FAMILY HEIRLOOM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22632, 25 July 1935, Page 2

FAMILY HEIRLOOM

PUSEY HORN SOLD GIFT FROM KING CANUTE TREASURED FOR 900 YEARS. Given lo William Pusey by King Canute nearly 900 years ago, the famous Pusey Horn, reputed to be the oldest Saxon horn' in existence, has been sold at Sotheby's London, for £I9OO. The Pusey Horn is quoted in nearly all the law text-books as the supreme example of a renl heirloom, and the consent of the court had to be obtained before Captain E. Bouverie-Pusey, its late owner, could offer it for sale. It was bought by Mr E. Permain, of King street, London, who told the press that he had purchased it on behalf of a collector who preferred to remain anonymous.

"' What is going to happen to it," he stated, " I have not the slightest notion. I cannot say whether it will remain in this country or go abroad."

The horn is of dark brown colour. S.i.lin long'.nnd at the large end 12in it oircumference. At 'the mouth there is a narrow band of silver-gill, to which is attached a small ring, while at the small end a silver-gilt stopper is ill the form of a hound's head is made to screw into the lip of the horn. Sitrrounding the middle is a broad baud of silver of superb Gothic workmanship, engraved ''l King Knowde (Canute) give William Pewse (Pusey) this horn to hold by (hy'lond (land)." The traditional history of the horn is that Canute, being in camp in the neighbourhood of Pusey, and the Saxons at a few mile? distant, the king received intelligence from William Pewse, an officer in his army, who. in the disguise of a shepherd, had got into the enemies' camp, that an ambuscade had been formed to intercept him.

The king, escaping this danger through the information brought by Pewse, gave the manor of Pusey to the officer and his heirs to hold by tin'' tenure of the horn, which has been preserved by the Pusey family ever since. The Saxon camp was on White Horse Hill, above the White Horse on the Berkshire Downs near Faringdon, while King Canute's camp was Cherbury Camp, an ancient earthwork still forming part of the Pusey Estate. The Pusey Estates have been held accordingly by the Tenure of the Horn (Cornage'i ever since. Tenure by Cornage imposed on the tenant of the estate the duty of blowing the born to warn the king of the entry into the kingdom of the king's enemies. In 1684 the Horn was the subject of an option for its recovery by Charles Pusey before Lord Chancellor Jeffries. It was produced in court and "with universal admiration, received, admitted, and proved to be the identical horn by which, as> by a charter. Canute bar! conveyed tha. Manor of Pusey. - '