thirteenth century. The two especially referred to appear to have been placed without any other window near them, one on each side of the chancel. We have been favoured by the Rev. J W. Kenworthy with an interesting memoir on the present condition of the tombstones on the site of the old church, which the reader will find at the end of the volume. The old churchyard was enlarged in 1671 and again in 1763 from a print we should think the portion next Bohemia Place the oldest.* In 1790 six acres were purchased for the new church and an additional cemetery. Spurstowe. Spurstowe became Vicar of Hackney in 1643. He was descended from the family of Spurstow in Cheshire, and educated at Catharine College, Cambridge;† Preacher before the Long Parliament; in 1662 ejected for non-conformity. Died January or February, 1665. The Obelisk in Wackney Churchyard. In a note to Lyson's 'Environs' is the following: 'Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Foster, 1727. There is an obelisk to the memory of this family, but so much worn that this is the only date legible.' So in Lyson's time, but now nothing whatever is to be read. Three sides of the handsome pedestal of the obelisk are occupied by sculpture, the fourth is perfectly blank where the inscription may be supposed to have been. * There appear, however, to have been tombs in the part adjoining the rectory boundary, and we may have been misled in the opinion expressed above by the difficulty of understanding the perspective of the print. + Of which John Strype, lecturer at Hackney, was a member 1737. The family of Foster, or Forster, of Bamborough, bore a shield similar to the sculptures, i.e., argent, a chevron vert, between three bugles sable, stringed gules. Crest, an arm in armour embowed, holding the head of a broken tilting spear. Motto, 'Si fractus fortis.' It is probable, therefore, that this was the tomb of a collateral branch of the family of General Forster, who commanded the English rebels in conjunction with Lord Derwentwater in 1715. Burials at Hackney. Mary Stewart, Countess of Granard, was buried at Hackney, Oct. II, 1758. Richard Newcome, Bishop of St. Asaph, was buried June 10th, 1769. He was the son of Peter Newcombe, Vicar of Hackney. Francis James Leslie, Lord Lindores, 4 July, 1775. Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, statesman, poet, and dramatist, was buried 6 July, 1604. He was the 17th earl and lived at Clapton. There were only three more Earls of Oxford.* Aubrey de Vere, twentieth earl, with whom the title became extinct, died March 12 or 13, in 1702-3, without male issue, at his house in Downing Street. He was senior knight of the garter and first Earl of England, SIR THOMAS SUTTON He Lived at Hackney on the site whereon now stands Sutton Place. was founder of the Charterhouse, and intended to have been the first governor, had not death prevented him. He signed the deeds conveying large estates to the Charterhouse only six weeks before his death.† " PENINNAH JUCKES, 1716. A maid near eighteen We have laid in this green, To rest herself here a short space; And after that time, This rose in her prime Shall rise up again by God's grace.' *Of that family. † We know not whether he was buried at Hackney. Marriages. Thomas Fairfax, esquire, was married to Anne, 4th daughter of the Right Hon. Lord Veare (Vere), June 20th, 1637. Fairfax was the celebrated Parliamentary general, afterwards Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Fairfax served as a volunteer in Holland under Lord Vere. He became general of the Parliamentary forces, but was obliged to play a secondary part to Cromwell. Superseded by Cromwell, he retired into private life, but assisted in the Restoration. Mildmay Vaine (Fane), Earl of Westmorland, and Dame Mary Townsend, married 21 June, 1638. Cecilia, daughter of Sir Thomas More, married Giles Heron of Shacklewell. Robert South, the celebrated Preacher, Was born 4 Sept., 1634, and christened 18 Sept., 1634, at Hackney. It is, however, stated in 'Classic Preachers' that he was born in 1633. He was at Westminster School under Doctor Busby (equally celebrated in his way). He used to relate that he heard the king publicly prayed for (this was said to have been done by South himself) but an hour or two, at most, before his head was struck off. On one occasion South was preaching before Charles II. and observed that the king was asleep. He immediately called out in a loud voice, 'Lord Lauderdale,' and when that amazed nobleman stood up, South politely requested him not to snore so heavily, as he might wake his majesty. The following are the first and last lines of his epitaph in Westminster Abbey: 'Ab hoc haud procul Marmore, Vir Eruditione, Pietate, Moribus antiquis. Schola Westmonasteriensis, deinde Ædis Christi Alumnus— Obiit Jul. 8, An. Dom. 1716, Æt. 82.' Matthew Henry. A new meeting-house was built in 1716 in consequence of the quarrel which happened upon Mr. Henry's death in 1714. Matthew Henry was a Presbyterian, and a very pious and learned man. came from Chester, and was at Hackney only two years. He The old meeting-house stood nearly opposite to that now occupied by the Independents at the corner of St. Thomas's Square. The new house was called the Gravel-pit Meeting-house. According to other accounts, the old meeting-house was on the same side as Dr. Burder's. Mr. Aspland, author of a volume of sermons, chiefly practical, preached at the new house. There was another chapel, also called the Gravel-pit Chapel, and more properly, from its low level, wherein Dr. Pye Smith officiated. He was, we think, an early writer on geology, and distinguished in many branches of knowledge. Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, Died 9 March, 1577-8, at her house of Hackney, in Middlesex, and was interred in Henry VII.'s chapel. The site of Lady Margaret's house at Hackney is not known.* Miss Strickland says that it probably was situate on what was afterwards the site of Loddiges' nursery grounds. She was the daughter of Queen Margaret Tudor and the Earl of Angus. Cardinal Wolsey was her godfather. She was imprisoned several times. She says herself: 'Thrice have I been cast into prison, not for matters of treason, but for love matters. First, when Thomas Howard, son to Thomas, first Duke of Norfolk, was in love with myself; then for the love of Henry Darnley, my son, to Queen Mary of Scotland; and lastly, for the love of Charles, my younger son, to Elizabeth Cavendish.' On the last occasion the Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwicke), the mother of the bride, had likewise been provided with penal lodgings in the Tower-an in*See page 69. stance of impartiality-as the Lady Margaret was brought there for the crime of being mother to the bridegroom. The most remarkable event on the release of the Lady Margaret from the Tower was the birth of her grandchild, the Lady Arabella, or Arbela Stuart, which took place in the autumn of 1575. Her joy and pride were, however, soon lowered by the grief of marking the first symptoms of consumption invade the frame of her only surviving son, Charles: 'At Hackney with me Lord Charles did abide, But death from me reft her father, my son, After several months' decline or decay, death came suddenly on the Lady Margaret. She was not confined to her bed, and was able to attend to her usual avocations, when, March 7, 1577-8, the Earl of Leicester came to Hackney, and making great demonstrations of extraordinary kindness, entered into private discussion with her; but what passed never transpired. Leicester stayed to partake dinner, and the same evening departed. She was seized with violent illness just after he left her house, and became worse and worse, until death was evidently at hand. She died very peacefully March 9th, 1577-8. The death was laid by popular report on the Earl of Leicester, who was considered so able a poisoner that if he invited people to dine with him or invited himself to dine with them, and any one of them died within a month after, he bore the blame of putting a pinch of poison into their food. The altar-tomb we now see in Westminster Abbey with a statue of Lady Margaret recumbent thereon was not erected until a quarter of a century after her decease, by her grandson, James I. The inscription reads: 'This lady had to her great-grandfather, King Edward IV., to her grandfather, King Henry VII., to her uncle, King Henry VIII., to her cousin-germane, King |