differ from him respecting the value, as they do indeed in most other cases; but these differences may arise from some of these writers copying from the original Rolls of Survey, and others selecting their value from the Liber Regis. When the Dissolution took place, Roger Horwell was the prior, and had ten pounds assigned him out of the revenues *.

The priory and lands were granted to Anthony Cope, Esq. who sold them to Andrew Noel of Dalby, in Leicestershire, Esq. one of the gentlemen pensioners to Queen Elizabeth, and ancestor of the late Gainsborough family, and whose son Edward was not only created a baronet by King James I. but also called by the same monarch to the House of Peers, by the title of Baron Noel of Rid. lington.

The church is supposed to have been that belonging to the monastery, for it is not in the King's books, nor is it recorded either as a rectory, or vicarage. It contains an old monument of James's time for Charles Noel, son of the first purchaser, of that name, who died in 1619. Here also was a mansion of the Noels; but scarcely any thing remains of it.

GUNTHORPE is marked in the maps as a village; it was so formerly, most certainly, but is no longer deserving of the

name.

EGLETON is a small, but cheerful village, seated among inclosed grounds, in the vale of Catmose. It belonged formerly to the Lords of Oakham, or to the Crown, as the property of that manor and castle went through its various charges; but was afterwards in the possession of Browne, Harbottle, and latterly of the Winchelsea family.

The church, which is a chapel of ease to Oakham, is a reedification of a more ancient building, and from an extensive and very antique range of Gothic arches on its northern side, it seems to be the remains of a very extensive edifice. Its tower is quite modern, and has a small but neat spire, which forms a good object in crossing the vale.

Willis's History of Abbies, II. 139.

Here

Here was a Guild, which, in Willis's History of Abbies, is said to have paid 31. 19s. 6d. to Sir Thomas Kelso in 1553. This Knight, however, was nothing more than the Guild Priest, who is then stated to be seventy years of age, unable to serve a cure, poor, but of good repute among his neighbours. In the Survey of Edward VI. it appears that this Guild was founded for the maintenance of one priest to sing mass there for ever, and had an endowment of lands in various parts of the county of the value of 51. 8s. and 6d. out of which 11. 9s. annually were paid to different persons, and the remainder to the priest. At that period, Egleton must have been a very small place, as it is stated to have had only four " housling people," or communicants; and its lands were then dissolved and granted by the Crown, to hold of the manor of Eye, in Suffolk, at that time a Royal honour, or

manor.

Part of these lands was a messuage in West Street in Oakham, with two yard-lands in the common fields in that parish, rented at 11. 13s. 4d.; there were also a cottage opposite to the market-cross, rented at fourteen shillings, a void piece of ground containing half a rod, adjoining to the stone wall belonging to the cottage, valued at two shillings, and a small piece of ground containing by estimation thirty feet in length, and six feet in breadth, adjoining to the east end of the orchard attached to the cottage, of the yearly value of fourpence. Such were the humble possessions of this humble society, which seems to have borne some slight resemblance to our modern Friendly Societies, though established for very different purposes.

These ancient Guilds are supposed to derive their name from the Saxon word "Geld," signifying Money; the members associated for purposes of religion, or charity, contributing money and lands, and afterwards the associations for commercial purposes assumed the same name. The religious and charitable Guilds had frequent meetings, particularly on the anniversary of their patron Saint, when they elected their various officers, and they always maintained a priest, whose duty it was to say

masses

masses both for the good estate of the living members, and also for the souls of the departed.

CLIPSHAM, though in this hundred, is yet on the north-east verge of the county, a circumstance arising from the events of its territorial possession: for in the reign of Edward II. it was in the hands of William de la Zouch, Baron of Harringworth, and held by him from the crown as part of the honor of Oakham, by the service of the twentieth part of a knight's fee. The editors of Magna Britannia are, however, of opinion that it belonged to Oakham hundred previous to this, which was in the reign of Henry IV.; and they take occasion from this to notice an observation of Sir William Dugdale in his Warwickshire, where, speaking of various parts of one county being insulated, as it were, in another, he accounts for it by supposing that in all cases, even where there are no existing records, these parts or parcels were formerly the possessions of great landholders, who, in order to avoid trouble at their manor courts by their estates being under different municipal jurisdictions, got leave from the crown to have these small extraneous portions removed municipally from the counties in which they were locally situated.

The family of Zouch having forfeited at the battle of Bosworth, the then baron being attainted in the first parliament called by Henry VII. these lands were granted to David Philips; but afterwards coming to the crown were held by the Harrington family, from whose heir they went to Archdeacon Johnson, the founder of Oakham Free-school, or at least to his nephew; since which they have several times changed hands.

The church is a rectory: it is of some antiquity, and has some armorial glass in its windows; but this, in the opinion of Mr. Blore, must have been removed here from the long ruined church at Pickworth, as it bears a reference to the bearings of the landholders of that parish.

Here was a chauntry founded by De La Zouch; and an extract from its Survey will shew the rapacity with which the property of the various religious foundations, however small, was

seized on by Henry VIII. and his horde of plunderers, who, in their great zeal for the destruction of superstition, seem to have had no objection to fill their pockets with its spoils. This Survey, taken in the second year of Edward VI. says, that the chauntry was founded for the maintenance of one priest to sing there for ever; hath lands and tenements in the counties of Rutland and Lincoln, to the value of one hundred and six shillings and eight-pence, whereof rents resolute are four-pence only; so that there remains clear for the portion of the chauntry priest, Sir Robert Taylor, aged forty-six years, who is impotent, but of very honest report, and hath nothing to live upon but his chauntry, an hundred and six shillings and four-pence per annum; and out of it he pays yearly for tenths to the king nine shillings and eight-pence. There did belong to this chauntry one chalice, parcel gilt, which was delivered to the jewel-house, and ornaments valued at twelve shillings and four-pence."

Of modern times there is nothing particular to notice respecting Clipsham, except that here is a neat and commodious mansion occupied by Snow, Esq.

ALSTOE HUNDRED,

to which we now approach, is the most extensive division of Rutland, being 27,091 acres. It contains the parishes of Ashwell, Burley, Cotsmore, Exton, Greatham, Market Overton, Pickworth, Stretton, Tigh, or Teigh, Thistleton, Wissendine, and Whitwell, and includes the whole northern part of the county bordering on Lincoln and Leicestershires, and uniting with every other hundred except Wrangdyke.

The fee of the whole hundred, as early as the reign of Edward I. was in possession of Edmund Earl of Cornwall, son of Richard, a younger son of King John, and elected king of the Romans, from whom it came afterwards to the crown. It is curious that this hundred has not a single market-town, although it appears that Market Overton was so formerly.

Entering the hundred from Oakham, the first place which pre