338 MYKEHAM. 



de Wykeham, erected a chapel here on the site of 

 the church of All Saints, which was then taken 

 down, being ruinous, and decayed, and dedicated it 

 to the Virgin Mary, and Saint Helen. The said 

 John de Wykeham, having the king's license, gran- 

 ted by charter, dated 20 of June, 1321, to dame 

 Isabel the prioress, and to the convent, the annual 

 stipend of 12 marks of silver, and several parcels of 

 land, for procuring and sustaining two perpetual 

 chaplains and their successors, daily to celebrate 

 divine service in the said chapel, for the soul of the 

 founder; and for the souls of all the faithful de- 

 ceased; which ordination was confirmed by Wil- 

 liam, archbishop of York, 20 of July 1233. 



Half a mile from Wykeham, in the same town- 

 ship, is Wykeham abbey, lately the seat of the Hon. 

 Mrs. Langley, and now the residence and property 

 of the Hon. Marmaduke Langley.* 



The house is kept from the view of the traveller 

 on the York road, by lofty firs interspersed with 

 forest trees ; but a handsome gate-way announces 

 the direction in which it stands. 



Here Pain Paganus Fitz-Osbert, or de Wykeham, 

 about A. D. 1153, in the 18 of king Stephen, built 

 and endowed a priory of cistercian nuns, to the hon- 

 our of the virgin Mary and St. Helen. The site 

 of this priory is in the flat part of the country, not 

 far from the road leading from York to Scarborough 

 on the right hand; but very little of it now remains. 

 The chapel, a small venerable gothic structure, and 

 part of the north end wall, which separates the 



