eak he retired to a subterranean recess, of which this servant
retained the key, and here he remained several months in safe
concealment. The king confiscated the estate, however, and dispersed the
household, so that the voluntary prisoner perished from hunger. During
the last century, when this stately house was pulled down, the vault was
discovered, with Lord Lovel seated in a chair as he had died. So
completely had rubbish excluded the air that his dress, which was
described as superb, and a prayer-book lying before him on the table,
were entire, but soon after the admission of the air the body is said to
have fallen into dust.

BICESTER AND EYNSHAM.

[Illustration: BICESTER PRIORY.]

[Illustration: BICESTER MARKET.]

[Illustration: CROSS AT EYNSHAM.]

A pleasant and old-fashioned town, not far away from Oxford, is
Bicester, whereof one part is known as the King's End and the other as
the Market End. Here is the famous Bicester Priory, founded in the
twelfth century through the influence of Thomas a Becket. It was
intended for a prior and eleven canons, in imitation of Christ and his
eleven disciples. The priory buildings remained for some time after the
dissolution of the religious houses, but they gradually disappeared, and
all that now exists is a small farm-house about forty feet long which
formed part of the boundary-wall of the priory, and is supposed to have
been a lodge for the accommodation of travellers. In the garden was a
well of never-failing water held in high repute by pilgrims, and which
now supplies a fish-pond. The priory and its estates have passed in
regular succession through females from its founder, Gilbert Basset, to
the Stanleys, and it is now one of the possessions of the Earl of Derby.
Bicester is an excellent specimen of an ancient English market-town, and
its curious block of market-buildings, occupied by at least twenty-five
tenements, stands alone and clear in the marketplace. There are
antique gables, one of the most youthful of which bears the date of
1698. On the top is a promenade used by the occupants in summer
weather. In the neighboring village of Eynsham is said to be the stone
coffin that once held Fair Rosamond's remains, but it has another
occupant, one Alderman Fletcher having also been buried in it in 1826.
Eynsham once had an abbey, of which still survives the shaft of a stone
cross quaintly carved with the figures of saints. It is a relic probably
of the thirteent