JOHN BIGG, THE DINTON HERMIT ^y 



who had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir OHver 

 Cromwell of Hinchinbroke, in the County of Hunt- 

 ingdon, a cousin of the Protector. Sir Richard was 

 buried at Dinton. 



Whilst writing of Dinton Hall I cannot refrain 

 from mentioning the so-called Dinton hermit. He 

 was one John Bigg. In the earlier part of his 

 life he was clerk to Simon Mayne, when the latter 

 was Justice of the Peace. This hermit abode in a 

 cave underground, in the parish, and for several 

 years wandered about the neighbourhood receiving 

 alms and food from the benevolent. He never 

 changed his clothes, and his method of mending 

 them was by sewing fresh pieces of cloth or leather 

 over the decayed part. I have seen one of his 

 shoes at Dinton Hall, and I believe it is still in 

 Colonel Goodall's possession. This shoe had been 

 so often mended by pieces of leather nailed together, 

 that it was tenfold its original thickness. The fellow 

 shoe is now in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford. 

 John Bigg died on April 2, 1696, and was buried at 

 Dinton on April 4. It has often been alleged that 

 he was the executioner who beheaded the King, 

 Charles I. 



In mentioning the abolition of the Eton Montem 

 it is necessary to call attention to the fact of the 

 opening of the Great Western Railway at that time, 

 which had driven the coaches off the Great Bath 

 Road, as also the carriages of the nobility and 

 gentry, thus making the collection of ' salt ' a serious 

 diminution, and rendering it scarcely worth while to 

 go to so great an expense for the service. 



