io6 THE HISTORY OF' NEWMARKET. [Book VIII. 



market, by order of the Privy Council, to inquire into 

 1638. the cause and nature of certain riots alleged 

 Newmarket ^^ have recently taken place at Swaffham, 

 Aninquisition. Bulbeck, Burwell, and Wicken. This in- 

 vestigation showed that such reports were exaggerated, 

 although it was proved that disturbances had taken 

 place at Burwell, where certain rights of common had 

 been infringed upon and enclosed by the lady of the 

 manor, appertaining to the queen ; whereupon the 

 commoners assembled, demolished the ditches lately 

 made thereon by the queen's officers. The report was 

 duly forwarded to the Council, and bears the signature 

 of "Dud. North," " Js. Dalton," "Jsac Barrow," " Tho. 

 Tyrrell," "Rob Linkyn."* 



Before taking leave of Newmarket, for the present, 



it may not be out of place to remark that the 



Interregnum, whilom " royal village," which may be said 



to have been created by the sunshine of the 



* State Papers, Dom., Charles I., vol. cccxcii., No. 54. The discon- 

 tents between the gentry and the commonalty in various counties re- 

 specting inclosures grew to a petty rebellion in the reign of James I.j 

 and indeed, " land-grabbing '" has continued more or less ever since. 

 Sanderson gives a story of James I. being about, when on a hunting 

 excursion in Berkshire, to dine with a man of title, when he came upon a 

 prisoner in the stocks. The king asked him what was the cause of his 

 restraint. The man of title said it was for stealing a goose from the 

 common. The fellow in the stocks appealed to the king as to who was 

 the greater thief, he for stealing geese from the common, or his lordship 

 for robbing the common from the geese ? " By my saule, sir," said the 

 king, " I'se not dine to-day on your dishes till you restore the common for 

 the poor to feed their stock." The man was set free, and the restoration 

 of the common quieted the country. This incident probably gave rise to 

 the well-known lines : — 



" It's very wrong in man or woman 

 To steal a goose from off a common ; 

 But who can plead the man's excuse 

 Who steals the common from the goose ? " 



