Who is that noble figure passing so swiftly before us? It is Baliol, the King of Scotland, amusing himself, during his exile at Wheatley, with the pleasures of the chace. Look again, what is that far more magnificent spectacle? It is the King of England's eldest Son, Prince Henry, and his noble retinue, attended by the regarders and their men; they have driven the deer into the waters by hundreds together, and are about to kill such ag they shall select. This lively and amusing scene passed, what have we next,— the water has disappeared, the Chace has been disforested, and the land devoted to the more ignoble growth of grain. Towards the west, near that clump of trees, the little village of Sandtoft has arisen, with its humble Chapel. There are the dwellings of those poor French and Dutch Protestants, who have left their country for conscience sake, and have come to cultivate the Levels as they vainly hope in peace: but the demon of civil discord has spread his baneful influence over the land, and this little community will soon be dispersed. Having thus reviewed the past, let us look at the scene as it now presents itself to our view; now that peace and plenty shed their smiles around, and to use the beautiful language of the psalmist, "he who stills the raging of the sea, the noise of the waves, and the madness of the people, has crowned the year with his goodness." Now that these "little hills rejoice on every side, and the vallies stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing†.” What change will next take place? Are the mighty waters again to break their bounds and overflow the land, and is the whole Level, according to the prognostication * When Edward, the Son of John Baliol, King of Scotland, who had been deposed by Edward the First, was residing at Wheatley, in Nottinghamshire, before his accession to the throne of his ancestors, he amused himself with hunting in the Chace. There is a curious instrument in the Foedera, dated Oct. 19th, 1356, in which a formal pardon is granted to him for the slaughter he had committed, with amusing particularity. In the Chase he had killed 16 hinds, 6 does, 8 stags, 3 calves, and 6 kids, 1 sourellum or dama triennis. In the ponds, 2 pike of 3 feet, 3 of 3 feet, 20 of 2} feet, 50 pickerels, 6 of 1 foot, 106 perch, roach, tench, and skellies, 6 bremes and bremetes. This was written August 26th, 1836, when there was a very fine harvest in the Isle of Axholme. nostication of De la Prymne, to return to its ancient lost* and marshy state, the dwelling of the bittern, the heron, and the gleed? I cannot tell. One more change certainly awaits it, "when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up." & To return to the topography of the Parish of Epworth. The first intimation we have of the existence of this place is from the Doomsday Book. "Manor. In Epeurde† Ledwin had eight carucates of land to be taxed. Land to twelve ploughs. Geoffrey de Wirce has there two ploughs, and eight sokemen, with two carucates, and five oxgangs of this land; and thirteen villanes, and nine bordars with six ploughs, and eleven fisheries of five shillings, and sixteen acres of meadow. Wood pasture one mile long and one mile broad. Value in King Edward's time eight pounds, now five. Tallaged at twenty shillings. "The * Whenever the embankment near Idle Stop, by which Cornelius Vermuyden prevented the waters of that river from meandering through the Chase, breaks, the Level always does return to its ancient marshy and lost state, until the damage is repaired, as is evident from the following curious memorandum, extracted from a blank leaf in the old French Bible, formerly used in the pulpit of the Church at Sandtoft. "Memorandum of the year 1763-4. It may be observed to be the wettest season ever known. We have continual rain from June, 1763, to, I believe, the first week in March, without having one whole week of fine weather; and very oft very heavy rains or snow, so that great part of our grounds was over with water at harvest, and continued very wet to the 14th of Jany. 1764, when it blew a terrible gale of wind to the south-west, which broke the bank called Bycarsdyke bank, and then quite laid us under water, from half a foot to a foot deep in the Green Garth, and from 3 foot to 3 foot and a half in the grounds. As I observed, the bank broke on Saturday, the 14th of Jany. and taken again on the second of March, by about 60 or 70 hands. The same misfortune happened in Dec. three years before; and again it broke the 20th of Nov. 1770, and entirely overflowed all our grounds, and destroyed all our corn: and again, in the year, 1773; and on the second of December, the Torn bank broke, and with that overflowed the greatest part of our ground, and destroyed all our winter corn." As long as the present works of drainage are kept in repair, such floodings as these here described can only be temporary: but if they should fall to decay, the Level most certainly would return to its old lost and marshy state. Whether such changes will take place in the prosperity of this kingdom as have taken place in Egypt, and other parts of the world, famous in ancient times, and cause such decay, is what the author does not venture to assert. + The names of places are much the same at the present day as they were before the Conquest. Heape, in Saxon, means raised ground, a little hill; urde, signifies farm; Heapeurde, or Epurde, or Epworth, the hill farm, or the farm on the rising ground, a very appropriate designation. "The jury in the west-riding affirm that the claims which are in Epeurde Wapentake are rightly made." It appears from the Inquisitiones Nonarum, which were made in the year 1340, that the value of the ninth fleece, the ninth sheaf, and the ninth lamb in this parish, was thirteen pounds, thirteen shillings, and four pence, which valuation was made by Ralph at the Kirke, John in the Elleres, Robert Curtace, and Robert Wythe. It was in the reign of Henry the First when the Manor of Epworth and Westwood was given to Nigel d' Albini. This celebrated warrior was bowbearer to William Rufus, and being girded with the sword of knighthood, by the sovereign then reigning, had the Manor of Egmanton *, with diverse parks in the forest of Sherwood. He was enfeoffed with the vavasories † of Camville and Wyville, which so attached him to the Crown, that in the battle of Tinchebray, the last of those unhappy conflicts which took place between Henry and his brother Robert, he exerted himself with the greatest valour, and took the King's brother, and Robert Baron of Grundeboef, or Fronteboef prisoners: and for distinguishing himself in Normandy, Henry also bestowed upon him the lands of Robert de Mowbray abroad, with the castle of Baieux § and the extensive possessions of Geoffrey de Wirce, which were twelve lordships in the County of Warwick, twenty-seven in the County of Leicester, and twenty-four in Lincolnshire, of which the Manor of Epworth and Westwood was one. Nigel d' Albini was twice married, first to Maude, during the captivity of her husband Robert de Mowbray, by the permission of Pope Pascal; but she was afterwards divorced on account of their consanguinity: secondly to Gundreda, daughter of Girald de Gournay. This union took place at the express desire of Henry the First. By the former marriage he had no family; but by the second he had *Regis. Abbey de Furness, in Officio Ducat. Lanc. + The title of Vavasour corresponded to the lesser Anglo-Saxon thanes, and to the modern Eng1 gentlemen, of ancient families and large estates. See Selden's Titles of Honour, page 518. § Dugdale's Baronage, Vol. 1. page 122. had two sons, Roger and Henry. Roger being the eldest, and consequently heir to the property of his father, assumed, by the royal mandate, the name This change of name is thus noticed by Hardying, in his of Mowbray. Chronicle. "The same Nygell that hyghte Albanye A sonne had then, whom the King Henry Whiche Mowbray had afore of heritage. These Mowbrays nowe rose first of hye courage." And thus it was that Nigel d' Albini, having obtained the possessions of Geoffrey de Wirce, and his Son Roger changing his name, the Lords of this Manor were called Mowbray. They had a mansion situated at the Vine Garths*, near the Church, at which some of the family occasionally resided. Roger Mowbray died here, in 1266. John, who gave the celebrated deed, had a son born here in 1326, and a grandson in 1365; and it was the summer residence of Katherine Duchess of Norfolk in 1340†. In the * It is certain that in former times vineyards were quite common in England; and no where was there a finer soil for the cultivation of the vine than this Garth at Epworth. Few of the great monasteries were without a vineyard. Vopiscus carries the antiquity of the vine in England, at least as far back as A. D. 280. He informs us that the Emperor Probus, towards the latter part of his reign, restored the privilege of the vineyard to most of the provinces in the north and west. We have the authority of Bede for the existence of the vine amongst us in the middle of the eighth century. William of Malmsbury, in his History de Gestis Pontificum, describing Gloucestershire says, the vines there are "proventu uberior sapore jucundior;" speaking of Thorney, he says, "hic prætexitur ager vineis quæ vel per terram repunt, vel per bagulos palos in celsum sargunt." Introduction to the Indices of Doomsday. + The following letter, written by Katherine duchess of Norfolk, is dated from Epworth. It is evident that she had been residing at this place during the summer, and was going in the month of October to spend the winter in London. "Right trusty and entirely well beloved, we grete you wel, hertily as we kan; and for as much as we prpose with grace of Jhu to be in London, wt you in bryff tyme, we pray you yt your place there may be ready for us, for we wole sende our stuff thiderto for our coming, and syche agreement as we the survey of the Manor taken in 1749, it is described "as a capital Messuage or Manor-House, consisting of a hall, a parlour, a kitchen, with three lofts over them :" and that "the close of arable land called the Vineyards, lay on the north and east side thereof." This description would convey to us but a poor idea of a hall or principal mansion of the lord; but so late as the reign of Henry the Eighth, the apartments in the manor houses were but low and small, having only one or two rooms which modern ideas would think eligible, and these were the hall or the chapel. About eighty years since some part of the buildings were to be seen, but now they are entirely gone. Several relics of antiquity have been found near the site: two rings of gold with inscriptions, and one of silver, weighing near one ounce, and set with a red cornelian. The origin of the illustrious family of Mowbray in England, was this. When William, duke of Normandy, invaded the kingdom, he was accompanied by Goisfrid, bishop of Constance, who so highly signalized himself in the memorable battle of Hastings, that the Conqueror rewarded him with two hundred and eighty lordships; and for his further exertions against the Danes and English, he gave him other marks of his royal favour, in numerous grants of property. Robert de Mowbray, nephew of the bishop of Constance, succeeded to the property and possessions of his uncle. He was the son of Roger de Mowbray, who, on the death of Walcher, bishop of Durham, A. D. 1080, was created earl of Northumberland. This person, on account of his rebellion against William Rufus, forfeited these immense possessions, and was confined a prisoner in Windsor Castle, where he languished thirty years, and his property was conferred on Nigel d' Albini, of whom I have already spoken. A short biographical account of the descendants of this family, who for such a considerable length of time were Lords of this Manor, and frequently resident therein, may properly be introduced in this part of the History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme. ROGER we toke wt you for the same we shall duly prforme, yt wt yr myghte of Jhu who haft you in his blissed keping. Wretyn at Eppeworth, the 1 day of Octr. "To our righte trusty and hertily wel beloved John Paston, Esquire." |