England in the Days of Old Part 15

At Norwich, a worthy man named John Norris left Consols to the value of 300 for buying beef and books for the felons confined in the jail. The prison food is now regulated by law and the charity beef is banished, but we believe the interest is spent in supplying the prisoners with literature. Even as late as 1821, John Hall left Consols to the value of 127 16s. for providing a Christmas dinner of the good old English fare of roast beef and plum pudding for the criminals in the Northampton county prison. In 1556, Thomas Cattell left a rent charge of 35 a year for buying beef and oatmeal for the poor prisoners of Newgate and other London prisons.

A singular bequest was made in the year 1556, by Griffith Ameridith, of Exeter, and it amounted to 524 4s. 11d. in Consols, "for providing shrouds for prisoners executed at Kingswell, and for the maintenance of a wall round the burial ground." "But," says a writer on this theme, "probably for want of subjects for shrouds, the income is now, without any authority, applied to a distribution of serge petticoats to old women."

One advantage of the change is that the new recipients can at least express their grat.i.tude. In the olden time it was by no means an uncommon practice for criminals about to be executed to proceed to the gallows in shrouds. On July 30th, 1766, two men were hanged at Nottingham for robbery. "On the morning of their execution," says a local record, "they were taken to St. Mary's Church, where they heard 'the condemned sermon,'

and then to their graves, in which they were permitted to lie down to see if they would fit. They walked to the place of execution in their shrouds." At an execution in the same town in 1784, we read in a local newspaper report that the unfortunate men were attired in their shrouds.

To add to the impressiveness of the condemned sermon, the coffins in which the condemned criminals were to be buried, were exhibited during the service.

Charities and collections in churches were formerly very common in this country for freeing British subjects from slavery in foreign lands. In 1655, Alicia, d.u.c.h.ess of Dudley, by a deed poll, directed 100 per annum to be drawn from the rents of certain lands situated in the parish of Bidford, Warwickshire, for redeeming poor English Christian slaves or captives from the Turks. Thomas Betson, of Hoxton Square, London, by will dated 15th February, 1723, left a considerable fortune for the redemption of British slaves in Turkey and Barbary. He died in 1725, and five years later the property was estimated to be worth about 22,000, and the interest on half the amount was to be devoted to ransoming his countrymen from slavery. In the year 1734, it is stated that 135 men were freed by this charity. Between the years 1734 and 1826, the large sum of 21,088 8s. 2-1/2d. was expended in the admirable cause of freeing the captive.

Many of the old church books contain entries respecting collections for this object. In the books of Holy Cross, Westgate, Canterbury, is a long list of the names of persons in the parish in March, 1670, contributing 02 07s. 04d., for "Redeeming the Captives in Turkye."

Sir John Gayer, was in his time a leading London merchant, an Alderman for the ward of Aldgate, and a popular Lord Mayor. He lived in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and was a man of great enterprise, ready to encounter perils in foreign lands to forward his commercial projects. On one memorable occasion he was travelling with a caravan of merchants across the desert of Arabia, and by some accidental means managed to separate himself from his friends, and at night-fall was alone. His position was one of great peril: he heard the roaring of wild animals, but failed to find any place of refuge. We gather from the story of his life that:--"He knelt down and prayed fervently, and devoutly promised, that if G.o.d would rescue him from his impending danger the whole produce of his merchandise should be given as an offering in benefactions to the poor, on his return to his native country. At this extremity a lion of an unusually large size was approaching him. Death appeared inevitable, but the prayer of the good man had ascended to heaven, and he was delivered. The lion came up close to him. After prowling round him, smelling him, bristling his s.h.a.ggy hair, and eyeing him fiercely, he stopped short, turned round, and trotted quietly away, without doing the slightest injury. It is said that Sir John Gayer remained in the same suppliant posture till the morning dawned, when he pursued his journey, and happily came up with his friends, who had given up all hope of again seeing him." The journey was concluded without further misadventure, a ready market found for the goods, and old England reached in safety with increased wealth. Sir John did not forget his vow, and many were the deeds of charity he performed, more especially to the poor of his own parish of St. Katharine Cree. One of bequests amounting to 200 was left to the needy of that parish on condition that a "sermon should be occasionally preached in the church to commemorate his deliverance from the jaws of the lion." The sermon is known as the "Lion Sermon."

In the church of St. Katharine Cree within the altar rails is a carved head of Gayer. On the right hand side is a text, as follows:--"The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers--Ps. 34, v. 15;" on the left hand side this text appears:--"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much--James V., xvi.;" and under the figure this motto:--"Super Astra Spero." There is a bra.s.s bearing the following inscription:--

In Memory of SIR JOHN GAYER, KNT., Founder of the "Lion Sermon" who was descended from the Old West Country Family of Gayer, and was born at Plymouth, and became Sheriff of this City of London in 1635, and Lord Mayor of London in 1647.

He was a member of the Levant or Turkey Company, and of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, London, and President of Christ's Hospital, London, and a liberal donor to and pious founder of Charities.

This City has especial reason to be proud of him, for rather than withdraw his unflinching a.s.sertion of the Native Liberties of the Citizens, and his steadfast support of King Charles I., he submitted to imprisonment in the Tower at the hands of the Parliament in 1647 and 1648, and his "Salva Libertate" became historical.

He resided in this Parish, and "Dyed in peace in his owne house" on the 20th of July 1649, and he now lies buried in a Vault beneath this Church of St. Katharine Cree, Leadenhall St.

This Memorial Bra.s.s was subscribed for by Members of and Descendants from the Family of Gayer, and was placed here by them in testimony of their admiration for and appreciation of the n.o.ble character and many virtues of their ill.u.s.trious ancestor.

The work of organising this Memorial was carried out by Edmund Richard Gayer, M.A. of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law, 1888.

There are a number of ancient bequests for ringing bells and lighting beacons to guide travellers by night. These were very useful charities, for in the days of old, lands were generally unenclosed, and the roads poorly constructed. It was difficult for the wayfarer to find his way when the nights were dark. At the ancient village of Hessle, near Hull, a bell is still rung every night except Sunday, at 7 o'clock. Long, long ago, so runs the local story, a lady was lost on a dark night near the place, and was in sore distress, fearing that she would have to wander about in the cold until daylight. Happily, the ringing of the Hessle bells enabled her to direct her course to the village in safety, although she had to wend her weary steps over a trackless country. In grat.i.tude for her delivery she left a piece of land to the parish clerk, on condition that he rang every evening one of the church bells.

A similar story is related respecting a Barton-on-Humber bell ringing custom. Richard Palmer left in 1664 a bequest to the s.e.xton of Workingham, Berkshire, for ringing a bell every evening at eight, and every morning at four o'clock. One reason for ringing this, was "that strangers and others who should happen, on winter nights, within hearing of the ringing of the said bell, to lose their way in the country, might be informed of the time of the night, and receive some guidance into the right way."

John Wardall, in his will dated 29th August, 1656, provided for a payment of 4 per annum being made to the Churchwardens of St. Botolph's, Billingsgate, London, "to provide a good and sufficient iron and gla.s.s lanthorn, with a candle, for the direction of pa.s.sengers to go with more security to and from the water-side, all night long, to be fixed at the north-east corner of the parish church, from the feast-day of St.

Bartholomew to Lady-Day; out of which sum 1 was to be paid to the s.e.xton for taking care of the lanthorn." In 1662 a man named John Cooke made a similar bequest for providing a lamp at the corner of St. Michael's Lane, next Thames Street.

In past ages churches were frequently unpaved and the floor usually covered with rushes. Not a few persons have left money and land for providing rushes for churches. In these latter days rushes are no longer strewn on the floor for keeping the feet warm in cold weather, but at a number of places old rights are maintained by the carrying out of the custom. At Clee, Lincolnshire, for example, the parish officials possess the right of cutting rushes from a certain piece of land for strewing the floor of the church every Trinity Sunday. The churchwardens preserve their rights by cutting a small quant.i.ty of gra.s.s annually and strewing it on the church floor. At Old Weston, Huntingdonshire, a similar custom still lingers. "A piece of land," says Edwards in his "Remarkable Charities,"

"belongs, by custom, to the parish clerk for the time being, subject to the condition of the land being mown immediately before Weston feast, which occurs in July, and the cutting thereof strewed on the church floor, previous to divine service on the feast Sunday, and continuing there during divine service." At Pavenham, Bedfordshire, the church is annually strewn with gra.s.s cut from a certain field, on the first Sunday after the 11th July. "Until recently," says a well-informed correspondent, "the custom was for the churchwardens to claim the right of removing from the field in question as much gra.s.s as they could 'cut and cart away from sunrise to sunset.' A few years ago this arrangement was altered into a yearly payment on the part of the tenant of the field of one guinea." The money is spent in purchasing gra.s.s for spreading on the church floor. The parishioners have always taken a deep interest in this old custom. On the benefaction table of Deptford Church is recorded that "a person unknown gave half-a-quarter of wheat, to be given in bread on Good Friday, and half a load of rushes at Whitsuntide, and a load of pea-straw at Christmas yearly, for the use of the church." In 1721, an offer of 21s.

per annum was accepted in lieu of the straw and rushes, and in 1744, the sum of 10s. yearly in place of the half-quarter of wheat.

John Rudge, by his will dated 17th April, 1725, left a pound a year to a poor man to go round the parish church of Trysull, Staffordshire, during the delivery of the sermon, to keep people awake and drive out of the church any dogs which might come in. Richard Brooke left 5s. a year for a person to keep quiet during divine service the boys in the Wolverhampton church and churchyard.

At Stockton-in-the-Forest, Yorkshire, is a piece of land called "Petticoat Hole," and it is held on the condition of providing a poor woman of the place every year with a new petticoat.

We will close this chapter with particulars of a novel mode of distributing a charity. At Bulkeley, Cheshire, a charity of 19s. 2d. was given to the poor as follows. The overseer obtained the amount in coppers, placed them in a peck measure, and invited each of the poor folks to help himself or herself to a handful.

An Old-Time Chronicler.

We have frequently referred to the writings of John Stow in this work, and we think a short account of his life and labours will prove interesting to our readers.

From the ranks of tailors have sprung many famous men. Not one more worthy, perhaps, than honest John Stow, the painstaking compiler of works which have found a lasting place in historic literature.

Stow was a Londoner of Londoners, born in 1525, in the parish of St.

Michael, Cornhill. His father and grandfather were citizens, and appear to have been most worthy men. John Stow was trained under his father to the trade of a tailor. At an early age he took an interest in the study of history and antiquities, and, as years ran their course, his love of research increased. We have had handed down to us from the pen of Edmund Howes, his literary executor, a well-drawn word-portrait of Stow. We learn that he was tall in stature, and, as befits the ideal student, lean in body and face. His eyes were small and clear, and his sight excellent. As might be expected, through long and active use, his memory was very good.

He was sober, mild, and corteous, and ever ready to impart information to those that sought it.

He lived in an historically attractive age. It was a period when some of our greatest countrymen worked and talked amongst men. Gifted authors made the time glorious in our literary annals. Stow's fame mainly rests on being an exact and picturesque describer of the London of Queen Elizabeth.

His _Survey_ is not a mere topographical account of the city, but a pleasantly penned picture, full of life and character, of the social condition, manners, customs, sports, and pastimes of the people.

John Stow was most minute as a writer, and his attention to slight circ.u.mstances has caused some critics to make merry over his productions.

Fuller, for example, spoke of him "as such a smell-feast that he cannot pa.s.s by the Guildhall but his pen must taste the good cheer therein." It is his consideration of minor matters that renders his book so valuable to the student of bygone times. We may quote, to ill.u.s.trate this, a few lines from his _Survey of London_. After a description of the Abbey of St.

Clare, he writes: "Near adjoining to this Abbey, on the south side thereof, was sometime a farm belonging to the said nunnery, at which farm I myself, in my youth, have fetched many a halfpennyworth of milk, and never had less than three ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor less than one ale quart for a halfpenny in the winter, always hot from the kine, as the same was milked and strained. One Trolop, afterwards Goodman, was farmer there, and had thirty or forty kine to the pail. Goodman's son, being heir to his father's purchase, let out the ground first for the grazing of horses, and then for garden plots, and lived like a gentleman thereby."

In about his fortieth year, Stow gave up his business as a tailor and devoted his entire life to antiquarian pursuits. Fame he won, but not fortune. In place of being wealthy in his old age, he, as we shall presently see, suffered from poverty. His princ.i.p.al works include his _Summary of English Chronicles_, first issued in 1561. In 1580, his _Annals; or, a General Chronicle of England_ was published. His most important work was given to the world in 1598, under the t.i.tle of a _Survey of London and Westminster_. Besides writing the foregoing original books, he a.s.sisted on the continuation of Holinshed's _Chronicle_ and Speght's edition of Chaucer, and he was employed on other undertakings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN STOW'S MONUMENT.]

Many a long journey Stow made in search of information. He could not ride, and had to travel on foot. In the midst of great trials it is recorded that his good humour never forsook him. In his old age he was troubled with pains in his feet, and quietly remarked that his "afflictions lay in the parts he had formerly made so much use of."

We might well suppose that Stow's blameless life would render him free from suspicion, and that his grateful countrymen would regard with respect his great work in writing the history of England. Such was not the case.

It was thought that his researches would injure the reformed religion, and on this miserable plea he was cast into prison, and his humble home was searched. We obtain from the report of the searchers an interesting account of the contents of Stow's library. It consisted, we are told, of "great collections of his own, of his English chronicles, also a great sort of old books, some fabulous, as _Sir Gregory Triamour_, and a great parcel of old ma.n.u.script chronicles in parchment and paper; besides miscellaneous tracts touching physic, surgery, herbs, and medical receipts, and also fantastical popish books printed in old time, and others written in old English on parchment."

John Stow failed to make much money, but on the whole, he lived a peaceful life, enjoying the many pleasures that fall to the lot of the student.

Happily for him, to use Howes' words, "He was careless of the scoffers, backbiters, and detractors."

It is Howes who also tells that Stow always protested never to have written anything either of malice, fear, or favour, nor to seek his own particular gain or vain-glory, and that his only pains and care was to write the truth.

At the age of four score years, his labours received State acknowledgment.

It was indeed a poor acknowledgment, for, in answer to a pet.i.tion, James I. granted him a licence to beg. Stow sought help, to use his own words, as "a recompense for his labour and travel of forty-five years, in setting forth the _Chronicles of England_, and eight years taken up in the _Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster_, towards his relief in his old age, having left his former means of living, and also employing himself for the service and good of his country."

The humble request was granted, and the doc.u.ment says:--"Whereas our loving subject, John Stow (a very aged and worthy member of our city of London), this five-and-forty years hath, to his great charge, and with neglect of his ordinary means of maintenance (for the general good, as well of posterity as of the present age), compiled and published divers necessary books and chronicles; and therefore we, in recompense of these his painful labours, and for encouragement of the like, have, in our Royal inclination, been pleased to grant our Letters Patent, under our Great Seal of England, thereby authorising him, the said John Stow, to collect among our loving subjects their voluntary contributions and kind gratuities."

The foregoing authority to beg was granted for twelve months, but, as the response was so small, it pleased the King to extend the privilege for another year. From one parish in the City of London he only received seven shillings and sixpence--a poor reward, to use Stow's words, "of many a weary day's travel, and cold winter night's study."

His end now was drawing near, and mundane trials were almost over. On the 5th of April, 1605, his well-spent life closed, and his mortal remains were laid to rest in his parish church of St. Andrew, Undershaft. Here may still be seen the curious and interesting monument which his loving widow erected. It is pleasant to leave the busy streets of the great metropolis and repair to the quiet sanctuary where rests the old chronicler, and look upon his quaint monument, and reflect on ages long pa.s.sed. When the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the London Stow had so truthfully described, his monument escaped destruction.

Ye Ende