Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/499

 10 s. vm. NOV. 23. 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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COURT LEET : MANOR COURT (10 S. vii. 327, 377 ; viii. 16, 93, 334). The Court Leet of Southampton meets each year on the third Tuesday after Easter. A very able paper on this subject by Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw was published in vol. v. of The Papers and Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society in 1906. It embodies the substance of an address delivered (by him) before the Club at Cutt Thorn, the ancient meeting-place of the Court, on the " Law Day," 16 May, 1905. Therein the Professor remarks :

"It is no small thing, and it speaks by no means indistinctly of the reverence that still exists among us, that some thirty busy men of affairs can be found year by year willing to give up half a morn- ing in order to take part with smiles, and yet with intelligent appreciation, in a venerable pageant from which all substantial reality has long since

vanished The cases which the jurors presented

to the consideration of the mayor and his brethren were divisible into two large classes : serious offences, mainly felonies and the second, com- mon nuisances, trespasses, trade regulations

[also the suppression of] unlawful games, such as carding, dicing, skittle -playing, bowling, and tennis, which were supposed to interfere with the practice of archery, and to provide opportunities for conspiracy."

The Southampton Court Leet records from 1603 to 1624 have recently (1907) been issued to subscribers by the Southampton Record Society, under the editorship of Prof. Hearnshaw. The entire volume is most entertaining and instructive, and well worth the perusal of those interested in the manners and customs of the Middle Ages.

F. H. STICKLING.

Highwood, Romsey.

R. S. B. may like to know that Manorial Courts were held in October at Llantrisant Pandy, Roath, Caerphilly, and other places, in the county of Glamorgan, for the Manors of Miskin and Glynrhondda, Senghenydd, Ruthyn, &c., pertaining to the Marquess of Bute. These Courts have been held un- interruptedly from the period of the Norman Conquest, when Glamorgan and Morgannwg were seized and held by Fitzhamon. If R. S. B. would care to write to me direct, I could furnish him with many particulars as to the mode of holding these Courts (Leet, Baron, Customary, &c.), with the distinction peculiar to each. AP RHYS.

84, Adelaide Road, West Baling, W.

I think the following paragraph from The Warwick Advertiser of 26 October may per- haps interest the querist :

" The Court Leet. The ancient practice of hold- ing a court leet was witnessed at Warwick on

Wednesday morning. The Lords of the Leet are the Corporation, and the Steward is the Town Clerk (Mr. Brabazon Campbell). The latter pre- sided at the meeting of the Court Leet Jury at the Shire Hall, and the names of the jurymen sum- moned were proclaimed by the Court Crier. Two gentlemen who had sent apologies for absence were ' essoigned ' (pardoned), but another, Mr. T. J. Brett, who had omitted doing so, was ordered to be 'amerced' in the sum of fourpence. The Court Crier : I told him it would be half a guinea '.The Steward : Well, the balance is for you. (Laughter.) No public presentments were made, and the jury at once adjourned to the Court House to consider their own presentments to the Lords of the Leet."

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

PtiRiM TOKEN : CABBAGE SOCIETY (10 S. viii. 368). I have very little doubt that the Cabbage Society was a convivial club. I mve an engraving in West's ' Fifty Years' Recollections of an old Bookseller ' (Cork, 1835) with the following inscription :

" Mr. Christopher Brown | To the free and easy Counsellors under the Cauliflower, this portrait of Mr. Brown, their worthy Secretary, is respectfully dedicated by their very humble Serv' Johannes Eckstein."

WM. H. PEET.

" POT - WALLER " : " POT - WALLOPER ' ' (10 S. viii. 181, 233, 298, 371). As among the last of those who can remember seeing this class of voter assemble at an election before the Reform Bill of 1832, I should like to state that in the Cornish borough of Newport (in reality a part of Laun- ceston), which was disfranchised by that great measure, they were always called pot - wallopers. I have a vivid recollection of the last contest in that borough, which took place at the general election of 1826, and at which, as a boy of nine, I took part in some running races promoted by the Whigs in order to keep up the popular interest and excitement. Much of the curious story of this contest has been told in my youngest son's book, ' Launceston, Past "and Present.' R. ROBBINS.

Civic BARONETCIES SINCE 1837 (10 S. viii. 301). Perhaps the following may be added to the interesting note of your learned con- tributor G. E. C. One at least of the Lord Mayors, if he did not get one, considered he ought to have had a baronetcy. The knight- hood was offered to him, but he disdained it : eventually, however, five years after his mayoralty, finding " passive resistance " was useless, he accepted the knighthood. That was Sir William Anderson Rose (1820-95).