Y Mr.URBAN, Shrewsbury, March 23. YOU will probably deem the annexed View of the Remains of Bromfield Priory, worth preserving amongst your Shropshire Antiquities. (See Plate II.) The pleasant village of Bromfield is situated about two miles short of Ludlow, on the Shrewsbury road, in the hundred of Munslow, adjoining the beautiful domain of Oakeley Park. This Priory or Cell of Monks belonged to Gloucester Abbey, which had Prebendaries; they were of the Benedictine order. The canons of it, A. D. 1159, by the authority and with the concurrence of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave their church to the abbey of St. Peter at Gloucester. King Henry II. firmed all the estates belonging to it, under the title of the Church of St. con Mary, of Bromfield, to the Monks there serving God, to hold of him and his heirs in perpetual alms: the like confirmation was made to it by King Henry III. It was valued at 771. 18s. 3d. per annum clear, at the Suppression. The situation of this house was most delightful, between the rivers Oney and Teme. The Oney flowed by the back part of the priory, nearly touching it with its left bank, and a little below was the confluence of the two rivers. It is not therefore surprising that a place like this should have been chosen for retirement and meditation. The flat pointed arch of the Gate. house is standing, with the Western portion of the Church, patched up and made parochial: these are represented in the annexed view. Adjoining the South-east part of the Church are a few fragments of broken walls. Whatever ancient Montments or Inscriptions may have been, not a vestige remains excepting 'a large coffin-shaped stone in the chancel floor, with a cross fleury, the inscription round the verge of which is nearly obliterated. D. PARKES. "1595. "The Righteous shall be had in ever lasting remembrance. "Agatha Barlow, widow, daughter of Humfrey Welsborne, late wife of WilJiam Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, who departed this life the 13th of Auguste A. 1568, and liethe buried in Cathedrall Churche of Chichester: by whom shee had seven children that came unto men and wemen's state, too sunnes and five daughters: the sunnes William and John; the daughters Margarite, wife unto William Overton, Bishop of Coventri and Litchefild, Anne, wife unto Herbert Westfayling, Bishop of Hereforde; Elizabeth died anno ----, wife unto William Day, now Bishop of Winchester; Frances, wife unto Toby Mathew, Bishop of Durrham; Antonine, late wife unto William Wickham, disceased, Bishop of Winchester: Shee being a woman godly, wise, and discreete, from her youthe moste faithfull unto her husband bothe in prosperite and adversite, and a companione with him in banishemente for the Gospell sake, moste kinde and loving unto all her children, and dearly beloved of them all; for her ability, of a liberall mynde and pitiful unto the poore. Shee baving lived aboute LXXXX years, died in the Lorde, whom shee dayly served, the XII of June, anno Domini 1595, in the howse of her sunne William, being then Person of this churche, and Prebendary of Winchester. Rogatu et sumptibus Filiæ dilectæ Hic Agathæ tumulus Barloi, Præsulis, inde you an account of Lady Berkeley, which I transcribed from that most curious book "The History of the Berkeley Family." If you have never seen the extract, it will amuse you, and it is entirely at your service. The author of this book was a Mr. Smythe, then of Kilby Green, co. Gloucester, ancestor of Mr. Aven Smythe, of Condover, Shropshire. Yours, &c. F. T. "Of stature this lady was somewhat tall, of complexion lovely, both in the spring and autumn of her life, but a little inclining towards an high colour, her hair somewhat yellowish, of pace the most stately and upright, all times of Der age that ever I beheld; of stomach great and haughtie, no way diminishing the greatness of her birth and marriage, by omission of any ceremony, at diett or public prayers, whose book I have usually observed presented to her with the lowest curtesies that might be, and on the knees of her gentlewoman; of great expence and bountie beyond the means of continuance; of speech passing eloquent and ready, whom in many years I could never observe to misplace, or seem to recall one mistaken, misplaced, or mispronounced word or syllable, and as ready and significant under her pen: forty of whose letters at least at several times I have received; her invention as quick as her first thoughts, and her words as ready as her invention; skilful in the French, but perfect in the Italian tongue, wherein she most desired her daughters to be instructed. At the lute she played admirably, and in her private chamber would often sing thereto, to the ravishment of the hearers, which to her knowledge were seldome more than one or two of her gentlewomen; howbeit I have known divers of her servants secretly hearkening under her windows, and at her chamber door, whom her husband hath sometimes there found, and privately stayed amongst them, of which number three or four times myself hath been one. most "In the first 20 years after her marriage, she was given to all manner of delights beseeming her birth and call. ing, as before hath been touched. But after the beheading of the Duke of Norfolk her brother, and the frowns which state government had cast upon the rest, and others of her dearest kindred, with the harsh bereavings, or rather wrestings, of her husband's possessions, as hath been declared, then grown towards thirty-eight or forty years, she retired herself into her chamber, and private walks, which each fair day in garden, park, and other solitaries, for her set hours she constantly observed, not permitting either her gentlemanusher, gentlewomen, or any other of her house, to come nearer to her than their appointed distance: when the weather permitted not abroad, she observed the same order in the great chamber or gallery. "In her elder years she gave herself to the study of natural philosophy and astronomy; and the better to continue her knowledge in the Latin tongue in reading over the grammar rules, hath three or four times called me to explain something therein, that she seemed not fully to apprehend; and in Hilary Term in the 37th year of Queen Elizabeth, I bought for her a globe, Blagrave's 'Mathematical Jewel, a quadrate, compasses, rulers, and other mathematical instruments, wherein she much delighted herself till her death. "I remember about three years beforę her death, one of her fingers in the two foremost joints put her to much pain, which caused her to send for an excellent chirurgeon from Coventry, who told her plainly that it must be cut off by the palm of her hand, or else be lanced all along to the bare bone; which latter, though far more painful, she made choice of. At the time appointed her surgeon desired her to sit, and that some of her strongest servants might hold her, for the pain would be extreme; to whom she replied, Spare not you in performing your part, and leave the rest to me: she held out her hand, he did his office, she never blenched, or so much as seemed to take notice of the pain: at which Roman-like magnanimity, and fortitude of mind, the sur geon seemed incredibly to wonder, as often after he told myself and others. "Being in the 16th of Elizabeth the mother of three daughters, and almost without hope of more children, especially of a son, which she for the continuance of her house, and husband's name, much desired, extremely grieving that the male line of this ancient family should end in her default, as she accounted it, she acquainted Mr. Francis Aylworth therewith, then of Kington Magna, in Warwickshire, a little old queerish man, but an excellent well-read and practised chirurgeon and physician, and for many years a gentleman living in her house: he gave her hope of conception, yea, of a son, if she and her Lord would for a few months be ruled by him. This in a private conference betweene them three was agreed upon, and promised to be observed. Children are given to men. It's God that giveth them. She conceived, and within one year after this communication, brought forth a son called Thomas, father of the Lord George, to her unspeakable comfort; but never conceived after. What time Mr. Aylworth told me this story, about 10 years after at Hallowdon, which I have at second hand heard also that this Lord hath privately told to some others: he added, that some months, or thereabouts, before the time of delivery, she sent for him, and kept him with her; and he, out of what observation I know not, being confident she went with a son, offered to wage with her ten pound to thirty pound that so it was: she accepted oepted the offer, most willing, no doubt, to lose, had the wager been thirty hundred. As soon as she was delivered, and understood it was a son, the first word she spake was, Carry Aylworth his thirty pound, which purposely she had laid ready in gold in her chamber, this being the 11th of July, 1575. She also prevailed with her husband to sell him the said manor of Kington Magna, in September following, for 520l. which he then held in lease for years, formerly by me mentioned amongst this Lord's sales of his lands. "For the awing of her family (I say not regulating the expence according to the revenue) and the education of youth, she had no compeer, which could much enlarge by many particulars I will only mention one instance, that as my self, in the 26th of Elizabeth, then about 17, crossed the upper part of the gallery at the Fryars in Coventry, where she then dwelt, having a covered dish in my hands, with her son's breakfast, wherewith I was hastening, and thereby presented her, then at the farther end, with a running leg or curtesie, as loth too long to stay upon that duty, she called me back to her, and to make, ere • I departed, one hundred legs, so to call them, at the least. And when I had done well, and missed the like in my next essay, I was then to begin again. And such was her great nobleness to me therein, then a boy of no desert, lately come from a country-school, and but newly entered into her service, that to shew me the better how, she lifted up all her garments to the calf of her legge, that I might the better observe the grace of drawing back the foot, and bowing of the knee. At this time, the antic and apish gestures, since used in salutations, nor the French garbs of eringing, were not arrived, nor expected in England; but what is worse, in subscriptions of letters, your humble servant hath since that time almost driven your loving friend out of EngIand. "It cannot be said that any apparent vice was in this lady; but it may be said of a wife, as of money, they are, as they are used, helpers or hurters: money is a good servant, but a bad master. And sure it is that she much coveted to rule her husband's affairs at home and abroad, and to be informed of the particular passages of each of them; which sometimes brought forth harshness at home, and turning off such servants as she observed refractory to her intentions therein. As far as was possible, she had in her middle and elder years a desire to be informed from the grooms of her husband's chamber and otherwise, of his speeches, dispatches, and purposes: few fines or incomes from his tenants were raised, and never any land sold, but she had a sixth, eighth, or tenth part thereout unknown to him: so strictly held she obliged to her the servants, and officers employed under her husband (I write mine own knowledge for many of her last years, and received the usage of former times from my fellow commissioners, employed in that kind, many years before my observations); by us all disliked, but by none of us to be helped. Most just it is, that all toll should come into the right toll-dish. For the most part it falleth out, that where wives will rule all, they marall; words I lately heard from wise lords in the Star Chamber, in the cases of the Lady Lake, the Countess of Suffolk, and some others. These verses are ancient: Concerning wives take this a certain rule: That, if at first you let them have the rule, Yourself with them at last shall bear no rule, Except you let them evermore to rule. "For many of her first years after marriage, she was allowed from her husband's purse and his receivers, what she spent, and called for; but that proved more burthensome than her husband's revenue could beare. After she undertook to amend much that was amiss, and became his receiver-general, to whom all officers, foreign and domestic, made their accompts; but that pro ving more unprofitable, soon blasted; lastly she had 300l. by the year for her apparell, and chamber expences, which allowance continued till her death. "After this lady had seen her son and two daughters married, growing by degrees into a kind of dropsy, a watry timpany, she departed this life, the 7th April in the 38th of Elizabeth, anno 1596, at Hallowdon aforesaid, then of the age of 58 years or thereabouts, and was buried on Ascension day following, then the 20th of May, in St. Michael's church in Coventry, with the greates state and honour that for many years before had been seen in that city, or în those parts of the kingdom, the manner whereof, by direction of this Lord Henry, for his private satisfaction, (mourning all that time at Hallowdon in his private chamber) I put into writ ing, a labour the more readily under gone, as the last service I could perform to the memory of her who had to my young years and education, both in her house at Oxford, and in the Middle Temple, continued my benefactor by the |