AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 49 



One of these bequests of land deserves notice as a curious 

 relic of ancient superstition. By the original deed of grant 

 now extant, dated the 1st of April, in the 20th year of 

 the reign of King Henry VIII. (A. D. 1528), "one John 

 Gye grants to Robert Toly and others, a close of land 

 near Wallingford, in the parish of Dodbrooke, in trust, 

 to pay part of the profits to the churchwardens of Kings- 

 bridge, to buy cakes, wine, and ale, to be spread on a 

 table in the chancel of the church of St. Edmund in the 

 said town, for the priests and others attending, who are 

 to proceed from thence to the west end of the church, 

 near the font, and there pray for the souls of the donor, 

 his wife, father, mother, &c, who there lie buried. Further, 

 on every Good Friday, to pay ten poor people one penny 

 each in honour of the Passion, when it is sung or said 

 in the church, who are to say five Paternosters, five Ave- 

 Marias, and one Credo : and a half-penny each to twenty 

 other poor persons for nearly similar purposes, &c, &c." 



There appear to have been two grants, or at any rate, 

 two deeds of grant concerning John Gye's charity — one 

 dated 1522, and the other 1529, and although not clearly 

 expressed, yet we rather fancy there was something to 

 be given to the poor besides the cakes and ale, the pence 

 and the half-pence. In the deed of 1522 he intrusts to 

 feoffees two several half acres of land in Kingsbridge, "for 

 the use of the wardyns of the store of St. Edmund." The 

 first half acre lies between his own house and "that of 

 the Abbot of Buckfast, and runs down so far as the Lord 

 Abbot's meadows, called Norton Meadows." The other 

 half acre is on "the other side of the street, higher up, 

 and runs down to the bed of the current which divides 

 Kingsbridge and Dodbrook." 



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