Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/382

 312 NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 S.X.APRIL 22, 1022. a deed "between the Lord of the Manor of! Twisleton and Ellerbeck in the West Riding of Yorkshire and his tenants, dated Oct. 1, 1625. (See, for this deed and the above- mentioned decree, ' Ingleton, Bygone and Present,' Balderston ; London, Simpkin, Marshall and Co. ; n.d.) The performance of the duties of greave may now be irksome, but the obligation to undertake that office originated at a time when the Manorial Courts filled a very im- portant place in the local government of the country, and it proceeded on the same principle as renders it incumbent to-day on any duly qualified person to answer a summons to serve on a jury. WM. SELF -WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe. " Grave " appears in Scotland as " grieve," a foreman or manager of a farm, and is quite common ; " gressom," also in Scotland as " grassum," as a fine or sum of money paid on a renewal of right to land. W. DOUGT.AS. 31, Sandwich Street, W.C.I. Some years ago a Driffield correspondent who pays " greave " rent sent me a copy of a receipt for a sum he had paid in this connexion and asked the origin. The receipt is No. 94 and dated from " Londesborough Estate Office, Market Weighton." It runs as follows : Received the 13th of April, 1916, of Mr. two Shillings and Nine pence, as under, being half-year's greave rent due to the Bt. Hon. the Earl of Londesborough at Lady Day last. My correspondent added that even the agent to the estate (who signed the receipt) could give no explanation as to the origin or significance of the claim. We know that the Shire Reeve (Sheriff) perambulated his part of the shire annually as representative of the king, and that to him dues were paid. On p. 212 of- ' Yorkshire Domesday Place Names ' we have a note in continua- tion of this subject (the Collection of Dues by Sheriffs) which takes us a step further : Large manors like Wakefield were divided into greave-ships, over each of which was a greave or grave, such as Sower by, Hipperholme Rastrick, Holme, &c., &c., including severa townships each. (Incidentally, "graving " and " greeaving ' are still common terms in North Yorks for digging particularly turf (peat) on the moors.) J. FAIRFAX-BLAKEBOROUGH. Grove House, Norton-on-Tees. With regard to the latter term, it appears from the following extract from a letter from Cupar, Fife, dated Feb. 27, 1789, to have been spelled " grassum " in some parts of Scotland : A small hill which produced nothing but whins, and a bog, containing in all five acres, belonging to this town, and from which no rent nor other advantage accrued to the community, was f eued out, on the 19th curt., in twelve lots, at 5 per annum, and 175. of grassum. This, and many other instances, should induce every other oroprietor of land to attempt feuing out ground on every part of his estate. It also demon- strably proves the propriety of the plans respect- ng this subject, proposed by Mr. David Young, n his first and second volumes on agriculture. JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. 39, Carlisle Boad, Hove, Sussex. DID LORD BYRON MAKE A TOUR IN CORSICA IN 1821 ? (12 S. x. 270). The answer is certainly in the negative. More- over, no such work exists as a ' Narrative of Lord Byron's Voyage to Corsica and Sardinia during the Year 1821, by Robert Benson ; London, 1824.' Robert Benson, Recorder of Salisbury, did write a book entitled ' Sketches of Corsica in 1823,' which he published in 1825, but there is not a word about Byron in it. But there is a book by an anonymous writer which was published in London in 1824, the full title of which is as follows : Narrative of Lord Byron's Voyage to Corsica and Sardinia during the Summer and Autumn of the Year 1821, compiled from minutes made during the voyage by the passengers and extracts from the journal of his Lordship's yacht " The Mazeppa " kept by Captain Benson, R.N., Commander. The author whoever he may be claims to have been one of the party, and has the effrontery to say in the Preface that he " feels assured the public will kindly receive all he says and vouches to be true." The brochure states that the party sailed from Italy on June 1, 1821. That the yacht 145 tons beat about off Messina till they entered that port on June 7. That after encountering severe weather and nearly sinking they reached Martello Bay, five miles from Santo Fiorenzo in Corsica on July 2. That ultimately they sailed from Cagliari after a tedious stay of three months and anchored at Naples on November 15. The book is very properly characterized in the Index of the London Library as "a fabrication," and the title page is like- wise so endorsed. If any further proof were needed that