THE LENCHES. 243

Great and Little Towbury, Winn's Grave, Pin's Hill, Old Ovens, Obersley, Castle-green Suffield, Sich Orchard, Hovlands, Big and Little Lonker's Ley, Mundole, Hollocks, The Hoardings, Quag Suffield, The Starts, Warwick's Wish, The Mounds, Big Ridgway Pieces, The Devil's Pigtrough, Black Jack's Cave, Omber's Hill, Tib's Hill, and Tinker's Cross, the last-named being a place where formerly stood a yew tree, said to mark the site of a criminal's grave, which, with Gallows Lane, was then haunted at night by "a strange thing like a lion, with eyes as big as saucers." .

The Lenches.

BETWEEN Alcester and Evesham the traveller wanders through a group of villages known as "The Lenches." First, there is the parish of Church Lench, with its hamlets of Sheriff's or Shreve Lench, Atch or East Lench, and Ab, Hob, or Abbot's Lench; then there is the parish of Rouse Lench, or Lench Radulphi, including the hamlet of Radford; and Lenchwick, a tithing or chapelry in Norton parish. Abbot's Lench was formerly a hamlet in Fladbury parish, but in 1866 the Bishop of the diocese, with the concurrence of the rector of Fladbury, obtained an Order in Council separating the said hamlet from Fladbury, whence it was four miles distant, and attaching it, with its endowment of £128, to Church Lench, from which it is distant only one mile. This change, and the transfer of the patronage of the benefice of Church Lench from the Lord Chancellor to the Bishop, has given great satisfaction. Extraordinary as it may seem, no public-house or beershop has existed for many years in the parish of Church Lench, including its hamlets, and this happy circumstance, together with the prevalence of the allotment system, serves to make