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YALEUNWERSnY UBRARY

The John Hampden Hall was opened
with Sunday School, on Oct. 28th, and
has been used daily since. Three friends,
who wish to remain anonymous, have
prepared and provided this Booklet as a
slight acknowledgment to subscribers
who have helped to build the Hall. It
is sent out also in the hope that others,
into whose hands it may fall, will assist
in paying off the last instalment of
;£i6o due to the Builders at Christmas.

CHALGROVE, OXON., AND JOHN
HAMPDEN.

X
o

CHALGROVE, OXON., AND
JOHN HAMPDEN.

T. Howard Swinstead,
Vicar of Chalgrove, Oxon.

This Pamphlet is sold privately. The proceeds will
be devoted towards the cost of building and finishing
the John Hampden Hall, Chalgrove.

A VILLAGE AND A BATTLEFIELD.

[HALGROVE is an ideal spot for
those who wish to rusticate.
Far from the busy haunts of
men, it is withdrawn from the
open high road running between farm
lands that have been enclosed within the
last century. One of our quietest and
most peaceful villages derives a swollen
reputation from a cavalry skirmish!
Nothing else but " Chalgrove Field " is
likely to check the stranger's foot in this
old world home of labour.
Public authority trusts us so much that
a policeman is rarer to see than a motor
cycle ; the parish pursues the even tenour

(8)
of its way with days of toil and nights of
sleep. Of modern institutions, the joys
of a Board School and the knock of a
regular postman, are varied once a week
by the welcome visit of a relieving officer.
These rival the thrashing tackle which
draws clumsily up to the brook side to let
the carrier's cart (" Why tarry the wheels
of his chariot ? ") lumber on to the next
doorstep. Bump goes the bundle, cash on
delivery, and a piece of Oxford gossip as
a makeweight, while change is being
fingered. Yes ; we have a brook, and it once gave
five mills their mqtive power, monopolised
now by the great mill-wheel opposite
Manor Farm. But though lost to useful
work, the water has asserted itself within
the memory of children baptised but four
years ago. Who shall say the water has
struck work or is pensioned off, when
labour-loving lads wake at five, to rub
their eyes over this puzzling sight ? The
street they shambled down last night is

X X

(9)
now a rushing torrent two feet deep ; all
hands turn out thrust deep into corduroy
pockets waiting tiU the fury of the tyrant
subsides : stilts are fashionable for forty
hours, and pigyard boots (for the fortunate
possessors) keep rheumatism at bay till
the mud has settled. Then the crunch of
wheels and sprays of pebbles spurting
from horses' feet declare the road is pass
able — but not a credit.
From the road to our doorways are
three-score and odd plank bridges, some
with rails, but none too safe or easy to
find on raw and gusty nights. Our homes
used to line with the mill stream at the
church end, in forgotten years when land
lords resided here and pigtail wigs adorned
them. This was before five yards of bank
were washed away to let our lower course
receive the water we dip our pails into
to-day. Yet it is delightsome to hear the
grandfather of shepherds solemnly explain,
how the Church now stands two fields off
the village, because the building erected

(lO)
by day was removed o' nights by the de'il
and his clan, to make it the more bother
some. " But see the old foundations and
plans' of houses here and there cropping
up ? " " Ay, but they med be summat
else." When— as Domesday Book will show —
the Priest Brun strode six furlongs across
the fields from Cadwell, to minister to
Milo the landlord and his villeins (five
millers and their households in Celgrave)
doubtless the present goose green would
know the heavy tread of the worshippers,
standing round a rough cross of stone, till
such time as a comely church should be
set up. And rubbing shoulders with them,
Sawold's serfs and pasturemen from Rope-
ford (now Rofford) would make their loud
reply. Since the time of Brun, on that
spot, round that cross of stone, or a later
erection, till the days of his successor,
the last vicar of the same name Brown
(and assuredly of the same spirit) over a
span of 800 years, the same loving message

(lO
has been patiently given, by monks of
Bee in 1130, by the " parson " who in
1200 lived " at the head of Rainacre," by
Richard the Clerk in 1220, and his colleague
" Ralph the chaplain of Berewike," and
" Osmund and David, priests " : then men
might hold a scrap of land by payment
annually of one " pair of gloves," or two
pounds of wax " coram cruce," in St.
Mary's Church, Chaugrave. (Is this use
of church candles " coram " — " in the
presence of . , . " — something of a bolder
declaration of the Real Presence than now
we meet ?). These were the men who
guided heavenwards the families of
Quatremain (howsoever spelt, their coat
still shows four hands) since 1210 (and one
of the name still lives here hard by Pie
Corner), and the Barentyns, who, about
1350 built our beautiful chancel and south
aisle, and had the frescoes painted — the
noble monument of piety recorded only
by a strip of brass over our most ancient
tomb " Thomas FitzThomas Barentyn

(12)
gist icy dieu de s[on ame aiepitie]": here
dwelled the pastors heard by Sir Edmund
Hampden " armiger pro corpore domini
regis," who held (1443) the manor called
Scyntlers (St. Clare's ?), a property which
entered frequently into marriage bonds
and lawsuits till 1506, when it passed
to William, Bishop of Lincoln, free of
encumbrance. There still remain families traceable
through all the last four centuries —
Frankhn, Phelps, Woodwards, White,
Goode, and others, who continue to rent
under landlords, now no longer squires,
but the Colleges of Magdalen and Lincoln.
Indeed, the fact that no squire has resided
in Chalgrove for many years may answer
for many of our drawbacks, showing how
much we have faUen back since the days
v/hen the Manor, Langley HaU, the Old
Rectory, and other homes sheltered
famines who cared little for long journeys
or the madding crowd. It is from these
representative stay-at-homes mostly, that

JiiHX Hami'I)I':x Hai.i,.

tl^^l^'^

Kouxdatiox-Stoxk laiii hy \'iscorxT Valkxti \, Arci'sr i)|'h, u)oi)

(13)
we hear time-honoured phrases and quaint
words, and learn about old customs that
now are shorn of their glory. " I've
catched a tisiky cough." " I beat 'un for
makin' kites at me." " That's the scuffle
us breaaks clods wi'." " It's a strippin'
marnin', sir." " She was real dingey about
thik cheque." " Yes, I cut the fleer pretty
smartish, but I baint so deedy as brother
Ben at it." " M'yes, oor vukker's tidyish
sort o' marn, but he baint Chalgro' y'
know." " Moles doan't note the traps
when they be a bit daney." The hoisting
of the Maypole, yet inscribed " M " among
the rafters of a barn, is still remembered,
and how " the lord and lady " were
carried round on a wooden horse ; Chal
grove Veast — the dedication festival of the
Church — has not quite degenerated into
gingerbread and confetti. Moses Brown's
legend can still be deciphered describing
him as " white and black smith." Claypit
Sunday — after a long and discreditable
life of " junketings, sports, crickets, and

(H)
revellin' " in Lent, died a natural death
when the " Mouse-trap " ceased to hang
the sign of an inn. Funeral wreaths were
hung upon the chancel arch what time the
western choir gallery boasted its orchestra
and its drinking pots.
" The battle was afoor our day, y'
know, zur ; I can 'member when Hampden
was put up 1843, and enclosure was made,
then the Heads who su' scribed to't went
into a barn to dinner, and two bands
play'd all 'long t'road." To this brief
reference to the monument commemorat
ing our great Patriot, the simple folk add
little by way of tradition. On that sunny
June morning of 1643, less than a year
after John Hampden first reviewed his
miUtia in Chalgrove Field, the girls were
going — pail under arm — up the Milking
Path to their work, when their eyes caught
the sheen from the spears of Rupert's men
in the distance, and they raised the alarm.
The soldiers helped themselves to bread
from the oven of the steward of Roffprd,

Thi-; F(jxt, Chalukovk.

(IS)
and Cromwell witnessed the engagement
from the church spire (destroyed by storm
Jan. 5th, 1727). Human bones have been
dug up, and several cannon-balls found
(one in a tree at Chiselhampton), as well
as a Cavalier's sword, now in the possession
of a near neighbour. There is no record
that burials of those fallen in the battle
were made in the churchyard.
Others have told in great fulness how
failed the attempt to cut off Prince Rupert
from retreating with his loot over Chisel
hampton Bridge to Oxford, and how John
Hampden early in the skirmish received
his death wounds. When he was undressed
to have those wounds tended, a locket was
found in his bosom containing a slip of
paper inscribed :
'' Against my king I do not fight,
But for my king and country's right," '"^-y' '^^' 'it-ffj:,-.
and he bravely acted on the motto his
regiment bore " Vestigia nulla retrorsum,"
for, as Clough wrote in the same year :
" He received two carabine shott in his

a-a \J,

1^.

(i6)
arme, %\"hich brake the Bone ; yet he would
not presenthe leave the fielde, seeming
regardlesse of the pain and great letting
of bloode, manfuUie saving, ' He would
not onhe lose his arme but lay downe his
hfe in that good cause he \\-a5 engaged in.'
He was conducted to the house of blaster
Ezekiel BroA^iie (a well affected and godhe
man) and contrary to all opinion of skilful
chirurgeons, he appeared to ha^"e no hopes
of recoverie from that hurt, and would, so
long as his strength sufficed, \\Tite
directions for tlie \'igorous prosecution of
the warfare, which by speciall messengers
he forw'arded to the Parhament, and these
his letters, in the sober judgment of men,
ha\"e under God His providence rescued
these realms from the hands of \\icked
men, who, Aliitophel-hke gave to a weak
and credulous King that advice which has
embroiled these kingdoms in the present
lamentable wslT, Being wellnigh spent and
labouring for breath, he uttered tliis
praier which I, being present, did presenthe

'II i>iiill. ) I il.M I; I

(17)
commit to writing as well as my recollec
tion served me : ' O Lord God of Hosts,
great is Thy mercie, just and holy are Thy
dealings unto us sinful men, save me, O
Lord, if it be Thy good will, from the jaws
of death ; pardon my manifold trans
gressions, receive me to mercy; O Lord,
save my bleeding countrie ; have these
realms in Thine especiall keeping : confound
and level in the dust those who would
rob the people of their libertie and lawful
prerogative ; let the King see his error
and turne the hearts of his evil counsellors
from the malice and wickedness of their
design es. Lord Jesus, receive my soule,
Amen. O Lord save my countrie : O
Lord, be merciful to .... ' here his
breath failed. He gave up the ghoste
after having with more than human forti
tude, endured most cruel anguish for the
space of fifteen days. About seven days
before his death, he received the Holy
Sacrament after the manner set forth by
law, saying that though he could not

(i8)
awaye with the gouvernaunce off the
church by Bishops, and utterlie did
abominate the scandalous lives of some
clergiemen, yet did he think its doctrine
in the greater parte primitive and con-
formeable to God His worde, as in Holy
Scriptures revealed. The whole armie at
his buriall followed singing the xc Psalm
and at their return the xliii with ensigns
furled and muffled drums and their heads
uncovered." It has been doubted since whether the
cause of death was a wound inflicted by
the enemy or by the bursting of his own
pistol presented by his son-in-law, Sir R.
Pye. " At supper party of Harleys and
Foley, Sir R. Pye, of Faringdon House,
Berks, related that at the action of Chal
grove Field his pistol burst and shattered
his hand in a terrible manner. He, how
ever, rode off and got to his quarters, but
finding the wound mortal, he sent for Pye,
then a colonel in the Parliamentary army,
and told him that he looked on him as in

(19)
some degree accessory to his death as the
pistols were a present from him. Sir
Robert assured him that he bought them
in Paris of an eminent maker, and had
proved them himself. It appeared, on
examining the other pistol, that it was
loaded to the muzzle with several super
numerary charges, owing to the carelessness
of a servant, who was ordered to see the
pistols were loaded every morning ; which
he did without drawing the former charge."
In order to settle this debated point,
Lord Nugent applied to the Earl of
Buckinghamshire for permission to
disinter the body ; it was granted and
confirmed by the Rector of Great Hamp
den. The body was disinterred in 1828.
" It was in a grave near the west
window, next his wife, in a leaden coffin
with two interior lids of wood. The
opening was performed by the parish
plumber. Silence reigned ; not a whisper
or breath was heard. Each stood on the
tiptoe of expectation awaiting the result.

(20)
and as to what appearance the face would
present. The coffin was placed in the
centre of the Church : on lifting the right
arm, we found it was dispossessed of its
hand. We might therefore naturally con
jecture that it had been amputated, as
the bone presented a perfectly flat appear
ance as if sawn by some sharp instrument.
On searching under the cloths, to our no
small astonishment, we found the hand,
or rather a number of smaH bones, enclosed
in a separate cloth. Then it was assumed
that a pistol had been the innocent cause
of the wound. The rest of the arms and
shoulders were intact, except that the left
shoulder has been dislocated " (not by a
ball, but evidently by a faH from his horse,
when Hampden was incapable of handling
the reins).
Turning from the troubles of this period,
it is a calming relief to find how quietly
the work of the Church progressed. Most
of the communion plate, five of the seven
bells, and five of the eight benefactions.

The Font, Bekkick.

(21)
were all presented to the parish during or
soon after the Commonwealth wars, and
the font (as has been conjectured very
plausibly from the carved rose, thistle,
and portculhs) was probably rescued from
the siege of Wallingford in 1643 when the
clergy of All Hallows prized it highly as
the latest workmanship of their period, and
sought, as a refuge for it, a remote (possibly
the remotest) parish in the manor of
Wallingford. The oaken pulpit is also of Jacobean
date, but probably made up from Eliza
bethan wood.
Little remains to remark. The frescoes
in all their beauty and completeness must be
examined carefully to be appreciated. The
vicarage is Early Stuart, rebuilt 1702, by
Thomas Pocock, student of Christ Church ;
the clock has but one hand : the old square
pews have been replaced (in the restoration
of 1881) by pitchpine : a fragment of
masonry with a cluster of hemispherical
holes still puzzles every visitor ; the leper

(22)
window — with a slit cut through to the
squint opposite opening into the north
chapel — is still hotly debated, and the
sedilia universally admired. The initials
M.B. in a window of the S. aisle, do not
refer to the dedication of the Church — the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary —
but to the plumber who mended the
window, being churchwarden at the time.
J. HOWARD SWINSTEAD,
Vicar of Chalgrove, Oxon.
September, 1906.

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