serjeanty of serving with a towel at the coronation
of the king; and Peter, the son of Peter Picot,
held the other moiety, by the serjeanty of
serving with the basons;" or as a certain measure
("one carucate") of land in Addington
was held "by the service of making one mess in
an earthen pot, in the kitchen of our lord the
king, on the day of his coronation, called diligrout,
and if there be fat or lard in the mess,
it is called maupigyrnun." But what was
diligrout and what maupigyrnun, no one now living,
I believe, can exactly determine. In Blount's
time, this manor of Addington belonged to one
Thomas Legh, Esq., who, at the coronation of
his then majesty Charles II. (1661), brought
up to the table a mess of pottage, called diligrout,
"whereupon the Lord High Chamberlain
presented him to the king, who accepted the
service, but did not eat of the pottage"—a
not very surprising omission on the part of the
Merry Monarch. Other lands are held by
serving the king with wafers or towels: many
for this service, by pouring out his wine; and
one—and a beautiful manor too—by performing
the redoubted office of champion, that very
useless relic of chivalry and feudal barbarism, and
love of theatrical attitudes, and fine dressing.
Thus, the noble estate of Scrivelsby is held by
the Dymokes on consideration of a Dymoke,
armed cap-à-pie, as in the time of Don Quixote
and his saints, riding into Westminster Hall
on the day of coronation, flinging down a
gauntlet on the floor, and challenging all foul
traitors to attack the legitimate right of the
sovereign to the crown—which right no one in
the world is disposed to question; but which
he, nevertheless, is prepared to defend with his
life. It is an easy tenure.

What has become of that house in Saint
Margaret's which belonged to old Isaac the
Jew of Norwich, and which King John granted
to William de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, on
consideration that he and his heirs would serve the
king and his heirs at dinner on all annual feasts,
and whenever else beside they celebrated a
feast, "with his head uncovered, without a
cap, with a garland of the breadth of the little
finger of him or his heirs"? And do the
representatives of Ela Countess of Warwick, or
whoever they may be that now hold the manor
of Hoke Norton, in the county of Oxford, still
carve for the sovereign on Christmas-day, and
take as much care as of old to carry off the
carving-knife as a perquisite? And is the manor
of Bondby, in Lincolnshire, yet held by bearing
a white wand before the sovereign, likewise on
Christmas-day? Or Coperland and Allerton, in
Kent, for the service of holding the head of
seasick majesty when sailing between Dover and
Whitsand? Or Hoton, in Cumberland, for the
service of holding the royal stirrup while the king
mounts his horse at Carlisle Castle? Or
Penkelly, in Cornwall, by the serjeanty of delivering
a grey riding-hood at Paulton-bridge, whenever
the king enters Cornwall, in knightful consideration
of the Cornish skies? Or the manor of
beautiful Shorne, in Kent, for carrying a white
ensign forty days at the holder's own charges,
whenever the sovereign makes war in Scotland?
Or is Ovenhills, also in Kent, held on
consideration of forty days' service in the king's army,
when he goes forth into Wales for battle with
the rebels there, the lord being further bound
to provide himself with a horse worth exactly
five shillings, and a sack worth sixpence, and
a needle or skewering-pin to fasten the sack ?
These services of accompanying the king to
the wars, and taking a horse, and a sack, and
a skewering-pin, make a most frequent manner
of tenure. As also, that blowing of a horn, in
the border counties, to frighten away moss-
troopers and the like. Burgh-on-the-Sands, in
Cumberland, was held by the service of blowing
a horn in the van of the king and his army
when he went into Scotland, and blowing the
same horn in his rear when he returned. Some
lords of manors have to find " a shield of brawn,"
or a loaf of oat bread, when majesty goes a
hunting and is hungry; and some have to
dismember malefactors, some to specially watch
and ward the king's private and peculiar pretty
horsebreakers—or laundresses—for the coarser
word means both these sections of womanhood;
and some have to measure all the bushels and
gallons in the king's household. Others have
to play chess with the king when he is so
minded, and to put away the chessmen into a
bag when the game is done; and some have
to guard certain castles for a certain period;
and some to find a ship when called on to do
so. One manor was held by the serjeanty of
providing the king with a hobeler (a kind of
light horseman, not very unlike our light
dragoons), who was to keep watch and ward in
Porchester Castle for forty days, at the lord's cost;
and one other lord had to present the king with
two white capons, with this speech done into
Latin: "Behold, my lord, these two capons,
which you shall have another time, but not now."
And Taxall, in Chester, was held by the service
of blowing a horn on Midsummer-day at a
high rock near, called Windgather—what a fine
old Norse flavour in the word!—with the
further service of holding the king's stirrup, and
rousing the stag, whenever he came to hunt in
Macclesfield Forest.

Now we come to the tenures by Petit
Serjeanty, with their quaint glimpses into old
feudal life and manners. And at first, there is
nothing but war service to be rendered. Knights
and esquires, and armed men, and horsemen, and
footmen, and suits of mail; in one instance,
only the moiety of a knight and a horse
without a saddle is to be given, and quivers or
sheafs of arrows, and cross-bow-men or balistars,
and sergeants-at-arms, one or more—which corps,
by the way, was first instituted by Richard CÅ“ur
de Lion, in imitation of the like corps created
by Philip Augustus, during the crusades, as a
body-guard against the assassins—those pleasant
subjects of the Old Man of the Mountain, so
terribly famous for their love of hachshish and
private murders. Sometimes, by way of diversity,
a footman with a lance and an iron trumpet