430 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 158. 



and tlie triumvirate proceeded linked together, as 

 if they had been on intimate terras all their lives ; 

 till Lord Spencer Hamilton wished the gentlemen 

 " Good night," and returned to his party to claim 

 the wager and enjoy the scene. It is almost need- 

 less to add that the two new friends continued 

 together the rest of the evening, wholly uncon- 

 scious how much entertainment they were afford- 

 ing to the company, for the story soon got wind, 

 and was duly circulated in all parts of the Rotunda. 



Bratbrooke. 



CURIOUS TENURE : HERRING-PIES. 



Until the usage was determined by the effects of 

 modern legislative enactment, the customary duty 

 or service rendered to the Crown by the city of 

 Norwich, on account of fee farm, consisted in the 

 yearly delivery at court of twenty-four herring- 

 pies. This remarkable feudal tenure originated in 

 times, before the foundation of Yarmouth, when 

 the valley of the Yare was still an estuary, and 

 !N"orwich, now some eighteen miles from the sea, 

 an important fishing station. The course of pro- 

 cedure was this : Out of their official allowance, 

 the sheriffs of the city for the time being annually 

 made provision, according to a prescribed formula, 

 for the manufacture of these pies, which were 

 forthwith transmitted to the lord of the manor of 

 Carleton, to be by him, or his tenant, carried to 

 the royal palace, and placed on the sovereign's 

 table. The following indenture, being the iden- 

 tical one to which Blomefield (Hist. Norw. fol. 

 1741, pp. 263, 264.) refers, will explain the rest; 

 and now that suchlike memorials of bygone days 

 are rapidly disappearing, " I would fain bear this 

 relic away," in order to its conservation in the 

 pages of " N. & Q." 



" This Indenture, made at Norwich, at the Guildhall 

 there, the twenty-seventh of September, at ten of y« 

 clock in y* forenoon of y' same day, in y« twenty-fifth 

 year of y" reign of our Lord Charles the 2^, by y^ grace 

 of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, 

 iCing defender of y" Faitli, &c. , and in y« year of our 

 Liord 1673, Between John Leverington and Robert 

 Freeman, Sheriffs of y' city of Norwich, on one part, 

 and Edward Eden, Gentleman, tenant of Thomas Lord 

 Richardson, Baron of Cramond, &c., of y"= other part, 

 WITNESSETH, that y"^ aforesaid Sheriffs, on y" day, year, 

 houre, and place aforesaid, delivered to y'' said Edward 

 Eden one hundred Herrings (viz. of y'^ large hundred) 

 of y" first new Herrings that came to y^ s"i city, in 

 twenty-four Pies well seasoned w"' y" following spices, 

 viz. halfe a pound of ginger, halfe a pound of pepper, 

 a quarter of cinnamon, one ounce of spice of cloves, 

 one ounce of long pepper, halfe an ounce of grains of 

 paradise, and halfe an ounce of galangals, to be brought 

 to y" King's palace, wherever he is in England, and 

 there to be delivered ; And be it known that y" said 

 Edward Eden or his attorney carrying y'= said Pyes, 

 shall receive at y« King's house six Loves, six Dishes 



out of y« Kitchen, one Flaggon of Wine, one Flao-<Ton 

 of Beer, one Truss of Hay, one Bushel of Oats, one 

 Prickett of Wax, and six Candles of Tallow ; In tes- 

 timony of whiche y" parties aforesaid have alternately 

 set their seals to this Indenture, y^ day, houre, and 

 place and year aforesaid." 



Blomefield {ut sup.') gives at length a curious 

 letter, dated " Hampton'Court, iiij. of Oct., 1629," 

 from the household officers of the King to the 

 Mayor and Sheriffs of Norwich, on the subject of 

 these pies, which it seems, in the instance referred 

 to, "were not well baked in good and strong 

 pastye, as they ought to have been." Divers of 

 them, also, were found to contain no more than 

 " fower herrings," whereas the tenure required 

 "five to be put into every pye at the least;" 

 neither were they made of the first new herrings 

 that reached the city. And other "just excep- 

 tions against the goodness of them " were likewise 

 taken, to which a " particular answer, for his Ma- 

 jesty's better satisfaction," was demanded. I find 

 that the cost to the sheriffs of these pies, in 1754, 

 was 2Z., independently of carriage, &c. Cowgill. 



A NOTE ON THE SOURCES OF A GRACEFUL THOUGHT 

 IN PRIOR. 



The Rev. R. A. Willmott, in his agreeable and 

 tasteful little volume, '•'•A Journal of Summer Time 

 in the Country, speaking of Prior, says : 



" His Solomon, though rough and deficient in va- 

 riety of interest, is sown with thoughts and images of 

 pensive grace that dwell in the memory : 



' Vex'd with the present moment's heavy gloom. 

 Why seek we brightness from the years to come ? 

 Disturb'd and broken, like a sick man's sleep, 

 Our troubled thoughts to distant prospects leap, 

 Desirous still what flies us to o'ertake; 

 For hope is but the dream of those that wake.' 



" The last line," adds Mr. Willmott, " is scarcely ex- 

 celled by Pope's description of ' Faith, our early im- 

 mortality.' " 



Dr. Johnson observed of Prior that " his stories, 

 and even his points, may be traced," and the line 

 here quoted with just admiration of its beauty by 

 Mr. Willmott, furnishes a remarkable instance in 

 point. 



The sentiment occurs In that very beautiful 

 letter of Basil (Bishop of C^sarea about 370 a.d.) 

 to his friend Gregory of Nazianzum, which is 

 quoted and accompanied with some judicious and 

 admirable observations, in the Cosmos of A. Von 

 Humboldt (Sabine's Translation, vol. ii. p. 26.), — ■ 



" For the hopes of men have been justly called 

 waking dreams." 



The simile appears here not to have been original 

 with Basil, but its beauty did not escape his 

 poetical tone of mind. Now Basil was one of the 



