8 ON THE TUTBURY HORN. 



The marginal reference for the authority of this tenure is to a 

 manuscript of St. Loe Kniveton, that now forms part of the 

 Ashmolean MSS. of the Bodleian, and which contains many 

 notes of value to the Derbyshire antiquary. 



In 1772 that volumnious and accurate Derbyshire writer, 

 Rev. S. Pegge, read a paper upon this horn, and upon horn- 

 tenure in general, to the Society of Antiquaries. * He pointed 

 out that among the various modes of transferring inheritances in 

 use with our ancestors was that of conveying them by a horn. 

 In the Chronicle attributed to Ingulf, Abbot of Croyland, occurs 

 the following passage relative to changes introduced into England 

 at the time of the Conquest : — " Many estates were conferred by 

 bare words, without any writing or deed, but only with the 

 presentation of the lord's sword, or helmet, or horn, or cup ; and 

 very many tenements with that of a spur, or piece of gold, or a 

 bow; while some were conferred by the presentation of an arrow." 



Instances can be given of horn-tenure of various kinds in 

 Frank-almoigne, in Fee, and in Serjeantry. There is a well-known 

 example of the first of these in the Horn of Ulphus, a Danish 

 noble of the time of Canute, by which he conferred large estates 

 on the Church of St. Peter, at York ; this horn is still preserved, 

 after many strange vicissitudes, in the sacristry of York Minster. 

 Of estates in Fee, a remarkable instance is that of the Pusey 

 family holding the village of Pusey, in Berkshire, by a horn, said 

 to have been first given to their ancestor by King Canute ; the 

 inscriptiont on the horn, is however, of later date, but may 

 have been renewed. As to Serjeantry, or holding in service of 

 the King, Edward the Confessor granted the rangership of 

 Bernwood Forest, in Buckinghamshire, to one Nigel and his 

 heirs to be held by a horn. 



Of a similar character to this last instance is the Tutbury horn, 

 for by it, without any deed or writing, certain privileges are 

 conferred. The posts or offices held and conveyed by this horn 



* A7-chcBologia, vol. iii., p. 1 seq. 



t Lyson's Berkshire, p. 326. There are small engravings of both the Pusey 

 and Ulphus horns, on p. 72 of Knight's Old England, vol. i. 



