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in default of issue, given the estate to the absolute disposal of her husband, he continued to enjoy it from the period of her death, in 1759, till the year 1773, when he bequeathed it to Sarah, his second wife, for her life, with remainder to Robert Salusbury, Esq. of Llanwerne, in Monmouthshire, who was afterwards created a Baronet, and on the death of Lady Salusbury, in June, 1804, became possessed of this estate.*

The situation of Offley is very high and commanding. The manor-house, called OFFLEY PLACE, is a large and interesting building of the time of Elizabeth, it having been built by Sir Richard Spencer, about the year 1600, as appears from an inscription in the Church. The latter fabric is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, and consists of a nave, chancel, and side aisles; with a tower at the west end: the chancel was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Salusbury. Many of the Spencers have been interred here; and at the entrance of the chancel, on tablets of black marble, is the following inscription relating to them.

"In memory of that branch of the SPENCER family settled at Offley. Sir John Spencer, from whom the present Earl of Sunderland is descended, settled his eldest son at Althorpe in Northamptonshire; his second son, Sir Thomas Spencer, at Clarendon, in Warwickshire; his third son, Sir William Spencer, at Yarntón, in Oxfordshire; and Anno Dom. 1554, purchased the Manors of Offley St. Leger's and Cockern Hoo, which he settled upon his fourth son, Sir Richard Spencer, in 1577, who married Hellen, the fourth daughter and co-heir of Sir John Brocket, of Brocket Hall, by Hellen, his first wife, daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert Litton, of Knebworth. He built Offley Place about the year 1600, and died in November, 1624; and was succeeded by his son, Sir John Spencer, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Anderson, of Pendley," &c.

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By this disposal of the property, the heirs of Sir Henry Penrice (who was a purchaser from the other co-heiresses of the Spencers) were deprived of their inheritance, so that Mrs. Thrale (see Boswell's Life of Johnson) had no real occasion to feel hurt that her uncle, Sir Thomas Salusbury, gave the estate to a more distant relation.

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Against the north wall of the chancel is a costly monument of various colored marbles, in memory of SIR HENRY PENRICE, LL.D. and ELIZABETH, his Lady: the former died in August, 1752, at the age of seventy-five. On a pedestal is a sarcophagus of black marble, above which is a figure of Truth, of statuary marble, sitting on a rock, with a torch in her right hand, and a laurel wreath in her left; and round her different symbols, in allusion to the functions of Sir Henry, who, besides being Judge of. the Admiralty Court, was Chancellor of the Diocese of Glocester: on a medallion above, are busts of the deceased, with their arms.

On the south side of the chancel is a very fine monument, by Nollekins, in memory of SIR THOMAS SALUSBURY, LL.D. who died in October, 1773, at the age of sixty-six. His figure is represented standing on an inscribed pedestal of white marble, and receiving a chaplet of laurel from the hands of his surviving Lady. The benignity of his countenance, and the modest diffidence of hers, are extremely well expressed; and the figures are gracefully arrayed, and well finished. Behind them is a sarcophagus of black marble, with the trunk of a blasted oak rising above, on the extended arms of which is thrown a mantle that falls down to the ends of the sarcophagus.

In the north aisle is an elaborate monument of white marble, in commemoration of SIR JOHN SPENCER, Bart. who died a bachelor at Tunbridge, in August, 1699. The deceased is represented by a recumbent figure of a youth in a Roman dress, resting his right elbow on a cushion, and his left hand on his breast: he is looking up to an aged matron (his mother) who is kneeling at his feet, and pointing to two angels in the clouds, one of whom has a palm branch, and the other a celestial crown. At the top are the arms of Spencer; and at the bottom, a long inscription. Several other neat monuments, of different families, are contained in this edifice.

PODERICH, PUTTERIDGE, or PUTTERIDGE BURY, in the township of Offley, was previously to the Norman Conquest, held by a Saxon named Alestane de Boscombe. The Conqueror granted it, with many other manors, to William, Earl of Ewe, whose

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whose posterity retained it till the reign of Henry the Third, when it was forfeited to the Crown by an heiress. In the time of Henry the Sixth, it belonged to the Darrels; and in the thirtieth of that King, it was certified that Elizabeth Darrel held Poderich-bury by the yearly rent of a pound of pepper, and a pound of cummin. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, it was purchased from the Darrels by John Docwra, who was nephew to Sir Thomas Docwra, Lord Prior of St. John of Jerusalem; and it continued in his family till Martha, daughter and heiress of Thomas Docwra, conveyed it in marriage to Sir Peter Warburton, Bart. whose son, Sir George, sold it, in the year 1729, to Lord Charles Cavendish. This nobleman again disposed of it, in 1738, to Sir Benjamin Rawling, whose coheirs sold it, in 1788, to John Sowerby, Esq. the present possessor, who resides at LILLEY, an adjacent parish, on an estate that was also purchased from the descendants of the Docwra family; several of whom lie buried in the Church at Lilley.

RAVENSBURY CASTLE, or Ravensborough, in the parish of Hexton, is an ancient Camp, approaching to the figure of an ellipsis, and occupying the summit of a very high and steep hill on the immediate confines of this county and Bedfordshire: it is surrounded with a single trench and rampart, and includes about sixteen Dr. Stukely imagines that the present name of this Camp is a contraction from Romans-borough; but a more obvious derivation arises in supposing it to have been a Danish fortress, whence the term Ravens-bury, from the celebrated Danish Standard, becomes peculiarly apposite. A contiguous piece of ground is still called Dane-furlong; and the Danes are known to have sustained a considerable defeat in the reign of Edward the Elder, in finibus Luitonia, et provincia Hertfordensis. The remarkable Long Barrows, which are between this place and Lea-grave, in Bedfordshire, have, with some probability, been supposed to have been raised over the bodies of the chieftains slain in that battle. Icknield Way passes Ravensbury at a little distance to the south. HEXTON, called Hegastanestone in the Domesday Book, was given to the Abbey of St. Alban, about the year 1030, by a noble Dane, named Sexi, and it continued attached to that founda

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tion till the period of the Dissolution; when Henry the Eighth granted it to Sir Richard Lee. Anne, one of his daughters and co-heiresses, conveyed it in marriage to Edward Sadlier, Esq. who alienated it to his brother Henry, who, in 1593, sold it to Peter Taverner, Esq. whose family was seated at North-Elmham, in Norfolk, as early as the commencement of the reign of Edward the First. His great grandson sold it to John Cross, Esq. But it now belongs to William Young, Esq. who has a seat here, which was formerly Admiral Pasley's. The hills in this neighbourhood are very considerable, and give issue to many springs. The Church at Hexton is dedicated to St. Faith, a statue of whom was anciently standing over a fountain near the Church-yard, called St. Faith's Well. On the north of the chancel is a Chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, and appropriated to the interment of the Lords of the Manor.

At PIRTON, called Peritone in the Domesday Book, the mound on which stood the Keep of the Castle of the Limesies yet remains, surrounded by a ditch. Ralph de Limesy, an eminent Norman soldier, to whom this township, with many other possessions, was given after the Conquest, founded a Church here: he was founder, also, of the Priory of Hertford, to which Priory a manor in Pirton, of his donation, belonged; but his principal manor continued in his posterity in the names of Limesy, Odingsels, and Clinton, for many generations. A younger branch of the Odingsels had likewise a manor in this township, which at length became the property of Roger Lupton, Provost of Eton, who gave it to that College in the reign of Henry the Eighth; but it has been recently sold for the purpose of redeeming the land tax on other estates belonging to that foundation.

ICKLEFORD is a small village, supposed to derive its name from its situation on the Icknield Way, near a ford of the river Ivel. In the Church was interred, under a stone of white marble, HENRY BOSWELL, King of the Gypsies, who died in 1780, aged ninety years: his wife, and grand-daughter, were also buried here. Tradition represents Ickleford as having been anciently a market town,

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HITCHIN

Is a large and ancient town, situated in a fertile valley, and surrounded by considerable eminences, It appears to have had its origin in the Saxon times, and was given by Edward the Confessor to Earl Harold, by the appellation Hitche. In the Domesday Book, it is called Hiz, a name that, according to Chauncy, it received from the little river Hiz, which flows through it. At the period of making that Survey, it belonged to the King, and was rated at five hides; two of which are described as lying in Monasterio hujus pille. William Rufus granted the manor to Bernard de Baliol, whom he had previously made Baron of Biwell, in Northumberland, and in whose descendants it continued till the deposing of John de Baliol, King of Scotland, and the seizure of his possessions by Edward the First. Edward the Second granted it to Robert de Kendale, Clerk, and the heirs male of his body; but it reverted to the Crown on the death of Thomas de Kendale, in the next reign, without issue, Richard the Second granted it, by the name of Hychen, to his brother Edmund de Langley, from whom it descended to Edward, Duke of York, afterwards Edward the Fourth, since which it has continued in the Crown, and has occasionally been the jointure of the Queens of England. The Bogdani family held this manor as lessees; and from them it passed to a Mr. Rhudde, of Uttoxeter, who is or was lately the lessee, The well-known antiquary, the late Maurice Johnson, Esq. of Spalding, in Lincolnshire, was for many years Steward of the manor courts; the jurisdiction of which extends into several neighbouring parishes.*

Hitchin

What is called the Rectory Manor in Hitchin, anciently belonged to the nuns of Helenstow, or Elnestow, near Bedford, to whom it was given by Henry the First; though Dugdale has mistakenly recorded it, as of the donation of Henry the Second. After the Dissolution, it was granted, by Henry the Eighth, to Trinity College, Cambridge, and is still the property of that foundation. It was lately held by the Duke of Bedford, under a lease from the College,

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