ENGLISH LAND

Evening Star, Issue 21714, 8 May 1934, Page 10

ENGLISH LAND

SOME CURIOUS TENURES A perusal of some ancient English land tenures makes curious reading. It seemed to be a fairly common practice of kings “in the old days,” when conferring favours, to hand out parcels of land, “breaking up big estates,” so to speak, in some cases, and bringing about a kind of “ back-to-the-land ” policy in their own regal fashion, says .the Melbourne ‘ Age.’ The receipt of such royal privileges usually carried an obligation to render service, but the service in many instances appeared to be out of proportion to the payment made. Be this as it may, colour and quaintness are seen m perusing these tenures, the terms in some instances indicating pastimes and military requirements of the period. When archery was the vogue, barbed, detched, and unfletched arrows, bows, and quivers were demanded by the king for his hunting expeditions in exchange for manorial rights. An estate in Kent came into the possession of one Solomon King John when he went to sea “ to hold His Majesty’s head ” should he become seasick. It is recorded that another state was held by virtue of the possessor finding an esquire for the king for forty days and for providing straw and litter for the king’s bed. Some lauds attaching to the Manor Royal of Aylesbury belonging to William the Conqueror were granted by him to his friends on condition that they should provide straw for his bed and chamber, and three eels for his use in winter; and in summer straw, rushes, and two green geese thrice every year if he should visit Aylesbury so often. Straw and rushes sound peculiar to us to-day, when kapok and spring mattresses, linoleums, and carpets arc so widely used.

A year’s rent for one manor was “ a pound of pepper and a pound of cummin,” a pair of gilt spurs being demanded annually for another, while one sparrow hawk was all that was asked by a Countess of Salisbury in return for a manor in her possession. Why the king should be handed “ a pair of spurious sixpences ” when he hunted in Furbrook Forest is hard to comprehend, but such were the terms for the holding of certain lands in Dorset, In return for manorial rights, also in Dorset, we read that a certain knight was bound to put away the pieces when the king had honoured him by. trying his skill as a chess player. A certain lord, in exchange for a land holding, had to “ measure the measures of the Royal Household, keep the king’s female domestics in order, and to dismember malefactors.” Steel needles, silver needles, hose, gloves, spits for roasting the king’s meat, peppercorns, falcons, nightcaps, are other indications of the form that many rentals took in earlier days in England. There is a house in Devon on lease for 2,000 years from the death of Queen Elizabeth (1603). It is interesting to notice on the corner stone of a house in _Cornwall the statement that Walter Kendal, of Lostwithiel, founder

of this house, “ hath a lease for three thousand yeares, which had beginning the 29th of September, Anno 1652.” Who would not give one red rose per year for 166 acres with a house? At this small price an estate iuj Sussex was let for 10,000 years in the second year of James First. The conditions of many ancient tenures became troublesome to fulfil, as can be readily imagined, and in numerous eases were altered to money payments when arrangements could be made between the parties concerned. A rather picturesque incident is related of John, Earl of Warren and Surrey, who appeared before the Commissioners of Edward First to show by what title he held his lands. Flashing an old sword before the astonished eyes of the king’s representatives, he exclaimed: “Behold, my lords, here is my warrant. My ancestors coming into this land with William the Conqueror did obtain their lauds by this sword, and I am resolved by the sword to defend them against whomsoever shall endeavour to dispossess me; for William did not himself conquer and subdue the land, but our forefathers were sharers therein!”