THE ELMLEYS. 145

intimate friends; the Colonel had debauched Mr. Forester's wife and carried her off; Edwards became a bankrupt, and Forester was his opposing creditor. The Colonel and Edwards conspired to oblige Forester to make a large settlement on his wife, and he was terrified into doing so by charges of the most horrible crimes. These facts having been proved on the part of the prosecution, the defendants brought eleven witnesses to swear that Forester had actually been guilty of the said crimes, but they utterly broke down, and were sentenced to three years' imprisonment and the pillory. The latter part of the penalty was abandoned, from an apprehension that the criminals would have been killed by the popular fury. Forester afterwards obtained a divorce from his wife, she having con-, trived to visit the Colonel in prison and assumed his name. Then in 1809, at Worcester Assizes, R. Baylis, the churchwarden of Elmley, was tried for posting libels against the rector, the Rev. G. Waldron, on the walls of the church. The libels consisted of texts of Scripture, the intended application of which could not be doubted. He was fined and sent to gaol for a year. In 1832, the Rev. J. Lynes, the rector, was sued at Worcester Assizes for a penalty of £270 for non-residence, under an Act passed in 1817, being the forfeit of one-third of his annual income. Justice Tauntou presided; many witnesses were called, and some of them the parson's own servants, but the entire three months' absence was not satisfactorily made out, and the defendant got a verdict. The next parochial item occurred in 1831, when Thomas Slaughter, a lad under eighteen years old, was hung at Worcester, for setting fire to a rick, the property of Mrs. R. Tomh'nsou; he was an uneducated youth, and of weak intellect.

Near the church is one of the best examples of a half-timbered structure in the county; it is known as " The Lodge," and presents a combination of gables in the principal front, producing an unusually picturesque effect; and an avenue of elms leads from the road to the house. The mansion Vaa built by one of the Townshends, a family once holding