MARY RICH, COUNTESS OF 

 WARWICK 



Some two or three miles from Felstead Church in 

 the county of Essex, hidden away in a wooded hollow, 

 and only to be approached by windin.:^ and narrow 

 lanes, stands the still beautiful ruin of Leighs Priory. 

 The magnificent gateway-tower of rich red brickwork, 

 with noble Tudor windows and spiral chimneys of 

 curious design, rises in lonely splendour from the 

 ancient courtyard, now overgrown with grass and 

 herbage. Other remains, dating back to the sixteenth 

 century, and including the porter's lodge and a spacious 

 hall, may still be seen, clothed with luxuriant ivy, in 

 picturesque decay; but of the finer residential parts 

 of the mansion not one stone is now left upon another. 

 It was here, in this quiet and sequestered spot, past 

 which the tiny river Ter winds its way, that early in 

 the thirteenth century a little community of Augustine 

 canons settled themselves. Around the monastic build- 

 ings stretched a well-wooded park or forest in which 

 the wild deer roamed. There was grand hunting, we 

 are told, in the ** Forest of Felstead " in those days. 

 Down the valley, along the course of the little stream, 

 the situation of the monastic fishponds may easily be 

 traced, and one fine piece of water, the haunt of moor- 

 hens and other wild-fowl, still remains. For more than 



