RITES AND CUSTOMS WHICH HAVE BEEN DISCARDED.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 5

RITES AND CUSTOMS WHICH HAVE BEEN DISCARDED.

SOME CURIOUS CLAIMS TO SERVICE.

We now turn to consider some of the ancient practices and ceremonies which will not be seen at the Coronation of Edward VII- and Queen Alexandra, owing to the services involved therein having been waived by their MajestiesOf these, by far the most striking, and one of the most ancient, is the Challenge by the King's Hereditary Champion, an office now held by Frank Dymoke of Scrivelsby, Esquire, as represfciting the Marmions, lords of Scrivelsby (pronounced Scretlsby) in Lincolnshire, The family of MarnSon was descended from Robert le Marmion, Seignctr of Fontenaye ia Normandy, to whom Wiliam the Conqueror at his coming to England granted the Manors of Tamwortb, Lutterworth, Scrivelsby, and Skakingdon. This Seigneur of Fontenaye held the office of champion to the Duke of Normandy, which office he was allowed to transmute to that of King's Champion when the said Duke seized the crown of England. The last of the Marmions died in 1292 without male issue, whereupon the manor of Tamworth passed through the elder female line to the Frevillcs, and Scrivelsby, through the younger to ths L'udi'.ows, and from them to the Bymokes. At the Coronation of Richard H., in 1377, Baldwin Freville, as lord of the manor of Tamworth, claimed to discharge the s;rvice of champion but in 1534 the manor of Scrivelsby had been adjudged to be held by Grand Serjeanty, involving the obligation to find a knight who on Coronation Day should prove by bis body, if need w-re, that the King was true and rightful heir to the Tyrone. Therefore Sir John Dvmoke of Scnve'.sby issued the customary chaJlenga for Richard 11., and, just 444 years iatcr, John Dymoke of Scrivelsby, being in Holy Orders, deputed his son Henry to perform the same office for George IV. Tha present Squire of Scrivelsby, Frank Dymoke, haa preferred and made good his claim to render his hereditary service to King Edward VII. but his- Majesty has waived the obligation, as William IV. and Queen Victoria did before him. Nevertheless, it may not be uninteresting to recall the features of the ceremony at its last performance when George IV. was crowned in 1821. First, let it be said, that never before had the ceremony been legally a farce. At al previous Coronations had anyone taken up the gauntlet flung down by the champion, there was the ancient statute still in force to authorise the quarrel being decided by duel. But the ancient judicial rite of trial by battle had been abolished by the repealing Act of 1819, therefore had Dymoke's chalTenge been accepted in 1821, heaven only knows What might have been the result. Perhaps something similar to that of the famous occasion when Henry of Lancaster, Duke oi Hereford, afterwards Henry IV., challenged Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to do battle as a traitor in presence of King Richard IL, in the year 1398. The lists were duly set at Coventry, the King was present with a force, says the chronicler, of 10,000 men to prevent a riot, when the two dukes rode into the ring, with beavers closed, splendidly mounted and accoutred, ready to do their utmost to Ml one another. Their spears were already in rest, when the King cast down his baton, and caused the two Dukes to dismount, while he deliberated with hia Privy Council. After a consultation lasting two hours, the matter was decided by the banishment of both Dukes from the realn_ f THE HERiEDITARY CHAMPION'S MOUNT. In older times it seems to have been the privilege of the hereditary champion at a Coronation to* go to the King's stable, and therein to choose the second best horse, and the second best suit elf armour in the armoury, which he was entitled to keep after the ceremony. But the proceedings were somewhat less romantic when George IV. was crowned. The champion's stable of four stalls was erected in Palace Yard. It is distressing to have to record that two out of the four horses were supplied from Astley's Amphitheatre, namely, a piebald for the Champion, and a white paifrey for Lord Howard of Effingham, deputy Earl Marshal. Other two horses were there also, a dun-coloured nag for the (Marquess of Anglesey, as Lord High Steward, and a white one for the Duke of Wellington, as Lord High Constable. Lord Anglesey had commanded the cavalry at Waterloo, where be lost a leg, and it may be imagined that he and the Iron Duke, tried comrades in real warfare, must have smiled grimly at the parts assigned to them in this elaborate masquerade.

The Champions opportunity came at the banquet in Westminster Hall, a function which it lias baen happily resolved to abandon on the present occasion. But at George IV.'s Coronation four hundred illustrious persons sat down to eat and drink in the Hall itself, whole 2000 others c_ less dignity, who had taken part in the procession, were feasted in various rcoms within the Palace of Westminster. After all these pairs of jaws had been munching away for more than an hour, the Lord of the Manor of Wymondley received from the Officer of the Jewel House a silver gilt cup which he presented, kneeling, to his Majesty. The King drank therefrom and handed him the cup as his fee. Next caroa the Duke of Argyll, as Master of the Household of Scotland, who performed a similar service, receiving a similar fee. Here it may be observed that every stage of tbese lengthy proceedings seems to have been punctuated by somebody handing the monarch a drink.

The lower part of the Hall was now cleared, and MriiHenry Dymoke, the Champion, presented him_e_! in the great doorway in full armour, mounted on a piebald housed in black cloth ; trimmed and fringed with silver lioncels—the ancient liveries and cognisance of the Dymokes. On ths Champ-ion's helmet were seven and twenty ostrich plumes, on his horse's head seventeen, so it may be imagined that he presented a very terrifying appearance. Upon his right hand rode the Duke of Wellington, upon his left Lord Howard of Effingham, each in his peer's robes, with coronet and colbr. Before these three cavaliers .marched trumpeters, eergeants-at-arans, the Champion's 'herald bearing the Challenge, and the Champion's two esquires, one bearing his lance, the other his ahield. In one of the galleries sat an expert critic in the practice of chivalry, Sir Walter Scott to wit, who professed himself delighted with the performance, save that the Champion's shield should have been an heraldic scutcheon, and not a cirCAJ_ar'\B«ghland target. ' THE CfIIALXBNGE. WMI* the Champion pawed tt tha door

of the Hall, his trumpets sounded thrice, and Garter King cried: — "Sir knight, whence come you, and what is your pretence?" "You shall quickly hear," replied Dymoke, "the cause of my coming and pretence," and signed to his herald to deliver rise challenge as follows:— "If any person of whatsoever degree, high or low, shall deny or gainsay our Sovereign Lord King George the Fourth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Fahfi, son and next heir to our Sovereign Lord King George th-3 Third, the last king, deceased, to be right heir to the imperial crown of this United King; dom, or that he ought not to enjoy the same, here is his Champion, who saith that he lieth and is a false traitor; being ready in person to combat with him, and in this quarrel will adventure his life against him on what day soever he shall be appointed." Then Dymoke threw down the gauntlet, which after it had lain a few moments, the herald picekd up and gave again to the Champion. Riding urn to the middle of the Hall, a halt was made, and the same ceremony was repeated, and again a third time at ?Je steps of the throne. The cupbearer then took from the officer of the Jewel House a gold cup and cover full of wine, in which his 'Majesty drank to his Champion, and then sent the cupbearer to him with the cup, which he drained, and backed his horse solemnly down and out of the Hall, carrying with him the cup as his fee. All this mediaeval pageantry disappears with the abandonment of the banquet, and so do a host of minor ceremonies. By-the-by, it ought to be mentioned that the practical reason for a banquet is gone. In an earlier age, it was held indispensable that the monarch should receive the Communion fasting. The service in the Abbey being of extraordinary length, he micht well be in need of refreshment and nourishment at its close, and it would not 'have besn creditable to the royal hospitality to feast alone. To practical rn.ir.ds it may seam irksome, for well-to-do gentlemen, cflen long past middle age, to play such menial parts as those of butler, larderer, sergeant of the silver scullery, carver, and so forth. It borders on the grotesque that, in the twentieth century, ths Lord Mayor, and twelve of the principal citizens of London, should claim eagerly the privilege of acting as assistants to the Chief Butler of r.ngland—a privilege which was disputed by the' city of Winchester at the Coronation of Richard Cceur de Lion in 11S9, but which the city of London then secured by the payment of 200 marks to their needy king. Still more humble is the claim of the Mayor and eight burgesses of Oxford to act as assistants to the assistant butlers, as they did at the Coronation banquet of Henry 111. in 1216. But human nature is of very complex material, and these anoient offices have their source in the expedients adopted by successive monarchs to gratify the amour propre of certain of their subjects whom it was desirable to conciliate, or who had rendered valauble service, which it was not always convenient to recompense in cash. How dearly such trivial distinctions have always been prized, partly for the momentary eminsnoe they secure to tha individual, partly for the assurance they give of obtaining a good place whence to view an unusual pageant, and partly from the loftier sentiment which endears ancient customs to every patriotic spirit, may be realised by casting an eye over the remarkable number and variety of claims put forward lat former Coronations and the present one. TITLED MENIALS. [ For instance, on the present occasion, jno less than one duke, one marquess, and I two earls preferred claim to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, whose privilege it is to carry to the King his shirt and clothes on the morning of Coronation, and to help the Lord Chamberlain to dress him. The fee claimed for this service at the Coronation of James 11. was 40 yards of crimson velvet to make a robs, also the King's bed and bedding, the furniture of his bedroom, his nightgown and wearing apparel, basin and towels. The Court, of Claims had need of nice discrimination in dealing with some of those put forward. For instance, the Lord of the Manor of Heydon in Essex claimed at James ll.'s Coronation to hold the basin and .ewer to the King, by virtue of one moiety, and the towel by virtue of another moiety, of the said manor, when the King should wash before dinner. The judgment in this case was—"Allowed as to the towel only." Another example may be quoted from the Coronation of the same monarch, as showing that the proudest nobles were not only eager to discharge these menial offices, but to act the parts to the life by showing equal eagerness in claiming the fees. The Duke of Norfolk claimed as the fee of Chief Butler of England "ths best cup of gold and cover, with all the vessels and wine remaining under the bar, and all the pot 3 and cups, except those of gold and silver, in the wine cellar after dinner." He was awarded in lieu a single cup and ewer of pure gold weighing 32 ounces. Perhaps the homeliest of all the services rendered at the Coronation banquet was that within the privilege of the lord of ths manor of Addington in Surrey, which William the Conqueror granted to his cook, Tezelin. The manor is held under Grand-Ser-jeanty, the duty being to present the King at the Coronation feast with a dish of grout or diiigrout, which seems to have been a compound of almond milk, brawn of capons, minoed chicken, with sugar and spices. When George 11. was crowned, Lord George Sackville, afterwards Viscount Sackviile, was a schoolboy at Westminster, and penned the following lines in praise of grout: — "While the famed times of Chivalry remained When Canute, or Ironside, or Alfred reigned, Their meals were homely, though their hearts were stout, Nor would the king disdain to dine on grout. And still the good old dish maintains its place, Still keeps its claim the royal board to grace. This just respect the grateful nations pays To the plain virtues of those anoient days; Convinced, howe'er her modern race may flout, They ovr& their dainties to their fathers' grout." And thus we part with those archaic ceremonies, time worn, perhaps, rather than time-honoured, convinced that although trivial, useless services such aa they are dispensed with, there will never be any lack of able heads and strong hands to fulfil our Sovereign's bidding in real work. In one particular little regret will be felt at the discontinuance of the banquet, namely, that it was thei chief caus_ of the expense of former coronations. This is an economy which may be effected without any sacrifice of real magnificence, and it is in good keeping with the proper feeling which has tended of late to the restriction of extravagance in coronation ceremonies. The Coronation of George IV. cost the taxpayers £243,000; Queen Victoria's was accomplished for £70,000. It is not difficult to pronounce whdoh of these two monarchs' subjects received the best value for their money'