Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/273

 10 8. XII. SEPT. 18, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 299.

NOTES : The Last Prior of Twynham, 221 Players and Minstrels at Newcastle, 222 Hursley Parish Registers, 223 'King Lear' on the Stage Westminster Wills, 224 County Borough -Crocodiles in Heraldry Le Soeur's Statue of Charles I. "Warren" and the Hare, 225 JFlags of Greater Britain " Ennui " Zirophoeniza, a Woman's Name "Coop"=to detain Voters T. L. Pea- cock's ' Sir Hornbrook,' 226.

QUERIES :" Correct to a T "Parliamentary Anecdotes Last Duel with Swords Inverness Bibliography '"Liquida non frangunt" Godstone Stone used in the City Holt Castle and the Beauchamps Emery de 'Rechethiward " Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate," 227 Rev. T. Watson Ward -'English Historical Review' Military Canal at Sandgate "All right" Dowbiggin in Lytton Sloan Surname Snake committing Suicide Richard Heber's Library, 228 Dixon Family Governors of Iceland John Bellamy' Sur la Pierre blanche ' : Philo- patris Newton's ' Principia,' 1687 Newton and King's College, 229 Hampden Family Roman Legions, 230.

REPLIES : W. H. Coffin in Abyssinia Monuments to American Indians, 230" Mors janua vitse " " Comether " " If two and two make four" Gravestones at Jordans, 231 Hoppner and Sir T. Frankland's Daughters Eel-Pie Shop Etymology of " Coffee," 232 Ragozine, a Pirate 11 Faseole "Cowhouse Manor, 233 Rev. William Blow- Statues and Memorials in the British Isles, 234' Eng- land's Parnassus 'Lincolnshire Names " Strothir " in 'The Reeve's Tale '" Plump " in Voting, 235 Flying Turk Magna Charta Barons, 236" Le " before Trades- Harvest Supper Songs" Old ewe dressed lamb fashion " Pryor's Bank, Fulham, 237 Flying Machine and Dr. Johnson "Plains" Pins for Thorns Parodies of the Poet Laureate Penn of Kidderminster V. de Vos, 238 Weltje's Club, 239.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-' Chronicle of King Leir' 'Anna Seward and Classic Lichfield.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

OBITUARY :-E. H. Marshall.

THE LAST PRIOR OF TWYNHAM.

THE splendid Priory Church of Twynham or Christchurch in the county of Southamp- ton is familiar to many. In mediaeval times the choir, with its high altar of the Holy Saviour, was reserved for the religious community the canons regular of the Augustinian Order ; the nave being the parish church, with its own high altar dedi- cated to the Holy Trinity.

John Draper II., the last of the Priors, and titular Bishop of Neapolis, near the ancient Shechem in Samaria, addressed in 1536 a petition to Henry VIII., which still exists in the Record Office, praying the King to spare the Priory. He based his request upon the desolate character of the district, the poverty of the house, and the fact that the church was not only a place for poor religious men, but also a parish church to the town and hamlets round about, the inhabitants of which numbered from fifteen to sixteen hundred. There was, moreover, no place (Bournemouth being

then undreamed of) where any honest man on horseback or on foot might have succour or repose for the space of eight or nine miles, " but only this poor place of Christchurch, to which both rich and poor doth repair and repose." He goes on to say how it was of late years a place of secular canons, until the King's antecessors made it (in 1150) a place of canons regular ; and that " the poor, not only of the parish and town, but also or the country, were daily relieved and sus- tained with bread and ale, purposely baked and brewed for them weekly to no small quantities according to their foundation, and a house ordained purposely for them, and officers according duly given attendance to serve them, to their great comfort and relief."

But this humble petition was disregarded ; and on 2 Dec., 1539, the Commissioners presented their report concerning the sub- mission of Draper and his eighteen brethren to Thomas, Lord Cromwell. They found the Prior

"a very honest conformable person, and the howse well furnysschide with juellys and plate, whereof some be mete for the Kinges majestie is use, as a litill chalys of golde, a gudly lardge crosse doble gylt with the foote garnysschyd with stone and perle, two gudly basons doble gylt having the Kinges armys well inamylyd, a gudly greet pyxe for the sacrament doble gylt ; and ther be also other thinges of sylver right honest and of gudde valewer as well for the church e use as for the table,

reservyd and kept to the Kinges use The sur-

veyng of the demaynys of thys howse, wiche be lardge and baryn, and spm partt thereof xx" mylys from the monastery, wiche we also do survey and mesure, hathe causyd usse to mak longer abode at thys place then we intendyd "

The report is signed by Sir Robert South- well, Edward Carne, Dr. John London, Richard Poulet, and William Berners. The site of the domestic buildings, which gradu- ally disappeared, was conveyed to Stephen and Margaret Kirton ; but the whole of the church was handed over to the parish, the grant to the churchwardens being made by letters patent 23 Oct., 32 Henry VIII.

In a line with the south wall, but some distance to the west, still stands a house which was once the porter's lodge, close to the site of the gatehouse. The porter's lodge was built by Prior Draper ; but his chief memorial is within the church. This is his beautiful chantry chapel at the east end of the south choir-aisle. It is dated 1529, and is formed by a screen of Caen stone stretching across the aisle. There is a central doorway with a depressed arch at the head, and canopied niches over it ; and on either side are two transomed four- light unglazed windows under arches of the same character as that over the doorway.