LONGDON, WITH CASTLE MORTON AND CHASELEY. 257

made a perpetual curacy independent of the mother church. It has an ancient church, with tower and spire. Castle Morton still remains as a dependent chapelry in its ecclesiastical status under the mother church of Longdon. In civil matters the parish is quite independent. Its church (or chapel of ease) was erected in 1387 on account of the distance from the parish church and the hopeless state of the roads. The church is dedicated to St. Gregory. Here still, Sunday by Sunday, can be heard that which is now becoming rare - the psalms and hymns accompanied by a quartet of stringed instruments. It is not very refined, but sung "lustily and with a good courage:" most of the tunes are taken from " Hymns Ancient and Modern."

Many ancient families have either taken their names from places in this parish or have been otherwise connected with it. Chambers Court (for many years past the residence of E. G. Stone, Esq., High Sheriff for Worcestershire in 1847) gave the name to a family of distinction; Eastington ditto, where there is an interesting Elizabethan mansion, recently restored by Mr. Stone, its owner, and occupied by Mr. John Ellis, his tenant, who also farms the Fare End Estate, now called the Parsonage Farm, belonging to Mr. Stone. Then there was the Muchgros family, and also ancient residents at Bugbury and Hill Court. There is now only a small house at Bugbury, with a few acres of land, the property of Mr. T. Rayer; and Hill Court is a farm of 240 acres on the borders of Longdon Marsh, the property of Mr. Dowdeswell, and tenanted by Mr. Cowles. Castle Morton was at one time called Morton Foliot, from the ancient family of the Foliots, and the prefix of "Castle" was used on account of the castle which then stood near the church at that place, but which is now entirely destroyed except the mound whereon a portion of it stood. The manor of Longdon, with its members of Castle Morton and Chaseley, was held by the Dowdeswell family for nearly two centuries, till about 1832, when on the death of Lady Pepys, mother of the late Bishop of Worcester, and sister to