of any other lands; the quantity of which was thirty-six acres. The words of the grant, as given in the Monasticon, are these: "Notum sit omnibus sanctæ matris ecclesiæ filiis, quod ego Editha Roberto de Oily conjugali copulo juncta, consilio et voluntate ejusdem Roberti mariti mei, de duario meo de Weston, dedi in perpetuam elemosinam Deo et sanctæ Mariæ et fratribus in Oteleia secundum institutionem Cistercii virentibus, dominium illud, quod extremitati nemoris illorum absque alterius terræ intermixtione continuatur[1]."
We do not find the precise date of Sir Robert Gait's house; but as the foundation of Waverley Abbey was laid Nov. 24, 1128, in the twenty-ninth year of Henry the First[2], and Gilbert succeeded John, the first abbot thereof, who died within the year of his appointment[3], it could hardly be earlier than 1130; and the fraternity having been removed by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, to the neighbourhood of Thame, in the same county, (some ruins of their house there now belonging to the Baroness Wenman, are engraved by Skelton in his Antiquities of Oxfordshire,) and their church dedicated to St. Mary on July 21st, 1138[4], the monks must have dwelt a very short time at Oddington; at the utmost, not more than seven or eight years, and probably less. Their buildings would, consequently, be inconsiderable.
With respect to the situation of these, Leland[5] indefinitely remarks, "in this Ottemar was the foundation of Tame abbey;" and Bishop Kennett, in quoting the observation[6], seems to imagine that the abbey was in Otmoor itself, the corner nearest to the village of Oddington; "the religious," he proceeds to say, "always affected such low places, out of pretence to the more solitary living, but rather out of love to fish and fat land; and this site upon the moor was fitter for an ark than a monastery." The spot which the Bishop indicates, is generally thought to have been by a small pond below the old rectory house, pulled down some years since; but the error in this is so obvious, that it is surprising a writer of such eminence, living, as he did, some time in the neighbourhood, should have made it; for no traces of buildings have been found there; and if we refer to the particulars of the foundation we shall discover no probability of any wood called Ottelie, or any other, having been near; and instead of the land of Weston adjoining it, that parish lies quite in another direction.
The pasture field, in which the remains were found, corresponds, on the contrary, in every point with the spot chosen by Sir Robert Gait, and referred to in the charter of Edith. It is a very large piece of ground, near the farm house, running along the edge of Weston parish, and is even now in so rough a state as to be nearly as much "a lea" as it ever was. The name of the farm, "The Grange," implies that it was once monastic property. The field itself adjoins Weston parish and wood, which latter
