MapNames of PlacesCounty Number of Miles FromDist.
Lond.		Popul
ation.
36BarnardistonpaSuffolkClare4Haverhill4Newmarket1259206
45BarnbowtoW.R. YorkLeeds6Tadcaster9Abberford4190
45Barnbrough[A]paW.R. YorkDoncaster7Rotherham8Barnsley10167520
36BarnbypaSuffolkBeccles4Lowestoft7Bungay11111303
43BarnbytoN.R. YorkWhitby5Guisboro16Scarborough23238224
30Barnby-on-MoortoNottinghamEast Retford3Bawtry5Blyth3148206

[A] BARNBROUGH. The church is dedicated to Saint Peter, and contains a rude painting commemorative of "a serious contest that took place between a man and a wild cat." This conflict, which every body in Barnbrough firmly believes, is said to have occurred about the middle of the fifteenth century, between Percival Cresacre, lord of the manor, and a wild cat o' mountain. He is reported to have been attacked in one of the little woods in the neighbourhood, by this furious animal, and a running fight was kept up till they reached the church porch, where the mortal combat ended in the death of both. That some such circumstance Contest between the lord of the manor and a wild cat. did occur, is conjectured from the crest which the family afterwards adopted, viz. a cat o' mountain, which is still to be seen on the tower of the church; and the tradition is said to be further confirmed by the figure of an animal at the foot of the oak statue of this Cresacre, and also a rubiginous stone in the pavement of the porch of the church. We have many evidences in history that cats were beasts of chase, particularly in the charter of Ranulph Piperking, granted by Edward the Confessor:—

Hart and hind, doe and bock,
Fox and cat, hare and brock.

and again,

Four greyhounds and six raches,
For hare and fox and wild cates.

In the church is an ancient monument of Alicia Cresacre, wife of the above gentleman, who died in 1450, on which is carved in old text:—

Our bodys in stonys lye full still,
Our saulys in wandyr at Godys will.

In the north chancel is the monument of Percival Cresacre, a richly decorated altar-tomb under a flat arch, at the crown of which is the family arms, viz. three lions rampant, purple, on a gold shield. The effigies of Cresacre is in fine preservation, composed of carved oak, and representing a knight in a suite of plate armour, with his arms painted on a shield, and an animal (supposed to be a lion) at his feet. His sword which hung from his belt has been taken away, and both monuments are decorated with the favorite device of the family, a rosary of beads.

MapNames of PlacesCounty Number of Miles FromDist.
Lond.		Popul
ation.
30Barnby-in-WillowspaNottinghamNewark4Lincoln16Grantham14124237
37BarnespaSurreyKingston6Chiswick2Wandsworth351417
37Barn-Elms[A]hamSurrey...6...2...35

[A] BARN-ELMS. On the adjoining common stood the house in which the members of the celebrated Kit Cat Club assembled. Their Kit Cat Club house. original place of meeting was in London, but Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, who was their secretary, caused it to be transferred to a house belonging to himself, at Barn-Elms, and built a handsome room for their accommodation. The portrait of each member was painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, but the apartment not being sufficiently large to receive half-length pictures, a shorter canvas was adopted, and hence proceeded the technical term of Kit Cat size. We give a further account of this club from the graphic pen of Sir Richard Phillips, in his "Morning's Walk from London to Kew," 1817. "A lane in the north-west corner of the common brought me to Barn-Elms, where now resides a Mr. Hoare, a banker, of London. The family were from home, and I had some difficulty to gain admittance, the servants knowing nothing either of the club, or its former occupant. A walk covered with docks, thistles, nettles, and high grass, led from the remains of a gateway in the garden wall to the door which opened into the building. Ah! thought I, through this desolate avenue, the finest geniuses in England daily proceeded to meet their friends. Yet, within a century, how changed—how deserted—how revolting! A cold chill seized me as the man unfastened the decayed door, and I beheld the once elegant hall filled with cobwebs, a fallen As described by Sir Richard Phillips in 1817. ceiling, and accumulating rubbish. The door on the left led to a spacious, and once superb, staircase—now in ruins. The entire building, for want of ventilation, having become food for the fungus, called dry-rot, the timbers had lost its cohesive powers. I ascended the staircase, therefore, with a degree of danger to which my conductor would not expose himself, but was well requited for my pains. Here I found the Kit-Cat Club-room, nearly as it existed in the days of its glory. It is 18 feet high, and 40 feet long, by 20 wide. The mouldings and ornaments were in the most superb fashion of its age, but the whole was falling to pieces from the effects of the dry-rot. My attention was chiefly attracted by the faded cloth-hangings of the room, whose red colour once set off the famous portraits of the club that hung around it. Their marks and sizes were still visible, and their numbers and names remained, as written in chalk for the guidance of the hanger. Thus was I, as it were, brought into contact with Addison and Steele, and Congreve, and Garth, and Dryden, and with many hereditary nobles, remembered only because they were patrons of those natural nobles. I read their names aloud—I invoked their departed spirits—I was appalled by the echo of my own voice. The holes in the floor, the forest of cobwebs in the windows, and a swallow's nest in the corner of the ceiling, proclaimed that I was viewing a vision of the dreamers of a past age; that I saw realized before me the speaking vanities of the anxious career of man. On rejoining Mr. Hoare's servant in the hall below, he informed me that his master intended to pull the building down, and form of it a riding-house. I learn that this design has since been executed. The Kit-Cat pictures were painted early in the eighteenth century, and about the year 1710 were brought to this spot, but the room I have been describing was not built till ten or fifteen years afterwards. They were 42 in number, and are now in the possession of a Mr. Baker, of Hertingford-bury, where I lately saw them splendidly lodged, and in fine preservation. It may be proper to observe, that the house of Mr. Hoare was not the house of Mr. Tonson, and that Mr. Tonson's house stood nearer to the Kit-Cat club-rooms, having a few years since been taken down." A person died in this place, leaving in his will an annual sum, to be laid out in roses to be planted on his grave. The spot is distinguished by a stone tablet on the outside of the wall of the church, enclosed by pales, with some rose-trees planted on each side of it. This tablet is dedicated to the memory of Edward Rose, citizen of London, who died in 1653, and left £20. to the poor of Barnes, for the purchase of an acre of land, on condition that the pales should be kept up, and the rose-trees preserved.