106 The Sheriff’s Turn, Co. Wilts, A.D. 1439. 
Towns or Villages where the “Black Swan” or the “Red Lion” 
might present friendly consolation to man or beast, but very often 
at out-of-the-way and lonely spots used from very remote antiquity” 
for purposes of public rendezvous. Deborah (who must have been 
a very remarkable lady) prophetess, poet and warrior, held her Court 
as Judge of Israel “under the Palm Tree of Deborah” near Bethel 
in Mount Ephraim. In Wiltshire the rendezvous was sometimes 
upon a bleak down, or at an ancient Elder stump, or old Hoar Stone, 
on the limits of a Hundred: some old fashioned gathering place or 
other, established by lapse of ages, as the lawful place, at which, and 
no where else, the Crown dues were payable; no matter how 
personally inconvenient to the Crown officer, his Deputy, his 
Bailiff or any body else.? 
What follows is the substance of an original Latin document of 
the year 1439 (17. Hen. VI.), found among the Marquis of Bath’s 
1Many examples might be produced from every County in England of Hills, 
Trees,such as Oaks, or old Elder stubs, large Stones, &c., having been the places 
for Public Meetings of various kinds. The following are a few instances that 
happen to be at hand. 
At Edwinstowe in the middle of Sherwood Forest, there is (still protected) 
the ‘‘ Parliament Oak” under which, according to tradition, a Parliament was 
held in K. Edw. I. ; 
Near Dereham, Co. Norfolk, is a Hill on which the Sheriff’s Court for the 
County used to be held. (Walter White’s E, Counties, I., 211.) 
In Tollard Royal, (South Wilts,) Sir R. C. Hoare (Chalk. 172) says, ‘‘ There 
is, or till within a very few years past there was, a Court Leet of this manor 
with the Liberty of Lavermere, held in every year on the First Monday in the 
month of September. It is opened under a vast spreading tree called the 
‘ Lavermere or Larmer Tree.’ ” 
The Bishop’s Court at Winchester having jurisdiction over all places formerly 
belonging to the Convent of St. Swithin, used in Norman days to be held under 
an Oak called ‘‘Cheney Oak” from chéne, French for that tree. 
The Wapentake of Barkston Ash in Yorkshire probably takes its name from 
some similar custom. 
The Hundred Court of Stone, Co. Somerset, is still held at a standing stone 
on a hill within the Hundred. In the Stone is a hollow, into which it is cus- 
tomary, on opening court, to pour a bottle of Port wine! 
In the Hundred of Cullingford Tree, Co. Dorset, it was the custom formerly 
when ‘‘the Tithing” was paid ‘‘in the open” for a blind dog to be brought 
upon the occasion: and indeed (as stated by Mr. Seymour D. Damer in Notes & 
Queries 1871), ‘‘ This unintelligible custom was in a certain measure carried on 
only a few years ago, by a dog being blind-folded.” 
