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1825.]

BE

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.

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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, 74 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 Rushall in Comitatu Wilt. Rector, et hujusce Ecclesiæ per annos quadraginta duos Vicarius; Vir, si quis alius, doctus, pius venerabilis. Obiit Die Julii 9. anno salutis 1819. Etatis 88."

What, however, renders the village of Bedfont so remarkable and wellknown, are the two yew trees in the Church-yard, cut in topiary. On one of them is the date when they assumed this fictitious shape, 1704, and on the the other are to be seen the initials of the parish officers for that year, J. H. and J. G. R. T. John Hatchet, John Goodwin, Robert Tillyer.

Here is no register of baptisms or

mar

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.

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It. a communion cup of silver, with a

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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;
As I am now, so you must be,
Prepare for death and follow me."

[Sept.

In 1590 Queen Elizabeth gave the Rectory of Bedfont, with the advowson of the Vicarage, to the Bishops of London and his successors in that see.

The Vicars of Bedfont since 1700 are here given from the Bishop of London's register.

1706. Stephen Fouace.
1720. John Jaumard *, B. A.
1740. John Higgate.
1761. John Gibson.

1777. Henry Whitfield, D.D.
1819. William Forth Protheroe, M.A.
1823. Robert Jones, D. D. F. R. S.L.
the present vicar.

The view, here given, (see Plate I.) of the Church and the yew trees, was taken by Mrs. Graham in 1824. R. T.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

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 pos sess a more decided claim to the at tention 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 vicar: 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. RoscarTock, 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 "Cathe dral 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 hills opposite, and carrying a strong terror with it to the heart of every secret but cowardly Christian. Here too I suppose was seen the Virgin Saint of Christianity, already a confessor, soon to be a martyr, earth and hell could inflict, as eager to pass looking down with a śmile upon all that culiar blessedness of martyrs in eternity. on the wings of hovering angels to the peThe Church was naturally fixed upon the very ground upon which its own martyr håd suffered."

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Castle-an-Dinas, which rears its barren summit a short distance South of St. Columb, is one of the most considerable earth-works in the county, and tion of King Arthur's Castle: the unwas formerly known by the appellacultivated tract of land which widely extends itself around it is called the Gos Moor, and was noticed as the British pritice, to commemorate which scene of the hunting excursions of the the impress of his horse's foot. Hals a stone was heretofore shown bearing mentions a tradition of the ground having been once covered with trees, from whence the Church of St. Colamb was supplied with the wood netime, however, the adjacent country cessary for its erection; in Leland's presented a prospect as wild and destitute of foliage as at present. Hals also speaks of the castle as “a famous ancient British treble intrenchment;" but the other antiquarian authorities appear more favourable to a Roman origin.

interesting associations connected with Independently, however, of these the British æra, St. Columb lays claim for so many centuries under the lordto peculiar attention, as having been ship and patronage of the "great Arundels of Lanherne," who for many descents lie there interred; " and 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
the same arms; Sable, six swallows
in pile Argent, from the French hi-
rondella, in reference to their name;
this bearing has been alluded to by
an early English poet in commenda-
tion of their valour. A. D. 1170.
Hirundelæ velocior alite quæ dat
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 ea suscepto, clarissima hæc prosapia, quæ ultra duo sæcula fuerat divulsa, jam feliciter unita floret, floreatque semper, favente Deo."

This extensive manor having been * Brito, alias Breton, Phillippidos, Lib. 111.

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[Sept.

thus vested in the Wardour family, was transferred by purchase about the commencement of the present century from James Everard, ninth Lord Arundel, to the late Thomas Rawlings, esq.* of Saunders Hill near Padstow, to whom a view of the town is inscribed by Mr. Polwhele, in his History of Cornwall.

The Rectory of St. Columb is one of the most valuable in Cornwall: it is estimated in the King's books at 531. 6s. 8d. The patronage was for several years the property of the Trefusis family; and the present incumbent is the Rev. John Trefusis, brother of the late Lord Clinton. The parsonage

house is situated in a steep but fertile valley at the South of the church; it is surrounded by a spacious lawn, and the declivities of the hill, which rises towards the town, have been judiciously planted. A stream runs through the valley, which contributes to the freshness and beauty, as well as to the calm and undisturbed retirement of the scene.

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 situation 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.

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