[B] BEAUDESERT. This place is situated in the hundred of Barlichway. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and exhibits some good specimens of ancient architecture. The village was the birth-place of Richard Jago, the poet, who was the son of the rector: he was born in 1715, and was educated at Solihull grammar-school, about eleven miles distant from this place. His first poetical production which attracted notice was an "Elegy on the Death of a Blackbird," and this was followed by a poem, descriptive of the "Battle of Edgehill," which is considered the most finished of his works: the subject was in all probability suggested by his residence in the neighbourhood of the scene of action. He died on the 8th of April, 1781. Map|Names of Places. |County. |Number of Miles from | +--+------------------+---------+--------------+-----------+ 16|Beaulieu[A] pa. |Hants |Lymington 7|Hythe 5| 23|Beau Manor ex. pl.|Leicester|Mount Sorrel 3|Loughboro 3| +--+------------------+---------+--------------+-----------+ |Dist. | Map|Names of Places. |Number of Miles from |Lond. |Population. +--+------------------+------------------------+------+----+ 16|Beaulieu[A] pa. |Southampton 7| 82|1298| 23|Beau Manor ex. pl.|Leicester 8| 106| 98| +--+------------------+------------------------+------+----+ [A] BEAULIEU. The river Exe, over which there is a bridge, is navigable up to this village. Here is a manufacture of coarse sacking. The ruins of Beaulieu Abbey are beautifully situated on the eastern banks of the river. The delightful valley which surrounds these venerable remains, is of a circular form, bounded by well-wooded hills, and in itself, consists of a rich variety of ground. The Abbey was founded, A.D. 1204, by King John, for monks of the Cistercian order; a class of friars to which that monarch had been previously particularly adverse. The king, it is said, after various oppressive measures exercised against the Cistercians, summoned the Abbots and principals of that order, to Lincoln, whither they hastened, flattering themselves that he would there confer upon them some marks of his grace and favor. Instead of this, say the monkish historians, "the savage monarch ordered the Abbots to be trodden to death, by horses: but none of his attendants being found sufficiently cruel to obey the sanguinary command, the ecclesiastics, dreadfully alarmed, retired hastily to their inn. In the course of the ensuing night, when the monarch slumbered on his bed, he dreamt that he was standing before a Judge, accompanied by the Cistercian Abbots, who were commanded to scourge him severely with rods and thongs; and when he awoke in the morning, he declared that he still felt the smart of the beating. On relating this dream to a certain ecclesiastic of his court, he was advised to crave pardon of the Abbots,