The Hall is now the property and residence of the Earl of Liverpool, to whom it was devised in 1806 by Mr. Oteley, in whose family the estate had been for nearly four centuries. William Ottley Esq., as the name was then spelt, was high-sheriff for the county of Salop in the 15th of Henry VII., and again in the 5th of Henry VIII., in whose reign the present Hall is supposed to have been built. Robert Ottley is mentioned as the lord of the manor in the time of Queen Elizabeth. During the Civil War, members of this family gained much distinction as active and zealous, but not always successful, adherents of the royal party. “Sir Francis Ottley was successively governor of the towns of Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth; the latter he surrendered, after a siege in 1646, to the Parliamentary forces.” In the articles of capitulation, still existing at Pitchford, it is stipulated, that “Sir Francis Ottley be permitted to retire with his family and baggage to his home at Pitchford, or at the Hay,” another possession of the family. Close to the Hall, screened on all sides by thick plantations, is the church, a plain, neat, “respectable” structure, of great age. It contains some interesting monuments of various members of the Ottley family, and also “a fine and curious oaken figure of a Knight Templar, a Baron de Pitchford, a crusader, who was buried here.” In October, 1832, Pitchford Hall was visited by her Majesty the Queen (then Princess Victoria) and her august mother, the Duchess of Kent; “on which occasion,” says the loyal and zealous county historian, “it was the scene of genuine Shropshire hospitality and festivity.” [Illustration: From a sketch by C J Richardson Day & Son, Lithʳˢ to The Queen THE GREAT CHAMBER MONTACUTE] MONTACUTE, SOMERSETSHIRE. Montacute. The village of Montacute is one of the most primitive and picturesque of the villages of England. It consists of a large Square, a Market-place, with its simple and beautiful School-house, an erection which dates so far back as the time of Henry the Seventh,--a very rare and fine example in a remarkably good state of preservation, which formerly stood against a quaint old Market-house, now destroyed. The principal street consists of stone hovels, built in a rude style, but still retaining proofs that the comforts of the inmates were duly weighed and considered. The village and its vicinity are flourishing, in consequence of the ample employment which the women obtain at glove-making, at which they are nearly all occupied in their own cottages. It is situated within four miles west of the town of Yeovil, and about the same distance south of Ilchester. Montacute derives its name from a conical hill (_mons acutus_) which overlooks the [Illustration]