[Illustration: F]EERING is situated on the highroad between London and Colchester, and is a picturesque and secluded village, full of antique houses and quiet tenantry, through which runs the Eastern Counties Railway,--the modern “improvement” that looks strangely out of place in connexion with the associations engendered by so retired a spot. It is a place whose history is almost unrecorded. Morant, in his “History of Essex,” says:--“This parish is of pretty great extent, and lies partly on the London road, being divided from Kelvedon by the river Pant. The name is formed from two Saxon words, signifying Bull’s meadow or pasture. In records, it is called Feering, Feringes, Frearing; and in Domesday Book, Pheringas and Ferlingas. In Edward the Confessor’s reign, Harold, afterwards King of England, and Brictmar, had the chief part, if not the whole, of this parish. At the time of the general survey it was holden by the Abbot of Westminster and Ralph Peverell; and from thence were derived the two capital manors here, Feringbury and Prested Hall. The former is a considerable estate, for many years part of the revenues of Westminster Abbey, by whom given I cannot find; however, they were possessed of it in 1343, and continued so till their dissolution, when it came to the crown. Henry VIII., upon his erecting Westminster Abbey into a bishoprick, endowed it, among other things, with the manor and rectory of Fering, and the advowson of the vicarage, January 20, 1540. But Edward VI. suppressed that bishopric, and gave the premises, April 12, 1550, to Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London, and his successors. Queen Mary I. confirmed the same, March 3, 1553, to Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, and his successors for ever; and they have remained possessed of them ever since. Prested Hall, sometime written Persted and Porsted, and in Domesday Book, Peresteda, was holden by Ralph Peverell at the general survey; but it had belonged before to one Brictmar. The mansion-house stands about half a mile from the church, a little way south from the London road. In the reign of King Henry II. Brien, son of Ralph, held this lordship of the honor of Peverell of London.” There are two lesser manors in the parish called Chambers and Howchins, alias Fowchins; the latter “standing a little way from the road leading from Marks Tay to Coggershall. The lands lie partly in the adjoining parishes of Little Tay and Great Tay. It appears to have been what anciently belonged to Hugh de Feringe, who took his surname from this parish. In the year 1332 he and Alianore, his wife, gave it to St. John’s Abbey in Colchester;” and at the dissolution it reverted to the Crown.