thousand problems may be found. Questions which a child may ask, and which, indeed, often come from infant lips, neither divines nor philosophers can answer. Facts which are daily before our eyes receive no solution from the teachings of theology or from the researches of science. These exercises of the mind are likely to become more active as particular individual lives are the subjects of consideration, and the character and career of any one man, rich or poor, are thoughtfully pondered. In every such case there will be found much that is enigmatical; influences, which no human skill can trace; results, flowing from unseen and unknown causes; events, unexpected and inexplicable; facts, clothed with mystery which mortal vision cannot pierce. We now see but darkly, and know but in part. The end is not yet. The present is linked to a future in which, we may reasonably hope, darkness will become light, and the enigmas of time be satisfactorily solved by the revelations and adjustments of eternity. Happy are they "who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality," animated and sustained, amidst the trials and mysteries of the present world, by hopes of a brighter world beyond.

W

confer it does not necessarily secure future fame for

its wearer. Many who have filled episcopal thrones have long been forgotten; others survive only as names. Among those who have escaped oblivion and are still deserving of remembrance, may be found some eminent prelates who were natives of this county; and to whom the industrious pen of Fuller rightly gives a place in his list of Gloucestershire Worthies." His brief and quaint narratives will bear re-producing and shall be given in full, with some further particulars gathered from other quarters.

66

His first account is of a Cotswolder of the fourteenth century, of whom he thus writes:

"TIDEMAN DE WINCHCOMBE was born in this County, at the Market Town formerly famous for a rich Abbey, now for plenty of Poore therein. He was preferred first Abbot of Beaulieu, then Bishop of Landaffe, and lastly of Worcester by King Richard the Second's importunity to the Pope, notwithstanding one John Green was fairly elected thereunto. This Tideman was the King's Physician, and very well skilled in that Faculty. He died 1400.”

I am obliged by J. H. Hooper, Esq., of Worcester, with the information that Dr. Thomas, in his "History of Worcester Cathedral," published in 1736, states that there were at that time on the floor of the nave several large marble grave-stones without inscriptions, the largest of which, below the steps into the choir, had on it the impression of a mitre and crozier, and was said to lie over the tomb of Bishop Tideman de Winchcombe. In Green's "Antiquities of Worcester," however, this grave-stone is mentioned as one of those which had been since removed.

The Cotswold parish of Chedworth, long famous for its fine woods, has become more widely known by the accidental discovery on its northern side of the site of a large Roman villa, in 1864. The remarkable remains thus found, and which are now carefully preserved by the taste and liberality of the Earl of Eldon, attract archæologists and sight-seers from all parts. This interesting spot is, however, generally reached without passing through the village, which is one of the most picturesque on the Cotswolds, and is to be found in a long, green, and fertile valley on the west side of the old Foss-road, four miles from Northleach and seven from Cirencester. On either side are points from which it can be seen in its entire length, and with its ancient towered Church of St. Andrew, at the Upper End; its square-built high-roofed chapel on Pancake Hill, at the Lower End; its farm-houses, cottages, fields, orchards, gardens, and winding roads and paths; and its tiny rill trickling on its way to join the Coln near Foss Bridge, it presents many a pleasing view. This beautiful locality was the birth-place of another Prelate, who, like Tideman de Winchcombe, derived his surname from the place of his nativity.

"JOHN CHEDWORTH was born in this county, and bred in King's Colledge, in Cambridge, being the third scholar that came thereinto by election from Eaton Schoole, though some (I confesse) for a short time make him admitted in Merton Colledge in Oxford. He afterwards was the third Provost of

King's Colledge, possessing the place six years, till he was elected Bishop of Lincoln. He was joyned in Commission by King Henry the Sixth with Bishop Wainfleet of Winchester, to revise and regulate the Statutes of Eaton and King's Colledges. He sate Bishop about eighteen years; and dying 1471, lies buried in his own Cathedral, under a marble monument."

Of this monument the Dean of Lincoln courteously furnishes the following information :-" All that remains is the stone itself; the magnificent brass figure of the Bishop having been torn off by the Cromwellian soldiers. The matrix, however, clearly shows that he was represented in Episcopal vestments, mitre and chasuble, etc., and with a pastoral staff in his hand. His figure was surrounded with small figures of angels and coats of arms. The stone lies in the Choir of Angels, behind the High Altar, on the north side, adjoining the Chantry chapel of Bishop Flemyng. His inscription is given in Browne Willis' Cathedrals,' page 57."

The next name takes us to the south western extremity of the county, into a locality of great natural beauty and one rich in archæological interest-the parish of Westbury-on-Trym, adjoining that of Clifton, and situated on the north side of the Avon within three or four miles of its confluence with the Severn.

"JOHN CARPENTER was (as my author [Godwin] rationally collecteth) born at Westbury [on Trym], in this county; bred in Oriall Colledge, in Oxford, whereof he became Provost, and Chancellor of the University; thence preferred Prefect of St. Anthonies, in London, and at last Bishop of Worcester. He was so indulgent to Westbury, the place of his nativity, that of a mean he made it a magnificent convent, more like a Castle than a Colledge; walling it about with Turretts; and making a stately Gate house thereto. He had a humorous intent to style Himself and Successors (in imitation of Bath and Wells) Bishops of Worcester and Westbury; which Title (though running cleverly on the tongue's end) never came in

6

request, because therein impar conjunctio the matching of a Collegiate and Cathedral Church together. He died A.D. 1475, and was buried in his native town of Westbury. His tomb since his death (I will use my Author's words, hoping their ignorance, if alive, understands no Latine): A stolidis quibusdam nebulonibus pudendum in morem mutulatur.' As for the Colledge of Westbury, it is the inheritance of the right worshipful and hospitable house-keeper, Ralph Sadler,. Esquire; and was, in these Civil Broils, unhappily burnt down; though those who esteemed themselves judicious in war, apprehended neither necessity thereof, nor advantage thereby."

For more than two centuries the monument remained in the defaced and desecrated condition to which Fuller alludes. It is satisfactory to record its restoration. A gentleman at Clifton, who has recently visited the church, kindly supplies the following information, some of which was obtained from the back of a picture hanging in the vestry. After describing other parts of the building he says "There are several good perpendicular windows; the largest, in the east end of the Canynge Chapel, beneath which is the recumbent effigy of Sir R. Hill, girt in knightly armour. But on the north side of this chapel, flanking the chancel of the church, is an enclosed tomb roofed with polished Purbeck, upon the ridge of which lies a sculptured crozier. This is the work of the Fellows of Oriel; and peering within and between the rich traceries of the Bath stone railing there can be descried a gaunt skeleton with immense Roman nose, high chest, and concave continuation. It is the effigy of John Carpenter: originally it lay exposed upon a loftier base above his tomb; and on the sides of this base were frescoes pourtraying incidents in the removal of the body from a temporary resting place to its present place of sepulture. These long ago. disappeared, and their very base has now been taken down, so that the effigy lies much nearer the chapel floor than before."

"The Latin inscription on the restored tomb is in