8 1 0 



A Stroll through Bradford-un- Avon. 



at Shockerwick. On the sale of his pictures after his decease the 

 one we are describing 1 was purchased for the nation, at a cost of 

 some £800, and is now to be seen among" the paintings by English 

 artists in the national collection. 



4, We pass on now till we come to the western entrance to the 

 churchyard, where on the north side of a modern building, dignified 

 by the name of Abbey House, are the remains of what Leland 

 speaks of as "Horton's House/'' The Horton family were well-to-do 

 wool merchants, and, as we have already seen, benefactors of the 

 Church. The mansion which one of them built was afterwards in part 

 used for shops for the weaving of cloth. And as the Flemish work- 

 men, introduced first of all into the town for the purpose of such 

 manufactures, were quartered, or at all events plied their craft here, 

 the yard was called till a very recent period the " Dutch Barton/'' 

 There is a deed in existence by which, in 1659, Paul Methuen cove- 

 nanted with the parish officers, that a certain spinner, by name 

 Richard (otherwise) Derricke Johnson, whom, together with his wife 

 Hectrie, and several small children, he for his own proper gain and 

 benefit did fetch or bring out of Amsterdam, in Holland, should 

 never be chargeable to the parish. There is a similar deed in the 

 parish chest, dated 1674, endorsed, "Mr. William Brewer his bond 

 of £100 to save harmless the Parish of Bradford against certain 

 Dutchmen" whom he had brought over from Holland, or "Powland," 

 for the purpose of promoting, as they did effectually, the manufac- 

 turing trade in cloth in Bradford. 



5. Walking on down Church Street, and passing by a little 

 knoll called " Brace's Hill " — so termed from one Anthony Drucf 

 a Quaker, who built a house there in which he lived — we come t 

 a large and interesting building, mentioned by Leland in 1543 ant 

 called by him the " Church House/'' This, which is of the date 

 of the fifteenth century, was built by one of the Horton family, and 

 was the public place of assembly where people met for the purpose 

 of assessing themselves and their neighbours for the expenses of 

 Church repairs, the relief of the poor, &c. On the principle of 

 " business first and pleasure afterwards," as soon as they had at- 

 tended to the wants of others, they had a little care for their own, 



