1 50 History of the English Landed hiterest. 



music, to wliicli a fourth is added by the steward's selection. 

 WaiTants are issued by virtue of which the stewards of music 

 can distrain and levy in any part of the honour all fines and 

 amerciaments imposed by the juries on erring minstrels. The 

 one moiety of the fines the stewards account for at the next 

 audit, the other they retain themselves. The proceedings 

 closely resemble those of the Court Leet. After a feast a per- 

 formance ensues, which is certainly the principal event of the 

 day.^ One of the manor bulls, whose horns have been short- 

 ened, and ears and tail cut off, is smeared over with soap. 

 Some pepper is blown into his nose, and the poor brute is let 

 loose amongst the minstrels. If they can cut off a piece of his 

 skin before he runs into Derbyshire, he is the King of Music's 

 bull ; but if not, he is the Lord Prior's again. The custom 

 originated in King Henry Sixth's reign, and was changed 

 about King Charles II. 's time into a cudgel fight between 

 the 3^oung men of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, who strove 

 the one party to drive the bull into Derbyshire, the other to 

 keejD him in Staffordshire, a contest which may by now have 

 degenerated into an ordinary football match, to which in 

 several respects it bore some slight semblance. "Whether 

 some older custom prompted King Henry to trammel his gift 

 with these exceedingly curious conditions, or whether they 

 owed their inception to the after-dinner suggestions of his 

 court fool, we are unable to determine. 



The sale by the hawkers of Scarborough each Shrove Tues- 

 day of parti-coloured balls to persons of both sexes, apparently 

 as a necessary preliminary to a stick fight on the sands ; the 

 grand tug of war at Ludlow, with its incidents of red and blue 

 knob and apotheosis of the chimney sweep's wife ; the football 

 match between All Saints' and St. Peter's in the streets of 

 Derby, and many such friendly contests in other parts are cited 

 by Mr. Gomme in his village community as relics of the ancient 

 feuds of a tribal race. Perhaps the real origin of many of these 

 time-honoured customs lies somewhere between the court-fool 

 theory and Mr. Gomme's more dignified explanation. 



At any rate, there is no mistaking the inference of the famous 

 ' The foregoing instances are taken from Eluut's Jocular Tenures. 



