Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 22 (1831).djvu/15

Rh “At the west end of the church are the ruins of a manor, anciently belonging (as a cell, or place of removal, as some report) to the monks of Abington. At the Dissolution, the said manor, or lordship, was conveyed to one Owen, (I believe,) the possessor of Godstow then.

“In the hall, over the chimney, I find Abington arms cut in stone, viz. a patonee between four martletts; and also another escutcheon, viz. a lion rampant, and several mitres cut in stone about the house. There is also in the said house, a chamber called Dudley’s chamber, where the Earl of Leicester’s wife was murdered; of which this is the story following:

“Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and singularly well featured, being a great favourite to Queen Elizabeth, it was thought, and commonly reported, that had he been a batchelor or widower, the Queen would have made him her husband; to this end, to free himself of all obstacles, he commands, or perhaps, with fair flattering intreaties, desires his wife to repose herself here at his servant Anthony Forster’s house, who then lived in the aforesaid manor-house; and also prescribed to Sir Richard Varney, (a prompter to