These grants were made to Ann by Henry VIII., on her assent to the invalidity of her marriage with that monarch, who refused to consort with her. On the 8th of August, 1540, Henry married Catherine Howard. The manor of Falmer was also part of Ann’s dower, and in seclusion there she resided some time; though on her divorce she took up her abode at Preston House, in the village of Preston, where still, in one of the rooms, is a large and well executed portrait of her, by some considered the work of Holbein. It was seeing this portrait which induced the king to desire an union with hor. She landed at Dover, December, 1538. Henry met her there, and such was his dislike to her, from her beauty not being equal to Holbein’s portrait, that he spoke of her as a “Flander’s Mare,” and used other expressions respecting her of an equally contemptuous character. Ann died on the 17th of July, 1557, at the Palace of Chelsea, and was buried on the 3rd of August, near the high altar, in Westminster Abbey, near the old portraits of Henry III. and King Sebert. The manor formerly belonged to the Shirley family, several monumental tablets to the members of which remain within Preston church. Mary, the second sister of Sir Richard Shirley, Bart., was married to Thomas Western, Esq., of Ravenhall, in Essex, who died April 1st, 1733, leaving an only child, Thomas Western, who married Ann, the daughter of Robert Callis, Esq., and died in May, 1766, leaving Charles Western as his heir. Charles Western, Esq., married Frances Shirley, only daughter and heiress of William Bolland, Esq. His end was of the most melancholy character. Whilst riding with his eldest son, Charles Callis, a child then about four years of age, along the road by Goldstone Bottom, the horse stumbled, and they were precipitated from their carriage, the father being killed on the spot. The life of the child was preserved by his being thrown into a furze bush, by the roadside. This occurrence took place on the 24th July, 1771. The widow, with her two children, Charles and a younger brother, Shirley, about three years old, shortly after left Preston, where none of the family ever after returned, and the estate eventually was purchased by William Stanford, Esq., for £20,000. His grand-daughter, a minor, is his heiress; and so improved is the estate, through the favourable circumstance of the railroad from Brighton to London passing through it, that the portion alone used for the formation of the line realized £30,000. Charles Callis Western, who was born on the 9th of August, was created Baron Western, on the 28th of January, 1833. He died, unmarried, in 1841, when, his brother being dead, the title became extinct. CHAPTER XIV. THE PARISH CHURCH, ST. NICHOLAS.