Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/101

Rh few years. The churchyard crosses at Headington and Waterpery are unusually perfect and good: the former had its top knocked off in the time of Edward VI., replaced under Queen Mary, it has been suffered to remain to this day, though sadly neglected and decayed. The sculpture of the ascension of the blessed Virgin at Sandford is a really beautiful work of art, in wonderfully good preservation.

The Historical Notices present us with many interesting particulars little known to the general reader, and some original documents hitherto unpublished; among these is a Saxon charter of King Edmund, A.D. 946, granting to Abingdon monastery the parish of Culham, the boundaries of which are well defined, and the chapel which Aelfilda (or Aelfleda) had built. Another, unfortunately not printed at length, is a grant to the same monastery of land in Cuddesden by King Edwy, A.D. 956. Beckley formed part of the hereditary possessions of King Alfred who had a palace in Oxford. King Ethelred had one at Headington and another at Islip. This part of the country appears for a long period to have been the favourite abode of the Saxon kings and continued to be so favoured by royalty under the Norman dynasty. Henry I. resided much at his palace of Beaumont in Oxford, and at a later period Richard king of the Romans had a palace at Beckley, and we find a good summary of his history at pp. 211—213. Under the head of this parish, we find also a very clear account of the succession and division of property after the Norman conquest, which applies to a great part of the neighbourhood, and was therefore not necessary to be repeated under each separate parish. In the parish of Beckley also was Studley priory, of which we have a concise but satisfactory history, omitting nothing of importance and referring to other works for more full accounts. Of the village of Woodpery destroyed by fire in the fifteenth century and not rebuilt, an account has already appeared in this Journal, vol. iii. p. 116. The parish of Newington is remarkable for its having been given by Queen Elgiva, in A.D. 997, to the archbishop of Canterbury, and for having remained in the undisturbed possession of the see even to the present time.

Under the head of Culham we have an authentic account of the turning of