destitute of priests; consequently, those remaining pressed Abbot Turketul to assign them a monk from his monastery who might each day perform divine service for them, or place among them some secular priests. The Abbot, however, did neither one thing nor the other; but," in memory of St. Pega the Virgin, he granted and ordained that divine service should be for ever there performed;" but he also "came to the determination that no community whatever of regulars or seculars should be there established, as it was a thing that might at a future period prove a source of injury or trouble to his monastery." He appointed one priest to celebrate divine service, and ordered that he was to have the same provision made for him in the refectory as a monk of the convent every day, after the prior was served; and he was also to have a "moiety of the oblations which the faithful were in the habit of offering in the said chapel to the sacrist." It is somewhat difficult to reconcile the several statements in the chronicle, unless we suppose the priest and others to have passed to-and-fro every day the five miles each way between the abbey of Crowland and the college or seminary of St. Pega, if the college was really established at Peakirk; but it would rather seem from Ingulph's statement of the eastern side of the monastery, before mentioned, as the place, that St. Pega had a cell at Crowland also which she might well have had, as she is related to have lived there for over a year after the death of St. Guthlac.

The building we see here at Peakirk, and known as St. Pega's cell, presumably stands upon the site of the dwelling in which she lived, but the building itself is, of course, of very much later date. It is possible some of the materials of the walling may be of Abbot Turketul's time, and there are some fragments of Saxon masonry built up in the walls; but Pega's cell now has simply the form of a little church, with the ordinary plan of nave and chancel, and entrance at the end of the south side of the nave, and priest's door in the usual place in the south wall of the chancel. The date of the earliest parts of the architecture are about 1250 to 1260. The building was restored some thirty years ago by the late Mr. Edward

Bang. The chief architectural features remaining are the beautiful geometrical cross on the west, gable, a double piscina in the south wall of the chancel, and the remains of an elaborately-incised churchyard cross of Saxon date: also the portions of Saxon masonry built into the external face of the east wall. It is hard to explain why the east window should be so very much out of the centre it could scarcely have been accidental.

In 1885, Mr. Irvine contributed some sketches of the remains of the shaft of a Saxon cross then preserved in "Pega's cell," seemingly of a date prior to the abolition of the so-called Abbey of Peakirk. The dragon upon it, he considers, may have had reference to the dragon standard of Wessex, then replacing the Danish raven.

THE CHURCH OF ST. PEGA, PEAKIRK.

Originally a Norman church, as I believe, consisting of nave and chancel only, with doorway at the western end of the south wall, this simple plan has been considerably altered from time to time as the centuries have passed by. The first alteration, or enlargement, appears to have been-as was often the case-the addition of an aisle on the north side. This necessitated the erection of the present arcade of three bays on that side. The arches are semicircular, the abaci of the capitals of the columns are square, with the angles indented, and the bells of the capitals fluted. At a somewhat later date, I think, the chantry chapel on the north side was added. In the wall of the chancel, on the north side (inside the vestry), is built up the head of a narrow lancet window which seems to show that it was an external wall originally. I wish to direct your attention to the capital on the east respond of the arch from the chancel to the north chantry chapel: it is exceedingly interesting, as exhibiting the beginning, as it were, of the future Early English leaf ornament. The north and south responds of the chancel arch are again, I think, of rather later date. They are not alike. In the Early English period, circa, 1220, the church was again enlarged by the addition of the south aisle, and the erection of the south arcade

of pointed arches, having plain caps with nail-head ornament on the necking. At this period, the fine Norman doorway must have been removed from the wall of the nave to its present position in the outer wall of the aisle. This was only in accordance with the practice of the later architects: they constantly preserved the doorways of their Norman predecessors. On the eastern face of the west wall, the indications still remain of the original high-pitched roof of the Norman church.

In the north and south walls of the chancel still remain the corbels which carried the wall-pieces of the earlier high-pitched roof.

In the sanctuary, on the north side, is an aumbry with the marks of the hinges and lock; and on the south side is a piscina with a plain basin, comprised within an Early Pointed arch, in the apex of which is a very peculiar funnel-like opening, about 4 in. deep, somewhat similar to others in this neighbourhood (as at Tallington church), the object of which is not quite determined, but which Mr. Irvine, a very reliable authority, considers may have been for the escape of the smoke of a taper which was burned in the recess at the time of celebration, at which the priest warmed his hands. On the west face of the piers of the chancel arch are still seen the mutilations. caused by the destruction of the rood-screen.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries considerable rebuilding was undertaken. To the former period belong the square-headed windows in the south aisle, one of which, on the exterior in the south wall-that next the porch is exceedingly elegant with richly-moulded jambs and plain mullions, and a delicate ball-flower ornament in the hollow of the label mould. These windows never had any tracery. I particularly draw the attention of our architect members to this very charming and useful type of window. The vaulted roof of the porch may be assigned to this period; the marks of the earlier higher roof may be seen on each side on the aisle wall, the roof originally being, like that at Barnack, higher than the aisle. Bridges, in his History of Northamptonshire, states "That the first act of John Wysbech, after he had received the dignity of Abbot of Croyland in 1469,

was to cause the chapel of St. Pega, commonly called St. Pega of Pagland, to be rebuilt, after the same had for many years been levelled with the ground." This probably refers to the chantry chapel, the chancel, and, perhaps, the insertion of the east window and other features which are of that period.

The stem of the present lectern is of very elegant design, of the fourteenth century, and still retains some traces of colouring upon it. At the west end of the nave is an old iron-bound church coffer or chest, and in the vestry is preserved a portion of a slab with an incised. cross, also a spiral label termination and a good Jacobean table.

There is no priest's door in the south wall of the chancel, which is somewhat unusual. The most singular thing connected with the church is, perhaps, the curious pointed quatrefoil aperture at the north corner of the exterior face of the east wall, just level with the cill of the chancel window. It appears to have been for the exhibition of a sacred relic; the opening was evidently protected by iron bars, the marks of which are plainly visible. At the west end, on the ground between the buttresses, is the mutilated half-effigy commemorating a "heart burial."

LINTON is bounded on the north by the river Welland and Northborough, on the south by Werrington, on the east by Peakirk, and on the west by Etton. It was originally a hamlet in the liberty of Peakirk, and this lordship belonged to the Monastery of St. Pega at Peakirk. The first mention of note with regard to Glinton appears to have been in 1013, at which date it was laid waste by the Danes; and it is again mentioned in the Doomsday Book about 1100, although Peakirk itself is not.

In the year 1146 Glinton, together with Peakirk and others, was confirmed to the Abbot of Burgh by the Bull of Pope Eugenius III (Bridges). Glinton continued in the possession of the monks until the dissolution of the religious houses in 1541, by Henry VIII; when the manor of Glinton, together with the lands and tenements which the abbey held here, were handed over to the dean and chapter of Peterborough, who are still the possessors of it.

EXTENT, VALUE, ETC.

In 1125, the profits arising to the Convent of Burgh from their possessions here were valued at one hundred shillings, together with eight bushels of wheat and eight bushels of oats.

At the time of the general Survey (in the Confessor's