PRESTON is an ancient village, about one mile from Uppingham. In it is a very antique farm-house, once the manor-house, built in a most venerable style of architecture; and there is also a good house, close to the high road, the property of the present incumbent.

The Church is very ancient, has some Saxon arches in the interior, and is adorned with some very handsome monumental tablets and atchievements.

There is no mention of this manor in the Norman Survey; but in the reign of Edward IV. it was the property of the gallant high-spirited Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville; with the story of whose unfortunate widow Anne, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, this manor is much connected, she having brought this, and many others, into the Neville family. When Neville fell in the fatal action at Barnet, his former friend, but then bitter enemy, seized upon all his estates, but settled them upon his two daughters, Isabel and Anne, whom he married to his two younger brothers, the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, the latter of whom was afterwards Richard III. It has been supposed that the Dowager Countess was suspected by Edward of being not only privy to, but a warm encourager of, her husband's designs; in consequence of which she was totally neglected in the partition of the estates, and had not even the smallest part of her own lands allotted to her for mere subsistence, so that she was actually left destitute, and was obliged to seek refuge, and to take sanctuary, in Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. Even there, it is said, she was not personally safe, but was soon after obliged to conceal herself in the North of England during great part of Edward's reign, and the whole of that of Richard. On the accession of Henry VII. however, that monarch, convinced of her steady attachment to the Lancastrian cause, and feeling the injustice to which she had so long been subject, immediately restored to her all her estates, her daughters being both dead without issue, and had the Act of Parliament annulled which had deprived her of her property. Such was her gratitude, that

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that she immediately settled them in reversion upon Henry and his heirs male, which brought them to the Crown; but in the reign of Edward VI. this manor and several others were alienated to different persons.

The botanical tourist may find here in the hedges, the Linaria odorata, or sweet smelling toad flax, and at the bases of the hills the Mentha arvensis, or Spicy Water Mint.

UPPINGHAM

is the second town of the county, but in some repects superior to Oakham, its houses being in general extremely well built, its streets well paved, and very clean, and a great air of business being visible on all sides. It is principally built to form a square, in which the church stands on the south side, and it has also one long street leading to the west end; but a visitor may walk round the principal part of it without seeing the front of a house, an arrangement which gives the interior of the square an air of great seclusion.

Leland, who visited it in the time of Henry VIII. says “it is a market-town. Is but one meane streete, and hath but a very meane church;" and Camden, and his continuator, do not speak of it in much higher terms. The former says that it derives its name from its situation upon a hill; but Gibson denies this, saying, that although the ground on which it stands be something above a level, yet it will hardly amount to a hill. The Editors of the "Magna Britannia" then conclude, that its being on an ascent, of any kind, will justify Camden's expression of locus acclivis; but if all these grave continuators and commentators had taken the trouble of looking at the place about which they were disputing, they would have found that the name of Uppingham, or the "high town," applies well to this place in contradistinction to Oakham, which lies comparatively low; for the high road rises with a gradual ascent from the latter until it reaches Manton, which is supposed to be the highest ground in

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the county, and thence continues, nearly on a level, on to Uppingham, from whence there is a rapid descent towards that valley which separates this country from Leicester and Northamptonshires.

The last continuator of Camden, (Mr. Gough,) observes, that Uppingham is principally, but not only, one street, which, though it cannot be called an elegant one, is not despicable. The church, he adds, is a decent building, though not nicely fitted up.

We shall not accuse others of an unwillingness to give praise, even due praise, to Uppingham, but shall proceed to notice, that although it is not a place of very high antiquity, not being recorded in the Norman Survey, yet it has in later times been of some consequence, having at least given birth to one Proverb, which is something about an "Uppingham Trencher." Grose, in his " Provincial Glossary," says this town was probably famous for the art of Trencher-making, and that here by a statute of Henry VIII. the standard was appointed to be kept for the weights and measures of the county, which might induce turners and other makers of measures to settle here. There is some ingenuity in this conjecture, but an error in its chronology; for the regulation respecting weights and measures is something of an older date, as Leland, copying from an old roll, says, “Anno 11, Henry VII. The Towne of Uppingham is to have custody of weigttes and measures, for Roytl. shire."

The Church, if not a very elegant structure, is yet in the ancient Gothic style, with a lofty spire, surrounded by a very neat and clean church-yard, from the southern face of which there is a very extensive prospect. It also contains some very handsome monumental memorials, particularly one in honour of Everard Fawkener, Esq. of the date of 1653. He had been High Sheriff of the county, died at the venerable age of seventyfive, and appears to have been a highly estimable character, if any credit is to be given to some curious Latin verses on his tomb. These describe him as descended from virtuous parents, as a lover of goodness and piety, as joining together the two K3 pro

professions of lawyer and soldier, and being excellent in each; they also record that he was a great benefactor to the town, having paved the streets at his own expense; he was charitable to the poor; and, much to his credit, an encourager of poor young men, whose genius required and deserved the fostering hand of patronage.

successors.

The living is a rectory, and, before the Dissolution, was in the gift of the Abbot of Westminster; but Edward VI. granted it to Dr. Nicholas Ridley, then Bishop of London, and to his We find it recorded, amongst other incumbents, that the learned and most excellent divine, Dr. Jeremiah Taylor, whose piety and valuable literary works will carry his name to latest posterity, was rector of the parish at the commencement of the unhappy civil wars, having been chaplain to Archbishop Laud who procured for him the living, but from which he was soon afterwards sequestered, being marked as a champion both for the Royal cause, and for the church. King Charles then appointed him his chaplain, and he accompanied his Royal master through much of the subsequent warfare; but when Charles's cause began to droop, aud he himself was a prisoner, the faithful follower was obliged to secrete himself in Wales, and to keep a school there for the support of himself and family. The Earl of Carbury, having discovered him, became his patron, and he soon after ventured to the metropolis; but the machinations of his enemies put him in such danger, that he found himself under the necessity of retiring to Ireland, when the Lord Conway gave him an appointment at Portmore, on the banks of Lough Neagh, where he remained until the Restoration, and was then promoted to the Bishopric of Down and Connor.

At one end of the church-yard is the Freeschool, founded on a very extensive plan, for general education, and even for the preparing of youth for the Universities. This was built about the year 1584, by the Rev, Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, and Rector of Luffenham, in this neighbourhood, who was also the founder of that at Oakham. The expenses of the erection were

paid partly from his own purse, from benefactions, and from the produce of concealed church lands which he begged from Queen Elizabeth.

This school boasts of being the place of education of Henry Ferne, D. D. the eighth son of Sir John Ferne, Knt. He was distinguished much as a preacher in the cause of Charles I. and is well known as the author of many tracts, both in politics, and in favour of Protestants against Popery *.

The edifice itself is plain and neat, and has over the door, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the well known scriptural adage of "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

Here is also an Hospital built at the same time, and out of the same funds as the freeschool, by the benevolent archdeacon. It is for the maintenance of thirteen poor men, and one woman; six of which number are to be natives, or inhabitants of the town. Their stipend is three pounds a piece per annum. The endowments are out of the concealed lands; and both this, and the hos pital at Oakham, are under the same direction and management.

There is here a weekly Market on Wednesday, which is as old as the ninth year of Edward I. (1280) that monarch having granted and conferred to Peter de Montfort, then lord of the manor, and his heirs for ever, that they should have one market at their manor of Uppingham, and also one fair yearly for three days, on the eve, day, and morrow, of the Blessed Virgin St. Margaret, then falling on the 20th of July, but with the proviso that it should not be to the detriment of any fair of older date in the vicinity.

At present there are two Fairs in the year; on the 7th of March, and 7th of July, for horses, cattle, sheep, coarse linen, homespun cloth, &c.

The resident Population of this town in 1801, were 1393, occupying 277 houses, of whom 674 were males, and 719 females; 281 being employed in trade and manufactures.