
By the Rev. Precentor Lear. 239 
parish takes its name from its ancient lords, the Bishops of Win- 
chester, who were patrons of the living and lords of the manor, 
situate in the Hundred of Downton, till the Reformation. It then 
passed into the hands of the present owners, the Earls of Pembroke. 
William of Wykeham, when Bishop of Winchester, in 1379, ap- 
pointed John of Wykeham to this rectory. There is a small brass 
on the floor of the chancel to his memory. The communion plate, 
-which is good for its date, 1663, was given by John Earle, rector 
of Bishopston, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. The good John 
Earle was rector during the Commonwealth. When he was ejected, 
Randolph Caldecott, a Puritan pastor, took pessession of the living. 
Soon after the Restoration, John Earle was made successively 
Bishop of Worcester and Salisbury; and not long after this, in 
1671, Randolph Caldecott had become a Conformist, and was 
rightly inducted to the living. Only one remark in conclusion, 
My learned friends will see that their love of archeology has 
brought them to a sequestered and retired valley removed now, as 
it always was, from the gaze of many men. Yet here is found a 
- church, the beauty and ornamentation and richness of which would 
do honour to many acity. The names of the noble founders have 
passed away; but the lessons they have taught us by this and 
other such buildings still remain: to give the best we have to Him 
‘‘ who seeth not as man seeth;” and to “love the place where His 
honour dwelleth.” 
