pinnacle at each corner, is a pyramidal spire. From the west end of the tower, a large staircase projects into the church-yard. A curious relic of Gothic superstition was some time ago discovered in this church, over the altar tomb of Adam de Taunton, who died possessed of this living, in the year 1332. A large stone protruded from the wall, surmounted by a rude head, on removing which, a circular aperture was disclosed, wherein was deposited a wooden box, containing part of a human jaw bone, and a thick substance, slightly elastic.

In the vicarage house are old arches; and dead bodies have been dug up in the brewhouse and cellar. From these circumstances it is supposed to have been formerly a chapel.

Not far from the church-yard are slight traces of trenches, and two or three tumuli are seen in the vicinity; and about half a mile to the south-west of the village, is the site of the old manor-house of Woolhage, in which Sir James Harrington founded a chauntry, and endowed it with lands in Lancashire.

In this town are ten or twelve springs, seldom dry; one of which, called Bartlet's well, was made up by Margaret Bartlet, a maiden, for the use of travellers.

Brixworth Hall, once the seat of the Rainsfords,

but now of W. Strickland, Esq. is a plain neat family mansion, surrounded by the village, from which it is screened by plantations, and enclosed within a wall.

BLISWORTH

Is about five miles from Northampton, on the road to Towcester, and is a place of very considerable trafic, from the line of communication between the Metropolis and the different parts of the kingdom on the Grand Junction Canal, being effected here.

The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, consists of a body, north and south aisles, north porch, and chancel, leaded. At the west end is an embattled tower, in which are five bells. There are several pieces of painted glass in the windows. In the north windows of the chancel were small portraits of the twelve apostles, four of which remain still complete. Here was formerly the residence of the family of Wakes, with a park and warren. There is a wood called Blisworth wood, and adjoining to it a large plain, where the inhabitants of Road have also a right of common.

In this village is that fine stupendous piece of work, the Tunnel, which was completed in the spring of 1805, and opened on the 25th of March in that year, in the following order, viz.

One of the Paddington packet-boats, called the Marquis of Buckingham was the first boat which went through the tunnel: this was early in the morning, in order to join the other boats assembled at the north end of the tunnel, at Blisworth. About eleven o'clock the Committee of the Canal Com'pany (who had superintended this great work) and a great number of others of the principal proprietors, entered the boats, attended by the engineers employed on the canal, and a band of music, and proceeded into the tunnel, amidst the loudest acclamations of the spectators. The pitchy darkness of the tunnel was shortly relieved by a number of flambeaus and lights; but the company in general seemed lost in contemplating the stupendous efforts by which this amazing arch of brick-work (about eighteen inches thick in general, fifteen feet wide, and nineteen in heigth, with inside, being of an elliptical form, 3080 yards in length) had been completed between the 10th of August, 1792, and the 26th of February, 1805. The heigth of the hill, above the tunnel, being, for a considerable way, full sixty feet; for drawing up the clay and soil which was excavated, and letting down the materials to different parts of the works, nineteen shafts, or wells, were sunk on different parts of the line, and a heading, or small

arch was run or formed the whole length, below the present tunnel, with numerous cross branches to draw off the springs of water, which would otherwise have impeded the works. In an hour and two minutes the boats with the company arrived at the south end of the tunnel, and were greeted with the loud huzzas of some thousands of persons, who were assembled, and who accompanied the boats with continual cheers as they proceeded down the locks to Stoke, and from thence to Old-Stratford.

Though this tunnel completes the line of the canal, and enables boats freely to pass the whole length, yet, besides the embankment across a valley near Stony-Stratford, intended to preserve the level of the canal across the same, instead of the locks down on the one side and up on the other, by which boats pass at present-several other works have been completed in different places, for improving the canal, or rendering it more completely watertight, where the soil is faulty.

BOUGHTON.

About three miles and a half north of Northampton, on the Leicester road, is the village of Boughton. Here was formerly the seat of the Earl of Strafford, pleasantly situated upon a rising ground,

commanding a very extensive prospect, with a park finely wooded; but, on the death of the earl, the title became extinct, and this portion of his property devolved to W. H. Vyse, Esq. son of General Vyse. The mansion house was an irregular and antiquated building, though not very extensive; a part of it was pulled down some years ago, and the remainder has lately undergone the same fate, but it is generally supposed, from the situation being so extremely pleasant, that a new one will be erected.

The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, formerly stood upon the Green, about half a mile distant from the village. It now lies in ruins, not any part of the roof remaining, and most of the walls are levelled with the ground. It consisted of a body, chancel, and north chancel, or chauntry chapel. At the west end was a spire of eight sides, raised upon a plain coped tower. The church-yard is still used as the burial place for the inhabitants.

In the town is a chapel, where divine service is performed it consists of a body and chancel, under one roof, tiled. At the west end is a low embattled tower, in which are three bells, bearing date, 1653.

In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Edward III, Sir Henry Green obtained for himself and his heirs, the grant of a fair to be held yearly in the