Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/299

 The Editor’s Bag TO JOSEPH G. ROBIN Robin's sister wants a guardian appointed for him, claiming, in spite of the jury's verdict, that he is insane. — News Item.

ELL me, Robin, tell me truly,

Are you sane or are you not? Either you are very crazy

Or the biggest knave we've got. Do you really need a guardian Or to prison should you go? Jury disagrees with experts Whether you're insane or no, If you ask me my opinion, I will tell you, Robin, true. Robin, you are one big humbug

And the only thing to do Is to put you in the stone jug Where you'll have a legal guardian Who will give you constant care Lest, in mental aberration,

You should stray away from there. There you will not have to ponder What to eat and what to wear. For it is a standing wonder That they even cut your hair. If I had my own way, Robin,

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by serjeanty; for which on Christmas day every year before our sovereign lord, the King of England, he should

perform altogether and once a leap, a puff and a fart, and because it was an indecent service, therefore, it was rented

at 26sh. 8d a year at the King's Ex chequer.” ' The original edition of Blountz trans lated the service to mean that he should “at one and the same time, dance, puff

up his cheeks, making therewith a sound, and let a crack."

A similar grant is mentioned in the Ingoldsby Legends.“ While it is at tributed to another parcel of land in a different county, it is probable that it is the same one with the facts some what distorted by the story-teller. The story as told by the legend runs as fol lows:— "You should read Blount’s Jocular

Tenures, Mr. Ingoldsby," pursued Simp kinson. “A learned man was Blount! Why, sir, his Royal Highness, the Duke

of York, once paid a silver horseshoe

You should never want again. to Lord Ferrers —"

I would call a whole big mob in To escort you to the “pen."

“l’ve heard of him,” broke in the

Snuus Smmcus.

A PECULIAR LAND GRANT IT is recorded in Plac. Coron. 14

incorrigible Peters; "he was hanged at the Old Bailey, in a silk rope, for shoot ing Dr. Johnson." The antiquary vouschafed no notice of the interruption; but, taking a pinch

of snuff, continued his harangue:— Edward I, Rot. 6 (1285), that a certain grant of land in the County of

Suffolk should be held in serjeanty on the service that once each year the grantee should perform “simul et semel, unum saltum unum suﬁ'lum, et unum bombulum,” before the King. The original grant is translated by Blountl thus: “Rowland de Sarcere held one hundred and ten acres of land,

"A silver horseshoe, sir, which is due from every scion of royalty who

rides across one of his manors; and if you look into the penny county histories, now publishing by an eminent friend of

mine, you will ﬁnd that Langhale, in the County Norfolk, was held by one Baldwin per saltum, suﬂ'latum et pettum; that is, he was to come every Christmas

in Hemingston, in the County of Suffolk, ‘Blount's Fmgmenta Anliqus'talir.

Ed. p.79.

Beckwith's

3 Blount's, ibid. Original Ed. p. 10. ton). ' TheVol. Ingoldsby I, 4th ed.. Legends p. 18.(The Spectre of Tapping