Chapter M: W. B

Bruges.

Notes.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. IX.

_The Astronomical Evidence of the True Date of the Canterbury Pilgrimage._

As a conclusion to my investigation of this subject, I wish to place upon record the astronomical results on which I have relied in the course of my observations; in order that their correctness may be open to challenge, and that each reader may compare the actual phenomena, rigidly ascertained with all the helps that modern science affords, with the several approximations arrived at by Chaucer. And when it is recollected that some at least of the facts recorded by him must have been theoretical--incapable of the test of actual observation--it must be admitted that his near approach to truth is remarkable: not the less so that his ideas on some points were certainly erroneous; as, for example, his adoption, in the _Treatise on the Astrolabe_, of Ptolemy's determination of the obliquity of the ecliptic in preference to the more correct value assigned to it by the Arabians of the middle ages.

Assuming that the true date intended by Chaucer was Saturday the 18th of April, 1388, the following particulars of that day are those which have reference to his description:--

H. M.

Right { Of the Sun at noon - 2 . 17·2
Ascension { Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 12 . 5·7
{ Of the star ([Greek: delta] Virginis) 12 . 25

° ´
North { Of the Sun at noon - 13 . 47·5
Declination { Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 4 . 49·8
{ Of the star ([Greek: delta] Virginis) 6 . 43·3

° ´

{ Of the Sun at 10 a. m. 45 . 15
Altitude { Of the Sun at 4 p. m. 29 . 15
{ Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 4 . 53
{ Of the star at 4 p. m. 4 . 20

Azimuth - Of the Sun at rising - 112 . 30

H. M.

{ Of the Sun at half Azimuth 9 . 17 a. m.
{ Of the Sun at altitude 45° 9 . 58 a. m.
Apparent { Of the Sun at altitude 29° 4 . 2 p. m.
Time { Of apparent entrance
{ of Moon's centre into Libra 3 . 45 p. m.

It will be seen that, if the place here assigned to the moon be correct, Chaucer could not have described it more appropriately than by the phrase "In méné Libra:" providing (of which there can be little doubt) that he used those words as synonymous with "in hedde of Libra." "Hedde of Libra," "hedde of Aries," are expressions constantly used by him to describe the equinoctial points; and the analogy that exists between "head," in the sense head-land or promontory, as, for example, "Orme's Head," "Holyhead," "Lizard Head," and the like; and "menez" in the same sense, need not be further insisted upon. Evidence fully sufficient to justify a much less obvious inference has been already produced, and I am enabled to strengthen it still further by the following reference, for which I am indebted to a private communication from H. B. C.

"Menez, _s. m._ Grande masse de terre, ou de roche, fort élevée
au-dessus du sol de la terre.

"Mean, ou Maen, _s. m._ Pierre, corps dur et solide qui se forme
dans la terre.

"(En Treguier et Cornouailes), MÉNÉ."

(Gonidec, _Dictionnaire Celto-Breton_.
Angoulême, 1821.)

This last reference is doubly valuable, in referring the word _méné_ to the very neighbourhood of the scene of Chaucer's "Frankleine's Tale," and in dispensing with the terminal letter _z_, thereby giving us the _verbum ipsissimum_ used by Chaucer.

I must not be understood as entertaining the opinion that Chaucer's knowledge of astronomy--although undoubtedly great, considering the age in which he lived and the nature of his pursuits--would have enabled him to determine the moon's true place, with such correctness, wholly from theory; on the contrary, I look upon it as more probably the result of real observation at the time named, and, as such, adding another link to the chain of presumptive evidence that renders it more probable that Chaucer wrote the prologues to his _Canterbury Tales_ more as a narration (_with some embellishments_) of events that really took place, than that they were altogether the work of his imagination.

A. E. B.

Leeds, June, 1851.

CURIOUS EPIGRAMS ON OLIVER CROMWELL.

Looking carefully over a curious copy of the _Flagellum, or the Life and Death, Birth and Buriall of O. Cromwell, the late Usurper_, printed for Randal Taylor, 1672, I found on the back of the title the following epigrams, written in a handwriting and ink corresponding to the date of the book (which, by the way, is a late edition of the "little brown lying book," by Heath, which Carlyle notices): as they are curious and worth preserving, and I believe not to be met with elsewhere, I presume they may be of some interest to your readers. The book is also full of MS. marginal notes and remarks, evidently by some red-hot royalist, which are also curious in themselves, and with a selection of which I may some day trouble you should you wish it.

_Under Gen. Cromwell's Picture, hung up in the Royal Exchange,
these Lines were written._

"Ascend ye Throne Greate Captaine and Divine
By th' will of God, oh Lyon, for they'r thine;
Come priest of God, bring oyle, bring Robes, bring Golde,
Bring crowns, bring scepters, 'tis high time t' unfold
Yor cloyster'd Buggs, yor State cheates, Lifte ye Rod
Of Steele, of Iron, of the King of God,--
Pay all in wrath with interest. Kneeling pray
To Olivr Torch of Syon, Starr of Day.
Shoute then you Townds and Cyties, loudly Sing,
And all bare-headed cry, God save ye King!"

_The Repartee, unto this Blasphemie._

"Descende thou great Usurper from ye throne,
Thou, throughe thy pride, tooke what was not thine owne;
A Rope did better fitte thee than a Crowne,
Come Carnifex, and put ye Traytor downe,
For crownes and sceptres, and such sacred things
Doe not belong to Traytors, but to Kings;
Let therefoe all true Loyall subjects sing,
Vive le Roy! Long Live! God bless ye King!"

In regard to the little controversy which I started regarding Bunyan's claim to be author of the _Visions of Heaven and Hell_, I hope soon to decide it, as I am on the scent of a copy of, I believe, a first edition, which does not claim him for author.

JAMES FRISWELL.

12. Brooke Street, Holborn.

FOLK LORE.

_Popular Superstitions in Lancashire._--That a man must never "go a courting" on a Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on that day, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c., unless he can rid himself of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.

That hooping-cough will never be taken by any child which has ridden upon a bear. While bear baiting was in fashion, great part of the owner's profits arose from the money given by parents whose children had had a ride. The writer knows of cases in which the charm is said certainly to have been effectual.

That hooping-cough may be cured by tying a hairy caterpillar in a small bag round the child's neck, and as the caterpillar dies the cough goes.

That Good Friday is the best day of all the year to begin weaning children, which ought if possible to be put off till that day; and a strong hope is sometimes entertained that a very cross child will "be better" after it has been christened.

That May cats are unlucky, and will suck the breath of children.

That crickets are lucky about a house, and will do no harm to those who use them well; but that they eat holes in the worsted stockings of such members of the family as kill them. I was assured of this on the experience of a respectable farmer's family.

The belief in ghosts, or bogards, as they are termed, is universal.

In my neighbourhood I hardly know a dell where a running stream crosses a road by a small bridge or stone plat, where there is not frectnin (frightening) to be expected. Wells, ponds, gates, &c., have often this bad repute. I have heard of a calf with eyes like a saucer, a woman without a head, a white greyhound, a column of white foam like a large sugar-loaf in the midst of a pond, a group of little cats, &c., &c., as the shape of the bogard, and sometimes a lady who jumped behind hapless passengers on horseback. It is supposed that a Romish priest can lay them, and that it is best to cheat them to consent to being laid while hollies are green. Hollies being evergreens, the ghosts can reappear no more.

P. P.

_Folk Lore in Lancashire_ (Vol. iii., p. 55.).--Most of, if not all the instances mentioned under this head by Mr. Wilkinson are, as might be expected, current also in the adjacent district of the West Riding of Yorkshire; and, by his leave, I will add a few more, which are familiar to me:

1. If a cock near the door crows with his face towards it, it is a sure prediction of the arrival of a stranger.

2. If the cat frisks about the house in an unusually lively manner, windy or stormy weather is approaching.

3. If a dog howls under a window at night, a death will shortly happen in that house.

4. If a _female_ be the first to enter a house on Christmas or New Year's day, she brings ill luck to that house for the coming year.

5. For hooping-cough, pass the child nine times over the back and under the belly of an ass. (This ceremony I once witnessed, but cannot vouch for its having had the desired effect.)

6. For warts, rub them with a cinder, and this tied up in paper and dropped where four roads meet, will transfer the warts to whoever opens the packet.

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

_Lancashire Customs._--The curfew is continued in many of the villages, and until the last ten or fifteen years it was usual at a Roman Catholic funeral to ring a merry peal on the bells as soon as the interment was over. The Roman Catholics seem now to have discontinued this practice.

Carol singing and hand-bell ringing prevail at Christmas, and troops of men and children calling themselves _pace eggers_, go about in Passion Week, and especially Good Friday, as mummers in the south of England do at Christmas. Large tallow candles may often be seen decorated with evergreens, hanging up in the houses of the poor at Christmas time.

P. P.

_Od._--One of the experiments by which the existence of this agency is tested, consists in attaching a horsehair to the first joint of the forefinger, and suspending to it a smooth gold ring. When the elbow is rested on the table, and the finger held in a horizontal position, the ring begins to oscillate in the plane of the direction of the finger; but if a female takes hold of the left hand of the person thus experimenting, the ring begins forthwith to oscillate in a plane at right angles to that of its former direction. I have never tried the experiment, for the simple reason that I have not been able to prevail upon any married lady of my acquaintance to lend me her wedding-ring for the purpose; and even if I had found it come true, I should still doubt whether the motion were not owing to the pulsations of the finger veins; but whatever be the cause, the fact is not new. My father recently told me, that in his boyhood he had often seen it tried as a charm. For this purpose it is essential, as may be supposed, that the ring be a wedding-ring, and of course the lady towards whom it oscillates is set down as the future spouse of the gentleman experimenting.

R. D. H.

_Pigeons._--The popular belief, that a person cannot die with his head resting on a pillow containing pigeons' feathers, is well known; but the following will probably be as new to many of your readers as it was to myself. On applying the other day to a highly respectable farmer's wife to know if she had any pigeons ready to eat, as a sick person had expressed a longing for one, she said, "Ah! poor fellow! is he so far gone? A pigeon is generally almost the last thing they want; I have supplied many a one for the like purpose."

J. EASTWOOD.

Minor Notes.

_Lord Nelson's Dress and Sword at Trafalgar._--Perhaps you may think it worth while to preserve a note written by the late Rev. Dr. Scott on the 498th page of the second volume of Harrison's _Life of Lord Nelson_, in contradiction of a bombastic description therein given of the admiral's dress and appearance at the battle of Trafalgar.

"This is wrong, he wore the same coat he did the day before; nor
was there the smallest alteration in his dress whatsoever from
other days. In this action he had not his sword with him on deck,
which in other actions he had always carried.--_A. J. Scott._"

Dr. Scott was the chaplain and friend in whose arms Lord Nelson died.

When the late Sir N. Harris Nicolas was engaged in a controversy in _The Times_, respecting the sale of Lord Nelson's sword, I sent him a copy of the above note, and told him I had heard Dr. Scott say that "the sword was left hanging in the admiral's cabin." It was not found necessary to make use of this testimony, as the dispute had subsided.

ALFRED GATTY.

_Crucifix of Mary Queen of Scots._--The crucifix that belonged to this unfortunate queen, and which she is said to have held in her hands on the scaffold, is still preserved with great care by its present owners (a titled family in the neighbourhood of Winchester), and at whose seat I have frequently seen it. If I mistake not, the figure of our Saviour is of ivory, and the cross of ebony.

THE WHITE ROSE.

_Jonah and the Whale._--In No. 76., p. 275., Mr. Gallatly calls attention to the popular error in misquoting the expression from Genesis: "In the sweat of thy face," &c. There is another popular error which may not be known to some of your correspondents: it is generally supposed that Jonah is recorded in the book bearing his name as having been swallowed by a _whale_,--this is quite an error. The expressions is "a great fish," and no such word as _whale_ occurs in the entire "Book of Jonah."

E. J. K.

_Anachronisms of Painters._--I send you a further addition to the "Anachronisms of Painters," mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 369., and, like them, not in D'Israeli's list.

My father (R. Robinson, of the Heath House, Wombourne) has in his collection a picture by Steenwyk, of the "Woman taken in Adultery," in which our Lord is made to write in _Dutch_! The scene also takes place in a church of the architecture of the thirteenth century!

G. T. R.

Wombourne, near Wolverhampton.

Queries.

Minor Queries.

_Rifles._--"_We_ make the best rifles, and you follow us," said the exhibitor of Colt's revolvers, in my hearing, with a most satisfied assurance, in a way "particularly communicative and easy," as _The Times_ of the 9th of June says of his general manner. I am always desirous of information, but desire the highest authority and evidence before I believe. I would therefore ask the opinion of all experienced sportsmen, such as Mr. Gordon Cumming, or of travelled officers of our Rifle Brigade. I may say, that if the above unqualified remark came from the mouth of an English maker, I should be equally incredulous. Is there any use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English one?

A. C.

_Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls._--Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls, near Romsey, Hants? There are the remains of a palace of the Saxon kings still there, many parts of which are in good preservation, the chapel being now used as the kitchen of Stanbridge House?

I have also read that one of the kings was buried in this chapel, and afterwards removed to Winchester; but, having no note of the book, should be glad to be referred to it.

COLLY WOBBLES.

_Montchesni, or Muncey Family._--Can any of your correspondents inform us what has become of the Norman line of Montchesni, or Muncey, a family which, like those of Maldebauge and De Loges, held baronial rank in England for several generations after the Conquest, though it is now forgotten?

P.

_Epitaph on Voltaire._--The late Sir F. Jeffrey, in a review of the correspondence of Baron de Grimm, quotes an epitaph on Voltaire, which he states to have been made by a lady of Lausanne:

"Ci gît l'enfant gaté du monde qu'il gata."

Has the name of this lady been ascertained?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

_Passage in Coleridge's Table Talk._--In _Specimens of Coleridge's Table Talk_ (p. 165., Murray, 1851) appears the following:--

"So little did the early bishops and preachers think their
Christian faith wrapped up in, and solely to be learned from, the
New Testament, that I remember a letter from ----[1] to a friend
of his, a bishop in the East, in which he most evidently speaks of
the _Christian_ scriptures as of works of which the bishop knew
little or nothing."

[Footnote 1: "I have lost the name which Mr. Coleridge
mentioned."--_Editor's Note._]

My object is to know how this blank is to be filled up--probably by the name of some well-known father of the Church.

GEORGE LEWES.

Oxford, May 28.

_"Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."_--These words are given in Young's _Night Thoughts_ as a quotation. Can any of your correspondents inform me whence they are taken?

E. J. K.

_Etymology of Bicêtre._--In a work entitled _Description routière et géographique de l'Empire Français_, by R. V., Paris, 1813, the following notice of Bicêtre occurs in vol. i. p. 84.:--

"On voit bientôt, à peu de distance à droite, d'abord dans un
bas-fond, arrosé par la petite rivière de Bièvre ou des Gobelins,
le village de Gentilly, qui se vante de quelqu'ancienneté, et d'un
Concile tenu en 767; ensuite, sur une éminence, au bout d'une
jolie avenue en berceau, l'hôpital de Bicêtre, qui, fondé en 1290
par un Evêque de Paris, appartint depuis, dit-on, à un Evêque de
Wincester ou Wincestre, d'où par corruption on a fait Bicêtre.

"C'est une chose assez piquante que cette étymologie anglaise. Les
auteurs qui nous l'apprennent eussent bien dû nous en apprendre
aussi les circonstances. J'ai consulté à cet égard tout ce qui
était à consulter, sans faire d'autre découverte que quelques
contradictions dans les dates, et sans pouvoir offrir aucun
éclaircissement historique à mes lecteurs, aussi curieux que moi,
sans doute, de savoir comment un prélat anglais est venu donner le
nom de son évêché à un château de France."

Is there any warrant in English history for this derivation of Bicêtre; and if so, who was the Bishop of Winchester that gave the name of his diocese to that celebrated hospital?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

_Theobald Anguilbert and Michael Scott._--M. Barbier, in his _Dictionnaire des Ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes_, says that Michael Scott is a pseudonyme for Theobald Anguilbert, and ascribes the _Mensa philosophica_ to the latter as the real author. Can any one tell me who is Theobald Anguilbert, for I can find no account of him anywhere? and if there ever was such a person, whether _all_ the writings bearing the name of Michael Scott, who, by all accounts, appears to have been a real person, are to be assigned to the said Anguilbert?

TYRO.

Dublin.

_"Suum cuique tribuere," &c._--Can any of your readers tell me where the following passage is to be found?

"Suum cuique tribuere, ea demum summa justitia est."

All persons of whom I have inquired, tell me it is from Cicero, but no one can inform me _where_ it is to be found.

M. D.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Organs first put up in Churches._--In the parish register of Buxted, in Sussex, allusion is made to the time when the organs were put up in the church, but which had been taken down. This entry was made in the year 1558. Any information as to the earliest period when organs were placed in our churches will much oblige.

R. W. B.

[Our correspondent will find some interesting matter on the early
use of organs in churches in the Rev. F. D. Wackerbath's _Music
and the Anglo-Saxons_, pp. 6-24. London. 8vo. 1837.]

_Ignoramus, Comoedia, &c._--Perhaps some of your correspondents can enlighten me on the following points.

1. Who was the author of this play? The Latin is sufficiently ultra-canine for his pedantic majesty himself.

2. Do the words "coram Regia Maiestate _Jacobi, Regis Angliæ_," &c., mean that the play was acted in the presence of the king? I am inclined to give them that interpretation from some allusions at the end of the last act, as well as from its being written in Latin.

3. Are any of the race-courses therein mentioned still used as such?

"In Stadio Roystoniensi, Brackliensi, Gatterliensi, Coddington."

This is the earliest mention of _fixed_ English race-courses that I have met with, and not being much versed in the secrets of the modern "cespite vivo," I am obliged to inquire of those who are better informed on that subject.

F. J.

[The author of _Ignoramus_ was George Ruggles, A. M., of Clare
Hall, Cambridge. This comedy, as well as that of _Albumazar_, were
both acted before King James I. and the Prince of Wales, during a
visit to Cambridge in March, 1614-15. The edition of _Ignoramus_,
edited by J. S. Hawkins, 8vo., 1787, contains a Life of Ruggles,
and a valuable Glossary to his "ultra-canine Latin" legal terms.
There is also a translation of this comedy, with the following
title: "_Ignoramus: a Comedy as it was several times acted with
extraordinary applause before the Majesty of King James._ With a
Supplement, which (out of respect to the Students of the Common
Law) was hitherto wanting. Written in Latine by R. Ruggles,
sometime Master of Arts in Clare Hall, in Cambridge, and
translated into English by R. C. [Robert Codrington, A. M.] of
Magdalen Colledge, in Oxford. London. 4to. 1662."]

_Drake's Historia Anglo-Scotica._--Will any of your learned readers inform me, for what reason and by what authority Drake's _Historia Anglo-Scotica_, published in 1703, was ordered to be burned by the hangman? And where I can meet with a report of the proceedings relating to it?

FRA. MEWBURN.

Darlington.

[Dr. Drake was not the author, but merely the editor of _Historia
Anglo-Scotica_. In the dedication he says, "Upon a diligent
revisal, in order, if possible, to discover the name of the
author, and the age of his writing, he found that it was written
in, or at least not finished till, the time of Charles I." It is
singular, however, that he does not give the least intimation by
what mysterious influence the manuscript came to be wafted into
his library. It was ordered by the parliament of Scotland, on the
30th of June, 1703, to be burned by the common hangman.]

Replies.

CORPSE PASSING MAKES A RIGHT WAY.

(Vol. iii., p. 477.)

The fact of the passage of a funeral procession over land, from being an act of user of a very public character, must always have had some influence on the trial of the question whether the owner of the land had dedicated the same to the public; and it is not improbable that in early times very great weight was attached to evidence of this kind: so that the passage of a corpse across land came to be considered in the popular mind as conclusive and incontrovertible evidence of a public right of way over that land. With the reverence for the dead which is so pleasing a characteristic of modern refinement, it is probable that acts of user of this description would now have little weight, inasmuch as no man of right feeling would be disposed to interrupt parties assembled on so mournful and solemn an occasion. I recollect, however, having read a trial in modern times for a riot, arising out of a forcible attempt to carry a corpse over a field against the will of the landowner; the object of the parties in care of the corpse was believed to be the establishment of a public right of way over the field in question, the owner of which, with a body of partisans, forcibly resisted the attempt, on the apparent belief that the act of carrying a corpse across the field would certainly have established the right claimed. I regret I did not "make a Note" of the case, so as to be able to specify the time, place, and circumstances with certainty.

That the notion in question is of great antiquity may I think be inferred from the following passage in _Prynne's Records_, iii. 213., referring to Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, 1258-1280 (and as the authority for which, Prynne cites Holinshed's _Chronicle_, 1303, 1304; and Godwin's _Catalogue of Bishops_, 326.):--

"He did by a Policy purchase the Lordship and House of Clift
Sachfeld, and enlarged the Barton thereof by gaining of Cornish
Wood from the Dean and Chapter fraudulently; building then a very
fair and sumptuous house there; he called it Bishop's Clift, and
left the same to his successors. Likewise he got the Patronage of
Clift Fomesone, now called Sowton, and annexed the same to his new
Lordship, which (as it was said) he procured by this means. He had
a Frier to be his Chaplain and Confessor, which died in his said
House of Clift, and should have been buried at the Parish Church
of Faringdon, because the said House was and is in that Parish;
but because the Parish Church was somewhat farre off, the wayes
foul, and the weather rainy, or for some other causes, the Bishop
commanded the corps to be carryed to the parish church of Sowton,
then called Clift Fomeson, which is very near, and bordereth upon
the Bishop's Lordship; the two Parishes being then divided by a
little Lake called Clift. At this time one Fomeson, a Gentleman,
was Lord and Patron of Clift Fomeson; and he, being advertised of
such a Burial towards in his Parish, and a leech way to be made
over to his Land, without his leave or consent required therein;
calleth his Tenants together, goeth to the Bridge over the lake
between the Bishop's Land and his; there meeteth the Bishop's men,
bringing the said Corps, and forbiddeth them to come over the
water. The men nothing regarding the Prohibition, do press
forwards to come over the water, and the others do withstand, so
long, that in the end, my Lord's Fryer is fallen into the Water.
The Bishop taketh this matter in such grief, that a holy Fryer, a
Religious man, his own Chaplain and Confessor, should be so
unreverently cast into the Water, that he falleth out with the
Gentleman, and upon what occasion I know not, he sueth him in the
Law (in his own Ecclesiastical Court, where he was both party and
Judge), and so vexeth and tormenteth him, that in the end he was
fain to yeeld himself to the Bishop's devotion, and seeketh all
the wayes he could to carry the Bishop's good will, which he could
not obtain, until for redemption he had given up and surrendered
his patronage of Sowton, with a piece of land; all which the said
Bishop annexed to his new Lordship."

In "An Exhortation, to be spoken to such Parishes where they use their Perambulation in Rogation Week; for the Oversight of the Bounds and Limits of their Town," is a curious passage, which I subjoin:

"It is a shame to behold the insatiableness of some covetous
persons in their doings; that where their ancestors left of their
land a broad and sufficient bier-balk, to carry the corpse to the
Christian sepulture, how men pinch at such bier-balks, which by
long use and custom ought to be inviolably kept for that purpose;
and now they quite eat them up, and turn the dead body to be borne
farther about in the high streets; or else, if they leave any such
meer, it is too straight for two to walk on."--_Homilies_, ed.
Corrie, p. 499.

It may perhaps be considered not quite irrelevant here to state that there seems once to have been an opinion, that the passage of the sovereign across land had the effect of making a highway thereon. The only allusion, however, to this opinion which I can call to mind, occurs in Peck's _Antiquarian Annals of Stanford_, lib. xi. s. xii.; an extract from which follows:--

"From Stanford King Edward, as I conceive, went to Huntingdon; for
in a letter of one of our kings dated at that town the 12th of
July (without any year or king's name to ascertain the time and
person it belongs to), the King writes to the aldermen and
bailiffs of Stanford, acquainting them, that, when he came to
Stanford, he went through Pilsgate field (coming then I suppose
from Peterborough), and, it being usual it seems that whatever way
the King rides to any place (though the same was no public way
before) for everybody else to claim the same liberty afterwards,
and thenceforth to call any such new passage the King's highway;
being followed to Huntingdon by divers of his own tenants,
inhabitants of Pilsgate, who then and there represented the damage
they should sustain by such a practice, the King by his letters
immediately commanded that his passing that way should not be made
a precedent for other people's so doing, but did utterly forbid
and discharge them therefrom. His letter, directed 'to our dearly
beloved the alderman, bailiffs, and good people of our Town of
Stanford,' upon this occasion, is thus worded:--'Dear and
well-beloved friends, by the grievous complaint of our beloved
lieges and tenents of the town of Pillesyate near our town of
Staunford, we have understood, that, in as much as, on Tuesday
last, we passed through the middle of a meadow and a certain
pasture there called Pillesyate meadow appertaining to the said
town of Pillesyate, you, and others of the country circumjacent,
claim to have and use an high way royal to pass through the middle
of the said meadow and pasture, to the great damage and disseisin
of our said lieges and tenents, whereupon they have supplicated
for a remedy; so we will, if it be so, and we command and charge
firmly, that you neither make nor use, nor suffer to be made nor
used by others of our said town of Staunford, nor others
whatsoever, no high road through the middle of the said meadow and
pasture; but that you forbear from it entirely, and that you cause
it to be openly proclaimed in our said town, that all others of
our said town and the country round it, do likewise; to the end
that our said tenents may have and peaceably enjoy the said meadow
and pasture, so, and in the manner, as they have done before these
times, without disturbance or impeachment of you or others, of
what estate or condition soever they be, notwithstanding that we
passed that way in manner as is said. And this in no manner fail
ye. Given under our signet at Huntyngdon the 12th day of July.'"

I am unable to say whether the opinion it was the object of the above royal letter to refute was general, or was peculiar to the "good people" of Stanford, "and others of the country circumjacent."