Essex Colchester 4 Witham 12 Maldon 13 47 203 42 Abberton pa Worcester Pershore 6 Alcester 8 Worcester 10 103 90 29 Abberwick to Northumber Alnwick 3 Wooler 14 Rothbury 7 311 135 58 Abber-cwm-Hir chap Radnor Rhayader 6 Knighton 15 Presteig 18 186 368 9 Abbey-Dore pa Hereford Hereford 11 Hay 14 Ross 16 140 533 17 Abbey-Holm[B] pa Cumberland Wigton 6 Allonby 7 Carlisle 17 309 3056

[A] ABBERBURY, or Alberbury, a parish and township, partly in the hundreds of Cawrse and Deythur, in the county of Montgomery, and partly in that of Ford, in the county of Salop. Warine, sheriff of this county in the reign of Henry I., founded an abbey for black monks, a cell to Guardmont, in Limosin, which, at the suppression of alien priories was bestowed by Henry VI. upon the college founded by Archbishop Chiechley. Benthall, Eyton, Rowton, Amaston, and Wollaston, are all townships of this parish. At Glyn, in this parish, is the celebrated Old Parr's cottage and birth-place, who lived in the reigns of ten kings and queens. Old Parr's cottage, which has undergone but little alteration since his time; it is timber-framed, rare, and picturesque, within view of Rodney's Pillar on Bredden Hill, in Montgomeryshire. In Wollaston Chapel is a brass plate, with his portrait thus inscribed: "The old, old, very old man, Thomas Parr, was born at the Glyn, in the township of Wennington, within the chapelry of Great Wollaston, and parish of Alberbury, in the county of Salop, in 1483. He lived in the reigns of ten kings and queens of England, viz. King Edward IV., King Edward V., King Richard III., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James I., and Charles I.; he died in London, (sixteen years after his presentation to Did penance at the age of 105. King Charles,) on the 13th of November, 1635, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, on the 15th of the same month, aged one hundred and fifty-two years and nine months. At the age of one hundred and five, he did penance in the church of Alberbury, for criminal connexion with Catherine Milton, by whom he had offspring."

[B] ABBEY-HOLM is a small town in the ward of Allerdale. The original consequence of this little town was derived from an abbey of Cistercian monks, founded here, about the twelfth century, by Henry I. of England, as the crown rolls imply. Its benefactors were many in number, and by the magnificent grants and privileges with which it was endowed, it acquired so much importance, that during the reigns of Edward I. and II. its abbots, though not mitred, were frequently summoned to sit in parliament. The abbey was pillaged and burnt during the incursion of Robert Bruce, but afterwards rebuilt with great magnificence; few vestiges, however, of its monastic buildings now remain. From the ruins the Parochial Chapel was formed, and there yet stands a part of the church in its original form. During the reign of Henry VIII. the abbey was chiefly dilapidated; the church continued in good condition till the year 1600, when the steeple, one hundred and fourteen feet high, suddenly fell down, and by its fall destroyed great part of the chancel. Its total ruin was nearly accomplished by an accidental fire five years afterwards. This fire took place on April 18, The Abbey destroyed by the accidental firing of a daw's nest. 1604, and was occasioned by a servant carrying a live coal into the roof of the church, to search for an iron chisel; the boisterous wind blew the coal out of his hand into a daw's nest, by which the whole was ignited, and within less than three hours it consumed both the body of the chancel and the whole church, except the south side of the low church, which was saved by means of a stone vault. Almost due-west from Abbey-Holm, in a strong situation near the sea coast, are some remains of Wulstey Castle, a fortress, which was erected by the abbots to secure their treasures, books, and charters from the sudden depredations of the Scots. "In this castle," observes Camden, "tradition reports, that the magic works of Sir Michael Scot (or Scotus), Michael Scot, the magician. were preserved, till they were mouldering into dust. He professed a religious life here about the year 1290, and became so versed in the mathematics, and other abstruse sciences, that he obtained the character of a magician, and was believed, in that credulous age, to have performed many miracles." The story of Michael Scot forms a beautiful episode in Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel," the notes to which furnish some curious information respecting that extraordinary personage. Sir Michael Scot, of Balwearie, we are told, flourished during the thirteenth century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland, upon the death of Alexander III. Scottish legends. His memory survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed either to the agency of auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or the devil. The following are amongst the current traditions concerning Michael Scot:—He was chosen, it is said, to go upon an embassy, to obtain from the King of France satisfaction for certain piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, he evoked a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse, mounted The fiend horse. upon his back, and forced him to fly through the air towards France. When he arrived at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, and boldly delivered his message. An ambassador with so little of the pomp and circumstance of diplomacy was not received with much respect, and the king was about to return a contemptuous refusal to his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till he had seen his horse stamp three times: the first stamp shook every steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had French King's concession. lifted up his hoof to give the third stamp, when the king rather chose to dismiss Michael, with the most ample concessions, than to stand to the probable consequences. Another time, it is said that, while residing at the tower of Oakwood, upon the Ettrick, about three miles above Selkirk, having heard of the fame of a sorceress, called the Witch of