Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/559

 10 s. x. DEC. 12, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

461

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1908.

CONTENTS. No. 259.

NOTES : The Manors of Neyte, Eybury, and Hyde, 461 Inscriptions at Florence, 463 Dr. Johnson's Ancestors, 465 Aldermen of Bishopsgate, 466 " Teenick "Suffra- gettes : ' The Girl of the Period Miscellany 'Richard Arundell, Master of the Mint Judgment by Telegram, 467.

QUERIES : Raid of the Bishop of Norwich in 1383 Justice Hayes's ' Within Temple Gardens ' Steepe Surname "Manytice" Meets of Hounds announced in Church Pronunciation of Iverach Authors of Quota- tions Wanted Daniel Family Card Terms, 468 Tolsey at Gloucester ' ' Comether " Index Saying Donegal History M. Homais "The Star and Crown," Gouclhurst Adrian Scrope Roman Law Derivation of Sparkenhoe The Curious House, Greenwich Benedictine El- Serujah, 469 "It is the Mass that matters "William Easby of Faceby " Morganatic " Freeholders in the Time of Elizabeth Rudge Family Vestments at West- minster Abbey, 470.

REPLIES : Ernisius : a Proper Name, 471 Hawkins Family and Anns, 472 Derivation of Edinburgh Pronunciation of Bruges, 473 Jacques Babin, ex-Noble Toothache First English Bishop to Marry, 474 'Letters left at the Pastry -Cook's,' 475 St. Godwald Authors of 'Quotations Wanted National Portrait Gallery Bridge with Figures of the Saviour, 476 Wilbraham and Tabra- ham as Proper Names " Moloker," Yiddish Term- Eleanor Wood Dickens's Surnames : Guppy Queen Elizabeth's Day The Kent, East Indiaman, 477 "St. Francis's Moon" Shakespeare Visitors' Books Fleet Prison, 478.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' The Oxford Dictionary 'Biblio- graphy of G. J. Holyoake Reviews and Magazines. Notices to Correspondents.

THE MANORS OF NEYTE, EYBURY, AND HYDE. (See ante, p. 321.)

THE site of Neyte Manor House being now, as I hope, satisfactorily determined, I would bring together what is found of its history. My search at the Record Office, favoured by the kind and valuable assistance of Mr. Salisbury, happily resulted in the discovery of papers bearing on the subject of an earlier date than hitherto noticed. With " Ministers' Accounts," under date 14 and 15 Edward II. (1320-22), are a number of receipts, indentures, &c., in connexion with the business of one Roger de Gretford, bailiff and keeper of "la Neyte." He is variously called bailiff for our lord the King at la Neyte, guardian of la Neyte, keeper (custos) of the manor of la Neyte, guardian of our manor of la Neyte, and bailiff of la Neyte near West- minster. These papers represent transac- tions relating to cattle, and show that at this time Neyte was used as a place for collecting and distributing cattle sent from

one of the King's manors to another. In this use of the place we seem to have nothing less than the origin of its name surely a very interesting discovery : Neyte for cattle, Neyte House for cattle - house, or even cow-house ! This as name for the manor house of abbots is certainly curious, and indeed unbecoming ; yet there are many instances of homely names applied to English mansions, and " Cow " is not an infrequent prefix.

A more difficult matter to explain in these accounts is that Neyte is termed the King's manor. How did this come about ? Was not Neyte in the Abbot's estate ? The only conceivable explanation seems to be that the King held it for a time by arrange- ment with the Abbot.*

Forty years after the time of our finding the King's bailiff at Neyte we have Abbot Litlington there ; it seems probable that he was the first of the Abbey lords to make it his residence. We are told by Widmore (' Hist. Westmin. Abbey,' 1751, p. 102) that " in January preceding his election [in 1362] a high wind had blown down most, if not all, of the Abbot's manor houses, and that these he [Litlington] rebuilt within three years, and better than they were before." It is probable that Neyte House was at this time rebuilt, and that it was then that the place which had served as a depot for cattle became the Abbot's residence, yet retaining its old name. The house lay a direct mile from the Abbey ; my lord's way, however, would scarcely have been direct across the desolate Tothill Fields and by the Willow Walk (if then made), but somewhat circuitously by the Chelsea Road, which passed near Neyte House. Or some- times the Abbot with his subordinate brethren, taking his barge at Westminster, might be rowed up the river to a landing- place opposite Neyte, and then, by a path of some five hundred yards through the meadows, reach his manor house. The situa- tion in those days was remote, and well suited for retirement, provided that the Abbot's retinue was sufficient to ensure his safety. His nearest neighbours were his tenants at Eybury Farm, distant a few hundred yards.

Litlington, having rebuilt Neyte as a mansion of his time (he is famed also as builder of the Abbey cloisters and domestic buildings), probably made it his retreat all the twenty-four years of his abbacv, and there he died 29 Nov., 1386.

" ;: " Evidence of this will follow.