6 ON A PAIR OF ANCIENT RAM S HORNS. 



him. Bits of painted glass with St. Luke's ox upon them are 

 still to be seen in Charlton Church, whilst the signs of the Horns 

 at Highgate, Charlton, Kensington, and Hornchurch have 

 reference to a tax imposed upon horned cattle, which tax was 

 collected by a bailiff, who showed his authority to demand it by 

 a staff mounted upon horns.* 



The Rev d Charles Swainson, rector of old Charlton, has given 

 me some very interesting information in reference to the Horn 

 Fair at Charlton. He says : — "The fair was established in 1268 

 (See Cart. 53, Henry III., m. 13) — Rex concessit priori de 

 Hermundeseye mercatum per diem lune apud manerium 

 suum de Charleton in comitatu Kanciae et unam feriam per tres 

 dies duraturam, videlicet in vigilia et in die et crastino sanctse 

 Trinitatis." The fair day was afterwards changed to October 

 18 th — St. Luke's Day. Mr. Swainson says "that the processions 

 were put an end to by the lord of the manor in 187 1, when the 

 last fair was held." 



Horn has ever been regarded by savage nations as an emblem 

 of power. When Charles II. granted to William Penn a grant of 

 land on the Delaware, in America, with power to establish a 

 colony there, he proceeded thither with about 100 followers only. 

 On the Sachums coming to him at the time of the treaty or 

 agreement, the chief of them put upon his head a kind of chaplet, 

 in which was a small horn. When this was done all the savages 

 threw down their arrows, for Penn and his followers were, then 

 deemed to be strictly inviolable. 



Grants giving great powers to the possessors have been con- 

 ferred by sovereigns and their chief officials by the giving of a horn, 

 and these powers remain even to the present day. As for, 

 instance, the appointment of the coroner for the High and Low 

 Peak districts of Derbyshire by the possessor of what is called 

 the " Tutbury Horn." 



" Northern Heights of London," by W. Howitt. 



