HANSLOPE, a parish in the hundred of NEWPORT, county of BUCKINGHAM, 4 miles (N. N. E.) from Stony- Stratford, containing 1479 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage not in charge, with the perpetual curacy of Castle-Thorpe, in the archdeaconry of Buckingham, and diocese of Lincoln, endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Mayor and Corporation of Lincoln, as impropriators of the rectory, which is rated in the king's books at £48. The church, dedicated to St. James, had formerly an octagonal fluted spire, which, with the tower, rose to the height of more than two hundred feet: it was erected in 1409, by Thomas Knight, then rector, and was destroyed by lightning in 1804. There is a place of worship for Baptists. Hanslope had the privilege of a market on Thursday, which has long been disused; it was granted to William Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in 1293, with a fair commencing on St. James's day and continuing fifteen days; this also has been discontinued, but a fair for cattle is held on Holy Thursday. Several of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of lace. Children of both sexes are put to the lace schools at the early age of five years, and when arrived at that of eleven or twelve are able to support themselves. A school was founded and endowed in 1721, by Lucy, Lady Pierrepoint, for teaching four children; besides which there are various charitable gifts to the poor, vested in the hands of feoffees, and annually distributed on St. Thomas's day.