Bourton-on-the-Water (St. Lawrence)

BOURTON-on-the-Water (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the union of Stow-on-the-Wold, Lower division of the hundred of Slaughter, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 4 miles (S. S. W.) from Stow; containing 943 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, with the living of Lower Slaughter annexed, valued in the king's books at £27. 2. 8½., and in the patronage of Wadham College, Oxford; net income, £475. The church is a modern edifice, having a tower at the western end, rising from a rustic basement, with Ionic pilasters at the angles, and surmounted by a balustrade, urns, and cupola; within is a colonnade of the Ionic order. There is a place of worship for Particular Baptists; and a school is endowed with £12 per annum, accruing from property bequeathed by Anthony Collett, in 1719. The Roman Fosse-way passes through the parish; and about a quarter of a mile from the village is a square intrenchment, where coins, and other relics of the Romans, have been discovered: a paved aqueduct was formerly visible on one side of it. John Foster, author of the Essays, resided for some time in the village.