NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

80 few years. The clnirchyard crosses at Heading'ton and Waterpery are un- usually perfect and good : the former had its top knocked off in the time of Edward YI., replaced under Queen Mary, it has been suffered to remain to this day, though sadly neglected and decayed. The sculpture of the ascension of the blessed Virgin at Sandfurd is a really beautiful work of art, in wonderfully good preservation. The Historical Notices present us with many interesting particulars little kno n to the general reader, and some origin il documents hitherto unpublished ; anion^ these is a Saxon charter of King Edmund A.D. 946, granting to Abingdon monas- tery the parish of Culham, the boundaries of which are well defined, and the chapel which Aelfilda (or Aelfledn) had built Another, unfortunately not printed at length, is a grant to the same inonastei} of land in Cuddesden by King Edw} A.D. 956. Beckley formed part of tlu hereditary possessions of King Alfred who had a palace in Oxford. Kinir Ethelred had one at Headington and another at Islip. This part of the conn try appears for a long period to have bet i the favourite abode of the Saxon kings and continued to be so favoured by royalt xinder the Norman dynasty. Henry I resided much at his palace of Beaumont in Oxford, and at a later period Kichaid king of the Romans had a palace at Berk ley, and we find a good summary of his history at pp. 211—213. Under the head of this parish, we find also a vtn clear account of the succession and dii- sc aptmx., saadioia. sion of i)roperty after the Norman con- quest, which applies to a great part of the neighbourhood, and was therefore not necessary to be repeated under each separate parish. In the parish of Beckley also was Studley prioiy, of which we have a concise but satisfactory history, omitting nothing of imjiortance and referring to other works ft)r more full accounts. Of the village of Woodpery destroyed by fire in the fitteenth century and not rebuilt, an account has already appeared in tliis Journal, vol. iii. p. 116. The parish of Newington is remarkable for its having been given by Queen Elgiva, in A.D. 907, to the archbishop of Canterbury, and for having remained in the undisturbed possession vi' the see even to the present time. Under the head of Culham we have an authentic account uf the tuniiiu'- of