Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/422

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NOTES AND QUERIES/ [9*s.xn.Nov.2i,i903.

Doncaster, and, among other sketches, made a copy of the inscription on the tomb of ' Robin of Doncaster, ' now before me ; but it differs in some respects in the spelling from that given by your correspondent. The tomb was within the church, against one of the pillars. It was about four feet high, with a flat stone top, round the four edges of which was the following inscription :

Howe Howe who is heare

1 Robin of Doncaster

And Margaret my Fear

That I spente that I had

That I gave that I have

That I lefte that I loste.

In the centre of the stone : A.D. 1579

(,VOD ROBERTS BVRKES WHO IN THIS WORLDK

DVD REYGNE THRE SKORE YEARES AND SEVEN AND YET LYVED NOT ONE.

Fear, fere, meant companion or wife. I think the church and tomb were destroyed by fire a few years ago.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

Your correspondent will find in Mr. Raven- shaw's book from which he quotes several variants of this epitaph. I would refer him particularly to pp. 5, 7, 23, and 37. Petti- grew ('Chronicles of the Tombs,' 1857) gives many more. In quoting the one to which MR. PIERPOINT refers he states that it is copied from Dr. Edward Miller's 'History of Doncaster' (p. 71), and adds that Byrkes was Mayor of Doncaster 1509, 1573, and 1577.

JOHN T. ?A(IE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

u Margaret my fere," 'i.e., my wife ; see 'N.E.D: It is printed "feare : " in Miller's 'History of Doncaster,' 4to, n.d., p. 74, pro- bably wrongly. I am afraid that the tomb perished when Doncaster Church was burnt down in the early fifties. The village of Ilossington is about four miles south-east of Doncaster. The Doncaster people, who did not know the old word " fere/' used to think that Margaret had been a terror to Robin. I do not know whether any facsimile or accurate copy of the inscription exists.

J. T. F. Winterton, Doncaster.

BATH AND BUXTON (9 th S. xii. 286). There can be little doubt that each of these places was visited by two different classes of poor during the active season viz., those who were sent, or made their way thither, to obtain treatment for their respective maladies, either in the local hospital or in some obscure

lodging ; and the professional or casual beggar. The influx of each of these must have proved a great nuisance at times, otherwise the following section in the Act of Elizabeth of 1571-2, and repeated in 1597, would have been unnecessary :

" Whereas a greate number of pore and dyseased

people do resorte to the Cytye of Bath and the

Town* of Buckston, for some Ease and Rehefe of their Diseases at the Bathes there, And by nieanes thereof the Inhabitauntes of the same Cytye of Bathe and Towne of Buckstone are greatly over- chardged with the same poore people, to their

intollerable chardge no dyseased or ympotent

poore person living on Almes shall resorte

or repayre from their Dwellings places to the

said Cytie and Towne unlesse not onely

lycensed so to do by two Justices but also pro- vided for by the Inhabitauntes of such Places

from whence they shall be so lycensed to travayle." Quoted in ' A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, by C. J. Ribton-Turner (1887), 109.

From time to time collections (" gatherings") were made throughout England in support of the local hospitals, where the poor were admitted for treatment ; thus in the Church- wardens' Accounts (MS.) of Woodbury, near Exeter, these entries appear : " 1574. P. to the pore hospytall of bathe, viij d ." "1582. Pd to one that did gether to the poor howse of bathe, vj' 1 ."

" 1586. P d to A pardoner that did gether to the poor howse of bathe, iiij d .' r

Other items in the same accounts show the contributions (under a " passport " or magis- terial order) paid by the parish through which the travelling poor had to make their way to Bath or to Buxton. Most probably their destination depended upon the distance to be traversed ; those from the Southern Counties would choose Bath, whereas the Northerners would go to Buxton :

" 1574. To a pore man having a paspote to go to the Cytie of Bathe, vj' 1 ."

" 1583. P d to A poor man that came for the bathe, vij '." Woodbury Churchwardens' Accounts (MS.).

"1693. May 8. P' 1 a pasenger Gooing to the Bath, l d ." A. L. Humphreys's ' History of Wellington, Somerset' (1889), 127.

Although the cost of maintenance was some- times defrayed by the parish from which the patient was sent, the examples yet found are uncommon ; and the great expense in- curred may indicate the reason why the parochial authorities did not encourage the practice. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Salterton, Devon.

ANIMALS IN PEOPLE'S INSIDES (9 th S. xi. 467). In connexion with the notes at the above reference and elsewhere, the