Part 1 (1/2)
Curiousities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated.
Vol. 1.
by Thomas Dugdale.
[A] ABBERBURY, or Alberbury, a parish and towns.h.i.+p, partly in the hundreds of Cawrse and Deythur, in the county of Montgomery, and partly in that of Ford, in the county of Salop. Warine, sheriff of this county in the reign of Henry I., founded an abbey for black monks, a cell to Guardmont, in Limosin, which, at the suppression of alien priories was bestowed by Henry VI. upon the college founded by Archbishop Chiechley.
Benthall, Eyton, Rowton, Amaston, and Wollaston, are all towns.h.i.+ps of this parish. At Glyn, in this parish, is the celebrated Old Parr's cottage, which has undergone but little alteration since his time; it is timber-framed, rare, and picturesque, within view of Rodney's Pillar on Bredden Hill, in Montgomerys.h.i.+re. In Wollaston Chapel is a bra.s.s plate, with his portrait thus inscribed: ”The old, old, very old man, Thomas Parr, was born at the Glyn, in the towns.h.i.+p of Wennington, within the chapelry of Great Wollaston, and parish of Alberbury, in the county of Salop, in 1483. He lived in the reigns of ten kings and queens of England, viz. King Edward IV., King Edward V., King Richard III., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James I., and Charles I.; he died in London, (sixteen years after his presentation to King Charles,) on the 13th of November, 1635, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, on the 15th of the same month, aged one hundred and fifty-two years and nine months. At the age of one hundred and five, he did penance in the church of Alberbury, for criminal connexion with Catherine Milton, by whom he had offspring.”
[Sidenote: Old Parr's cottage and birth-place, who lived in the reigns of ten kings and queens.]
[Sidenote: Did penance at the age of 105.]
[B] ABBEY-HOLM is a small town in the ward of Allerdale. The original consequence of this little town was derived from an abbey of Cistercian monks, founded here, about the twelfth century, by Henry I. of England, as the crown rolls imply. Its benefactors were many in number, and by the magnificent grants and privileges with which it was endowed, it acquired so much importance, that during the reigns of Edward I. and II.
its abbots, though not mitred, were frequently summoned to sit in parliament. The abbey was pillaged and burnt during the incursion of Robert Bruce, but afterwards rebuilt with great magnificence; few vestiges, however, of its monastic buildings now remain. From the ruins the Parochial Chapel was formed, and there yet stands a part of the church in its original form. During the reign of Henry VIII. the abbey was chiefly dilapidated; the church continued in good condition till the year 1600, when the steeple, one hundred and fourteen feet high, suddenly fell down, and by its fall destroyed great part of the chancel.
Its total ruin was nearly accomplished by an accidental fire five years afterwards. This fire took place on April 18, 1604, and was occasioned by a servant carrying a live coal into the roof of the church, to search for an iron chisel; the boisterous wind blew the coal out of his hand into a daw's nest, by which the whole was ignited, and within less than three hours it consumed both the body of the chancel and the whole church, except the south side of the low church, which was saved by means of a stone vault. Almost due-west from Abbey-Holm, in a strong situation near the sea coast, are some remains of Wulstey Castle, a fortress, which was erected by the abbots to secure their treasures, books, and charters from the sudden depredations of the Scots. ”In this castle,” observes Camden, ”tradition reports, that the magic works of Sir Michael Scot (or Scotus), were preserved, till they were mouldering into dust. He professed a religious life here about the year 1290, and became so versed in the mathematics, and other abstruse sciences, that he obtained the character of a magician, and was believed, in that credulous age, to have performed many miracles.” The story of Michael Scot forms a beautiful episode in Scott's ”Lay of the Last Minstrel,”
the notes to which furnish some curious information respecting that extraordinary personage. Sir Michael Scot, of Balwearie, we are told, flourished during the thirteenth century, and was one of the amba.s.sadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland, upon the death of Alexander III. His memory survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed either to the agency of auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or the devil. The following are amongst the current traditions concerning Michael Scot:--He was chosen, it is said, to go upon an emba.s.sy, to obtain from the King of France satisfaction for certain piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, he evoked a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse, mounted upon his back, and forced him to fly through the air towards France. When he arrived at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, and boldly delivered his message. An amba.s.sador with so little of the pomp and circ.u.mstance of diplomacy was not received with much respect, and the king was about to return a contemptuous refusal to his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till he had seen his horse stamp three times: the first stamp shook every steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had lifted up his hoof to give the third stamp, when the king rather chose to dismiss Michael, with the most ample concessions, than to stand to the probable consequences. Another time, it is said that, while residing at the tower of Oakwood, upon the Ettrick, about three miles above Selkirk, having heard of the fame of a sorceress, called the Witch of Falsehope, who lived on the opposite side of the river, Michael went one morning to put her skill to the test, but was disappointed by her positively denying any knowledge of the necromantic art. In his discourse with her, he laid his wand inadvertently on the table which the hag observing, suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and struck him with it. Feeling the force of the charm, he rushed out of the house; but as it had conferred on him the external appearance of a hare, his servant, who waited without, hallooed upon the discomfited wizard his own greyhounds, and pursued him so close, that, in order to obtain a moment's breathing to reverse the charm, Michael, after a very fatiguing course, was fain to take refuge in his own common sewer.
_Fair_, October 29, for horses and horned cattle.
[Sidenote: The Abbey destroyed by the accidental firing of a daw's nest.]
[Sidenote: Michael Scot, the magician.]
[Sidenote: Scottish legends.]
[Sidenote: The fiend horse.]
[Sidenote: French King's concession.]
[Sidenote: The witch of Falsehope.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From
+--+--------------------+--------+-------------+-------------+ 16
Abbots Ann pa
Hants
Andover 2
Salisbury 16
11
Abbots Bickington pa
Devon
Holsworthy 6
Torrington 9
35
Abbots Bromley[A] pa
Stafford
Uttoxeter 7
Lichfield 10
12
Abbotsbury[B] pa
Dorset
Dorchester 10
Bridport 10
+--+--------------------+--------+-------------+-------------+
Dist.
Map
Names of Places.
Number of Miles From
Lond.
Population.
+--+--------------------+--------+-------------+-----+-------+ 16
Abbots Ann pa
Stockbridge 6
66
562
11
Abbots Bickington pa
Hartland 13
220
77
35
Abbots Bromley[A] pa
tafford 11
1129
1621
12
Abbotsbury[B] pa
Weymouth 10
127
874
+--+--------------------+----------------------+-------------+
[A] ABBOTS BROMLEY. The hobby-horse dance, an ancient custom, was observed here till the civil war.--Ten or twelve of the dancers carried, on their shoulders, deers' heads, painted with the arms of Paget, Bagot, and Welles, to whom the chief property of the town belonged. The horns yet hang up in the church, but the custom is now discontinued. The parish includes Bromley, Bagot's liberty, and Bromley Hurst towns.h.i.+p.
Bagot's park is the deer-park of Lord Bagot, whose seat is at Blithefield.
_Market, Tuesday._--_Fairs_, Tuesday before Mid-lent Sunday, May 22, September 4, for horses and horned cattle.
[Sidenote: Hobby-horse dance]
[B] ABBOTSBURY consists of a single parish, divided into three streets, nearly in the form of the letter Y, lying in a valley surrounded and protected by bold hills near the sea. There is a tradition that this place was called Abodesbyry by St. Peter himself, in the infancy of Christianity, but it is more probably supposed to have derived its name from the magnificent abbey, originally founded here, in the early part of the eleventh century. The ruins of the abbey (which was once large and splendid, but is now nearly demolished), consist of a large barn, a stable, supposed to have been the dormitory, a porch which belonged to the conventual church, the princ.i.p.al entrance, a portion of the walls, and two buildings conjectured to have been used for domestic purposes.
The barn, which, when entire, was the largest in the county, is now so dilapidated, that only a part of it can be used. The church, in which Orcus and his wife, the founders, were buried, is, with the exception of the porch and a pile of ruins under some neighbouring elms, totally destroyed; but the numerous chantries and chapels which belonged to it sufficiently prove its ancient magnificence. On an eminence, at a short distance from the town, stands a small building called St. Catherine's Chapel, which is supposed to have been erected about the time of Edward IV., and which from its height and lofty situation, serves both for a sea and land mark. Abbotsbury Church appears to have been built a short time before the reformation; the pulpit is pierced by musket b.a.l.l.s, said to have been fired by Cromwell's soldiers, at the officiating minister, whom, however, they missed. But it is more likely to have occurred at the time of Sir Anthony Astley Cooper's attack on the royalists, at the siege of Sir John Strangeway's house, in 1651. About a mile to the south-west of Abbotsbury, is the ”decoy,” where great quant.i.ties of wild fowl are annually taken. But the object which most engages the attention of strangers, in the neighbourhood of this town, is the celebrated ”swannery,” which, not long since, was the property of the Earl of Ilchester. In the open or broad s.p.a.ce of the fleet are kept six or seven hundred swans, formerly one thousand five hundred, including hoppers--a small species of swans, who feed and range, and return home again.
_Fair_, July 10, for sheep and toys.
[Sidenote: Tradition of St. Peter]
[Sidenote: A ruined abbey.]
[Sidenote: St. Catherine's chapel, a sea mark.]
[Sidenote: Wild fowl decoy, and swannery.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From +--+---------------------+----------+--------------+---------------+ 11
Abbotsham m.t.& pa
Devon
Bideford 2
Torrington 7
44
Abbotside, H.&Low pa
N.R. York
Askrigg 0
Middleham 7
34
Abbotts Isle pa
Somerset
Ilminster 4
Ilchester 11
11
Abbotts Kerswell pa
Devon
Newton Bush 2
Totness 7
18
Abbotts Langley[A] pa
Herts
St. Albans 4
Watford 4
34
Abbots Leigh pa
Somerset
Bristol 3
Bedminster 3
15
Abbotsley pa
Hunts
St. Neots 4
Huntingdon 12
42
Abbots Morton pa
Worcester
Evesham 4
Alcester 8
12
Abbots Stoke pa
Dorset
Beaminster 3
Crewkerne 10
16
Abbotston pa
Hants
Alresford 4
Basingstoke 12
33
Abdon pa
Salop
Ludlow 9
Bridgenorth 11
53
Abenbury Fecham to
Flints.h.i.+re
Wrexham 4
Chester 10
52
Abenbury Vawr to
Denbigh
Wrexham 3
Llangollen 12
50
Aber[B] pa
Caernavon
Bangor 6
Aberconway 9
51
Aberaeron to
Cardigan
Aberystwith 17
Lampeter 14
51
Aberarth vil & pa