182 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade cum 

 abutt : et de cursu aque Molendini." And also a grant in 

 reversion " unius virgate terre " [a yard land], in Achangre at 

 tlie death of Eichard Actedene, his sister's husband, who had no 

 child. He was to present a pair of gloves of one penny value 

 to the prior and canons, to be given annually by the said 

 Ilichard ; and to quit all claim to the said lands in reversion, 

 provided the prior and canons would engage annually to pay 

 to the king, through the hands of his bailiffs of Aulton, ten 

 shillings at four quarterly payments, " pro omnibus serviciis, 

 consuetudinibus, exactionibus, et demandis." 



This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, and 

 lived probably at the spot now called Chapel Farm. The grant 

 bears date the seventeenth year of the reign of Henry III. 

 [viz. 1233.] 



It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for lands 

 or tenements that might be produced from my vouchers. I shall 

 therefore pass over all such for the present, and conclude this 

 letter with a remark that must strike every thinking* person 

 with some degree of wonder. No sooner had a monastic 

 institution got a footing, but the neighbourhood began to be 

 touched with a secret and religious awe. Every person round 

 was desirous to promote so good a work ; and either by sale, by 

 grant, or by gift in reversion, was ambitious of appearing a 

 benefactor. They who had not lands to spare gave roads to 

 accommodate the infant foundation. The religious were not 

 backward in keeping up this pious propensity, which they 

 observed so readily influenced the breasts of men. Thus did 

 the more opulent monasteries add house to house, and field to 

 field ; and by degrees manor to manor : till at last " there was 

 no place left ; " but every district around became appropriated 

 to the purposes of their founders, and every precinct was drawn 

 into the vortex. 



