of Cirencester's Ad Sturium has the fairest claim, sup-posing Ansa to be another word for the flexure of that river."

EXCURSION V.

From Ipswich through Whitton, Claydon, Blakenham Magna, Baylham, Needham, Stow Market, Haughley New Street, Woolpit, and Beighton, to Bury Saint Edmunds.

WHITTON, the first place we arrive at in our present Excursion, is within two miles of Ipswich. The church here is sometimes called Whitton chapel, but improperly, as it has been instituted as a parochial church, upon the presentation of the Bishop of Ely, ever since the year 1299. Kirby remarks, if any of the churches now in being (in or near Ipswich) were built in the Conqueror's time, which may well be questioned, we think this bids as fair to be one of them as any; and the neighbouring church of Thurleston seems to be of the like kind, and lies about a mile to the right of the road. On the opposite side, about a mile and a half from the road, is

BRAMFORD. This, in the 22d Edward I. was the lordship and demesne of Robert de Tibetot; but for many years the Acton family were the residents of the hall here. The church, with the berewic of Burstal and Albrighteston, belonging to it, was given to Battle Abbey by King William Rufus, and that abbey had the rectory, and were patrons of the vicarage, till 33 Henry VIII. when it was granted to Christ Church, Canterbury, in exchange. An uncommon tenure is attached to the manor here, for the tenants hold of the lord by

a lease of twenty-one years, renewed from time to time upon a fine; and upon the death of a tenant, or an alienation, the new tenant is admitted to the remainder of the time unexpired, so that the lord has more profit of the lands than the tenants have. There was another manor in Bramford belonging to the Bishop of Ely as late as the year 1593. From this place a good road leads directly to Great Blakenham, at which place we turn to the left, quitting the mail road, and proceed towards Bury by a good high road.

GREAT BLAKENHAM. The manor and advowson here was given to the abbey of Bec, in Normandy, by Walter Gifford, Earl of Buckingham, and afterwards granted by Henry VI. to the provost and fellows of Eton.

LITTLE BLAKENHAM lies about two miles to the left of Great Blakenham. The lords of Nettlestead were patrons of this rectory when the Tibetots, Despensers, and Wentworths, had that lordship. After the manor and advowson were in the Milner's family, they were vested in the Right Honourable Lord Orwell, late James Vernon, esq.

NETTLESTEAD is about a mile to the left of Little Blakenham. The Earls of Richmond and Brittany had the lordship here from the Conquest to the 17th of Henry II. when Conan, the last earl, died. In the 25th of Henry III. Peter de Savoy had a grant of it. It was after the property of the lords Tiptot, from whom it went to the Despensers. About the year 1450 it became the estate of Roger Wentworth, whose descendants were created lords by Henry VIII., and it continued in the Wentworth family till the time of Charles I. when Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Cleveland, sold it to William Lodge, citizen of London.

SOMERSHAM is about a mile south of Nettlestead. The family of Bohun, Earls of Northampton, were many years patron of this rectory, and lords of the

manor, which, with that of Offton, were granted to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, by Richard III. in 1423. Katherine, Queen of England, presented to it, in right of the manor of Somersham, which she had by the grant of King Henry VI. The old wills make mention of a chapel in Somersham-street. Aldham and Elmsett lie about three miles to the left of Somersham, and nearly join each other.

ALDHAM. This was the lordship of the second Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in the twenty-fourth year of Edward III. From the Earl of Leicester it was afterwards bought by Sir Joshua Vanneck, and was late the property of Lord Huntingfield.

ELMSETT. The church of this village, pleasantly situated on a hill, is built of flints, and covered with slate. The interior is particularly neat and clean. On a mural monument in the chancel is a kneeling figure of a man with a book open before him, his arms above, and underneath this inscription:

"Here lyeth the body of Edward Sherland, of Gray's Inn, esquire, descended from the ancient family of the Sherlands, in the Isle of Sheppy, in Kent, who lived his whole life a single man, and died in this parish the 13th of May, 1609.

"Tombes have no use unless it be to showe

The due respect which friend to friend doth owe;
'Tis not a mausolean monument,

Or hireling epitaph, that can prevent
The flux of fame: a painted sepulchre
Is but a rotten trustlesse treasurer,

And a fair gate built to Oblivion.

But he whose life, whose ev'ry action,

Like well wrought stones and pyramides, erecte

A monument to honour and respecte,

As this man's did-he needs no other herse,

Yet hath but due, having both tombe and verse.”

Near the north side of the church stands the house

formerly the parsonage, now much decayed, but once surrounded by a moat. On the descent of the opposite hill is a dropping well, which deserves the inspection of the curious.

Elmsett is remarkable as the native place of John Boyse, an eminent scholar and divine, who was born here in 1560. His father, himself a great proficient in the Greek and Hebrew languages, was first curate, and afterwards rector, of this parish. The son, who is said to have manifested such a precocity of talents, that by the time he had attained his fifth year he could read the Hebrew bible, was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge. Here he acquired the reputation of being the first Greek scholar of his time, and was chosen Greek lecturer. He used to deliver his lectures at four o'clock in the morning, in his own chamber; and so numerous was the attendance, that it was said, "there used to be as many candles lighted in St. John's at that early hour, as the bell which then rang gave tolls." He once designed to apply himself to the study of physic, with a view of making it his profession; but being troubled with a weakness frequently incident to persons of a delicate constitution, that of believing themselves to be afflicted with every disease of which they read, he turned his attention entirely to divinity. On the death of his father, he succeeded him in the rectory. When King James I. ordered the new version of the Bible to be made, Mr. Boyse was chosen one of the Cambridge translators, and executed not only his own share, which was part of the Apocrypha, but likewise that of one of his colleagues. He was also appointed one of the committee of six to revise the whole, each member of which, while engaged in the task, was paid by the Stationers' Company thirty shillings per week. After this he assisted Sir Henry Savile in translating the works of Chrysostom, for which laborious task he received only a copy of the book. The highest