One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by the village children to the end of the lane. William Tindal, in his _History of Evesham_, 1794, records the fact that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the old structure. As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as I am aware, previously appeared in any other book. INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. M.S. _PENELOPES_ Filiæ perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi Henrici Washington, collonelli, Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton Milite prognati; ob res bellicosas tam Angl: quam Hiberniâ fortiter, & feliciter gestas, Illustrissimis Principib: & Regum optimis Carolo primo et secundo charissimi: Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiquâ, et Generosâ prosapiâ Packingtoniensium De Westwood; Familiâ intemeratae fidei in principes, et amoris in patriam. Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda, Divini Numinis summâ cum religione Cultrix assidua; Genetricis (parentum solæ superstitis) Ingens Solatium; Aegrotantib. et egentib. mirâ promptitudine Liberalis et benefica; Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta; Ex hac vitâ caducâ ad sponsum migravit Febr. 27 An. Dom. 1697. [_Translation_] INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. M.S.