which so valiantly slew "a monstrous creature,
a dragon, a worm, or flying serpent, that
devoured men and women and children:" though,
indeed, some weak-minded rationalists of the
seventeenth century did say that this worm, this
flying serpent, was no other than the Scots who
had invaded the country-side, as their manner
was, and been mightily discomfited by Sir
John Conyers and his weapon. And is there a
mad bull still hunted, as it was quite of late, on
Christmas-day in the castle meadows round
Stamford, which castle meadows were given to
the Stamford people as common land, so long as
they should provide the bull? And do the
tenants living about White Hart Forest still
pay the White Hart silver, which Henry the Third
imposed on them all, in local punishment of the
foul deed of T. de Linde, a Dorsetshire man,
who killed the milk-white hart which he, Henry,
had spared? Fuller paid his proportion in his
time; but since Fuller we have had the Reform
Bill, and a little matter of utilitarian common
sense superadded; and perhaps the tenants
living about White Hart Forest object to having
a fine levied on them because T. de Linde killed
a forbidden deer seven hundred years ago.

" Whichnour," in Staffordshire, was held by
Sir Philip de Somervile on very easy terms. He
paid only half the fees and fines levied on the
other landowners of the place, but then he had
"to fynde, meynteigne, and susteigne one bacon
flyke, hanging in his halle at Wichenore, ready
arrayed all tymes of the yere," save in Lent; to
be given to every man and woman who after a
year and a day of married life together; taking
two responsible witnesses to swear that they
believed them; should there and then—he
kneeling on his knee, and holding his right
hand on a book laid on the bacon—the bacon
itself laid on half a quarter of wheat and half a
quarter of rye—make oath in this manner, and
as followeth:

Here ye, Sir Philip de Somervyle, lord of Whichenour,
mayntayner and giver of this baconne, that I
A. syth I wedded B. my wife, and syth I had her in
my kepyng and at my wylle, by a yere and a daye
after our marryage, I wold not have chaunged for
none other, farer ne fowler, richer ne powrer, ne for
none other descended of gretter lynage, slepyng ne
waking, at noo tyme. And if the seid B. were sole
and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wyfe before all
the wymen of the worlde, of what condytions soevere
they be, good or evyle, as helpe me God and his
seyntys, and this flesh and all fleshes.

If, then, his witnesses made oath that they
believed him, the lucky possessor of the peerless
B. was given the classic flitch; and, if a free
man, half a quarter of wheat and a cheese
beside; but, if a villein, then half a quarter of rye
only, without cheese, all of which was laid on a
horse, and so the cavalcade passed away, "with
trompets, tabourets, and other manoir of
mynstralce." This custom was of Edward the Third's
time.

The Dunmow flitch was the bequest of Robert
Fitzwalter, "long beloved of King Harry, son
of King John," who ordained that any, also not
repenting of his marriage for a year and a day,
might then repair to the priory of Dunmow,
and there "take his oath before prior and
convent and the whole town, humbly kneeling in
the churchyard upon two hard-pointed stones."
And then after long kneeling and long oath-
taking the flitch of bacon was duly handed over
to him, and the possessor of the bacon and the
wife was carried on men's shoulders round the
priory churchyard and about the town, the
whole concourse applauding.

THE FORM OF THE OATH TAKEN BY THOSE AT
DUNMOW WHO ARE TO HAVE THE BACON.

You shall swear by custom of confession,
If ever you made nuptial transgression.
Be you either married man or wife,
If you have brawls or contentious strife;
Or otherwise at bed, or at board,
Offended each other in deed or word;
Or since the parish clerk said amen,
Yo wished yrselves unmarried agen,
Or in a twelvemonth and a day,
Repented not in thought any way;
But continued true in thought and desire,
As when you joined hands in the quire.
If to these conditions, without all feare,
Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And bear it hence with love and good leave:
For this is our custom at Dunmow well knowne,
Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon's your own.

Seventeen hundred and fifty-one is the date
of the last claimant given by Hercules Malebysse
Beckwith; but has not the custom of the
gammon been renewed within the last few
years, and has not Mr. Harrison Ainsworth had
a hand in it? Brindwoods, at Chingford, Essex,
used to be held by a very strange custom. At
every alienation the owner of the farm had to go
to the parsonage with his wife, man, and maid-
servant, each mounted on a single horse, he
himself carrying a hawk on his fist, and the man
leading a greyhound in the slips; both for the
rector's use that day. Arrived at the parsonage,
he did his homage and paid his relief by blowing
three blasts with a horn. The rector then gave
him a chicken for his hawk, a peck of oats for
his horse, and a loaf of bread for the greyhound;
after which they all dined; when the master of
Brindwoods again blew three blasts with his
horn; and so they all departed. At Carlcoats,
York, two farms paid, the one a right hand,
and the other a left hand, glove yearly to the
lord; and the owner of Isleham (Cambridge)
paid, also yearly, a gammon of bacon, stuck on
the point of a lance, to the Earl of Arundel.

But the services rendered to the king, either
by Grand or Petit Serjeanty, were trifles
compared with those which the landholders and
villeins under feudal lords had to give. Where
majesty was content with a rose or a loaf of oat-
bread, the feudal lord must have the tenant's
whole family at work in his fields, excepting,
perhaps, the husewia, or housewife (our modern
hussy). The villeins had to pay fines on all
occasions, too. If a she-villein or naif married;
or, being married, if she loved another than her
husband, unlawfully; or, not being married, if