The parish and village of Hanbury, adjoins to Tutbury on the south-west, lying close upon the northern extremity of Needwood forest. The village finely situated on an eminence, commands at once a noble prospect of the fertile meadows of the Dove, and the bleak and dreary mountains of the Moorlands. The etymology of its name is descriptive of its elevated site, Hean in Saxon signifying high.

This place is mentioned by various writers at a very early period. The celebrated St. Werburgh, the sister or niece of Ethelred, king of Mercia, was long abbess of a monastery here now entirely demolished, but which no doubt stood a short way to the east of the church, as human bones have been frequently discovered on that spot. This princess, when very young, had been betrothed to her cousin Ceolred, who afterwards mounted the Mercian throne. The marriage, however, was never consummated, the queen, her mother, having instructed her to devote herself to God and virginity. Much difference prevails among historians as to the place of her death and sepulture. William of Malmsbury says, she died and was buried at Chester. Higden* on the other hand, with more probability, asserts that she ended her days in this monastery, and that she, likewise, lay interred here, till upon the invasion of this district by the Danes, the religieuse flying to Chester, carried the bones of their saint along with them. The elegant shrine erected to her memory in the cathedral church of Chester is described in our account of that city, to which the reader is referred.t

The church stands on the very edge of the declivity, on which the village is situated. It is an ancient stone building, having a very lofty nave and spacious aisles, At one end rises a plain

belief. From the care taken, however, to prevent imposition, and the respectability and intelligence of those who testify the truth of the above statement, we are compelled to attach to it implicit credit. A particular account of this woman will be found in the Monthly Magazine, Vol. 32. p. 88, 207.

• Higden. Ad. Ann. 875.

+ Ante Vol. II. p. 215. Shaw's History of Staffordshire, Vol. I. p. 71.

a plain square tower, which, aided by the natural elevation of its base, exhibits a fine appearance from a distance, and affords a very extensive view. The situation of this church and village are well described in the following lines, quoted from the justly admired poem of "Needwood forest:"

"Her stately tower there Hanbury rears
Which proudly looks o'er distant shires
Down the chill slope and darkened glade
Projects afar its length of shade,
Assails the skies with Giant force
And checks the whirlwind in its course;
Or when black clouds involve the pole,
Disarms the thunders, as they roll;
Beneath how nature throws around
Grand inequalities of ground
While down the dells and o'er the steeps
The wavy line of Paphos creeps."*

Several monuments, both ancient and modern, adorn the interior of this fabric, but none of them seem to require particular notice or description.

NEEDWOOD FOREST.

This forest, a most beautiful and interesting spot, extends from the confines of Hanbury to Yoxal about a mile to the north of the river Trent. According to a Survey, made in the year 1765, it consists of 9920 acres of one of the finest soils in the kingdom, which, till very lately, remained wholly uninclosed, and in a state of nature. Here the little warblers of the grove, unnumbered, chant their wild and mellifluent notes. Here also the woodcock, the snipe, the pheasant, and the partridge, abound in profusion, and rear their tender offspring for the sport of the cruel fowler. Numerous deer range in the vallies;

* Needwood Forest, p. 27.

vallies; the hare hides in the thicket, the fox and the badger burrow in the declivity of the deep glen, and the rabbit on the sandy hill; all of them but too often the prey of relentless man, who, notwithstanding his boasted reason and innate sense of moral rectitude, is the only animal in creation, at once the enemy of his own species, and the terror of every other part of animated nature.

Needwood forest anciently formed a portion of the property of the dukes of Lancaster, in whose right it has belonged to the English monarchs for several centuries, subject, however, to certain privileges of common enjoyed by the owners and inhabitants of some of the adjacent villages. It is divided into the four wards of Marchington, Yoxall, Barton, and Tutbury, each ward containing about five miles in compass, exclusive of the Uttoxeterwood, Boughay, &c. The officers of the forest are a lieutenant, and chief ranger, assisted by a deputy, four lieutenants, four keepers, and an axe-bearer. A court is still held every year by the king's steward of the honour of Tutbury, when a jury of twenty-four persons resident within the jurisdiction present and amerce all persons guilty of " encroaching on the forest, or committing offences in vert or venison."*

The natural disposition of this forest presents a great, and beautiful variety of aspect.. Gradual eminences and easy vales watered by murmuring rills, with here and there a bolder and more abrupt swell, form its general feature. In the northern parts, particularly within Marchington Woodlands, the eminences are far more numerous and lofty, than in the middle or southern divisions. The forest here exhibits to the eye, a series of deep glens inclosed by steep and rugged precipices, incapable of agricultural improvement, but happily covered with a