37 



where in the world has the Woolhope Club found these camps. However, this 

 must be left for the day's proceedings to unfold. 



The day was cloudy and overcast, but yet three carriages, well laden with 

 members, left the Free Library at 10 a.m., by Lower Bullingham and Holme 

 Lacy, forFownhope. 



FOWNHOPE CAMP, 



situated on the bill above Fownhope Court, but on the other side of the road 

 leading to Woolhope. was now passed and pointed out. It has a single entrench- 

 ment, is elliptical in shape, and incloses an area of three acres, and is thought to 

 have been a Roman camp, held in temporary opposition to the camp on Caplar 

 hUl. It is planted with trees, and its embankments are gradually becoming 

 effaced. It was not visited on the present occasion. The village and its restored 

 church were quickly passed through, but the parish stocks and whipping-post 

 attached to it, near the churchyard walls, excited great interest, as a relic of by- 

 gone times, not often met \vith now. There is not an oM toper left in the parish, 

 who, like ParoUes in "All's well that ends well," has " sat in the stocks all night." 

 The President was considerably " exercised " that he could not stop to make a 

 drawing of it, and, by the way. if any resident would be so kind as to send a sketch 

 of it to the " Court House, Ledburj'," it would be gladly received, and no doubt 

 would afford that gentleman some consolation for the constraint he had .then to 

 put on his archaeological proclivities. 



The high road was left at the Knap, and the way taken for Soler's Hope, 

 through most picturesque lands. This parish was the birthplace of the reno\vned 

 "Dick Whittington." The Whyttingtons came from Whyttington, in the county 

 of Warwick ; and the great-grandfather of our hero, William de Whittington, 

 married Maud, the daughter and heiress of Jolm de Solers, of Soler's Hope, at the 

 end of the 13th century, and then became lord of the manor of Soler's Hope, and 

 of Pauntley, in Gloucestershire, both of which belonged to the de Solers. The 

 family made the Manor House of each of these places their occasional residence, 

 but Pauntley was the more im[X)rtant of the two, and more in the civilized world. 

 Pauntley is the burial place of the familj', and it disputes with Soler's Hope the 

 honour of being his birthplace. 



Richard Whittington was the youngest son of Sir WUliam de Whittington, 

 who had succeeded to the Manors in 1284, and served in the Lincoln Parliament 

 as M.P. for Gloucestershire. His father was outlawed for some unknown offence, 

 and his mother, with her young family, is supposed to have taken refuge in the 

 extreme seclusion of Soler's Hope. Here Richard was born, after his father had 

 been obliged to fly, as the tradition of four centuries fully confirms. His father 

 died, and his mother re-married, and thus, though of knightly descent, Richard 

 had to become an apprentice in the household of a London merchant, and adven- 

 turer. 



" I would fayne be a clarke. 

 But yet hit is a strange werke : 

 The birchen twiggis be so sharpe, 

 Hit makyth me have a faynt harte, 

 What availcth it me though I say nay?" 



