CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 33 



its walls and left them the legacy of their honoured dust ! 

 As in all historical notices freedom from error should be the 

 writer's special care, I cannot overlook a passage in Mr. Blunt's 

 History of Tewkesbury Abbey, quoted by Dr. Harman, D.D., in 

 some very excellent papers entitled " Historical Memories," 

 published by him in the " Antiquary." Mr. Blunt is therein 

 quoted as to Brihtric, the last of the Saxon line, stating him to 

 have been " seized in his chapel at Hanley, about three miles from 

 Cranborne Abbey (where he had, perhaps, fled for sanctuary), on 

 the very day of her (Queen Matilda's) coronation, and had him 

 conveyed, a prisoner, to Winchester, &c." Now I wish to point 

 out that there is absolutely no authority for this statement, and it 

 illustrates the mode in which errors are invented and repeated 

 and received without any suspicion of their want of truth. All 

 we know of this part of the history is contained in the Chronicle 

 of Tewkesbury, which runs thus " He caused him (Brihtric) to 

 be seized in his Manor of Hanley and to be taken to Winchester, 

 where he died and was buried, leaving no issue." The manor 

 only of Hanley is mentioned, not a word about " chapel" or 

 " coronation." Old Leland's version differs again, who says 

 " He put hym (Brihtric) yn the castelle of Hanley beside Sares- 

 burye, where he died." Such, unfortunately, is the way in which 

 history, as it is called, is too often written, and it becomes very 

 necessary, if we are at all curious, to refer when we can to the 

 fountain head, for the rills which flow from it are often turbid and 

 distort the truth. It does not appear that the Manor of Handley 

 (not Hanley), in Dorset, " beside Saresburye," was one of the 440 

 manors which belonged to the Honour of Glo'ster, held by 

 Brihtric ; but the Manor of Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire, was 

 unquestionably one of those manors. It was one of the chief 

 Baronial Castles of the Honour, and it was there, without doubt, 

 in his own manor and castle where Brihtric was seized and thence 

 taken to Winchester, the capital of the West Saxons, where he 

 died in prison, and where he was also buried, the victim, as it is 

 said, of a woman's revenge. 



