ANCIENT RENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 218, 27 June 1938, Page 8

ANCIENT RENTS.

SOME CURIOUS CUSTOMS. Many quite ordinary people were rewarded witli estates in the past for services rendered to King and country, says a writer in the '“Adelaide Chronicle.” To this day, a bowl of pure water is in readiness for the King when he visits Edinburgh, in which ho may wash his ‘hands if he so wishes. This bowl of water is a survival of a story from the reign of King James V. of Scotland. One day he was set upon by five ruffians at the Brig of Cramond. He was in danger of his life, when a man called Jock Houison heard the scuffle and came to the King’s rescue. He did not know that it was the King whom he had saved.

Some time later he was summoned to appear before the King at the Royal Palace of Holyrood, and there Jock Houison was rewarded with Braemead Farm. T .Lhc only condition to the gift was that when the King or any of his descendants visited Edinburgh, a basin of pure water should be brought as rent. This is offered each time his Majesty stays in Edinburgh, for he is, of course, a descendant of King James V. of Scotland.

Stranger still is the renCtby Sir James Murray’s descendants hold the castle of Sauchiemuir. King James IV. of Scotland granted him this estate and castle, on condition that he should, each New Year’s Eve, put out a glass of • port, fruit, and cakes for the ghost of the King’s grandmother. This catering for a ghost was kept rigorously until the castle was destroyed by lire only a few years ago.

A red rose is paid for the tenure of a manor in Somerset, and for the Blair-Atholl estate the rent is in the form of a. white rose. Kidwelly Castle, one of the strongest of Welsh strongholds, should provide the King with the services of a knight in armour when he visits it. A Yorkshire estate is bound to deliver a snowball to the Crown on Midsummer Day. Foulis another ancient Scottish estate, .'is paid for by a bucket of snow, which must bo provided, if tradition speaks aright, each time there is a Royal visit.

Other Crown leaseholders pay in quantities of popper, from which the term “peppercorn” or nominal rent, is derived. In former days, such rent was no joke, though, for the estates were given mostly in Tudor times, when pepper was a costly spice worth nearly its weight in gold,, and over which much blood was spilt in the Far and Near East.

In November, the King’s rents are collected in the Isle of_Portland, but these are not ruinous. A small cottage pays a yearly due of one farthing, while a large holder of several acres pays a few pence. The accounts are kept on an ancient staff and the amount of rent is shown by the various marks, such as notches and signs of the Cross.