348 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
given to us in 1846 (when we received the Chetwode rents), by the same 
old collector, William Giles, who at the time rented the Rhyne (or Rhine) 
toll at £6 per annum. 
“The Rhyne Toll commences at 12 p.m. on the 29th October (morning 
of 30th), and ends at 12 p.m. on the 7th November every year; and extends 
over nine townships, viz., Prebend End, Gawcott, Lenborough, Bourton, 
Preston-cum-Cowley, Hillesley, Tingewick, Barton, and Chetwode. The 
payment is due on all cattle that travel on the drift in any part of it, or 
through the above townships (even from one field to another, if on the drift, 
but the farmers within the Rhyne usually compound by payment of a small 
sum, say 1s. per annum for their own stock), and the sum demandable is, 
on all beasts 6d. per head, sheep 5d. per head, and pigs 5d. per head. 
These sums are, however, now only demanded in some one instance every 
year to preserve the right, and the charge he takes in every other instance 
is 2s. per score, whether sheep, beast, or pigs. The plan of levying the 
Rhyne is this :—Boys are employed all over the Rhyne district, who, as it 
is called, Rhyne all the beasts, &c., they find on the drift by blowing a 
horn (or conch-shell, which they sling over their shoulders), then counting 
the number, and demanding the payment. Giles relates an instance in 
which a farmer and dealer refused to pay the Rhyne on some sheep passing 
through Gawcott, ou which he had demanded about 14s. (at the rate of 2s. 
per score), that he went, on his refusal, to the then Steward of the Chetwode 
Court, who proceeded against the farmer, who had to pay the full demand 
and costs. The first thing each year Giles does is to get the boys together 
on Church Hill, Buckingham,—the church was formerly in Prebend End, 
—and at Finmere End, Tingewick, and give them gingerbread and ale; 
he then blows one of the shells, and cries, ‘This is Sir John Chetwode’s 
Rhyne Toll,’ and then blows the shell again and begins the Rhyne. The 
object of this, he says, is that the boys may remember the Rhyne Toll, and 
that it is regularly kept up. 
* We just mention that Browne Willis—the historian of Buckingham 
and its Hundred—states that the Lord of the Manor of Chetwode claims 
suit and service of the townships enumerated; but he says nothing about 
the Rhyne Toll, which is, however, traditionally held to have originated in 
a grant to one of your ancestors for slaying a Wild Boar which had ravaged 
those townships and destroyed their children. 
We forward the box to-day by the L. & N. W. Railway, and we beg to 
remain, 
“ Sir George, 
“Faithfully your obedient servants, 
* yy ; 
“ Sir George Chetwode, Bart. ‘«* Harrison and Son. 
The existence of this toll may be traced to remote antiquity, 
but nothing is known of its origin except by local tradition. The 
