310 



An English Manor in the time of Elizabeth. 



When the lord held his two courts at the Bellhouse each of these 

 truants had to do suit to the court; and on these occasions tene- 

 ments were transferred by copy of the court roll for terms of one, 

 two, or three lives at such tines as the purchaser was able to 

 arrange (bargandzare) with the lord's steward. 



The customs of several of the manors were similar to those first 

 quoted, although each had its own fixed times for entering on the 

 common fields and for leaving them. 



The situation of many Churches and places of interest is fixed 

 by this survey, the sites of which had been forgotten, and were not 

 mentioned by Hoare. The Church of St. Michael, South Street, 

 of St. Andrew, Wilton, the Chapel of Ugford St. James, the Chapel 

 of Knighton, ( lowper's Cross on the Kace Plain, Ohilhampton Cross, 

 St. Edith's Well, and many more. 



The rolls are full of facts of the greatest interest to the student of 

 politics; and just as the geologist finds in some deep cutting the fossil 

 remains of bygone ages exposed in natural order and sequence. soothe 

 student may find here the stratified vestiges of past institutions. 



Some may be inclined to ask why we cannot again see the time 

 when fifty farmers could live and thrive in such a village as Broad 

 Chalke. The secret does not lie in the farming of to-day being 

 worse than it was then. The fanning of tin 4 reign of Elizabeth 

 could no more compare with the farming of to-day than the en- 

 gineering of the L6th could compare with the engineering of the 

 L!0th century. Agriculture was never so well understood as it is 

 now. That is not the explanation. Every one of those copyholders 



had from eighty t<> two hundred sheep on the common pastures of 



Broad chalke. The wool was bought by the staplers and sold at 

 the Staple at Calais, at a time when English wool supplied every 

 market in Europe. The price was high ami the Bale was certain. 



There was no Australasian or South American wool then to 

 Compete With it, and the unsettled state of Kurope checked the 

 Continental supply. That is an economic position which it would 

 he impossihle to restore. 



Notk. The important rolls referred to in the above paper hare been tran- 

 scribed by Mr. Straton. and it is the intention of the Karl of Pembroke to 

 publish tlu' survey separately. — [KmJ 



