CROPTHORNE. 105

master paid him a visit here, to whom he gave a handsome piece of plate from his sideboard; when the old gentleman, astonished at such magnificence, said, "Pray, sir, what may all these fine things have cost 1" "Indeed," said Foote, "I don't know what they cost, but I shall soon know what they will sell for;" and shortly afterwards the estate passed into other hands. It seems that Nash, the historian, went to school with Foote at Worcester, and whenever the young mimic (then only ten years old) was invited to a party the next day was spent, not in scholastic study, but in imitations of the company he had dined with. He even carried his comic powers into his college exercises, and in one case he recited the ninth satire of the first book of Horace with such humour as to convulse the whole college.

The principal landowner in Cropthorne is F. D. Holland, Esq., who resides at the Court House, near the church, a charming spot, presenting lovely scenes of the Avon and the landscape around. At Charlton, besides Mr. Workman, Mr. Noel and Mr. Cartwright are landowners. The chief employment of the inhabitants of the parish is agriculture. Wheat and beans are grown on the clay lands, and barley and green crops elsewhere. Some of the land at Charlton is let for gardening purposes. Flax was grown here in the time of George III by a Mr. Cooper, who in 1782 obtained the bounty offered by an Act of Parliament for the cultivation of hemp and flax.

The living is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester; value, £210; vicar, Rev. R. Sanders. The church has a chancel, nave with clerestory, aisles, and tower at west end. Besides the Dineley monuments are some remains worthy of note, including an aumbrie, with original wood shelf; and externally in the south wall is a Greek cross of stone inserted; it is elaborately carved with figures of animals, &c., but whether originally a grave-slab or churchyard cross there is no telling, The building is mainly in the Perpendicular style, but the lower part of the tower is Early Norman.