Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/318

 310

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. APKIL 21, 1900.

I believe, is Old Sarurn, notwithstanding the notion of the writer in the Quarterly that the central work there is British like the outer ring. There are a few other cases of the addition of mounded citadels to camps pre- sumably British; a remarkable parallel to Old Sarum is found in the great hill-fort on the Herefordshire Beacon, and a still plainer case (because there a base-court as well as a mound has been erected within the older lines) may be seen at Hembury Fort, near Buckfastleigh, Devon.

Buckinghamshire. Ellesborough, Great Kimble, High Wycombe.

Derbyshire. Bake well.

Devon. Bampton, Exeter, Hembury Fort, Lid- ford, Okehampton, North Tawton.

Dorset. Chelborough, Corfe, Powerstock, Stur- minster.

Essex. Rayleigh.

Gloucestershire. Brimpsfield, Cirencester, Dy- mock.

Hampshire. Merdon.

Herefordshire. (Here, where nearly every castle in a thickly fortified borderland has a mound, Mr. Clark's list contains six examples only. ) Almley, Clifford (Clark, 'Med. Mil. Arch.,' i. 396, denies this the character of a "burh "; I cannot see why), Cusop, Eardisley, Eccleswall, Herefordshire Beacon, Kingsland, Lingen, Longtown (here are two, Ewias Lacy Castle and a "mote "so called on the spot- halfway between it and Clodock Church), Much Marcle (Mortimer's Castle), Mouse Castle, St. Weonard (?), Stapleton, Thruxton (?), Tretire, Weobley.

Kent. Chilham, Dover.

Lincolnshire. Barrow Castles, Castle Bytham, Corby, Folkingham, Hough-on-the-Hill.

Monmouthshire. Dingestow.

Rutland. Is there any occult reason why Clark always places Belvoir under this county?

Shropshire. Berth Hill (Baschurch a most curious group), Brockhurst, Knockin, Stapleton, Whittington.

Surrey. Reigate.

Sussex. Midhurst (?).

Wiltshire. Downton, Ludgershall, Mere, Sher- rington, Stapleford.

North Wales. Brecon, Hay, New Radnor.

J. A. RUTTER.

CAXTON'S GOOD PRIEST.

AT the end of William Caxton's 'Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope' (which in- cludes also some from Avianus, Alfonsus, and Poggio) he gives an anecdote that seems to me worthy to be placed side by side with Chaucer's picture of the good parson. Mr. Joseph Jacobs's comment on this story is that it was

"added by Caxton to clear out as it were the bad taste of the Poggiana from our mouth ; pro- bably a true anecdote of the time." Edition of Caxton's ' Esop,' i. 268, ii. 315.

The story, modernized in spelling, reads thus :

" Now then I will finish all these fables with this tale that followeth, which a worshipful priest and a parson told me late. He said that there were dwelling in Oxenford two priests, both masters of art, of whom the one was quick and could put himself forth, and that the other was a good simple priest. And so it happed that the master that was pert and quick was anon promoted to a benefice or twain, and after to prebends, and for to be a Dean of a great prince's chapel, supposing and weening that his fellow, the simple priest, should never have be promoted, but be always an annual or at most a parish priest. So after a time this Dean came riding into a good parish with a ten or twelve horses, like a prelate, and came into the church of the said parish, and found there this good, simple man, sometime his fellow, which came and wel- comed him lowly. And that other bad him, ' Good morrow, Master John,' and took him slightly by the hand, and asked him where he dwelled. And the good man said, * In this parish.' ' How,' said he, 'are ye here a Soul Priest or a Parish Priest?' ' Nay, sir,' said he, ' for lack of a better, though I be not able ne worthy, I am Parson and Curate of this parish.' And then that other availed his bonnet, and said, ' Master Parson, I pray you not to be displeased. I had supposed ye had not be bene- ficed. But, Master,' said he, ' I pray you what is this benefice worth to you a year?' 'Forsooth,' said the good simple man, ' I wot never, for I never make accounts thereof, how well I have had it four or five year.' ' And know ye not,' said he, ' what it is worth? It should seem a good benefice.' 'No, forsooth,' said he, ' but I wot well what it shall be worth to me.' ' Why,' said he, ' what shall it be worth?' 'Forsooth/ said he, 'if I do my true diligence in the cure of my parish, in preaching and teaching, and do my part longing to my cure, I shall have heaven therefor. And if their souls ben lost or any of them by my default I shall be punished therefor. And hereof I am sure.' And with that word the rich Dean was abashed, and thought that he should be the better, and take more heed to his cures and benefices. This was a good answer of a good priest and an honest."

In transcribing this anecdote I have been struck by the modern quality of Caxton's style. Except in writing " asked " for " axed," no change has been made, but the obsolete phrases are very few. An " annual," or " an- nualler," is a priest who says mass on the anniversary of a death.

The portraits of the good parson as drawn in English literature by Chaucer, Herbert, Goldsmith, and others, would make an inter- esting topic for examination, and would form a striking contrast to Macaulay's * Levite ' and similar unfavourable sketches of ecclesiastical life. WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Moss Side, Manchester.

THE COLOURS OF THE FOE. Some time ago you had a controversy on the Tricolour, in the course of which I pointed out that the red, white, and blue used at the Jubilee,