of England and Wales. It was on an iconographic plan, and the scale was generous enough to include complete details. Sheffield has no place in this elaborate survey of the kingdom. Its existence is contemptuously relegated to a note indicating a by-road at Nether Haugh, between Greasbrough and Wombwell, as leading "to Shefeild "-apparently the way through Wentworth and Chapeltown. The Cutlers' Company's accounts teem with payments for letters, sent by special messengers from places on the North road, where they were dropped by a postal service that did not condescend to come nearer. Since those days public effort has been largely directed towards overcoming the disadvantages of living, as it were, in a cul de sac. Throughout the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth centuries, canals and turnpike roads were fostered as means of deliverance. Within living memory, an enterprising purveyor of the London dailies could only get them here before their news was stale by a service of quick carts which waylaid the express coaches to the North. Even when the era of railways dawned, their pioneers, with strange infatuation, passed by on the other side. And it took many years to get Quarter Sessions to recognise, except as a humble payer of large tribute, the existence of a place with whom boroughs of prescriptive lineage, which Sheffield could, without inconvenience, put in its pocket, would hardly be on speaking terms. It is only in recent years that hoary prerogatives excluding numbers and wealth from due recognition in matters of magisterial and county business, have yielded to the irresistible force of modern facts.

It will, then, be readily understood why, in Sheffield itself, there are but few objects of archæological interest to attract examination by the Association. One reference in Domesday is all we know about Waltheof's Hall. One stone, with chevron moulding, is the only proof of a Norman church. One mention alone is there of an early castle-weakened by a contemporary document in which De Furnival himself calls it his house. You have had, this afternoon, an opportunity of judging for yourselves how little of the fifteenth-century church has come un

scathed through long periods of neglect and many tinkerings. The Shrewsbury monuments, after being in perils oft, and suffering much evil treatment, remain its most prized possession. The old Hall in the Ponds is, in its decadence, the only remnant of the appurtenances of a castle whose materials were effectually utilised to rebuild a town of wood in stone. And there is the Manor, whose Lodge, with its tragic memories, has been happily redeemed, by the ducal descendant of its builder, from the decay of the larger structure. Beyond these, and a timbered house here and there, what have we? The oldest thing, after our rivers, is probably that "goit" or mill race which, now relegated to the status of a sewer, fed the Lord's Mill from time immemorial. But, if I am asked to point out the most characteristic remnant of the Hallamshire of the remote past, I would indicate the survivals of the ancient grinding wheels which once studded our streams. These, the most typical relics of the old industrial conditions, have, by a tenacious conservatism, been handed down to us little changed; and I suppose the diligent enthusiast in the archæology of handicrafts might possibly find, hidden away, some archaic smithy, reminiscent, in its rudeness and its fittings, of the quaint structures where the rough apron-men of old fashioned, on their stithy stocks, the wares that made Sheffield famous.

Happily, Hallamshire in some sort atones for Sheffield's archæological poverty. Here we have Ecclesfield, Bradfield, Wincobank, Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Carbrook, and Templeborough. Worksop Priory and Wingfield Manor, though outside our boundaries, are in close historical association with our town. The fragments of the Premonstratensian Monastery of Beauchief (whose story, long ago told by Dr. Pegge, has been further unfolded by Mr. Sidney Oldall Addy), and the Cistercian Abbey of Roche, elucidated by the research of Dr. Aveling, are both on our programme. Your attention will be directed to other interesting examples of ecclesiastical architecture at Blyth, Steetly, Chesterfield and Rotherham. Had time and strength allowed, the Castles of Conisbro' and Tickhill might well have been included. Other shrines

there are, so sacred that into them the impious foot of the archæologist may not tread. Over the wild desolation of Carlswark, and the stern silence of the stone circles and earthworks of our moors, King Grouse holds sway more complete and lordly than that of Briton, or Roman, or Saxon. I trust, however, that even without an invasion of solitudes which give so striking an individuality to our locality, this visit will be both profitable and pleasant; and if the weather denies us the privilege of showing how largely we possess the cheerfulness of Mark Tapley, we, content in the conciousness of virtue, will bear with resignation the denial of opportunity for its display.

RICHARD MASTERS, PARSON OF ALDYNGTON,

1514 TO 1558.

BY ALFRED DENTON CHENEY, Esq., F. R. HIST. S.

N the following pages I purpose relating certain episodes in the life of Richard Masters; partly, because he furnishes us with a real example of that much-debated ecclesiastic, a Pre-Reformation parson; partly, because he was connected with one of the numerous troublous events of the time of Henry VIII; partly, because the narration will correct an error into which almost all historians have fallen, viz., that he perished upon the scaffold in 1534, as an accomplice of the Holy Maid of Kent.1

In the year 1511 the rectory of Aldington, in Kent, became vacant, and Archbishop Warham, in whose gift it was, bestowed it upon Erasmus, of whose learning and judgment he had formed a high opinion, but whose poverty was manifest. Erasmus had, however, scruples of conscience about retaining the living, seeing that his ignorance of the English vernacular practically unfitted him for the duties of a country parson, and he soon afterwards resigned. Temporarily the vacancy was filled by

1 Even the learned and painstaking editors of the Calendar of State Papers have fallen into this error; for, in a footnote to a letter written by Masters to Cromwell (vol. vi, No. 1666), they say: "He was afterwards executed as an accomplice of the Nun of Kent."

2 Locally"Aldington" is always pronounced as "Eldington," an example of the light which pronunciation so frequently throws upon ancient orthography. In Saxon times it was written as "Ealdintune" (the old town or settlement), and the original pronunciation has survived the change of spelling,

one of Warham's suffragans, Doctor Thornden, Bishop of Dover, with a charge upon the living of £20 per annum in favour of Erasmus; but eventually it was offered to and accepted by Richard Masters, M. A., subject to the Erasmus seems to have had some acquaintance with Masters, as he refers to him as young man, learned in Divinity, and of good and sober life" (Works of Erasmus, vol. v. p. 678).1

same condition.

a

The rectory of Aldington must have been an enviable position. One of the many manors in Kent which had belonged from early times to the See of Canterbury, it had been especially esteemed by a recent Archbishop (Morton) who had renovated and enlarged the archiepiscopal palace, and maintained the extensive park and chase attached thereto.2 Several large mansions lay within the bounds of the parish, and the farmhouses bearing the old names still retain, externally and internally, many vestiges of their former grandeur. Moreover, the healthiness of the situation, the proximity of the sea, and the beauty of the surrounding country must have added largely to the comfort of the rector of Aldington. And Richard Masters was a man worthy of his office: every reference in the record of history to his life and work is in his praise, and

1 For a full account of the connection of Erasmus with Aldington, see Mr. Purley's The Weald of Kent. He gives a most interesting letter, detailing Erasmus' reasons for resigning the preferment, and those of Archbishop Warham for urging the appointment upon him: which reflect credit upon both these true Reformers.

2 Some idea of the magnificence of the Courthouse or Palace of Aldington at this time may be gathered from the Royal Survey made in 1608, in which it is stated that there were no less than five kitchens, nine barns, six stables, seven fodder-houses, and eight dove-houses. The demesne lands, including the park, exceeded 1,000 acres. The Report states that the buildings stand on an eminence not far from the sea, without shelter, and would always necessitate a large outlay for repairs. Evidently its decadence dates from that time; till now the only vestiges that remain are the outlines of three or four Gothic windows, that probably lighted the refectory (or the chapel, as stated in the guide-books). It is unfortunate that the Tudor front of the house fell some forty years ago, and was not rebuilt. The modern house, which stands on the site, presents practically no connecting link with its past glories.