get beyond the official words, "founded by whom is vnpresented."

The earliest known record is the bestowal, by King John, of the annual stipend of forty shillings-no mean sum in those days-in support of the chantry priest. From this time onward numerous bequests were bestowed until-in the reign of Edward VI.-the Royal Commissioners came, and confiscated not only the stipend which had hitherto been paid over by the Sheriff of Nottingham, but the church plate also, and everything else of value; the building, which consisted of a chapel with a "parler" or dwelling chamber under it, was allowed to fall into ruin, and eventually the very site was lost and forgotten.

In 1911, owing to the labours of the Vicar of Edwinstowe and Mr. William Stevenson, the site was identified, and some of the actual building stones were recovered. These have been formed into a cairn, and surmounted by a metal cross having a slate tablet at its foot inscribed as follows :

"This Cross, (erected by William Arthur Sixth Duke of Portland K.G. in 1912) marks the site of a Royal Chapel, Chantry, and Hermitage, dedicated to St. Edwin, King of Northumbria, of which the few stones here collected are evidence. In 1201 King John paid the Hermit of Clipstone, who sang in St. Edwin's Chapel in the Hay of Birchwude, the annual stipend of 40 to celebrate service for his soul and those of his ancestors: similar payments by succeeding Kings are recorded to 1548 : Survey maps shew the chapel here in 1610, and 1630."

Hermits in the greenwood were not uncommon "once upon a time." We are all more or less familiar with Eustace in his "hutt" at Papplewick, and the jovial Friar Tuck in his "cell" at Copmanhurst in Fountain Dale by Blidworth, but the Hermit of Clipstone is not so well known.

The dedication of his altar to Edwin and the propinquity of Edwinstowe, the Lings, and Hatfield suggest to me that

D

the tragic death of the first christian king had something to do with the origin of the Hermitage, whatever it may have stood for in later times.

After tea, the return journey to Nottingham viấ Mansfield was commenced, the party stopping for a few minutes to inspect the site (discovered in 1912) of St. Edwyn's Chapel, in Birkland Wood. Nottingham was reached about 6.15 p.m.

Reproduced by permission of the Warden, Sir Adolphus Ward, and the

Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Winter Meeting.

N Wednesday, the 18th of February, 1914, a meeting of the Society was held in the Exchange Hall, by kind permission of the Mayor, at 4.30 p.m., upwards of fifty members and friends being present. The following papers were read by Mr. Sydney Race and Mr. Samuel Corner.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM MS.

OF THE

LIFE OF COLONEL HUTCHINSON,

AND ITS

RELATION TO THE PUBLISHED MEMOIRS.

BY MR. SYDNEY RACE.

In the British Museum, exhibited in the King's Library side by side with the manuscripts of many of the great English classics, is a Life of John Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham Castle during the great Civil War, written by his wife, Lucy Hutchinson. This MS. has a special interest for Nottinghamshire people. The original editor of the Memoirs, the Rev. Julius Hutchinson, in the preface to the first edition published in 1806, stated that there had come down to him four MSS. in the handwriting of Lucy Hutchinson: "Ist the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 2nd A book without a