Part 23

THE SCARLET ROBE.--This is of great antiquity. Lord Chief Baron Cassy is represented wearing such a robe on his monument in Deerhurst church, near Tewkesbury; he died 1401.

THE BLACK SILK GOWN.--This is an undress gown of the Lord Chancellor, Judges, Queen's Counsel, and Serjeants-at-Law, none of them wearing his full dress gown in an assize town except the Judges. The Queen's Counsel's full dress gown is of figured black silk, tufted all over like a parish clerk's. The serjeant's full dress is a cloth robe, scarlet for state occasions, black in term time, and purple on the red letter days of the almanac if in term.

THE TIPPET.--This is a piece of cloth about two feet long, shaped something like a gun-case; it is worn by the Judges in the Crown Court, and by the Serjeants in term time, hung from the right shoulder by a strong metal hook. The tippet is mentioned as a portion of ecclesiastical costume in the 74th canon of 1603. In a very interesting article, which recently appeared in the "Quarterly Review," entitled "Rubric against Usage," some question is raised as to what the tippet was, but on this there ought to be no doubt, as it is still worn by the Judges and Serjeants-at-Law.

THE BLACK SILK SCARF.--This is worn by the Judge in the Crown Court; it is the same as the scarf worn by the clergy, and is evidently derived from the stola, an ecclesiastical vestment.

THE BLACK SILK GIRDLE.--This is worn by the Judge in the Crown Court; it was a part of the civil costume of the reign of King Henry VII, and is often seen represented in monumental brasses of that period.

THE HOOD.--Judges sometimes wear the ermine hood with their scarlet robes. The barrister has a black hood (useless from its small size) attached to the back of his gown.

THE JUDGE'S COURT HAT.--An equilateral cocked hat. The gentleman's hat _temp._ George II.

THE BLACK COAT AND WAISTCOAT.--The bar did not uniformly wear these till after the general mourning for Queen Anne. Before this time the barristers wore coats and waistcoats of any colour under their gowns, as the undergraduates of Oxford do now. But at this general mourning the Judges thought that the bar in the uniform black dress looked so well that they suggested its continuance, and it has been continued ever since. Indeed, it seems to be pretty clear that a black waistcoat was not always a part of the costume of the bar, as even now, on full dress occasions, the Queen's Counsel wear waistcoats of gold or silver tissue, or of white silk embroidered with coloured flowers. On ecclesiastical and forensic costume in general the Rev. Dr. Burn (before cited) observes that "most of the peculiar habits, both in the Church and in Courts of Justice, and in the Universities, were in their day the common habit of the nation, and were retained by persons and in places of importance only as having an air of antiquity, and thereby in some sort conducing to attract veneration, and the same, on the other hand, in proportion do persuade to a suitable gravity of demeanour, for an irreverent behaviour in a venerable habit is extremely burlesque and ungraceful."

THE BARRISTER'S BAG.--At present the younger barristers have blue bags, the elder having red ones. Down to the reign of George IV no barrister carried a bag in Court unless it had been given to him by a King's Counsel, which arose in this way. Down to that period the King's Counsel had no salaries, but each was allowed _every year_ a ream of foolscap paper, a ream of draft paper, six pieces of red tape, six bags, a penknife, a paper of sand, and a paper of pins. These bags being more than they wanted for their own use, some of them were given by them from time to time to their younger friends, who were getting into business, to entitle them, as the phrase was, "to carry a bag," the clerk, who was the bearer of the present, having a fee of a guinea for it. But at last the King's Counsel complaining that the paper was bad, the amount paid by the Government for the allowances was given to them instead, and so matters continued until Mr. (afterwards Lord) Denman was appointed King's Counsel, when fearing that this commuted allowance might be the means of vacating his seat in Parliament, he was appointed King's Counsel "without any fee, gain, or reward whatsoever," and so have been all the King's and Queen's Counsel ever since.

OPENING THE PLEADINGS.--At present the junior counsel for the plaintiff, in a _Nisi Prius_ cause, shortly states the effect of the pleadings. This is called "opening the pleadings." This practice was introduced at the suggestion of Lord Mansfield, early in the reign of George III. The _Nisi Prius_ business in London was then monopolised by Sir Fletcher Norton, Mr. Dunning, and a few other leaders, and to throw something into the hands of the juniors Lord Mansfield suggested the practice that in every case where a King's Counsel was alone for the plaintiff a junior should have a guinea fee to state or open the pleadings. This was acceded to; but as the clients thought this of no use to them, they had a second brief delivered to a junior with two guineas, and the junior then assisted the leader throughout the cause, as the practice is now; but even at present, if a plaintiff has only engaged Queen's Counsel or Serjeants, the youngest counsel present is paid a guinea to open the pleadings only, and do nothing more in the cause; and this is called a "kite."

ASSIZE BALLS.--The late Mr. Bellamy, who went the Oxford and other circuits for sixty-two years, and who died in 1845, remembered that in every county on this circuit there was an assize ball on the commission day of each assize. This ball was attended by the nobility and gentry of the county and the Judges and Bar. The Judges used to wear to the balls the black silk gown, band, and the two-curl bob-wig. They were attended by the High Sheriff, wearing a full court dress, bag-wig, and sword; and his chaplain, in his gown, cassock, and band. The Judges did not dance, but they usually played at whist. The assize ball was continued in Buckinghamshire within the memory of the Rev. Edward Owen, one of the present magistrates of that county.

THE COURTS.--In the recollection of Mr. Bellamy, in every assize town on the Oxford circuit the two Courts were held in the same room, without any division or partition, so that one Judge could see the other. This continued at Gloucester till the year 1816, and the alteration was occasioned by this circumstance: Baron (then Judge) Bayley was trying a man for murder, and his jury burst into a laugh at one of Mr. Dauncey's jokes in a horse cause in the other Court. The learned Judge thought it was time this was altered.

ASSIZE PRESENTS.--Formerly the Judges on their circuits had an immense number of presents--venison, fruit, wine, &c.--which half kept their house during the assizes; but in the year 1794, when so much was subscribed for the defence of the nation against the threatened invasion, the value of the different presents was subscribed, and the presents discontinued, and never again renewed. About thirty years ago a story was current in Worcester that the Mayor always sent the Judges a present of a loaf of sugar, and that the Judges in return invited the Mayor to dine with them; but that the Mayor being once uninvited, the sugar was discontinued ever after. Till the passing of the Municipal Reform Act the Corporation of Gloucester always sent each Judge in spring a salmon and a house lamb, and in summer a salmon and a whole sheep; and at present the Corporation of Oxford give to each Judge a pair of white kid gloves, edged with gold lace, and ornamented with gold tassels.

THE HIGH SHERIFF'S COSTUME.--Of late years, in Worcestershire, the High Sheriff has dressed as any other gentleman. In Berkshire and Oxfordshire the High Sheriff's costume is a court dress, and it was so till lately in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire; but as the present court dress was first introduced in the early part of the reign of George III, the bag-wig in the reign of George II, and as swords were worn by all the gentlemen as part of their usual evening dress, within the memory of Mrs. Hannah Shenton, of Stafford, who is now living at the advanced age of ninety-seven, it is manifest that the High Sheriff only appeared in the full dress of a gentleman of his time. And as a further proof that the costume of the High Sheriff was the full dress of the private gentleman of the period, there is a portrait of Francis Goddard, Esq., High Sheriff of Wiltshire, in the reign of King William III, now in the possession of Major Goddard, of the Wilts Militia, in which the High Sheriff is wearing a full-bottomed wig.

JAVELIN MEN.--These, no doubt, were the vassals and retainers of the High Sheriff, who attended to protect and guard the Judges, the weapon they carried being the _partizan_, which is still carried by the yeomen of the guard, which was introduced in the reign of Henry VIII. Mr. Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary of Charles II's reign, in a letter published by him in a work called "Miscellanies on several Curious Subjects," says, from information obtained from his grandfather (_temp._ Henry VIII)--"Lords had their armouries to furnish some hundreds of men. The halls of Justices of the Peace were dreadful to behold: the screens were garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouths with coats of mail, lances, pikes, halberts, brown-bills, batterdashers, bucklers, and the modern calivers and petronels (in King Charles I's time turned to muskets and pistols). Then an esquire, when he rode to town, was attended by eight or ten men in blue coats with badges;" and it would seem that from the reign of King Charles II the javelin men have continued to be much the same as at present, as in the printed articles of agreement entered into in that reign by sixty-four Wiltshire gentlemen, who were liable to serve the office of High Sheriff, it is stipulated (_inter alia_) "That no one of the said persons, when he is made sheriff of the said county, have above thirty livery-men, nor under twenty, for his attendance at the assize. * * * And that when any of the said subscribers shall be made sheriffs of the said county, the livery shall be a plain cloth coat or cloke, edged and lined through with sarge, a black hat, and suitable javelin." This curious document, which was signed by one of his ancestors, still remains in possession of Major Goddard.

THE TRUMPETERS.--These were part of the state of every Nobleman, Bishop, and High Sheriff. Mr. Aubrey, in his letter before cited, says--"The Lords kept trumpeters, even to King James;" and as late as the reign of George II there were trumpeters in the establishment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. At ancient banquets, trumpeters were always in attendance. At the Peacock Feast given by Robert Braunche, Mayor of Lynn, to King Edward III, and represented on the tomb of that magistrate, in Lynn Church, the sonorous blast of the trumpets accompanies the introduction of the viands; and at the Lord Mayor's Dinner at Guildhall, on the 9th of November, every toast is announced with a flourish of trumpets, at the top of the hall, which is answered by another flourish from the bottom.

JOHN TALBOT, ESQ., OF SALWARPE.

John Aubrey, Esq., F.R.S., in his Natural History, written between the years 1656 and 1691, says (p. 70)--"Dame Olave, a daughter and co-heire of Sir Henry Sharington, of Lacock, being in love with John Talbot, a younger brother of the Earle of Shrewsbury, and her father not consenting that she should marry him, discoursing with him one night from the battlements of the Abbey church, said shee, 'I will leap downe to you.' Her sweetheart replied he would catch her then, but he did not believe she would have done it. She leapt down, and the wind, which was then high, came under her coates, and did something breake the fall. Mr. Talbot caught her in his armes, but she struck him dead. She cried out for help, and he was with great difficulty brought to life again. Her father told her that since she had made such a leap she should e'en marrie him. She was my honoured friend, Colonel Sharington Talbot's grandmother, and died at her house at Lacock, about 1651, being about a hundred yeares old." To this passage the veteran antiquary, John Britton, Esq., F.A.S., has added this note: "Olave, or Olivia Sherington married John Talbot, Esq., of Salwarpe, in the county of Worcester, fourth in descent from John, second Earl of Shrewsbury; she inherited the Lacock estate from her father, and it has ever since remained the property of that branch of the Talbot family, now represented by the scientific Henry Fox Talbot, Esq." Sir Henry Sherington was the son of Sir William Sherington, one of the ecclesiastical commissioners for Wiltshire on the dissolution of the Chantries; and to him Henry VIII granted the possessions of Lacock Abbey, and a good deal of other monastic property in Wiltshire. Mr. Aubrey was one of the original members of the Royal Society. He attended Charles II and his brother, afterwards James II, on their visit to the Druidical Temple, at Avebury, in 1663; and dined with Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, at Hampton Court, in 1657 or 8, as is stated in his work before cited, pp. 97 and 103.

KING'S NORTON LIBRARY.

An interesting relic of the seventeenth century exists in the old Theological Library in the School in King's Norton churchyard, founded by Thomas Hall, the ejected Puritan of 1662. Hall is well known to literary men as the author of "Funebriæ Floræ, or Downfal of May-day Games," the "Treatise against Long Hair," and other works. An interesting sketch is given of him by Calamy, in his account of the ejected ministers, affixed to his life of Baxter; and also by Wood, in his "Athenæ Oxonienses." The library consists of from six to eight hundred volumes, of all sizes, ranging from about 1580 to 1645 or 1650, and the books contain the name of the donor on the title-page. All the works are devotional, and many of them controversial. There are discoveries of and safeguards against the subtleties of Jesuitism, and against the then recently propounded notions of the Quakers, as well as treatises on doctrinal points, commentaries on the Scriptures, translations from Ovid, and sermons preached before Parliament. The entire collection shows strikingly how, even in the stirring times of civil war, a minister could devote himself to the duties of his sacred calling; and, judging from the evidence presented by his choice, how completely he could isolate himself from the seductions even of theological polemics, for the grand old truth held by all orthodox Christians. It is to be regretted that the library is so little known. It is said that a similar library was established at the little village of Sheldon, near Yardley.

OLD ENGLISH RATS.

The old English black rat (_Mus rattus_), which has been nearly superseded in this country by the brown Norway rat, still lingers at retired farmhouses in this county, as, for instance, at Grimsend, Alfrick, Clay Green, and Wick, near Worcester. The brown rat was unknown in England till 1730. It is said that the great numbers of these intruders in the Isle of France drove the Dutch from that settlement.

PAPER.

The earliest mention of the purchase of paper in England is believed to be in an original computus roll of the 43rd year of Edward III (nearly five centuries ago) relative to the receipts and disbursements of Halesowen Abbey; it is as follows: "Et in paper empt. pro literis et aliis necessariis domus, 12_d._"

ANCIENT SEAL OF WORCESTER.

After being lost for half a century, the seal of the Corporation of Worcester has been found at Rouen, in Normandy. The antiquity of this seal is not so curious, perhaps, as the locality where it has been found. The device is a church, surrounded by a wall, having battlements on it, and round the device is the inscription--"SIGILLUM COMMUNE CIUIVM WIGORNIE," with something like the date "952." The figures, however, are very indistinct, though it is supposed by a writer in the "Worcester Herald" that they may refer to the date of King Edgar's reign, who was a great friend to the city of Worcester, and might have fortified it about that era; but then the use of figures was not adopted in England, or in Europe generally, till some centuries after the date assigned.

DESTROYING AN IMAGE AT WORCESTER.

In Macaulay's "History of England," vol. iv, p. 461, it is stated, that when the Dutch army was marching from Torbay towards London, in 1688, Sir Edward Harley, of Brampton Brian, and his son Robert (afterwards, as Earl of Oxford, Queen Anne's minister, and a high churchman) declared for the Prince of Orange and a free parliament, raised a large body of horse, took possession of Worcester, and evinced their zeal against Popery by publicly breaking to pieces, in the High Street, a piece of sculpture which, to rigid precisians, seemed idolatrous.

EAST WINDOW OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.

"A Stranger," writing to one of the local newspapers a few months ago, drew the attention of antiquaries to some painted glass in the great east window of the above church which is not noticed by Dr. Nash or Mr. Green, the Worcester historians. There is (he says) a head with long flowing hair and a forked beard, and another head with the face close shaven and a coronet. The first of these, I should suggest, was painted in the reign of Richard II; on his tomb in Westminster Abbey there is his effigy with a forked beard; and on the tomb of Edward III, in the same place, his effigy has the long flowing hair. The head with the coronet is exactly like one in the great church in Cirencester, of which there is a coloured engraving in Mr. Lyson's Gloucestershire Antiquities: that is supposed to be the head of Edward IV's father, whose "feodary" (an official something between an English steward and an Irish middleman), built this part of the church. Dr. Nash mentions two circumstances connected with St. John's which coincide with these dates. He says that in 1371, only six years before the reign of Richard II, William de Lynne, Bishop of Worcester, suppressed the Chapel of Wyke and constituted St. John's a vicarage; and that in the first year of the reign of Edward IV, the Prior of Worcester granted to the Corporation the privilege of attending Divine service at the Cathedral with their officers, but if any officer should arrest, or do any act in the monastery sanctuary, _or St. John's_, he should "forfeit his mace and office without any hopes of restitution." This grant is witnessed by John Carpenter, then Bishop of Worcester; Sir Thomas Littleton, Serjeant-at-Law (the very celebrated Judge who was buried, in the Cathedral); and others. There is also a figure kneeling. This is a Saint, as he has the nimbus round his head, and from his young and beardless face it is probably St. John. There is also between this figure and the coroneted head a grotesque head with the mouth open and the tongue protruded. This I never before saw in a window, or inside a church, though it is very common in carving on the outside of churches. These grotesques are by some supposed to represent the deadly sins--the evil passions and the like. May not this device be founded on _Isaiah_ ch. lvii, v. 4?

BISHOP THORNBOROUGH'S MONUMENT.

The Rev. O. Fox, incumbent of Knightwick-cum-Dodenham, late head master of the Worcester College School, has advanced the following ingenious theory to account for the remarkable epitaph on the above monument in the Lady Chapel of Worcester Cathedral, which has long puzzled our local and other antiquaries. The epitaph (he says) was prepared by the Bishop himself fourteen years before his decease in 1641, at the age of 94. He was addicted to alchemy, and published a book in 1621, entitled #Dithotheôrikos#, _sive, Nihil aliquid, omnia, &c._ In the course of some recent studies in the Pythagorean philosophy, my attention was accidently engaged by this inscription; and it at once struck me that it was thence that the explanation was to be derived. The epitaph is as follows: on one side,

"Denarius Philosophorum, Dum Spiro Spero."

on the other

"In Uno, 2o 3o 4or 10. non Spirans Sperabo."

The two latter letters are now effaced.

It is well known that the Pythagoreans found all the modes of space in the relations of numbers.

The monad, or unit, was not only the _point_ whence all extension proceeds, but it further symbolised the First Principle, the origin of all. The decad represented the line, as being bounded by two points or monads. The triad stood for surface, as length and width. The tetrad for the perfect figure--the cube, length, depth, and width. The decad, or denarius, indicated comprehensively all being, material and immaterial, in the utmost perfection: hence the term _decas_, or _denarius_, was used summarily for the whole science of numbers, and in the title of Meursius's tract, "De Denario Pythagorico," which was published four years after the date of the inscription, and when the philosophy was attracting much attention among European scholars. To be as concise as possible, then, I presume that the old bishop intended that the tomb on which his effigy lies was his access to that perfection of existence which philosophers had designated by the _decas_, or _denarius_. During the present life he was hoping for it. "_Dum Spiro Spero_."--On the other side: "In Him, who is the source, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all existence and perfection (in _Uno_, 2o. 3o. 4or 10. _non Spirans Sperabo_), though I breathe no more, yet shall I hope."

Such is probably the meaning of his pious conceit, and I offer it as a solution of what has long served for a riddle to the visitors of our Cathedral. Beyond this, your readers and myself may be equally indifferent to such cabalistical quaintness. But let us treat it with charity, as the devout consummation of an aged alchymist.

VINEYARDS.