THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



89 



The Prior of St. Swithun's is entered on several 

 ancient records as holding the manor for his Priory. The 

 amount paid by Wonston in 1291 in the taxation of Pope 

 Nicholas IV was .4, for the purposes of the last effort to 

 raise a crusade, concerning the failure of which it is said the 

 Pope died of grief. In the assessment of 1334 for the taxa- 

 tion of moveables or personal property, a fixed tax in lieu 

 of the loth and isth granted by Parliament to Edward III 

 on account of his wars, Wonston and Hunton were 

 assessed to pay 403. lod. The church of Wonsington with 

 its chapel is mentioned in the Inquisitones Nonarum, and 

 it is there stated that the small tithes with oblations and 

 mortuaries of the church amounted to g xos. od., that the 

 church revenue did not amount to so much as it did in 1290 

 and that the church had two messuages, one plough- 

 land, pasture for 122 sheep, 7 kine and 12 hogs. 

 The chapel mentioned was probably that of Hunton. 



In the vestry attention was directed to a list of the 

 rectors, a feature which it was suggested might be 

 copied with advantage in other churches. There 

 were also some tablets handing down to posterity the 

 names of those who had contributed to the re-building 

 of the church after the fire. In the churchyard were 

 found leaning against the wall of the church a number 

 of tombstones, which, from the mortar attaching to 

 them, had apparently been removed from the floor of 

 the church. One was a broken piece of a headstone 

 elaborately carved with figures. The corresponding 

 portion having been found still erect in the ground, 

 two muscular antiquarians brought the detached piece 

 of carving over, and found that it was the tomb of a 

 Richard Webster, who died in 1735, and whose 

 epitaph is : 



Tho' to such an age arriv'd, 



It is not sure to all ; 



Therefore prepare yrselves betime 



For death's uncertain call. 



It was mentioned that there was buried in this 

 churchyard a lady, who, having married a man much 

 beneath her in station, grew ashamed of him and re- 

 leased herself by murdering him, but shortened her 

 own days by contrition for the crime. 



The rectory house close by has some medieval 

 architectural features, having probably been built, Mr. 

 Shore suggested, by the Monks who attended the 

 church. The rector, the Rev. C. P. Hutchinson, 

 kindly allowed the party to see the house. In- 

 side there are some fine oak-paneled walls, of proba- 

 bly Elizabethan date, and in one bedroom a splayed 

 window which Mr. Greenfield thought of the time of 

 Edward II. 



Crossing the Micheldever stream, a short walk led 

 past Hunton church and mill. Here too are some 

 fine old half-timbered houses of late Tudor date, with 

 carved oak corbels which some artists of the party 

 sketched. The mill here, it seems, was recorded in 

 Domesday. By the roadside close by lay a large 

 piece of flint conglomerate part of an old mill-stone, 

 which had been dug up in repairing the road. This 

 was thought to be of considerable age. Mr. Shore 

 suggested that the use of this stone for the purpose 

 pointed to a time when communications were very 



defective and that it might possibly date from Saxon 

 times. It is an object worth preserving. 



The stream was re-crossed at Old-stoke or Stoke 

 Charity, now a bridge, but probably in olden times a 

 ford ; and St. Michael's church, Stoke Charity, was 

 soon reached. The Rev. A. C. Radcliffe, rector, met 

 the party and gave some details about the features of 

 the church, saying that a round arch to the north of 

 the chancel arch was probably early Saxon. The 

 chantry chapel was built about 1500 ; and the font 

 was brought from Winchester in 1542. There were 

 three small bells, one inscribed " St. Catherine pray 

 for us," one " Holy Trinity prayfor us, "and the third 

 without incription. The registers, which were ex- 

 hibited, date from 1542. The church contains some 

 fine altar-tombs of the lords of the manor, with inlaid 

 brasses more or less well preserved. The rector gave 

 some information about the lords of the manor, com- 

 mencing with John de Hampton, 1333. On the death 

 of Thomas Hampton in 1483 the manor passed to the 

 Waller family, into which one of his daughters was 

 married ; and after other changes it eventually came 

 to the Heathcotes, by whom it is now held. Mr. 

 Greenfield gave some information about the heraldry 

 and the Waller family, which he said displayed a 

 remarkable instance of heredity of intellect and prow- 

 ess. One of the family was a general at the battle of 

 Agincourt ; Sir William Waller, the great Parlia- 

 mentary general, Sir H. Waller, a diplomat and 

 general, and Edmond Waller, the poet, were descend 

 ants of his. Mr. Shore also read the following 

 paper : 



STOKES, OLD STOKE, ELDSTOKE, OR STOKE CHARITY. 



The geological nature of this valley and the stream flow- 

 ing through k is such that at one time it formed pools or 

 ponds in its course. This is shown by the remains of 

 ponds which still exist eastward of the bridge and lower 

 down the stream, and as it must have been necessary to 

 make a safe crossing place between the north and south 

 sides ol the valley, the natural expedient of a stoke or 

 passage made in part artificially by stakes or stones, would 

 be resorted to. This was probably the origin of the old 

 stoke here. All the Hampshiie stokes were places arti- 

 ficially staked as crossing places over streams or bogs, as 

 I have shown in a paper on old roads and fords of Hamp- 

 shire in the Archceological Review. The existence of a 

 pool here in Anglo-Saxon time is certain from a reference 

 made to it in a charter of Edward the Elder in A.D. 901, in 

 which the boundaries of a grant of land at Micheldever are 

 stated to be along the stream to the pool and from the pool 

 to Nessanbrygh, an ancient British camp on a hill to the 

 northward, now called Norsbury. This is the earliest 

 mention of the land, as far as far as I know, which now 

 forms the parish of Stoke Charity. Edward the Elder 

 gave it as a supplementary gift to Hyde Abbey, and it is 

 there described as part ef Micheldever. Boundary trees 

 in times decay, and even boundary stones and ditches 

 mentioned in a charter a thousand years ago may dis- 

 appear, but valleys, streams, and hills remain, and I think 

 from the consideration of these natural features 

 we can identify this Manor of Stoke Charity 

 as that which contained the " 10 mansas with 

 all that appertain to them, woods, fields, pastures, 

 meadows, and also the right of catching fish," as that 



