and ancient custom has determined the limit as Houses," and Weever, in his "Funeral Monuments," already mentioned. confirm this assertion, and add that the abbey, or The citizens of London, we know, had the right priory, was founded by Ralph, Lord Stafford; but of "free warren": that is, they were at liberty Newcourt shows that the Priory of Staines alluded to hunt in certain limits around their city; and to by those writers is really situated at Stone in this circuit included the "warren" of Staines. | Staffordshire, which place, like Stone, near DartA forest anciently extended from this place ford in Kent, was often termed Stane in ancient to Hounslow eastwards, but it was disafforested and diswarrened early in the thirteenth century, and the district has since been gradually enclosed. It is said that the town was once surrounded by a moat or ditch; but if this ever was the case, very scanty traces of it remain, except in what is known as Penton Ditch. Staines figures only once in pre-Norman history, namely, in A.D. 1009, when the Danes, hearing that an army was marching from London to oppose them, are said to have crossed the river here on their way to their ships from Oxford, which they had burnt. The next period which furnishes materials for a historical notice of Staines occurs subsequent to the Norman conquest. In the survey made by order of William I., the circumstances of property in this place are described in the following manner:-"The Abbot of St. Peter holds Stanes for nineteen hides. There is land to twenty-four ploughs. Eleven hides belong to the demesne, and there are thirteen ploughs therein. The villanes have eleven ploughs. There are three villanes of half a hide each; and four villanes of one hide; and eight villanes of half a virgate each; and thirty-six bordars of three hides; and one villane of one virgate, and four bordars of forty acres; and ten bordars of five acres each; and five cottages of four acres each; and eight bordars of one virgate; and three cottagers of nine acres ; and twelve bondmen; and forty-six burgesses, who pay forty shillings a year. There are six mills of sixtyfour shillings; and one wear (guort) of six shillings and eight pence, and one wear which pays nothing. Pasture for the cattle of the village. Meadow for twenty-four ploughs, and twenty shillings over and above. Pannage for thirty hogs; and two arpents of vineyards. Four berewicks belong to this manor, and they belonged to it in King Edward's time. Its whole value is thirty-five pounds; the same when received in King Edward's time forty pounds. This manor laid and lies in the demesne of the Church of St. Peter [at Westminster]." Here, in the Saxon days, is said to have stood a Benedictine abbey, the monks of which would seem to have served the adjoining parishes. Both Speed, in his "Catalogue of Religious records. The distance from Staines Bridge to London. Bridge is twenty miles by land, and, in consequence of the circuitous course of the Thames, more than double that distance by water. Staines is in Spelthorne Hundred, and in the rural deanery of Hampton. It is a vicarage to which the chapelries of Ashford and Laleham were formerly annexed, but these have been separated, and formed into distinct parishes. The Penny Cyclopædia of 1839 speaks of all three as one. Sundry disputes having arisen on the subject of patronage between the Bishop of London and the Abbey of Westminster, it was agreed that the vicarage of Staines should be devoted to the use of wayfaring and sick folk at Westminster Abbey, and that the vicar of Staines should appoint chaplains for Laleham and Ashford. The vicar of Staines held under the great abbey by a curious tenure-namely, that of supplying two large wax candles for the altar of St. Peter's church, to be burnt on the eve of Epiphany. It is certain that the Norman church was not the earliest here. We learn on the authority of Leland,* that, in the Saxon times, Ermengildis, daughter of King Wulfhere, before the year 700, built a small chapel in the forest here; and also that its successor, erected by the first Christian King of Mercia, was built "ex lapidibus" and "venustiori modo" than its predecessor. From this statement it appears probable that the earliest Christian church here was of wood, very small and simple in plan. At all events, we learn that as far back as the ninth century a building of that description was standing here, and that the rude tenements of the Saxon town clustered round. "God's Acre." This little oratory, in due course of time, was probably superseded by a church of stone. The present church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a modern structure, ugly and plain, and stands in the midst of meadows on the banks of an arm of the Colne. Its Norman predecessor having become dilapidated, the nave was rebuilt in the last century; but one corner of it fell down about the year 1828, and the present structure * See Parker's "Glossary of Architecture," iii, 9. Staines.] SINGULAR BEQUESTS. 189 belonging to any of the churches in the Middlesex valley of the Thames, excepting Fulham. The church books contain some curious entries: lists of books, plate, and moneys in the hands of the churchwardens, entries of sums paid to "distressed gentlewomen," "poore schollers," "6 poore ministers" and their wives; to a "poore gentlewoman to ransom her husband" (sixpence); and erected on the same site, the lower part of the tower being made to do duty. It was built in the dark ages of church architecture, the reign of George IV., and tells its own tale—an imitation Gothic structure of the poorest type. Its square embattled brick tower is said to have been erected by Inigo Jones in 1631, but it is scarcely one of the best specimens of his artistic design. The church was erected under an Act of Parliament | sixpence to a poore merchant's wife." In 1657 which conferred freehold rights in pews to the contributors of certain sums to the building fund. The architect was a man named Watson, who is said to have been chosen by competition, securing his election to the job by sundry presents of barrels of oysters and cods' heads and shoulders to the sapient committee to whom the choice of an architect was entrusted! In Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," it is stated that Inigo Jones lived for some time at Staines; but it does not appear that any notice of his residence here is to be found in the parish books. In a small apartment under the staircase leading to the gallery at the west end of the old church were for many years preserved two unburied coffins, containing human remains. They were placed beside each other on trestles, and bore respectively the following inscriptions :-" Jessie Aspasia, the most excellent and truly beloved wife of Fred. W. Campbell, Esq., of Barbreck, N.B., and of Woodlands, in Surrey. Died in her 28th year, July 11th, 1812." "Henry E. A. Caulfield, Esq., died Sept. 8th, 1808, aged 29 years." As it was naturally supposed that coffins thus open to inspection would excite much curiosity, a card was preserved at the sexton's house, which stated, in addition to the intelligence conveyed by the above inscriptions, that the deceased lady was the daughter of W. T. Caulfeild, Esq., of Raheenduff, in Ireland, by Jessie, daughter of James, third Lord Ruthven, and that she bore with tranquil and exemplary patience a fatal disorder, produced by grief on the death of her brother. These coffins were buried on the erection of the new church. The church and churchyard are singularly deficient in interesting tombs and monuments. Dame Letitia Lade, who lies buried between the church and the road, was a cast-off mistress of the Prince Regent, who married her to his coachman, one Mr. John Lade, whom he knighted as a reward for his pliancy in the matter, or for his skill in handling the ribbons. It is said that Sir John Lade also is buried here, but his name is not recorded on the tombstone. sixpence is paid for an "houre glass." Two years later about £20 is spent on the re-casting, &c., of a bell; and in 1660 £3 for painting the king's arms. There are other disbursements for "prosecuting ye Quakers;" for going to London by water, (sixpence); "given to a poore Mayde, 2s."; for "excommunicating Pritt," 17s.; for ferrying to church, Is. ; and sundry collections in answer to briefs. It is perhaps worth notice that the Rev. Gerald Wellesley, brother of the great Duke of Wellington, was at one time vicar of Staines, and largely improved the vicarage. A guild, in honour of God and the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1456, by John Lord Berners, Sir John Wenlock, and several other persons, over the chapel of the Holy Cross in the church of Staines. This guild consisted of two wardens and a certain number of brethren and sisters. The lands appertaining to it were valued, in 1548, at £11 17s. 6d. per annum, including 6s. 8d. for a chamber, called the chantry-priests' chamber. The town consists mainly of one long straggling street, irregularly built. The High Street, towards the west end of the town, forks off, and is continued to the north-west by Church Street, which leads to the parish church. The main street of the town is upwards of a mile in length, and contains a fair sprinkling of commodious shops and good oldfashioned houses; whilst in the immediate neighbourhood are extensive mills, and linoleum and other manufactories. In Church Street is a largebrewery, belonging to the Messrs. Ashby; another brewery in the town belongs to Mr. Harris. At the west end of the High Street stands a handsome new Town Hall, which has been built in the place of a smaller one in a miserable and low thoroughfare known as Blackboy Lane. Staines was a great place for the "Society of Friends," whose meeting-house is a specimen of the architecture of years long gone by. There are also chapels for different denominations of Dissenters. A large new town, with a mission chapel destined to blossom into a church, has of late years sprung up about the railway-station, which here forms The church has a peal of eight bells, remark-a junction of the Windsor and the Wokingham lines. ably sweet in their tone, and said to be the finest The internal polity of the town was formerly regu lated by two constables and four "head-boroughs." coming into the room soon after, scored underThe government is now vested in a Local Board; neath the following couplet :— whilst the welfare of the town is further enhanced by the advantages gained from a Literary and Scientific Institute, and also a Mechanics' Institute. There was a weekly market held on Friday, but it has long been discontinued; two fairs, however, are still held annually. One of these fairs was granted by Henry III., in the year 1228, to the abbot and convent of Westminster. The fairs are held on the 11th of May for horses and cattle, and on the 19th of September for toys, &c. The Penny Cyclopædia gives the population of Staines in 1839 as 2,486. From the census returns in 1871, we learn that the parish contained 722 inhabited houses, and that the population then numbered 3,659 souls, a number that is by this time nearly doubled. Lying as it did, in the good old coaching days, on the high road to Salisbury and the south-western counties, just one stage west of Hounslow, Staines was a large posting-town, and its inns were very numerous. Many of these since the days of railways have been turned into private houses, and such hostelries as remain depend mainly for support on boating parties and on the disciples of Izaak Walton. If not literally the "half-way house," Staines was at all events one of the resting places, and a halt for changing horses, in the coaching and sporting days, on the "royal road" to Windsor. Hence the town was a favourite with good old George III. and Queen Charlotte and their family; and hence probably it came to pass that royalty took part in the ceremony of opening the new bridge across the Thames. The Vine Inn, "at the bridge foot," is often mentioned by the first Lord Shaftesbury in his Diary" as an inn where he slept a night on his way between Dorsetshire and London. The tavern, however, has long passed away. Readers of Swift will not forget how the prude Phillis, having run off with her father's groom, John, the couple settle down to lead a cat-and-dog life as landlord and hostess of the Blue Boar, which still exists and flourishes: "Then as like as two chips Are D's head and his lips." While on the subject of inns and taverns-of which, by the way, Staines possesses a fair share-it may not be out of place to note the fact that at the Staines and Egham races the landlord of the "Cricketers," near Chelsea Bridge, used to display a signboard which had been painted by George Morland, and which travelled about with him. The water supply of Staines has of late years been largely augmented by the Sunningdale District Water Company, which has been formed for the purpose of supplying the several parishes of Staines, Egham, and Old Windsor. The river Thames in the neighbourhood of Staines is highly favourable for boating and fishing parties, and as a natural result the town is much frequented by visitors during the summer months. Staines Bridge was for many a century the only one above London Bridge leading to the west of England; hence the importance of it to the sovereign, especially as it helped to connect both Windsor and Portsmouth with the metropolis; and hence, probably, it happened that the barons assembled at Runnymede while enforcing King John to sign the Magna Charta; and hence, in 1262, we read of three large oak-trees being granted by the Crown out of Windsor forest for the repair of this edifice. Numerous grants of pontage, or a temporary toll to defray the charge of repairs, were made at different times previous to the year 1600. In 1791 an Act of Parliament was obtained for the erecting of a new bridge, and under enactment, certain tolls were allowed to be taken, on which the sum expended in raising the structure was charged. In pursuance of this Act a stone bridge of three arches was begun in August, 1792, and was opened in March, 1797. But the work had been executed with so little skill that one of the piers shortly gave way, and the bridge was necessarily taken down. A similar fate befel its successor—an iron bridge of one single arch, which, through some structural defect, had to be supported and propped up with wooden piles and framework. This bridge in the end was considered altogether unsafe, and the To one at least of these inns an anecdote present stone bridge was built in 1832, and opened attaches, which may be worth recording here:-by William IV. and Queen Adelaide, the approach A lady of fashion in the last century is said to have cut with a diamond on a pane of glass the following inscription, "Dear Lord D "Dear Lord D has the softest lips of any man in England." Foote, "They keep at Staines the old Blue Boar." to it, at the same time, being altered and improved. Some remains of the approaches of the former bridge may still be seen, especially on the Surrey side of the river. Quite close to the vicarage and church is Duncroft House, at one time the property and occasional residence of Lord Cranstoun. It is said that King John slept here the night after signing Magna Charta at Runnymede, but the tradition may be doubted. The house is a late Elizabethan or early Jacobean structure, resembling in its details portions of the Charter House in London. The room said to be King John's has a fine oak chimney-piece, curiously inlaid; and the timbers of the upper part of the house are massive and strong. An earlier structure may possibly have occupied the spot, but no traces of it exist. Staines Moor, extending upwards to Stanwell, consists of common-lands, over which the poor of Staines have certain rights of turbary, &c. Yeoveney, a hamlet consisting of a farm-house and a few cottages, about a mile to the north of the town, was an ancient chapelry attached to the mother-church of Staines. Its chapel has long since disappeared; and even its site is not known for certain, though an oak door, said to have formed a part of it, is still preserved in the neighbouring farm-house. Within sight of Staines, though on the other side of the river, is Egham, between which and the riverside is the meadow of Runnymede, on which Egham races are annually held, and on which it is said The roadway that Magna Charta was signed. between Staines Bridge and Egham was built by the monks of Chertsey. Akenside, the author of "The Pleasures of Imagination," wrote the following spirited lines as an inscription for a column to be erected here: "Thou who the verdant plain dost traverse here, Those sacred rights to which themselves were born." A small eyot a little higher up the river, opposite Egham and Ankerwyke, still bears the name of Magna Charta Island. In it is kept and shown a table bearing the names of the proud Barons who forced the King to sign the Charter. Here are some of the finest trees in the kingdom, the park having 191 once been a religious house; but these are beyond our limits. A walnut tree at Ankerwyke, which still stands and thrives, is said to have been vigorous when it witnessed the signing of Magna Charta. "A small island opposite Runnymede, now covered with willows, was the temporary fortified residence of the barons, where, in 1215, they retired from the pressure of the surrounding army, personally to receive the signature of the king to the great palladium of English liberty." At Egham resided the great and good Judge Doddridge, who lies buried in Exeter Cathedral; but the place is chiefly memorable on account of Cooper's Hill, an eminence near the London Road, the beauties of which are celebrated in a poem written in 1640 by Sir John Denham, and which acquired for him from Dr. Johnson the just and merited rank of an "original author." The following four lines of "Cooper's Hill," having reference to the Thames, which is now before us, have been often quoted, but will bear repetition :"Oh! could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme; Though deep, yet clear, tho' gentle, yet not dull, A good story is told of Sir John Denham. There was in the Puritan army a poetaster named Withers, some of whose lands at Egham Sir J. Denham had got into his clutches. When Withers was taken prisoner by the Cavaliers, Denham interceded with King Charles for his life, because as long as he lived he (Sir John) would not be reckoned the worst poet in England. On the west side of Cooper's Hill stands the Indian Civil Engineering College, founded by Government in 1871 for the scientific training of young men as civil engineers for service in India. The college is built upon an estate formerly called Ankerwyke Purnish, which was given to the nuns of Ankerwyke, on the opposite side of the Thames, by Hugh, Abbot of Chertsey, in the reign of King Stephen. The father of the poet Denham, who was also a Sir John Denham, lived for some time at Egham, in the house now the vicarage. He was for some time Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland. Pope sang his praises in the following lines : "On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow While lasts the mountain or while Thames shall flow; I seem through consecrated walks to rove, I hear soft music die along the grove; Led by the sound, I rove from shade to shade, By godlike poets venerable made. Here his first lays majestic Denham sung, There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley's tongue!" Situation and General Aspect of Stanwell-Stanwell Heath formerly a rendezvous for Middlesex Elections-The Domesday Book Notice of Stanwell-The Forced Exchange of the Manor, temp. Henry VIII.-Subsequent Descent of the Manor-The Village of Stanwell-The Old School-house-Population-The Parish Church-Staines Moor, Stanwell Moor, and Poyle Park-West Bedfont-East Bedfont-The Parish Church-The "Peacocks"-Discoveries of Antiquities-Descent of the Manor of Bedfont-Spelthorne Sanatorium-Middlesex Industrial School for Girls-The "Black Dog "-Population of Bedfont--Cranford-Census Returns-The Village-Descent of the ManorThe Park-Cranford House-Cranford le Mote-The Parish Church-The Vicarage. THE parish of Stanwell stands high in comparison with the flat country all around it, and its church spire forms a conspicuous landmark. The village lies about two miles nearly due north from Staines. The parish is separated from Buckinghamshire by a branch of the river Colne, and in other directions is bounded by Bedfont, Staines, and Harmondsworth. Down to the end of the last or beginning of the present century, upwards of 500 acres of land in the parish were an open waste, of which some 350 acres formed a portion, or continuation, of Hounslow Heath. This state of things, however, is now all altered, and what was once barren and profitless has been turned into green pastures and smiling cornfields. It would appear from "Bubb Dodington's Diary" that in the reign of George II. Stanwell Heath was the great rendezvous of the electors of Middlesex, before they rushed off to the poll at Brentford Butts, as already recorded by us.* In the "Domesday Survey," Stanwelle is stated to be held of the king by Walter Fitzother. "There were four mills, yielding seventy shillings, and four hundred eels, save twenty-five; and three wears, which produced one thousand eels, meadow for twelve ploughs (or each to twelve carucates). Pasture for the cattle of the village; and pannage for one hundred hogs. Its whole value was fourteen pounds; when received six pounds." William, the eldest son of the above-mentioned Walter Fitzother, held the post of Warden of Windsor Castle, and in consequence of this See ante, p. 38. |