Sept. 29. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



247 



Coming into town this morning, and thinking 

 as little about Banbury zeal as any of your readers, 

 I lighted upon a heap of these sermons on a 

 stall, a most beautiful Banbury reprint of 1827, 

 with which I was so charmed, that I bought the 

 whole lot at a price which, as we say in the city, 

 " has not transpired," and shall not, lest it should 

 in the eyes of some deprecate my bargain. 



Now, as these books are in the primest order, 

 uncut, and fit for any gentleman's library, I take 

 the liberty to send you half a dozen copies, to be 

 disposed of to any of your readers who will ac- 

 cept of, and value such a curiosity; reasonably 

 enough, I think, excepting the Banbury antiqua- 

 ries, who appear to have shown so little of the old 

 local staple towards a spirited publisher. J. O. 



THB LAST PRIOR OF DDNMOW. 



(Vol. xii., p. 187.) 



Geoffrey Shether, the last prior of Dunmow, 

 was confirmed on Dec. 17, 1518, and his name 

 occurs in 1529. This is all we can gather from 

 Dugdale's Monasticon. Where to "find an ac- 

 count of him" is rather a difficult Query. Per- 

 haps, in the reverse of fortune, he left the scene of 

 his former afiluence, and led a life too harmless 

 and unobtrusive to merit any passing record in 

 that busy age. A memorial, however, of him is 

 preserved in the British Museum, in the shape of 

 his book of household expenses. It contains an 

 account of his payments for the 2.3rd to 26th of 

 Hen. VIII. ; and in the dearth of more historical 

 evidence, your correspondent may feel interested 

 in a few items from this homely document, which 

 I had occasion very recently to refer to. I cannot 

 trace any unusual indications of character from 

 these items of expenditure. Like many of his 

 order, the even tenor of his life appears to have 

 been occupied as much with the simple duties of 

 rural economy as with those of a devotional cha- 

 racter. That he was a thrifty farmer is evident, 

 from the many payments that occur for the 

 " sowyng of Lente corne," " thresschyng of whete," 

 " raendyng of the plowys," " spreddyng of dung," 

 " mowyng," &c. Nor did Geoffry forget the con- 

 ventical beer : he pays twelve pence to " ij men 

 for kepyng of rokys fro my barley," and three 

 shillings to "a woman for dryyng of malte" (MS. 

 Additional, 20,021., ff. 6, 7.). At harvest time, he 

 employed a large number of the labouring poor, 

 both men and women. The priory lands yielded 

 a goodly crop ; and Prior Geoffrey expended in 

 harvest wages, v\]li. viijs. i\d. (fo. 7. b.), which 

 seems to have so rejoiced his heart, that he bought 

 new " harvest bowlys," expended fourteen pence 

 for " haruest dysshes," and paid the comparatively 

 large sum of four shillings and fourpence " for 



No. 309.] 



channgyng of vessels," his own " garnish," I sup- 

 pose, not being adequate to that merry harvest 

 feast. Perhaps to do honour to his higher guests, 

 he purchased " iiij bottelse of wyn, xvirf." That 

 he indulged in the usual sports and festivities of 

 the age, is pretty evident. " I boute," says he, 

 " a cap for hawkyn, ijs. \]d," (fol. 3. b.) ; and he 

 pays a "horsleech" to give "a drynke to all my 

 horses." He delighted in the songs and music of 

 the minstrels, and found pleasure in the disport 

 and jests of fools and players. Sometimes they 

 came singly, but often in little companies, to the 

 prior's hall, where they were well received, and 

 always dismissed with " a rewarde." He gave 

 xxc?. as " a rewarde to my Lorde of Sussex 

 players" (fol. 15. a.), and "to my Lorde of Sux- 

 cexe Coke, I gave," says he, " a rewarde of viijrf. ;'* 

 little dreaming, poor old man, that in two or three 

 years after, all those rich lands which he knew so 

 well how to enjoy, would be granted by Henry 

 VIII. to my Lord of Sussex. 



Two items occur, which may perhaps interest 

 some of your readers, now that we hear so much 

 of the Dunmow festivities : 



" Item. A rewarde to the Lorde of Mysrulle of Dun- 

 mowe, viijrf." — Fol. 4. b. 



" Item. Rewardes to ij Lordes of Mysrule, xijti" — 

 Fol. 9. a. 



If Prior Geoffrey loved mirth, he was not 

 neglectful of the poor; he gave constantly and 

 liberally to their necessities, and entries for 

 " almes," " maundy money," &c., are numerous. 

 One item reads indicative of an amiability of dis- 

 position : " I gave," says he " a friende of myn, 

 xjrf." (Fol. 16.) What became of the prior after 

 the dissolution is doubtful ; perhaps, like many 

 others, he sank into obscurity and indigence, and, 

 instead of his " venyson," his " botelle of red wyn,"" 

 and his " creem and strawberries," which his house- 

 hold book tells us that he sometimes enjoyed, he 

 had to learn the rigour of a more monastic but less 

 agreeable regimen. F. Somner Merrtweather. 



Kentish Town. 



" A PERFECT DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

 (Vol. xii., p. 187.) 

 As your Halifax correspondent has favoured 

 the readers of " N. & Q." with a reprint of the 

 above libel, it is right that he should know that it 

 originally came from Yorkshire ; being the de- 

 puted splenetic production of one " Thomas Kirke, 

 of Crookwige," in that county, several times 

 printed. Mr. Kirke does not, however, enjoy the 

 undisputed credit of this piece of scurrility, it 

 being in Haslewood's Catalogue ascribed to Sir 

 Anthony Weldon ; who, in that case, not content 

 with a ruthless attack upon James I., here ex- 

 tends his rancour to the whole Scots nation ; and 



