Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11 Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set.

Part 16

Chapter 163,351 wordsPublic domain

[Sidenote: Seat of the Duke of Buckingham.]

[Sidenote: A seat of one of the paramours of Charles II.]

[C] AXBRIDGE. This town is one of the polling places for the eastern division of the county of Somerset, but the court for the election of the Knights of the Shire is at Wells. The borough sent members to parliament during the reigns of the three first Edwards, but was afterwards excused on the plea of poverty. It consists chiefly of one street, winding from east to west, about half a mile in length. The shambles and market are towards the east end. Although so small, it is governed by a corporation, consisting of a mayor, bailiff, and ten aldermen, and twenty-two burgesses, with a recorder, town-clerk, and other officers. Knit hose are manufactured in this town. The church, occupying an eminence, near the market-house, is a large and handsome gothic structure, in the form of a cross. The cloth of the communion table is elegantly wrought in silk, by Mrs. Abigail, who employed seven years in completing it. This lady, and several of her family, have monuments in the church.

_Market_, Saturday.--_Fairs_, Feb 23, and March 25, for cattle, sheep, cheese, and toys.--_Mail_ arrives 2.0 afternoon; departs 11.0 morning.

[Sidenote: A borough excused on a plea of poverty.]

Map|Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From | +--+-----------------+----------+---------------+------------+ 11|Axminster[A] m.t.|Devon |Bridport 12|Honiton 10| 11|Axmouth pa|Devon |Colyton 3|Sidmouth 9| 13|Aycliffe-Great} |Durham |Darlington 5|Sedgfield 7| | to & p} | | | | 29|Aydon to|Northumb |Hexham 6|Corbridge 2| 29|Aydon-Castle to|Northumb | 6| 2| 15|Aylburton chap|Gloucester|Blakeney 5|Coleford 7| 11|Aylesbear to& pa|Devon |Ottery, St.M. 5|Exeter 10| 5|Aylesbury[B] bo.}|Bucks |Tring 7|Winslow 11| | m.t. & pa}| | | | +--+-----------------+----------+---------------+------------+ |Dist.| Map|Names of Places. | Number of Miles From |Lond.|Population. +--+-----------------+--------------------------+-----+------+ 11|Axminster[A] m.t.|Lyme Regis 6| 147| 2719| 11|Axmouth pa| " " 6| 153| 646| 13|Aycliffe-Great} |Durham 13| 246| 1564| | to & p} | | | | 29|Aydon to|Newcastle 15| 277| 99| 29|Aydon-Castle to| 15| 277| 29| 15|Aylburton chap|Chepstow 8| 120| 388| 11|Aylesbear to & pa|Sidmouth 8| 166| 1025| 5|Aylesbury[B] bo.}|Wendover 5| 38| 4907| | m.t. & pa}| | | | +--+-----------------+--------------------------+-----+------+

[A] AXMINSTER is very irregularly built, and the houses are inelegant, but the air of the town is reckoned highly salubrious. The petty sessions of the hundred of Axminster are held here. The lower orders are mostly employed in manufacturing carpets, leather breeches, gloves, &c. The manner of weaving carpets here is different from that pursued at most other places; the carpets being woven in the piece, and several hands employed at the same loom. The common patterns are flowers, roses, &c., though the Turkey and Persian carpets have been imitated with success. In many large pieces Roman tesselated pavements have been copied, which have produced a very rich effect. The tunnel between Charmouth and was opened in the month of January, 1832. This improvement is substantially constructed with an elliptic arch, capable of allowing two stage waggons of the largest size to pass on it, and is rather more than seventy yards in length. By the completion of this tunnel the longest and steepest hill between London and Exeter is avoided. A gentleman who visited the tunnel during the height of the ensuing summer, remarked the astonishing coolness which he felt within this hill's enclosed semi-cylinder; no sooner, however, had he left it, than he fainted from the difference of temperature between this subterraneous passage and that of the open air.

_Market_. Saturday--_Fairs_, St. Marks Day; April 30; Wednesday after June 24; Wednesday after Oct 10.--_Mail_ arrives 1.20 afternoon; departs 12.51 afternoon.

[Sidenote: Trade.]

[Sidenote: A remarkable tunnel through a lofty hill.]

[B] AYLESBURY. The Æglesbury of the Saxons, is a considerable market town, situated near the centre of the county, rising gradually on all sides in a rich and extensive tract, denominating the "Vale of Aylesbury." Drayton in his Poly-Albion has the following lines descriptive of this celebrated vale:--

Aylesbury's vale that walloweth in her wealth, And (by her wholesome air continually in health) Is lusty, firm, and fat; and holds her youthful strength.

This was originally a strong British town, which maintained its independence till the year 571, when it was reduced by the West Saxons. In the year 600, it became famous as the burial place of St. Osyth, who was born at Quarrendon, two miles distance, and beheaded in Essex by the Pagans. Her relics were interred in this church, and are said to have performed many miracles; a religious house was founded in honour of William the Conqueror, who parcelled it out under the singular tenure:--that the tenants should find litter or straw for the king's bedchamber three times a year, if he came that way so often, and provide him with three eels in winter, and three green geese in summer. In the reign of Henry VIII., the manor was sold by Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wilts, father of Queen Anne Boleyn, to Sir John Baldwin, whose daughter took it in marriage to Robert Pakington, who was murdered in the year 1537, on account of his zeal for the reformed religion. It continued in this family till the year 1801, when it was sold by Sir John Pakington, Bart., to the Marquis of Buckingham. How completely the manor and the town itself were in the possession of the Pakington family, will appear from the following remarkable letter preserved in the Chapel of the Rolls, among the returns of Parliament writs of the fourteenth of Queen Elizabeth:--"To all Christian people, to whom this present writing shall come: I, Dorothy Pakington, late wife of Sir John Pakington, lord and owner of the town of Aylesbury, send greeting. Know ye me, the said Dorothy Pakington, to have chosen, named, and appointed my trusty and well-beloved Thomas Litchfield, and George Burden, Esqrs., to be my burgesses of my said town of Aylesbury; and whatever the said Thomas and George, burgesses, shall do in the service of the Queen's Highness in the Parliament to be holden at Westminster on the 8th of May next ensuing the date hereof, I the same Dorothy Pakington do ratify and approve to be of my own act as fully and wholly as if I were witness or present there. In witness whereof, to these presents, I have set my seal, this 4th day of May, in the 14th year of the reign of my Sovereign Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, France, and Ireland, Queen, &c." Aylesbury was made a borough town by a charter of Queen Mary, in 1554. The Reform Bill has made no alteration in the number of members. The electors are those of the old constituency, consisting of freeholders of the hundred, and house-keepers not receiving alms; the freeholders of the hundred are estimated at 838; and the ten pound householders at 314; total 1152. The limits of the borough are unaltered, and the returning officers are the constables of the borough. The town is also one of the polling places for this county, which now returns three members. The county gaol is still at Aylesbury, but the Summer Assizes were restored to Buckingham, through the exertions of Lord Cobham and the Grenville family in the year 1758. The only manufacture at Aylesbury is that of lace-making: the weekly market is a very plentiful one for provision, and much business is done here at the annual fairs.

_Market_, Saturday--_Fairs_, Friday after Jan. 18; Saturday before Palm Sunday; May 8; June 14; September 25; October 12, for cattle. _Bankers_, Rickford and Son, draw on Praed's and Co--_Mail_ arrives 12.40 morning; departs 2.19 morning.--_Inns_, George, and White Hart.

[Sidenote: St. Osyth.]

[Sidenote: Singular tenure of this manor.]

[Sidenote: Remarkable Parliamentary writ.]

[A] AYLESFORD is seated on the banks of the Medway, by which the parish is divided. The church is so singularly situated, from being placed on a rising ground, that persons in the churchyard can almost look down the chimnies of the houses. The neighbourhood is famed as having been the spot where, we are told by ancient historians, a sanguinary battle was fought in 445, between the Britons and Saxons; the conflict having taken place about five years after the first landing of the latter in Britain. It appears from our chronicles that Vortimer, then monarch of this island, having first defeated his enemies on the banks of the Darent, in Kent, pursued their routed forces to Aylesford; at which place the Saxons had passed to the eastern side of the Medway, where a most obstinate and bloody battle took place between the contending armies, when the fate of the day, having long remained undecided, at length terminated favourably for the Britons. In that decisive affair, Horsa, brother of Hengist, the Saxon chief, and Catigrinus, brother to King Vortimer, are said to have contended hand to hand, when both died bravely upon the spot. Horsa, | if tradition may be credited, was interred about three miles north of Aylesford, at a spot still bearing the name of Horsted; that is to say, "the place of Horsa;" where, in the adjoining fields, large stones are still dispersed over the soil; some in erect positions, while others, from lapse of time, have been thrown down; being, there is little doubt, placed there as memorials of the Saxon warriors slain in that famous encounter. Prince Cartigrinus is supposed to have been inhumed still nearer the field of slaughter, on the summit of an acclivity, about one mile north of Aylesford, and a quarter of a mile west from the high road leading from Rochester to Maidstone; at which place, Kitt's Cotty House still stands, as represented in our engraving. This memorial consists of four large stones, of the pebble kind, two placed in the ground, being partly upright, forming two sides, a third standing in the middle between them, while the fourth, being the largest, is laid transversely over them, thus forming a covering. None of these stones bear the imprint of the chisel, or any sign whatsoever of manual labour. Alfred and Edmund Ironside defeated the Danes in this vicinity. Sir Charles Sedley, of poetical and dissolute notoriety, was a native of this place; as was also Sir Paul Rycaut, the celebrated eastern traveller.

[Sidenote: The site of a Saxon battle.]

[Sidenote: Kitt's Cotty House.]

Map| Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From | +--+-----------------------+---------+-------------+------------+ 27|Aylsham[A] m.t. & pa|Norfolk |Norwich 12|Cromer 11| 17|Aylton pa|Hereford |Ledbury 4|Ross 11| 17|Aymestery to & pa|Hereford |Leominster 9|Kington 11| 28|Aynho[B] pa|Northamp |Brackley 6|Banbury 7| 18|Ayott, St. Lawrence pa|Herts |Welwyn 3|Luton 7| 18|Ayott, St. Peter pa|Herts | 2|Hatfield 5| 43|Aysgarth to & pa|N.R. York|Middleham 9|Askrigg 4| 32|Ayston pa|Rutland |Uppingham 1|Okeham 6| 43|Ayton East to & pa|N.R. York|Scarborough 4|N. Malton 16| 43|Ayton West to|N.R. York| 5| 16| 43|Ayton Great to & pa|N.R. York|Stokesley 4|Guisboro' 5| 43|Ayton Little to & pa|N.R. York| 4| 5| 45|Azerley, or Cozenley to|W.R. York|Ripon 5|Masham 5| +--+-----------------------+---------+-------------+------------+ |Dist.| Map| Names of Places. | Number of Miles From |Lond.|Population. +--+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----+------+ 27|Aylsham[A] m.t. & pa|Reepham 7| 118| 2334| 17|Aylton pa|Hereford 11| 124| 126| 17|Aymestery to & pa|Ludlow 11| 146| 1006| 28|Aynho[B] pa|Buckingham 11| 63| 664| 18|Ayott, St. Lawrence pa|St. Albans 7| 28| 134| 18|Ayott, St. Peter pa| 7| 25| 271| 43|Aysgarth to & pa|Reeth 7| 241| 5796| 32|Ayston pa|Rockingham 6| 90| 101| 43|Ayton East to & pa|Whitby 20| 217| 360| 43|Ayton West to| 20| 217| 256| 43|Ayton Great to & pa|Stockton 10| 240| 1105| 43|Ayton Little to & pa| 10| 240| 68| 45|Azerley, or Cozenley to|Bedale 11| 217| 579| +--+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----+------+

[A] AYLSHAM is situated on the southern side of the river Brue, which is navigable hence to Yarmouth, for barges of about 13 tons burthen. Aylsham during the reigns of Edward II. and III., was the chief town in this part of the kingdom for the linen manufacture; but in succeeding reigns, that business was superseded by the woollen manufacture; and in the time of James I., the inhabitants were principally employed in knitting worsted stockings, breeches, and waistcoat pieces. Since the introduction of frame knitting, that trade has also been lost; the town is governed by a bailiff. Aylsham church is said to have been erected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the court of which duchy was at one period held here. There is a spa in the neighbourhood, the water of which has obtained considerable reputation for its medicinal properties in chronic disorders.

_Market_, Tuesday.--_Fairs_, March 23; last Tuesday in September for lean cattle, ordinary horses, and pedlary; and October 6, for cattle.--_Mail_ arrives 12.30 afternoon; departs 2.0 afternoon.--_Bankers_, Copeman and Co., draw upon Hankey and Co.

[Sidenote: Trade.]

[B] AYNHO is a large and respectable village seated on a rock, below which issues a powerful spring of water, called the Town Well, which after running through the vale below, contributes to the supply of the Charwell. The church contains numerous monuments, several of which belong to the Cartwright family, who have long been in possession of the manor, and whose descendant R.W. Cartwright, Esq., has a handsome seat, the interior of which is adorned with a fine collection of paintings. An hospital was founded here for poor and sick travellers. The building is still standing, but is now occupied as a private house.

[Sidenote: Town Well.]

[A] AIRE, (The) rises from a small lake on the moors of Yorkshire, north-east from Settle, descending through Aire-dale and Craven in its course to the south-east, which it pursues as far as Leeds, where, turning eastward, and meeting the Calder, it passes under Ferrybridge, flowing through the flattest portion of Yorkshire; and receiving the Don, a little north of Snaith, it unites with the Ouse above Booth Ferry, near Howden. This river is of greater extent than the Calder, and much its superior in navigation, being also joined by numerous canals from the west. Its origin is almost mountainous, in the midst of the wildest moors; and Aire-dale retains much of the same characteristic features of that line of country. The district of Craven is singularly romantic, being a rich vale, bounded by high hills, with the town of Skipton in its centre; below which it forms a beautiful valley to Keighley, full of trade and population; the Aire passes the picturesque ruin of Kirkstall Abbey, in its way to Leeds, the manufactories and villas of which flourishing place, and its vicinity, encompass its banks; after which it divides one of the richest plains in the kingdom to Ferrybridge, not far from the eminence where the town of Pontefract appears a conspicuous object, with its ruined castle and ancient church. Afterwards the Aire can boast little of beauty, as it advances through a level district to join the Ouse.

[Sidenote: Booth Ferry.]

[Sidenote: Kirkstall Abbey.]

[B] ALNE, (The) is a small river which rises on the border of Roxburgshire, but within the limits of Northumberland, and a little north of the source of the Coquet. The great and attractive objects which grace its borders are placed in the far-extended territory of the Duke of Northumberland, at the entrance to which the lofty building, called Brisley Tower, thickly environed by plantations, overlooks all the wild country of Northumberland, including the bold range of Cheviot-hills on the north-west, close to the Scottish border. The Alne then enters a charming valley, beneath the ivied walls of Hulne Abbey, winding delightfully between lawns, woods, and groupes of trees and cottages, admirably disposed. From these monastic and rustic recesses, the river emerges into a spacious park, widened considerably by art, and gliding through the arches of a fine Castellan bridge, is proudly overlooked by the numerous towers, and lofty citadel of Alnwick Castle, the superb seat of the Northumberland family.

[Sidenote: Brisley Tower.]

[Sidenote: Alnwick Castle.]

[C] ANCHOLME. This small river, rising in the wolds of Lincolnshire, not far from Market Raisin, is navigable from Glandford Bridge to the Humber, and in its course intersecting the extensive tract of the Wolds, which stretches out from Lincoln northward to Barton, and forms a ridge across some intermediate valleys, terminates in the fens near Spilsby Louth. Brocklesby Park, in the extensive domains of Lord Yarborough, occupies the centre of this district, on the highest point of which his lordship has built a superb chapel and mausoleum, in a very excellent Grecian taste, adorned with appropriate statues and marbles, from Italy. This building, from its position, commands the whole surrounding country, with the port of Hull, across the Humber; forming also a sea-mark, and an interesting object, admirable for the elegance of its design and execution. Thornton College is a curious remnant of antiquity in this neighbourhood, founded in the reign of King Stephen; great part of which is yet preserved, with some modern additions.

[D] AVON, (The Upper) rising in Northamptonshire, on the borders of Leicestershire, adds great beauty to the delightful territory of Warwick Castle, as it flows beneath the cliff on which those lofty towers projecting before the town and church are situated. It then glides through a charming country to Stratford-on-Avon, celebrated as the birth-place of Shakspeare, and where the remains of the immortal bard are deposited. From thence it traverses the great level of Worcestershire by Evesham, having received the lesser Stour at Stratford, and turning to the South at Pershore, meets the Severn at the flourishing town of Tewksbury.

[Sidenote: Warwick Castle.]

[E] AVON (The Lower) rises in the hilly district of North Wiltshire, bordering on Gloucestershire, not far from Wootton Basset; its source is near that of the great river Thames, and both are said to have their origin from various springs, not accurately defined. Emerging from the hills, it makes a compass to fall into the vale leading from Christian Malford to Chippenham, advancing through the cloathing district of Wiltshire, bordering upon that of Somersetshire, and for a considerable extent divides those counties. Its course is at first southward, making a long compass by the west towards the north, and then to the west; at last, encircling the city of Bath on two sides, from whence it pursues nearly the same direction, with frequent meanders to Bristol. It then inclines to the north-west, as it conveys the abundant trade of that opulent city to the Severn, by its conflux constituting the Bristol Channel at King's-road.

[Sidenote: Bath.]