Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/455

 'flw Chevauch^e dc St. Michel. 421

toutes les fois que la Chevauchce de Sa Majestc court, et ce comme d'anciennetc."^

From this contract we learn that the mill itself was situated on the boundaries of Fiefs St. Michel and Groignet. This stone therefore must have formerly been a boundary stone, and its sanctity may be inferred from the fact that, though it quite blocked the way of carts coming up to the door, nevertheless, flat though it was, no cart might go over it, but had to back round it to discharge its freight.

The procession then proceeded by St. George, the Haye du Puits, Saumarez, Les Landes du Marche,* and the Clos- du-Valle, and made their final halt originally at the Court house of St. Michel, but in later days at the neighbouring farm house of the Cognon, where they were again rejoined by the Governor, the bailiff, and some of the principal residents ; a sumptuous dinner took place, the greffier made a concluding prayer, and the ceremony was concluded.

Needless to say, these obviously irrelevant customs pro- voked much criticism from dispassionate observers. The Rev. Thomas Le Marchant, in his Approbation et Aniviad- version des Lois, written in the middle of the seventeenth century, complains of the unsatisfactory nature of the insti- tution for keeping the roads in repair. He justly pointed. out^°: — 1st. That tiie public roads should be inspected at least twice a year instead of once in three years ; 2nd. That the inspection should take place in March or September during the bad weather, instead of in May or June when they were looking their best ; 3rd. That exactly the same route was ahva\'s followed, and many roads, and

'•Contract in Grelile.

'Somewhere near this spot stood a certain stone on which, so the Assize Roll of 1299 tells us, one Robert le Marchant, " longtemps au service du Roi," stood to read a Proclamation, and from this stone he was thrown down by John de Vivier.

^Tome I, p. 88.