46 BISHAMPTON.

H.R.H. le Due d'Aumale (whose hunting-seat is at Wood Norton, near Evesham), the present owner and lord of the manor. The Duke is now quite a magnate in the neighbourhood, being the proprietor of the Norton and Lenchwick estate (formerly belonging to E. Holland, Esq., M.P. for Evesham), the Craycombe estate (formerly the property of Mrs. Perrott, and long the residence of the Perrott family), and other valuable properties. The only other considerable landed proprietors in Bishampton are Miss Porter, of Birlingham, and W. Laslett, Esq., of Abberton Hall.

In the time of Elizabeth there were thirty-two families here, or about 160 individuals; now there are 469, the population being entirely agricultural; principal crops, wheat and beans. The acreage is 1,828. No railway or canal touches the parish, and there are no resident gentry. The church, which has Norman and Perpendicular work in it, seems to imply, by its size, and the venerable grove of trees leading to it, a greater importance than the village to which it belongs can now justly claim. The building is interesting, containing in its transept the recess which denotes a former chapel when there was a chantry here. The latter was valued at £2 in the time of Henry VIII. There is also near the pulpit the iron frame which once held the hour-glass, whereby the puritanical preachers regulated their long-winded sermons. There is a Norman font, and half-a-dozen bells two centuries old. Whitewash is triumphant here, the yellow ochre and the artistic selvage of black which a village dauber formerly put on the outlines of windows and arches having given way to the all-prevailing white. Restoration is required for the church, but the only thing done of late is the re-roofing of the chancel by the Duke.

The Rev, Henry Niven is the vicar; value of living, £130; patron, the Bishop; glebe, 80 acres, given in lieu of tithes; church accommodation, 180; free seats, 60. There are National and Sunday Schools, supported partly by the Duke and partly by subscription of the inhabitants. The Baptists