78 Some Stray Notes from the Marlborough Court Books. 



satisfies himself by entering "per unum equum colons' 3 blank. It 

 must have been on this third charge that on the 9th and 23rd 

 November the Prior is again presented as in default. Then on the 

 7th December order is made for a levy on his goods which seems to 

 have been pursued to the bitter end, for on the 11th January two 

 appraisers report that a seizure has been made of one horse, " coloris 

 grey 33 of the goods and chattels of the said Richard Browne, of the 

 value of 5s. 4<d., and on the 8th of March a further seizure is re- 

 ported of a quarter of barley, value 3s. lOd. When the Prior next 

 appears it is on the 2nd December following, to answer for the peace- 

 able behaviour of one John Waterhouse, in a recognizance of 405. 



References to the adjacent Forest are not numerous. 



On one occasion William Owen took upon himself to say openly 

 in court that the Mayor had said that " He myght not punish the 

 shomakers insomuch that thei were longing to Maister Seymor for 

 yff we should punish them we shall have nother wood nor other 

 thing ought of the forest. " 



On another (2nd July, 25 Hen. VIII.), John White confessed 

 that out of twenty cart-loads of roots which he had undertaken to 

 dig in the forest he had dug only ten. It was adjudged that he dig 

 the other ten cart-loads within the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula : 

 and for the rest all the roots contained in Bucley Heyth within the 

 same feast, and William Seyman was surety as well for the com- 

 pletion of the work as for the re-delivery of the tools, "cuncta 

 instrumenta videlicet Beetyll, Ax, Matock, and Show^s."" 



The foregoing entry shews that the latinity of the Town Clerk 

 did not always keep pace with the exigencies of the occasion. It 

 seems, however, to have failed him chiefly in a description of the 

 miscellaneous weapons of offence with which were committed the 

 numerous assaults recorded in the court books. The scribe is 

 generally careful to state with particularity that blood was drawn, 

 "insultum fecit et sanguinem extraxit," and this is alleged to have 

 been effected in one case " co [he means " cum "] uno collrake " ; 

 in others, " co uno Forke " " co uno rude staffe," " co uno howl/ 3 

 "co uno payre pencers," " cu uno lez Woodknyff," "cu uno lez 

 Fyrepyke/' " cu j lez dungpyke/' and " cu uno cifo voc a godderd." 



