London Stone. 81 

 ears. No one appears to know — not even the duke or his steward — 

 for what purposes this money is collected, or why one parish should 

 pay more than another. This is an imperfect example, but it is valu- 

 able as showing a primitive assembly ; it was probably a court, but 

 all the judicial ceremonies have been lost and it has dwindled down to 

 the payment of the lord's dues; and the fact that the parish in which 

 the stone cross was situated was exempted from the payment of dues, 

 is in accordance with the custom of the Indians and Icelanders of 

 conferring in this way an honor upon the place where the meetings 

 were held. 



It would seem also that in Shakespeare's time the courts of justice 

 were held in the street. You all remember the breach of promise case 

 of Dame Quickley against Sir John Falstaff ; her averments were 

 "thou didst swear to me upon a parcel gilt goblet, sitting in my 

 Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea coal fire, upon Wednes 

 day in Whitsun week, when the prince brake thy head for liking his 

 father to a singing man of Windsor, thou didst swear to me then as I 

 was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady, thy wife ; " 

 and that promise the fat knight had failed to keep. Now Shakespeare 

 not only lays this scene in a street of the city of London, but the lord 

 chief justice appears upon the street attended and hears the case then 

 and there. This he would not have done had it not been the custom. 

 Again, when Hermione, who is charged with high treason, is brought 

 into court it would appear from the complaint she there makes, that 

 the court was held in the open air; for she says that she was 



permitted to go abroad after sickness. 



I shall close with an account of the Lawless Court held on King's 

 Hill, in Rochford, Essex. It is called lawless because it is held at an 

 unlawful or lawless hour, meeting at night time instead of day time. 

 The tradition is that it was so held because the feudal lords were ad- 

 verse to free open courts, and the tenants had to take the best steps 

 lK)Ssible to evade the lords' laws and still keep up their old institutions. 

 The steward and suitors whispered to each other ; they have no candles 

 or any pen or ink but use a coal instead : and he that owes suit or ser- 

 vice thereto and appears not, forfeits to the lord double his rent for 



1868 Mr. W. II. Black attended its meeting and gives an account of it, 

 11 



