Shotbolt, Esq. whose son Philip sold it to George Bromley, a citizen, who suffering much for his loyalty to king Charles I, left it so encumbered to his son George, that he was forced to sell it, and it has passed through several successions. 2. Mardocks, so called from the antient lords of that name. 3. Grumbalds. 4. Blakesware. This town contains principally one fair street near a mile in length, besides divers lesser streets and lanes, and is famous for its inns, one of which is very remarkable for the great bed, twelve feet square, which size is so unusual, that it draws many travellers to view it, &c. In this bed were lodged twelve butchers and their wives. They lay all round thus: two men, then two women, and so on alternately, by which means each man was near no woman but his wife.

The church is a vicarage, the rectory being anciently appropriated by Hugh de Grentemaisnil to the priory of St. Ebrulf, at Utica in Normandy; at the Dissolution it was given by king Henry VIII. to Trinity College in Cam. bridge, who are the patrons of the vicarage. The building is situate on the east side of the great street, in a spacious churchyard. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and is called St. Mary the Great, it contains three large aisles, three chancels, and a square tower, with a spire, in which is a fine ring of bells. The whole represents the form of a cross; and in the middle aisle the governors of Christchurch Hospital, in London, erected an handsome gallery for the children that they put to nurse in this town, before they were removed to Hertford. In the church and chancel are the monuments and inscriptions for Sir Richard Fanshaw, knt. and bart. a person much employed by king Charles I. and II. for his fidelity and loyalty, who died in 1666; Sir Thomas Bourchier, son of Henry, earl of Essex, who died in 1491; Roger Damory, lord of Armoy in Ireland, in the reign of king Edward II. The benefactions to this parish are con siderable and numerous.

IN BURY FIELD, were found in 1802, four stone coffins. The bodies which they contained were covered with lime. In the mould was discovered a small copper coin of Consantius, or Constantine.

WARE

WARE PARK, the seat of Thomas Hope Byde, Esq. commands the rich meadows extending from Ware to Hertford, and was antiently the manor of the family of Fanshaw; it was pulled down by Thomas Byde, Esq. and a new mansion erected, on the declivity of a hill, and is most elegantly fitted up. The park and grounds are finely diversified, and the proximity to the rivers RIB and LEA, renders the whole situation extremely pleasant.

CHADWELL is situated in the meadows opposite to Ware Park. Its springs, properly the source of the NEW RIVER, are concentrated in a small poud, surrounded by a railing, whence the stream gently glides towards the metropolis; and is swelled by a cut from the river Lea, which is thus poeti cally noticed in Scott's AMWELL:

Old Lea mean while,

Beneath his mossy grot, o'erhung with boughs
Of poplar quiv'ring in the breeze, surveys

With eye indignant, his diminish'd tide,

Which leaves yon ancient priory's wall, and shews
In its clear mirror Ware's inverted roofs.

STANDON,

a small market town, stands on the road to Royston, about five miles from Ware. The market is on Friday every week, and the fairs on the day and morrow of St. Mark and St. Peter ad Vincula, August 26.

The manor, as appears by Domesday Book, was the possession of Rothais, the wife of Richard, son of earl Gis. sibert, who held it for six hides of land; their posterity continued in the possession of it for divers successions, and Gilbert de Clare, their grandson, (who took his name from the town of Clare in Suffolk) gave this church, with one hundred and forty acres of land, and a vineyard, to the knights hospitallers; but the manor remained in his fa. mily, till it came by the female issue to Lionel, duke o Clarence, and by his heir, to the crown, where it remained, till king Henry VIII. gave it to Sir Ralph Sadler, who built him a fair house in this manor. His son Ralph dying

without

.

without issue, Gertrude, his daughter, brought this manor into the family of the lord Aston, who is the present lord of it. The rectory, at the Dissolution, came into the king's hands, and was, with the manor, given to Sir Ralph Sadler, from whom lord Aston received it. It is now the property of William Plumer, Esq.

The church is a vicarage. The building is situated near the town, and hath three aisles, and the tower stands at a little distance from the east end of the south aisle; the floor of the chancel is seven steps above that of the church, and the altar three steps above the floor of the chancel; in which are several tombs for Sir Ralph Sadler, who died in 1589; for Sir Thomas Sadler, who died in 1606; for Ralph Sadler, Esq. who died in 1660, and his wife, who was the daughter of Sir Edward Coke, knt. chief justice of the King's Bench, who died anno 1601; for Sir William Coffyn, who died anno 1538; John Ruggewyn, Esq. who died anno 1412; Richard Emerzon, who died anno 1562; Philip Astley, Esq. and John Field, merchant of the staple of

Calais.

At HAVEN END are two barrows, supposed by Salmon to have been raised by the Danes; and in the neighbouring parish of Widford, are two other barrows of a similar form...

Adjoining to Ware Park is BENGOO; which, in Domesday Book, is denominated BELINGHOO, and now vulgarly called BENJEO. The Ermine Street, from Hertford by Porthill, in this parish, has caused it to be called BENGOO STREET.

Salmon suggests from the several manors recorded to belong to this parish, that it has generally been supposed to include the whole parish of Stapleford, as the latter is not mentioned in the Conqueror's survey. The several manors were divided among Hugh de Bello Campo, or Beauchamp, Godfrey de Magnaville, and Godfrey de Beche. At length the manor of Ridgemont, or Bengoo, was sold to the prior of Bermondsey for one hundred and sixty marks; and the church was soon after bestowed upon the monks by Reginald

de