rendered royal feudal dues for a fixed sum, the royal manors were leased with all their rights.

From the earliest Norman times the Chiltern Hundreds had been in the hands of the king. The manors were sold under the Commonwealth but reverted to the Crown, and in 1679 were leased to Thomas D'Oyley, who may be said to have been the last acting steward. In after time the rents were sold as fee-farm rents, and the powers, duties, and courts of the steward came to an end.

We now come to the history of the stewardship as a sinecure office. It is in this aspect an adaptation of the Place Act of 1708, but that Act was not made use of in this way until the middle of the eighteenth century. Its original intention was to prevent the formation of a court party, pledged by fruits of office, in the House of Commons itself; inasmuch as it required that all members who are appointed to any place of honour and profit under the Crown should by their acceptance of such office vacate their seats. In no other way can a representative get rid of the duties which his constituents have placed upon him. The Place Act was, it seems, first used for the convenience of a member in this way in 1750, when Mr. John Pitt was appointed to the stewardship of

the Chiltern Hundreds for the purpose of vacating his seat, as he wished to seek election for a constituency other than that which he represented. Other stewardships of manors are also made use of in the same way, and when two members wish at the same time to vacate their seats, one of them is usually appointed to the stewardship of Norstead. In the Dublin Parliament certain Escheatorships were used in the same manner. The appointment of the stewardship rests with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but it is a piece of patronage which it is anything but an advantage to possess, for on that Minister rests the responsibility of seeing that the acceptance of the office is not used for any improper purpose, and that the member who seeks it does not wish to resign his seat for any dishonourable or unworthy reason. The actual signing of the warrant at once strikes the member's name from the list of the House of Commons, and the document when sent to him does not contain the letters M.P. in the address.

But it is said that the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds is doomed. A select committee of the House of Commons has been busied with the question of the resignation of seats by members, and their report has been embodied in a Blue Book. The history of the

subject has been gone into thoroughly by the gentlemen who served on the said committee, and that history is interesting enough. But if we look at the result of their deliberations it is evident that, although they have not altogether arrived at their final determination, it will sooner or later be decreed that the office shall no longer exist. Should this take place, a legal fiction, it is true, will be swept away, but with it will disappear an interesting page from the constitution of the country. Parliamentary laws and histories have not always been made, sometimes they have grown, or, we may say, have developed themselves. We have attempted to show how the present use of the office of the steward partly owes its existence to law and partly to custom.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES.

Fawley Court and Church-Bulstrode Whitlock-Greenlands— The Siege-Yewden-Hambleden Church-St. Thomas de Cantelupe, Sir Cope D'Oyley, Scrope, and Sheepwash-The Manor House and Charles I.-Fingest-The Ghost of Bishop de Burgwash and the Village Common-Thomas Delafield, the Antiquary-Turville Park and General Dumoriez - Medmenham Abbey-Cistercians and Franciscans-Remains of the Mansion of the Duffields and of the Abbey-Medmenham Village-The Lodge and the Church-Danesfield-The Camp -Pugin's Chapel-States-Hurleyford House--Sir Robert Clayton-Court Garden-Dr. Batty-Great Marlow-The Church-Thomas Langley and Frank Smedley-The Old Parsonage-Marlow Place-Remnantz-The Croft-Percy Bysshe Shelley-The Grammar School-G. P. R. James-Little Marlow Abbey and Church-The Despencers.

THE banks of the Thames in that most beautiful part of its course between Henley and Maidenhead have been described many times, but we must take a boat and once more coast along the edge of the lovely hills which run down to its waters, and from time to time make our way inland if we are to visit the westernmost of the Chiltern Hundreds-that of Desborough.

But we are going to begin with what we see. from the river itself. We shall start from

Henley Bridge, and, making our way down. the Regatta course, so well known to all Thames oarsmen, we soon arrive at the borders of Buckinghamshire and Fawley Court. Down to the river itself runs the beautiful park, and in the park stands the mansion which was built in 1684, from designs by Sir Christopher Wren. There was an older house which was once the residence of a distinguished man who played a conspicuous part in the days of the Civil Wars and of the Commonwealth-Bulstrode Whitlock. This statesman of those stormy days was the son of Sir James Whitlock, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and the father died here in 1632. Ten years afterwards the house was sacked by the Royalists under Sir John Byron, an officer famed for his cavalry raids, in which he was not, however, always successful. It is said that the troopers destroyed the books and papers found in Whitlock's library, carrying some away, and using others for pipelights. The house was wrecked to such an extent that the family removed to Chilton, in Wiltshire.

We shall pass out of the park and into the village, and visit the church which stands some two miles from the river. There is carving about the altar and on the pulpit, by Grinling Gibbons, and in the south chapel we see the