26 o 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCK LAND. 
[CH. X. 
green grass of the letters amply testified to its efficacy 
as a dressing. 
Some of the Westminster Prebends used to come on 
progress every summer to Islip—an old custom now 
obsolete. They met their tenants with the Dean at dinner 
at the Old Red Lion Inn, in the yard of which was said 
to have stood the Confessors residence, with its adjoining 
chapel, which had been converted into a barn. The barn 
was still standing in the early part of this century. After 
the dinner was finished, and the rents were paid, these 
dignitaries would adjourn to the Rectory terrace for coffee, 
fruit, and frolic, the fruit picked by the children just before 
the guests arrived, “ with the taste of the sun in it,” as 
Archdeacon Jennings would say. The frolic consisted 
in being introduced to the various pets—the eagle, 
monkey, and bear, and to the tadpoles, which were kept 
in a pan on the terrace, and devoured one another, as 
did the saurians of old. A game of thimblerig followed 
on one occasion, played by these sedate old gentlemen 
with empty flower-pots. Hosts and guests were indeed 
a very merry company for an hour or so, after which 
solemn state was resumed, and the progress continued 
to Fencott and Mercote on Otmoor, where more Dean 
and Chapter property was visited and tenants inter¬ 
viewed. 
The inhabitants of these low-lying villages suffered 
greatly from ague; but Islip fortunately stood just at 
the edge of the flat swampy stretch of land known as 
Otmoor. The traditional origin of the name is that a 
charitable lady received a promise from a great landowner 
