blasphemous pictures of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were removed out of the glass windows of the choir of Belton, January 10th, 1595, the expence whereof was ten-pence and no more. Witness, John Melton, Clark, Henry Glew, William Ashton, William Mercer, Richard Medley.

This Church has a small estate for the sustentation of the fabric*, consisting of a house and five acres of land, which is now let for the annual rent of £12; and also a close containing about eight acres, given at the inclosure as a common-right to this house, which is now let at the annual rent of £4, on condition that the person who took it should discharge the expences of the inclosure, which amounted to the enormous sum of £63, "to hold the said land on those terms until the aforesaid sum be paid off."

THE RECTORY

OF this parish was given along with Epworth, Owston, and Haxey, by Mowbray, to the Abbey of Newburgh, in the year 1145; and in a list of the possessions of the Priory of Essold or Asholt, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, we find that the advowson of this living was given by Margaret Clifford, widow, with the King's licence, temp. Richard I. A. D. 1191, to that house. This probably took place in some exchange between these two religious houses, in which somehow or other Dame Clifford was concerned, for in Dugdale there is a release to Asholt of all debts due to the Prior and Convent of Newburgh.

It appears from the institutions at Lincoln, that there were three presentations of this Rectory by the family of Beltoft, which were probably per concessionem. Then it was transferred to the Priory of Alta Prisa or Haltemprise,

* There are no documents in existence from which we can ascertain who were the original donors of these Church estates, or what were the specific objects for which they were left but there is great doubt whether they ought to be considered as fabric funds. The fabric had already been provided for by the parochial rates; and therefore it is very probable that these pious bequests were intended as funds for the better celebration of divine service,

prise, which was founded at Cottingham, about the year 1324, by Thomas Lord Wake, of Lydall, which Priory had also land at Beltoft, given to Lord Wake by that family*. This Prior and Convent presented a Rector until the dissolution of the religious houses. In the year 1500, however, the Prioress of Asholt put in a claim and prayed that, on the death of Dominus Royston decretorum Doctor, William Littster might be canonically instituted, as Rector of this Church; but it appears that the claim was not allowed.

In the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas, the tythes are valued at £40; and in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, of King Henry VIII. the entry is as follows:

Dns Hen Lytharland, Rector. itm pepit de valor' Rector' sue p. an ulta ixvjs. viijd. solut' prior' et convent' de Hawtemprice, Ebor' Dioc' p. an pen. & xs. id. ob sol. anti arctino Stow p. p. curac. bs & sinod. at p. p. bile dec. Rector.

From this it appears, that, whatever grant had been made of this Rectory, no actual impropriation had taken place, Lytharland is stiled Rector, and was evidently in possession of the whole tythe. After the dissolution, King Henry VIII. by letters patent, dated the 11th December, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, sold this Rectory, together with those of Hanslape in Buckinghamshire, and of Hemswell and Surflete, in the county of Lincoln, to the Corporation of the city of Lincoln, on consideration of their paying into the Court of Augmentations the sum of £135 14s. 31d. with the intent of enabling the Mayors and citizens of Lincoln the better to support the great annual burdens of the city, saving only the rights of the present incumbents. By this deed the Corporation had licence, on their becoming

* Burton's Ecclesiastical History of York.

ing vacant, immediately to take possession, and to found perpetual vicarages, which at Hemswell, Surflete, and Belton, was to be eleven pounds out of each Rectory; and Hanslape was to have a house and garden, and twenty-two marks, equal in value to £14 13s. 4d.

STANDS on the north side of the Church, in the midst of a beautiful pleasure ground, and from the improvements made by the present incumbent, is just what a country parsonage ought to be,-such a one as pious George Herbert

Herbert would wish his country parson to possess. As it forms an ornamental and beautiful object in the place where it stands, I have chosen it for one of the illustrations of this work, which will convey a better idea to the reader than any written description.

The Parish of Belton has the benefit of several charitable bequests for food and clothing to the poor.

JOHN LIGHTFOOT, OF BELTON, LABOURER, DIED JAN. 11TH, 1708, AGED 68, AND LEFT TO THE POOR OF BELTON, FOR EVER,

SEVEN POUNDS PER AN. TO CLOTHE THE NAKED AND FEED THE HUNGRY.

HE THAT GIVETH UNTO THE POOR SHALL NOT LACK:

BUT HE THAT HIDETH HIS FACE SHALL HAVE MANY A CURSE.

PROV. XXVIII. 27.

Such is the inscription on a tablet in the Church.

This charity arises from the rents and profits of certain lands which are vested in trustees. Several other small bequests are given away by the Churchwardens, on Good Friday, arising from land and rent charges. Robert Barnard, in 1680, gave a rent charge of the value of twenty-one yards of blue kersey, for clothing the poor; Jane Beard, in 1677, a rent charge of one pound per annum; and in the same year George Meggott gave Mr. John Barnard forty pounds, in consideration of which sum he the said John Barnard was to subject certain lands to pay forty shillings to trustees to the use of the poor. The other benefactors of small annual sums are Francis Glew and Stephen Caistor*.

There is an annual fair held here on the twenty-fifth of September, where formerly the chief article offered for sale was flax, and the price per stone then given fixed the value of that article during the autumn.

TEMPLE

* From the Abstract of Returns of Charitable Donations, printed by order of the House of Com

mons.