64 
THE MONKS OF MARMOUTIER. 
lived in the neighbourhood of Bishophill, his Church being the 
House of Canons close by, called by the name of Christ, and 
giving its name to the district in York where the civil popula¬ 
tion lived, and for many miles around. 
This may cause some people to smile, but I believe the day 
will come when this theory will have passed out of the region of 
conjecture into that of certainty. At any rate, there is going to 
he placed in the restored Church of Holy Trinity a fine stained- 
glass window by Kempe of three lights, one containing a figure 
of Eborius, another that of S. Helen who, I fancy, lived not far 
away, possibly on Toft Green, her Church being of course 
Christ’s Church, and the third containing a figure of Alcuin 
who, according to Willis, built the great Basilica, Christ’s 
Church, and wrote in such eloquent verses about its beauty 
and magnificence. 
This, then, is the Church which in 1086 is mentioned in 
Domesday as belonging to Richard Fitz-Erfast. Three years 
later it had changed hands, for it was in the year 1089 that 
Ralph Pagnell issued his famous charter in favour of Holy 
Trinity, in which the Church is clearly seen to have been at 
that time one of his many possessions. Ralph Pagnell was 
one of the Norman Barons of William the Conqueror. He 
gave his name to several places in various parts of the country, 
-—Hooton Pagnell, Yorks., Boothby Pagnell, Lines., Newport 
Pagnell, Bucks., and lived, in all probability, at Hooton 
Pagnell in our own county, his old baronial mansion now 
being in the course of restoration in consequence of the great 
interest taken in it by its present owner* Mrs. Warde-Aldam. 
For his services in the Conquest, Ralph had been amply 
rewarded by the receipt of the whole of the possessions of the 
Saxon Merleswain. This consisted of 10 lordships in Devon¬ 
shire, 5 in Somersetshire, 15 in Lincolnshire, and 15 in 
Yorkshire, one of the latter evidently including the possessions 
of Richard Fitz-Erfast. This was a considerable property to 
come into, and Ralph soon showed his gratitude by devoting 
part of it to the service of the Church. His principal gift, 
though by no means the only one, was the re-establishment 
and re-endowment of the desecrated House of Canons that 
had come into his hands. The Church itself and the properties 
