OBJECTS OF INTEREST. 65 



sent not to take notice thereof. Next year the 

 same men of Waltham went to the abbot the 

 Tuesday before Easter, in the name of the whole 

 village, and demanded of him to remove his 

 mares and colts out of the marsh. This the 

 abbot refused to do, adding that if his bailiffs had 

 placed his cattle otherwise than they ought, they 

 might do well to have it amended, and yet so as 

 to defer the matter till the Tuesday after Easter. 

 On that Tuesday, Richard, brother to the King, 

 Duke of Cornwall, came to Waltham, at which 

 time both the men and the women of the town 

 repaired to the gate of the abbey to receive the 

 abbot's final answer. 



" He put them off with the information that he 

 was preparing for a journey into Lincolnshire to meet 

 the justices itinerant, and said that he would settle 

 the affair at his return. Not satisfied, they went 

 into the pasture, and, in driving out the abbot's 

 mares and colts, drowned three worth twenty shil- 

 lings, spoiled ten more to the value of ten marks, 

 and beat the keepers, who resisted them, even to 

 the shedding of blood. Fearing, however, that 

 they should be prosecuted on the return of the 

 abbot, they desired a 'love day,' and offered to 

 pay damages for the injuries committed ; but, in- 

 stead of doing so, they went to London and accused 

 the abbot to the king of having wrongfully taken 

 away their common land, and bringing up new 

 customs, adding that he would ' eat them up to the 

 bone.' The abbot then excommunicated the men 

 of Waltham, and they impleaded him at common 

 law for appropriating their common land to himself 

 They were unsuccessful, and after a long suit in the 

 King's Bench, were glad to confess that they had 



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