153 



were given by Lord Houghton, the patron of the church, to some 

 Chicago Pilgrims, and talven by them to that far away city. 



On visiting the manor farm-house, I found that great changes had 

 talien place. Two sets of tenants had passed away to another world. 

 The house is all but deserted ; the only inhabitants are a laborer and 

 his family. The manor chamber is there, but it lool<ed mean without 

 its furniture. The small recess in the wall that 1 call the Piscina, is 

 there, and on the opposite wall, immediately before it, a hirger recess 

 was pointed out to me, with the remark, "Here once a pulpit stood." 

 But I thought — more likely a cross. The small latticed window, with 

 its stone niuUions, is there, on the landing, looking down upon Cardi- 

 nal Woolsey's mulberry tree, which, by the w-ay, is fresh, green, and 

 vigorous, and has this past summer borne a large crop of berries. On 

 this occasion I was shown into -what is called the manor room ; but 

 in this I saw no evidences of antiquity, save the thickness of the 

 walls, and these formed the basement of the manor chamber. The 

 inner wall of this chamber is obscured by a coating of modern plas- 

 ter; but in passing into the next chamber we see the wall in its 

 original state, andthe indications of a large window, now and for 

 many years filled up with masonry. 



For myself, on a retrospect of the whole, I could not resist the ini- 

 pressionthat I received nineteen years ago, and that was, that a con- 

 siderable portion of the old manor was left standing at the time of 

 the final dissolution; and that portion, with large additions, made up 

 the present manor farm-house. The manor chamber was very like a 

 private chapel, such as we often found in old manor houses, and in 

 those of a religious character. 



I am aware that Mr. Bartlett, a later pilgrim than Hunter, in speak- 

 ing of the old manor, says, "Not a wreck of this sumptuous building 

 now remains." He also tells of some fragments of richly carved oak, 

 as propping up the roof of a cow-shed. Appended to the manor farm 

 house there is a suit of modern farm buildings, and in the construction 

 of these the old oak of the old manor is largely employed. I saw one 

 baulk in a stable, from fifteen to twenty feet long. I'ichly carved and 

 every way worthy of the reception room or the banquet halls. There 

 are more, I was told, and collectively they would convey a better 

 idea of Scrooby's manorial magnificence than anything that remains. 



From Scrooby, I drove on this occasion to Austerfield, and lost the 

 luscious thouglit that I was treading in the footsteps of young Brad- 

 ford. Everything in Austerfield village looked much as it did nine- 

 teen years ago. The old parish clerk was dead and gone but he 

 was succeeded by his son who only wanted a few more years to 

 make him as rich and ripe as his father. Xothiug new had occurred. 

 The church was reseated and repaired in 1835. The chancel, how- 

 ever, does not appear to have received the least touch of modern 

 improvement. The communion rails are doubtless the same as Wil- 

 liam Bradford looked down upon in his youth, and before which his 

 grandfather and grandmother stood when they were married, and, 

 possibly, generations before them. The chancel of our parish 

 churches is repaired by the patron of the church, while the body or 

 nave of the church is improved by the parishioners ; and these par- 

 ties often act independently of' each other. They have evidently 

 done so at Austerfield. On questioning the clerk about the curfew- 

 bell, he could give no better authority than that of his father, who 

 had received the tradition from a former parish clerk. 



Essex Ixst. Bulletin-. 20 



