312 ROCK.

restored at a cost of £2,000, mainly through the efforts of the former rector, Rev. A. Severne, and memorial windows hare been inserted. Among the things to be noticed here are a curious old circular font and an ancient chest made of the trunk of a tree, rudely hacked into a square shape.

A grammar school was founded at Rock by Edward VI, who endowed it with £5. 2s. 4d. per annum, an endowment which is now paid to the master from the produce of the Crown lands. The appointment of the master is in the hands of the rector of the parish, subject to the license of the Bishop, and the present school-room was erected by subscription in 1806 as a substitute for the old chantry of St. Mary and St. George within the parish church, which is of right the school-room of the grammar school. This grammar school, however, is practically merged in the national school of the parish, to which endowments have been left by the late Mr. Green, of Astley, Mr. Nott, of Warsley, and Mr. Edward Wheeler, of Worcester and the New House; while a master's cottage and school-room have been recently given to the parish by the present Vicar of Mamble and Bayton (the Rev. D. Davies). The school is worked under Government inspection, with a master, sewing mistress, and monitor.

A portion of Rock, in Bewdley Forest, and a portion of Ribbesford, were united a few years ago into an ecclesiastical district, with church, school, and parsonage, and much good has been done among the foresters, in former times a very rough set. There are also in the parish Wesleyan, Plymouth Brethren, and Baptist chapels. Henry Oasland, born at Rock, was one of the ejected ministers in 1662; he was a well-known Puritanical preacher, and author of "The Dead Pastor yet Speaking."

On December 2nd, 1645, the King and his army lay at Rock, after one of the wearisome countermarchings of the civil wars.