TYSOE, a parish in the Kington division of the
hundred of KINGSTON, county of WARWICK, 5 miles
(S. by E.) from Kington, containing, with the township
of Westcote, 1070 inhabitants. The living is a discharged
vicarage, united to the rectory of Compton-
Wyniates, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester,
rated in the king's books at £ 10, endowed with
£200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and
in the patronage of the Earl of Northampton. The
church is dedicated to St. Mary. There is a place of
worship for Wesleyan Methodists. Twenty boys are
educated for £21 per annum", arising from certain property
bequeathed- to the parish, in 1541, by John Middleton
and Edward Richards: the school-room and
master's residence were rebuilt a few years ago. Opposite
to the church, on the side of a hill, is cut the
figure of a horse, which, from the colour of the soil, is
called the Red Horse, and gives to the adjacent low
lands the name of the Vale of Red Horse. This figure
is supposed to have been designed to commemorate
the well-known act of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,
in killing his horse on the day of the battle of
Towton, fought on Palm-Sunday, 1461; on which day
annually it has been customary for the country people
to assemble, for the purpose of clearing the figure of
the horse from whatever has grown upon it in the
course of the year, which is locally termed " scouring
the horse."