villages which were demesne of the crown.

At the same time

the men of Stretton were pardoned of all debts, actions, and demands, then due to the king; and it is not impossible that the good Humphrey intended this as a kind of set off for their sufferings under the before recited proverb.

The manor afterwards went to the Harringtons, and from them to the Noels, with whose heirs we believe it remains.

About two miles further to the southward is the Five Mile Cross, which is thought to have been in existence in the Roman times as a point of separation for their several roads which crossed here for from hence a way branches out from the Ermine-street, (which runs close by the side of the present highway, crossing it in one or two places, owing to the undulating line of the latter,) that seems to have been of the kind called "viæ vicinales," and leads to the different stations of Margidunum, &c.* From this spot a road, winding round Exton park paling, leads to the village of EXTON, which is but little more than a small hamlet, having nothing to boast of but its church, and the once elegant antique, but now half burnt down, mansion of the late Earl of Gainsborough; both these, however, are still sufficiently curious to arrest the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller.

At the period of the Saxon Survey in the reign of Edward the Confessor, then called Exentune, it was valued at eight pounds; but, at the Norman Survey, it appears that it consisted of eleven carucates, two mills, a meadow six furlongs in length, and a wood of five furlongs square; on which were thirty-seven villeins; the whole valued at ten pounds, and the property of the Countess Judith. Her daughter and heiress, Maud, married David, the Scottish prince, afterwards king, and Earl of Huntingdon in right of his wife. From hence it passed by an heiress to the Bruces, afterwards on the Scottish throne; and the lands of that family in England being forfeited in the contests between the two kingdoms, this manor was granted to a person of the name of Green, from whom it went to Culpeper, and then to the HarG 3 ringtons,

Bib. Top. Britan. Vol. III. p. 485.

ringtons, who held it nearly six centuries; but having sold it to Sir Baptist Hicks, it became the seat of the Gainsborough family, and is now the property of their heir.

The village is embosomed in trees: and the Church, which is considered as the handsomest in the county, has a very fine effect at a distance, and even improves upon approach. The lower part of the tower is square, with turrets at the corners, ornamented with pinnacles, and of considerable height. An octagonal tower, embattled, rises from this, from whence springs a lofty, light, taper spire, lighted at intervals by open windows; and the whole chastely Gothic.

The interior is strictly Gothic, and kept extremely neat and clean. Its decorations, too, have been very judiciously preserved in the antique style; and all the spandrils of the arches are supports for the banners of the Harrington and Noel families, accompanied by their tabards, pennons, and helmets, altogether presenting rich ideas of Gothic times and manners. The regular disposal of these renders them a kind of armorial history of the two families; whilst the monumental ornaments, and the silent gloom around, carry back the imagination of the tourist to the distant and romantic ages of chivalry.

On entering the chancel, the first monument which strikes the eye of the stranger is one to the memory of Sir James Harrington, Knt. and his lady, Lucy. This is extremely curious, and bears a very curious epitaph, which may be seen at full in Wright's Rutland. The figures are represented kueeling at an altar, with two books, under arches forming an ornamented canopy, with many armorial bearings. This venerable couple lived together fifty years, and had eighteen children, many of whom they saw happily married and settled. He died in the eightieth year of his age, and she in her seventy-second year, and both in the same year, 1591. She was daughter of Sir William Sidney; and from their union are descended, or have been nearly allied to their descendants, eight dukes, three marquises, seventy earls mine counts, twenty-seven viscounts, thirty-six barons, amongst

which were sixteen Knights of the Garter, besides many others since that calculation was made! Their eldest son, John, was born at this place, and is described by Fuller, as a bountiful house-keeper, dividing his hospitality between Rutland, and Warwickshire where he had a fair habitation. He was one of the executors of the Lady Frances Sidney, and a grand benefactor to the college of her foundation at Cambridge. King James created him Baron of Exton, and his lady, a prudent woman, had the Princess Elizabeth committed to her government. When the Princess was married to Frederic, the Prince Palatine, this nobleman, accompanied by Henry Martin, IL. D. was sent over to the Palatinate, to see her highness settled at Heidelbergh, and to perform some legal formalities respecting her dowry and jointure." This done, as if God had designed this for his last work) he sickened on the first day of his return, and died at Worms, in Germany, on St. Bartholomew's day, Anno Domini, 1613."*

On the opposite side of the chancel is a most exquisite specimen of monumental sculpture, by Nollekins. It is in white marble, and is to the memory of Baptist, fourth Earl of Gainsborough. The figure of Lady Gainsborough, which is extremely elegant, and as large as life, is represented pointing to three medallions of herself and two husbands, which are resting on a cornucopia, and supported by Cupids, with Hymen at one side weeping, and his torch extinguished. She died in 1771.

In the chancel there is also an ancient table monument of Nicholas Vyse, who, by his costume, seems to have been a bishop. In the centre of the church, there is an ancient stone despoiled of its brass, and an antique table monument for John Harrington, Esq. and Alice his wife; who died in the early part of the 16th century; it is of alabaster, and deserving of notice.

Vide Fuller's Worthies. His son, the second lord, died without issue. A curious character may be seen of him in the second volume of Nugæ Antiquæ, p. 307. His mortifications of the flesh are curions; and to them it may perhaps be owing that the family is extinct.

To the left of this is a large altar-like-monument and tomb of Robert Keylway, Esq. a famous lawyer, and father of Anne Lady Harrington. It stands in the south aisle, and is extremely sumptuous according to the fashion of his time, he having died in 1580, at the age of eighty-four. He is represented lying on his back in his official gown. John Lord Harrington, who married his daughter, is kneeling beside him, and in armour. On the opposite side is his wife with a little girl behind her; and in the centre is a small altar-tomb, with a child on it, stretched out as if dead, between them. On the top are three Children, not Cherubs, for they have no wings; but the centre one blows a trumpet, and holds a palm branch, whilst one holds a spade, and the other has a torch extinguished, and rests his foot upon a scull.

In the north aisle is an elegant marble monument to the memory of Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden, who died at the age of seventy-one, in the year 1683. It is an exquisite specimen of the art by Grinlin Gibbons, who held the office of King's Carver, and in his day was considered inimitable. On it are statues of the Viscount and his lady; the whole is twenty-two feet high, and fourteen broad, and cost 10001. at the expense of his third son John, Opposite to it, is a mural monument, to the memory of his fifth son James, who died at the age of eighteen, in 1681; his statue stands on a pedestal, and there are also two medallions of other sons who died young.

Near this is a handsome table monument in black and white marble of Anne, wife of Thomas Bruce, Lord Kinlosse, daughter of Sir Robert Chichester, who died at the early age of twentytwo, in 1627. She was a relative of the Harrington family.

Near the west end, there has lately been erected a very handsome mural monument, to the memory of Lieut. General Noel, who died in 1766. This is by Nollekens, and represents a female figure, with the torch of Hymen extinguished, and leaning on and weeping over an urn, on which is a bust of the General. It is impossible by any words to give an adequate idea of this figure, whose

whose drapery is so disposed as to shew the whole of the human form, but with a chasteness of delicacy perfectly compatible with those ideas which ought to fill the breast in such a place; yet we cannot help saying, that if ever there can be a statue which may be animated by the Promethean spark, this must be it.

With respect to the Ecclesiastical History of the church, we have but little to add. In Catholic times, the rectory was the property of the monks of St. Andrew at Northampton, it having been given to them, and to God and the church, by the family of Bruce, together with the tythes of all the lands at Exton, and this grant further stated, that these gentry and their men, in the said town of Exton, should be free and quit of all suits at court, and other secular demands and exactions whatever.

In the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas the fourth, in 1291, whose Holiness could not permit our ancestors to enjoy their various blessings without having a share of them, the rectory was estimated at thirty pounds, and the vicarage at five pounds. Here also was a Chauntry, which seems to have been as valuable as the vicarage; as it is stated to have paid to William Lacock, the incumbent, a pension of five pounds *. It was afterwards purchased from King Henry VIII. by Sir James Harrington.

This is one of the parishes, which enjoy ten pounds per annum, for the education of their poor children, by the will of Henry Foster.

EXTON HALL

is an antique edifice, in the style of the Elizabethan age, and may be said to stand in the village, on the verge of a very extensive Park. When visited by the Editor of these sheets, it was all in confusion, and in a state of repair, after the effects of a most destructive fire, which took place on the 24th of May, 1810, and which has totally ruined one half of the south-east wing.

• Willis's Mitred Abbeys.

In