Brill, Buckinghamshire

Description
Brill, an ancient town and a parish in Bucks. The town stands on an eminence within the ancient Bemwood Forest, 3 1/2 miles S of the Julian Way, and 7 1/2 NNW of Thame station on the G.W.R. There is a tramway which starts 1 mile N of Brill, and passes through Waddeson Road siding, Wescott, Wotton station, Church siding, and Wood siding to the Quainton Road station of the Metropolitan railway. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Thame, and was formerly a market-town. Its ancient name was Brechullar Brinhely. Edward the Confessor had a hunting-lodge adjacent to it; Henry II. kept his court here in 1160, attended by Becket, and again in 1162; King John spent his Christmas here in 1205 ; Henry III. held his court here in 1224; and Sir G. Gerard, under Charles I., placed a force here in 1642 and repelled an attack by Hampden. The parish comprises 2939 acres; population of the civil parish, 1251; of the ecclesiastical, with Boarstall, 1439, The manor was given by the Conqueror to Nigel the huntsman, and has descended from him to the Aubrey family. A chalybeate spring in the immediate neighbourhood of the village has some medicinal repute. A grove near the town is probably a relic of Bemwood Forest. Muswell or Muzzle Hill is crowned by an ancient camp and a hermitage, and commands a fine view. The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Boarstall, in the diocese of Oxford; joint net yearly value, £187 with residence. The church is partly Norman and good. It was restored in 1890, all the ancient features of the building being retained. There are a Wesleyan and two Congregational cliapels. Little London is a hamlet half a mile S.