Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/211

 10* S. III. MARCH 4, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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now [it was paid in 1455] ; for their gold- wether, Qd. ; for " walkyn sylver," 6s. 8d. ; a fulling mill, 3s. 4d. ; the fishery in Rothmer [now Rydal water], 3s. 4d; the fishery of Eathaw [river], 6d.

Forest silver is defined above, and also in a rental of 1455, as a yearly payment by the tenants of these hamlets for the agistment of their animals in the forest. The reference here to the forest is explained by the fact that these hamlets, with Applethwaite and several others, had been purprestures or encroachments made in the forest of Kendal 'in the twelfth century with the approval of the lords of Kendal. These encroachments were legalized by a royal charter in 1190 (Farrer's 'Lanes Pipe Rolls,' 399). "Gold- sylver," or "goldwether," was a payment by the tenants for the service of rams kept by the lord, and resembles the ''cowmale" paid in some North Lancashire manors for the service of the lord's bull. The payment in Langdale called "yeld," or geld, is de- scribed in the rental as a new gersum or fine upon entry to lands ("de una nova

gressumma vocata yeld per annum de Lang- en"), and seems to have been a rent paid for agistment in some place where the tenants had not formerly enjoyed this liberty. The reference to a rent of 5s. a year from a pasture called Whelpstroth proves that the lords of Kendal held in demesne a several pasture in Langdale. Two different inter- pretations of " walkyng silver," as it is de- scribed in the rental of 1455, may be offered. The vast numbers of sheep bred and pas- tured upon these Westmorland fells then, as now, found employment for many weavers and fullers (or walkers). Many hamlets had their fulling mill (or walk mill), originally the property of the lord, who claimed suit of his tenants to it i.e., the tenants were bound by custom to take their cloth to the lord's fulling mill to be fulled or felted ; Cqtgrave records the term " to full, or thicken cloath in a mill." The process con- sisted in rolling the cloth with stone or wooden rollers, hence a " walker " was one who rolled cloth, A.-S. wealcere (vide Skeat's 'Etyrn. Diet.,' s.v. 'Walk')- Where the water supply was inadequate, or the cloth to be milled more abundant than the capacity of the mill, the tenants would compound for their suit to the fulling mill by a money payment, and mill or " walk " their cloth at home, or in a private mill. This payment was, I suggest, called " walking silver." This interpretation receives some confirmation from the small value of the fulling mill at Lough rigg, as compared with that at

Grasmere. Another interpretation, less satisfactory, is that the tenants of this hamlet paid "walking silver" for the right to pasture their sheep in some particular part of Loughrigg where the lords had for- merly had a "sheep-walk," long relinquished to the tenants in return for this yearly rent. In this hamlet " forest silver " yielded only 12s. a year. W. FAKREK.

Over Kellet.

"AND HAS IT COME TO THIS 1 ? "(10 th S. ill.

49.) The lines quoted by KELSO are the first four lines of a 'Sonnet to Redcoats/ originally written in 1880, with reference to words used by the Duke of Cambridge at the Mansion House, 3 November, 1880. The sonnet, although circulated largely in manuscript, did not appear in any volume of collected poems, and was not printed in any newspaper until it appeared in The St. James's Gazette (4 October, 1902), when there was much excitement upon a repetition of the outrage upon the common soldier denounced by the Duke of Cambridge : And has it come to this ? Long since, they sold

Britannia, fettered, to their harlot, Gain ;

Bartered her bound her in a golden chain- Nay, trampled our great Queen m mire of gold. And now, her warrior-sons, shall it be told

That you her "dauntless redcoats" you were fain

To hide what glorious tokens yet remain Of Her the nations feared in days of old ?

Redcoats, all hail ! They shall not have it so : Dastards, stand back, stand back make way for

men ; There 's something yet shall storm your greasy

den ; The sword is helpless 'gainst a swordless foe,

But we will conquer by the impaling pen, Or nail the shop-coat like a carrion crow !

THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 th S. iii. 88). Quotation 4 was said of F. D. Maurice by Matthew Arnold. If MR. POOLE turns to the passage in 'Literature and Dogma,' he will find that he has omitted words which make the Arnoldism perfect.

W. T.

HALLS OF THE CITY COMPANIES (10 th S. iii. 87). A. F. H. will get the information he wants from ' The City Companies of London,' by P. H. Ditchfield, M.A. (London, Dent, 1904). ARCHIBALD SPARSE.

Bolton.

A. F. H. will find much of the information he requires in ' Old and New London,' and in part ii. vol. x. of the Middlesex section of the ' Beauties of England and Wales ' (1814). In the latter volume will be found particulars