[151]There was formerly a cell here, subordinate to the Abbey of Saint Saviour le Vicomte in Normandy, to which it was given by William de Solariis,A.D.1163, but dissolved by Henry VI., and its revenues annexed to Eton. Tanner’sNotitia Monastica, Hants., No. xii. See, also, Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, Ed. 1830, vol. vi., part. ii., p. 1046.[152]Same edition as before, p. iv. a. The entry is remarkably interesting. Out of its ten hydes, four were taken into the Forest. In the six which were left, there dwelt fifty-six villeins, twenty-one borderers, six serfs, and one freeman. There were here 105 acres of meadow, a mill which paid 22s., and a church with half a hyde of land. On the four hydes which were taken into the Forest, fourteen villeins, and six borderers, who had seven ploughlands, used to dwell. How very much the woodland preponderated over the arable we may tell by the additional entry, that the woods maintained 189 hogs, whilst a mill in that part was only assessed at 30d., which facts may help us to form some opinion of the kind of soil that was in general afforested. The meadows, as usual, were not touched.[153]See Yarrell’sHistory of British Fishes, vol. ii. pp. 399-401.[154]On this phenomenon, see Lyell’sAntiquity of Man, p. 139.[155]The Ordnance map here falls into an error, placing Sandford a mile too far to the south; whilst it omits the neighbouring village of Beckley, the Beceslei ofDomesday, and “The Great Horse,” a clump of firs, so called from its shape, a well-known landmark in the Forest, and to the ships at sea, as also “Darrat,” or “Derrit” Lane.[156]InArchæologia, vol. v. pp. 337-40, is a description, illustrated with a plan of these entrenchments, together with the adjoining barrows, most of which have been opened, but the accounts are very scanty and unsatisfactory.[157]See Dr. Guest on the “Belgic Ditches,” vol. viii. of theArchæological Journal, p. 145.[158]Gibson, in his edition ofThe Chronicle—in the “nominum locorum explicatio,” p. 50, seems to think that Yttingaford, where peace was made between the Danes and Edward, was somewhere in the New Forest, deriving the word from Ytene, the old name of the district. Mr. Thorpe, however, in his translation ofThe Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 77, suggests that it may be Hitchen.[159]The Chronicle. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 178.Florence of Worcester, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. pp. 117, 118.[160]Grose, in hisAntiquities(vol. ii., under Christchurch Castle), gives the following curious extract from a survey, dated Oct. 1656, concerning the duties of Sir Henry Wallop, the governor:—“Mem.: the constable of the castle or his deputy, upon the apprehension of any felon within the liberty of West Stowesing, to receive the said felon, and convey him to the justice, and to the said jail, at his own proper costs and charges; otherwise the tything-man to bring the said felon, and chain him to the castle-gate, and there to leave him. Cattle impounded in the castle, having hay and water, for twenty hours, to pay fourpence per foot.” The fee of the Constable in the reign of Elizabeth was 8l.0s.9d.Peck’sDesiderata Curiosa, vol. i., book ii., part. 5, p. 71. In the Chamberlain’s Books of Christchurch we are constantly meeting with some such entry as, “1564, ffor the castel rent for ij yeres—xiijs.vd.” “1593, ffor the chiefe rent to the castel—vis.xid.”[161]Descriptions of it will be found in Hudson Turner’sDomestic Architecture of England, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Parker’sGlossary of Architecture, vol. i. p. 167. Grose’sAntiquities, vol. ii. Hampshire; in whose time it appears to have been cased with dressed stones. In the Chamberlain’s Books of the Borough, under the date of the sixth year of Edward VI., 1553, we meet with repairs “for the house next the castle,” which entry probably refers to some buildings belonging to the house, which, according to Grose, stretched away in a north-westerly direction to the castle.[162]England’s Improvements by Sea and Land.By Andrew Yarranton. Ed. 1677, pp. 67, 70.[163]As we have said, the muniment chest of the Christchurch Corporation, like that of all similar towns, is full of interest. It contains absolutions from Archbishops to all those who assist in the good work of making bridges;—letters from absolute patrons directing their clients which way to vote;—bonds from others that they will not require any payment from the burgesses, or put the borough to any expense;—old privileges of catching eels and lampreys with “lyer,” and “hurdells de virgis,” by all of which the past is brought before us. So, too, the Chamberlain’s Books are most interesting. From them we can learn, year by year, the prices of wheat and cattle, the fluctuation of wages, the average condition of the day, and both the minutest outward events as also the innermost life of the town. The true social history of England is written for us in our Chamberlain’s Books. They have unfortunately never been made use of as they deserve. Thus let me give a few general quotations from those of Christchurch. In 1578 lime was 6d.a bushel, from which price it fell within two years to 2d.Stone for building we find about 1s.a ton. Wages then averaged, for a skilled mechanic, from 7d.to 1s.a day, and for a labourer, 4d.; whilst night-watchmen, in 1597, were only paid 2d.Timber, contrary to what we should have expected, was comparatively dear. Thus in 1588 we find 9d.paid for two posts, and 20d.for a plank and two posts, whilst a few years afterwards a shilling is paid for making a new gate. Of course in all these calculations we must bear in mind that money was then three times its present value. Turning to other matters, we learn that in 1595, “a pottle of claret wine and sugar” cost 2s., whilst a quart of sack is only 12d.In 1582, a quart of “whyte wine” is 5d., and twenty years before this a barrel and a half of beer cost 4d.Again, in 1562, the fourth year of Elizabeth, large salmon, whose weights are not specified, appear to have averaged 7d.a piece. A load of straw for thatching came to 2s.6d., and in some cases 3s., which in 1550 had been as low as 8d., and never above 20d.Drawing it, or passing it through a machine, cost 4d.; whilst a thatcher received 1s.4d.for his labour of putting it on the roof.At the same time a load of clay, either for making mortar or for the actual material of the walls, the “cob,” or “pug” of the provincial dialect, was 5d., a price at which it had stood with some slight variations for many years.To conclude, the smallest things are noted. Thus a thousand “peats,” perhaps brought from the Forest, cost, in 1562, 15d., whilst a load of “fursen,” still the local plural of furse, perhaps also from the same place, was 8d.Nothing in these accounts escapes notice. In 1586 a “coking stole,” the well-knowncathedra stercoris, the Old-English “scealfing-stol,” is charged 10d.; whilst a collar, or, as it is elsewhere in the same book called, “an iron choker for vagabonds,” cost 14d.[164]InArchæologia, vol. iv. pp. 117, 118, is a letter from Brander, the geologist and antiquary, describing a quantity of spurs and bones of herons, bitterns and cocks, found on a part of the monastic buildings, showing that the site had been previously occupied.[165]Holdenhurst had ten hydes and a half taken into the Forest (Domesday, as before, iv. a). It then possessed a small church, and, as we find one mentioned in the charter of Richard de Redvers in Henry I.’s reign, we may fairly conclude that this, too, was not destroyed by the Conqueror. There were also there fisheries for the use of the hall.[166]Cartularium Monasterii de Christchurch Twinham.Brit. Mus., Cott. MSS., Tib. D. vi., pars ii., f. 194 a. This chartulary was much injured in the fire of 1731, but has been restored by Sir F. Madden. Quoted in Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi. p. 303, Ed. 1830.[167]For further information, especially on the fortunes of the De Redvers family, and minor details, which I think would hardly interest the general reader, see Brayley’s and Ferrey’s work on the Priory of Christchurch, London, 1834, pp. 6, 11, 22: and Warner’sSouth-west Parts of Hampshire, vol. ii. pp. 55-65, which, notwithstanding some errors, is a most painstaking history.[168]Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, Ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 149.[169]The possessions of the house were large, and brought in above 600l.a year. Yet we find that the brethren were in debt in every direction. At Poole, Salisbury, and Christchurch, they owed 41l.19s.6d.for mere necessaries. There was due 24l.2s.8d.to the Recorder of Southampton for wine; and a bill of 8l.13s.2d.to a merchant of Poole, for “wine, fish, and bere.” Certificate of Monasteries, No. 494, p. 48. Record Office. Quoted by Brayley and Ferrey, Appendix No. vi., pp. 9, 10.[170]Brit. Mus., Bibl. Cott., Cleopatra, E. iv., f. 324 b.[171]“Petition of John Draper.” Amongst the Miscellaneous MSS. of the Treasury of the Exchequer, Record Office.[172]Archæologia, vol. v. pp. 224-29.[173]I know nothing equal to this last screen in the delicacy of its carving, seen in bracket, and canopy, and the flights of angels; in the deep feeling especially manifest in the central bracket, with the Saviour’s head crowned with thorns, but surrounded with fruit and flowers, typical of His sufferings and the world’s benefits; and in the grave humour, not out of place, as allegorical of the world’s pursuits, which peeps forth in the figures over the two doorways.[174]Lord Herbert’sLife and Reyne of King Henry VIII., p. 468. 1649. See, however, Froude:History of England, vol. iv. p. 119, foot-note.[175]The year, as was generally the case, is not given to this letter, but simply December 2nd. From internal evidence, however, it was certainly written in 1539; for we know that the Priory was surrendered Nov. 28th of that year. Why, then, two years before her death, the commissioners should speak of the “late mother of Raynolde pole” I know not.[176]Below the north transept, part, perhaps, of Edward the Confessor’s church, is a vault, which, when opened, was stacked with bones, like the carnary crypts at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, and of the beautiful church at Rothwell, in Northamptonshire—the “skull houses,” to which we so often find reference in the old churchwardens’ books.[177]In the south choir aisle the broken sculptures represent the Epiphany, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin. Little can be said in praise of any of the modern monuments. The best are Flaxman’s “Viscountess Fitzharris and her three Children,” and Weekes’s “Death of Shelley.” Some of the others should never have been permitted to be erected, especially those which disfigure the Salisbury chapel. The new stained window at the west end adds very much to the beauty of the church.[178]For further details the student of architecture should consult Mr. Brayley and Mr. Ferrey’s work, before referred to, of which a new edition is much needed, as also Mr. Ferrey’s paper in theGentleman’s Magazinefor Dec., 1861, p. 607, on the naves of Christchurch and Durham Cathedral, both built by Flambard, and a paper on the rood-screen in theArchæological Journal, vol. v. p. 142; and also a paper read at Winchester, September, 1845, before the Archæological Institute, on Christchurch Priory Church, by Mr. Beresford Hope, and published in the Proceedings of the Society, 1846. An excellent little handbook, by the Rev. Makenzie Walcott, the Honorary Secretary of the Christchurch Archæological Association, may be obtained in the town.[179]Scott used to admire theRed King; but his praise must have been far more the result of friendship than of unbiassed criticism. The following lines, from Rose’s MS. poem of “Gundimore” (quoted in Lockhart’sLife of Scott, p. 145, foot-note), are interesting from their subject, and at the conclusion, though the idea is borrowed, are really fine:—“Here Walter Scott has wooed the Northern Muse,Here he with me has joyed to walk or cruize;And hence has pricked through Ytene’s holt, where weHave called to mind how under greenwood tree,Pierced by the partner of his ‘woodland craft,’King Rufus fell by Tiril’s random shaft.Hence have we ranged by Keltic camps and barrows,Or climbed the expectant bark, to thread the NarrowsOf Hurst, bound westward to the gloomy bowerWhere Charles was prisoned in yon island tower.* * * * * * *Here, witched from summer sea and softer reign,Foscolo courted Muse of milder strain.On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to paceWhilst ebbing seas have hummed a rolling baseTo his rapt talk.”[180]Antiquities, vol. ii., where there is a sketch of the Grange as it was in 1777.[181]For the geology of High Cliff, Barton, and Hordle Cliffs, see chapter xx. There are not many fossils in either the grey sand or the green clay before you reach the “bunny.” Plenty, however, may be found in the top part of the bed immediately above, known as the “High Cliff Beds,” and which rise from the shore about a quarter of a mile to the east of the stream.[182]Chewton is not mentioned inDomesday. Beckley (Beceslei), which is close by, where there was a mill which paid thirty pence, had a quarter of its land taken into the Forest; whilst Baishley (Bichelei) suffered in the same proportion. Fernhill lost two-thirds of its worst land, and Milton (Mildeltune) half a hyde and its woods, which fed forty hogs, by which its rental was reduced to one-half.[183]At this point the Marine Beds end, and the Brackish-Water series crop up; and then, lastly, the true Fresh-Water shells commence—the Paludinæ and Limnææ, with scales of fish, and plates of chelonians, and bones of palæotheres, and teeth of dichodons. See, further, chapter xx.[184]See Lappenberg’sEngland under the Anglo-Norman Kings. Ed. Thorpe, p. 89.[185]Yarranton, in that strange but clever work,England’s Improvement by Land and Sea(Ed. 1677, pp. 43-63), dwells at length on the quantity of iron-stone along the coast, and the advantage of the New Forest for making charcoal to smelt the metal. He proposed to build two forges and two furnaces for casting guns, near Ringwood, where the ore was to be brought up the Avon.[186]“That narrow sea, which we the Solent term,Where those rough ireful tides, as in her straights they meet,With boisterous shocks and roars each other rudely greet;Which fiercely when they charge, and sadly when they make retreat,Upon the bulwark forts of Hurst and Calshot beat,Then to Southampton run.Polyolbion, book ii.[187]Hall’sUnion of the Families of Lancaster and York, xxxi. year of King Henry VIII., ff. 234, 235, London, 1548.[188]From Peek (Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i., b. ii., part iv., p. 66) we find that in Elizabeth’s reign the captain received 1s.8d.a day; the officer under him, 1s.; and the master-gunner and porter, and eleven gunners and ten soldiers, 6d.each, which in Grose’s time had been increased to 1s.(Grose’sAntiquities, vol. ii., where a sketch is given of the castle). Hurst, on account of its strength, was to have been betrayed, in the Dudley conspiracy, to the French, by Uvedale, Captain of the Isle of Wight. (Uvedale’s Confession,Domestic MSS., vol. vii., quoted in Froude’sHistory of England, vol. vi. p. 438.) Ludlow mentions the great importance of Hurst being secured to the Commonwealth, as both commanding the Isle of Wight and stopping communication with the mainland (Memoirs, p. 323). Hammond, in a letter from Carisbrook Castle, June 25th, 1648, says it is “of very great importance to the island. It is a place of as great strength as any I know in England” (Peck’sDesiderata Curiosa, vol. ii., b. ix., p. 383).[189]Sir Thomas Herbert’sMemoirs of the two last Years of the Reign of King Charles I., Ed. 1702, pp. 87, 88.[190]Warwick calls the King’s rooms “dog lodgings” (Memoirs, p. 334); but it is evident from Herbert (Memoirs, p. 94) that both Charles and his attendants were well treated, which we know from Whitelock (Memorials of English Affairs, p. 359; London, 1732) was the wish of the army, as also from the letter of Colonel Hammond’s deputies given in Rushworth (vol. ii., part iv., p. 1351). Of Colonel Hammond’s own treatment of the King we learn from Charles himself, who, besides speaking of him as a man of honour and feeling, said “that he thought himself as safe in Hammond’s hands as in the custody of his own son” (Whitelock, p. 321).[191]Evidently a misprint for three-quarters of an hour.[192]Herbert’sMemoirs, pp. 85-86.[193]A Keltic derivation for both places has been proposed, but it is not on critical grounds satisfactory.[194]Gough possessed a brass coin inscribed Tetricus Sen. rev. Lætitia Augg., found here; and adds that in 1744 nearly 2 cwt. of coins of the Lower Empire were discovered in two urns. Camden’sBritannia, Ed. Gough, vol. i. p. 132.[195]The grant is given in the Appendix to Warner’sSouth-West Parts of Hampshire, vol. ii., p. i., No. 1.[196]Like those of Christchurch, the Corporation books of Lymington are full of interest, though they do not commence till after 1545, the previous records being generally supposed to have been burnt by D’Annebault in one of his raids on the south coast. Du Bellay, however, who, in hisMémoires, has so circumstantially narrated the French movements, says nothing of Lymington having suffered, nor can I find the fact mentioned in any of the State papers of the time. Take, for instance, the following entries from the Chamberlain’s books:—“1643.Quartering 20 soldiers one daie and night, going westward for the Parliamtservicexvi.s.ij.d.1646.For bringinge the toune cheste from Hurst Castellij.s.1646.Watche when the allarme was out of Warehamiiij.s.1646.For the sending a messenger to the Lord Hopton, when he lay att Winton with his army, with the toune’s consentxiiij.s.1648.For keeping a horse for the Lord General’s maniij.s.x.d.1650.Paid to Sir Thomas Fairfax his souldiers going for the isle of Wight with their general’s passexij.s.”Such entries to an historian of the period would be invaluable, as showing not only the state of the country but of the town, when the town-chest had to be sent four miles for safety; and proving, too, that here (notice the fourth entry), as elsewhere, there were two nearly equally balanced factions—one for the King, the other for the Commonwealth. I may add that a little book has been privately printed, of extracts from the Lymington Corporation books, from which the foregoing have been taken. It would be a very good plan if those who have the leisure would render some such similar service in other boroughs.[197]Warner’sHampshire, vol. i., sect. ii., p. 6; London, 1795. See, too, previously, ch. xi.,p. 122, foot-note.[198]See Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi., part ii., p. 800. Tanner’sNotitia Monastica. Ed. Nasmyth, 1787. Hampshire. No. iv.[199]I may seem to exaggerate both here and in the next chapter. I wish that I did. For similar cases in the neighbouring counties of Dorset and Sussex let the reader turn to the words “hag-rod,” “maiden-tree,” and “viary-rings,” in Mr. Barnes’sGlossary of the Dorset Dialect; and vol. ii. pp. 266, 269, 270, 278, of Mr. Warter’sSeaboard and the Down. I hesitate not to say that superstition in some sort or another is universal throughout England. It assumes different forms: in the higher classes, just at present, of spirit-rapping and table-turning, more gross than even those of the lower; and I am afraid really seems constitutional in our English nature.[200]Of the extreme difficulty of classification of race in the New Forest I am well aware. I have, however, taken such typical families as Purkis, Peckham, Watton, &c., whose names are to be met in every part of the Forest, as my guide. Often, too, certain Forest villages, as Burley and Minestead, though far apart, have a strong connection with each other, and a family relationship may be traced in all the cottages. A good paper was read, touching upon the elements of the New Forest population, by Mr. D. Mackintosh, before the Ethnological Society, April 3rd, 1861. Of the Jute element, which we might have expected from Bede’s account of the large Jute settlement in the Isle of Wight, and Florence of Worcester’s language (as before, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 276), few traces are to be found. See, however, on this point, what Latham says in hisEthnology of the British Isles, pp. 238, 239.[201]See Dr. Guest’s paper on “The Early-English Settlements in South Britain,”Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, Salisbury volume, 1851, p. 30.[202]This, of course, is not the place to go into so difficult a subject. I need not refer the reader to Mr. Davies’s paper in thePhilological Society’s Transactions, 1855, p. 210, and M. de Haan Hettema’sCommentaryupon it, 1856, p. 196. On the great value of provincialisms, see what Müller has said inThe Science of Language, pp. 49-59. InAppendix I., I have given a list of some of those of the New Forest, which have never before been noticed in any of the published glossaries.[203]In the charter of confirmation of Baldwin de Redvers to the Conventual House of Christchurch, quoted in Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. iii., part i., p. 304, and by Warner, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 47, it is called Hedenes Buria, which may suggest that the word is only a corruption. I do not for one moment wish to insist on the personal reality of Hengest, but simply to notice the fact of the High-German word for a horse being prominent in the topography of a people whose ancestors used so many High-German words. See Donaldson,Cambridge Essays, 1856, pp. 45-48.[204]On this word as explaining Shakspeare’s “gallow” inKing Lear(act iii. sc. 2), seeTransactions of the Philological Society, part i., 1858, pp. 123, 124.[205]See ch. iii.,p. 33.[206]In the parish of Eling we have Netley Down and Netley Down-field, the Nutlei ofDomesday. Upon this word—which we find, also, in the north of Hampshire, in the shape of Nately Scures and Upper Nately (Nataleie inDomesday)—as the equivalent of Natan Leah, the old name of the Upper portion of the New Forest, see Dr. Guest, as before quoted,p. 31.[207]A Keltic derivation has, I am aware, been proposed for this word. It is to be met with under various forms in all parts of the Forest. The Forest termination den (denu) must, however, be put down to this source. SeeTransactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 283.[208]See what Mr. Cooper says with regard to the affinity of the western dialect of Sussex, as distinguished from the eastern, to that of Hampshire, in the preface (p. i.) to hisGlossary of Provincialisms in the County of Sussex. For instance, such Romance words as appleterre, gratten, ampery, bonker, common in Sussex, are not to be heard in the Forest; whilst many of the West-Country words, as they are called, used daily in the Forest, as charm (a noise—see next chapter,p. 191), moot, stool, vinney, twiddle (to chirp), are, if Mr. Cooper’s Glossary is correct, quite unknown in Sussex.[209]It is surprising, in looking over the musters of ships in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III., to see how few Northern ports are mentioned. The importance, too, of the South-coast ports, which were sometimes summoned by themselves, arose not only from the reasons in the text, but from being close to the country with which we were in a state of chronic warfare. See, too, theState Papers, vol. i., p. 812, 813, where the levies of the fleets in 1545, against D’Annebault, with the names of each vessel and its port, are given; as also p. 827, where the neighbouring coast of Dorset is described as deserted, in consequence of the sailors flocking to the King’s service. I think that I have somewhere seen that our sailors were once rated as English, Irish, Scotch, and the “West Country,” the latter standing the highest.[210]From an old chap-book,The Hampshire Murderers, with illustrations, without date or publisher’s name, but probably written about 1776.[211]That is to say, the smuggled spirits were concealed either below the fireplace or in the stable, just beneath where the horse stood. The expression of “Hampshire and Wiltshire moon-rakers” had its origin in the Wiltshire peasants fishing up the contraband goods at night, brought through the Forest, and hid in the various ponds.[212]SeeDictionary of Americanisms, by J. R. Bartlett, who does not, however, we think, refer nearly often enough to the mother-country for the sources of many of the phrases and words which he gives. Even the Old-English inflexions, as he remarks, are in some parts of the States still used, showing what vitality, even when transplanted, there is in our language. Boucher, too, notices in the excellent introduction to hisGlossary of Archaic and Provincial Words, p. ix., that the whine and the drawl of the first Puritan emigrants may still in places be detected.[213]All over the world lives a similar fairy, the same in form, but different in name. His life has been well illustrated in Dr. Bell’sShakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore. In England he is known by many names—“the white witch,” “the horse-hag,” and “Fairy Hob;” and hence, too, we here get Hob’s Hill and Hob’s Hole. For accounts of him in different parts see especially Allies’Folk-lore of Worcestershire, ch. xii. p. 409, andIllustrations of the Fairy Mythology of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by J. O. Halliwell. Published by the Shakspeare Society.[214]The most popular songs which I have noticed in the Forest and on its borders are the famous satire, “When Joan’s ale was new,” which differs in many important points from Mr. Bell’s printed version: “King Arthur had three sons;” “There was an old miller of Devonshire,” which also differs from Mr Bell’s copy; and“There were three men came from the north,To fight the victory;”made famous by Burns’ additions and improvements; but which, from various expressions, seems to have been, first of all, a West-Country song, sung at different wakes and fairs, part of the unwritten poetry of the nation.[215]The Repression of Over-much Blaming the Church, edited by Churchill Babington, vol. i., part. ii., ch. iii., p. 155.[216]Dr. Bell takes quite a different view of these passages in hisShakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore. Introduction to vol. ii. p. 6. The simple explanation, however, seems to me the best.[217]See ch. xviii.p. 197.[218]The best cheese, the same as “rammel,” as opposed to “ommary,” which see inAppendix I.[219]In the Abstract of Forest Claims made in 1670 some old customs are preserved, amongst them payments of “Hocktide money,” “moneth money,” “wrather money” (rother, hryðer, cattle-money), “turfdele money,” and “smoke money,” which last we shall meet in the Churchwardens’ Books of the district. The following is taken from the Bishop of Winchester’s payments:—“Rents at the feast of St. Michael, 3s.8d.For turfdeale money, 3s.0d.Three quarters and 4 bushels of barley at the feast of All Saints. Three bushels of oats, and 30 eggs, at the Purification of the Virgin Mary.”—(p. 57.)[220]Against tracking hares on the snow and killing them with “dogge or beche bow,” was one of the statutes of Henry VIII., made 1523 (Statutes of the Realm, vol. iii., p. 217).[221]In that winter 300 deer were starved to death in Boldrewood Walk.Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv., pp. 561, 594.[222]I have never in the Forest met the old phrase of “shaketime,” or rather “shack-time,” as it should be written, and still used of the pigs going in companies after grain or acorns, according to Miss Gurney, in Norfolk.Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 35.[223]On this word, see Appendix I., under “Hoar-Withey,”p. 283.[224]By a decree of the Court of Exchequer, in the twenty-sixth year of Elizabeth, the keepers were allowed to take all the honey found in the trees in the Forest.[225]A local name for a sieve, called, also, a “rudder;” which last word is, in different forms, used throughout the West of England.[226]For other words applied to cows of various colours, see Barnes’sGlossary of the Dorset Dialect, under the words “capple-cow,” p. 323; “hawked cow,” p. 346; and “linded cow,” p. 358.[227]Glossary of the Provincial Words and Places in Wiltshire, pp. 37, 38. London, 1842.[228]See Müller’sScience of Language, pp. 345-351; and compare Wedgwood,Dictionary of English Etymology, introduction, pp. 5-17.[229]Dictionary of English Etymology, p. 260. Manwood uses “bugalles” as a translation ofbuculi.A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest, f. iii., sect. xxvii., 1615.[230]Cunning, I need scarcely add, is here used in its original sense of knowing, from the Old-Englishcunnan, as we find in Psalm cxxxvii. v. 5.[231]See ch. xvi.p. 178.[232]Apology for Smectymnus, quoted by Richardson. The word is even used by Locke.[233]Corrected from ”literally the raw-mouse”—errata[234]Miss Gurney, in herGlossary of Norfolk Words, gives “ranny” as a shrew-mouse.Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 35. The change ofeintoais worth noticing, as illustrative of what was said in the previous chapter,p. 167, of the pronunciation of the West-Saxon.[235]The word “more” was in good use less than a century ago; whilst the term “morefall,” as we have seen in chapter iv.p. 43, foot-note, was very common in the time of the Stuarts. Mr. Barnes, in hisGlossary of the Dorset Dialect, pp. 363, 391, gives us “mote,” and “stramote,” as “a stalk of grass,” which serve still better to explain St. Matthew.[236]Thorpe’s Preface to the English translation of Pauli’sLife of Alfred the Great, p. vi.[237]Thorpe’s Preface toThe Chronicle, vol. i., p. viii., foot-note 1. See, however, Lappenberg’sHistory of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings; translated by Thorpe, Literary Introduction, p. xxxix.; and the Preface toMonumenta Historica Britannica, p. 75, where, as Mr. Thorpe notices, the examples quoted, in favour of the Mercian origin of the manuscript, are certainly, in several instances, wrong.[238]I may as well add that a little way from where the Bound Oak formerly stood, near Dibden, and between it and Sandy Hill, lies a small mound, thirty yards in circumference, and three feet high in the centre, surrounded by an irregular moat, from which the earth had been taken. This I opened in 1862, driving a broad trench from the east to the centre, and another from the south to the centre, which, as also the west side, we entirely excavated; digging below the natural soil to the depth of four feet. Nothing, however, was found, though I have no doubt charcoal was somewhere present.
[151]There was formerly a cell here, subordinate to the Abbey of Saint Saviour le Vicomte in Normandy, to which it was given by William de Solariis,A.D.1163, but dissolved by Henry VI., and its revenues annexed to Eton. Tanner’sNotitia Monastica, Hants., No. xii. See, also, Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, Ed. 1830, vol. vi., part. ii., p. 1046.
[152]Same edition as before, p. iv. a. The entry is remarkably interesting. Out of its ten hydes, four were taken into the Forest. In the six which were left, there dwelt fifty-six villeins, twenty-one borderers, six serfs, and one freeman. There were here 105 acres of meadow, a mill which paid 22s., and a church with half a hyde of land. On the four hydes which were taken into the Forest, fourteen villeins, and six borderers, who had seven ploughlands, used to dwell. How very much the woodland preponderated over the arable we may tell by the additional entry, that the woods maintained 189 hogs, whilst a mill in that part was only assessed at 30d., which facts may help us to form some opinion of the kind of soil that was in general afforested. The meadows, as usual, were not touched.
[153]See Yarrell’sHistory of British Fishes, vol. ii. pp. 399-401.
[154]On this phenomenon, see Lyell’sAntiquity of Man, p. 139.
[155]The Ordnance map here falls into an error, placing Sandford a mile too far to the south; whilst it omits the neighbouring village of Beckley, the Beceslei ofDomesday, and “The Great Horse,” a clump of firs, so called from its shape, a well-known landmark in the Forest, and to the ships at sea, as also “Darrat,” or “Derrit” Lane.
[156]InArchæologia, vol. v. pp. 337-40, is a description, illustrated with a plan of these entrenchments, together with the adjoining barrows, most of which have been opened, but the accounts are very scanty and unsatisfactory.
[157]See Dr. Guest on the “Belgic Ditches,” vol. viii. of theArchæological Journal, p. 145.
[158]Gibson, in his edition ofThe Chronicle—in the “nominum locorum explicatio,” p. 50, seems to think that Yttingaford, where peace was made between the Danes and Edward, was somewhere in the New Forest, deriving the word from Ytene, the old name of the district. Mr. Thorpe, however, in his translation ofThe Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 77, suggests that it may be Hitchen.
[159]The Chronicle. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 178.Florence of Worcester, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. pp. 117, 118.
[160]Grose, in hisAntiquities(vol. ii., under Christchurch Castle), gives the following curious extract from a survey, dated Oct. 1656, concerning the duties of Sir Henry Wallop, the governor:—“Mem.: the constable of the castle or his deputy, upon the apprehension of any felon within the liberty of West Stowesing, to receive the said felon, and convey him to the justice, and to the said jail, at his own proper costs and charges; otherwise the tything-man to bring the said felon, and chain him to the castle-gate, and there to leave him. Cattle impounded in the castle, having hay and water, for twenty hours, to pay fourpence per foot.” The fee of the Constable in the reign of Elizabeth was 8l.0s.9d.Peck’sDesiderata Curiosa, vol. i., book ii., part. 5, p. 71. In the Chamberlain’s Books of Christchurch we are constantly meeting with some such entry as, “1564, ffor the castel rent for ij yeres—xiijs.vd.” “1593, ffor the chiefe rent to the castel—vis.xid.”
[161]Descriptions of it will be found in Hudson Turner’sDomestic Architecture of England, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Parker’sGlossary of Architecture, vol. i. p. 167. Grose’sAntiquities, vol. ii. Hampshire; in whose time it appears to have been cased with dressed stones. In the Chamberlain’s Books of the Borough, under the date of the sixth year of Edward VI., 1553, we meet with repairs “for the house next the castle,” which entry probably refers to some buildings belonging to the house, which, according to Grose, stretched away in a north-westerly direction to the castle.
[162]England’s Improvements by Sea and Land.By Andrew Yarranton. Ed. 1677, pp. 67, 70.
[163]As we have said, the muniment chest of the Christchurch Corporation, like that of all similar towns, is full of interest. It contains absolutions from Archbishops to all those who assist in the good work of making bridges;—letters from absolute patrons directing their clients which way to vote;—bonds from others that they will not require any payment from the burgesses, or put the borough to any expense;—old privileges of catching eels and lampreys with “lyer,” and “hurdells de virgis,” by all of which the past is brought before us. So, too, the Chamberlain’s Books are most interesting. From them we can learn, year by year, the prices of wheat and cattle, the fluctuation of wages, the average condition of the day, and both the minutest outward events as also the innermost life of the town. The true social history of England is written for us in our Chamberlain’s Books. They have unfortunately never been made use of as they deserve. Thus let me give a few general quotations from those of Christchurch. In 1578 lime was 6d.a bushel, from which price it fell within two years to 2d.Stone for building we find about 1s.a ton. Wages then averaged, for a skilled mechanic, from 7d.to 1s.a day, and for a labourer, 4d.; whilst night-watchmen, in 1597, were only paid 2d.Timber, contrary to what we should have expected, was comparatively dear. Thus in 1588 we find 9d.paid for two posts, and 20d.for a plank and two posts, whilst a few years afterwards a shilling is paid for making a new gate. Of course in all these calculations we must bear in mind that money was then three times its present value. Turning to other matters, we learn that in 1595, “a pottle of claret wine and sugar” cost 2s., whilst a quart of sack is only 12d.In 1582, a quart of “whyte wine” is 5d., and twenty years before this a barrel and a half of beer cost 4d.Again, in 1562, the fourth year of Elizabeth, large salmon, whose weights are not specified, appear to have averaged 7d.a piece. A load of straw for thatching came to 2s.6d., and in some cases 3s., which in 1550 had been as low as 8d., and never above 20d.Drawing it, or passing it through a machine, cost 4d.; whilst a thatcher received 1s.4d.for his labour of putting it on the roof.
At the same time a load of clay, either for making mortar or for the actual material of the walls, the “cob,” or “pug” of the provincial dialect, was 5d., a price at which it had stood with some slight variations for many years.
To conclude, the smallest things are noted. Thus a thousand “peats,” perhaps brought from the Forest, cost, in 1562, 15d., whilst a load of “fursen,” still the local plural of furse, perhaps also from the same place, was 8d.Nothing in these accounts escapes notice. In 1586 a “coking stole,” the well-knowncathedra stercoris, the Old-English “scealfing-stol,” is charged 10d.; whilst a collar, or, as it is elsewhere in the same book called, “an iron choker for vagabonds,” cost 14d.
[164]InArchæologia, vol. iv. pp. 117, 118, is a letter from Brander, the geologist and antiquary, describing a quantity of spurs and bones of herons, bitterns and cocks, found on a part of the monastic buildings, showing that the site had been previously occupied.
[165]Holdenhurst had ten hydes and a half taken into the Forest (Domesday, as before, iv. a). It then possessed a small church, and, as we find one mentioned in the charter of Richard de Redvers in Henry I.’s reign, we may fairly conclude that this, too, was not destroyed by the Conqueror. There were also there fisheries for the use of the hall.
[166]Cartularium Monasterii de Christchurch Twinham.Brit. Mus., Cott. MSS., Tib. D. vi., pars ii., f. 194 a. This chartulary was much injured in the fire of 1731, but has been restored by Sir F. Madden. Quoted in Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi. p. 303, Ed. 1830.
[167]For further information, especially on the fortunes of the De Redvers family, and minor details, which I think would hardly interest the general reader, see Brayley’s and Ferrey’s work on the Priory of Christchurch, London, 1834, pp. 6, 11, 22: and Warner’sSouth-west Parts of Hampshire, vol. ii. pp. 55-65, which, notwithstanding some errors, is a most painstaking history.
[168]Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, Ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 149.
[169]The possessions of the house were large, and brought in above 600l.a year. Yet we find that the brethren were in debt in every direction. At Poole, Salisbury, and Christchurch, they owed 41l.19s.6d.for mere necessaries. There was due 24l.2s.8d.to the Recorder of Southampton for wine; and a bill of 8l.13s.2d.to a merchant of Poole, for “wine, fish, and bere.” Certificate of Monasteries, No. 494, p. 48. Record Office. Quoted by Brayley and Ferrey, Appendix No. vi., pp. 9, 10.
[170]Brit. Mus., Bibl. Cott., Cleopatra, E. iv., f. 324 b.
[171]“Petition of John Draper.” Amongst the Miscellaneous MSS. of the Treasury of the Exchequer, Record Office.
[172]Archæologia, vol. v. pp. 224-29.
[173]I know nothing equal to this last screen in the delicacy of its carving, seen in bracket, and canopy, and the flights of angels; in the deep feeling especially manifest in the central bracket, with the Saviour’s head crowned with thorns, but surrounded with fruit and flowers, typical of His sufferings and the world’s benefits; and in the grave humour, not out of place, as allegorical of the world’s pursuits, which peeps forth in the figures over the two doorways.
[174]Lord Herbert’sLife and Reyne of King Henry VIII., p. 468. 1649. See, however, Froude:History of England, vol. iv. p. 119, foot-note.
[175]The year, as was generally the case, is not given to this letter, but simply December 2nd. From internal evidence, however, it was certainly written in 1539; for we know that the Priory was surrendered Nov. 28th of that year. Why, then, two years before her death, the commissioners should speak of the “late mother of Raynolde pole” I know not.
[176]Below the north transept, part, perhaps, of Edward the Confessor’s church, is a vault, which, when opened, was stacked with bones, like the carnary crypts at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, and of the beautiful church at Rothwell, in Northamptonshire—the “skull houses,” to which we so often find reference in the old churchwardens’ books.
[177]In the south choir aisle the broken sculptures represent the Epiphany, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin. Little can be said in praise of any of the modern monuments. The best are Flaxman’s “Viscountess Fitzharris and her three Children,” and Weekes’s “Death of Shelley.” Some of the others should never have been permitted to be erected, especially those which disfigure the Salisbury chapel. The new stained window at the west end adds very much to the beauty of the church.
[178]For further details the student of architecture should consult Mr. Brayley and Mr. Ferrey’s work, before referred to, of which a new edition is much needed, as also Mr. Ferrey’s paper in theGentleman’s Magazinefor Dec., 1861, p. 607, on the naves of Christchurch and Durham Cathedral, both built by Flambard, and a paper on the rood-screen in theArchæological Journal, vol. v. p. 142; and also a paper read at Winchester, September, 1845, before the Archæological Institute, on Christchurch Priory Church, by Mr. Beresford Hope, and published in the Proceedings of the Society, 1846. An excellent little handbook, by the Rev. Makenzie Walcott, the Honorary Secretary of the Christchurch Archæological Association, may be obtained in the town.
[179]Scott used to admire theRed King; but his praise must have been far more the result of friendship than of unbiassed criticism. The following lines, from Rose’s MS. poem of “Gundimore” (quoted in Lockhart’sLife of Scott, p. 145, foot-note), are interesting from their subject, and at the conclusion, though the idea is borrowed, are really fine:—
“Here Walter Scott has wooed the Northern Muse,Here he with me has joyed to walk or cruize;And hence has pricked through Ytene’s holt, where weHave called to mind how under greenwood tree,Pierced by the partner of his ‘woodland craft,’King Rufus fell by Tiril’s random shaft.Hence have we ranged by Keltic camps and barrows,Or climbed the expectant bark, to thread the NarrowsOf Hurst, bound westward to the gloomy bowerWhere Charles was prisoned in yon island tower.* * * * * * *Here, witched from summer sea and softer reign,Foscolo courted Muse of milder strain.On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to paceWhilst ebbing seas have hummed a rolling baseTo his rapt talk.”
“Here Walter Scott has wooed the Northern Muse,
Here he with me has joyed to walk or cruize;
And hence has pricked through Ytene’s holt, where we
Have called to mind how under greenwood tree,
Pierced by the partner of his ‘woodland craft,’
King Rufus fell by Tiril’s random shaft.
Hence have we ranged by Keltic camps and barrows,
Or climbed the expectant bark, to thread the Narrows
Of Hurst, bound westward to the gloomy bower
Where Charles was prisoned in yon island tower.
* * * * * * *
Here, witched from summer sea and softer reign,
Foscolo courted Muse of milder strain.
On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to pace
Whilst ebbing seas have hummed a rolling base
To his rapt talk.”
[180]Antiquities, vol. ii., where there is a sketch of the Grange as it was in 1777.
[181]For the geology of High Cliff, Barton, and Hordle Cliffs, see chapter xx. There are not many fossils in either the grey sand or the green clay before you reach the “bunny.” Plenty, however, may be found in the top part of the bed immediately above, known as the “High Cliff Beds,” and which rise from the shore about a quarter of a mile to the east of the stream.
[182]Chewton is not mentioned inDomesday. Beckley (Beceslei), which is close by, where there was a mill which paid thirty pence, had a quarter of its land taken into the Forest; whilst Baishley (Bichelei) suffered in the same proportion. Fernhill lost two-thirds of its worst land, and Milton (Mildeltune) half a hyde and its woods, which fed forty hogs, by which its rental was reduced to one-half.
[183]At this point the Marine Beds end, and the Brackish-Water series crop up; and then, lastly, the true Fresh-Water shells commence—the Paludinæ and Limnææ, with scales of fish, and plates of chelonians, and bones of palæotheres, and teeth of dichodons. See, further, chapter xx.
[184]See Lappenberg’sEngland under the Anglo-Norman Kings. Ed. Thorpe, p. 89.
[185]Yarranton, in that strange but clever work,England’s Improvement by Land and Sea(Ed. 1677, pp. 43-63), dwells at length on the quantity of iron-stone along the coast, and the advantage of the New Forest for making charcoal to smelt the metal. He proposed to build two forges and two furnaces for casting guns, near Ringwood, where the ore was to be brought up the Avon.
[186]“That narrow sea, which we the Solent term,Where those rough ireful tides, as in her straights they meet,With boisterous shocks and roars each other rudely greet;Which fiercely when they charge, and sadly when they make retreat,Upon the bulwark forts of Hurst and Calshot beat,Then to Southampton run.Polyolbion, book ii.
“That narrow sea, which we the Solent term,Where those rough ireful tides, as in her straights they meet,With boisterous shocks and roars each other rudely greet;Which fiercely when they charge, and sadly when they make retreat,Upon the bulwark forts of Hurst and Calshot beat,Then to Southampton run.Polyolbion, book ii.
“That narrow sea, which we the Solent term,
Where those rough ireful tides, as in her straights they meet,
With boisterous shocks and roars each other rudely greet;
Which fiercely when they charge, and sadly when they make retreat,
Upon the bulwark forts of Hurst and Calshot beat,
Then to Southampton run.
Polyolbion, book ii.
[187]Hall’sUnion of the Families of Lancaster and York, xxxi. year of King Henry VIII., ff. 234, 235, London, 1548.
[188]From Peek (Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i., b. ii., part iv., p. 66) we find that in Elizabeth’s reign the captain received 1s.8d.a day; the officer under him, 1s.; and the master-gunner and porter, and eleven gunners and ten soldiers, 6d.each, which in Grose’s time had been increased to 1s.(Grose’sAntiquities, vol. ii., where a sketch is given of the castle). Hurst, on account of its strength, was to have been betrayed, in the Dudley conspiracy, to the French, by Uvedale, Captain of the Isle of Wight. (Uvedale’s Confession,Domestic MSS., vol. vii., quoted in Froude’sHistory of England, vol. vi. p. 438.) Ludlow mentions the great importance of Hurst being secured to the Commonwealth, as both commanding the Isle of Wight and stopping communication with the mainland (Memoirs, p. 323). Hammond, in a letter from Carisbrook Castle, June 25th, 1648, says it is “of very great importance to the island. It is a place of as great strength as any I know in England” (Peck’sDesiderata Curiosa, vol. ii., b. ix., p. 383).
[189]Sir Thomas Herbert’sMemoirs of the two last Years of the Reign of King Charles I., Ed. 1702, pp. 87, 88.
[190]Warwick calls the King’s rooms “dog lodgings” (Memoirs, p. 334); but it is evident from Herbert (Memoirs, p. 94) that both Charles and his attendants were well treated, which we know from Whitelock (Memorials of English Affairs, p. 359; London, 1732) was the wish of the army, as also from the letter of Colonel Hammond’s deputies given in Rushworth (vol. ii., part iv., p. 1351). Of Colonel Hammond’s own treatment of the King we learn from Charles himself, who, besides speaking of him as a man of honour and feeling, said “that he thought himself as safe in Hammond’s hands as in the custody of his own son” (Whitelock, p. 321).
[191]Evidently a misprint for three-quarters of an hour.
[192]Herbert’sMemoirs, pp. 85-86.
[193]A Keltic derivation for both places has been proposed, but it is not on critical grounds satisfactory.
[194]Gough possessed a brass coin inscribed Tetricus Sen. rev. Lætitia Augg., found here; and adds that in 1744 nearly 2 cwt. of coins of the Lower Empire were discovered in two urns. Camden’sBritannia, Ed. Gough, vol. i. p. 132.
[195]The grant is given in the Appendix to Warner’sSouth-West Parts of Hampshire, vol. ii., p. i., No. 1.
[196]Like those of Christchurch, the Corporation books of Lymington are full of interest, though they do not commence till after 1545, the previous records being generally supposed to have been burnt by D’Annebault in one of his raids on the south coast. Du Bellay, however, who, in hisMémoires, has so circumstantially narrated the French movements, says nothing of Lymington having suffered, nor can I find the fact mentioned in any of the State papers of the time. Take, for instance, the following entries from the Chamberlain’s books:—
Such entries to an historian of the period would be invaluable, as showing not only the state of the country but of the town, when the town-chest had to be sent four miles for safety; and proving, too, that here (notice the fourth entry), as elsewhere, there were two nearly equally balanced factions—one for the King, the other for the Commonwealth. I may add that a little book has been privately printed, of extracts from the Lymington Corporation books, from which the foregoing have been taken. It would be a very good plan if those who have the leisure would render some such similar service in other boroughs.
[197]Warner’sHampshire, vol. i., sect. ii., p. 6; London, 1795. See, too, previously, ch. xi.,p. 122, foot-note.
[198]See Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi., part ii., p. 800. Tanner’sNotitia Monastica. Ed. Nasmyth, 1787. Hampshire. No. iv.
[199]I may seem to exaggerate both here and in the next chapter. I wish that I did. For similar cases in the neighbouring counties of Dorset and Sussex let the reader turn to the words “hag-rod,” “maiden-tree,” and “viary-rings,” in Mr. Barnes’sGlossary of the Dorset Dialect; and vol. ii. pp. 266, 269, 270, 278, of Mr. Warter’sSeaboard and the Down. I hesitate not to say that superstition in some sort or another is universal throughout England. It assumes different forms: in the higher classes, just at present, of spirit-rapping and table-turning, more gross than even those of the lower; and I am afraid really seems constitutional in our English nature.
[200]Of the extreme difficulty of classification of race in the New Forest I am well aware. I have, however, taken such typical families as Purkis, Peckham, Watton, &c., whose names are to be met in every part of the Forest, as my guide. Often, too, certain Forest villages, as Burley and Minestead, though far apart, have a strong connection with each other, and a family relationship may be traced in all the cottages. A good paper was read, touching upon the elements of the New Forest population, by Mr. D. Mackintosh, before the Ethnological Society, April 3rd, 1861. Of the Jute element, which we might have expected from Bede’s account of the large Jute settlement in the Isle of Wight, and Florence of Worcester’s language (as before, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 276), few traces are to be found. See, however, on this point, what Latham says in hisEthnology of the British Isles, pp. 238, 239.
[201]See Dr. Guest’s paper on “The Early-English Settlements in South Britain,”Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, Salisbury volume, 1851, p. 30.
[202]This, of course, is not the place to go into so difficult a subject. I need not refer the reader to Mr. Davies’s paper in thePhilological Society’s Transactions, 1855, p. 210, and M. de Haan Hettema’sCommentaryupon it, 1856, p. 196. On the great value of provincialisms, see what Müller has said inThe Science of Language, pp. 49-59. InAppendix I., I have given a list of some of those of the New Forest, which have never before been noticed in any of the published glossaries.
[203]In the charter of confirmation of Baldwin de Redvers to the Conventual House of Christchurch, quoted in Dugdale’sMonasticon Anglicanum, vol. iii., part i., p. 304, and by Warner, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 47, it is called Hedenes Buria, which may suggest that the word is only a corruption. I do not for one moment wish to insist on the personal reality of Hengest, but simply to notice the fact of the High-German word for a horse being prominent in the topography of a people whose ancestors used so many High-German words. See Donaldson,Cambridge Essays, 1856, pp. 45-48.
[204]On this word as explaining Shakspeare’s “gallow” inKing Lear(act iii. sc. 2), seeTransactions of the Philological Society, part i., 1858, pp. 123, 124.
[205]See ch. iii.,p. 33.
[206]In the parish of Eling we have Netley Down and Netley Down-field, the Nutlei ofDomesday. Upon this word—which we find, also, in the north of Hampshire, in the shape of Nately Scures and Upper Nately (Nataleie inDomesday)—as the equivalent of Natan Leah, the old name of the Upper portion of the New Forest, see Dr. Guest, as before quoted,p. 31.
[207]A Keltic derivation has, I am aware, been proposed for this word. It is to be met with under various forms in all parts of the Forest. The Forest termination den (denu) must, however, be put down to this source. SeeTransactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 283.
[208]See what Mr. Cooper says with regard to the affinity of the western dialect of Sussex, as distinguished from the eastern, to that of Hampshire, in the preface (p. i.) to hisGlossary of Provincialisms in the County of Sussex. For instance, such Romance words as appleterre, gratten, ampery, bonker, common in Sussex, are not to be heard in the Forest; whilst many of the West-Country words, as they are called, used daily in the Forest, as charm (a noise—see next chapter,p. 191), moot, stool, vinney, twiddle (to chirp), are, if Mr. Cooper’s Glossary is correct, quite unknown in Sussex.
[209]It is surprising, in looking over the musters of ships in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III., to see how few Northern ports are mentioned. The importance, too, of the South-coast ports, which were sometimes summoned by themselves, arose not only from the reasons in the text, but from being close to the country with which we were in a state of chronic warfare. See, too, theState Papers, vol. i., p. 812, 813, where the levies of the fleets in 1545, against D’Annebault, with the names of each vessel and its port, are given; as also p. 827, where the neighbouring coast of Dorset is described as deserted, in consequence of the sailors flocking to the King’s service. I think that I have somewhere seen that our sailors were once rated as English, Irish, Scotch, and the “West Country,” the latter standing the highest.
[210]From an old chap-book,The Hampshire Murderers, with illustrations, without date or publisher’s name, but probably written about 1776.
[211]That is to say, the smuggled spirits were concealed either below the fireplace or in the stable, just beneath where the horse stood. The expression of “Hampshire and Wiltshire moon-rakers” had its origin in the Wiltshire peasants fishing up the contraband goods at night, brought through the Forest, and hid in the various ponds.
[212]SeeDictionary of Americanisms, by J. R. Bartlett, who does not, however, we think, refer nearly often enough to the mother-country for the sources of many of the phrases and words which he gives. Even the Old-English inflexions, as he remarks, are in some parts of the States still used, showing what vitality, even when transplanted, there is in our language. Boucher, too, notices in the excellent introduction to hisGlossary of Archaic and Provincial Words, p. ix., that the whine and the drawl of the first Puritan emigrants may still in places be detected.
[213]All over the world lives a similar fairy, the same in form, but different in name. His life has been well illustrated in Dr. Bell’sShakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore. In England he is known by many names—“the white witch,” “the horse-hag,” and “Fairy Hob;” and hence, too, we here get Hob’s Hill and Hob’s Hole. For accounts of him in different parts see especially Allies’Folk-lore of Worcestershire, ch. xii. p. 409, andIllustrations of the Fairy Mythology of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by J. O. Halliwell. Published by the Shakspeare Society.
[214]The most popular songs which I have noticed in the Forest and on its borders are the famous satire, “When Joan’s ale was new,” which differs in many important points from Mr. Bell’s printed version: “King Arthur had three sons;” “There was an old miller of Devonshire,” which also differs from Mr Bell’s copy; and
“There were three men came from the north,To fight the victory;”
“There were three men came from the north,
To fight the victory;”
made famous by Burns’ additions and improvements; but which, from various expressions, seems to have been, first of all, a West-Country song, sung at different wakes and fairs, part of the unwritten poetry of the nation.
[215]The Repression of Over-much Blaming the Church, edited by Churchill Babington, vol. i., part. ii., ch. iii., p. 155.
[216]Dr. Bell takes quite a different view of these passages in hisShakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore. Introduction to vol. ii. p. 6. The simple explanation, however, seems to me the best.
[217]See ch. xviii.p. 197.
[218]The best cheese, the same as “rammel,” as opposed to “ommary,” which see inAppendix I.
[219]In the Abstract of Forest Claims made in 1670 some old customs are preserved, amongst them payments of “Hocktide money,” “moneth money,” “wrather money” (rother, hryðer, cattle-money), “turfdele money,” and “smoke money,” which last we shall meet in the Churchwardens’ Books of the district. The following is taken from the Bishop of Winchester’s payments:—“Rents at the feast of St. Michael, 3s.8d.For turfdeale money, 3s.0d.Three quarters and 4 bushels of barley at the feast of All Saints. Three bushels of oats, and 30 eggs, at the Purification of the Virgin Mary.”—(p. 57.)
[220]Against tracking hares on the snow and killing them with “dogge or beche bow,” was one of the statutes of Henry VIII., made 1523 (Statutes of the Realm, vol. iii., p. 217).
[221]In that winter 300 deer were starved to death in Boldrewood Walk.Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv., pp. 561, 594.
[222]I have never in the Forest met the old phrase of “shaketime,” or rather “shack-time,” as it should be written, and still used of the pigs going in companies after grain or acorns, according to Miss Gurney, in Norfolk.Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 35.
[223]On this word, see Appendix I., under “Hoar-Withey,”p. 283.
[224]By a decree of the Court of Exchequer, in the twenty-sixth year of Elizabeth, the keepers were allowed to take all the honey found in the trees in the Forest.
[225]A local name for a sieve, called, also, a “rudder;” which last word is, in different forms, used throughout the West of England.
[226]For other words applied to cows of various colours, see Barnes’sGlossary of the Dorset Dialect, under the words “capple-cow,” p. 323; “hawked cow,” p. 346; and “linded cow,” p. 358.
[227]Glossary of the Provincial Words and Places in Wiltshire, pp. 37, 38. London, 1842.
[228]See Müller’sScience of Language, pp. 345-351; and compare Wedgwood,Dictionary of English Etymology, introduction, pp. 5-17.
[229]Dictionary of English Etymology, p. 260. Manwood uses “bugalles” as a translation ofbuculi.A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest, f. iii., sect. xxvii., 1615.
[230]Cunning, I need scarcely add, is here used in its original sense of knowing, from the Old-Englishcunnan, as we find in Psalm cxxxvii. v. 5.
[231]See ch. xvi.p. 178.
[232]Apology for Smectymnus, quoted by Richardson. The word is even used by Locke.
[233]Corrected from ”literally the raw-mouse”—errata
[234]Miss Gurney, in herGlossary of Norfolk Words, gives “ranny” as a shrew-mouse.Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 35. The change ofeintoais worth noticing, as illustrative of what was said in the previous chapter,p. 167, of the pronunciation of the West-Saxon.
[235]The word “more” was in good use less than a century ago; whilst the term “morefall,” as we have seen in chapter iv.p. 43, foot-note, was very common in the time of the Stuarts. Mr. Barnes, in hisGlossary of the Dorset Dialect, pp. 363, 391, gives us “mote,” and “stramote,” as “a stalk of grass,” which serve still better to explain St. Matthew.
[236]Thorpe’s Preface to the English translation of Pauli’sLife of Alfred the Great, p. vi.
[237]Thorpe’s Preface toThe Chronicle, vol. i., p. viii., foot-note 1. See, however, Lappenberg’sHistory of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings; translated by Thorpe, Literary Introduction, p. xxxix.; and the Preface toMonumenta Historica Britannica, p. 75, where, as Mr. Thorpe notices, the examples quoted, in favour of the Mercian origin of the manuscript, are certainly, in several instances, wrong.
[238]I may as well add that a little way from where the Bound Oak formerly stood, near Dibden, and between it and Sandy Hill, lies a small mound, thirty yards in circumference, and three feet high in the centre, surrounded by an irregular moat, from which the earth had been taken. This I opened in 1862, driving a broad trench from the east to the centre, and another from the south to the centre, which, as also the west side, we entirely excavated; digging below the natural soil to the depth of four feet. Nothing, however, was found, though I have no doubt charcoal was somewhere present.