80 teams of oxen in its cultivation, whereas there was arable land sufficient for the employment of 1411.

The unfortunate contrast as regards records which Wenlock Priory suggests to any one acquainted with the foundation charters of Shrewsbury Abbey, will justify the mention here of a few, otherwise trivial, particulars. Of the existence of the priory during the ascendancy of the Norman earls, we have only an occasional hint; for instance, Richard, a monk of Wenlock is among the witnesses, who, about A.D. 1086, attested Earl Rogers' foundation charter of the Collegiate Church at Quatford. There is also a record bearing every appearance of authenticity, which tells of Earl Roger having given Millichope to Wenlock, in exchange for, or in composition of, its claim upon the manor of Erdington. Whether the original of this valuable document exists, and if so, in what custody, this notice may serve to induce an inquiry. The fact stated is more than probable. The next incidental notice of Wenlock is in a charter of Earl Hugh to Salop Abbey. Granting to that house the tithe of all his venison in Shropshire, he excepts that taken in the woods of St. Milburge, of which probably the tithe had been granted to the priory.

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This designation of Wenlock Priory under the name of St. Milburge is noticeable, inasmuch as it is nearly certain that the conventual church was primarily dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The practical importance of associating the name of the Saxon saint with the Norman foundation was however never lost sight of. The acquisition of the bones of another Saxon saint (St. Winifred) by the monks of Shrewsbury, and the monastic value of such possessions, have been well set forth by the historians of that town and abbey, when speaking of a period somewhat later than that now before us. The monks of Shrewsbury encountered the perils of a distant journey and an inhospitable region in pursuit of their object. A similar acquisition was earlier made by the monks of Wenlock, who had no such primary obstacles to surmount. There was a tradition that St. Milburge

was buried at Wenlock, and a probability that the unknown place of her sepulture would be within the precincts of the ancient church. If the site of the successive foundations were the same, as probably it was, the accidental discovery of her remains during the progress of the Norman building would be perfectly credible. Of course an accident so desirable happened; a boy, running over the floor of the proposed building, trod open the very tomb of the saint. The balsamic exhalations usually resulting on such occasions were not wanting; the merits of the saint, the ingenuity of the monks, or the enthusiasm of the people were instantly rewarded by miraculous effects of average credibility. Crowds thronged to the sepulchre; cures were effected, partial or complete; but the chief success of dead St. Milburge was alleged in remedy of such scrofulous disorders as had resisted all other treatment.

The translation of her relics, i. e. their removal to a spot in front of the high altar of the new church, took place May 26, 1101.

In the reign of Stephen we have notice of the first recorded prior of this house; his name was Raynald, and he is only known as the friend and companion of Robert de Bethun, Bishop of Hereford, the prior's diocesan, who closed a troubled and exemplary career when attending the Council of Rheims, in April, 1148. The prior was with the bishop to the last, and probably did not survive him long, as Humbald occurs as prior in the commencement of the next reign.

In the thirteenth year of Henry II. (1167), the prior of Wenlock is mentioned as having been amerced for some offence within the jurisdiction of the justiciar of the forest. In this reign also the priory made a valuable acquisition in the manor of Dudinton (now Prior's Ditton). Herein the monks were devisees of one Hugh de Periers who took name from Periers sur Andelle in Normandy, and who, accompanying Duke Henry to England in 1153, was rewarded on the accession of that prince by a grant of the royal manors of Corfham, Cul

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV.

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minton and Ditton. Hugh de Periers dying issueless, the two former reverted to the crown, but the king in 1175-6, and again in 1180, confirmed, with certain conditions, his bequest of Ditton to Wenlock. By this act the annual value of Ditton, estimated at £11, assumed the nature of a royal grant in frank almoigne to the priory, and the sheriff entered it regularly in his accounts at the exchequer, as a part of the royal revenue, for which he was, after December 1175, no longer accountable. Here then is the first royal recognition of Wenlock Priory of which we have public record. At this and at a later period, when other religious houses are found contributing to the crown revenue in the form of a donum, the prior of Wenlock seems to be exempt, nor does he appear as a contributor to such revenue till 1199, when he stands on the Pipe Roll as furnishing his quota with the abbots of Salop, Haghmon, and Lilleshull, in the proportion of £15 to £20, £5, and £3 6s. 8d. respectively.

His contribution being less than the abbot of Salop probably implies not so much an inferiority of means as a less liability. A liability of any kind seems to have been a new thing, and has next to be accounted for. The reign of Richard I. brought an aggrandizement to this house, which, beyond a general idea of its importance, we have hardly the means of estimating. It was probably in return for some great but unrecorded subsidy, extorted from, or offered by, the monks, in aid of Richard's warlike necessities, that a new hundred was in his reign created in this county, and seigneurial rights therein, involving much influence and revenue, conferred on the prior of Wenlock. The limits of this new hundred or liberty corresponded nearly, if not exactly, to those of the modern franchise of Wenlock. At the same time the prior and his tenants, within the said district, were exempted from all obligation to do suit at other hundred courts, or even at the greater county courts of the sheriff.

From this period the prior is usually found assessed with other abbotts and priors when taxed by the crown.

He contributed to the donum of 5th of John (1203) to the aid for marrying the king's sister, levied in 1235-6, but not to that for marrying the king's daughter, which was payable in 1245.

When the inquisitions for the hundred rolls were taken in 1255, all the manors within the liberty of Wenlock are stated as being held under the prior, and owing suit to his court only. At the same period several important additions had been made elsewhere to the Domesday possessions of the monastery, which had now probably attained to its greatest prosperity. In the nonexistence or concealment of any connected chartulary of Wenlock, the local antiquary suffers an incalculable loss. Such a document alone can afford information as to the particulars of that steady and quiet aggrandizement by which this house was distinguished from its neighbours, but which, if we are to believe Giraldus, was a common result of that sobriety and prudence which prevailed in establishments of the Clugniac order.

In 1291, the annual income of the prior of Wenlock from different sources was estimated at about £160, but from this estimate several items, accruing from outlying possessions, are excluded. A similar valuation of the income of Salop Abbey at the same period gives a result of little more than £133.

The few charters relating to this house, which are printed in the Monasticon, are chiefly from private collections. A few others are known to exist in similar repositories, and an increasing interest in such subjects may perhaps bring to light many more.

All other information which can be hoped for in illustration of the history of Wenlock Priory must be sought in the usual quarters, viz., the diocesan registers of Hereford, and the public records of the kingdom. The facility with which the latter can now be consulted renders any attempted statement of minute particulars in such a notice as the present both unnecessary and inadequate. Suffice it to say that, like other alien. priories, Wenlock was seized by the crown during the

French wars of Edward III., and a valuation of its possessions, made in 1380, is still extant. In the 18th of Richard II. it was finally declared denizen, and so ceased to be dependent on any foreign house. It never however, like Bermondsey, another Clugniac house, was exalted into an abbey, and if it gained anything by exemption from foreign jurisdiction, it probably lost more by the consequent failure of internal discipline and economy, and by becoming obnoxious to the disfavour, and amenable to the extortions, of a government which had no longer those foreign interests to maintain which had contributed to the rise and prosperity of such establishments as Wenlock.

In the 26th of Henry VIII. the net annual income of this priory was little more than £400, being less than four-fifths of that of Shrewsbury Abbey.

Its surrender to the crown bears date January 26, 1539, (30 Henry VIII.) and a valuation of three years later, though it exhibits its possessions as somewhat more valuable than the valuation of 26th Henry VIII., bears the same ratio to a second valuation of Shrewsbury. At its dissolution the monastic body consisted of a prior, sub-prior, and eleven monks.

The first grantee of the site of Wenlock Priory was Augustinus de Augustinis, in 36 Henry VIII. The succession of its subsequent owners, even if it could be included here, forms no part of the history of Wenlock Priory, though it may reasonably be regretted that no feeling of veneration for such a monument of medieval skill should have accompanied the inheritance.

R. W. EYTON.

The ruins of the priory are situated close to the town, adjoining the parish churchyard.

They consist of the chapter-house, the south transept, a fragment of the north transept, a portion of the south side of the nave of the conventual church, and the prior's