82 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



what defaced, so strongly attracted the admiration 

 of Sir Francis Chantrey, as he told Lord Nugent, 

 when visiting him at Lilies, which was near the 

 chapel, that he had borrowed from them his first 

 idea for the exquisite sleeping sisters in Lichfield 

 Cathedral. The late Dean Bickersteth had been 

 my vicar at Aylesbury for over twenty years, and 

 he showed the group to me with much pleasure 

 when I once visited him at the Deanery. The 

 sisters were the daughters of the Reverend W. 

 Robinson, their mother being a beautiful woman, 

 and the daughter of Dean Woodhouse, of Lichfield. 

 Whilst writing of Sir Henry Lee, I find that Ann 

 Vavasour was Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth ; 

 she was one of the family of Vavasour, who were a 

 great family, and whose ancestor came over with 

 William the Conqueror. He took his name, as 

 being the King's Valvasotcr, from holding land in 

 fealty, a degree then but little inferior to a Baron. 

 Neither the rank nor the station of this same Ann 

 Vavasour could preserve her from frailty, and on 

 that account her tomb at Ouarrendon is said to have 

 been desecrated and defaced by order of the bishop 

 of the diocese — Lincoln. Her shame and degrada- 

 tion were thus moderately commemorated : 



Under this stone entombed lies a fair and worthy dame. 

 Daughter to Henry Vavasour, Ann Vavasour her name ; 

 She Hving with Sir Henry Lee, for love long tyme did dwell, 

 Death could not part them, but here they rest within one cell. 



Sir Henry died in 1610. The above was copied by 

 the Lancaster Herald in 161 1, and the following 



