Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 



217 



I bequeth my skin the skin of all my back 

 Even to John Chapman to make a wooing Jack* 

 I bequeth the skin of all my leggs 

 To Thomas Fauman to make him bowlting bagsf 



I bequeath the tayle that is soe fair and rownde 

 Even to Mary Moore to make a wedding gowne 

 I bequeth the ears that are soe faire and right 

 Unto John Fenell to make fethers for his flight 



Unto M* Shipma to make strings for his bookes 

 I bequeath the head for (?) and the robernowk % 

 Unto good wife Brine to make a skiming § Book." 



These doggrel rhymes possibly answered their purpose (that of 

 annoying someone against whom the writer had a grudge), and, 

 when directed at an unpopular character, found a certain amount of 

 favour in the area of their circulation. In a deposition filed on the 

 roll of the Easter Sessions, 1608, Bebecca, wife of John Baker, of 

 Calne, confesses, as to a very scurrilous copy of verses 



" Y t she refused to deliver y e said libell to Thomas Fowlke one of the costables 

 of Callne requiring© it of hir in y e behalfe of Jhon Whittocke of Callne sadler 

 whonie it concerned [it certainly did] .... and y l she likewise denied 

 to deliver it to y e said Whittock himself .... by ye disswasion of hir 

 mayde servaunt, albeit y e s 1 Whittocke did then tell hir y* hir said servaunt had 

 publisht and sunge p l of it at y e bakehouse in Callne, and had further told y a 

 said Whittocke if she knewe it all she would trownce it owt." 



Much of the intemperate language and unbecoming conduct 

 which fell under the cognizance of the hundred or quarter sessions 

 juries may have sprung from a disordered state of mind, fitter for 

 treatment in an asylum for the insane than in a house of correction ; 

 but it cannot be doubted that the quarrellings and fightings had in 

 great measure their source in the flowing bowl. It was naturally at 

 fair time and at the sign of the Hart that the least respectful utter- 

 ances towards a neighbouring justice fell from Edward Dismer : it 

 was in his cups that the aggrieved citizen of Imber proposed the 



• Jacket. 



r Probably a sieve for meal, used by bakers. 

 t Conjecture fails as to the meaning of this word, which, being hardly decipherable, may be really 

 composed of other letters than those here given. 



? Perhaps scheming or divining. 



