1831.]

M. de Marlés on the Kingdom of Bactria,

413

eighty years, he might have hoped to barbarian hordes, issuing from

130. close his days in tranquillity, but the Caucasus and the banks of the chill of age had not extinguished am- Oxus, invaded the Bactrian provinces.

bition in his breast. He sought He perished miserably, after a lost 175.

to recover the kingdom of his battle, while attempting to rally the father, and lost that which fortune fugitives. Among the Scythian tribes had given him in exchange. Eucra- that then inundated the west and tides, King of Bactria, joined in a south of Asia, Strabo particularly league against him with Mithridates, mentions the Pasians, the Tochari, King of Parthia, and the too powerless and the Sacæ. These Pasians, whom Demetrius fell under the united efforts the Persians called Aksaïs, inhabiof these two Princes, who shared his tants of the banks of the Oxus), came territories between them. Mithridates

from the country lying between that had the country situated between the river and the Jaxartes; the Tochari, Hydaspes and the Sind; Eucratides who have given their name to the motook the rest, and in the excitement of dern Tocharestan, were neighbours to prosperity assumed the pompous title the first ; the Sacæ formed a powerful of The Great King. *

and numerous people beyond the JaxThis was the most brilliant period artes; the ancient Persians called them of the Greek kingdom of Bactria. Oriental Scythians. This migration

Eucratides having repulsed the of Scythian or Tartar tribes about that 160.

Scythians, who had long in- period is fully confirmed by the Chisulted his frontiers, devoted his whole nese annals, which describe them as application to the home administration issuing from the provinces bordering of his dominions. He was respected on the western frontier of China, by his neighbours ;

he wished his peo- about the year 126 B. C. ple to be happy and prosperous; he Father Du Halde, and other writers, erected public buildings, and encou- consider this migration of Tartars raged commerce : a town which Strabo from east to west to have been caused calls Eucratidia, eclipsed the ancient by the victories obtained over them by Bactra. But at length, broken with the emperor Vou-Ti, who reigned age and infirmities, he transferred the over China at the close of the second burden of government to a son of the century before Christ. These victories, same name. His son envied him the

in urging them toward the west and little breath that remained ; and this south, forced them to fall back on the monster, in his impatience to reign, neighbouring tribes, who, being obliged imbued his guilty hands in the blood to give place, pushed onwards the of the venerable old king.

more distant ones in their turn. VouBut Heaven did not permit this Ti came, it is said, as far as the Ganges crime to remain unpunished. After in pursuit of them, and overran Ben

about twelve years of misfor- gal; but he took no measures to pre145.

tunes, the assassin was hurled serve his conquests, and this momenfrom his throne, and the kingdom of tary invasion scarcely left any traces. Bactria ceased to exist. Mithridates Phraates, son and successor of Mithdid not lose this favourable opportu- ridates, had demanded succours from nity of extending his territory and his the Tartars, to resist the attacks of power; as he did not entertain to- Antiochus Sidetes, King of Syria. The wards the son those friendly feelings Tartars replied with eagerness to this which had so long attached him to imprudent invitation ; but the Parthe father, he stripped him of all the thians having secretly conspired against Indian provinces, which he transmitted the Syrians, their conquerors, who, with Parthia to his descendants ; being dispersed in winter quarters in whose possession they remained throughout the towns, could not assist till the period when the Artacidæ, be- each other, massacred them all in a ing conquered and proscribed, were day. The assistance of the Parthians supplanted by the Sassanides, about was thus rendered useless, and

100. three centuries after.

Phraates dismissed them withThe parricide Eucratides had not out payment, as if he owed them noonly Mithridates to contend with ; for thing for services not received ; the

irritated Tartars ravaged his dominions. * Baoideus pegados. (Perhaps Maha Ra- He then had recourse to such of the jah, which is the Hindu expression. C.) Greeks as had survived the disaster of

414
Greek Kingdom of Bactria.

[May, Bactria, and whom he kept prisoners B. 13, c. 4. (After the death of in his states. They appeared to ac- Alexander), in nether Bactria and the cept with joy the invitation to assist Indian territories, the former goverin delivering the country; but the re- nors were retained. Taxiles had the collection of the persecutions they country between the Hydaspes and had experienced was fresh in their the Indus ; Pithon, son of Agevor, was hearts; and no sooner were they sent to the colonies founded in India. armed, and found themselves assem- ... Amynthas obtained the Bactrians, bled, than, instead of marching against Scythæus the Sogdians, Nicanor the the Scythians, they took the road to Parthians. their own land, leaving dreadful B. 36, c. 1. Demetrius (brother of marks of their passage everywhere. Antiochus Epiphanes), with the as

The Scythians, whom Justin calls sistance of the Persians, Elymæans, Thogarians, were rendered more au- and Bactrians, defeated the Parthians dacious by this event. Phraates vainly

in several battles. endeavoured to oppose their progress, B. 41, c. 4. At the same time (as

and died in the midst of the de- the revolt of the Parthians from the 80.

vastation of his country. Arta- Seleucidæ), Theodotus, who was set banus, his uncle and successor, was over a thousand cities of Bactria, rekilled in battle. So many disasters volted, and caused himself to be called induced Pacorus, the new Sovereign, King ; which example all the nations to implore the aid of the Romans, of the east followed, and threw off the whose arms were beginning to pene

Macedonian yoke.

Arsaces (of trate into Asia. Sylla was then in Parthia) raised a great army, through Cappadocia; he received an embassy fear of Seleucus (Callinicus), and Thefrom Pacorus, and while he promised odotus King of the Bactrians. But assistance, meditated the conquest of being soon delivered from his apprehis dominions. The long and cruel hensions by the death of Theodotus, war which soon broke out between he made a truce and an alliance with the Romans and the Parthians, toge- his son of the same name. ther with the forced consent of the Ibid. c. 6. Contemporary with Indians to the occupation of Indo- Mithridates of Parthia was Eucratides Scythia by the Tartars, gave India of Bactria, both of them renowned. time to breathe, and the people ap- But the more prosperous fortune of the plied themselves eagerly to commerce,

Parthians carried them to the highest which was never more flourishing point of superiority under this King ; than at this period.

while the Bactrians, harassed by va

rious wars, lost not only their domiSuch is the portion which M. de nion, but even their liberty ; for after Marlés has devoted of his History of exhausting themselves in contests with India to Bactrian matters. The fol- the Sogdians, Drangians, and Indians, lowing extracts from Justin will show they fell an easy prey to the weaker that nearly all the particulars of this Parthians. Yet Eucratides distinGreek kingdom are gathered from his guished himself in warfare ; for when epitome. The loss of the larger work reduced, and besieged by Demetrius of Trogus Pompeius is chiefly to be King of India, he defeated a force of lamented on account of these chap- sixty thousand enemies with 300 solters. For the history of Greece and diers, in continual sallies. Being at Rome we can refer to better authori- large after a siege of five months, he ties, but the oriental monarchies have brought India into subjection; at his no other chronicler whatever.

return from whence he was murdered B. 12, c. 5. In Bactriana and Sog

on his way by a son, whom he had asdiana, Alexander built twelve cities;

sociated with himself in the kingdom ; such of the soldiery as had shewn

and who, without concealing this act themselves mutinous being distributed of parricide, after he had slain him, among them.

not as a father, but as an enemy,

drove his chariot through his parent's * But they seem rather to have been Sy- blood, and ordered the body to be cast rian than Bactriau Greeks, from Justin, b. aside unburied. 42, c. 1. C.

Yours, &c. Cydweli.

OF

1831.] Account of Stow Church, co. Lincoln.

415 AN ACCOUNT THE CHURCH OF

migius ;I but it should rather appear Srow, co. Lincoln.

that he merely finished what his Saxon

predecessor Eadnoth had left undone.Ş Mr. URBAN, Grimsby, Jan. 14.

About the year 970 transepts came THIS building is a fine specimen of into general use, with a central tower the admixture of Saxon and Norman for the bells. The tower of this architecture; and there are reasons church, however, is of much later for believing that it was commenced date, though it occupies the same siby the former people, and finished by tuation, at the intersection of the nave, their conquerors. The Saxon churches chancel, and transept; but it is eviwere generally in the form of a paral- dent that at the erection of Stow lelogram, and divided into nave and church no tower was contemplated, chancel by a wall pierced with a cir- because the original circular arches cular arch for a medium of communi- were too slight, and were subsecation between them.* The outer quently found incompetent to bear the walls were of great thickness, with superincumbent weight of such no external buttresses; while in the structure. Hence four pointed arches, Norman period, buttresses were intro- supported on polygonal columns, of a duced; but they were broad, flat, and later age and style, were run up to without ornament, which exactly an- confer the requisite additional strength. swers the description of those that are The tower and west window are profound to support some of the walls of bably coeval ; and may be attributed Stow Church. The edifice is in the to the latter end of the third period, form of a cross, in imitation of the according to Miller's nomenclature ; Church of the Apostles, built by Con- i. e. about the conclusion of Edward stantine at Constantinople. Bishop the First's reign, or perhaps someGibsont hazards an opinion that the what later.|| building was wholly re-edified by Re- The tower is not lofty, though it

a

* It is said that these sacred edifices originally acquired this oblong form in imitation of a ship, because the first preachers of the Gospel were fishermen ; and the name which a part of the Church still retains is adduced as an authority for this conjecture. Thus raus, navis, is a ship, and vaos, lemplum, is a church ; from whence the body of our churches was probably denominated the nave. + Camb. col. 479.

The Abbey in Stow Park, which had been founded by Eadnoth as a church for secular priests, was re-edified by the liberal activity of Remigius, and converted into an establishment for Benedictine monks ; but his successor in the see of Lincoln, Robert Bloet, converted it into an episcopal palace, and built or restored the monastery of Eynsham near Oxford, for the receptiou of the canons of Stow.

$ At the compilation of Domesday, Remigius, bishop of Lincoln, had considerable estates belonging to the see in Stow and its exteusive soke, comprising the villages and hamJets of Willingham, Covenby, Norton, Glentham, Owmby, Upton, Kexby, Normanby, and Brampton. St. Mary of Siow held the inanor of Brampton, and had property in Knaith aod Owmby, to which many privileges and immunities were attached. 'Stow church is mentioned in that record as being atteuded in its offices by the ministration of a priest ; and in the parish were three smiths' forges. Earl Alan had half a carucate in Stow, sufficient for the employment of two sokernen and half a plough. Ilbert de Laci had the sanue quantity, in land and soke of the manor of Dunham. Ulf held four tofts under Gilbert de Gand with sac and soc, suke of the manor of Scampton. Gozelin the son of Lambert held one carucate here, soke of the nianor of Willingham. Eddiva had three mansions with sac and soc, which were transferred 10 Ralph de Mortimer; she built and founded a nuopery at Stow, which, at the alienation of her property, was probably dissolved, as we hear no more of it after that event.

ll Previously to this period, Stow had become a considerable town. It was originally built by the Romans, and had four priocipal streets facing the cardinal points of the compass; and it is thought by Bishop Gibson and others, that this was the seat of the primitive bishopric of Sidnacester, founded by Egfrid, King of Northumberland, A.D. 678, and transferred to Lincoln immediately after the Norman conquest. In the year 1176, Stow suffered a conflagration, which destroyed considerable property; and William de Marton, the Sheriff of Lincolnshire, accounted with the King for twenty marks, and two marks of argenlum blancum, and seven pennyweights of gold, found at the burning of Stow. (Mag.

a

:

416

Account of Stow Church, co. Lincoln. [May, forms a good object in a distant view, our Saxon forefathers. The west side The dead wall below the bell windows of the south transept exhibits a very is relieved by two string courses, and diminutive loophole window with a a third is repeated above them. The semicircular head, an evident speciwindows are pointed, and have three mer

men of Saxon manufacture; and at lights ; and the battlement is further the end of the transept is a two-light enriched by four crocketed pinnacles window pointed, with a perfect quaat the angles, while the centres are trefoil in the recess, and a loophole furnished with four stone figures, window with semicircular dripstone, which appear to have been intended to and returns ornamented. The east represent the component parts of that side of the same transept is lighted by cherubic emblem of the deity, so mi- a window of two bays, with a quatrenutely described by the prophet Eze. foil in the recess. kiel, and the evangelist St. John.* The two sides of the chancel have

This church contains some beautiful each three windows of a single light, specimens of Saxon architecture ; al- with semicircular heads, decorated though in its present degraded, dirty, profusely with chevrons, and flanked and dilapidated state, they do not by cylinders; and the east end has a strike the observer with all that window of three lights, acute pointed, power of sublimity, which, at the pe- with three noble quatrefoils for tracery. riod of their execution, would confer In this church there are no side aisles; on the edifice such a distinctive cha- and the buttresses, where any are racter as might display and perpetuate found between the windows, are plain the peculiar taste of its founder, Ead- and flat, and project but a very small noth, Bishop of Sidnacester. The most distance from the massive walls. obvious of these ornaments, at present The north façade differs little from visible, are in the west doorway, and the south. The sides of the transept the decorations of the chancel. The have each an acute pointed window of door consists of four retiring circular two lights, with surmounting quatrearches, richly adorned with chevron foil, and the end is distinguished by a mouldings in the best style of the very narrow window with a square Saxon period, and springing from co- head. In the nave is a porch built of lumns with sculptured shafts and ca- brick, which, like its opposite neighpitals, which latter are, however, mi- bour, enviously hides and obscures a serably dilapidated. It is accessible fine circular arch with zigzag mouldby seven broad steps, most of them ings. This style of decoration is rebroken in pieces, though their exis- peated in every part of the church. tence proclaims this to have been ori- The Saxons used it profusely, as the ginally the principal entrance. On the most effective of all the enrichments north side of the door is a niche or with which they were acquainted ; recess with an octofoil head, inclosed and it was doubtless suggested to within an ogee; and above the door them, in common with the trellis oris the spacious window already men- nament, by the simple wattling of tioned, which consists of four lights their primitive wicker churches. We and a transom.

have here two plain semicircularOn the south side of the nave are headed windows, with a date (1724) three small plain circular-headed win- over one of them, which applies prodows, and a wooden porch covered bably to the latest repairs done to the with lead; a specimen of the bad edifice. taste or parsimonious feeling of mo- A minute description of the interior dern times, which obscures and de- of this Church, I shall reserve for ano. grades some of the richest work of ther number. GEO. OLIVER.

a

Rot. 2 Hen. II.) Shortly afterwards, Richard Brito, Archdeacon of Coventry, and Robert de Hardre, accounted to the King for 151, 18s. for the fairs of Stow; and 30s. 4d. for lands held by knights of the province of Stow, belonging to the see of Lincoln, which were then in the king's hands.

* Ezek. i. 5-11, Rev. iv. 7, 8. A local tradition was repeated to me when I examined the Church, that two of these figures had a reference to the swineherd of Stow and his dog; e personage who is said to have contributed a measure of silver pennies towards the construction of Lincoln Cathedral.

1831.]
Family of Coket, in Suffolk.

417 Ampton, Suffolk, part of Sparham Hall manor, in that Mr. URBAN,

April 12.

parish, as they were both held by the THE ready admission which you

same lord. afforded to my former communications

He obtained a licence from the induces me to solicit your insertion of Crown to found a perpetual chantry the following brief particulars respect

of one priest to celebrate every day at ing the ancient and highly respectable the altar of the blessed Virgin, in a family of Coket, who were very early chapel annexed to the parish church seated in this parish.

of Ampton for the good estate of the The first of whom I find any ac

King, and Elizabeth his Queen, Ed. count, is John Coket, who married

ward Prince of Wales, and Richard Alice, relict of James de Wrotham of Duke of York, Earl Marshal, and of Gatesthorp in the county of Norfolk,

John Coket and Alice his wife and and inherited in her right the lord

their heirs, and for their souls after ship of West-Hall,* or Wrotham's

their decease, and for the souls of manor in that parish. James de their parents, benefactors, and of the Wrotham died about 1366.

faithful departed; the said chantry to A grant of lands was made by Wal- be called John Coket's Chantry, and ter, son and heir of William Skot of he endowed it with lands of the anAmpton, to John Coket of the same

nual value of ten marks, and gave the place, and Walter Coket of the ad- officiating priest a dwelling house opjoining parish of Ingham, 8 Hen. V. posite the church of Ampton, with a and the following year Henry Colray garden adjoining. The Royal licence or Corray made a similar grant to the

bears date the 12th of March, in the same persons.

eighteenth of King Edward IV. In the time of Edward IV. John

He married Alice, daughter and Coket of Ampton, esq. purchased

heiress of Richard le Bole, and Marextensively in the county of Nor

garet his wife, from whom he inhefolk, as the lordship of East-Hall,

rited the patrimonial estate of the le in Great Pagrave, and Dunham Parva,

Boles in this parish, on which their in Launditch hundred ; the latter he

ancestors had resided since the time bought of Margaret, sister of Sir Ro. of Edward the First. By her he had bert Corbet, in the twelfth of that

issue an only son and heir, John, and King; he also held the advowson,

two daughters, Agnes, who married and presented in the eighteenth of the

John Abthorpe, and Alice, who marsame reign. The manors of Appleton ried Hamon Claxton, Sheriff of Norand Bukenham in West Newton were

wich in 1476, and in 1485 Mayor of also the same year conveyed to him

that city: by fine from John Copledike and

John Coket, esq. died about the seMargaret his wife, consisting of

cond of Richard the Third, leaving twenty messuages, one thousand acres

John, his son and heir, who married of land, one hundred of meadow, two

and had issue two sons, John, of hundred of pasture, one hundred of

whom hereafter, and Thomas, who wood, one thousand of furze and inherited the lordship of Dunham heath, and six pounds per annum

Parva, and presented to that rectory rent, in Appleton, Newton, Sandring

in 1511, but sold the said manor and ham, Flitcham, &c. He also held a

advowson soon after. He also posmanor in Necton, which took its

sessed the property of Walter Coket, name from him, and was probably a

late of Ingham above mentioned, and in the ninth of Henry VII. resided

there. John his father died about the In the custom roll of this manor the following singular usage is entered : that

tenth of that King. every tenant who marries out of the homage,

John Coket, esq. his eldest son sucis obliged to pay to the lord, a bed, bolster, ceeded, and inherited all the foregosheet, aod pillow; this was constantly ob

ing estates, with the above excepserved, and there are several entries in the tions ; he married Margaret, second rolls of such payments, but in Rich. II.'s daughter and coheir of Sir Richard time the bed was omitted, by the lord's Walden of Erith, in Kent, and ..... kindness, but the rest were paid in Queen his wife, daughter of Sir Richard Elizabeth's reign, or a composition for Whethall of Calais, by whom he had tbem.-Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. 1. p. 253. Edward Coket, esq. who married Gent. Mag. May, 1831.