162 The Story of a Prebendal Stall at Sarum. 



"Wilts ; and was, moi'eover, a predecessor in whom I fee] an especial 

 interest. For he was the " firmarius " or " Lord Farmer/' that is, 

 as we should call him, the " Lessee " of the Church of Bradford 

 under the Abbess of Shaftesbury ; and, as such, exercised the 

 privilege of rector by appointing to the vicarage. In 1316 he 

 became Archdeacon of Nottingham, and held the prebendal church 

 of Edingdon, in Wilts, then connected with the abbey of Romsey. 

 Besides these benefices, he had not a few others ; for at one and the 

 same time he held prebends at St. Paul's— Lincoln — at Chichester 

 —at Hereford — at Wells — and at Sarum. I suppose that even in 

 those days — which people will persist in calling ihe good old times — 

 the line had to be drawn somewhere ; and so we find that in 1321 our 

 prebendary had a special grant from the King (Edward II.) to this 

 effect — that he should not be disturbed in any of his benefices. I 

 have often thought that we may have been indebted to him, when 

 Prebendal Rector of Bradford, for an important addition to our 

 chancel, and also for the erection of that large and beautiful barn 

 (commonly called Barton Barn), which is so well known to archaeolo- 

 gists. Certainly the presumed date of the barn, and of the 

 additions to our chancel, correspond fairly er\pugh with the time when 

 he so ruled among us. Well ! with all his preferments, and no 

 pluralities' Acts to interfere with him, he must have had plenty of 

 money to spare, which is more than can be said of some of his 

 successors. And as I really know nothing more about him, I can 

 only hope that he made a good use of it. 



I now pass over two names, concerning which I can tell you 

 nothing, and come now to that of one famous, not only in our own 

 diocese, but throughout England. This was William of Edingdon, 

 so called from the village a few miles from Bradford-on-Avon, of which 

 I have just spoken^ and where he would seem to have been bom. 

 Educated at Oxford, he became successively Rector of Cottingham 

 and Dallington, in Northamptonshire, and afterwards of Middleton 

 Cheyney, in Oxfordshire. He obtained prebends at Lincoln and 

 Sarum ; then he became Dean of Westbury-on-Trym, in Gloucester- 

 shire ; and, by the patronage of Adam de Orleton, Bishop of Win- 

 chester, Rector of Cheriton, inH tnts. On the death of the last 



