ight, and when the second
volume was published, five years latter, he wrote in his preface "that
there was not a parish described in it which he had not visited, and
only two churches the insides of which he had not seen, and the
monuments in which he had not personally examined, once at least, but to
many he made repeated visits." The third volume came out in 1814, and
then, at the age of seventy-eight, he edited John Evelyn's _Memoirs_
from the original MSS. at Wotton. He was to live nearly twenty years
after that, and he died at Shere at the age of ninety-seven; a tablet
stands to his memory in the chancel of the church.

[Illustration: _Shere._]

Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower, in a paper on "Shere and its Rectors" in
the _Surrey Archaeological Collections_, gives the items of a will he
discovered by accident, interesting as showing the amount of stock kept
upon his farm by a yeoman of the sixteenth century. The will is dated
27th October, 1562, and the testator is John Risbridger--one of the good
old Surrey yeoman names, like Evershed and Whapshot and Enticknap. He
describes himself as "John Risbridger of Shere, yeoman, sicke of bodie
and yet walkinge. His body to be buried in Parish Church of Shere,
'without my seats ende.' 1 calf and 2 shepe, with sufficient breade and
drinke thereunto to be bestowed and spent at his burial towards the
reliefe of the poore there assembled. To every man and maid servant, 1
ewe shepe; to Alice Stydman his maid, one herfore (i.e. heifer)
bullocke, of two years and 15s: to his son William all his lease or
terme of years in lands called Stonehill, and to him 4 oxen, 2 steares
of 3 yeres, 2 horse beastes, a weane (wagon) yoke, cheynes to draw
withal, 2 keyne, half a hundreth of shepe. Children, John, William, and
Edward. To daughter Dorothie, L6. 13s. 4d.; all residue to wife
Katherine. Proved 3rd May, 1654, by William Risbridger."

Some extracts made by Mr. Leveson-Gower from the Parish Registers have
an interest which is not peculiar to Shere, but the Registers are a good
example of village history written in the names of its inhabitants. You
begin with the simplicity, almost the affection, of the early entries,
the Johns and Anns and Marys repeated year after year, and the few words
describing the older people; then comes the Georgian day when Fielding
and Richardson were on the bookshelves, and children were named after
the heroines of the novels. Here are a dozen entries out of hun