Alward, and was rated at two hides. After the Conquest it belonged to Ansger, and it had improved in value, from fifteen shillings to forty. The arable was one carucate, which was in demesne, with one serf and eight cottagers; and there were ten acres of meadow. The Ansger here mentioned (in Domesday Book) bore the surname of Montagud, and was possibly related to Drogo, the castellan at Montacute in Somersetshire, the ancestor of the Montacutes Earls of Salisbury. In 1092, within ten years of the compilation of Domesday book, Ansgerus Brito gave this manor to the priory of the Holy Saviour of Bermondsey in Surrey; and again in 1126 he confirmed the same gift, together with Walter his son.t In 1095 Walter son of Ansger Brito gave the abbey two other hides, situated at Stone, in the neighbouring parish of Mudiford; and at Pope Nicholas's taxation in 1291, these lands were valued Apud Preston Apud Gevele (Yeovil), £S 3 4 Preston, et Stonem 650 cus of the 26th of that reign, and the Compotus of the 32d, printed in the new Monasticon. Antony Gilbert was steward of the abbey's lands in the county of Somerset, (which comprised the manor of Kenyweston in addition to those already noticed) at the annual sum of £1.8s. 4d. The house erected on this abbatial manor, acquired for itself the name of Abbey. The following is the notice given of it in Collinson's Somersetshire: "Not far from the church is a large old mansion, called Preston Abbey, having been formerly one of those granges which are commonly met with in manors belonging to religious establishments. The windows in this house are gothic, and some very large, the doorways arched, and the staircases of stone. The predial barn is one hundred and fourteen feet in front, of stone well quoined, with a spacious arched entrance, and a timber roof curiously contrived for strength and duration." The accompanying view was taken in 1811. Since that time (in 1836) the house had lost some of its interesting features, and the porch was entirely covered with ivy. It is occupied by a farmer. To ascertain the parties by whom this mansion was erected would probably now be a difficult task. Considering its remoteness from the abbey to which it belonged, we can scarcely suppose that the abbots or other members of the convent, could make any but very occasional visits; its ample accommodations must have been intended for the use of the wealthy farmer who here resided, in a prosperous estate, probably not inferior to most of the lords of the neighbouring mauors. The same authority, the chronicle of Bermondsey, now the MS. Harl. 231, records both events. "Hoc anno 1083 [rex] fecit describi volumen vocatum Domysday. Anno 1092 Ansgerus Brito dedit prædictis monachis manerium de Preston, scilicet duas hidas." In the new Monasticon, vol. v. p. 86, Ansger Brito is called "a knight of Wynebald de Baalun," but for this there is no authority in the original (ibid. p. 96). That description belongs to Odo (de Tirone) just before mentioned. + Collinson (Hist. of Somerset, iii. 223) gives the latter date only, having overlooked the earlier entry in the chronicle. Called "duas hidas terræ de Estanas" in the confirmation charter of William Rufus, which, it is remarked in the new Monasticon, must have been given in 1094 or before, as Aylwin, one of the witnesses, died in that year. A more extraordinary point in the charter is that Stone is mentioned, but not Preston. In the confirmation charter of Henry I. both places are enumerated. GENT. MAG. VOL. XVI. 3 S MR. URBAN, STONE COFFIN FOUND AT NOTTING HILL. Chelsea, Aug. 16. AS some workmen were employed on the 7th of August in digging the foundations for the new buildings situated in Victoria Park, near the Hippodrome, on Notting Hill, in the parish of Kensington, they discovered, at about six feet from the surface of the turf, a stone coffin, which they at first mistook for a covered drain, and unfortunately broke it with pickaxes. It was composed of a single stone, and contained a skeleton, the teeth of which were nearly entire, and the cranium and bones in good preservation, the interior being filled up with lime. The coffin was composed of fine grit or Purbeck stone. Its internal length is six feet two inches, its external length six feet eight inches ; breadth without, two feet three inches, breadth within, one feet eight inches. It was placed north and south, the head lying to the north. At the same time and near the same spot were found three other skeletons, which were also lying from north to south: the greater part of these latter crumbled to dust upon being exposed to the air. It is conjectured that further discoveries will be made as the workmen proceed with the excavations on the southern brow of the Hill, descending towards the ancient manorhouse of Notting-Barnes. Yours, &c. THOS. FAULKNER. MR. URBAN, Oct. 20. ON the approach of my Lord Mayor's Feast, you may be induced to allow me to show your readers how the good old custom of entertaining the Ministers of the Crown, and the great Peers and Courtiers, was maintained by the City at least three centuries ago, at that second of the "four great Feasts of England," of which a poet in the reign of James the First sings "The honoured Mayor of London much commendation gains; Lord Mayor of London's Feast. *The Queen has presented (or rather permitted the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to present) specimens of the various Saxon and continental coins found at Cuerdale, to the Numismatic Society. The annexed, (communicated from the City Records, by the courtesy of James F. Firth, esq.) is not merely an addition to the collections on this subject, which have previously ap peared in your pages, but is earlier in date than any account hitherto published, with which I am quainted. Yours, &c. J. G. N. ac Feast of St. Symon & Jude, 21 Henry 8. Was made in the Maiers Court a particion of tymber, and hanged with riche cloth of arres and dyverse other clothes, and the place where the Maires Courte is kepte, bourded, and there a table sett, at whiche table dyned alle the lords and perys of the Realme in effecte, whose names folowe. At ij other syde tables bitwene the Orphans' Courte and the Maires Courte, dyned Knyghts, Baronetts, and other Gentylmen. At the Mayer of London's Feste, Anno regni Reg' Henrici viij' xxj°. Sir Thomas Grey, Knyght, Marques Dorset. Sir Henry Courteney, Knyght, Marques of Excestar. Sir John Veer, Knyght, Erle of Oxenford, and high Chamb'rlen of Englonde. Sir John Talbott, Knyght, Erle of Shrewsbury, and Lorde Steward of Englond. Sir Henry Som'sett, Knyght, Lorde Herbert, and Erle of Worcest'. Sir Thomas Man's, Knyght, Lorde Roos, and Erle of Rutlande. Cutberd Dunstall Busshopp of London, and Lorde P've Seale. Sir Robert Radclyff, Knyght, Vicount Fitzwater. Sir Thomas Bullayn, Knyght, Vicount Rocheforde. Sir George Nevell, Knyght, Lorde Burgenny. Sir Will. Dacres, Knyght, Lorde Dacres of the Northe. Sir John Towchett, Knyght, Lorde Awdeley. Sir Willm. Blount, Knyght, Lord Mount Joy and the Quenes Cha'berleyn. Sir Thomas West, Knyght, Lorde Lawar. Sir Will. Sandes, Knyght, Lord Sand's and the Kings Chamb'rleyn. Sir Thomas Berkeley, Knyght, Lorde Berkeley. Sir Edwarde Grey, Knyght, Lord Powes. In the Old Series, 1824 and 1825; afterwards re-arranged in a volume, entitled London Pageants, 8vo. 1831. Of the Lord Mayor's Shows during the reign of Queen Mary I. see a description in 1833, vol. CIII. ii. 315. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of St. Alban's. By Charles Parr Burney, D.D. at his Visitation, &c. We have read this Charge with the gratification to be derived, both from the importance of the subjects on which it treats, and the correctness and elegance of the style in which the author's opinions are delivered. Though Doctor Burney observes, "that he limits himself to such ecclesiastical matters as fall legitimately within his official cognizance," yet they are in many cases not unworthy of the consideration of the Clergy in general, and his observations will be found useful far beyond the limits of his particular jurisdiction. We should be inclined to make several extracts from the different matters on which he treats, particularly the one on the subject of "Levying Church Rates," but for want of room for such a selection, we must confine ourselves to one, in which the Archdeacon discusses a point lately raised. The secular interests of the Clergy are at present, and the spiritual interests of the parishioners may, at no distant period, and in no slight degree, be affected by it; and we are sure that the body of the Clergy will feel grateful to the Archdeacon for the manner in which he has introduced it, and the good sense and just reasoning which he has brought to the discussion of it. "The changes introduced, for the first time, into the principles and practice of assessing tithe to the parochial rates, have naturally excited uneasiness and alarm throughout the whole body of the Clergy. Petitions from them to Parliament, accordingly, upon a state of things which threatens a fearful and unexpected reduction in their fixed revenues, have been very general, and presented from all the five Archdeaconries of this Diocese. "During the long discussions that preceded the passing of the Tithe Commuta tion Act, one of the most popular recommendations of the measure was its certain prevention of the painful bickerings and ill-will to which the Clergy were too frequently exposed in maintaining their just claims on the tithe-payer. Peace was the ample compensation constantly predicted to them for any loss which they might experience. They proved their own deep sense of its value by submitting, for its attainment, to very serious sacrifices. For the sake of peace, they surrendered every possible future augmentation of vantage-ground, unloosed their firm hold their incomes, and, relinquishing their scriptible tenure, on which their inheritupon the produce of the soil, that impresnce had stood immemorially. The confirmation, however, of the rent-charge, hailed as the ratification of the promised peace, was soon found to be the menace, if not the undisguised declaration, of hostility. It dissolved all existing engagements between the clergyman and his flock, and opened wide the door to more bitter altercation and discontent on the subject of rates, than the ancient system of tithes had ever provoked. "Too late is it apparent, that no Bill for commuting tithes ought to have been entertained, until a statute, express and positive, to determine the future mode of their assessment had been enacted. The total absence of all uniformity in the subsisting practice, was either a fact which was known, or ought previously to have been ascertained; especially as the rates, whether paid by the tithe-owner, or allowed by him in composition or agreement with the tithe-payer, formed a very important element in the gross value of the tithe. "A different course was adopted. The Clergy, proverbially lenient in exacting their rightful due, with little of worldly wisdom, and very imperfectly acquainted with the principles of the proposed Bill, might well be pardoned for believing themselves protected, though not benefited, by the stipulation, that tithes should be subject to all parliamentary, parochial, county, and other rates, charges, and assessments, in like manner as the "Remarks on the manner in which Tithe should be assessed to the Poor's Rate," &c. by the Rev. Richard Jones, one of the Tithe Commissioners of England and Wales, pp. 31, 32, 33, 59; and "Remarks on the old Principle of Assessment to the Poor Rate," &c. by a By-Stander, pp. 24, 25. This is an able pamphlet, which will well repay perusal. |