106 The Sheriff's Turn, Co. Wilts, A.D. 1439. 



Towns or Villages where the "Black Swan" or the "Red Lion" 

 might present friendly consolation to man or beast, but very often 

 at out-of-the-way and lonely spots used from very remote antiquity 

 for purposes of public rendezvous. Deborah (who must have been 

 a very remarkable lady) prophetess, poet and warrior, held her Court 

 as Judge of Israel "under the Palm Tree of Deborah" near Bethel 

 in Mount Ephraim. In Wiltshire the rendezvous was sometimes 

 upon a bleak down, or at an ancient Elder stump, or old Hoar Stone, 

 on the limits of a Hundred: some old fashioned gathering place or 

 other, established by lapse of ages, as the lawful place, at which, and 

 no where else, the Crown dues were payable; no matter how 

 personally inconvenient to the Crown officer, his Deputy, his 

 Bailiff or any body else. 1 



"What follows is the substance of an original Latin document of 

 the year 1439 (17. Hen. VI.), found among the Marquis of Bath's 



1 Many examples might be produced from every County in England of Hills, 

 Trees, such as Oaks, or old Elder stubs, large Stones, &c, having been Replaces 

 for Public Meetings of various kinds. The following are a few instances that 

 happen to be at hand. 



At Edwinstowe in the middle of Sherwood Forest, there is (still protected) 

 the " Parliament Oak" under which, according to tradition, a Parliament was 

 held in E. Edw. I. 



Near Dereham, Co. Norfolk, is a Hill on which the Sheriff's Court for the 

 County used to be held. (Walter White's E. Counties, I., 211.) 



In Tollard Royal, (South Wilts,) Sir R. C. Hoare (Chalk. 172) says, " There 

 is, or till within a very few years past there was, a Court Leet of this manor 

 with the Liberty of Lavermere, held in every year on the First Monday in the 

 month of September. It is opened under a vast spreading tree called the 

 ' Lavermere or Larmer Tree.' " 



The Bishop's Court at Winchester having jurisdiction over all places formerly 

 belonging to the Convent of S*. Swithin, used in Norman days to be held under 

 an Oak called "Cheney Oak" from chene, French for that tree. 



The Wapentake of Barkston Ash in Yorkshire probably takes its name from 

 some similar custom. 



The Hundred Court of Stone, Co. Somerset, is still held at a standing stone 

 on a hill within the Hundred. In the Stone is a hollow, into which it is cus- 

 tomary, on opening court, to pour a bottle of Port wine ! 



In the Hundred of Cullingford Tree, Co. Dorset, it was the custom formerly 

 when "the Tithing" was paid "in the open" for a blind dog to be brought 

 upon the occasion : and indeed (as stated by Mr. Seymour D. Darner in Notes Sf 

 Queries 1871), " This unintelligible custom was in a certain measure carried on 

 only a few years ago, by a dog being blind -folded." 



