144 



Abridgement of the History of the 



containing many interesting particulars relating to the several 

 manors and estates so conveyed. Another deed of the date of 1390, 

 settles the Manor of Castle Combe and other estates in Yorkshire, 

 Gloucestershire, and Middlesex, the portion of the Lady Milicent, 

 upon her and her husband, Sir Stephen Scrope, Knight, for life, 

 with remainder to their heirs, &c. 



Castle Combe, during its possession by the Lords Badlesmere, 

 Tiptoft, and Scrope, throughout the fourteenth century, was ne- 

 glected as a residence, the first of these occupying his proud Castle 

 of Leedes, the second his capital Manor of Langar, in Nottingham- 

 shire, and the third the stately castle which he built for himself at 

 Bolton in Yorkshire. The Castle of Combe thus was allowed to fall 

 into decay, and indeed seems at no time to have been suited for the 

 residence of a wealthy household. As the country became more 

 peaceable, it was no longer needed as a place of defence or pro- 

 tection against hostile attack, and was probably used only as the 

 baronial court of the lord, and the prison of his offending tenants, 

 and the residence perhaps of his bailiff, or prcepositus, who exercised 

 in his name "Jura Regalia," the right of "pit and gallows," and 

 of the trial and punishment of offences against person and pro- 

 perty. A field at the back of the Castle-hill still goes by the 

 name of " the Gallows Ground," which was probably the place of 

 execution, or at all events of the exhibition of this apparatus of 

 punishment in terror of evil-doers; and the "pit," or lower dun- 

 geon of the castle is still to be seen there, the only portion of the 

 ruin now remaining, its contents having been cleared out recently. 



The family of Scrope who thus became possessed of the Barony 

 and Lordship of Castle Combe towards the close of the thirteenth 

 century, and in whose line it still remains, having been transmitted 

 by direct male descent from Sir Stephen Scrope to the present 

 owner, was an ancient and honourable race whose history has been 

 amply illustrated in the splendid work of Sir Harris Nicolas on 

 " The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy," a contest for the right 

 to bear a particular shield of arms — viz., a bend azure, on a field or, 

 which occurred in the reign of Richard II. and was decided in 

 favour of the Scropes and against the Grosvenors. " Though some 



