ABSTRACT
It is autumn. Jeffry Bukwell of Earls Colne senses his own mortality and writes up his last will and 'true intent' to settle his spiritual and worldly affairs: I 'bequeath my soul to almighty god to our lady saint Mary and to all the holy and blessed company of heaven'. It is the fecundity of God's landscape that pays for Bukwell's memory through the annual profits from his field set with saffron. Jeffry Bukwell had made provision for his soul and the souls of other members of his family from the physical bounty of God's landscape of Earls Colne. At Earls Colne, King visited both the remains of de Vere tombs in St Mary's Church in the grounds of Harlakenden's Priory Manor house and in St Andrew's Church. Built over five centuries up to the Reformation, the parish Church of St Andrew owes its building construction entirely to the earls of Oxford.
