Other documents, shewing the acquisition by the Convent of other lands in this place and Westbourn, at a later period, will be produced in the next chapter; but this is the only one dated before the end of the twelfth century, having any appearance of authenticity, which I have been able to discover relative to the Abbey lands in Paddington. The Abbot who purchased the interest of the brothers of Paddington, in the Paddington soil, is called Walter of Winchester, to distinguish him from another Walter, called of Wenlock, who was also an Abbot of Westminster, but a century after this time. Of him also we shall have to speak in the next chapter in connexion with the further extension of the Abbey lands in Paddington. Walter, the first, directed that the anniversary of the day on which he died should be kept as a feast day at the Convent: and we are told that he gave the manor of Paddington for its proper celebration. And as this story will well serve to illustrate the manner in which much of the property of the church was spent in those days, and, perhaps, serve also to shew how the neighbouring proprietors were quieted for the transfer of the lordship to this Abbot, I shall reproduce it as it was given to the Archæological Society, on the third of May, 1804, by Dr. Vincent, a former Dean of Westminster. The Dean states that the account he read was taken from an ancient MS. preserved in the archives of the Dean and Chapter. The following is the Dean’s own translation of the manuscript in question:— “Walter, Abbot of Westminster, died the twenty-seventh of September, in the second year of King Richard the first, and in the year of our Lord, 1191. The manor of Paddington was assigned for the celebration of his anniversary, in a solemn manner, under this form. On the fifth of the Kalends of October (that is on the twenty-seventh of September), on the festival of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, the anniversary of Walter, the Abbot, is to be celebrated; and for the celebration, the manor of Paddington is put wholly in the hands of the Almoner, for the time being, and entrusted to his discretion; and this he is faithfully to observe, that whatsoever shall be the final overplus is to be expended charitably in distribution to the poor. On the day of the celebration, the Almoner is to find for the Convent, fine manchets, cakes, crumpets, cracknells, and wafers, and a gallon of wine for each friar, with three good pittances, or doles, with good ale in abundance at every table, and in the presence of the whole brotherhood; in the same manner as upon other occasions the cellarer is bound to find beer at the usual feasts or anniversaries, in the great tankard of twenty-five quarts. {14a}