Intending, without doubt, to be liberal to the bishops, and at the same time just to the crown, the calculation of the proper sum to be paid in lieu of first fruits was made without any reference to the possible, or probable, augmentation of the income from the lands then granted. The advisers of the young King knew that with the assistance of parliament fresh arrangements could be made with future occupants of the see; and they fixed the sum to be paid to the crown at one hundred pounds per annum, _as the then fair proportion for all the lands given by this patent_. This sum has been paid for these possessions ever since that time, as I am informed, though the revenue they produce has increased upwards of four thousand per cent. Whatever was the intention of the advisers of the young king, however, in this regard, one thing is pretty clear, viz. that Ridley, and several of his successors, received from the manor and rectory of Paddington, not forty-one pounds, six shillings and eightpence, the sum at which the manor was then let, but that sum, minus one-fifth, deducted by the crown. {46b} Strype tells us {46c} that in exchange for the grants contained in this patent the bishop gave up to the crown other lands to the annual value of four hundred and eighty pounds, three shillings and ninepence, and Ridley has been blamed for making this exchange; Strype, however, has well defended him, and shewn that the see was in reality the gainer even at the time the exchange was made; and if the present values of the exchanged lands were compared I think it would be found that the successors of Ridley had not lost by his bargain. There is still preserved in the Record Office, Carlton Ride, {47a} a manuscript record which shews that Henry Rede held the manor of Paddington in the ninth year of Elizabeth’s reign. The reserved rent being as before, forty-one pounds, six shillings and eightpence. But the wood was not included even in this second lease to Rede, supposing he had one; for we are informed by this document that the rent was increased twenty shillings, “for the farm of one wood called Paddington Wood, thus demised this year.” {47b} And this omission does not appear to have been accidental, for I found in another manuscript in the same office {47c} a memorandum dated November 26th, 1561, to this effect: “To speak to Mr. Barton touching a certain wood at Paddington.” So that the mode of disposing of this wood had evidently been under consideration. The following is the account of the descent of the manor of Paddington given by Lysons:—