master. He travelled into Italy and studied painting there, but his manner and colouring approaches nearer to the style of the Flemish school." We do not know Ruskin's opinion on this

point.

Another Nathaniel Bacon, nephew of Francis, was Recorder of Ipswich and of Bury S. Edmund's. He entered Parliament, and was hostile to the King during the Civil War. The " Historical Discourse," or Constitutional History of England, of which he was the author, being opposed to the Royal prerogative, was suppressed by Charles II, but being re-issued in 1689, was much. admired by William Pitt the elder.

A third Nathaniel Bacon, descended from a younger branch of the family, emigrated to Virginia, and settled on the Indian frontier. Having defeated the Indians, he was declared a rebel. He was noted for his grace and charm of manner.

The third son of the Lord Keeper, Edward Bacon, sat in Parliament as Member for Yarmouth, Weymouth, and Suffolk, and was ancestor of the Bacons of Shrubland. Another of this gifted family was Francis Bacon, cousin and contemporary of Lord Verulam, who became Judge of King's Bench, but resigned at the execution of Charles I. A century later Montague Bacon, distinguished as a critic and scholar, handed on the reputation of the family. We do not know whether Richard Mackenzie Bacon, journalist, author, and musician of Norwich, came of the same stock, and the ancestry of the late Vice-Chancellor Bacon is unknown.

Nicholas Bacon, eldest son of the Lord Keeper, after being knighted by Queen Elizabeth, was created Baronet by James I on May 22nd, 1611, when the first eighteen Baronets were called into being. It has been supposed that his half brother, Francis Bacon, suggested to the King the creation of the new Order, to supply funds for the Plantation of Ulster. They were to have a private income of £1,000 a year, to have had armigerous grandfathers, and to be willing to contribute £1,095 to the King's necessities. The King promised to limit the Order to 200 members, but his 1. Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.

successors disregarded this rule, and it is impossible at present to say how many Baronets there are.

Of the eighteen original Baronetcies, seven are certainly, and two probably extinct, eleven became merged in the Peerage, of which six are still existing. Only three remain as simple Baronetcies, their present holders being Sir Hickman B. Bacon, Sir Charles Hoghton, and Sir John Shelley. The six Baronetcies now merged in the Peerage are those of Molyneux, Earl of Sefton, Shirley, Earl Ferrers, Pelham, Earl of Chichester, HobartHampden, Earl of Buckinghamshire, Gerard, Lord Gerard, and S. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The Baronetcies given in 1611 to Sir John Peyton and Sir Jervase Clifton are probably extinct.

Sir Nicholas Bacon was succeeded in the Baronetcy by his two elder sons, and his third son was also created a Baronet, as was also the son of his fourth son. After a series of years the Baronetcies of the elder sons, whose seat was at Redgrave, and that of the nephew, whose seat was at Gillingham, died out, and the descendant of the third son succeeded to the original Baronetcy, in addition to his own. The present Baronet is the 11th of Mildenhall, and the 12th of Redgrave, the latter representing the original creation of 1611. There have been altogether 21 Baronets of the family.

Upon the death of Miss Frances Hickman, in 1826, she left her property at Gainsburgh and Thonock to her cousin Henry, 3rd son of Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart., on condition that he should add the name of Hickman to his own. Mr. Henry Bacon Hickman died unmarried in 1862, leaving the property to his nephew Henry Hickman Bacon, who succeeded to the Baronetcy two years later. He died in 1872, when the present Baronet entered into possession of his title and estates.

CHAPTER XXII.

MORTON. THE MANOR

OF MORTON. -MORTON

CHURCH.

VICARS OF MORTON.-STOCKWITH.-EAST STOCKWITH CHURCH.VICARS OF EAST STOCKWITH.-LAND-OWNERS, 1878.

MORTON.

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T the time of the Doomsday Survey "nine bovates of land in Mortum" formed part of the Soke of Kirton. In after times they shared the varying fortunes of the royal Manor, and were duly accounted for in the report of the Commissioners of 1816, when it was shewn that they paid a rent of 28s. 5d., including the sum of 10d. called Woodhall Pence, to the Duchy of Cornwall. The Commissioners do not appear to have found Morton so attractive a place as most later writers have considered it, for they testily remark: "This is a poore township lyinge upon the Trent, within haulfe a mile of Gaynsborough."

In 1616 the following persons were tenants of the Duchy in Morton George Bent, Henry Megott, Thomas Suswell, Thomas Broune, William Clarke, Roger Rycroft, John Wright, Robert White, Roger Gregorie, William Moodye, William Staveley, Robert Williamson, Christopher Wilson, George Serge, Richard Robertes, Francis Brownell, Thomas Sparrold, Roger Mason, Thomas Jackson, Christopher Burton, Edward Drake, Robert Moodie, Richard Lyon, William Towler, John Hall, Robert Storr, George Rylie, Giles Lyon, Edward Tomkinson, Edward Errat, Henry Andrew, John Daniel, Richard Jackson, Robert Good,