NOTES TO THE BOOK OF CURTASYE. p. 310, 1. 377-8, Statut. The only Statute about horse-hire that I can find, is 20 Ric. II. cap. 5, A.D. 1396-7, given below. I suppose the Foure pens of 1. 376 of the Boke of Curtasye was the price fixed by "the kyngis crye or Proclamation, 1. 378, or by the sheriff or magistrates in accordance with it as the "due Agreement to the party" required by the Statute. "Item. Forasmuch as the Commons have made Complaint, that many great Mischiefs Extortions & Oppressions be done by divers people of evil Condition, which of their own Authority take & cause to be taken royally Horses and other Things, and Beasts out of their Wains Carts and Houses, saying & devising that they be to ride on hasty Messages & Business, where of Truth they be in no wise privy of any Business or Message, but only in Deceit & Subtilty, by such Colour and Device to take Horses, and the said Horses hastily to ride & evil entreat, having no Manner of Conscience or Compassion in this Behalf, so that the said Horses become all spoiled and foundered, paying no manner of Thing nor penny for the same, nor giving them any manner of sustenance; and also that some such manner of people, changing & altering their Names, do take and ride such Horses, and carry them far from thence to another Place, so that they to whom they belong, can never after by any mean see, have again, nor know their said Horses where they be, to the great Mischief Loss Impoverishment & Hindrance of the King's poor People, their Husbandry, and of their Living: Our Lord the King willing, for the Quietness and Ease of his People, to provide Remedy thereof, will & hath ordained, That none from henceforth shall take any such Horse or Beast in Such Manner, against the Consent of them to whom they be; and if any that do, and have no sufficient Warrant nor Authority of the King, he shall be taken and imprisoned till he hath made due Agreement to the Party." That this seizing of horses for the pretended use of the king was no fancied grievance, even in much later times, is testified by Roger Ascham's letter to Lord Chancellor Wriothesley (? in 1546 A.D.) complaining of an audacious seizure of the horse of the invalid Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, on the plea that it was to carry the king's fish, whereas the seizer's own servant was the nag's real burden: "tentatum est per hominem apud nos valde turbulentum, nomine Maxwellum." Ascham's Works, ed. Giles, v. 1, p. 99. In vols. ix., x., and xi. of Rymer, I find no Proclamation or Edict about horse-hire. In 1413 Henry V.'s Herbergeator is to pro vide Henry le Scrop, knight, with all that he wants "Proviso semper quòd idem Henricus pro hujusmodi Fœnis, Equis, Carectis, Cariagiis, & aliis necessariis, per se, seu Homines & Servientes suos prædictos, ibidem capiendis, fideliter solvat & satisfaciat, ut est justum." Rymer, ix. 13. The general rule shown by the documents in Rymer is that reasonable payments be made. De Equis pro Cariagio Gunnorum Regis capiendis. A.D. 1413 (1 Sept.), An. 1. Hen. V. Pat. 1, Hen. V. p. 3, m. 19. Rex, Dilectis sibi, Johanni Sprong, Armigero, & Johanni Louth Clerico, Salutem. Sciatis quod Assignavimus vos, conjunctim & divisim, ad tot Equos, Boves, Plaustra, & Carectas, quot pro Cariagio certorum Gunnorum nostrorum, ac aliarum Rerum pro eisdem Gunnis necessarium, a Villa Bristolliæ usque Civitatem nostram Londoniæ, indiguerint, tàm infra Libertates, quàm extea (Feodo Ecclesiæ dumtaxat excepto) pro Denariis nostris, in hac parte rationabiliter solvendis Capiendum & Providendum. Rymer, ix. p. 49. So in 1417 the order to have six wings plucked from the wing of every goose (except those commonly called Brodoges-? brood geese-) to make arrows for our archers, says that the feathers are rationabiliter solvendis. See also p. 653. p. 310, 1. 358. The stuarde and his stufe. Cp. Cavendish's Life of Wolsey (ed. Singer, i. 34), "he had in his hall, daily, three especial tables furnished with three principal officers; that is to say, a Steward, which was always a dean or a priest; a Treasurer, a knight; and a Comptroller, an esquire; which bare always within his house their white staves. "Then had he a cofferer, three marshals, two yeomen ushers, two grooms, and an almoner. He had in the hall-kitchen two clerks of his kitchen, a clerk comptroller, a surveyor of the dresser, a clerk of his spicery." See the rest of Wolsey's household officers, p. 34-9. p. 312, 1. 409. Ale. See in Notes on the Months, p. 418, the Song "Bryng us in good ale," copied from the MS. song-book of an Ipswich Minstrel of the 15th century, read by Mr Thomas Wright before the British Archæological Association, August, 1864, and afterwards published in The Gentleman's Magazine. P.S.-The song was first printed complete in Mr Wright's edition of Songs & Carols for the Percy Society, 1847, p. 63. He gives Ritson's incomplete copy from Harl. MS. 541, at p. 102. Bryng us in good ale, and bryng us in good ale; Bryng us in no browne bred, fore that is made of brane, Bryng us in no befe, for there is many bonys; Bryng us in no bacon, for that is passing fate; Bryng us in no mutton, for that is often lene, Bryng us in no eggys, for ther ar many schelles; Bryng vs in no butter, for therin ar many herys, Bryng us in no podynges, for therin is al Godes-good; Bryng us in no capons flesch, for that is ofte der; See also the other ale song at p. 81 of the same volume, with the burden Ale mak many a mane to have a doty poll. p. 313, 1. 435, Gromes. "the said four groomes, or two of them at the least, shall repaire and be in the King's privy chamber, at the farthest between six and seven of the clock in the morning, or sooner, as they shall have knowledge that the King's highnesse intendeth to be up early in the morning; which groomes so comen to the said chamber, shall not onely avoyde the pallets, but also make ready the fire, dresse and straw the chamber, purgeing and makeing cleane of the same of all manner of filthynesse, in such manner and wise as the King's highnesse, at his upriseing and comeing thereunto, may finde the said chamber pure, cleane, whollsome, and meete, without any displeasant aire or thing, as the health, commodity, and pleasure of his most noble person doth require." Household Ordinances, p. 155, cap. 56, A.D. 1526. [Postscript, added after the Index had been printed.] Ffor to serve a lord. [From the Rev. Walter Sneyd's copy of Mr Davenport Bromley's MS.] MR SNEYD has just told me that Mr Arthur Davenport's MS. How to serve a Lord, referred to in my Preface to Russell, p. cvii, is in fact the one from Mr Sneyd's copy of which his sister quoted in her edition of the 'Italian Relation of England' mentioned on pp. xiv, xv of my Forewords. Mr Sneyd says: 'I made my copy nearly fourty years ago, during the lifetime of the late Mr A. Davenport's grandfather, who was my uncle by marriage. I recollect that the MS. contains a miscellaneous collection of old writings on various subjects, old recipes, local and family memoranda, &c., all of the 15th century; and, bound up with them in the old vellum wrapper, is an imperfect copy of the first edition of the Book of St Alban's. On Mr Arthur Davenport's death, last September, the MS. (with the estates) came into the possession of Mr Davenport Bromley, M.P., but a long time must elapse before it can be brought to light, as the house you mention is still unfinished, and the boxes of books stowed away in confusion.' On my asking Mr Sueyd for a sight of his copy, he at once sent it to me, and it proved so interesting-especially the Feast for a Bride, at the end-that I copied it out directly, put a few notes to it, and here it is. For more notes and explanations the reader must look the words he wants them for, out in the Index at the end of Part II. The date of the Treatise seems to me quite the end of the 15th century, if not the beginning of the 16th. The introduction of the Chamber, p. 373, the confusion of the terms of a Carver, 'unlose or tire or display', p. 377-enough to make a well-bred Carver faint: even Wynkyn de Worde in 1508 and 1513 doesn't think of such a thing-the cheese shred with sugar and sage-leaves, 1 Though it goes against one's ideas of propriety to print from a copy, yet when one wants the substance of a MS., it's better to take it from a copy, when you can get it, than fret for five years till the MS. turns up. When it does so, we can print it if necessary, its owner permitting. |