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ing gateway, leading to an inner court, and various gables, towers . 
and twisted chimneys. For many years this picturesque Mansion 
was dismantled, but has now become the residence of Earl Compton, 
the eldest son of the owner, who since the Club’s visit has 
succeeded to the Marquessate. By his kind sanction the 
Members were received by his factor, and shown over the whole 
place, entering first the baronial hall, with its minstrel gallery 
and grand bay window, and then being conducted through 
numerous rooms with handsome ceilings in plaster of the time of 
King James I. The rose and thistle occur very frequently in the 
decorations, the fortunes of the Compton family having immensely 
improved under Henry VIII. and James I. The grandson of the 
builder of Compton Wynyates was created Earl of Northampton 
by the latter on his marrying Elizabeth Spenser, the richest 
heiress in England, and daughter of the Lord Mayor of London. 
The Chapel on the ground floor is dismantled, and a second 
Chapel remains in the roof, evidently for Roman Catholic , 
services, although there is no history of any members of that faith 
in the Compton family. The conductor pointed out on the boards 
of the floor in one of the bedrooms the bloodstains of certain 
Cavalier officers murdered by Roundheads, who got, surreptiously, 
admission into the place after the Battle of Edge Hill. The 
second Earl of Northampton was a loyal supporter of Charles I., 
and was killed at the Battle of Hopton Heath, after which 
Compton Wynyates became in 1646 garrisoned by the Parlia- 
mentary troops. These destroyed the Church, ruined the 
Chapel’s monuments and painted glass, but spared the Mansion. 
The former was re-built at the Restoration, and contains 
4 monuments of later Comptons. 
The return journey to Banbury was uneventful, and leaving. 
the town at five p.m., Bath was again reached by eight p.m., after 
one of the most successful and interesting excursions ever under- 
taken by Members of the Field Club. ' 
Dorchester and Abbotsbury, June.15, 1897.—The third excursion 
