. 

Woods,  Rev.  F.  H.,  35,  36. 

Woxbridge,  pee  Uxbridge. 

Wright,  Thomas,  153. 


Printed  by  Gibbs  &  Bamforth,  Market  Place,  St.  Albans. 


DA  The  Home  counties  magazine 

20 

H7 

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