her sister, and her sister's husband, the Rev. Thomas Jones; and the frequent resort of the poet Cowper during the earlier period of his residence in Olney. The chief attraction for Cowper at Clifton was of course Lady Austen, who first came there in the summer of 1781; but long before that date Cowper had been intimate with Mr. and Mrs. Jones, with whom he had doubtless become acquainted through their common friend, the Rev. John Newton. Mr. Jones was one of the six students who on March 11, 1768, had been expelled from St. Edmund's Hall for holding Methodistical tenets. It was in vain that the principal of the college, Mr. Dixon, had defended their doctrines from the Thirty-nine Articles of the Established Church, and spoke in the highest terms of the piety and exemplariness of their lives; his motion was overruled, and sentence was pronounced against them. It was a matter of accusation, too, against all six students, that they had previously been tradesmen, and Mr. Jones, who had originally been in business as a hairdresser, was charged with the heinous offence of having made "a good periwig" only two years before. As a matter of fact, however, Mr. Jones had left business four years before he entered the University, part of which time he had spent in studying the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures under Newton. After their expulsion Mr. Dixon recommended the students to Lady Huntingdon, who obtained ordination for Mr. Jones, and befriended him on many occasions. He was curate at Clifton from about 1772 to 1792 (the rector, a pluralist, lived elsewhere), and was married to Martha Green, the sister of Lady Austen, on the 15th of May 1778, at Clifton Church, by John Newton. Mr. Jones was Martha Green's second husband; her maiden name and that of Lady Austen was Richardson. Five of the letters in Newton's Cardiphonia are addressed to Mr. Jones.

Clifton Church is an exceedingly picturesque little edifice, and by reason of its elevated site may be seen for miles around rising from the masses of the surrounding trees. It is mostly of the Early Decorated style of architecture, but some portions are Perpendicular.

Above the chancel arch a portion of ancient fresco painting

is still dimly discernible.

At the beginning of the last century

the windows were profusely ornamented with the coats-of-arms of the family of Reynes and their alliances, in stained glass, but all have disappeared except a few fragments in one of the clerestory windows.

Two years ago the church was restored with great judgment and taste. The ugly plaster ceiling of the chancel gave place to a handsome oak roof, which is covered with lead and surrounded by a stone parapet agreeing with the parapet of the aisles of the nave; and a stained-glass window representing in rich colours "The Three Maries," the gift of T. Revis, Esq., took the place of its plain predecessor. The hagioscope in the wall southward of the chancel arch, the small window above the chancel arch, and the leper window in the south wall of the chancel, all of which had formerly been blocked up, were opened out.

The easternmost part of the south aisle, which has a piscina (there is another piscina in the chancel), was probably in ancient times a chapel or chantry railed off from the rest of the church.

In the north aisle of the chancel, or sepulchral chapel of the ancient lords of Clifton, which opens into the chancel by two pointed arches of the Decorated Period, are six effigies and three memorial brasses, the former forming by far the most interesting group of sculptured monuments in the county. It appears that as early as the Saxon period there were two separate manors at Clifton. At the Conquest the principal one (afterwards called Reynes's Manor, was given to Robert de Todeni; the other, afterwards called Wake's Manor (because it subsequently came into possession of the Wake family) to the Bishop of Constance. "The Reynes's Manor," after being for many years in the family of Todeni, passed, in the reign of Henry III., into the hands of Simon de Borard, who had formerly been their feudatory tenant. The last Simon de Borard (for there were four persons of the same name in regular descent) died about 1260. It was in all probability this person and his wife Margaret that the most ancient monument in the sepulchral chapel was designed

to commemorate.

Sir Simon left, besides three sons, a daughter named Joan, who married Thomas Reynes of Statherne, Co. Leicester. The sons were successively lords of Clifton; each died without issue, and the youngest conveyed his lands to his nephew, Thomas Reynes, the son of his sister Joan.

At his death Thomas Reynes was succeeded by his son Ralph, who died about 1310.

Ralph de Reynes married twice-first, Amabel, daughter of Sir Henry Green of Boughton; and next, another Amabel, daughter of Sir Richard Chamberlain of Petsoe Manor. To Ralph de Reynes and his second wife is assigned the second monument in the chapel.

Thomas, the son of Ralph de Reynes, a minor, married the daughter of his guardian Sir John de Tyringham, and probably before his father's tomb was completed, for the arms of Tyringham are found upon it. Sir John de Reynes, the grandson of this Thomas Reynes, married three wives-1. Catherine Scudamore; 2. Joane Betler; 3. Alice Hartwell.

He died in 1428, and was buried in the sepulchral chapel at Clifton, where his effigy in brass yet remains; he is represented in the armour of the time in which he lived, and at his feet is a brass on which is inscribed:

Hic iacet Johës Reynes Miles qui obiit xxv° die Marcii Anno
dni Millimo cccc° XXVIII° cuius aïē ppicietur deus. Amen.

On a large marble slab next to that to which Sir John's brass is affixed are two brasses of women in shrouds, supposed to represent his wives, Joane Betler and Alice Hartwell. To this same Sir John, and his first wife, Catherine Scudamore, must be assigned the third monument, which consists of an altar tomb, on which rests the effigies of a man and woman in white stone -not alabaster as usually stated. It was erected probably by himself, in his lifetime, and soon after her death; for many of the arms on this tomb are the armorial bearings which she quartered, and which no other person of the family of Reynes, except this John, could with propriety have affixed to his tomb.

APPENDIX.

(1.) Chicheley Hall (the residence of the Chesters), which Cowper sometimes visited, is a handsome mansion of red brick with stone dressings, situated about four miles south-east of Olney. It was erected in 1715. One of its rooms is wainscoted with oak panelling of a date antecedent to the rest of the house, and over the fireplace is a beam, on which is the following inscription :-" Cave ne Deum offendas, cave ne proximum lædas, cave ne tua negligentia familiam deseras, 1550."

(2.) At Horton House, about five miles from Olney, was born, in 1661, Charles Montague, first Earl of Halifax, author of “The Country Mouse and the City Mouse."

At Easton Maudit, about six miles from Olney, resided for many years (1753-1782) Dr. Percy, and it was from Easton Maudit Vicarage that his famous “Reliques of Ancient Poetry" was given to the world.

At Yardley Hastings, Edward Lye, who was for thirty years rector of the parish, compiled his great work, the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic Dictionary. He died in 1767.

At Turvey laboured the Rev. Legh Richmond (author of "The Dairyman's Daughter"), who was rector of the parish from 1805 till his death in 1827.

(3.) Cooper or Cowper?-How ought the poet's name to be pronounced? As Cowper himself pronounced it, decidedly. How did he pronounce it? The answer is as simple as the question : we are told by the Rev. William Bull, Cowper's friend, that the poet pronounced his name Cooper. It was actually spelt Cooper by the Rev. John Newton in several of his first letters to Huntingdon. This is an additional proof, for it is evident that Mr. Newton was misled by the pronunciation.