YAZOR is a parish situated on the main road leading from Hereford to Kington, and on the Hereford, Hay, and Brecon branch of the Midland railway; the Moorhampton station on that line is in this parish. It is distant 8 miles W.N.W. of Hereford, and 32 S. of Weobley; is in Grimsworth hundred, Weobley union and petty sessional division, Hereford county court district, and is a polling place for county elections. The population in 1861 was 287; in 1871, 235; inhabited houses, 47; families or separate occupiers, 48; area of parish, 2,051 acres; annual rateable value, £2,300. The Rev. George Horatio Davenport, M.A., J.P., of Foxley, is lord of the manor and sole landowner. The soil is loamy; subsoil, clay; chief crops, wheat, beans, hops, roots, &c. Yazor is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Weobley; living, a vicarage; value, £186, with 12 acres of glebe; patron, and vicar, Rev. George Horatio Davenport, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1863. The Rev. George H. Burr, M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford, is the curate, appointed in 1871.

The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a handsome building, in the Early English style of architecture, erected in 1851 at a cost of £3,883. This substantial modern structure was commenced by the late Uvedale Price, Esq. Sir Robert Price continued the work, and the late Archdeacon Freer built the spire and completed the internal fittings. It is built entirely of stone, oak, and chestnut, from the Foxley estate. The pulpit is very richly carved in oak; also the stalls and western screen. The communion table is of massive oak; underneath is seen the sacred monogram worked in gold, silk, and crimson velvet. The windows are filled with stained or quarry glass, by Warrington & Powell, of London. The richly illuminated scrolls, &c., are by Crace. The chancel is apsidal, with oak groins partly gilt;, the ceiling blue, with gold stars. The whole of the seats (open) are of the finest oak. The organ is by Jardine, of Manchester (built in 1869); the encaustic tiles are by Godwin & Minton; and the lectern is boldly carved in oak.

There are handsome brass plates in memory of the founder of this church, and also to the late Archdeacon Freer, who with such great taste and liberality caused this to be one of the most beautiful churches in the diocese of Hereford. A richly stained glass window was erected by the tenantry of the Foxley estate and others, in commemoration of the marriage of the esteemed owner of Foxley with a daughter of the Rev. S. V. Dashwood, of Stanford hall, Loughborough. This window represents the Marriage in Cana of Galilee; it abounds with exquisite tints of ruby, emerald, and blue; the grouping of the guests at the festive board is perfect, and the whole window is an exact copy, on a small scale, of the large marriage memorial erected by the same artists in commemoration of the nuptials of the Prince and Princess of Wales. At the foot of the window is a brass bearing the following inscription:-

"To the glory of God, and in commemoration of the Marriage of
GEORGE HORATIO DAVENPORT and SOPHIA DIANA, his Wife,
This window was placed here by their tenantry and others, February, 1866."

Another memorial window, in commemoration of the nuptials of John Hungerford Arkwright, Esq., of Hampton court, near Leominster, and Miss Davenport, was erected by subscription in 1867. The subject represents "Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz", alluding of course to their marriage contract. This pleasing subject has been fully treated in a very artistic manner, and the deep colours introduced with the neat flowing tracery render the entire work highly commendable to the artists. Both windows were executed by Messrs. Heaton, Butler, & Bayne, of Garrick street, Covent garden, London. New parochial schools for boys and girls were erected in 1868, by the Rev. G. H. Davenport. Accommodation is provided for upwards of 100 children; the present average attendance is about 55. Foxley, the seat of the Rev. George Horatio Davenport, M.A., J.P., is a beautiful mansion; most of the apartments are elegantly fitted up, and decorated with a good collection of paintings by the first masters. It commands some beautiful views over the vale of Hereford, the distance being formed by various hills retiring in perspective, and the foreground by rich masses of wood.

It was formerly owned by Sir Robert Price; Bart., from whom the property was purchased by the late John Davenport, Esq., of Westwood, Staffordshire, who rebuilt one transept of, the ancient parish church, to serve as a mortuary chapel for the whole parish, and a resting-place for the remains of himself and his family. The mansion has lately undergone considerable alteration and improvement, and the estate is in a high state of cultivation. In the park is the celebrated eminence called "Lady Lift", from the summit of which the prospect bursts upon the view with uncommon grandeur and sublimity. The vast extent of country which is here spread out before the sight, the great diversity and variety of its features, now swelling into bold hills mantled with rich woods, and again declining into rich and luxuriant vales teeming with fertility, and bounded by a long range of distant mountains - all unite in the composition of a scene which the powers of language are as incompetent to describe as the art of the pencil is inadequate to delineate.