This new volume, the first to be published for Northamptonshire since 1937, deals with a group of a dozen parishes in the south of the county, on either side of Watling Street between Towcester and Stony Stratford. Essentially a group of typical Midland open-field parishes, the main interest of the area lies in the creation of a great royal estate, the honor of Grafton, in 1542, which occupied about half the hundred. In 1706 the honor passed to the second Duke of Grafton under a grant made by his grandfather, Charles II. The dukes remained the principal owners in the district until a series...