Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/419

 10 s. VIL MAY 4, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

343

Item paide for alome, id.

Item paide for naylles, ob.

Item paide for takkynge naylles, id.

Item paide for a bastone rope, viiid.

Item paide for a pece of lyne, \d.

Item paid for takkynge naylles, id.

Item paid for papere, id.

Item paid for vii yerds of too-peney clothe,

Item for a-nother pece of lyne, \d. Item for a hundred of too-peney nayle, iid. Item paid for alome, id. Item paide for a queire of paper, Hid. Item paide for naylles, id. Item paide for a queyre of paper, ob. Item paide for another queire of paper Hid. Item paide for naylles, id.

Item paid for ii elles & a quarter of canvasse, xiiiir/.

Item paid for naylles, id. Item paid for alome, id. Item paid for gallis [galls, to make ink ?], ob. Item paid for another queyre of paper, Hid. Item paid for a bondell of lathe, \iiid. Item paid for naylles, id. Item paid for naylles, id. Item paid for naylles, id. Item paid for naylles, id. Item paide for iiii queire of paper, iid. Item paide for a queire of paper, iiiid. Item paide for naylles, id. Item paide for naylles, id.

Summa, HUH. viis. vid.

Summa of all the charges of the same play,

vili. viii-s. ixd. ob.

A. CLARK.

Great Leighs Rectory, Chelmsford. (To be continued.)

LODGE HILL, HARENGEYE.

A STORY has so often been told connecting William Wallace and Robert Bruce with the castle which once stood on the site of this place that it seems almost super- fluous to refer to it. In effect it is that William Wallace's remains were buried in the chapel of this lodge, and that Robert Bruce bent his knee on the stone which covered these remains before leaving this place of concealment, where he was in the garb of a Carmelite friar.

This romance owes its origin to Miss Jane Porter, the author of ' The Scottish Chiefs,' 1809 (reprint 1891, pp. 535, 536, and 546) ; and in justice to her it must be said that she claims no authority for it. Al- though she locates this portion of her novel at Highgate (a place which has not yet been shown to have borne that name at the date, viz., 1305), it might just as well have been placed at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, or any- where else, so far as regards its historical accuracy. Her story opens in the summer of 1296, and Ralph de Monthermer was

the Earl of Gloucester who rightly figures n it.

Prickett, when compiling his ' History of Highgate ' in 1842, took a different view of the matter, for in a foot-note on p. 147 he refers to

' Miss Jane Porter's ' Scottish Chiefs,' whose accurate tracings of these events deserve an his- torical appellation instead of that of a romance." On the same page he says :

" The remains of Wallace were then secretly removed, and deposited in the lodge of Gilbert italics mine], Earl of Gloucester, the son-in-law of Edward I."

Prickett on p. 151 is still more emphatic : " Beyond question, in this place the remains of Wallace were temporarily secreted, and from thence were ultimately restored, through the unceasing zeal of his adherents, to the country of his birth." The narrative is accepted as truth by Mr. J. H. Lloyd in his * History of Highgate,' 1888, pp. 43 and 44. Although giving Miss Porter as his authority, he embellishes the story with additions of his own ; elevates Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, to a dukedom ; and in relating the legend leaves out the Christian name Ralph (to whom the king gives the threatening warning),, in order to make it better fit in with Gilbert. It need hardly be mentioned that the latter died in 1295.

In the only pamphlet on Highgate of any worth, viz., ' On Highgate Hill,' 1889, John Pym Yeatman calls attention (p. 21) to the palpable inaccuracies ; but the legend still grows.

The Hornsey Journal, 17 Sept., 1904, repeats it in " historical " notes. In a " story " book on Hornsey, 1904, emanating from the same source, the tale is again told as " historic."

The Evening News in August, 1905, is cited in The North Middlesex Chronicle of 26 Aug., 1905, as giving a rehash, in which the Duke of Gloucester figures.

Again, in the last-named newspaper of 8 Sept., 1906, its able contributor " Chiffon- nier " prints Mr. Lloyd's version, but is careful in accepting its truth.

The Gentleman's Magazine of last January contains a remarkable review of Harringay and Hornsey, and in attempting the " his- tory " of the Lodge does not omit the story of Robert Bruce ; but in order to connect "another curious page of history" with Lodge Hill, the writer of the article pulls the Lodge down, for which there is no authority.

The Hornsey Journal of 8 March reports the Highgate Golf Club dinner, and states that the Club has leased one of the fields