THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



93 



manorial services they or their predecessors would other- 

 wise have to render, and among these small tenants were 

 those bearing the names of Herbert, Galfrey, Crock, Nigel, 

 Clavig, Auden, Corveiser, Turville, Dunton, Grimbaud, 

 Husseley, Alan, Marshall, Pistor, Ducket, Cheldewell, 

 Lugman, Cocus, and Bere. Some at least of these names 

 are names of Hampshire families at the present day, and 

 may, perhaps, some of them, still be found in this 

 neighbourhood. 



There is no mention of a church at Micheldever in the 

 Doomsday Book, but from the circumstance that the manor 

 was Abbey land, it is very probable that there was one 

 here. The great Abbey of Hyde would scarcely leave 

 their great manor without a parochial church, while the 

 Priory of St. Swithun, which held the Manor of Wonston, 

 had a parish church there. Probably, therefore, this was 

 one of the omissions in that Survey which we know 

 occurred in several other instances. The parochial clergy 

 at Micheldever, or the secular clergy as they would be 

 called, were well endowed in early time, for in 1291 the 

 rectorial revenue of Micheldever Church amounted to 66 

 133. 4d. per annum, and the vicarial revenue to ^10 133. 4d., 

 the value, I presume, in the main of the great and small 

 tithes respectively. This would suffice to maintain here 

 a considerable staff of secular or parish clergy, but in the 

 reign of Edward II a change occurred, and on the applica- 

 tion of the Abbot, the king granted a license to the Abbey 

 to appropriate, notwithstanding the provisions of the 

 statute of Mortmain, some one church in the diocese of 

 Winchester with the consent of the Bishop, in place of the 

 church of Collingbourn Pewsey, in the county of Wilts, 

 which had been made over by the Abbot and convent of 

 Hyde to the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury, in substitu- 

 tion of an annual payment of -20 from the Abbey. The 

 church of Micheldever was that one which was thus appro- 

 priated, and the Bishop's license for this appropriation 

 recites that the revenues of the Abbey had become in- 

 sufficient to meet the demands upon it arising from the 

 large number of poor, sick, and infirm persons resorting 

 to its hospital. 



Some centuries later I think the Abbey of Hyde must 

 have built the fine tower of the church which exists at the 

 present day, and which is one of the finest towers of the 

 Perpendicular style we have in the county. 



On the dissolution of Hyde Abbey, the manor of Michel- 

 dever was given to Thomas Wriothesley, afterwards Earl 

 of Southampton and Lord Chancellor, whose sepulchral 

 monument in Titchfield church has been described by Mr. 

 Greenfield in the last part of the papers and proceedings 

 of this club. It was held successively by the Earls of 

 Southampton, viz., Henry, the 2nd Earl, the supporter of 

 Mary Queen of Scots, Henry, the 3rd Earl, the friend and 

 patron of Shakespeare, and Thomas, the 4th Earl. On his 

 death it passed into the family of Russell by the marriage 

 of Lady Rachel Wriothesley to Lord William Russell. 



From the Russell family this ancient domain passed by 

 purchase to the Baring family, and is now held by the 

 Earl of Northbrook, the representative of that family. 



The vicar, the Rev. W. A. Whitestone, gave some 

 particulars about the church. When Lord Northbrook 

 was making an excavation for a vault there, he said, 

 he came upon very solid foundations, supposed to be 

 either Saxon or Norman. The present church is no 

 doubt the third on the spot, and underneath the 

 plastering and present walls can be detected remnants 

 of the older edifices. The lower arch dates from 

 about 1350, and the tower from about 1360; the stones 



were evidently taken from some other building, as 

 they are some ot them carved and show evident signs 

 of painting. 



Tea was partaken of at the hotel by Micheldever 

 station, on account of the rain, indoors. Afterwards 

 the Rev. G. N. Godwin read a paper on old coaches, 

 and early railways and telegraphs, in which he gave 

 some interesting information about those means of 

 communication. Micheldever station, he said, was 

 established at that spot to meet the coach traffic. 

 The use of semaphores was introduced into England 

 from France in 1795. There were ten between 

 London and Portsmouth ; and one on Southsea Com- 

 mon was kept at work all day long. The transmission 

 of messages by them was described as as quick as a 

 cannon ball. They sent Greenwich time daily to 

 Portsmouth in about 45 seconds. They were worked 

 in a very simple way, three or four persons being at 

 each station ; and there were in all 67 signals 

 representing letters, figures, and phrases. 

 The last message along that line was sent 

 in 1847. Coaches were established in 1580, 

 and were in perfection about 1820 to 1840 ; 

 the Southampton and Portsmouth mail coaches were 

 still running in 1841, after the opening of the London 

 and South- Western Railway. Particulars were 

 given of the early opposition to railways by the canal 

 people, farmers and others ; the surveys for the lines 

 were carried out under great difficulties. The 

 President having expressed thanks to Mr. Godwin 

 for his paper, Mr. W. H. Purkis added some of his 

 reminiscences of the coaching days in Southampton, 

 when, he thought, the town was much better off as 

 regards trade than at present. There were n four- 

 horse coaches to London ; and they had some of the 

 very best horses. One coach went from Brighton 

 to Bristol via Southampton in a day, travel- 

 ling at the rate of n miles an hour. This 

 quickness was not without ill results ; he once saw 

 three horses drop dead in rushing up the Commer- 

 mercial-road, Southampton. The journey from 

 Southampton to London took eight hours by day and 

 ten hours by night. When the railways were talked 

 about it was said that they would ruin the farmers, as 

 no oats would be required. There were no steamers at 

 Southampton in those days, only sailing packets ; 

 and one, called the Speedy, took a fortnight to get to 

 Jersey. After some remarks from Mr. Shore and Mr. 

 F. A. Edwards, and an inspection of some curiosities 

 belonging to Mr. Showier (including an autograph 

 letter from Lord Nelson to Dolland, 1805), the 

 remaining time before the departure of the train 

 was given to a walk to see the chalk sections at 

 the Micheldever tunnel and then on to Pophara 

 beacon, where three bell shape barrows came in for 

 examination. These barrows were marked on the 

 old one-inch Ordnance Survey maps as lying in an 

 east and west direction, but they really lie about 20 

 deg. to the east of north. Their direction gave rise 

 to some discussion between Mr. Shore and Mr. Dale 



