ruin, mantled with ivy. After it ceased to be the residence of the Lords Aston, it was converted into a seminary for Roman Catho lics; but when the manor was purchased by Mr. Plumer, that gentleman refused to suffer its continuance on his estate. The establishment was removed, therefore, to Old Hall Green, at a little distance, where a spacious building has been erected for its

convenience.

Standon is mentioned by Ingulphus, the historian of Croyland, as having been granted to Croyland Abbey, before the middle of the ninth century; and as the place where Abbot Brithmere, about the year 1030, built a stately house, with out-offices, for the entertainment of himself, and his retinue, during his journeys to London. In this parish also, about half a mile eastward from the Church, was a PRECEPTORY of Knights Hospitallers, but of short continuance, built on lands given to that Order by Gilbert de Clare in the time of King Stephen: the site, and some of the remains of this building, are now connected with a farm, called Friars. A HERMITAGE, founded at Standon in the time of Richard de Clare, was given by him to the monks of Stoke, in Suffolk, and afterwards became a Cell to that house. This is supposed to have afterwards become a secular free Chapel, and to be the same with Selburn, in this parish.t

Standon Church is dedicated to St. Mary, and is furnished with many monuments and sepulchral memorials of noble and other families. The chancel is ascended by several steps from the nave, and is divided by the altar from the more eastern part, which is raised still higher, and contains the monuments of the Sadleirs. Against the south wall is the tomb of SIR RALPH SADLEIR, whose effigies is represented in armour, lying beneath a canopy; with his sons and daughters kneeling below: he died in the year 1587,

in

The grant made by Gilbert de Clare, was confirmed by his nephew, Richard de Clare, and included 140 acres of land, together with his vineyard, and the Church of Standon. The Manor is also mentioned as belonging to the Knights Hospitallers, in the Claus. 10. Ed. III. m. 13.

+Tanner's Notitia.

in his eightieth year. Opposite to this is a similar kind of monument, in memory of his son, SIR THOMAS SADLEIR, Kat, who died in January, 1606; and who is also represented in armour, with his second Lady, GERTRUDE, daughter of Robert Markham, Esq. of Cotham, in Nottinghamshire, lying on his right hand; and their children, a son and daughter, kneeling beneath. WALTER, second Lord Aston, who died in November, 1714, was also buried here, together with several others of his family. On a tablet in the vestry, is an inscription in memory of ANN, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Coke, Knt. " by his first and best wife, Bridget Paston, daughter and heir of John Paston, of Norfolk, Esq." and wife to Ralph Sadleir, Esq. Among the many other sepulchral memorials in this Church, is one in commemoration of SYR WILLIAM COFFYN, Knt. Master of the Horse to Queen Jane Seymour, who died in December, 1538; and another in memory of PHILIP ASTLEY, Esq. a younger branch of the Astleys, of Warwickshire, which, in Salmon's time, had brass figures of himself, and his four wives, and ten children: he died in July, 1491. The inhabitants of this parish, according to the late returns, amounted to 1846; the number of houses to 254.

On an eminence in Standon Lordship, called HAVEN END, are two large Barrows, supposed, by Salmon, to have been raised by the Danes. In the neighbouring parish of WIDFORD are two other Barrows, which give name to the estate on which they are raised.

BISHOPS' STORTFORD

DERIVES its name from its situation on the river Stort, and from its having been the property of the Bishops of London from the Saxon times. In the reign of John, however, it underwent a temporary alienation; that Prince having seized it during his opposition to the encroachments of the Papal See. While it remained in his possession, he erected the town into a borough; and empowered the inhabitants to chuse their own officers: and though the authority of the Bishops was afterwards restored, the inhabitants appear to have retained a sufficient independent authority

1

to return two members to Parliament, in the fourth, seventh, eighth and sixteenth years of Edward the Second; and again, in the ninth, twelfth and fourteenth of Edward the Third. Since the latter period, no return has been made; and the Bishops appoint a Bailiff to exercise jurisdiction through the extent of their liberty.

On the east side of the town are some remains of an ancient CASTLE, called Waytemore, on a piece of ground environed by the Stort. This was in existence in the time of the Conqueror, and had probably been built by the Saxons, on the site of a Roman camp, as Roman coins, of the Lower Empire, have been found in the Castle garden. In the days of Stephen, this fortress was considered as of some importance; and the Empress Maud endeavoured to prevail on the Bishop of London to exchange it for other lands, but without effect. King John ordered it to be demolished; but, after his submission to the Pope, he was obliged to make atonement to the Bishops of London, by granting them his Manor of Stoke, near Guildford, in Surrey: some of the out-buildings, and other parts, however, appear to have been standing as lately as the seventeenth century; and the Bishops continued to appoint a Custos, or Keeper of the Castle and Gaol of Stortford,' till the time of James the First. The Gaol was last used by Bishop Bonner; and some remains of the lower walls are yet to be seen in the cellar of an ale-house below the Castle Hill, Quit-rents, for castle-guard, are still paid to the See of London, from many ma nors adjacent to Bishops' Stortford.

The Church is dedicated to St. Michael, and is situated on a commanding eminence: it consists of a paye, chancel, and aisles, with a tower at the west end. The monuments, and sepulchral tablets, are numerous; many of them record the family of the Dennys, of Waltham Abbey, in Essex; and among them, of the LADY MARGARET DENNY, a descendant from the Edgcumbes, of Mount Edgcumbe, in Cornwall, Maid of Honor to Queen Elizabeth, and wife to Sir Edward Denny, Knt, Groom of the Queen's Privy Chamber:

Salmon's Herts, p. 271.

Chamber: she died in April, 1648, at the age of eighty-eight. In the chancel are several ancient Stalls; and in this Church was formerly a chantry, and three altars for as many guilds.

The extent and population of Bishop's Stortford are considerable, and many improvements have been made here of late years. The trade of the town has also been increased by a Canal, completed about the year 1769, under an Act of Parliament obtained early in the present reign. In the High Street is a square building, having the market-place and shops beneath, and a Grammar-School above, connected with a library, and writing-school: this was erected about the commencement of the last century. Here are some good inns, and many of the houses are respectable buildings. The inhabitants of the town, as enumerated under the act of 1800, amounted to 2305; the number of houses, to 456, Various small donations and bequests have been made to this Parish for charitable purposes.

About five miles south from Bishop's Stortford, is the village of SAWBRIDGEWORTH, or SABRIDGEWORTH, corruptly called Sabsey and Sabsworth. This manor was granted by the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Magnaville; and from his family was conveyed, by the marriage of an heiress, to William de Say, in the time of Richard the First, Geoffrey de Say, whose son and successor, of the same name, married Maud, daughter of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and had summons to Parliament in the first of Edward the Third, obtained the grant of a weekly market for this manor from Edward the First; yet it appears that a market had previously been held here under the Magnavilles. In his descendants it continued till the death of Sir William Say, who was knighted by Richard the Third, and was several times Sheriff of this county and Essex, when it devolved on his daughter Mary, married to Henry Bouchier, Earl of Essex. It afterwards descended in the same manner as Bennington,* till it reverted to the Crown in the time of James the First, and afterwards passed through va0 4 rious

See under Bennington, p. 196.

rious families, by purchase, and otherwise, to the Fremans, and from them to the Earls of Hardwick.

The Church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a massive tower, embattled, at the west end. The windows of the aisles are large and pointed; those of the nave have trefoil-headed lights, under obtuse arches; and a similar one, but much larger, is at the east end of the chancel, The monuments are numerous; and among them are some very fine ancient Brasses. Among the latter, in a small chantry, or chapel, connected with the south aisle, are two full-length figures, represented as completely emaciated, and in winding sheets; these are extremely well drawn, and appear, by the arms, to be of the family of the Plantagenets. Here also are full-length brasses of a Knight and his Lady, with the same arms; and in the same chapel is a tomb, and curious brasses, of the Leventhorps. In the chancel is a good altar-tomb of Bethersden marble, with a rich canopy, in the pointed style: beneath it are indents of brasses, which have evidently delineated a Knight kneeling before a representation of the Trinity, and behind him the figures of his two wives, one of whom appears to have had four, and the other three children. This is said to have been erected in memory of SIR RALPH JOCELYN, Knt. twice Lord Mayor of London, whose family became seated at HYDE HALL, in this Parish, as early as the thirty-third of Henry the Third, by the marriage of Thomas Jocelyn with Maud, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Hyde. The inscription, as recorded by Weever, was as follows:

Drate pro anima Radulphi Joslyne quondammilitis, et dis Maioratus Ciuitatis London, qui obiit xxv Detob. M.cccc. lxxviii

Opposite to the above is another tomb, with recumbent figures of a male and female, supposed to represent John Jocelyn, Esq. and Philippa, his wife; the former of whom died in 1525. On the floor, also, is a slab, inlaid with Brasses, of a male and two female figures, arrayed in the dress of the times, with a brass of fifteen boys beneath, indents of other children, and this inscription: