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THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF ^W-a>qAmM^ ^ IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE; AND OF IN THE COUNTY OF CORNWALL: with some critical remarks respecting the two saxon saints from whom these places derived their names. (illustrated with fifty engravings, on copper and wood.) BY GEORGE CORNELIUS GORHAM, M. A. FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WH1TEFRIARS; PUBLISHED BY LACKINGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAYOR, AND JONES, FINSBURY SQUARE. 1820. DA- V it. PREFACE HAT those persons who " dwell in the sight of remark- able Monasteries ' ' should endeavour to " rescue the ob- servables of their habitations from the teeth of time and oblivion", was the ju- dicious advice, happily illustrated by the ex- a ample, of no mean Historian . —The Writer of the following sheets has been beguiled, almost insensibly, into the spirit and practice of this recommendation. Notwithstanding the popular (and occasionally just) ridicule edit. 1655. Thomas Fuller ; Waltham Abbey, p. 5., IV which is directed by the multitude against Antiquarian pursuits,—he confesses that he is not unsusceptible of that enthusiasm, which impels the mind to cast a retrospect through the "long-drawn" vista of past ages; to dwell, with a solemn and mysterious interest, on ob- jects which are rapidly fading away in the distant perspective; and to dissipate some little portion of the gathering mist, which mantles between the land of oblivion and the region of authentic record. Under such an influence he commenced his inquiries ; but without even a remote intention of submit- ting them to the public eye. He purposely omits to detail the unimportant train of cir- cumstances, bv which his materials have been gradually extended from the private memo- randa of a port-folio to their present more enlarged and ostensible form. The public is rather interested with the nature and result of an Author's pursuit, than with the inci- dents by which lie was originally invited to his undertaking, and the steps by which he has at length been conducted to the termina- tion of his task. A History of the town of St. Neot's, in- the cluding adjoining (and parent) village of Eyxesbury, in Huntingdonshire, consti- tutes the principal subject of this Volume I. II. n. (Chapter ; Chapter § ; Chapter III, Chapter IV.). In pursuing this investiga- tion, the Author has travelled along an al- most untrodden path : the Monastic His- tory of St. Neot's has received but little illustration from the labors of Dugdale or of Tanner its has been al- Bishop ; Topography together unexplored. The information which the following pages present— sustained by perpetual references to the most antient Do- cuments, and confirmed by many original (and hitherto unpublished) Records, dispersed throughout the notes or inserted in the Ap- pendix—is the result of labor and expense with which the size of the Volume is by no means commensurate. In the use which he VI lias made of bis materials, he has not merely endeavoured to gratify local curiosity: his aim has been higher, and he lias failed in his attempt it' liis Work be considered as un- worthy a place in the Library of the Anti- quarian Collector. However limited lias been the field of liis investigation, he ventures to entertain a hope thai bis Work will not be altogether an unacceptable offering; when considered as tbe first-fruits of researches into the Antiquities of a County still without an Historian, although two Centuries and a half have elapsed since it gave birth to the most celebrated Collector of our national 11 Records—"its brightest ornament"—Sir Ro- bert Bruce Cotton ! From the more immediate subject of local Antiquities, some little digression has been b " The remark is Hill correct, thai no steps have been t.iken towards illustrating Huntingdonshire, since Sir Robert Cotton, its brightest ornament, declined the pursuit." British I. xi. edit. igh'a Topography, Vol. Pref. p. 1780. Vll made II. to the of (in Chapter § j.) Biography the Saxon Saint whose name is perpetuated in that of the town. The very obscure and contradictory information, which is to be ob- tained from either antient or modern Writers, respecting St. Neot, might alone be consi- dered as a sufficient reason for an inquiry into the accuracy or falsehood of preceding statements. Since the time of Camden and of Wood, the simple authority of those truly great names has been a ready passport (with less diligent Writers) for assertions derived from MSS. of suspected authority or from Records of doubtful age. One learned mo- c dern Writer has, indeed, pursued a line of in- dependent investigation : but, in his eccentric (however original) Volume, fable is perpe- tually intermingled with fact, and dogmatical assertion too often substituted for modest in- quiry. A strict scrutiny into the unsustained positions to which allusion has just been c edit. The late Mr. Whi taker ; Life of St. Neot, 1806. Vlll made, necessarily leads to their rejection. The materials for a Bitigraphy of Neot thus become reduced to a lew simple tacts; and we are constrained to awake from the pleasing delusion, by which the events of his life have been closely connected with a re- markable period of British Annals. If the criticisms in pp. 20—2b', and in pp. 4-1 —44, be correct, he will no Longer appear in the u venerable character of the first Theological Professor at Oxford*'; dispensing his pious instructions to that Infant University : nor will lie be encircled with the fictitious glory " which imagination has shed around the oldest Brother of Alfred the Great" ; re- nouncing the ambitious bustle and splendid occupations of the Court, for the devotional retirement and self-denying services of the Cloister. is What lost, however, in effect, is gained in accuracy: the threads of a false as- sociation having been withdrawn, the tissue of History may possibly have been deprived of some colors but her dress exhibits gaudy ; IX a more becoming (though less ostentatious) texture. These criticisms respecting the Life of Neot, naturally led to some notice of the ob- scure Cornish village (see p. 29.) which — was his principal abode; the sylvan retreat, where, as a Hermit, he dwelt in his mossy Cell —the secluded as an Ab- ; valley, where, bot, he founded his Monastery and erected his Collegiate Chapel. A brief sketch of the Topography of that parish has been added with a more view (see Chapter V.) ; particular to a description of its beautiful Church, de- dicated to St. Neot. The Author thankfully acknowledges the assistance which he has received during the His is progress of these inquiries. gratitude Noble the Mar- especially due to the Most to a Cartu- quess of Buckingham, for access the at Stowe lary of St. Neot's among MSS. ; and to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop the Ar- of Lincoln, for permission to search chives of his Cathedral. To the Right Ho- norable the Countess De Grey, he is indebted of for liberty to make an examination the MSS. at Wrest; which, though not attended has at with the particular success anticipated, least enabled him to correct a mistake of (see note Bishop Tanner p. 99 r.), respecting ( of St. cot's a supposed lartulary X erroneously ascribed to the Library of the Earls of Kent. He has peculiar pleasure in recording the liberal attentions of several professional and literary Gentlemen;—of J. Caley Esq., Keeper of the Records in the Augmentation Office, in the Llouse at Westminster and Chapter ; —of the late S. Eysons Esq., and of his suc- cessoi II. Petrie Esq., Keeper of the Kecords in the Tower ; —of Rev. JJ. Jiandinel, Bod- — leian Librarian ; and of Rev. H. J. Todd, Keeper of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Records at — his access to Lambeth ; by whom the MSS. in the several Collections, of which they are the guardians, has been materially XI facilitated. He is not unmindful of his ob- ligations to J. Simmons Esq. of Paddington House, for the use of his MSS. escheats &c. for —to E. Huntingdonshire ; Lodge Esq., Lancaster,—and to the late F. Townsend — Esq., Windsor Herald; to T. F. Forster Esq. of Clapton, for some MSS. notes re- lating to the stained glass of St. Xeot's in —to Eev. J. of Cornwall ; Bean the British —to Kev. Dr. the Museum ; O'Conor, Libra- rian at Stowe —and to other ; many persons, whose kind offices have not been solicited (nor, he trusts, bestowed) in vain. The Copper-plates (pp. i, 75, 91, 92, 142, 148, 161, 169, 170,) have been executed after large drawings, from the pencil of Mr. Harraden, in the possession of the Author : the diminutive scale of the Engravings is, to be this has doubtless, much regretted ; been the unavoidable consequence of an ar- rangement essential to their introduction, and the result of considerations which would have Xll fully justified their total suppression. Of the in Reliefs on Wood (chiefly outlines), those pp. I:;. 80, 110, L50, 151, 158, 154, 155, 159, 165, i;o. 237, 238, 245, are from the graver of Mr. Branston: those in pp. 11, 86, 109, 146, 156', L61, L63, 250, 251, 535.'), 254, 2^), are from the tool of Mr. Hughes. The Initial Letters (pp. iii. 1, 20, 105, 136, 229, 249,) are spe- cimens of the taste of the former Artist:— should the promise of excellence, which is held forth by such ornamental introductions to the successive portions of this Work, be in any degree sustained by its general cha- racter, the Author will ascribe his good for- tune rather to the candor of his Headers than to his own merit.

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