10 ACTON BEAUCBAMP.

and dues of tithes, and was also rector of Thornbnry, Herefordshire, of which place, as also of Stanford (a chapel belonging to Bromyard), he likewise received the profits and tithes. One Mr. Richard Todd, a young man, was employed by the rector to preach at each of those places, but what salary the poor hard-worked curate obtained from the wealthy pluralist the deponents knew not; ' but betweene them both wee at Acton Beachanip aforesayd have preachinge some tymes in the morninge onely, and nothinge at all in the eveninge, and some tymes noe exercise in the morning nor eveninge of the Lord's daye or dayes of humiliation, but are forced to goe to other places.' Profits and tithes of Acton Beauchamp worth £37, but the house greatly decayed. Glebe, £13. 'We humbly desier that wee may not bee constrayned to goe to any other parish or chappell for the causes aforesaid, and in regard it hath cure of sowles, and wee are at least fower and ffortie familyes, poore, aged, and weake people, and the soyle very hilley and durtye in the wynter tyme, and the outside of Worcester Shire and dioces, and remote from Thornebury aforesayed, which is in the county and dioces of Hereford, or any other church in the county or dioces of Worcester. Suckley is the nearest, which is two miles distant at least from church to church in our estimations."

The value of the living is now returned at £320; tithes commuted for £27,0; rector, Rev. J. P. Power; patron, Rev. R. Cowpland. The church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a small plain structure, with some late Norman work, and a very low tower; it was rebuilt in 1816. Near the west end of the church is a magnificent yew, riven in two, but still green and vigorous, after an existence of perhaps 900 years! It measures twenty-two feet round, and can scarcely be matched in the county.

In the quarries in this parish geologists will find numerous remains of fishes; and at Pippin's Hill is a good exposure of cornstone iuterstratified with old red sandstone. Some mineral springs are said to exist in the parish. In a sequestered