62 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



modern mansion. In the street leading to the church is a curious 

 ancient building, with yew trees in front. This mansion was for- 

 merly inhabited by a gentleman of the ancient family of Sanders. 



Barton Church is a chapel of ease to Tatenhill, and is dedicated 

 to St. James. The origin of this chapel is curious. In the six- 

 teenth century, a man named Taylor dwelt in a small cottage near 

 the place where the chapel now stands. His wife was delivered of 

 three sons at a birth, and the infants were shewn as a curiosity 

 to Henry the Seventh, who accidentally passed that way. The 

 King ordered that care should be taken to have the boys educated : 

 they all lived to be men, and as the tradition goes, all came to be 

 doctors, and to good preferment. The eldest son, John, however, 

 not only rose to eminence as a scholar and divine, but gratefully 

 founded this chapel in the place of his nativity. The chapel is 

 neatly built of durable stone, and contains several monuments. 



Barton Free School was founded in 1595, by Thomas Russel, of 

 London, who bequeathed <5Q. for that purpose, and a certain land- 

 charge for the endowment of the same. The annual produce is 

 c19. and the trustees the Draper's Company. The school-house 

 is an ancient fabric, situated at the eastern extremity of the village. 

 By the benevolence of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, the school- 

 master's salary has been increased to c50. a-year ; and the present 

 teacher, the Rev. Mr. Kirk, obtained a subscription towards repairs, 

 and engaged a classical assistant. His public spirit deserves com- 

 mendation, and he will probably be enabled to establish a respect- 

 able seminary of education. 



A little southward of Barton stands Blakenhall, once the prin- 

 cipal seat of the ancient family of Mynors. 



WHICHNOR. This small village is situated about half way be- 

 tween Burton and Lichfield. It stands on an eminence on the 

 northern bank of the Trent, about a mile above the confluence of 

 that river with the Tame. 



The manor was held by Sir Philip de Somerville, in the 10th year 

 of the reign of Edward the Third, under John of Gaunt, Duke of 

 Lancaster, lord of the honour of Tutbury. During the Duke's resi- 

 dence at Tutbury Castle, to please the people and gain their 

 affection, he established several curious customs, and none more 

 singular than the conditions on which Sir Philip held this manor, 

 Sciercot Ridware, Netherton, and Cowlee. The most remarkable 

 condition of the tenure was to keep a flitch of bacon hanging in his 

 hall at Whichnor, at all times in the year, except in Lent, that it 



