In the Shires, 87 



A curious custom exists to this day of compelling 

 every peer of Parliament, tlie first time he passes 

 through the town, to give a horse-shoe to be nailed 

 up on the Castle gate. Should he refuse, the bailitf 

 of Oakham has power to arrest his progress, and take 

 one from his horse^s foot. In compliance with this 

 ancient custom, the origin of which is obscure, her 

 Majesty the Queen, the Duchess of Kent, and nearly 

 every peer of the realm, has given a shoe — more or 

 less ornamental — which is affixed to the walls of the 

 Hall. Amongst the number is one of the date of 

 1814, given by the Prince Regent, and what was sup- 

 posed to be a golden shoe belonging to Clinker, the 

 property of Lord Willoughby d^Eresby, stolen from 

 the Hall under that supposition, but which the thief 

 was good enough to return on finding that it was 

 manufactured from a baser metal. Amongst the 

 celebrities of Oakham, I find the remarkable character 

 Jeflfery Hudson, whom Fuller aptly described as the 

 least man of the least county in England. Jefiery 

 was born in the year 1619, and at seven years of age, 

 was only 18 inches in height. He was taken into the 

 family of the Duke of Buckingham at Burley-on-the- 

 Hill, as a curiosity ; and it is related that when the 

 Court was visiting there, " he was served up in a cold 

 pie.^' Wasn^t that a dainty dish to set before a King ? 

 Many were the vicissitudes of this little man, who 

 figures as one of the characters in Sir Walter Scott^s 

 " Peveril of the Peak." 



Beyond these facts I did not observe anything 

 particular, except a custom which would be more 

 honoured in the breach than the observance — that of 

 shunting trains on the level crossing of the railway 



