HERMITS, FORDS, AND BRIDGE CHAPELS. 67 



the oldest portions of the bridge, and this I take to have been 

 the residence of the hermit. The episcopal registers of Lichfield, 

 if consulted, might give a satisfactory solution, and throw 

 much light, not only on this, but on others in the county 

 — Swarkeston especially, which, from its size, must have been a 

 continual drain on the charity of the country. 



The following interesting inscription appears on a coping stone 

 of Cromford Bridge above the remains of the hermitage : — 



"THE LEAP OF M'^ " 



"B. H. MARE IVNE, 1697." 



No one, unfortunately, seems to know anything of this remarkable 

 circumstance ; but certain it is that from this spot the mare must 

 have fallen nearly 25 feet into the river below. Tlie bridge then 

 was very narrow, the parapet high, and it would seem that the 

 mare, probably coming at full speed from Cromford, upon turning 

 the corner of the bridge, found the narrow passage blocked — 

 perhaps by sheep or cattle — and so to escape collision bounded 

 over the side into the river. Whether she had a rider, or whether 

 any loss of life occurred, there seems to be no means of ascertain 

 ing, but it appears to have created some sensation at the time, for 

 the inscription is well and deeply engraven. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



Glover in his " History of Derbyshire " mentions the chapel of 

 St. James, formerly standing by Lordsmill Bridge. This must be 

 the chapel in which Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, who 

 became possessed of the manor of Chesterfield in right of his wife 

 Alice, one of the coheiresses of Edmund, Earl of Woodstock, 

 founded a chauntry by royal licence in 1446. The licence taken 

 from the Patent Ro. (25 Hen. VL p. 2, No. 462, m. 10) is as 

 follows : — 



(Translation.) "The King to all to whom, &c. Know ye that 

 we for us and our heirs, as much as in us lies give and grant licence 

 to our most dear cousin Richard Earl of Salisbury that he, his 

 heirs, or executors, may found a cliauntry for one chaplain in a 



