200 ISLIP. 



granted in 1081 to Hugh de Grentemaisnil, a 

 Norman Baron of approved talent, who had dis- 

 tinguished himself in the battle at Hastings. When 

 he died, some Monks ' salted up his body, enclosed 

 * it in a hide, and sent it to Normandy.' 



Islip is about five miles from Oxford, and in 

 the middle of it formerly stood the palace of King 

 Ethelred, and adjoining it was an antient chapel 

 mentioned by Hearne in his ' curious discourses," 

 and in it a stone font stood in which it is said that 

 Edward the Confessor was baptized. On the 

 desecration of the chapel in the protectorate of 

 Cromwell, the font was removed to one of the inns 

 of the village, and applied to the meanest uses. 

 Hearne has recorded that an old lady kept meat 

 to cram her turkies in this font, but that the turkies 

 all died to the great disarrangement of her Christ- 

 mas dinners, and disappointment of her friends. 

 Islip is prettily situated on an eminence on the 

 bank of the Ray near its confluence with the 

 Cherwell. 



Bucknell Church will also be interesting to those 

 who take any pleasure in examining our antient 

 national edifices. It is probably one of the Anglo- 

 Norman buildings, and has its narrow lancet win- 

 dows, and a nave and chancel separated by a low 

 tower. 



I might mention Ambrosden, Beckley, and other 

 Churches within a short distance of Oxford which 



