144 The Fifty -second General Meeting. 



concocted. Sir Grabriel Pyle was an ardent royalist, and in this 

 house met Grove and Penrnddocke, John Deane of Oxenwood, 

 Dr. John Kensey, of Newbury, a Mr. Adamson, and Jehosophat 

 Lucas, brother of the Constable of Hungerford, and with them 

 arranged the rising. Of the leaders Pyle and his brother alone 

 escaped, having, it is said, " opened the door of their prison house 

 with a silver key." A stone built into one of the chimnies has 

 the inscription " E.P. 1640," recording an addition to the house by 

 one of the Pyles. 



From there the carriages proceeded to RAMSBUKY CHURCH, 

 where, contrary to the usual custom of the Society, we had too 

 much rather than too little time on our hands. Mr. Doran Webb 

 described the architecture and the history of the Church and 

 showed a tracing of an interesting sketch of the episcopal palace 

 as it is shown on the original survey of 1642, now being published 

 by the Earl of Pembroke. With regard to the pre-Norman cross 

 stones and body stones in the aisle he was disposed to assign them 

 to the 10th centiiry, and with regard to the curious looking font 

 he pointed out that the bowl is formed from the fir cone ornament 

 of a gate post, and the stem was carved in " early " style to match 

 it within living memory. At this point of the excursion the 

 party numbered forty-seven. Lunch at the Bell Inn followed, and 

 then the carriages drove on to LITTLECOTE, where again Mr. 

 Doran Webb acted as showman. Here, by the kindness of Mr. 

 Hirsch, the present occupier, the party were allowed to see the 

 hall, the cliapel, the gallery, and other parts of the house, crowded 

 as it is with objects of interest — the shuftie-board, the thumbstocks, 

 the seventeenth century armour and buff coats, and the fine china 

 — and to wander amongst the herbaceous borders which have made 

 the garden more extensive and interesting than it was when the 

 Society visited it last. Mr. Doran Webb held that the famous 

 buff coats were more probably the uniform of keepers and retainers 

 in ordinary life than those of soldiers, and pointed out the 

 portrait of Col. Alex. Popham, in the gallery, who is depicted as 

 wearing such a buff coat in the bosom of his family. He also 

 vigorously assailed the current legend of " Wild Darell " and the 



