Coletta uxore sua, obierit, habebit dictam terram etc. dicta Coletta ad totam vitam suam; et si dicta Coletta ante Willelmum filium Willelmi maritum suum, in fata sine liberis decesserit post ejus vitam predictus Johannes, frater Colette, vel sui assignati predictam terram etc. habebunt pro x. annis, ad denarios dicto Willelmo de Sancto Audoeno pacatos plene plene levandos absque disturbacione dicti Willelmi vel alicujus nomine suo; et post x. annos completos redibit dicta terra etc. ad dictum Willelmum vel heredes suos etc. Si vero contingat quod ego Willelmus de Sancto Audoeno dictis Willelmo filio meo et Colette warantizare non potero, faciam eis sufficiens excambium de aliis terris meis cum manso competenti in Villa de Haneborowe, secundum visum legalium hominum. In cujus rei testimonium, etc. Sigillum meum apposui. Hiis Testibus, Dominis Nicholao de Henrede, tunc Vice comite Oxon.' Bardulpho de Cestertone, militibus; Johanne de Dunhall, Petro de Lega, Rogero de Hastall, Henrico Parker, Willelmo filio Petri de Kersintone, persona de Drifeld.

By these charters we discover some of his kindred, and that he had property at Carsington, in the County of Oxford. For by them he grants to his cousin John, son and heir of Ralph de Wotton, and to Juliana his wife, daughter of William de St. Ouen, all his land in Carsington, which he had by the gift of the said Ralph, and all the lands which he, (Alexander himself,) had purchased in Carsington; to be held by the said John and Juliana, on the yearly payment of a sparrow-hawk, at his, (Alexander's), house in London.

As Madox, in his "History of the Exchequer," has fully treated of all the claims of Alexander de Swerford to the authorship of the work de Scaccario, I will content myself with bringing forward the facts in his life which are contained in these charters. As these were drawn from the Cartulary of Godstow, I cannot conclude my observations without begging to press earnestly upon the attention of the Institute the very great importance of printing the Cartularies of this kingdom, a noble example being set us by Scotland, and followed by Lancashire and France. For these documents contain innumerable anecdotes relative to the biography of the inhabitants of this country in former times, all of whom were either our direct ancestors, or of their kindred; and I beg leave to propose a commencement with this county, and to suggest a subscription of a moderate sum, annually, for the purpose of bringing out the Cartularies of Oxfordshire."

5 The valuable Cartulary, from which the documents here given have been extracted, is preserved amongst the Records of the Queen's Remembrancer, now in the custody of the Master of the Rolls. It appears to have been written about

1420. A note is inscribed at the commencement, as follows,-"Monasterium de Godstowe. Liberatur in Cur' Scaccarii undecimo die Februarii, anno xxvij. per manus Ricardi Browne, generosi, pro commodo Regine."

KNIGHTLY EFFIGIES AT SANDWICH AND ASH.

THERE are few spots in all England more interesting to the historian and the archaeologist than Sandwich and its neighbourhood. On one side is Richborough, the Roman gate of Britain, even now magnificent in its extensive remains. On another side are found the monuments of Anglo-Saxon occupation: graves, arms, domestic utensils, and articles of personal adornment. The churches of Ash and Sandwich are rich in the sculptured effigies of medieval knighthood. Sandwich itself is most curious as a landmark of passing centuries, a "Bauta-stone," set up by Time, to record how seaport after seaport has been destroyed by the "aboundance of the light sande driven in by the sea." The narrow, tortuous streets, have clearly not changed their groundplan since the days when Edward the Third assembled at this spot his army of "3000 lances and 10,000 archers, with a fleet of 400 sail," and when Edward the Black Prince landed here with the King of France as his prisoner. In the quaint old houses of post-and-pane, we see the very homes of the refugee Flemings, settled here with their weaving arts in the sixteenth century; and amongst these buildings probably yet remains the very mansion occupied by Queen Elizabeth in her stately progress to the renowned cinqueport: "Mr. Manwood's house, wherein she lodged, a house wherein Kinge Henry the VIIIth had been lodged twyce before ;" where she was presented with a cupp of gold of a hundredth pounds, and a New Testament in Greeke, which she thankfully accepted;" and where, on "a scaffold made uppon the wall of the scole house yarde," were seen divers "Englishe and Dutche, to the number of Cth or VI score, all spynning of fyne baye yarne, a thing well lyked both of her Majestie, and of the Nobilitie and ladies." And not least interesting and instructive to the archaeologist and the historian is the rare collection of

1 One cannot help comparing and curiously considering the very similar scene which has been enacted under our own eyes within this passing month - Queen VOL. VIII.

Victoria at the Crystal Palace examining the Department of " Machinery in

motion."

RR

Roman and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, formed at Sandwich by D. Rolfe, Esq.; a collection which, in itself of the highest interest, becomes a source of gratification from the courtesy with which it is exhibited by its possessor.

Among the knightly effigies of Sandwich and Ash, are two which are especially curious; one from the armour being composed in part of scale-work, and the other from offering an example, among the very few in monumental sculpture, of "ailettes" attached to the warrior's equipment. The Sandwich figure is preserved in the Church of St. Peter, at the west end of the nave. Though clearly of the first half of the fourteenth century, it has been traditionally assigned to Sir John Grove, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth. The statue originally reposed on an altar-tomb in the south aisle; on the demolition of that aisle by the falling of the steeple in 1661, it was exposed to every manner of depredation, whether from the assaults of the weather, or "the trampling of boys," and subsequently, at the instigation of the historian of Sandwich, it was brought within the body of the Church and placed in the situation it now occupies. The outer (or left) side of the figure having been much injured, says Boys in his History, "I have reversed its position and brought to view the other parts, where the sculpture is remarkably sharp." Search was at the same time made for the remains of the knight, but none being found, it was concluded that they were removed into the interior of the Church at the demolition of the aisle. In Le Neve's Church Notes, (begun in 1603,) the tomb is described as that of Sir John Grove, and on the tomb-side appear the arms of Grove, Septvans, St. Leger, Hilparton, Isaac and Sandwich, while the arms of Grove are repeated on the shield. (Add. MS. in Brit. Mus., No. 5479, f. 89.) As these arms were in paint only, their evidence is of no great value. From the effigy itself all trace of pictorial decoration has disappeared.

The size of the remaining fragment is 4 feet; the material Caen stone. The art is somewhat rude, but the details are made out with great care. The figure does not seem to have suffered in the slightest degree since the time of Mr. Boys, and it is now kept with the greatest care. The knight wears the quilted gambeson; over that a hauberk of chain-mail; then a defence of scale-work; and above that