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modern; the cover, which is suspended, appears rather more ancient: neither are any way remarkable.

There are several brasses let into the walls; which, as they have been already noticed by others, I shall pass, and only mention those that appear most to deserve attention.

In the chancel, the monuments are mural, except one altar-tomb, with a recess over it, inscribed,

ANNO D'NI 1519.

CHRISTOPHORO VRSWYK Rectori.

Ω

ΜΙΑ

The lower part is shut up by execrable wainscot; the border to the recess is richly decorated with Gothic orna ments. What is to become of this monument if the church is to be pulled down? Not destroyed, I hope; though it cannot well be avoided, I am afraid. However, I intend it shall not be totally forgotten; for, I will draw it to grace my collection of tombs.

Over Urswyk's tomb is one to the memory of David Doul ben, Bishop of Bangor, a half-length figure, in his sacred vestments, 1633. To the left of the above are Henry Thoresby and wife, 1615. Opposite, in a chapel, are an altar-tomb and a beautiful monument, 1612, to Sir Thomas Rowe and his wife, whose effigies and six of their children kneel on it. It is of variegated red and white marble, richly gilt, very clean and perfect. Near the door of the chapel, a monument to Thomas Wood, Esq. has himself, wife, four sons, and four daughters, kneeling, 1649. The altar is a strong oak table. On the South wall of the church there is a monument, 1570, hid and defaced by a gallery, to the memory of Sir Thomas Rowe, Knt. alderman and mayor; his effigies in armour. Near it, between two windows, is a vacant nich. On the left a tablet to the memory of the Rev. John Lewis, M. A. lecturer of the parish, and of Christ-church, Middlesex, 1770. There is a curious figure cut in metal, of Hugh Johnson, vicar, 1618, in his pulpit, set in a pillar near the reading-desk,

On a pew, loose and leaning against the wall, under a gallery, is a stone, apparently taken from an old tomb, containing this inscription:

The right Honorable Baron
JOHN NEVIL, Knyghte, Lorde
Latimer, departed this lyfe

at his manner of Snape, in the countye of Yorke, ye 22 of Apryl, 1577, in y yeare of his age 61, and lyethe buried with his auncestoures at his churche in his town of Well.

This tablet, I find by Strype, is part of the monument of Lucy Lady Latimer, and formerly had on it the following inscription and verses:

Here lyeth the Rt. Honourable Lady Lucy, daughter to the Right Noble Henry Earl of Worcester, wife to the late Right Honourable John Nevyle, knt. Lord Latimer. By whom she had issue four daughters, Katharine, Dorothy, Lucy, Elizabeth. She departed this life the 23d of Febr. 1582, in the year of her age, 59.

Such as she is, such surely shall ye be,

Such as she was, such if ye be, be glad;
Fair in her youth, though fat in age she grew,
Vertuous in both, whose gloss did never fade:
Though long alone she led a widow's life,
Yet never lady liv'd a truer wife.

From Wales she sprang, a branch of Worcester's race,
Graft in a stock of Browne's, her mother's side;
In Court she held a maid of honour's place,

Whilst youth in her, and she in Court did bide:
To John Lord Latymer then she became a wife,
Four daughters had they breathing yet in life.
Earl of Northumberland* took the first to wife,
The next the heir of Baron Burleight chose;
Cornwallis had the third for term of life,

And Sir John Danvers pluckt the youngest rose:
Their father's heirs, them mothers all she saw,
Pray for, or praise her, make your list the law.

As so much has been done by authors every way competent, it will naturally occur to your readers why I have been thus brief in noticing dates and inscriptions in St. John's church. The old parsonage-house, I suppose, will not long outlast the church. To preserve both, I have made drawings for my collection. In the yard there is a grave-stone to the memory of Francis de Oliveyra, Knight,

* Named Henry.

Sir Tho. Cecil,

of the order of Christ in Portugal, who abjured his religion, and died here in 1783, aged eighty-one years. There are eight bells in the tower, and room for ten.

The new church, is nearly completed. There is something magnificent in its exterior; the cornice and dentila are well proportioned, and give a good effect to the whole. The inside will be extremely plain, as there are no pillars to the roof. The plan is that of the cross. The pillars, twelve in number, that support the galleries, are of the Doric order; they are on three sides of the church, and extend no farther than the intersections of the cross, forming an area circular opposite the altar. The ceiling is a depressed arch, springing from the four sides, and meeting in a point, which is decorated with a large rose stuccoed. The altar cannot be much decorated, as there is a very large window over where it will be placed. Under the pews there will be vaults, for the prevention of damps, as I was told. There will be many apartments in the church for va rious purposes, of which I cannot speak with certainty. J. P. MALCOLM,

1796, April.

IX. Topographical Description of Witham, in Berkshire.

MR. URBAN,

Oxford, March 27, 1797.

THE following brief notes of a decayed village in Berk shire are much at the service of your readers.

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WITHAM, about three miles and a half from Oxford, had formerly a nunnery, which was removed from Abingdon soon after 690. It continued till 780, when it was ruined in the wars between Offa, King of the Mercians, and Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons.

"Oxfordshire, (saith Mr. Warton,*) with some of the adjacent counties, was included in Offa's kingdom; and he is supposed to have kept his court at the fortress or castle of Witham, near Oxford, which he had won from Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons." The fortress (continues Mr.

History of Kiddington, p. 27.

Warton*) probably stood on the site of the present ancient mansion-house of the Earl of Abingdon, built about the reign of Henry the Sixth."

Here, however, I cannot but differ from him: Witham is situated at the foot of the hill which retains its name; and, though Mr. Warton was unable to discover any mounds or trenches on the summit of Witham hill, yet it was in every respect commodious for a Roman Specula, the site of which might afterwards have been occupied by the Saxons.

The fortress, or castle, seems to have been erected by Kinewulf, super montem de Witham, merely for the sake of opposing the incursions of Offa, in whose hands it appears shortly afterwards to have fallen by the chance of war. The words super montem de Witham clearly indicate the site of the fortress to have been, not the spot whereon the Earl of Abingdon's mansion now stands, but near the summit of Witham hill. I have carefully examined the hill: On the summit, near its Eastern declivity, I found many large stones, in some parts regularly disposed; the massive fragments of a desolated fortress.

The present venerable mansion of the Earl of Abingdon, was (as was before observed,) erected about the reign of Henry the Sixth, prior to the relaxation of feudal tenure. Upon the traveller's first approach, he cannot but recall to his memory the fortified dungeons of our ancestors, whose martial tempers, whilst they consulted the magnificence of petty tyranny, seem to have forgot convenience. The embattled tower in the centre is surmounted by two octangular turrets, and the edifice itself surrounded by a moat.‡ The old hall remains in its ancient state; and I must own that, upon my first entrance, I beheld with romantic pleasure the vestiges of former hospitality and munificence. The prowess of our martial ancestors, the celebrated feats, the genius of chivalry, rushed on my imagination.

Ibid. in note.

+ Mr. Warton thinks it was connected with Seckworth, [Secg pond,

the soldier's town,] a desolated adjacent town. Mr. W. was wrong in his assertion (History of Kiddington, p, 27,) that a barn and a pound were the only remains of Seckworth, as it contains five houses. In the Bodleian Valor of 1291, it is called Seweckworth; and the abbot of Abingdon is said to have had a pension of iijs. from its church, (valued at cs.) no remains of which pow appear. Great alterations have been lately made in the house and grounds; the moat is now filled up. 1811. E.]

In the West window, in a circular shield, are the old arms of England; nigh which, in three other circular shields, are, a red rose, a fleur-de-lis, and a portcullis.

The church, in the diocese of Sarum, and archdeaconry of Berks, is small. The boarded roof is supported by three arches of wood. Against the wall, on either side of the nave, is a series of rude grotesque ornaments in stone, resembling heads, with caps similar to those worn by canons regular of the order of St. Austin; which at first led me to conjecture that the church might have been originally built, or perhaps re-built, by the prior and convent of Abingdon,† to whom the manor of Witham appears to have belonged in the Saxon times, as well as at the time of forming the Domesday Survey. Certain it is, a church then existed here.

In the English Chartulary of Godstow nunnery, || among Dr. Rawlinson's MSS. in the Bodleian Library, is "A Chart' made by dyvers juggys against ye p'son of Wyhtham;" wherein it appears that the prior of St. James's, Northampton, received a mandate from Pope Gregory IX. relative to a complaint made by Robert, parson of Witham, that the abbess and convent of Godstow, John Lucy, priest, Roger Wytham, and other clerks and laymen of the dioceses of Lincoln and Salisbury, had wronged him of certain "possessions, tithys, dewteys, and othyr thynges," whereby he was commanded to call the parties before him, and “ make a dewe ende bytwene hem." Robert, parson of Witham, stated, that the abbess and convent had for the last six years withheld payment of tithes coming from a croft, called, "Wydehey within the boundes, termys, or markys, of hys churche, of Wyhtham," amounting to xviijs. The abbess and convent replied, they did not believe the said croft to be situated within the bounds of the said parish; and, if it was, they were not bound to pay tithes, " for hyt is nouale that is to sey, a feld yerly tyllyd, or ellys euyry othyr yere:" which being proved, the prior gave sentence in favour of the abbess and convent of Godstow, and the parson of Witham, his successors," and his churche, were put to perpetual silence;" dated 4 id. Feb. 1420.

It is a rectory, in the gift of the Earl of Abingdon, valued in the taxation of 1291 at c s.; out of which the abbot of Abingdon received one mark. It is valued in the Liber Regis, (n. 904,) at 71. 5s. 24d.

Though the abbey there was for monks of the Benedictine order.
Domesday, 1. fol. 59.

"Ibi æccl'a 7 molin'. de x sol'." Ibid. f. 59. The mill still re

mains.

Fol. iii b. and ii a.

No. 1330.

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