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

Part 20

Chapter 202,833 wordsPublic domain

[B] BANSTEAD is celebrated for the excellent herbage which the neighbouring downs afford the sheep, which are highly prized for the delicate flavour of the mutton. There are many elegant seats in the vicinity, amongst which are Banstead House, Miss Motteux; Cold Blow Cottage, General Sir Edward Howorth; and the Oaks, the seat of the Earl of Derby. This celebrated villa was erected by a society of gentlemen, called the "Hunter's Club," and the present noble proprietor can accommodate his guests with more than 50 bed chambers; and a pack of hounds are kept on the establishment, which has been long noted for its hospitality. On the 26th of February, 1834, Mr. John Richardson, a farmer, returning from Epsom to Banstead, was robbed and murdered on these downs.

[Sidenote: Seat of the Earl of Derby.]

[C] BANWELL is an agreeable village, situated under the northern declivity of the Mendip hills, and is supposed to derive its name from a spring strongly impregnated with mineral properties, which expands into a fine sheet of water, and after turning two mills, empties itself into the channel near the ruins of Woodspring Priory. The church, which is a fine specimen of the florid gothic of the Tudor age, contains a richly carved screen and rood loft, a beautiful sculptured stone pulpit, and several windows of the richest stained glass. This manor has been in the possession of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, from the reign of Edward the Confessor, with little exception, till the present time. They had for many centuries a palace here, but nothing of it remains except a private residence called Banwell Court, still interesting for its antiquity. The park has been divided into enclosures, which afford at every point a most pleasing variety of landscapes. The Bishop of Bath and Wells has also a cottage ornee, for the accommodation of his family and of the numerous visitors which are driven hither to view the two singular caverns which have been discovered of late years in this neighbourhood. The monastery of Banwell was founded by the early Saxon monarchs. Asserius, or Asser, the scholar and biographer of King Alfred, was made Abbot by that monarch. This Abbey was destroyed by the Danes; it was afterwards restored, but never recovered its pristine importance; for instead of arriving at the point of prosperity usual in Royal foundations, it sunk into obscurity long prior to the dissolution of religious houses. Banwell is remarkable for two extraordinary caverns discovered in the year 1824, which occasioned no inconsiderable number of the curious to resort to the village. They were first discovered by some workmen digging a shaft in search of Calamine, which intersected a steep narrow fissure; after they had descended about 80 feet it opened into a spacious cavern, 150 feet long and 30 broad, and about 30 feet high. This is called the stalactite cavern, from the beautiful specimens of crystalized stalactite, which lay covering huge fragments of rock about the floor. In this place were found two pieces of candle, encrusted with lime, supposed to have been left by the miners after working for ochre, calamine, &c. A rich vein of iron ore, with some cobalt and manganese, was also discovered, the working of which has long since commenced, and the produce is conveyed to the smelting works on the southern coast of Wales. The workmen, in order to facilitate an easier method of entrance, opened another fissure lower in the rock, when suddenly another cavern presented itself, the floor of which was covered with a mass of sand, limestone, teeth, bones, &c. Professor Buckland, who surveyed this place, states, that a shaft being driven into this mass, proved it to have been nearly 40 feet deep. The bones consisted of various specimens of the ox tribe, including the elk. Skeletons of the wolf, and a gigantic bear, in point of preservation, like what are to be found in ordinary churchyards--supposed to be of antediluvian origin, where found here. In the roof of the cave is a large chimney-like shaft, formerly rising to the surface, but now blocked up by fragments of limestone, mud, and sand, adhering together by incrustation, and through which dreadful pitfall, it is presumed, this immense number of beasts were precipitated at the great inundation. The rubbish has been partially cleared, and the bones are used to decorate the sides of the walls. A British earthwork crowns the summit of the neighbouring eminence, enclosing, within its irregular rampart, an area of about 20 acres; and, about a quarter of a mile further, is an entrenchment nearly square, the ground in the centre of which is elevated in the form of a cross.

_Fairs_, Jan. 18, and July 18, for cattle, sheep, and cheese.

[Sidenote: Formerly a Bishop's Palace.]

[Sidenote: Extraordinary caverns.]

[Sidenote: Antediluvian bones.]

Map| Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From | +--+-----------------------+---------+----------+---------------+ 28|Barby pa|Northamp |Daventry 6|Welford 11| 39|Barcheston pa|Warwick |Shipston 2|Kineton 9| 38|Barcombe pa|Sussex |Lewes 3|Uckfield 6| 44|Barden pa|N.R. York|Leyburn 3|Richmond 4| 44|Barden to & chap|W.R. York|Skipton 8|Paitley Brid. 9| 14|Bardfield,(Great)[A] pa|Essex |Thaxted 5|Dunmow 7| 14|Bardfield-Saling pa|Essex | 4| 7| 24|Bardney[B] pa|Lincoln |Lincoln 12|Horncastle 9| +--+-----------------------+---------+----------+---------------+ |Dist.| Map| Names of Places. |Number of Miles From|Lond.|Population. +--+-----------------------+--------------------+-----+---------+ 28|Barby pa|Crick 4| 78| 637| 39|Barcheston pa|L. Compton 5| 83| 198| 38|Barcombe pa|Brighton 11| 48| 931| 44|Barden pa|Bedale 8| 231| 106| 44|Barden to & chap|Otley 13| 218| 214| 14|Bardfield,(Great)[A] pa|Haverhill 10| 48| 1029| 14|Bardfield-Saling pa| 10| 48| 359| 24|Bardney[B] pa|Wragby 9| 136| 1098| +--+-----------------------+--------------------+-----+---------+

[A] BARDFIELD, (Great.) _Market_, formerly Tuesday (now disused.)--_Fair_, June 22, for cattle and toys.

[B] BARDNEY, anciently Beardanam, is situated in a marsh on the north bank of the river Witham. An abbey was founded in the time of the Saxons, prior to the year 641. Here Ethelred, divesting himself of the splendour of royalty, retired to devote his days to religion, and became superior of the monastery. King Oswald is said to have been buried here, but the body was afterwards removed to the church of Gloucester. The hand was retained by the monks as a relique, to which they ascribed the power of working miracles, and for a long period imposed upon the credulity of superstitious pilgrims. In the year 870 the monastery was burned by the Danes, but was afterwards rebuilt by Gilbert De Gaunt, Earl of Lincoln, who annexed to it several extensive estates. At the dissolution its annual revenues were estimated at £429. 7s.

[Sidenote: King Oswald buried here.]

[A] BARDSEY ISLE, is near the south-east point of the promontory of Llyn, in Caernarvonshire: it is of a moderate elevation; in length two miles, and in breadth one. The third part of its contents of 370 acres, occupied by a high mountain, affords sustenance to a few sheep and rabbits. It is about a league distant from the main land, and only accessible to the mariner on its south-east side, where there is a small well-sheltered harbour. There is no reptile ever seen on this island, except the common water-lizard. The soil is clayey, but produces excellent barley and wheat. The inhabitants are employed in cultivating the land, and in fishing. The abbot's house is a large stone building, occupied by several families, and near it is a singular chapel, or oratory, being a long arched edifice, with a insolated stone altar near the east end. Dubricius, archbishop of Caerleon, almost worn out with age, resigned his see to St. David, retired here, and died in 522. He was interred upon the spot, but such was the veneration paid to his memory in after ages, that about the year 1107, his remains were removed, by the procurement of Urban, then Bishop of Llandaff, and re-interred in the cathedral of that see, of which he had been the first bishop. St. Dubricius was a man of singular eminence for learning and piety. He was Archbishop of Caerleon, and Metropolitan of all Wales, in the time of Aurelius Ambrosius; and prior to this elevation, he taught a school on the banks of his native river, which was much resorted to from all Christian countries.

[Sidenote: No reptiles on this island.]

[Sidenote: St. Dubricius.]

[B] BARDSEY, comprises the township of Bardsey, with Rigton and Wathersome. Near the church is a mound called Castle Hill, supposed to have been the site of a Roman fortress. At Bardsey Grange, in this parish, resided occasionally, and died, Francis Thorpe, the tyrannical Baron of the Exchequer; but the same house is rendered memorable as the birth place of the poet Congreve, in 1670. This clever and celebrated poet, was baptised in the church of this village in the month of February of the same year. When an infant he was carried to Kilkenny, by his father, who had the command of the army there. He received his education in the school of Kilkenny, and from these circumstances it is probable that persons had fallen into the erroneous impression that Congreve was a native of Ireland. In 1685 he was admitted into the university of Dublin. In 1691 he became a member of the society of the Middle Temple, but soon relinquished the dry study of the Law. At the age of twenty-one, he published his novel called "Incognita," or, "Love and Duty Reconciled." Soon afterwards, he brought out the Comedy, called "The Old Bachelor," of which Dryden says, "he never saw such a first play in his life;" it was performed in 1793, with the most unbounded applause. Lord Falkland wrote the prologue. The singular success and merits of this production, recommended him to the patronage and notice of the Earl of Halifax, who settled him in an office of six hundred a year, and during his life patronised him in every way he could. His next piece was "The Double Dealer." On the death of Queen Mary, in 1693, he wrote a Pastoral on the occasion, entitled "The Mourning Muse of Alexis," upon the appearance of which King William, her husband, granted him an annuity of £100. per annum. In 1695, he produced his Comedy, called "Love for Love;" and in 1697, the beautiful Tragedy of "The Mourning Bride." Having lived a high and honorable life amongst the most celebrated wits and classical men of the age, he died at his house in Surrey-street, in the Strand, January 19, 1729. On the 26th his corpse lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, at Westminster, and the same evening was carried into Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and afterwards buried in the Abbey. His pall was supported by the Duke of Bridgewater, Earl Godolphin, Lord Cobham, Lord Wilmington, Hon. George Berkeley, Esq., and Brigadier-General Churchill. Dr. Johnson says, "He has merit of the highest kind; he is an original writer, who borrowed neither the models of his plot, nor the manner of his dialogue." And Voltaire remarks, "That he raised the glory of comedy to a greater height than any English writer before or since his time."

[Sidenote: Birth-place of Congreve, the poet.]

[Sidenote: His works.]

[Sidenote: Died in Surrey-st., London.]

[A] BARFORD, (Great). At this place is a piece of land, called White Bread Close, left, as is generally believed, by one of the Shepherd family, formerly residents of considerable opulence in the parish, for the purpose of purchasing loaves of white bread, to be thrown among the populace from the church porch. This whimsical custom at last became such a scene of scrambling, fighting, and disorder, that it was prohibited by the curate, and the money applied towards the purchase of coals for the poor, at Christmas. The boys, and even men, seemed to have participated in this sport, the same as at a game at foot-ball, or other play; and an old gentleman in the adjoining village fully remembers taking an active part in the scramble, and bearing off the wheaten loaf in triumph.

[Sidenote: Curious custom.]

[B] BARFORD, (Little), is situated in the hundred of Biggleswade, and is chiefly celebrated as the birth-place of Rowe, the dramatic poet, who was born here in the year 1673. His father having designed him for the study of the law, took him from school at the age of sixteen, and entered him a student in the Middle Temple. He made considerable progress, and was called to the bar, but Homer and Virgil had more charms for him than either Coke or Littleton. He was strongly solicited by his friends to practice, but nothing could overcome his affection for the muses; and his play, the "Ambitious Step-mother," having been received with great applause, he resolved to make poetry his profession. He had imbibed in his youth the most noble sentiments of liberty, of which he gave a specimen in his Tragedy of "Tamerlane." This was the second play that he wrote, and until of late years it was usual to perform it on the 4th and 5th of November, in commemoration of the gunpowder treason, and the landing of King William. Mr. Rowe being out of all employment, went one day to wait on the Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer of England, when, among other things his Lordship asked him, whether he understood Spanish. He replied in the negative, and his Lordship said he would advise him to learn it as soon as possible. Rowe took his leave, applied himself to the study of that language, and expecting some lucrative employment, again waited upon him. How great was his disappointment, when his Lordship, on being informed of his acquisition, merely exclaimed, "How happy are you, Mr. Rowe, that you can now enjoy the pleasure of reading "Don Quixote" in the original!" His death took place on the 6th of December, 1718, in the 45th year of his age, and he was buried with great funeral pomp, in Westminster Abbey, where a handsome monument is erected to his memory.

[Sidenote: Rowe, the Dramatist.]

[Sidenote: Anecdote.]

Map| Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From | +--+--------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ 21|Barfreston pa|Kent |Wingham 6|Dover 8| 19|Barham pa|Huntingdon|Kimbolton 6|Alconbury 4| 21|Barham pa|Kent |Canterbury 7|Dover 9| 36|Barham pa|Suffolk |Ipswich 5|Needham 5| 24|Barholm pa|Lincoln |M. Deeping 4|Stamford 6| 23|Barkby pa|Leicester |Leicester 5|Melton 11| 23|Barkby-Thorpe to|Leicester | 4| 12| 4|Barkham pa|Berks |Wokingham 4|Reading 7| 14|Barking[A] m.t. & pa|Essex |Romford 5|Woolwich 4| 36|Barking pa|Suffolk |Needham Mt 1|Stow Market 4| +--+--------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ |Dist.| Map| Names of Places. | Number of Miles From |Lond.|Population. +--+--------------------+-----------------------+-----+-------+ 21|Barfreston pa|Canterbury 10| 65| 114| 19|Barham pa|Huntingdon 10| 68| 73| 21|Barham pa|Sandwich 11| 62| 1053| 36|Barham pa|Debenham 9| 74| 825| 24|Barholm pa|Bourn 8| 94| 155| 23|Barkby pa|Houghton 5| 100| 806| 23|Barkby-Thorpe to| 5| 100| 72| 4|Barkham pa|Bagshot 11| 35| 247| 14|Barking[A] m.t. & pa|Ilford 2| 7| 8036| 36|Barking pa|Ipswich 10| 70| 1884| +--+--------------------+-----------------------+-----+-------+