2000 pounds in silver towards the King's ransom at his return from the Holy War. See Gibson's Camden, II. 960, 1104. Sir George Pudsey, Knt. recorder of Oxford, in 1685, was the last of the family who resided here. He sold the manor and estate, of about 12001. per annum, to Lord North, (father of Lord Guildford,) for 25,0001.* In the valor of 1291, (usually called Pope Nicholas's,) the vicarage of Elsefield, is valued at viij marks ;t and in the Liber Regis at 61. 8s. 1 d. In 1240, Roger de Ellendon was presented to this vicarage, by the prior and convent of St. Frideswide. The prior and convent presented another vicar in 1251. Nor among the later vicars should Mr. Francis Wise be forgotten, eminent as an Antiquary and a Saxonist. A short life of him may be seen in the Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood, vol. I. part II. p. 26. Some additional anecdotes may be found of him in Mr. Nichols's Anecdotes of Bowyer; and a singular account of Dr. Johnson's visit to him at Elsfield, in Mr. Boswell's Life of the Doctor, 2d 8vo. edit. vol. I. p. 236. The present vicar is the Rev. Henry Kett, B.D. fellow of Trinity college, Oxford, and Bampton Lecturer, in 1792.‡ 1799, Oct. H. E. * MS. Rawl. in Bibl. Bodl. + MS. Hatton in Bibl. Bodl, LXXXIX. folio 142. [In the next Magazine, p. 944, we find the following remarks on this article. E.] Ellesfield can have no connexion with Allectus; but it may have been the field, q. d. land or estate of Ella, some Saxon proprietor, as Godelming is properly Godelm's ing, Godelm's meadow or land. Alchester has Romanity in its name; but it is Ald chester, q. d. the old camp or city, and not that of Allectus; as Alwalton, near Chesterton, in Huntingdonshire; is Aldwalton, q. d. the old walled (or fortified) town, being near a Roman station. Fointed arches on Saxon capitals are not uncommon, and are perhaps marks of subsequent repair, for it is not easy to suppose the spreading semicircle could be hewn away to a point; but, if these pointed arches are adorned with dental or zig-zag work, they are coeval with the pillars. The use of the piscina was not to carry off the host, which was a solid body, but the holy water that We are much obliged to your correspondent H. E. for remained unused. his account of Ellesfield. Allow me to add to it, that two neat views of Mr. Wise's garden make vignettes to his Catalogue of the Bodleian Coins, XI. Memoranda of Kingswood, in Wiltshire. KINGSWOOD, in the hundred of Chippenham, a populous place, principally inhabited by clothiers, and persons employed in that branch of manufacture, is seated in the Vale of Gloucester, a small distance from the town of Wotton Underedge, in Gloucestershire, by which county it is surrounded. Formerly particular places were sometimes separated from the counties in which they were naturally situated, and adjoined to others, for the purpose of forming integral parts of one barony; but how this principle applies to Kingswood, I know not. However, though in the county of Wilts, it is in the diocese of Gloucester, and Deanery of Dursley. The site is flat, principally consisting of rich meadow lands; and between the main village and the hamlet of Nind, runs a rivulet, upon which are erected mills. The old Roman military way, branching from the great Fosse, runs through this place to Aust Passage. (Collinson's Somersetshire, I. 160.) No information on the spot enabled me to identify it; but there is an old road at the side of the manor house, and almost adjoining to its out buildings, which from its appearance and direction was, perhaps, the road Mr. Collinson alludes to. Leland (Collect. I. 32.) tells us that there was a monastery* founded at Tetbury, in the county of Gloucester, by Reginald de St. Walery, which was transferred to Kingswood; in consequence of which, Roger de Berkeley, who had been the instrument of this translation, was considered as founder. Of this second foundation, there is the following account in Mr. Smith's MS. History of Berkeley Hernesse, at Berkeley castle, tit. Caldecote." The Abbey of Kingswood, by Wotton Underedge; a monastery seated in the county of Wilts, of the foundation of that ancient Saxon Family of the Berkeleys, of Dursley, though compassed round about with the parts of Gloucestershire; and hath been taken as part of that manor of Kingswood, *"Of Cistercians," says Mr. Smyth, from the Pat. Rolls of 22 Ed. I. m. 6. [printed in Meyner's Apost. Benedict. 62 seq.] and which he, who wrote before the publication of Dugdale, says, "sheweth of what order cach monastery in England was of." 2 anciently of old called Acholt, wherein the Abbey house was seated, though now severed by the grant of in the year of his reign, made to [Sir John Thynne, Knt. had Letters patent for the site of this Abbey, and other lands in Wilts, 2 Eliz. Jones's Index, vol. I. And see Tanner, under the article Kingswood.] "And King Henrie the Third, in 11th of his reigne, he confirmed to the Abbot of Kingswood and his Convent, the manor of Acholt, which Roger de Berkeley, of Dursley, gave to that Monastery, and all other their lands as freely as King Henry the second, his grandfather, confirmed them to them; in which are also divers liberties recited. And to be free, ab omni seculari exactione et servicio*, as by Rot. Chart. 11 Hen. III. pars 1. mem. 12 appeares. For which charter of confirmacion, the Abbot gave to the Kinge 10 marks, as by Rot. Fin. 11 Hen. III. appeares, where of the premisses is also a particular expression." 3 Hen. V. Feb. 2, 1415. Thomas Lord Berkeley left by will, among other legacies, to the church of Kingswood, his best collar of the King's livery, his pair of quilt vestments, wrought with white angels, &c. Id. Mr. Smith, in "Lives of the Berkeley Family, II. 349. MS." "The last Abbot of the monastery, before the dissolu tion thereof, was William Bewdeleye; as a lease shews, made by him, 20th Dec. 28 Hen. VIII. and the monastery was dissolved by surrender." Id. Mr. Smith, Berkeley Hernesse, loc. sup. cit. In 1610, the manor was, among other lands and revenues, assigned for the establishment of P. Henry, and then valued at 781. 9s. 6d, per annum. Ordinances of Royal Housholds, 314. It now belongs to Mr. Wale, of Adderley. "The impropriate rectory of Kingswood (if I may soe call it,) and the 71. per annum of antient custome, paid by the inhabitants there, or rather 61. 13s. 4d. were by the Letters patent of Queen Eliz. dated 21 Julii, a° 5to Eliz. granted (inter alia) to Humphry Shelton, and Edmund Hunt, and theire heires, from whom the same forwith came, accordinge to the truste in them reposed, to Thomas Hanbury, one of her auditors, and from him to Francis his son, who aliened the same to Roger Fulse." Smith, (Berkeley Hernesse, loc. sup. cit.) The inhabitants have still a pay This they had long before claimed-Hearne's Lib. Nig. Scacc. I. 166, ed. 1774. ment, called the Clobury rents, charged upon certain houses and lands. Whether it was this Mr. S. alluded to, I could not learn. I was also informed, that no other tythes or modus was paid than 101. per annum to the minister, and a like sum for the church. Of the ancient buildings remaining here, the principal is the Abbey gate; a relic of the rich florid Gothic work, in part, at least, probably built, not long before the dissolution. In the window over the gateway, the mullion is a flower resembling the cone and leaves of a pine, but more slender, whose branching shoots form the ramifications of the bend of the window. Above is a rich cross, with our Saviour crucified, rich knots down the coping, and on each side the pine end are two tufted pinnacles. Abore the gateway is a demi-angel, with wings displayed, and a plain shield covering his breast. Upon the right side an empty niche with a rich canopy, above which, in the corner (for the hollow of the niche is carried above the canopy,) is a bird descending obliquely; which shews plainly that it was filled by the statue of a Pope, this being their uniform distinction in the cuts of the "Golden Legend*." Upon the other side of the gateway is a flight of steps leading to a doort. The roof, within, is richly vaulted with numerous heavy ribs, elaborately moulded with foliage, roses, &c. as the intersections; and, in one corner, an Abbot's head with his mitre. In the centre is a large rosette. About a mile out of the town is a fine old house, which I was informed was another Abbey; and, perhaps, the cell, which the monks of Tinterne had here. (Lel. Col. I. 104.) There is work in this house of the 13th and 15th centuries. There is a rich cross formy charged with roses upon the foof of the projecting porch; and oyer the door, on a plain shield, is W 1705. for Tho. and Eliz. Wichell, of Bourton near Watton Underedge, who resided here as the Manor house. *The dove, or Holy Ghost, whispering in their ears; obviously alluding to their office and supposed infallibility. The statue in question was perhaps one of the four fathers that was a Pope, viz. St, Gregory. This however is quite uncertain. Modern; and not for the ancient use of those by the entrance of churches. Near, or upon the site of a narrow slip of ground, about six yards wide and thirty long, stood an ancient church. Within this place are flat stones for families of the names of Thomas Smith, Esq. 1732, and branches of his family; as well as for Robert Fenley, clothier, 1772, and his wife and children. The present church is a modern building, entering be tween two pillars at the West end, and a small turret for a bell at top. The East end is all along the wall painted in the most paltry style of modern beautification, like the frontispiece of a barn theatre, or alehouse puppet-shew; to represent the sky with a glory; and Jehovah in the middle; Belief; Commandments; pelican feeding her young ones, emblematic of the sacrifice of Christ; communion-table clothed in crimson velvet and gold lace, &c. On each side the altar are two long narrow-arched windows, in which are the arms of Berkeley twice repeated, crosses, paties, rosettes, stars, suns, foliage, tabernacles of niches; a shield with a narrow saltire of spiked thorns, surmounted by four sceptres in cross, conjoined in the fess point at their bases Or, (as I cannot think the saltire to have been raguly, the whole seems to me to have been a complex pun upon the cross, crown of thorns, and kingdom of Christ ;) fine head of a pilgrim in a light crown and couched hat, turned up before, and an escalop shell in front; and on the opposite window, another head of a nobleman of the 14th century, as is plain by the head-dress. On the same window, Sable, fretty Azure, between every joint a fleur de lis Or, twice repeated, Ermine in a canton Gules, a cross crosslet fitchey, Argent, joined to the stem of the cross; below the transverse beam a square banner of St. George's cross, (badge of a Crusader,) parts of the following letters H. I. HHPS. In the window of the side wall, a lion passant, Or, leaves, stars, foliage, flowers within circular bodies. The pulpit, on one side of which is the King's arms, has a red velvet cloth, with fringe and a cypher, (M.B.) Mary Blagden, 1723. The benefactions, as too numerous, I omit, adding only, that the table tells us the church was built a 1722. There is only one monument in this church (brought from the old one) worthy note. It is a mural tablet on which is Or, on a bend Sable, three escalops Argent, crest a demi-hind saliant, attired and unguled Or. "In memory of his deare Father Thomas Webb, late of Kingswood, son |