STANTON-HARCOURT, a parish in the hundred
of WOOTTON, county of OXFORD, 4 miles (S. E.) from
Witney, containing 606 inhabitants. This place was
granted by Queen Adeliza, second wife of Henry I.,
to her kinswoman Milicent, wife of Richard de Camville,
whose daughter Isabel married Robert de Harcourt.
It is situated near the confluence of the small
river Windrush with the Thames. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of
Oxford, rated in the king's books at £16. 13. 4., endowed
with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal
bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Oxford.
The church is dedicated to St. Michael; in the ancient
tower are three chambers above each other, in good repair,
the uppermost of which retains the name of Pope s
study, being the room in which the poet translated his
fifth volume of Homer: in the church are two epitaphs
Written by Pope, one by Congreve, and one by I"1;
Friend; in the Harcourt aisle are some good monuments.
Here is a kitchen, which bears marks of remote
antiquity; the date of its erection is uncertain, but it
was repaired about the reign of Henry IV., and has
a great resemblance to the abbot's kitchen at Glastonbury.
A school for the education of poor children is
supported by the proceeds of various benefactions; the
income is £18 per annum, and from thirty to forty
children are instructed at small charges. Some ancient
remains, called the Devil's Quoits, were probably placed
here to commemorate a victory of the Saxon Princes.
Cynegil and Chwichelm over the Britons, on which occasion
about two thousand of the latter were slain.