XXXVl PEOCEEBINGS, 



Mr. Hansom tlien compared this Spanish chestnut with the 

 " Grizzly Giant " of California, a Sequoia gigantea, which he 

 measured when in the Mammoth Grove at Calaveras in 1887, and 

 found to be thirty-one yards in circumference near the ground, 

 only a little more than double that of the " Wymondley Giant." 

 He also lamented that means were not taken to protect this 

 venerable tree from injury. Many less noteworthy trees are 

 carefully fenced round and preserved as national monuments, as 

 this ought to be. 



Little "VYymondley Church was then visited. It is at least the 

 third church which has been erected on the same site. Cussans 

 ('Hist. Herts,' Broadwater, p. 61) says that "the Vicarage, from 

 the time of its ordination by the Bishop of Lincoln, in 1209, until 

 the Dissolution of Keligious Houses by Henry VIII, belonged to 

 the Prior and Convent of Wymondley. It then, by grant of the 

 King, became a donative in the gift of the owner of the Priory." 



The old Priory is no longer in existence, but on its site is 

 a comparatively modern house to which the same name has 

 appropriately been given. It is occupied by Mr. Charles 

 Sworcler, and by his permission it was now visited, the village 

 of Little WymontUey, to the north -cast of which it stands, ha\T.ng 

 been passed through. In the old box-trees enclosure, a square 

 space enclosed by box-trees, lunch was partaken of, Mrs. Sworder 

 kindly providing refreshing beverages, especially acceptable Just 

 in the hottest part of a very hot day. While still in the shade 

 of the box-trees, Mr. Ransom gave a brief history of the Priory. 

 It was founded, he said, in the reign of Henry the Third to the 

 honour of St. Lawrence, by Pichard de Argentein, for canons 

 of the order of St. Augustine, and according to Chauncy (' Hist. 

 Antiq. Herts,' p. 361) it was "a fair old Building with Cloysters ; 

 there was a Chappel in it consecrated since the Dissolution, [it was] 

 almost surrounded with a Mote, scituated upon the Side of a small 

 Hill, ineompassed with near 400 Acres of rich meadow, pasture, 

 and arrable Land inclosed to it, with a very fair Orchard and 

 Garden, yielding the best Sort of Fruit. The House is supply'd 

 from a Conduit, with sufficient Water to turn the Spit in the 

 Kitchen upon all Occasions." Mr. Sworder added that his father 

 could remember the time when the spit was thus worked, but this 

 contrivance has been done away with for many years, and there 

 is not now a sufficient flow of water to turn the spit upon any 

 occasion. 



At the head of the conduit, two fields' lengths from the house, 

 is a ruined arch, apparently of Early Norman architecture. As 

 this appears to be almost the only existing remnant of any building 

 connected with the old Priory, and is likely soon to be demolished, 

 a photograph was taken of it, and is here reproduced. 



After viewing the moat, the remains of an old wall, and the old 

 tithe-barn, built entirely of oak, and one of the largest bams in 

 England, the house was entered, and Mr. Sworder pointed out the 

 arches in the cellar, an old arch at the entrance to one of the 



