1825.] BED Account of the Village of Bedfont. Mr. URBAN, Sept. 2. EDFONT, anciently written Bedefunde, is a small pretty village on the great western road, 13 miles from London, and adjoining Hounslow Heath. By a strange corruption, which is extremely prevalent, this village is now generally known by the name of Belfound. Its name is variously accounted for. Some imagine it to be derived from Bede's fount, or Belle font, there being a small beautiful spring of water still existing on the public roadside, which is kept clean, and much valued, it being considered very efficacious in diseases of the eyes; there is another fine spring in the neighbourhood of this, which supplies the village generally, though it is private property. The manor of Bedfont is mentioned under the name of East Bedfont (to distinguish it from a hamlet called West Bedfont, in the adjoining parish of Stanwell) as early as the time of Edward the Confessor. In the beginning of the 14th century this manor was given by John De Neville to the priory of Hounslow. It was afterwards granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Michael Stanhope, by the intermarriage of whose daughter with George Lord Berkeley, it passed to the Berkeley family. In 1656 it was sold by George Berkeley, esq. (son and heir to the preceding) to Algernon Earl of Northumberland, from which it has regularly descended to the present Duke. The manor of Hatton, a hamlet appended to the parish of Bedfont, has been annexed to the latter since the year 1376. The Parish Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a small ancient structure; consisting of a nave and chancel of one pace, tiled, with a modern wooden spire. The nave, including the space under the belfry, lately fitted up with benches, will accommodate about 100 adults, of which only 58 sittings, including the Sundayschool boys, are appropriated as free sittings to the poor. There is also a small gallery, containing three pews, private property, and sittings behind for about six singers. There has been a great increase in the population of this parish within the last few years owing to the inclosure of Hounslow GENT. MAG. September, 1825. 201 Heath, a great part of which lies in the parish. In 1800, according to Lysons, its inhabitants were about 330. They now amount nearly to 900. Between the nave and chancel of the Church is a fine arch of Saxon architecture, with zigzag mouldings, much defaced and decayed by frequent whitewashing; it is 12 feet high by 8 wide. There is another in much better preservation at the entrance of the Church, 7 feet high by 4 wide. In the nave and chancel there are four very small lancet windows; others have been added at different times of various kinds of Gothic, all of stone. The West end window is very handsome, and that over the altar still contains a few panes of glass of the white rose, which fixes its date between 1461 and 1483, the time of the House of York. There are no monuments of particular note. On the North wall of the chancel is one to the memory of Mrs. Anne Sherborne, 1815, whose name is endeared in the recollection of her virtues. Near it is the following coat of arms: Az. a fesse wavy, between three lions passant Or. On the floor are the tombs of Mrs. Isabel Page, 1629. Matthew Page, gent. 1631, and Francis Page, 1678. On that of the latter is the following couplet: "A virtuous life, and a good old age, Perfume the memory of Francis Page." On the North wall of the nave is a neat marble monument to the memory of Mary, wife of Henry Whitfield, D.D., who died in 1795 on which has since been placed the following inscription: "Henricus Whitfield, S.T.P. de RuEcclesiæ per annos quadraginta duos Vicashall in Comitatu Wilt. Rector, et hujusce rius; Vir, si quis alius, doctus, pius venerabilis. Obiit Die Julii 9. anno salutis 1819. Etatis 88." 202 Account of the Church of Bedfont. marriages of an earlier date than 1695; that of burials commences in 1678. There is an earlier book, entitled, "Estbedfont, the Church booke of accompts, as well for the Churchwardens and Overseers for the Poore, as also for ye Churchraytes, according as everie house is aportioned. This booke conteyneth all yat was conteyned in a former booke in ye yere of or Lord, 1593, to ye yere 1627 (....farre goeth ye old booke. This booke beginneth in ye yere 1628." There are no entries of much moment in this old book. In 1593 is the following list of "Church goods." "In primis one new Bible. "It. one new surplus of holland. "It. a communion cup of silver, with a cover. "It. a booke of common prayer. "It. a paraphrase of Erasmus. "It. a booke of .... "It. a regyster boke of pay." In the next account is, "A great new pott of pewter, with a cover, for ye communion." In 1609 "Mr. Jewell's works" were added. In 1629 there are several entries of gifts to indigent Preachers and Ministers, and one to a Welsh preacher. In 1632 to the Church goods is added "a little pay book" to write the names of strange preachers in. "It. the book of Ecclesiastical Canons." "In 1633 John Page gave unto the Church a fayre grean carpet, fringed about with greene silk fringe, and embroidered, to be laid upon the communion table every Sabbath day." In 1635 a trencher plate and napkin were added, which is the last Churchproperty entry in the book. There are few parishes less indebted to benefactors than Bedfont. In the Church-yard are no tombstones or monuments worthy of note, except perhaps one erected about 60 years ago, to the memory of John Stanley, "King of the Gypsies," at the cost of his subjects. The tomb is now much decayed, and the slab fastened together by iron cranks, is laid upon the fragments that remain, now nearly level to the earth. It bore the following inscription: "Readers all, as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I; [Sept. Mr. URBAN, THER Sept. 1. HE following topographical remarks on the early History of St. Columb, in Cornwall, were suggested by a well-written account of Padstow, in the same county, which appeared in your Magazine for April, p. 320. The writer has traced, with a due reference to dates, the incidents connected with those remains of antiquity which present themselves in the town and its immediate vicinity. Cornwall abounds with additional relations, which serve personally to connect the patron saints with their respective parishes in many instances the character of these legends is doubtful and contradictory; in the present, however, St. Columba appears to possess a more decided claim to the attention of the provincial historian. Alluding to the existence of Pagan superstition, Mr. Whitaker directs our attention to Tresadern, a residence near the town, as probably representing the temple of Saturn; and we find, according to the same authority, a Cornish sovereign resident at Trekyninget at the commencement of the fourth century; and not far from "John Goodwin" occurs in the register about this time as yicar: whose name, however, according to Lysons, does not appear in the Bishop's register. luded to. It was in the reign of Edward + Higher Trekyninge is the station alIII. the property of the Arundels and the Hamelys, and at a later period for some generations in the family of Jenkyn. The greater part of the ancient mansion, which was a building of considerable extent, was pulled down in the reign of James the First. thence 1825. On the early History of St. Columb, Cornwall. thence the burial-place of some distinguished Briton known by the name of the Coyt. This monument is composed of five massy stones, one covering, three supporting, and one buttressing, and strikes upon the eye as a solitary remnant of ancient grandeur, over which ages have rolled, but which still seems haughtily to plead for glories gone. Such was the tomb of a British sovereign in the time of Diocletian. Its surly magnificence has, however, been long since appropriated as a receptacle for pigs, and the antiquary surveys this humiliating exchange with feelings scarcely less powerful than those which filled the mind of the classic enthusiast on beholding the temple of Peace in the Roman forum converted into a sheepfold; "Damnosa quid non imminuit dies!" HOR. In proceeding to notice the eminently pious individual, to whom St. Columb is indebted for its name, it may be proper to refer to Camden, who tells us from the information of Nicholas Roscarrock, a gentleman highly prized by Carew for his industrious delight in matters of history and antiquity, that St. Columba was a holy virgin and martyr: her life existed at that time in the Cornish language, and was in the possession of Mr. Roscarrock, who had translated it into English; but the decay of the ancient vernacular tongue, and the Gothic spirit of Protestant indifference, equally contributed to the neglect and final disappearance of this biographical memoir. Mr. Whitaker in his "Cathedral of Cornwall" (vol. 11. 82, 90) is quite animated on the subject of the Virgin Martyr, and with his usual regard to topographical accuracy, thus sympathizes in her sufferings. "The King of Cornwall, a Pagan, resident in the royal house of Trekyninge, probably in consequence of Diocletian's edict, ordered a young woman of the Roman name of Columba to be put to death for her Christianity. The scene of the execution he directed to be North of his own house, behind the hill that backs it on the North, and upon the very site of the present Churchyard; ground sufficiently distant from his house not to annoy his feelings with either the sight or the hearing of the deed during its transaction, yet resting higher than any immediately adjacent, even looking_down into a steep valley on the North, and conspicuous from all the high lands beyond. Here I suppose the fatal fire was kindled, 203 casting its awful gleam upon the sides of the was seen the Virgin Saint of Christianity, Castle-an-Dinas, which rears its bar- " and Independently, however, of these interesting associations connected with the British æra, St. Columb lays claim to peculiar attention, as having been for so many centuries under the lordship and patronage of the "great Arundels of Lanherne," who for many descents lie there interred; greatest stroke for love, living, and respect, in the country heretofore they bare," (Carew, A.D. 1602, fo. 144). It is needless to enter into a detail of the eminent men who have descended from that illustrious stock: they were indeed true in counsel, and trusty in peril, and have achieved for themselves and for their name a goodly niche among the patriots of other days. The Baron Arundels of Trerice originally sprung from the same family, although there seems to be considerable difference of opinion with regard to dates; some connecting the branches in Devonshire, others in Cornwall, through the 204 On the early History of St. Columb, Cornwall. the house at Tolcarn. They both bear Hoc agnomen ei, fut cujus in ægide dig num, &c. Leland, indeed, says that the Trerice branch did not bear the same. arms this must have been either a mistake, or at that time they might have borne those of Lansladron only, Sable, three chevronels Argent, which they afterwards always quartered with those of Arundel. In support of this suggestion, Carew says, "Divers Cornish gentlemen born younger brothers, and advanced by match, have left their own coats, and honoured those of their wives with the first quarter on their shields, so that the arms of one stock are greatly diversified in the younger branches." There were frequent collateral matches between the families at subsequent periods. The lordship of St. Columb was originally part of the lands belonging to the Priory of Bodmin. In the thirteenth century it became the property of the Arundels, in which family it continued until the death of Sir John Arundel of Lanherne, in 1701, the last of his house in Cornwall who bore that name. Richard Arundel Bealinge, esq. the son of his only daughter, who married Sir Richard Bealinge, knt. succeeded to the family estates. This gentleman left two daughters; Frances, the eldest, married Sir John Gifford of Burstall, co. Lincoln, bart. and died without issue; Mary, the youngest, therefore became the sole representa tive of the Lanherne Arundels, and by marriage with Henry, seventh Baron Arundel of Wardour in 1739, united two branches of the family, after a separation of upwards of 200 years. His monumental inscription in Tisbury Church, Wilts, thus elegantly commemorates this event: "Qui Mariam Arundel, Lanhernia in Cornubia stirpis, nobilissimam hæredem, accepit conjugem ; inde filio ex eâ suscepto, clarissima hæc prosapia, quæ ultra duo sæcula fuerat divulsa, jam feliciter unita floret, floreatque semper, favente Deo." This extensive manor having been [Sept, thus vested in the Wardour family, The Rectory of St. Columb is one of The house was built in the fifteenth century by John Arundel, Bishop of Exeter, a younger son of Renfrey Arundel, Sheriff of Cornwall, in the 3d of Edward IV. who removed the parsonage from its original site, on the North side of the church, to its present situa tion in the valley. The dilapidated remains of the old college or rectory, where Bishop Arundel received his early education previously to his removal to Exon College, Oxford, and which Hals erroneously calls a college of Black Monks, were totally consumed by an accidental fire in 1701. The Rectory houses of our island were originally the only schools for education, and the inmates generally consisted of the Rector and six subordinates; the Deacon, Sub-deacon, and Acolyth; the exorcist, lector, and ostiary; the Rector and Deacon in holy orders, the remainder called Clerks, from whence is derived the name of the present assistants in our Churches. The domestic arrangements of these * Mr. Rawlings was for a long series of years actively and honourably engaged as a Deputy Lieutenant and Magistrate for the county of Cornwall. The commanding talents and extended liberality of this gentleman were highly estimated by those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He died at his seat in 1820, in the 63d year of his age. repo 1 |