"omnia et singula, dominia, maneria, hundreda," &c., and on March 20th, 1541, we find this amusing Monarch handing over the Hurley estate to Charles Howard; and three years later still to Leonard Chamberlayne, from whom it passed to John Lovelace in the same year. The latter died here on August 25th, 1558-a large chimney-piece monument still standing to his memory within the altar rails of Hurley Church! I have a transcript of the grant to Leonard Chamberlayne (in which the Dovecote still standing is clearly included, as well as Hurley Mill, and the fish ponds in Lady Place)-the words "Necnon omnes illas Rectorias nostras et ecclesias nostras de Hurley, Waltham, et Stretley," as well as "Maneria nostra de Hurley et Easthampstede" occurring in the Deed.

The above named John Lovelace was succeeded by his son Richard, who is said in our burial register to have been "Ar locum tenens castri et hõris de Windesor," and he, too, was succeeded by a son Richard, afterwards "knighted in the wars," and eventually created Lord Lovelace, of Hurley. During the time of the first of these two Richards, at Easter, 1592 (34 Eliz.), an order was made in the Court of Exchequer as to lands called "Hall's Place," in Hurley. (D. and O., vol. 19, fo. 39). The last of the Lovelace line, who owned the Manor, was the scapegrace John, Lord Lovelace (who was buried in Hurley Church on October 6th, 1693), under the cover of whose hospitality at "Lady Place "—in the crypt of the old Monastery (then the cellars of Lady Place House), many of the plans for the dethronement of King James II. were concocted. In the person of Nevile Lord Lovelace (who succeeded, as fourth baron, to the last-named John), the title became extinct. Nevile, who never lived here, died in 1736.

The great rebellion of 1688 succeeded, pregnant as it was with results for the future of religion in England. The old cellars in Lady Place still exist, and the ground plan of the fine old Elizabethan mansion-built by one of the Lovelaces on the ruins of the old Monastery-is clearly traceable. The curvature of the arches in the crypt is very beautiful. At the commencement of the present century the bones of some of the old Friars were exhumed. Our registers teem with entries of the Lovelace family, who were the owners of Hurley Manor from 1545 to 1693. Judging from a flowery epitaph which until recent years embellished the face of the family monument, John Lovelace (who died in 1558) had the credit of being an exemplary person. The following forms a part of it :-

"Blessing the Poore, more blessed thou did'st thrive,
"Six sons, two daughters, blessed was thy Bed;
"Thy Lyfe in Christ, then blessed thou alive,

"Thy Death in Christ, and blessed art thou dead;
"Blessed by name, by Title and by Wife,

"By Father, Children, Poore, by Death and Lyfe.”

There is an epitaph inscription still extant in Hurley Church to his successor (his son Richard) reporting him to have lived virtuously and departed this life the 12th day of March, 1601. There is also an epitaph to his successor (afterwards created Lord Lovelace, of Hurley, by King Charles I., on May 31st, 1629); and, although his epitaph (evidently written by himself), "lived worthily and departed this lyfe Anno Dni. ." has never until the present day been filled up above his kneeling stone effigies in the church, yet his burial took place here on April 28th, 1634, and is so entered in the Register. By an indenture, dated in 1625, enrolled in Chancery 29th January, 1639-40, he granted 10 quarters of Rye to the Poor of Hurley and twenty nobles to the Vicar of Hurley, both which gifts are still paid regularly by two farm rents at Aldworth. This worthy old man was succeeded by his son John, who died at Woodstock on September 24th, 1670, "and," our register says, was brought from thence to Hurley on Satterday, the first of October, and buried there in the vault the same night 1670." As for the next in line, another John, son of the one immediately above mentioned, he is described as "Avitæ virtutis degener hæres," having squandered his patrimony, and was buried in the vault here on October 6th, 1693. At his death the Manor was sold to pay his debts to one Vincent Oakley for £41,000. The massive silver Communion Plate still in weekly use at S. Mary's, Hurley, was presented, in 1695, by the Hon. Sir Henry Johnson, who appears to have been executor to this degenerate Lord. Not long ago I procured an original copy of the London Gazette for October 21-24, 1689, in which occurs the following advertisement : This is to give Notice that my Lord Lovelace's Plate is to be run for on Clireden (sic) Heath or Common, and the Dinner to be at the Bear at Maidenhead, there being no room in Hurly for the gentlemen and their horses." There was a racecourse formerly (not far from Cliefden House), behind the "Feathers Inn" at Taplow. Enclosed in 1787, it now forms a part of the Dropmore property.

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In 1708, Vincent Oakley sold by far the most valuable part of Hurley Manor, including Manorial Rights and the Great Tithe, to the Trustees of the will of the then late Sir Robert Gayer. This was again sold in 1768 by the Gayer family to George, Duke of

Marlborough, who in his turn sold it to Thomas Walker in 1790; and, in 1839, the Honourable H. Flower Walker, great grandson of the latter, sold it to Sir East George Clayton East, Bart., as Trustee for his son, Sir G. E. Gilbert East, Bart., together with the other, less valuable, portion of the Manor, which he (Honourable H. Flower Walker) had purchased from the relatives of the then late Mr. Richard Troughton. A portion of the Manor was then purchased (with the consent of the late Sir G. E. Gilbert East, Bart.), by the late Colonel T. P. Williams, of Temple House, Berks.

I append a list drawn up by Hurley Churchwardens on August 6th, 1552, of the goods, plate, &c., at that time in their custody at Hurley Church. "A chalice and three bells, a cope of white damask, a cope of red damask, a cope of blue satin, a vestment of crimson velvet embroydered, a red vestment embroydered, a white vestment of satin of bridges, a vestment of black satin of bridges, a vestment of red satin of bridges, two fronts for the high altar of satin of bridges, and another front of dorning, an old front of satin of bridges, a cross of latten with four altar clothes, three old small candlesticks, an old pair of censors, a ship and three old cruets of tin."

I have endeavoured ever since I was instituted as Vicar of Hurley (my native place) in 1868, to make out the History of Hurley, and here are some of the results. In 1887 I secured a list of the 'Clerici' of Hurley and of most of the Patrons from 1304 down to the present time, mainly from the Salisbury Diocesan Registry. A manuscript copy of it hangs, framed, on the wall of S. Mary's Church. Hurley was, with the rest of Berkshire, in the Salisbury Diocese until October 7th, 1836.

Swallowfield and its Owners.

By Lady Russell.

(Continued from page 14.)

1554. Christopher Lytcott died the 6th December, 1554, and was buried at Swallowfield, where there is a good brass to his memory. Ashmole thus described it: "At the east end of the chancel lyes a gravestone, bearing some brass plates, whereon, under the feet of a man in armour, and a woman in her usual habit, is this following inscribed :

'What I am thou seist,

What I have been thou knowest;
As I am thou shalt be,

What thou art remember this.'

Christopher Lytcott, Esquire, deceased, the 6. Day of Dec., A.D. 1554. On whose soule Jhesu have mercy. Who married Katherine, the daughter of Robert Chene, of Chesham Boyes, in the county of Bucks, Esq.; and had by her three sons and one daughter, John, Leonard, Christopher and Dorothy.

Under this inscription are the figures of the three sons and daughter, standing with their hands erect, and joyned in the posture of praying."

Haines in his "Monumental Brasses says: "The figure of Christopher Lytkot, Esquire, 1554, at Swallowfield, Berks, affords a good representation of the military equipment depicted on brasses just after the middle of the century; the breast-plate is now generally without placcates, and has the tapul or projecting edge formerly in fashion; the mail skirt has an indented edge, frills are worn at the wrists, and the skirt of taces is divided at the lower part by an arched opening between the tuiles." He also says "The costume worn from the time of King Edward VI. until the earlier part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth is well illustrated by the effigy of Katherine Lytkott, at Swallowfield. The centre of the 'Paris head' is

depressed; the gown has an opening up the front, tied with bows in the upper part, collar of fur, sleeves puffed and slashed on the shoulders." Katharine Lytcott survived her husband, and held Swallowfield "for her life, by right of accruer, with reversion after her death to John Lytcot, Esq., as son and heir of Christopher, aged 13 at his father's death in 1554."

1567. She died in 1567, when a Licence of entry was granted to John Litcott.

1573. He mortgaged the Manor in 1573 to one Thomas Pope, and in 1574, when he redeemed it, he again mortgaged it to one John Cade.

1581. In 1581 John Litcott once again mortgaged the Manor of Swallowfield to Anthony Higgins.

1582. Ultimately he sold it in 1582 to Samuel Backhouse.

We do not find any further mention of John Litcott, but his youngest brother, Christopher Litcott, was High Sheriff of Berks in 1584 and 1595, and was knighted in 1591 in the camp before Rouen by King Henry IV. of France. He married, first, Jane, widow of Thos. Essex, of Beckett House, Berks, and secondly, Katharine, daughter of William Barker, of Sonning, and relict of William Young, of Basildon. He died at Basildon in 1599, sp., and was buried at West Hannay. Leonard, second son of Christopher Lytcott, of Swallowfield, was of Checkendon, Oxon; he married Frances, daughter of John Pettie, of Tottesworth, Oxon.

Dorothy, the daughter of C. Lytcott, of Swallowfield, married Sir Christopher Edmonds, of Lewknor, and their daughter and heir, Frances, married John D'Oyley, of Chiselhampton.

1582. Samuel Backhouse, who bought Swallowfield from John Lytcott in 1582, was born in 1554, and was the eldest son of Nicholas Backhouse, Alderman and Sheriff of London in 1578, by his first wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Curzon, of Croxall, Derbyshire, and grandson of Thomas Backhouse, of Whiterigg, co. Cumberland, and Eleanor, daughter of John Parkyns, of Hurtloo, Cumberland.

By his first wife Nicholas Backhouse had, besides Samuel, another son, Rowland Backhouse, of Widford, Herts, born 1558, who was also Alderman and Sheriff of London, and had a long and eventful life. When past 80, he was seized at the House of Commons and conveyed to the Tower, where he was imprisoned some years in consequence of his fidelity to King Charles. He died in 1648, aged 90, and his wife Elizabeth, who was daughter and heiress of