Part 9 (1/2)

[122] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. p. vii.

[123] This appears very strongly in the famous twelfth-century law case which Longchamp pleaded so successfully. _Rotuli curia Regis_, i. p.

lxii.

[124] _Early Law and Custom_, 9; _cf._ Burnell and Hopkins, _Ordinances of Manu_, pp. xx, x.x.xi. It is worth while quoting here the following interesting note from a letter from the Marquis di Spineto printed in Clarke's _Travels_, viii. 417:--

”From the most remote antiquity men joined together, and wis.h.i.+ng either to amuse themselves or to celebrate the praises of their G.o.ds sang short poems to a fixed tune. Indeed, generally speaking, _the laws by which they were governed_, the events which had made the greatest impression on their minds, the praises which they bestowed upon their G.o.ds or on their heroes were all sung long before they were written, and I need not mention that according to Aristotle this is the reason why the Greeks gave the same appellation to laws and to songs.”

[125] The references are all given in Smith's _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ sub ????. Aristotle in the _Problems_, 19, 28, definitely says, ”Before the use of letters men sang their laws that they might not forget them, as the custom continues yet among the Agathyrsoi.”

[126] Lib. xii. cap. ii. 9.

[127] _Hist. English Commonwealth_, 43.

[128] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. pp. viii, x.

[129] Hampson's _Origines Patriciae_, 106-107; Kemble, line 5763 _et seq._

[130] Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 410.

[131] _Hist. Eng. Commonwealth_, ii. p. cx.x.xvi. Littleton points out the legal antiquity and importance of these words: ”no conveyance can be made without them.” See Wheatley's _Book of Common Prayer_ (quoting Littleton), p. 406.

[132] The York manual had the additional clause, ”for fairer for fouler.” See Wheatley, _loc. cit._, p. 406.

[133] Palgrave, _loc. cit._

[134] _Ibid._

[135] _Manuale et processionale ad usum insiquis ecclesiae Evoracensis_, Surtees Society, 1875. See also _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1752, p. 171; Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 409, for other examples.

[136] Palgrave, _English Commonwealth_, i. 43.

[137] Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 115.

[138] Sinclair's _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, x. 534.

[139] Chambers, _Book of Days_, January 19; Nichols, _Fuller's Worthies_, 494.

[140] _Diary of De la Pryme_ (Surtees Society), 126. It may be noted here that Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Traditions_, 179, notes the preservation of an ancient law for the preservation of the oak and the hazel in a traditional proverbial rhyme.

[141] Hazlitt, _Tenures of Land_, 80; other examples refer to the Hundred of Cholmer and Dancing, in Ess.e.x, 75; to Kilmersdon, in Somersets.h.i.+re, 182; to Hopton, in Salop, 165. John of Gaunt is responsible for many of these curious and interesting remains of tribal antiquity. Bisley's _Handbook of North Devon_, 28, refers to one relating to the manor of Umberleigh, near Barnstaple, and I have a note from Mr. Edmund Wrigglesworth, of Hull, of a parallel to this being preserved by tradition only. There is a tradition respecting the estate of Sutton Park, near Biggleswade, Bedfords.h.i.+re, which states that it formerly belonged to John of Gaunt, who gave it to an ancestor of the present proprietor, one Roger Burgoyne, by the following grant:--

”I, John of Gaunt, Do give and do grant, To Roger Burgoyne And the heirs of his loin Both Sutton and Potton Until the world's rotten.”

Potton was a neighbouring village to Sutton. There is a moated site in the park called ”John o' Gaunt's Castle,” see _Notes and Queries_, tenth series, vi. 466. _Cf._ Aubrey, _Collections for Wilts_, 185, for an example at Midgehall; Cowell's _Law Interpreter_, 1607, and the _Dictionarum Rustic.u.m_, 1704, for the custom of East and West Enborn, in Berks, which was made famous by Addison's _Spectator_ in 1714.

[142] Sometimes these are called ”burlesque conveyances.” See an example quoted in _Hist. MSS. Commission_, v. 459.

[143] It is well to bear in mind the great force of ancient tribal law, which was personal, upon localities. Nottingham is divided into two parts, one having primogeniture and the other junior right as the rule of descent. Southampton and Exeter have also local divisions. But perhaps the most striking example is at Breslau, where there co-existed, until 1st January, 1840, five different particular laws and observances in regard to succession, the property of spouses, etc., the application of which was limited to certain territorial jurisdictions; not unfrequently the law varied from house to house, and it even happened that one house was situated on the borders of different laws, to each of which, therefore, it belonged in part; Savigny, _Private Int. Law_, cap. i. sect. iv.

[144] _Academy_, February, 1884; _Percy Reliques_, edit. Wheatley, i.

384.