King Stephen granted that the canons of Southwell should hold the woods
of their prebends, in their own hands, which succeeding monarchs, Henry
II. Richard, John, and Henry III. confirmed. There are two fellowships,
and two scholarships, founded in St. John's College, Cambridge, by Dr.
Keton, canon of Sarum, twenty-second Henry VI. to be presented by the
master, fellows, and scholars of that college, to persons having served
as choristers in the chapter of Southwell. In the civil wars nearly all
the records of Southwell Church were destroyed, the _Registrum
Album_ escaping, which contains grants of most of the revenues
belonging to the church, from soon after the conquest, nearly to the end
of Henry VIII. Southwell is supposed by antiquarians to be the "_Ad
Pontem_" of the Romans, one of the stations on the Roman Way from
London to Lincoln, situated at a distance from any route of importance
between the most frequented part of the kingdom. For many centuries it
was hardly known by name--and, till within thirty years there was no
turnpike road to it in any direction. Thus denied access to the rest
of the world, the people of Southwell lived a separate and distinct
society, retaining their own manners untainted by the world; and
among them traditions were handed down pure and unadulterated by the
speculations of the learned, or the discoveries of antiquarians.
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