rleton,
a place belonging to the Mortimers of Wigmore in the north-east of
Herefordshire.

Three years later (1316), on the death of Bishop Swinfield at his chief
residence, Bosbury, Adam of Orleton succeeded him in the bishopric.

King Edward II. was not jubilant over the appointment of a friend of Roger
Mortimer to this important position, and, failing to persuade Adam to
decline the bishopric, he appealed to the Pope, begging him to cancel the
appointment, but with no more success. The fortunes of the Bishop of
Hereford became identified with the Queen, whom he joined on her return
from France with her eldest son. It was at Hereford that this youth, then
fourteen years of age, was appointed guardian of the kingdom under the
direction of his mother.

The King, who had sought refuge in Wales, was captured at Neath Abbey, and
the great seal taken from him by Bishop Adam Orleton, while the
Chancellor, Hugh Despenser, was conveyed to Hereford, where he was crowned
with nettles and dressed in a shirt upon which was written passages from
Psalm lii. beginning, "Why boastest thou thyself, thou tyrant: that thou
canst do mischief." Amid the howlings of a great multitude who mocked his
name by shrieking "Hue!" he was finally hanged on a gallows 50 feet high
and then quartered. Among the prisoners were two wearing holy orders, and
these the Bishop of Hereford claimed as his perquisite.

[Illustration: A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.]

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

Bishop Adam, wary, unscrupulous, but at the same time vigorous and of
unusual ability, played a great part in politics to the end of the
wretched King's life. Some historians still believe that he recommended
the murder; he certainly supported the deposition in Parliament, and went
to Kenilworth as one of the commissioners to force the King's resignation.
If thus interested in secular politics, he was no less watchful and
vigilant in the affairs of his bishopric and the cathedral.

The great central tower, destined centuries later to be a source of such
anxiety and a problem of such difficulty to the restorer, was even at this
early date showing signs of dilapidation, and Bishop Orleton obtained from
Pope John XXII. a grant of the great tithes of Shenyngfeld (Swinfield) and
Swalefeld (Swallowfield) in Berkshire, in answer to the following
petition:--"That they, being desirous of rebuilding a portion of