as in a graduated scale, we plainly discern the various degrees of refinement in human knowledge; and rise, as it were, to the perfection of the present period by the most pleasing ascent. May you continue your labours for the benefit of mankind, and, keeping pace with time, only end with the existence of matter!

1790, Oct.

H. L.

CXX. Curious Tenure at Chingford, Essex.

MR. URBAN,

Sandwich, April 19. IN turning over some old family papers of my grandfather Bunce's (many years ago rector of Chingford cum Pitsey, in Essex), I found the inclosed MS. If it contains any thing worth notice, make what use of it you please.

To whom this was addressed I cannot say, but plainly to some person then compiling the history of that county.

Yours, &c.

W. BUNCE.

SIR,

Chingford, Nov...,

1721.

"Being an absolute stranger to you, you must excuse me if I treat you not in character; but understanding that you are publishing a History of Essex, I think it my duty to transmit to you an account of somewhat extraordinary, and perhaps particular. There is in my parish of Chingford a farm, of about twenty pounds a year, for which every proprietor is to pay the rector homage once at his instance. Mr. Haddon, the present owner, shewed me proofs of it from Queen Elizabeth's time, inclusive, to my time, according to the subjoined form: which notice you would have had from me sooner, but that Mr. Alexander of the Commons undertook to transmit a copy of what I now send you. I am not certain whether it was last summer, or the summer before; but, not knowing whether he has done it or not, you will excuse my troubling you with this. I must be so just to Mr. Alexander, as to let you know, that when some warm people in the company objected against giving you any assistance, upon the score of your being a Dissenter, he handsomely maintained that that had no relation to history.

"I have taken the freedom to entertain both the preceding and present Bishop of London with my private conjecture about the origin of such a custom; which is, that Henry VIII. might have taken that farm from the ancient glebe, and, giving it to his falconer or huntsman, might, by way of atonement, have put this feather in the church's cap; for Henry VIII. was not without a seat or two in this parish. The farm joins to a glebe grove, and the homage carries all the air of a falconer or huntsman. If you think fit upon this, or any other account, to write to me, please to direct to Mr. Haslewood, at Mr. Bendysh's, against Princes-street, in Bedford-row, London.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,

FRANCIS HASLEWOOD, Rector ibidem."

The

"Bee it remembered, that the three-and-twentieth day of October, in the yeare of our Lord 1659, came Samuell Haddon, and Mary his wyfe, Edmond Cotster, his manservant, and Martha Walle, his maide-servant, to the parsonage of Chingford, at the commaund of Thomas Wytham, Master of Artes, and rector of the said parsonage. said Samuel Haddon did his homage there, and paid his reliefe in maner and forme as hereafter followeth, for one tenement at Chingford that is called Scottes Mayhewes, alias Brendwood, which was lately purchased of Daniell Thelwel, Esq. First, the said Samuell did blowe three blastes with a horne at the said parsonage, and afterward received of the said Thomas Wytham, a chicken for his hawke, a peck of oates for his horse, a loafe of bread for his greyhound, and afterward received his dinner for himselfe, and also his wyfe, his man, and his maide. The maner of his cominge to the said parsonage was on horseback, with his hawke on his fist, and his greyhound in his slippe. And after dinner blew three blastes with his horne at the said parsonage, and then paid twelve-pence of lawfull money of England for his reliefe, and so departed. All these seremoneyes were donne for the homage and reliefe of the said tenement at Chingford Hatch, called Scottes Mayhewes, alias Brendwood, as before hath beene accustomed to be donne time out of mind.

"Witnesses to the performance of the seremoneyes aforesaid.

1790, Sep.

"Ralphe Delle,

"Jo. Hette,

"John Woodward."

CXXI. Expences of Fox-hunting in the Thirteenth Century.

MR. URBAN,

MANY gentlemen fox-hunters being doubtless readers of the Gentleman's Magazine, it will, I imagine, contribute to their amusement, to apprize them of the style and expence of their favourite diversion almost five hundred years ago; and the account of the Comptroller of the Wardrobe of King Edward I. anno Domini 1299 and 1300, will afford them much information. This account, with prefatory observations, and a glossary subjoined, was printed not long since at the charge of the Society of Antiquaries; and the four ingenious and learned members, who were desired to superintend the transcribing and publishing of this curious manuscript, executed their commission with fewer mistakes than could well have been expected in so difficult a task. A translation of the articles which relate to fox-hunting is inclosed; and, to accommodate the curious, the original Latin shall be subjoined.

P. 308. Paid to William de Foxhunte, the King's huntsman of foxes in divers forests and parks, for his own wages, and the wages of his two boys to take care of the dogs, from Nov. 20th to the 19th of Nov. following, for 366 days, it being leap year, to each per day twopence

Paid to the same, for the keep of twelve fox-dogs belonging to the King, for the same time, each dog per day, a halfpenny

Paid to the same, the expence of a horse to carry the nets, from Nov. 20th to the last day of April, 163 days, three-pence per day

£.9 3 0

£.9 3 0

£.2 0 9

In the Observations, p. xlv. it is suggested that the allowance was a halfpenny for the keep of each for; and it is one of the very few errors that can be imputed to the respectable quartetto above-mentioned. They may have fallen into it from being in the habit of hunting a bag-fox; but it is apprehended that, in the year referred to, foxes were so numerous in England, that (in order to be sure of a chace) it was not requisite to use this precaution, or that of Sir Roger de Coverley, who owned to his confidential friends his having turned foxes about the country, that he might signalize himself in their destruction.

Paid to the same, the expence of a horse from September 1st, on which day the hunting-season began, after the dead-season, to the 19th of November, 80 days, at three-pence per day

P. 103. Paid to William d' Blatherwyck, huntsman of the King's fox-dogs, for wintershoes for himself and his two boys, to each of them two shillings and four-pence

P. 317. Paid to the same, for his habit during the present year

Paid to the same for habits for his two boys, ten shillings each

£.1 0 0

£.0 7 0

£.0 13 4

£.1 0 0

If these sums are multiplied by fifteen, there will be nearly the duè allowance made for the difference in the value of money between that time and the present*; and consequently the whole of the King's annual expence under this article amounted to somewhat more than three hundred and fifty pounds six shillings and three-pence of our money. Nor was this by any means a trivial charge, if it be considered upon how small a scale this part of his Majesty's establishment was formed; for it consisted of only the huntsman, two boys, twelve dogst, and one horse to carry the toils.

Such a hunt, though honoured by the title of royal, would be ridiculed by the subscribers to a modern fox-hunt. The cry of a dozen dogs (qu. terriers?) could make but a slight impression upon the ears of persons accustomed to the burst of twenty-five couple, and more, of hounds, which is apt to

This calculation is made without taking into the account the last article, amounting to 17. 4s. Od. which appears in the original Latin statement. E. + Besides these dogs, there is no other mentioned in the MS. except the hare-greyhound, leporar' gruar', at p. 96.-Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, derives the term greyhound from grig hund, (Saxon,) canis venaticus; though a hunting-hound seems to be an addition too general. May it not rather be a corruption of the French gruier, in Latin gruarius, a principal officer noticed in the forest laws; thus distinguishing a dog that must have been in high estimation for its fleetness in coursing in an uninclosed country. The allowance for fetching this greyhound by the King's command, and keeping it, was 11. 4s. Od. It is obvious that it could not be, according to the notion of Chambers, with respect to the colour of the dogs, that they were stiled grey, or gray; but green, with allusion to the kind of ground over which they ge. nerally ran, would not have been un-apposite, for the like reason that verdurers of forests are thus denominated. "Gruier, Gallis, apud quos idem, secundum locorum discrimina, qui verdier, forestier, &c, ex quibus pronum est vocis etymon, ex Germanico nempe gruen, vel groen, viridis; unde nostris viridarius, idem quod gruarius." Da Fresne, ad verbum,

excite so great an ebullition of joy, as seems for a time to deprive them of their senses, and stimulate them to "o'er the hedge high-bound,-into the perilous flood bear fearless, and of the rapid instinct full, rush down the dangerous steep."-This choice of glorious perils was not, however, indulged to their ancestors; since it appears from the entries, that they were pedestrian hunters.

Mortua seisona, as here used, are words that merit our attention. To the generality of people, the warm and fertile months of May, June, July, and August, are enlivening and cheerful; though by fox-hunters of former days it was deemed a dead season of the year. And from some expressions that have occasionally dropped from sportsmen of this class, with whom I have the pleasure of conversing, I am inclined to suspect that the epithet dead, when prefixed to summer, is, in their opinion, pertinent and emphatic. But it is a lucky circunstance, that the late revival of the play with bows and arrows has somewhat lessened the torpidity of the hunter's vacation.

The same phrase brings to my mind a glaring anachronism advanced by Mr. Addison in one of the entertaining papers he is supposed to have written whilst he was visiting Sir Roger de Coverley; who, we are told, hunted almost every day in the first fortnight in July: an idea surely as incongruous, and to a farmer as horrid, as Sterling's hot buttered rolls for breakfast in that month was to Lord Ogleby! The conclusion I draw from this lapse of the pen is, that Coverley-hall was situated at either Chelsea or Islington; and that Mr. Spectator was not ambling upon the chaplain's easy pad, but walking over the Five Fields, or the Spa Fields, when he had in view the imaginary doubles of the Hare*. And perhaps in this my trailing I may have been so often at a fault, as to betray my having no right to the signature of W. D. FOXHUNTE.

P. 308. Will'o de Foxhunte, venatori Regis vulper venanti in diversis forestis et parcis ad vulpes, pro vadiis suis, et duorum garcionum custod' canes Regis vulper', a 20 die Novembr', anno presenti 28, incipiente usque 19 diem ejusdem mensis anno revoluto, per

*See Spectator, No. 116; in which is the following passage: "Sir Roger being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in action has disposed of his beagles, and got a pack of stop-hounds."-Qu. In Addison's days was it the practice to hunt foxes with beagles, and a hare with stop-hounds?