conveyed in marriage, by an heir-female, to Richard Willis, Esq. who dying in 1781, it descended to his daughter, by whom the estate has been sold to the present Earl Cowper. The Manor House is an ancient building, and has been let to various tenants.

The Church at Digswell is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, and contains some fine Brasses in memory of the Perients. On a slab in the chancel, are those of JOHN PERIENT, and his Ludy, who are represented by large figures: the former as a Knight, "in a pointed helmet, adorned with engrailed facings, and having plated armour, with roundels at the shoulders and elbows: a kind of collar or belt is round his neck; a long strait sword, without a cross-bar, at his left side; a dagger at his right; and at his feet a leopard couchant. His Lady, at his right hand, is in a singular triangular head-dress, the curls coming down in a point to her neck; and at the top a wreathed fillet: she has slender arms, the wrist-bands studded, and wears a mantle: at her left foot is a dead hedge-hog." The inscription round the verge of the slab is now mutilated, but has been given as follows by Weever:

Hie jacent Johannes Perient, Armiger pro corpore Regis
Richardi Secundi, et Penerarius eiusdem Regis: et Armiger
Regis Henrici Duarti; et Armiger etiam Regis Henrici
Quinti; et Magister Equitum Johanne filiae Regis Navarr,
et Reginae Angliae qui obilt

uxor eius, quondam capitalis Domicilla

obijt xxiiij Aprilis. Ann. Dni. M. cccc. xv.

et Johanna

que

The Manor of WELWYN has, with little intermission, been an appendage to its Rectory from the time of Edward the Confessor, who granted it to the Presbyter, as appears from the Domesday Book, where its name is written Welge. The advowson is possessed by the College of All Souls, Oxford, which, in the year 1730, presented to the Rectory, the REV. DR. YOUNG, author of the Night Thoughts, who retained it till the time of his death, in April, 1765. That very original, but melancholy poem, was prinVOL. VII. APRIL, 1806.

S

cipally

* Sepulchral Monuments, Vol. II. Where also is an engraving of

these figures.

cipally composed here, as well as various others of his pieces; and this also was the scene of his death. He was buried in the chancel of Welwyn Church, near the body of his lamented wife, the Lady Elizabeth Lee, who died in the year 1741. Frederick, their only son, concerning whom Rumour was once so busy, and has so falsely characterized, erected a monument over the remains of his parents, with this inscription:

M. S.

Optimi parentes

EDWARDI YOUNG, LL. D.

Hujus Ecclesia Rect.
Et ELIZABETHÆ,
Fam. prænob.

Conjugis ejus amantissima

Pio et gratissimo animo
Hoc marmor posuit
F. Y.

Filius superstes.*

Welwyn is traditionally said to have been the place where the massacre of the Danes began on Hock Tuesday. MARDLEY BURY, a subordinate Manor in this Parish, was formerly held by the rent of a July Clove-flower. LOCKLEYS, another Manor in Welwyn, was anciently possessed by the Perients; but is now, or was lately, the seat of George Gardner, Esq. The Mansion is pleasantly situated, at a short distance from the Maran River, on the east side. According to the late returns, the Parish of Welwyn contains 168 houses, and 1015 inhabitants.

BROCKET HALL, so named from the ancient family of the Brockets, was conveyed in marriage by Mary, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Brocket, Knt. who died in October, 1598, to Thomas Read, Esq. of Barton, in Berkshire. His grandson, Sir James Read, Bart. left two daughters, co-heiresses: Love,

the

* A brief sketch of the life of Young has been already inserted under the description of Upham, in Hampshire, the place of his birth: Vol. VI. 293, 4.

the youngest, married Mr. Secretary Winnington, from whose family the manor was purchased by Sir Matthew Lambe, Bart. father of Lord Viscount Melbourne, the present owner. The site of the ancient Manor-house is now occupied by a handsome dwelling, commenced from the designs of Mr. James Paine, by the late Sir Matthew Lambe, and completed by Lord Viscount Melbourne. The apartments are elegantly fitted up, and are decorated with many fine paintings by the first masters. The Park and grounds are very beautiful; and the scenery is much enriched by the river Lea, which flows through the Park, and has been formed into a spacious sheet of water, over which is a handsome bridge, built also by Mr. Paine, the architect.* Lady Melbourne directs a considerable share of attention to improvements in agriculture; and has two farms on different kinds of soil, where experiments are frequently made as to the most beneficial modes of culture: on one of these, the system of drill husbandry, on the principles of the celebrated Ducket, has been introduced.

HATFIELD WOOD-HALL was the property of the ancient family of the Basingbourns, as early as the reign of Edward the First, in whose name it continued till about the time of Queen Mary, when it passed, on a partition between the two daughters and co-heiresses of John de Basingbourn, to Audrey, the eldest, married to Thomas Gaudy, Sergeant at law. He sold it to Sir John Boteler, Knt. in whose family it continued till the death of Sir Francis Boteler, in 1690, when it devolved on his daughters and co-heiresses. Julia, the eldest, married Francis Shalcross, Esq. of Digswell; but dying without surviving issue, bequeathed the manor to her sister Isabella, married to Charles Hutchinson, Esq. from whom it came in course of descent to the Rev. Julius Hutchinson, Clerk, who sold it a few years ago to the present Marquis of Salisbury. The Manor-House has been since pulled down.

In Paine's Views, Plans, &c. is a plate of this Bridge, together with elevations and plans of Brocket Hall.

HATFIELD, OR BISHOPS' HATFIELD,*

CALLED Haethfeld in the Saxon times, from its situation on a heath, was ancient demesne of the Saxon Kings, till it was granted by Edgar, in the tenth century, to the Abbey at Ely, in Cambridgeshire. On the conversion of that foundation into a bishopric, in the reign of Henry the First, it became attached to the new See; and the Manor-House becoming a Palace of the Bishops, the town was thenceforth distinguished by the appellation of Bishops' Hatfield. Queen Elizabeth, who had resided in the Bishop's Palace some years before she came to the Crown, greatly admired the situation; and by virtue of the statute which gave her the power of exchange, procured the alienation of this manor from the then Bishop of Ely, Richard Cox. James the First, in the third year of his reign, exchanged it for the house, manor, and park of Theobalds,† with his Minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; whose descendant, the Marquis of Salisbury, is the present

owner.

The Church is a handsome fabric, dedicated to St. Etheldreda, and consisting of a nave, chancel, aisles, and embattled tower, with a Chapel, or Burial-place, of the Earls of Salisbury, on the north side of the chancel. This Chapel was erected by ROBERT CECIL, first Earl of Salisbury of that surname, but contains neither monumental inscription, nor other memorial, for any of the family, except the founder. His monument is curious: it represents the Earl in his robes, lying on a slab of black marble, which is supported by figures, in white marble, of the Cardinal Virtues, kneeling, in virgin habits, and with their proper attributes. Beneath, on another slab of black marble, the Earl is represented as a skeleton, lying on a well-sculptured mat, in white marble. The Earl

This town has frequently had the honor of being recorded as the place where a Synod was held in the year 680; and also as the birthplace of William de Hatfield, second son of Edward the Third: but the real scene of both those transactions was Hatfield, in Yorkshire.

+ See description of Theobalds, p. 239.