arose; and the monks' attention to the spiritual needs of the place proving unsatisfactory, in 1310 the Archbishop of York ordained that there should be a perpetual Vicar of Ecclesfield, presentable by the abbot and convent of St. Wandrille. On the abbey was also imposed the duty of providing an endowment and vicarage, of maintaining the fabric, and of finding two assistant chaplains. A monk of St. Wandrille was, accordingly, appointed in 1311, and the succession of vicars has been regular to the present time. When, in 1386, Henry II suppressed the alien priories, Ecclesfield was given to the Monastery of St. Anne, Coventry. By it the still-existing church was built, though not all at the same period. The four piers of the tower arch are Decorated; the rest of the church Perpendicular, and probably ranging from 1450 to 1500, the chancel being the latest. The windows of this were, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, filled with stained glass windows by the neighbouring families-the Fitzwilliams, Mountenays, Shirecliffes, and others; while the east window contained the arms of Furnival; a picture of St. Wandrille, with bishop's staff; figures of the Prior of St. Anne's, with twelve monks; and an inscription: Pray for Thomas Richard, prior, and his convent of the Carthusian house of St. Anne, near Coventry, who caused this chancel and window to be made." There is some difficulty in identifying this prior, but it is conjectured that his date is 1497 to 1504. We get a confirmatory clue to the furnishing of the chancel in the will of Thomas Parker, of Whitley (20th August, 1510), who bequeathed 40s. "to the making of the rode lofte and stalls in the said church of Ecclesfeld." One of the witnesses to this will was Sir Thomas Clerc, Vicar from 1478 to 1517. The rood-loft was taken down in 1570, but when Roger Dodsworth visited the church in 1628, the screen and stalls remained, and he was much struck with the display of painted glass in the windows. He wrote: "This church is called (and that deservedly) by the vulger the Mynster of the Moores, being the fairest church for stone, wood, glasse, and neat keeping that ever I came in of country church.

66

gorgeous

After that the church suffered from the dilapidations

and neglect of a decadent period. Mr. J. T. Jeffcock describes the manner in which, up to 1825, "quaint galleries, with two or three pews in them, and each a separate staircase, were studded about the church, and peered from under arches or behind pillars, each painted or colour-washed to a different tint, as suited the taste of the owner or the exigencies of the sexton. On the ground, in one place, stood a pew lined with green baize; in another an oak stall patched with deal. This was square and tall, that low and oblong; this had no floor, that no bench-end; one was surrounded with crimson curtains, the next had not even a solid seat in it." A costly but unenlightened attempt was made in 1825 to bring about a more satisfactory state of things in the nave. But the chancel was left in its old neglect; and the inadequacy of the "restoration" may be judged by the description given by Dr. Gatty, in A Life at One Living, of the condition of the church when he was appointed Vicar in 1839. Throughout his long tenure Dr. Gatty was untiring in his determination to make the structure worthy of its name; and, generously helped by the surrounding gentry, the restorations as we now see them were completed some ten years ago.

It is

The remains of the ancient priory stand to the north of the church. After the suppression of the alien priory, the few foreign ecclesiastics who had hitherto resided here probably withdrew to their own country. believed that no monks were stationed at Ecclesfield by its patrons of Coventry, but that from 1386 the estate was farmed out to some person who, converted the monastic buildings into a secular dwelling-house. This, known as Ecclesfield Hall, degenerated into a mere farmhouse when rebuilt, but in part only, in 1736. eastern portion of the old priory, with certain interpolated seventeenth-century chimney pieces and windows, was left to go to ruinous decay. The same fate was reserved for the chapel or oratory, 18 ft. 8 ins. by 13 ft. 6 ins., with chamber beneath, and a dormitory adjoining it with refectory below. But a few years ago the property was sold by the Duke of Norfolk to the late Mr. Bernard Wake, who restored these apartments, and, adding them

The

to the hall, converted the whole into a curate's house. Both piscina and aumbrye were found in the walls of the chapel, and the original east window remains with mullions and tracery in good condition. The walls of the refectory and chapel were found to be 2 ft. thick, the stones having been cemented, not with lime mortar, but with loamy clay. During the restoration there were found remains of an older wall at the west end of the chapel, which may indicate the first structure put up by the St. Wandrille monks.

The tomb of the Rev. Joseph Hunter, the historian of Hallamshire, which stands in the southern part of the churchyard, should also be noticed.

Proceedings of the Congress.

(Continued from p. 81.)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11TH, 1903.

TO-DAY the members and friends had an interesting trip to places of note in the vicinity of Worksop. With a number of Sheffield ladies and gentlemen who joined them for the day, a party of about eighty persons assembled, and after proceeding to the Dukeries town by rail, "four-in-hands" were chartered, and the company were driven to Blyth, an old-world little village lying on the border-line of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. It is a pleasant road which runs northward from Worksop to Bawtry, and with the sun shining brilliantly, the journey was most enjoyable. Early on the road one had a peep at Carlton, red-tiled and picturesque, set against a background of dark green, formed by the woods of Dangold. In the hedgerows honeysuckle twined, and the wheat-fields, where the ears of corn were already turning golden brown, had additional colour lent to them by reason of the flaming poppies every where swaying to the breeze. Blyth is not a big village, nor is it a place of importance, but in company with half a dozen other places within the radius of a few miles, it dates back to the time of the Doomsday Survey. One may read that "in Blide (Blyth) there was one oxgang of land and the fourth part of one oxgang to be taxed. Land to one plough. Four villanes and four hordars have their one plough and one acre of meadow. In the same place, one carucate of land to be taxed of soke of the King's manor in Mansfield." Blyth was agricultural when the Conqueror came, and it is agricultural to-day. It possesses one or two sleepy inns, a very fine old church, a hall, and a chapel, which has a painfully new appearance when contrasted with the surrounding buildings. So quiet, so peaceful, is everything, there that one reads with feelings akin to surprise that John Norden derives the origin of the name of the village from the mirth and good-fellowship of the inhabitants therein.

It was to the church that the archæologists directed their steps, and under the guidance of Dr. John Stokes, who read the following notes on Blyth, considerable time was spent in viewing the edifice.

NOTES ON BLYTH.

Blyth Priory was founded by Roger de Busli, or Builli, one of the wealthiest landowners of the Norman era, and Muriel his wife, in 1088 A.D. It was a Benedictine priory, subject to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity of the Mount at Rouen, to which it paid forty

shillings per annum. It was not strictly an alien priory, having only this amount to pay, yet from time to time its revenues were confiscated, when the King of England for the time being was at war with France.

The original church had a nave of seven bays, and north and south aisles with transept and choir, the latter having an apsidal end. The total length was 158 ft., and width of the nave about 45 ft.

It is one of the earliest specimens of Norman architecture in the