Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/183

 THE HALL OF OAKHAM. 137 Such are the evidences of history, dry it must be confessed, ])ut not uniin|)ortant, bearing on the connection of the Eng- hsh inonarchs and their barons with the town and castle of Oakham. It remains for me, before offering a few remarks upon the latter, to speak upon a subject connected with both. The peculiar custom existing in this place of compelling every peer of parliament the first time he passes through the town to give a horse-shoe to be nailed upon the castle gate, and if he refuse the bailiff of the manor has poAver to arrest him in his progress and take one from his horse's foot, is a custom of ancient standing, since it is mentioned by Camden as existiug in his time. The power of a horse-shoe nailed against a door to drive away witchcraft is often described in the dramatists ; nay, the credulity nu'ght lately have been witnessed in Mon- mouth-street. lUit this practice, which the author of Hudi- bras speaks of in these lines, Chase evil spirits away by dint Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint, is undoubtedly established on the presumption of some early privilege. It has been supposed to have come as a liberty from the Ferrars, who were early lords of the demesne. There seems no other warrant for this conjecture than the fanciful jilay upon the words de Ferrariis. The rolls of parliament in the connnencement of the reign of Hen. V. set forth a peti- tion from the mayor of Dover that he may take toll of every horse passing through the town to the amount of a halfpenny, for the purpose of repairing the harbour ' ; but there is no trace in the various records that have been consulted that such an allowance was ever accorded to the town of Oakham, or to any of its proprietors. Still the early existence of the custom seems to have established it by prescriptive right. And by an Inquisition found in the Hundred rolls, made at Stamford before twelve jurors of the hundred of ]Iartinsley, in the 3rd Edw. I., (1257,) it seems that something analogous was then in existence. The jurors declare on their oath that it appears to them that the manor of Oakham, with the castle, was formerly in the hands of AVilliam the Conqueror, and was worth £100 a year and upwards; that the king gave them to Hugh, to hold from him in chief by fee for half a knight's service, who held that manor from him till Normandy was ' Rot. Pari., vol. iv. p. .3(54.