X 



16 THE MODEL MERCHANT 



resources to a mind of this stamp. He had heard of London, and to 

 the metropolis he would go ; that would present the best chance of 

 success. Of county towns, Gloucester was the nearest and most 

 flourishing ; whether he tried that before he went fui'ther we cannot 

 say, probably not, and I will tell j'ou why he did not, and how the 

 story, which has been too long considered a romance, is here borne 

 out. According to the pedigree, which I have carefully made out 

 from existing documents, Pdchard Whittington must have been either 



Manor House, which stand close to each other, and a fcv scattered houses 

 here and there at a distance from the Church. The whole present population is 

 only 256, (in Sir Robert Atkyns' time, houses 30, inhabitants 115,) and, doubtless, 

 was much smaller in Whittington's time. The Church is a beautiful specimen of 

 the early Norman. The zig zag arch which separates the chancel from the body 

 of the Church is singularly fine, as also the arch of the south doorway. To the 

 north is a very ancient porch, built of fine old English oak. There are still 

 remains to be seen of the old Manor House, a portion of which is now used as an 

 out house and a dove-cot, in which there is a good semi-circular-headed doorway. 

 There is no parsonage house at Pauntley. The living, which is valued at £80. per 

 annum, is in the gift of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. I could not help 

 feeling a singular interest when I walked over the ground on which Whittington 

 had trod — sat in the church porch in which he had probably sat — and entered the 

 Church in which he had worshipped as a boy, and in which, doubtless, he was 

 baptized. The Abbey of Cormeilles, in Normandy, one of the alien priories, had 

 a priory in the parish, and also had the advowson of Pauntley, (Henry II.) 

 which remained in their possession until the dissolution of the monasteries, when 

 it was granted to Sir Giles Pole, who married Elizabeth, the youngest of the 

 co-heiresses of Thomas "Whittington, the last male of the direct branch of the 

 family. By the will of Robert Whittington (1424) it appears that Pauntley was 

 the burial place of the family. He desires to be buried in the Church of St. 

 John the Evangelist, in Pauntley. His son Guy, by will, (1440) desires to be 

 buried in the New Chapel of St. George, in the above Church, which marks the 

 date and name of that which is now the south aisle. The Church itself seems to 

 have been built soon after the Conquest, probably by Walter de Pauntley. 

 A dispute appears to have arisen in the reign of John, between Walter de 

 Solers, the then Lord of the Manor, and the Abbot of Cormeilles, as to the 

 patronage of the advowson. The application of the latter to the Crown, on the 

 subject, will be seen in the Appendix. 



A second visit to Pauntley, July 10th, 1860, has brought to light circumstances 

 connected with the history of the Whittington family, overlooked on the occasion 

 of the first visit, which bear peculiarly on the confirmation of the family pedigree. 

 In the north window of the (chancel still exist the remains of ancient stained 



