ters,' between the then Bishop, Thomas Lylde, and this lady; and as the Bishop was a rough and plain man, hardly brooking such indignities as it is likely a woman of that nobility would be ready enough to offer,' she conceived a deadly and inveterate malace against him, for wreaking whereof, she awaited an opportunity. This soon occurred; for the Bishop having offended the King, by reprehending him for appointing Robert Stretton to the Bishopric of Lichfield, the Lady, thinking it now a fit time, commenced a suite against him, the grounde and colour whereof was this. Certeine lewde persons had fired some housing belonging to the said lady, and being apprehended, were coutent to accuse the Bishop of this foule fact; and before ever the Bishop heard any thing of the matter, at the instance of the lady, and commandment of the King, a Nisi Prius passed against him, and adjudged him to the payment of 9001. which presently hee was faine to lay downe.' Notwithstanding this, he appealed to a jury; but the lady's influence having prevented him from obtaining a copy of the former judgment, nothing could be done;' on which he complained to the King; but with so much warmth, that Edward' accused him to the Parliament then assembled,' by whom he was sentenced never more to come into the King's presence.' The enmity of the principals was taken up by their domestics; and not long afterwards, the Bishop's Chamberlain slew one of the Lady Blanch's servants, in a violent affray, that originated in a dispute about the boundaries of the two estates. The Bishop was soon accused as an accessary to the murder; and though 'knowing himself guiltless,' yet fearing that this would prove but as his other sutes had done, he sold all his moveable goods, put the money into the hands of trusty friends, and hid himself. This might not serve his turn; he was found guilty by the crowner's inquest, and his temporalities seized into the King's hands. Seeing, therefore, the worst, (as hee thought,) he was content, upon summons, to appear in the King's Bench, where he demanded - trial by his peeres, which the judges denied him, well knowing that, by an ordinary and honourable triall, they should not be able able to condemne him. A common Jury of twelve Knights of the Post found him guilty, as accessary after the fact, forsooth, quod prædictum Radulfum (the Chamberlaiu) post perpetratam feloniam receptasset scienter; which, notwithstanding, he to the last gaspe with great protestations ever denied.' Judgment being pronounced against him, he appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, that he might be put to his canonicall purgation;' but the Primate advising him to intreat favor of the King, he resolved to “have recourse unto the Pope, to whom repayring, he declared all the circumstances of his trouble, from the beginning unto the end. Hereupon his accusers were cited to appear in the Pope's Court, and for not appearing, were excommunicated. The Bishoppe of Lincolne was commanded to denounce this excommunication, which he did, to his great trouble; and also, that if any of the excommunicate were dead, he should cause them to be digged out of their graves, and forbid them buriall in holy earth. This peremptory dealing of the Pope moved the King unto great choller; for divers of those that were excommunicate, were persons of no small account; some of them of his Privy Council. Proclamation was therefore made throughout the realme, that, upon paine of death, no man should hereafter be so hardy as to bring into the realme, any kind of writing from the Pope's Court. Some, notwithstanding, contrary to this prohibition, delivered letters to the Bishoppe of Rochester, then Treasurer of England, from the Pope, concerning this matter; and fearing the worst, had armed themselves: this done, they shrunke away, and fled; but were soon after apprehended, and diversely punished; some dismembered, others faire and well hanged. The Pope hearing of this, was so incensed, that hee wrote a very sharpe letter unto the King, breathing out terrible threats against him, if hee did not presently reconcile himself unto the Bishoppe, and cause full amends to bee made him for all the losse hee had sustained, eyther by the lady, or him, in these troubles. The King was too wise eyther to do all hee required, or utterly to despise his authority: the one he knew was not for his honour, nor (so farre had this tyrant incroached upon the authority of Princes) the other for for his safety. Warned by the examples of King John, Henry the Emperour, and other, hee thought good not to exasperate him too much; and so was content to yealde unto somewhat: but, before the matter could grow to a full conclusion, it was otherwise ended by God, who took away the Bishop by death: he deceased at Avinion (Avignon) June 23, 1361, and was there buried."* Not any fragment of the Lady Blanch's House is now standing; and the Bishop's Palace at Somersham has been equally destroyed. Colne was anciently a chapelry to Somersham; but during the era of the Commonwealth, Colonel Wauton, brother-in-law to the Protector Oliver, and one of the King's Judges, having received many kindnesses from Dr. Thomas Lawrence, head of Baliol College, and Margaret Professor, when a prisoner at Oxford, procured it to be made a Rectory, by getting the small tythes annexed to it, and then presented it to the Doctor; the latter being then in great distress, his known loyalty having occasioned his expulsion from all his Church preferments.† Cole principally consists of thatched cottages, scattered over a large plot of ground. The house of the Lady Blanch Wake was, in the last century, inhabited by the Drurys; and was wholly pulled down about eighteen or twenty years ago: the grounds round the site have a park-like appearance. The Church, which is almost half a mile from the village, appears, from the style of its architecture, to have been erected about the time of Henry the Third. It consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a tower at the west end, standing within the area of the Church, similarly to that at Stone in Kent, and being open to the aisles, but not to the nave, on which side the arch has been walled up for additional support. Between the nave and aisles on each side, are four wide arches, rising from octagonal columns; an obtuse arch separates the nave and chancel. In the south wall of the latter is Godwin's Cat. of Eng. Bishops, p. 269-272. Edit. 1615. + Wood's Ath. Oxon. Vol. II. p. 136. See under Stone, p. 571,-2. is a Piscina; and at the end of the south aisle, where was proba bly a Chapel, is a double Piscina. Some mutilated remains of arms and figures in stained glass, appear in two or three of the windows: the windows of the aisles in the west wall are of the lancet form. On a grave-stone in the nave is the indent of a Knight under a canopy, with shields of arms above; the brasses gone. The walls are supported by buttresses; those of the west wall are particularly strong. This edifice was new roofed, and otherwise repaired, in 1807. The Manor of the Soke of SOMERSHAM, which includes the several Parishes of Somersham, Pidley, Colne, Bluntisham, and Erith, belonged some years since to the Hammonds of Kent, and was afterwards "the property of the Duke of Manchester by purchase from the last Thomas Hammond, Esq. who left no children." It has since been bought by Sir Robert Burton, Knt. who has disposed of a considerable portion of the estates, but still retains the manorial rights. Somersham was given to the Monastery of Ely by the brave Duke Brithnoth, or Brithnod, in the year 991, with several other valuable manors, on the condition that, if he should be slain in battle, the Monks should inter his body in their church; and this, as the event demanded, they punctually performed. The circumstances which led to this valuable donation, are stated at length in the Librum Eliensem, from which it appears, that Brithnoth having *Soke generally signifies franchise, liberty, or jurisdiction; sometimes a territory or precinct.' Kel. Dom. Book, p. 330. + Gough's Cam. Vol. II. p. 159. "That Lib. II. Chap. 6. The account given by the Ely Historian, when divested of some portion of its verbiage, is nearly as follows. most noble person, BRITHNOTH, was the bravest Duke of the Northumbrians; and, for his wonderful wisdom, and bodily courage, was surnamed by all, Alderman. He was eloquent in speech, robust in strength, large in body, active in warfare, and beyond measure courageous besides which, he reverenced the church, and bestowed his whole patrimony for the use of the ministers of God. He passed his whole having been refused a sufficiency of food for himself, and his companions in armis, at the Abbey of Ramsey, when on their way to oppose the Danes at Malden, repaired to Ely; where the Abbot, and his Convent, treating him with much greater hospitality, he, to recompense their bounty, gave them the manors alluded to. It seems probable that the Soke of Somersham was separated from the See of Ely at the Dissolution, as it is described in the Cotton M. S. as his Majesties Manor;' and the Palace," which James Stanley, the lavish and expenceful Bishop of Ely, beau tified whole life in defending the liberties of his country, and would sooner die than suffer an injury done to it to go unrevenged. Therefore, when the Danes, at a certain time, had landed at Maldune, (Malden,) he hastened to encounter them with an armed force, and slew almost the whole of them on the bridge over the river. The few who got back, animated their brethren to revenge the deaths of their countrymen, and in the fourth year afterwards, they again land at Maldune, under their leaders, Justin and Guthmund; and immediately give out that they are come to avenge their former loss, and proclaim that he should be accounted a coward, who should not dare to enter into combat with Brithnod.' ་ "The Duke, incensed at their boldness, summoned his former companions to this enterprize, and, spurred on by his too great courage, he took his way to the war with only a few warriors. In the course of his way, he drew near to Ramsey Abbey, and requested entertainment and provision for his men. It was told him that the place was not sufficient for so great a number; but that himself, and seven of his companions, might have what he desired. To this, it is said, the Duke thus replied; Let the Lord Abbot know that I alone, without the soldiers, will not dine; because I alone, without them, am not able to fight. So departing, he directed his way to the Church of Ely, informing the Abbot Elsi, that he, with a small force, was about to cross over the Island to battle, and that if he pleased, himself and his companions would sup with him. The Abbot, with the consent of his Convent, replied, that in a work of charity, he was not terrified with any number, but rather rejoiced at their arrival.' Being therefore received, with all his companions, he is entertained with a kingly hospitality; and through the diligent attention of the Monks, he was inflamed with a great love of the place; nor did it seem to him that |