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Wistow (St. Winston)

WISTOW (St. Winston), a parish, in the union of Billesdon, hundred of Gartree, S. division of the county of Leicester, 7¼ miles (S. E. by S.) from Leicester; containing 296 inhabitants. On the night previous to the battle of Naseby, King Charles I. slept at Wistow Hall here, which is now the seat of Sir Henry Halford, son of the late Sir Henry Halford, Bart., G.C.B., the distinguished physician, who died in 1844. The house was considerably enlarged, and the grounds were laid out with much taste, by the late proprietor, at an expense of £20,000. In the library is a splendid clock, ornamented with a bust of George IV., and valued at 600 guineas, which, shortly after the decease of that monarch, was presented by six members of the royal family to Sir Henry, as a tribute to his skill and assiduity as their physician. The church is a mile and a half from the road between London and Leicester by Welford, and about a mile from that through Market-Harborough; and the Leicester Union canal runs through the parish. There is only one house in Wistow, besides the Hall and two tenements belonging to servants of the establishment. In the chapelry of Newton-Harcourt, in the parish, are numerous small dwellings, and about 40 or 50 stocking-frames are at work. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 18. 4.; net income, £92; patron and impropriator, Sir Henry Halford. The tithes were commuted for land in 1771. The church was repaired and beautified by the late baronet, who erected a burial-place adjoining, in which are interred the remains of the late Lady Halford, Mr. Justice Vaughan, and other relatives. There is a chapel of ease at Newton-Harcourt.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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