LONGDON, WITH CASTLE MORTON AND CHASELEY. 259

freehold of William Parsons, and not on the waste, contrary to the Act 43rd Elizabeth, c. 2, therefore he was indicted, and is sued to an outelary (outlawry), petitions for pardon, and for a license to continue in the said sheepcot." Thank God we don't live in "the good old times," say I with all my heart. But now let us peep into the churches and other institutions of the district. Longdon Church is a very sad affair, its nave and chancel being the production of 1787 - brick and stucco, plaster and whitewash, with internal fittings, en suite, as the auctioneers would say. There is here a "maiden" peal of six bells in the tower, recast by Mears in 1835. An Early Norman font, and some brasses to a knight and his lady, of the ancient Brugge family, of Eastington, are all that is worth inspecting here, unless we except a very striking picture, almost life-size, of the Crucifixion, over the altar table. It is done after the manner of religious works so common in Russia, with a hot iron, on a wooden surface. This would not be suspected until a close inspection. A former curate was the artist (Rev. W. Calvert, now Minor Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral).

After paying a visit to the Moat Farm, an old timbered house with moat near the church, the sooner the visitor gets away to Castle Morton the better. Here he will find a church of some antiquity, chiefly of Norman and Early English work, with handsome tower and spire. The church is in need of restoration, and Mr. Withers, a London architect, has estimated the probable expense at £750, a sum rather above the capabilities of the parishioners to raise at once, as they are mostly tenant farmers. It is a tradition here that in the time of the civil wars a party of Parliamentarians besieged some Royalists who had taken refuge in the tower of this church, and having torn up the seats, made such a fire with them that the poor fellows up aloft found it so hot that, after taking off their coats and breeches to stand upon, they nevertheless were speedily smothered. It is on record that a part of the money for which the leaden steeple, or bell tower, near