THE PORTLAND EEEVE STAFF AND COURT LEET. 55 



is always the tenant who pays the highest amount of quit 

 rent, who has not held office before. No person ever holds 

 the office a second time. 



The use of the Reeve Staff as a method of reckoning the 

 rents of the tenants to the King as Lord of the Manor is 

 perhaps the most interesting of the many ancient customs 

 which still prevail in Portland. There is now in use a Reeve 

 book, in which the amounts of the rents are entered, with 

 the names of the tenants ; but the Reeve Staff was invented 

 and used in illiterate times. It is a long squared pole of deal, 

 pine, or mahogany, on which are cut certain signs to represent 

 the 5 ancient hamlets of the Island, and beneath them long 

 and short notches and lines representing the rent to be paid 

 by each tenant according to the order in the Reeve book, 

 the individual amounts being separated by small dots or 

 triangular cuts. The staff varies in length from year to 

 year, according to the style of cutting the items of rent, 

 and the number of tenants ; the old staffs still remaining, and 

 much valued by their possessors, are from about 7ft. to nearly 

 12ft. long, and from 1 inch to 1 J inch square. In 1885 a new 

 method of cutting the staff was introduced in order that 

 the length should be reduced. By this method the rent of 

 1 was denoted by a diagonal notch, instead of 20 straight 

 notches. A straight notch still stands for Is., and if only 

 three-quarters across it denotes 9d., half across 6d. &c., and 

 the same with the penny line or scratch. 



The signs and notches are as follows, many of which may 

 be seen in the annexed illustration, from a photograph by Mr. 

 Bernard Griffin, Dorchester. 



A hollow circle Southwell. 



A cross in a circle Wakeham. 



A cross between parallel lines Weston. 



A " W " Easton. 



A " V " Chiswell or Chesil. 



A whole notch Is. A half notch 6d. 



A full scratch Id. A half scratch Jd. A quarter Jd. 



Dots or cuts separate individual amounts. 



