Letters and Papers 1527. 06 Aug 1527. R. O. Ellis, 3 Ser. II. 62. 3334. Lawrence Stubbs To Wolsey.

The plague is no longer reigning in Westminster. Since your departure there have been great assemblies of Sanctuary men, who endeavored to rescue the prisoners in the Gate-house. Mr. Scuse, Cromwell and I spoke with the Abbot and Sir Hugh Vaghan, and have ordered a watch. The Sanctuary men are more straitly kept; since which, Mulsey, a Sanctuary man, the King's servant, has refused the same, and gone abroad with a number of unthrifty persons, eight of whom have been arrested for stealing horses. It is suspected that the rioters intended some harm to your mansion in York Place. Last night my Lord Steward's servant at Chelsea was wounded. Sergier and Servington, of the Inns of Court, and one Pen, who lay in wait to slay Cromwell, made the rescue.

The prior of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, is sick and likely to die. The friends of William Fynch, cellarer of the same, have offered to give you £300 for your college at Oxford, for your favour towards his preferment. Dr. Barrye, residentiary of Southwell, is deceased, by whose death there is a prebend in York in your gift, and other promotions. The prior of Launde has gone to the coast to procure your salt provisions. Your buildings at York Place, Hampton Court, &c., go forward; and I understand from Cromwell, who has come from Oxford, that he has certified you of the forwardness of the works there.

I thank you for restoring me to the presidentship of Magdalen College, Oxford. My lord of Winchester minded to have prevented your visitation begun by Dr. Claybrok. Mr. Burges, the late pretended elect, and his electors have fallen into such breach of the statutes as without your mercy they shall be expelled. Burges has taken £75 out of the College chest. York Place, 6 Aug.

Hol. Add.

Pepy's Diary. 06 Aug 1666. By and by comes Mr. Pierce and his wife, the first time she also hath been here since her lying-in, both having been brought to bed of boys, and both of them dead. And here we talked, and were pleasant, only my wife in a chagrin humour, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to either of them, and by and by she fell into some silly discourse wherein I checked her, which made her mighty pettish, and discoursed mighty offensively to Mrs. Pierce, which did displease me, but I would make no words, but put the discourse by as much as I could (it being about a report that my wife said was made of herself and meant by Mrs. Pierce, that she was grown a gallant, when she had but so few suits of clothes these two or three years, and a great deale of that silly discourse), and by and by Mrs. Pierce did tell her that such discourses should not trouble her, for there went as bad on other people, and particularly of herself at this end of the towne, meaning my wife, that she was crooked, which was quite false, which my wife had the wit not to acknowledge herself to be the speaker of, though she has said it twenty times. But by this means we had little pleasure in their visit; however, Knipp and I sang, and then I offered them to carry them home, and to take my wife with me, but she would not go: so I with them, leaving my wife in a very ill humour, and very slighting to them, which vexed me. However, I would not be removed from my civility to them, but sent for a coach, and went with them; and, in our way, Knipp saying that she come out of doors without a dinner to us, I took them to Old Fish Streete, to the very house and woman where I kept my wedding dinner, where I never was since, and there I did give them a joie of Salmon, and what else was to be had. And here we talked of the ill-humour of my wife, which I did excuse as much as I could, and they seemed to admit of it, but did both confess they wondered at it; but from thence to other discourse, and among others to that of my Lord Bruncker (age 46) and Mrs. Williams, who it seems do speake mighty hardly of me for my not treating them, and not giving her something to her closett, and do speake worse of my wife, and dishonourably, but it is what she do of all the world, though she be a whore herself; so I value it not. But they told me how poorly my Lord carried himself the other day to his kinswoman, Mrs. Howard, and was displeased because she called him uncle to a little gentlewoman that is there with him, which he will not admit of; for no relation is to be challenged from others to a lord, and did treat her thereupon very rudely and ungenteely.

Section I Tumuli 1844. On the 6th of August 1844 was opened a most interesting barrow upon Wardlow Common which is known by the name of Rolley Lowe [Map]; it is a mound of considerable magnitude, being forty-five feet in diameter, and five feet in height at the centre. As the discoveries made in this barrow are of a very miscellaneous character, and of various dates, it will be the most simple course to record them in the order in which they occurred: in the course of the central excavation, in which all the relics were found, about a foot from the surface, and dispersed amongst the soil which was found to be unmingled with stones to the depth of eighteen inches, were found a few human bones and teeth, and a third brass coin of Constantino the Great; near the bottom of this upper stratum of soil, where it began to be slightly mixed with stones, a brass pin, two inches and three quarters in length, square at the thicker end for insertion into a handle, was found. About three feet from the surface of the mound, a central area about eight feet in diameter was discovered, which seemed to be walled out in a circular form, and divided into five partitions by large limestones, so as to exhibit a ground plan similar to a roulette-table. There was no appearance of any of these vaults having been protected by coverings; when discovered, each was filled with small stones, amongst which lay the skeletons, which occupied all these partitions, whilst in one was also an urn. But to resume the particulars in the order before stated; in the first examined recess was a human skeleton, minus the head but complete in other respects; with this interment was deposited the under jaw of a child; in the next compartment was a skeleton without any accompaniment: in the following cist was a large and coarse urn, inverted over a deposit of calcined human bones, amongst which was a large red deer's horn, also calcined; the urn was about sixteen inches in height, and twelve in diameter; and, owing to its size and fragile texture, was broken to pieces in the attempt made to remove it; near the urn was a skeleton with a fine and well-preserved skull. In the last examined division, which was the northern-most, lay a human skeleton, with which were deposited a large horn from the red deer, and the jaw of an otter. Proceeding down about a foot lower than the level upon which all these skeletons were laid, another skeleton was found laid upon a large stone, on the level of the natural soil; it was accompanied by three rude instruments of flint, and the head lay directly beneath the large urn before mentioned: the stone in question measured in length six feet, and in breadth about four feet, being upon the surface of the ground it was at first thought to be rock but a piece being broken off, disclosed to view a sight such as is seldom witnessed by the barrow-digger, and which repays him for his frequent disappointments; this was a cist or vault, three feet in length, two feet in width, and eighteen inches in depth, formed of four smooth limestone slabs, having a fifth as a pavement, all the angles and joints having been so effectually secured by a pointing of tenacious clay, that not a particle of soil had entered this primitive coffin, the workmanship of which was in every respect neat and accurate. It was tenanted by a skeleton with contracted knees, whose bones, though much decayed, lay in the posture they had assumed on the decomposition of their fleshy covering; in the rear of the skeleton, was laid on one side a highly ornamented urn, of rude but chaste design, and in various situations in the cist were found two very neat arrow-heads of flint, of uncommon form, a large tusk of the wild boar, seven inches in length, and a piece of tempered clay, to which adhered some fragments of decayed wood. The excavation for the vault was made in the natural soil, and from the floor of the cist to the summit of the tumulus was at least six feet six inches. The undermentioned articles, which did not appear to be connected with any of the interments, were found in various situations, throughout the interior of the barrow; namely, a fragment of an ornamented drinking-cup, a spear-head of coarse flint, and similar workmanship, a few animal teeth, and rats' bones "ad infinitum." The outer circumference of the major part of this barrow was constructed of some description of clayey composition, which had become as hard as a turnpike road.

Henry Chaplin A Memoir: 2 Family and Social Life Part II. By the middle of August [1876] Mr. Chaplin was obliged to tear himself away from England. At thirty-five he found he was putting on weight, and a visit to Homburg was little short of a sacred duty. Leaving Lady Florence at Trentham on her way to Dunrobin, he spent some days at Blankney, making preliminary arrangements for the future and not least considering the question of hunters for his bride. Lady Florence at parting had presented him with her favourite dog, Dot, which along with his own, Vic, accompanied him to Germany and occupied a prominent place in his daily letters.

He writes from Blankney: [Henry Chaplin 1st Viscount Chaplin (age 35) to Florence Sutherland Leveson-Gower (age 21)]

Dot thought Vic exceedingly forward, and was wondering, too, all the time why you were not with us, till I explained to him that we weren't married yet and that we couldn't with propriety travel about till we were. He was satisfied then and looks forward with me to better days in the future. I never saw such a sensible dog in my life. I'm quite sure he knows all about it, and understands the position, and since I've told him I'm writing to you he has laid down perfectly still at my side. I gave him a capital dinner last night, not too rich, and he slept in my room like a top. He likes Blankney, and begs me to say with his love that he wishes you were here and thinks you will like it as well The garden didn't shew at all to advantage after the brightness and beauty of Trentham, and then its chief attraction was wanting besides, a tall lanky girl, with no figure, as some people say, ah no! no one can say with no figure, but whom I think the dearest, nicest, prettiest, cleverest, lovablest little woman I have ever had the good fortune to see in my life.... Ah! by the way, I send you two letters, one from Stanley, the old Leamington vet. surgeon who has been my horse Commissioner for years, and the other from Cis (age 29)¹.... I don't like the idea of a horse being short for you, still Cis is a capital judge and never puts Emily on anything that is not quite A1. Bonnie Doon, the thorough-bred mare out of Queen Mary and sister-in-blood as they call it to Blink Bonny, who won both Derby and Oaks, is looking remarkably well.... Will you be a good child and do two things for me? One is to weigh and send me your weight, and the other to send me as soon as you write a lock of your hair! which you promised, you Dear One, you know, to give me at Trentham. I really can't wait any longer.

Note 1. His brother Cecil (age 32) married Emily (age 29), daughter of Hon. Robert Boyle, Lieut.-Colonel Coldstream Guards, January 1870.