480 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 160. 



ment covigne et meintenance de tieux mesnours en pals 

 sont plusures gentz desheritez et aucuns delaiez et des- 

 turbez de lour droit, et aucuns nientcoupables convictz 

 et condempnez ou autrement oppressez, en defesaunce 

 de lour estat, et en notoire destruccion et oppression de 

 notre poeple, si avons commandez et commandons que 

 touz les grantz oustent desore en avant de lour rete- 

 nance feez et robes, touz tieux mesnours et maintenours 

 en pais, saunz nul favour eide ou corifort faire a eux 

 desore en quecunque manere."— Statutes of the Realm, 

 vol. i. p. 304. 



" Item. Because we are informed that many holders 

 and maintainers of quarrels and parties in peace are 

 maintained and protected by seigneurages, whereby 

 they are the more encouraged to offend, and by pro- 

 curement, covine, and maintenance of such holders in 

 peace are many persons disherited, and some delayed 

 and disturbed of their right, and some innocent persons 

 convicted and condemned, or otherwise oppressed in 

 •undoing of their estate, and in notorious destruction 

 and oppression of our people ; so we have commanded 

 and do command that all the great do oust from this time 

 forth of their retinance fees and robes, all such holders 

 and maintainers in peace, without any favour, aid, or 

 countenance done to them henceforth in any-soever 

 manner." 



The attribution of this misconduct to the High 

 Justice of England may be an exaggeration of the 

 ballad-writer's; but that justices did frequently 

 offend in this way is evident, from the following 

 clause in the oath to be taken by justices, given in 

 the statute just quoted, c. vi. : 



" Et que vos ne prendrez fee tant come vos serez 

 justiez ne robes de nul homrae graunt ne petit sinoun 

 du Roi mesme." — Id., vol. i. p. 305. 



" And that you will take no fee so long as you shall 

 be justices, nor robes, of any man great or small, except 

 of the King himself." 



Hence I think it may be safely inferred that the 

 writer of The Lytell Geste, who represents that 

 Kobin Hood lived in the reign of " Edwarde, our 

 comly kynge," if he intended Edward II., did not 

 commit an anachronism when he introduced the 

 incident of the abuse of cloth and fee by the abbot 

 and justice. J. Lewelyn Curtis. 



EAST NORFOLK FOLK LORE. 



In this remote district of the county, bordering 

 on the sea-coast, viz. the Hundreds of Flegg, I 

 have discovered many superstitious observances, 

 &c., which, perhaps, will interest lovers of ancient 

 folk lore. I subjoin a few which have lately come 

 under my notice. 

 1. Prayer. — 



" Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 

 Sless the bed that I lie on ! 

 Four corners to my bed, 

 Five angels there lie spread ; 

 Two at my head. 

 Two at my feet, 

 '^One at my heart, my soul to keep." 



The preceding, I have reason to believe, is in 

 constant use among the cottagers who have not 

 received better instruction. 



2. Charm for Bums. — 



" An angel came from the north, 

 And he brought cold and frost j 

 An angel came from the south. 



And he brought heat and fire ; 

 The angel from the north 

 Put out the fire. 

 In the name of the Father, and 

 Of the Sou, and of the Holy Ghost ! " 



3. Preservative for Horses. — The following^ 

 took place about two years since. A man in thiff 

 neighbourhood was observed for a long time to 

 drive a horse, round whose neck something was: 

 tied, which he said would act as a preservative 

 against every mishap, stumbling included. This,, 

 when stolen by a mischievous urchin, at the insti- 

 gation of some village wags, was found to be the 

 thumb of an old leather glove, containing a tran- 

 script of the Lord's Prayer. 



I imagine this to be a charm against the evil 

 eye (malocchlo), such as one observes constantly 

 in Italy and the cities of the Levant. 



4. Weather Rhyme. — On conversing this spring^ 

 with a labourer, he expressed his fears that this 

 would be a cold and late spring, judging from the 

 fineness of the weather on Candlemas Day. 



" When Candlemas Day is fine and clear, 

 A shepherd would rather see his wife on the bier." 



This, and a mass of others, some excessively 

 curious, are comprised in " Proverbs, Adages, and 

 Popular Superstitions, still preserved in the Parish 

 of Irstead," a paper communicated to the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Archteologlcal Society, by the Rev. 

 John Gunn, and printed in their Transactions, 

 vol. ii. pp. 291—309. 



5. Bees. — The hives are regularly put in 

 mourning by having a piece of crape attached, as 

 appears elsewhere in "N. & Q.;" and if they 

 swarm on rotten wood, it is considered that it 

 portends a death in the family. 



6. Cure for Swellings. — The rector of a neigh- 

 bouring parish was solicited (in vain of course) 

 for the loan of the church plate, to lay on the sto- 

 mach of a child, which was much swelled from 

 some mesenteric disease, this being held to be a 

 sovereign remedy in such cases. E. S. Tatlob^ 



Martham, Norfolk. 



THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, MARSHAL NET, AND- 

 SOME PERSONAL ANECDOTES OF THE DUKE. 



In the Duke's variegated career, few events were 

 more calculated to elicit a signal dlssentlon of 

 judgment than his passive conduct on the trial of 

 Marshal Ney, "le brave des braves," as distin- 



