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factor to the hospitals of the city, to the parish in which he lived, and to this parish. He was sound and steady in the principles of religion and loyalty, and exemplary in the practice of them. Ob. Jan. 20. 1707. at. 64."

The inscription under dame Gore, specifies her virtues. The monument was erected by their son, William Gore, Esq.

In the tower are six deep toned bells, and chimes. The tythes of Tring, with the chapelry of Long Marston, and parish of Wiggington, are appropriated to the use of the dean and chapter of Christchurch, Oxford, who lease them out to Sir Drummond Smith, and find a curate to officiate here and at the other livings; the consequence is that though the curate of Tring has all the duties of a vicar or rector, his yearly allowance is little more than 50l. It was observed when we visited this neighbourhood, that Sir Drummond had offered, with the concurrence of the patron, to have made the income 100l. but it has never been carried into effect.

At LITTLE TRING, in this parish, rises one of the heads of the Thames, which, leaving the county at Puttenham, runs by Aylesbury to Thame. WILSTERN is a hamlet in the manor of Tring.

WIGGINGTON is on a hill between Tring and North Church, and joins on the south-west to Bucks, and the Ikening Street runs over the common. It is a new-erected parish, taken out of that of Tring. It has a small ruinous church.

The Ikeneld and Ackman Streets crossed near Tring, and there are several encampments in the neighbourhood.

Besides the fine view from Tring Park, there are others of most extensive and brilliant prospects from Hastow Hill, and Aston Hill, which take in a circuit of spectacle, from Wendover by Oxfordshire, Buckingham, Luton, &c, to Dunstable. The soil about Tring consists of chalk, and the bye-roads are some of the most untractable we have seen in all our perambulations; yet the beauty of the country, compensates all the inconveniences of the roads. Sir Drummond Smith is about to erect a mill, for the use of the inhabitants.

The town abounds with sectaries; there are not above from three hundred to four hundred houses, yet there are four meeting houses, for Baptists, Methodists, and Quakers.

We dismiss this article with relating, that in the year 1751 a most extraordinary affair happened at this place. Some country people were possessed of an opinion that an old man and woman of that town, John and Ruth Osborne, were witclics, on account of several cattle dying of a contagion which then raged: great numbers of them assembled, some on horseback and others on foot, and went and had them proclaimed as such in three different market towns. These unfortunate people were afterwards dragged from the vestry of the church, where they had been concealed, and so severely ducked, that the woman died on the spot, and the man a few days after. Several persons were committed to custody on the verdict of the coroner's jury; and one Thomas Colley, (who, though a principal actor in this horrid affair, was prompted by others, and by the liquor which he had drank ;) was tried at the ensuing assizes for Hertfordshire, and capitally convicted. The following circumstances came out at the trial.

It appeared, that, on the 18th of April, 1751, one Nichols came to William Dell, the crier of Hemel Hempstead, and gave him a piece of paper, with four-pence, that he might cry the words written thereon in the market place. The words were these: "This is to give notice, that on Monday next a man and woman are to be publicly ducked at Tring, in this county, for their wicked crimes."

The overseers of the parish, where these people lived, having heard this cried at Winslow, Leighton Bosard, and Hemel Hempstead, on the several market days, and being informed that the two people were John Osborne and Ruth his wife, he sent them to the workhouse for safety. The master of the workhouse, to make still more secure, removed them, in the middle of the night of the 21st, into the vestry room of the church, thinking the sanctity of the place would have some awe upon the mob, if they came. However, on the day appointed, more than five thousand

people

people were collected together at Tring, declaring revenge against Osborne and his wife as a wizard and witch: they pulled down a large wall belonging to the workhouse, and demolished the windows and window frames. The master of the workhouse assured them they were not there; the mob would not believe him, but rushed in and searched the house, the closets, and even boxes and trunks. They declared they would pull the house down if the victims were not produced, and some proposed setting fire to it; at last they all swore, that, if Osborne and his wife were not delivered to them, they would not only burn the workhouse, but the whole town of Tring. The master of the workhouse, being apprehensive that they would do as they had promised, at length informed them where the unhappy people were. The mob now went off in triumph, with Colley at their head.

As soon as the mob entered the vestry-room, they seized Osborne and his wife, and carried them to a place called Gubblecote, about two miles off, where not finding a pond to their purpose, they carried them to Wilston Green, and put them into separate rooms in a house there; they stripped them naked, and tied them up separately in a sheet or cloth; but first they crossed the man's legs and arms, and bent his body so as to tie his thumbs to his great toes.

When they came to the pond, called Wilston Wear, a rope was tied under the armpits of Ruth Osborne, and two men dragged her into the pond, and through it several times; and Colley went into the pond, and turned her several times over and over with a stick. After they had ducked the woman several times, they brought her to land, and then dragged the old man in, and ducked him. Then he was set by, and the woman ducked again as before, and Colley made the same use of his stick. Then the old man was ducked again. After which the woman was a third time ducked; and Colley went into the pond and pulled her about till the sheet wherein she was wrapped came off, and she appeared naked. She expired soon after. Colley then came out of the pond, and went round collecting money VOL. V. No. 121.

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for the sport he had shewn them in ducking the old witch as he called her. After the woman was dead, the mob carried John Osborne to a house, put him to bed, and laid his dead wife by his side. Ruth Osborne was seventy years of age; John was fifty-six. In consequence of these circumstances of cruelty, Colley was ordered for immediate execution; and his body was afterwards hung in chains at Gublecote, in the parish of Tring, three miles off.*

TRING GROVE, is the residence of Theodore Henry Broadhead, Esq. and the road towards Bulborn Head leads to

IVINGHOE, IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

This was formerly a large market town, but is now very small. It has a market on Saturday, scarcely frequented, and two fairs in the year, 6th of May, and 17th of October. The chief manufactory is of lace, and straw plat It had formerly a large sheep fair.

Ivinghoe is situated at the side of a range of large high chalk hills, which are covered with fine green pasture: from Crawley Wood and Albury Hovers are extensive prospects over the counties of Bucks, Herts, Bedford, and Oxon. In a fine clear day may be seen distinctly, without the help of any glass, thirty-six different parish churches; the country being quite open, and free from any inclosures.

This manor was given by Edward the Confessor to the see of Winchester, with which it remained till bishop Poynet,

* Another instance of credulity and superstition occurred in this neighbourhood in the year 1759. At Wingrove one Susannah Hannokes, an elderly woman, was accused by her neighbour of being a witch; for, that she had bewitched her spinning wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a magistrate; on which the husband of the poor woman, in order to justify his wife, insisted upon ber being tried by the Church Bible,and that theaccuser should be present: she was conducted by her husband to the ordeal, attended by a great concourse of people, who flocked to the parish church to see the cere mony, where she was stripped of her cloaths to her shift and under petticoat, and weighed against the Bible! when to the no small mortification of her accuser, she outweighed it, and was honourably acquitted of the charge.-London Chronicle, Feb. 27, 1759.

in the reign of Edward VI. surrendered it to the crown; it was restored to the see through the influence of bishop Whyte; but reclaimed and kept by queen Elizabeth, who granted it, with the market and fairs, to Sir John Mason. It reverted to the crown, and was granted to lord keeper Egerton, whence it descended to the earls and dukes of Bridgewater, and is the property of the present earl.

Henry de Blois, brother of king Stephen, bishop of Winchester, cardinal of the Holy See, and abbot of Glastonbury, is said to have had his residence at Berrysted House, in this parish, now a farm house belonging to the earl of Bridgewater.

The parish church is a stately Gothic structure, built in the form of a cross, with three porches; there are two chapels on the north and south sides, which contain memorials of the family of Duncombe, of Barley-end House. On the north side of the chancel, in a niche in the wall, is placed the effigy of a man in full length, in a recumbent posture, his hands folded, and a cowl covering the head. This has been imagined the tomb of bishop Blois, who is said to have died in this place, in his way from Wendover to Dunstable, and was buried at Ivinghoe; the monument however is of too modern date, and may probably belong to a Peter Chaceport, according to Mr. Browne Willis, The most antient inscription in the church is in Norman French, on a brass plate, to the memory of a man and his wife of the name of Falley, in 1368. The choir seats in the chapeel are richly carved, as are the pulpit, and the capitals of the pillars that support the fabric; but the whole church is in a state of decay from want of due reparation. Here is preserved one of the irons for the pans in which combustibles were burnt to serve antiently as a beacon on Ivinghoe Hill*.

At ST. MARGARET's, a populous hamlet in this parish, about five miles distant from the town, are the remains of the monastery of Muresley, founded by the above bishop

*We are obliged for great part of this description to the minute investigation of G. V. KNIBB, Esq. attorney at law, of Tring. 3 N 2

Blois,

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