Now the learned Camden (vol. I. p. 159) observes upon these synods or councils at Cloveshoo, under the head Abingdon, "That it was in antient times called Sheovesham; it is not unreasonable to think this the very place where two synods were held, one in the year 742, and the other in 822, both said to be at Cloveshoo; for though it hath been settled," says Camden, "in Kent, at a place called Cliff at Hoo, yet that conjecture is wholly founded upon the similitude of names, and doth by no means agree with what is supposed, that Cloveshoo was probably in Mercia, and Ethelbald King of the Mercians had the greatest hand in it, because the Saxon annals mention him particularly as present; and Cliff at Hoo, in Kent, is too much in a corner to answer the character of Cloveshoo, which is mentioned but twice in the Annals, and both times said expressly to be the place of a synod. And in a council at Hertford in 672 we find it decreed that there should be two synods yearly; but, because there were several incidental causes which might prevent them, it was unanimously agreed, how. ever, that there should one meet yearly the first day of August, at the place called Clofeshoh, which cannot be supposed unreasonably to point out a place so little for the convenience of most of the members; but may very rationally be meant of this place (Abingdon), a place, perhaps, by reason of its situation, as eligible by all parties as could be well thought of." Yet in another place, under the head Cliff at Hoo, Kent, Camden, "according to the opinion of Sir Henry Spelman and Mr. Talbot, both eminent antiquaries, (alluding to these councils or synods,) observes, "The first, called by Cuthbert Arch. bishop of Canterbury, at which was present Ethelbald King of Mercia, A.D. 742; the second, under Kennulph, also King of Mercia, A.D. 803; and a third under Ceolwulf, his successor, A.D. 822. Upon which account Mr. Lambard also doubts whether Cloveshoo were not in Mercia rather than in Kent, the kings of Mercia being either present at them or the councils called by their authority, neither of which would probably have been at a place so remote from them (as Cliff at Hoo, in Kent.) or so incommodious for such a purpose; nevertheless Mr. Lambard, upon the authority of Talbot, (yet reserving a power of revoking upon better information,) agrees that Cliff at Hoo must be the place, and the rather because he finds no Buch place as Cloveshoo within the precincts of Mercia, although there be divers places there that bear the name of Cliff as well as this." With submission, however, to so grave an authority as that of Camden, I think he could not have seen or at least examined that copy of the Saxon Chronicle kept or compiled at Abingdon; he would there have seen that these synods (or one of them) were there said to have been held at Claveshoo not Sheovesham (Abingdon); and, indeed, Leland the historian calls Abingdon antiently Seukesham," whether from record or mistake I know not," says Camden; and the affinity of the name Sheovesham or Seukesham to Cloveshoo seems to me very small, (independently of that place or Abingdon being as it was in the West Saxon kingdom and not in Mercia, and Egbrichus, then King of the West Saxons, was not present thereat though a renowned Christian ;) besides, the termination "ham" instead of“ hoo” is, I think, definitive that this latter place could not be the Cloveshoo, as ham" is the Saxon house, farm, or village, and "hoo" the Saxon high; I think, therefore, I have disposed of the probability that ever Sheovesham, Seukesham, or Abingdon, was or were the locality of this synod, or, indeed, of any of these synods. With regard to Cliff at Hoo, in Kent, its situation, as will be seen by the map, renders it most improbable even for a Kentish synod, being that of a chersonesus, and not approachable by land except on one side of it, viz. that between Rochester and Gravesend; and that the Kings of Mercia, and their dukes, lords, and prelates, &c. should be drawn such a distance out of their own territories to attend synods in two of the cases, viz. that of taking the archiepiscopal seat from Lichfield, and that of obtaining the restoration of property taken from the Church in Mercia, seems altogether improbable. I shall now proceed, without further preamble, to fix the locality of these synods in the county of Bedford, a part of the Mercian kingdom. It must be premised that this district seems to have been a species or sort of terru incognita, never having had its own particular or exclusive historian. Its division into a county by the name of Beddanford, or Bedford, did not take place until the reign of Alfred (about a century after the holding of the synods at Cloveshoo,) which would be another reason why a more particular or explanatory account of the situation of Cloveshoo had not been given by historiographers. And Bedford must at that time have been a small place, though daily growing into more importance by one of the vicinal ways, probably made by Ostorius the Roman proprætor, from Towcester (the antient Tripontium) by Newport (Nova porta), through the Ouse at Bedford, to Salæna (Sandy), passing through it, and earthworks being thrown up on one side of the river, and a sort of military defence made and kept by troops at the passage, as was customary at great rivers, the people began to draw themselves together to such localities, to partake of such defences, and to build houses; which in this case (Bedford) was in creased by King Offa the Mercian taking to its situation, and afterwards more increased by King Edward, who built that part of the town south of the Ouse, viz. St. Mary Street and Potter Street, or Porta Street, (the street of the vicinal way or passage to Salæna or Sandy). We come now to observe, that at the west end of the town of Clifton, in the county of Bedford, and in a line leading to Meppershall and Shetlington, is an ancient way, which, before the late inclosure of Clifton, was and is yet called the Hoo way, and at the extremity of it, as it enters and crosses the London and Bedford roads, which separates the parishes of Clifton and Meppershall, is there called Clifton Hoo. This place, "the Hoo," is the highest place in Clifton parish, and commands an extensive view of Bedfordshire on the one side, and into Herts on the other. And on the north side of it, looking down for Shetford, or Shefford, about half a mile hence, is quite a declivity. On the right hand of his "Hoo way," in Clifton parish, about half a mile from the town before the inclosure, was a large quantity of argillaceous earth, thrown up, much resembling an ancient barrow or tumulus, but, instead of being round like the Roman tumuli, was oblong, like that of the Danes or Saxons, according to Olaus Wormius, and the descent therefrom was gradual into the valley, admitting of a famous opportunity of being addressed therefrom; and I can almost figure to myself Archbishop Cuthbert (the holy Cuthbert) surrounded by Ethelbald the king, the twelve bishops, the dukes and nobles, reading to this admiring primitive Christian assembly, on the onset of their synod, the letter of Pope Zachary to him on Christian duties. This place is distant from Hertford, where the synod was held in the 6th of Ethelred, king of the Mercians (directing a synod or council to be held yearly at Clives Hoo), about 25 miles, and in a direct line by the great road leading from London to Bedford and into the heart of Mercia; and it is remarkable from this spot were roads leading crosswise into almost all parts of England; besides, it is seated in a fine sound gravelly soil, in an open situation (the open fields), about two miles from Arlsey, a market town in the time of the Saxons, and about five or six miles from Ashwell, a borough in the time of the Saxons, and both of which, according to the Domesday Survey, remained, and were such in the time of Edward, and subsequently of the Conqueror. Biggleswade, also another Saxon and hundred town, only four miles from Clifton, and having a market, temp. Hen. I. the grandson of the Conqueror, and Clifton itself being in the time of King Alfred a place of so much importance as to give name to the hundred in which it is situate, and consequently affording convenience for the holding of its Hundred Court and Stolfold (anciently called Stalfalt) little more than three miles from Clifton Hoo, being in the time of Edward, and subsequently of the Domes. day Survey, so large as to have four mills,-one is led to suppose it may have been equally capable of affording convenience for travellers at the time of these synods. Clifton derives its name from its situation, the town on the cliff. An old farm, about half a mile from the locality of this synod, or not so much, but directly by the Hoo way, is now, and has from antiquity, been called the Hoo farm. And at the time of the Domesday Survey, we have other towns in its neighbourhood, all equally high situations, such as Silvershoo, (Silsoe,) Cain-hoo, and Millo. Yours, &c. W, CHAPMAN, ANCIENT MANSION AT SANDFORD-ORCAS, co. SOMERSET. SANDFORD-ORCAS is situated on the southern confines of Somersetshire, adjoining Dorsetshire, and is only three miles from Sherbourne in the latter county. It is a small and sequestered parish, lying under the western declivity of the Corton Hills, which sweep round towards the west, forming two sides of a small valley. The parish is diversified with hill and dale; the soil a sandy loam, and stone brash, chiefly in pasture, interspersed with a small portion of arable. An extensive sheep-walk occupies the declivity of hill on the east, and the parish contains 1,370 acres. Cows are principally fed in the valley. A small stream flows down the vale, on which the village, surrounded by trees and orchards, is situated. It consists of a long straggling street, running along the bank of the rivulet nearly a mile; at its western extremity stands the church, and near it the ancient manor house, still in tolerable preservation. This mansion Mr. Phelps, in his History of Somersetshire, stated to be "in the Elizabethan style,” a general term, and much too generally employed. The building in question is older than the reign of Elizabeth, and perhaps of the time of Henry VIII. We are sorry, however, not to possess the materials for describing it minutely. It has a porch and large bay windows. A lofty arched gateway leads into a court; over it are the arms of Knoyle, in a pannel; and also over the entranceporch. The hall has been divided, and converted into a farm-house. The additional name of Orozs is a corrupted abbreviation of Orescuiltz or Orskoys; a family who possessed this manor, with other lands in the same county, in Wilts, and in Gloucestershire, soon after the Conquest. In the time of Henry I. Henry Örescuiltz held one knight's fee in this county of the Abbot of Glastonbury; and was succeeded by Helias de Orescuiltz his son, who was living 12 Henry II. 1166. To this Helias succeeded Richard de Orescuiltz, his soa, lord of this manor and of Sturis, in the beginning of the reign of King John. In the 12th of the same, Roger de Viliers paid twenty marks, that he might inherit the share of his mother Alice in the lands of the said Richard de Orescuiltz. Maud, the daughter and coheir of this Richard, and sister of the said Alice, was lady of this manor and of Sharncot, in the county of Wilts. She married William, son of William de Harptree, of Harptree in this county, and made a partition of her inheritance with her sister Alice, by a fine, 10 Richard I. 1199. He died 16 Henry III. 1232, leaving issue Thomas de Harptree, who married Eva de Gournay, sister and heiress of Maurice de Berkeley. The moiety continued in that family for a long series of years, and became involved with their other estates in the vicissitudes of the Gournays, till it fell to the Crown, after the death (most probably) of Mathew de Gournay, the last of the line, in 1406. The manor seems to have been divided about this period between the families of Knoyle, who had held possessions in this parish in the time of Edward III., and of Jerrard; one of whom, John Jerrard, died seised of a moiety of this manor and of the advowson of the church, 6 Henry VI. 1428. William Knoyle, who died in 1607, is called of Sandford-Orcas, and left three sons and four daughters. In 1708, Sir Thomas Webster, of London, Bart. was seised of a moiety of this manor; and soon after the other moiety belonged to John Hunt, of Compton Pauncefoot, Esq. whose widow presented to the living in 1723. He devised it to his second son Dodington Hunt, who died in 1749, leaving the moiety of the manor and of the advowson of the church to his eldest son, Dodington Hunt, Esq. of Charlton King's, in the county of Gloucester, who sold it to John Hutchins, Esq. in 1735; whose grandson John, of Ludlow, in the county of Salop, now holds the manor and advowson. The other portion belongs to Lord Port man. (These particulars are extracted from Mr. Phelps's History of Somersetshire.) |
