SESSION 1896-97. Ixix 



have been at one time a place for Homan Catholic worship, is said at 

 another to have been a county ball-room, and may at another again 

 have been a common dormitory for the men employed on the estate. 

 The front of the house, which is partly overgrown with ivy, is very 

 fine, but the back, which faces south, and commands a pretty view 

 of wood and hill, is spoilt by the windows having been bricked up 

 at the time the window-tax was imposed. 



Proceeding through meadows and across the park of Aston House, 

 the church, dedicated to St. Mary, was soon reached, and here the 

 members were met by the Hector, the Rev. G. V. Oddie, who 

 showed the parish register, dating from 1558. Much of the 

 earlier portion of this is a remarkable example of fine penmanship. 

 There is an entry of the sums subscribed in the parish towards 

 the expense of rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral, amounting to 

 £16 6s. 8d. There is not much of interest in the church, but 

 the old rood-screen is curious, one end being carved in the 

 Decorated and the other in the Peqiendicular style. 



After a bread-and-cheese lunch at the village inn, the Rose and 

 Crown, the walk was continued to Bennington, first crossing the 

 Beane by a foot-bridge, and then walking through the High Wood 

 and across the park of Bennington Lordship, permission to do so, 

 and also to see the ruins of the old Castle, having been kindly 

 granted by Mr. A. P. Pickering. St. Peter's Church, just outside 

 the ancient castle moat, was first visited. It is perhaps the most 

 beautifully-situated church in the county, unless that of Amwell 

 may claim the palm. It contains two fine old monuments, one 

 being the efiigies of a Crusader and his wife, by the arais on the 

 side of the tomb evidently of the family of Benstede, and the other, 

 of a later period, being the efiigies of a Lancastrian and his wife, 

 probably Sir John de Benstede and his wife Joan. The church 

 was built in the early part of the fourteenth century, and the 

 first monument, supposed by Cussans to be that of the builder, is 

 evidently of much older date. The parish register dates from the 

 year 1538. 



Bennington Lordship is a comparatively modem residence built 

 within the ruined walls of an old moated castle. The moat has 

 been drained, and its once perpendicular sides are now steep slopes 

 tastefully laid out as part of the grounds of the house. Here and 

 there portions of the original walls of the castle have been left 

 in their ruined state, but in places, apparently with the view of 

 adding to the picturesqueness of the grounds, portions of the castle 

 have evidently been pulled down and rebuilt in other positions, 

 each door and window having been put together exactly as they 

 were originally built in the early part of the twelfth century. This 

 was done by a Proctor of some generations back, and has given rise 

 to an impression that the niins are possibly all " made ruins," but 

 such is not the case. Parts of the walls, with windows and door- 

 ways, of a castle which from the style of architecture of these 

 windows and doorways must have been built between the years 

 1100 and 1150, are still remaining in their original position, but 



