the parish in 1790. But the whole is by no means adapted for the purpose, either in situation or extent of ground; though great care and judgment are exercised by the superintendant. The greater part of the relief is consequently granted out of the house; and, by the return of the expenses attending the maintenance of the poor in 1811, those of this parish amounted to 36861. a sum exceeding the expenditure of any other parish in the county.

There is no manufacture carried on here, except a little lace, which is of an indifferent fabric, and made by women and children; the great bulk of the poor have, therefore, no employment except that of husbandry. Among other oppressive disadvantages, Thame suffers much from a want of firing. A few years back the town and neighbourhood were chiefly supplied with fuel from the beech woods of the Chiltern Hills: but this was a source not calculated for long duration. Since the Oxford and Coventry Canal has been formed, coals are obtained from Oxford; but they are procured at a heavy expense, owing to the necessity of thirteen miles of land carriage. They are now (March, 1813,) 2s. 9d. per hundred. A canal to cross this part of the country appears essential to the comfort and prosperity of the neighbourhood. A line was surveyed in 1810, to unite the Berks and Wilts canal at Abingdon with the Grand Junction at Marsworth, above Aylesbury. But several powerful interests apprehended partial injury; and the scheme, so fertile in promise of extensive benefit, was consequently defeated. The town is, at present, a depot for prisoners of war on parole. For the last eight years about 170 have usually resided here.

In the first year of Queen Mary Sir John Williams, Knt. lord chamberlain to that queen, was created Baron of Thame; but the title expired in his person, as he died without male issue, leaving

From the information of intelligent natives, it appears that the money raised in aid of the poor at Thame, for the present year, will be upwards of 40001. an intolerable burthen, and one that cries loudly for some reformation in the poor laws.

leaving two daughters, who married into the families of Norris and Wenman.

In the town of Thame were born* George Etherydge, a physician of some note; and that great ornament of jurisprudence, the Lord Chief Justice Holt.

George Etherydge studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was admitted a fellow of that society in the year 1539. He was afterwards appointed king's professor of Greek; but, in the reign of Elizabeth, was ejected on account of his religious opinions. He then practised as a physician at Oxford, and likewise superintended the education of several young gentlemen, the sons of Catholics. He appears to have been a man of taste as well as of learning; for there are some musical compositions and Latin poems by him still extant in manuscript. Etherydge died abont 1588.

Sir John Holt was born in 1642. After passing some years at Abingdon school, he became a gentleman commoner of Oriel College, Oxford; and, in 1658, entered of Gray's Inn. When called to the bar, he applied with so much industry to the study of the common law, that he soon became one of the most eminent barristers of that era. As a proof of which it may be sufficient to observe, that when the Earl of Danby was, in the year 1678, impeached in Parliament, the Lords named Holt as one of his counsel; but the whole nomination of the Lords was prohibited by the Commons, in a vote which was posted round WestminsterHall and the Parliament-House.

In 1685 he received the distinction of knighthood from James II. and was made recorder of the city of London. He held this situation for about a year and a half, and forfeited it because he would not expound a particular law according to the wish of the

king.

It may be observed, that James Figg, noted for his public exhibitions with the broad sword at the early part of the last century, was likewise a native of Thame. A humourous account of his exhibitions is given by Addi son, and his portrait is to be seen in the second plate of the Rake's Progress, by Hogarth.

king. He was called to the degree of a serjeant at law in 1686; and sat in the Convention Parliament assembled by the Prince of Orange to arrange the national affairs on the secession of the infatuated James. In the first of William and Mary he was ap pointed lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, which important office he held for the long term of two and twenty suc cessive years. The conduct of Sir John Holt in this situation was such as to call forth the plaudit of every good man contemporary with him, and to entail on his memory the veneration of distant ages. A few examples will best illustrate his moderation, his integrity, and talent. "There happened in his time a riot, occasioned by the practice of decoying young persons to the plantations, who were confined in a house in Holborn till they could be shipped off. Notice of the riot being sent to Whitehall, a party of military were ordered out; but, before they marched, an officer was sent to the chief justice to desire him to send some of his people with the soldiers. Holt asked the officer what be intended to do if the mob refused to disperse? "My Lord," replied he, "we have orders to fire upon them."—" Have you so!" said Holt; "then observe what I say: If one man is killed I will take care that you, and every soldier of your party, shall be hanged. Sir! acquaint those who sent you, that no officer of mine shall attend soldiers: and let them know, likewise, that the laws of this land are not to be executed by the sword. These things belong to the civil power, and you have nothing to do with them." So saying, he dismissed the officer, proceeded to the spot with his tipstaves, and prevailed upon the populace to disperse, on a promise that justice should be done, and the abuse remedied."

When the lord chancellor Somers parted with the great seal in 1700, King William pressed the lord chief justice to accept it; but-Holt resolutely declined, saying, "that he never had but one Chancery cause in his life, which he lost, and consequently could not think himself fitly qualified for so great a trust."

When John Paty, and four others, were committed to New

gate,

gate, by virtue of an order of the House of Commons, for contempt of that house, in commencing a prosecution against the constables of Aylesbury, who had refused to allow Paty's vote at an election, Holt argued in favour of the prisoners, in opposition to the three other judges, and unmoved by the influence of the

court.

In the fourteenth number of the Tatler Steele has thus concisely drawn the character of Sir John Holt, under the name of Verus: "He was a man of profound knowledge of the laws of his country, and as just an observer of them in his own person. considered justice as a cardinal virtue, not as a trade for maintenance. Wherever he was judge he never forgot that he was also counsel."

He

His lordship sat in court for the last time February 9, 1709, and died on the 5th of March following. He left only one work in print, and this is intituled," A Report of divers Cases in Pleas of the Crown, adjudged and determined in the reign of the late King Charles II. with Directions for Justices of the Peace, &c."

IN THAME PARK, about a mile distant from the town, stood an abbey of some importance. Sir Robert Gai, or Gait, lord of the manor of Hampton, (since termed Hampton Gay,) being possessed of a fourth part of the village of Ottington, or Oddington, in Oxfordshire; and, having obtained permission from the abbot of Waverley in Surrey, the first house of the Cistercian order in England, founded an abbey at Ottingdon, to which he gave the name of Otterley, from an adjacent wood, and endowed it with lands in that village. Waverley supplied it with its first monks; but these, not liking the situation, from its unwholesome contiguity to the flats of Otmoor, before the building was completed sought for a more favourable spot; and, finding a patron in Alexander, the munificent Bishop of Lincoln, he removed them to his park near Thame, which he bestowed on the new society, and erected for their reception an abbey, the church of which he dedi

cated

cated to St. Mary, July 21, 1138*. The monks retained their lands in Ottingdon, and received very considerable augmentations from fresh benefactors, which were confirmed to them by several royal charters and Papal bulls. At the Dissolution the society consisted of an abbot and sixteen monks. The annual revenue, according to Tanner, was 2561. 14s. 7d. The abbey, with the whole of its possessions, was surrendered to the Crown in the 31st of Henry VIII. by Robert Kyng, the last abbot, who, for his ready compliance, was, on the creation of the see of Oxford, named its first bishop.

In the reign of Edward VI. the abbey, park, and lands, were given to the Protector Somerset ; but, on his disgrace, coming again to the Crown, Sir John (afterwards Lord) Williams obtained them, with the other abbey estates in the manors of Moreton, Attingdon, and Sydenham. From Lord Williams they came to his daughter Isabel, who married Sir Francis Wenman, an ancestor of Lord Viscount Wenman, in whose family they now remain. On the death of the late Lord Wenman, in 1800, without issue, these estates descended to his nephew, William Richard Wykham, Esq. whose daughter and heir is the present owner.

On the site of a part of the abbey the present mansion-house was erected by Philip, the father of the late Lord Wenman. The building is of stone, and has in front a handsome flight of steps, with two ascents. In the centre is a pediment, ou the tympanum of which are placed the arms of Wenman. Considerable fragments of the abbey still remain, and these are protected and adjoined by the modern clevation, In pictorial beauty they amply

repay

According to William of Newburgh, as quoted by Camden, the Bishop raised this monastery 66 to wipe off the odium which he had contracted by his extravagance in building castles." But his taste for architecture had not been previously confined to castellated structures. In 1124, he rebuilt the cathedral of Lincoln, which had been consumed by fire. His extensive generosity obtained him the name of Alexander the benevolent. The castles erected by this bishop were those of Banbury, Sleaford, and Newark. He died in 1147.