tember, 8th, 1640, by virtue of a commission the chancel, and is administering through a low under the Great Seal of England, in pursuance side window (as nearly similar in position and of an Act in the 17 Charles I. The parishes size to the windows in question as in a painting within the forest are: Waltham Holy Cross, can be expected) the sacrament to a boy (the Epping, Chingford, Wansted, Layton, Wood- son of a Jew), whose face is seen through the ford, Loughton, Chigwell, Lambourn, and window. The inscription is in black letter Stapleford Abbots. A correct copy of the underneath-" Qualiter cujusdam Judæi filius boundary of the Great Forest of Waltham may cum Christianis communionem recipiens be found in the Land Revenue Reports (1789- * * a beatâ Virgine 93). No. 15. Appendix ii., p. 22. 1793. Date, 17 Charles I. Waltham Abbey. W. WINTERS. LEPROSY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. sanctorum." * * * * * legenda Mr. Street considers that in early times the sacrament was administered at the entrance of the chancel, in which case the position of the so-called lychnoscope window would be the most convenient for the administration to those com feeling as any, and most interesting as having most probably been executed by Florentine artists in the 15th century, perhaps pupils of the Beato-Angelico, and contemporaries of Francia, Perugino, or of Ghirlandaio. THE leprosy that spread so rapidly through manded to remain outside the church; but he Europe during the Middle Ages was cer- does not consider it necessary to settle that there tainly contagious. Rhotaris, King of the Lom- was one and only one use for the windows, but bards, published an edict against lepers proclaim- that they might have been used for confessions, ing them dead in the eye of the law, and order- for the offertory, and for the Eucharist. The ing them not to approach sound persons without excessive beauty and importance of such examgiving notice, by making a noise with a wooden ples as those at Raydon, Suffolk, seem to point clapper. In 1225, during the reign of Louis to something more than a mere irregular custom. VIII., there were in France no less than 2,000 I suppose the painting at Eton must have been lazar houses. In the previous century the mili- that alluded to by Mr. Hoste, but how did the tary and religious order of S. Lazarus was esta- authorities there treat these precious relics? It blished by the Crusaders at Jerusalem for the having been decided that canopies should be relief of lepers, and confirmed by Pope Alexander formed for all the upper range of the new stalls, IV. in 1225. In the 15th century the disease they actually scraped off all the paintings above declined, for in 1434 Cardinal Langley altered a certain line, and the remainder were completely the constitution of Sherburn Hospital, near concealed. Mr. Street considered these paintDurham, originally founded A.D. 1180 for sixty-ings the finest that had been discovered in five lepers, and made it necessary that only two England; more artistic, and as full of religious lepers should be upon the foundation. M. Raymond ("Histoire de l'Elephantiasis," Zasisanne, 1768) says, "Que Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, fit dans le XIIme siècle, contre les personnes qui aborderaient dans cette île la bulle d'interdit du pape, qui si elles étoient lépreuses elles seroient brulées." The Council of Lateran (1179) permitted the lepers to have a church, priest, and churchyard to themselves. Perhaps nothing has puzzled ecclesiologists so much as the curious low side-windows found in the chancels of many churches. About fifteen theories have been advanced on the subject, and one of the principal of these is that they were used for lepers to assist at mass. Dr. Rock ("Church of our Fathers," iii., 118,) supports this theory, and Mr. G. E. Street, A.R.A., in a letter to The Ecclesiologist (N.S. v. 288) draws attention to a painting discovered (1847) in Eton College Chapel, which curiously confirms it. It was the westernmost of the upper range of subjects on In the north aisle of S. Martin's, Liskeard, the south wall of the chapel, and the subject is Cornwall, are three small square-headed openas follows:-A priest at the altar is adminis-ings enclosed internally under one semi-circular tering the Eucharist to three or four kneeling arch, with a holy-water stoup under the window. persons, whilst another priest (with an atten- Curiously enough, about half a mile from Lisdant) has come down from the eastern part of keard, there existed a hospital for lepers, which M. Michel, in his "Histoire des Races Maudites de la France et de l'Espagne," speaking of the proscribed tribe, "the Cagots," who, till within a few years, have existed as a distinct race in the western and south-western parts of France, and in some of the portions of Spain bordering on the Pyrenees, says : "In many places, as at Lucarré, in the arrondissement of Pau, and at Claracq, in the canton of Thèze (in the department of the Pyrenees) where the Cagots were admitted to partake in the holy sacrament, they were still kept apart from other people, and the consecrated bread was reached to them at the end of a rod or cleft stick." had no chapel of its own. The west porch of Great Eastern Directors, and they have conS. Mary, Melton Mowbray, seems to have had structed a more direct (though still very far an altar, piscina, and low-side window, which from straight) line through Edmonton, Totmay have been perhaps for the use of the lepers tenham, Stamford Hill, and Stoke Newingat Burton Lazars, the chief establishment of the ton. This alteration would seem to necessikind in the kingdom. tate the erection of a new station and the It is certain that some low-side windows could removal of the old one; so that probably not have been used to communicate lepers; for before these lines are in the hands of the example, that at Prior Crawden's Chapel, Ely, reader, the pick will be at its cruel work upon which is ten feet from the ground, and another the fine old pile. The front of the house has at "La Sainte Chapelle," Paris, at a still greater good specimens of carved and moulded brickheight. At Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon, work. The central portion of the front is, is a fourteenth century house (Archæological perhaps, one of the finest pieces of English Fournal, v. 313) with a hall 40 ft. by 23 ft. 10 in. brickwork in existence. It consists of an Under one of the windows of this hall is a low elaborate entablature, with a segmental pediwindow, the first that has been noticed in ment, and four pilasters, which divide the domestic work; it has good decorated tracery, front into three spaces, the central space, and the hooks for hanging the shutter remain. which contains a large window, being twice For what purpose could this have been used? as wide as the lateral ones, each of which Respecting the cure of leprosy, Mr. Soane, in contains a niche, semi-circular on plan, with a an interesting article on "Blood Baths in the semi-circular head, filled in with a well-carved Early and Middle Ages" ("New Curiosities of cherub's head. Above the niche is a panel conLiterature," vol. i., 72), after quoting Pliny's taining swags of fruit and flowers, well carved statement that the Egyptians used baths of out of brickwork. The entablature is very elahuman blood to cure this disease, tells us that borately moulded and carved, the cornice having this belief gave occasion to numberless cruelties delicately moulded dentils. Each pilaster has a in the Middle Ages, but after a time it received carved composite capital. The bricks of which a check from an opinion gradually gaining this portion of the front is formed are small and ground that only the blood of those would be the joints are almost imperceptible. All the efficacious who suffered themselves freely and carving is out of the solid brickwork, and none voluntarily for a beloved sufferer. of this work appears to have been cast. The front contains, in addition, four windows, with carved brick architraves and label-heads. The other features are the usual ones found in houses of this period. All the rooms are panelled. J. PIGGOT, JUN., F.S.A. DESTRUCTION OF OLD MANSIONS. It has been stated-I know not upon what authority-that one of the Earls of Essex for merly lived here; but I find no mention of the fact in "Lyson." The other old house is at the foot of Den LIKE autumn leaves, the ripe old red-brick mansions of the seventeenth, and early part of the eighteenth, century, which stood in their spacious grounds surrounded by lofty mark Hill, Camberwell, and was till lately buttressed walls, and which gave a peculiar known as "Denmark Hill Grammar School." It character to our London suburbs, are falling was erected by Sir Christopher Wren, upwards around us. Only a few months have passed of two hundred years ago, and is said to be the since I recorded in Notes and Queries the de- last specimen of his work in the neighbourhood. molition of Fleetwood House; last month It was once the residence of Mrs. Thrale, and the end of Kensington House was narrated during her occupancy Dr. Johnson was, no in LONG AGO, and I have two others to add doubt, a frequent visitor here, as he was at Kento the series this month, The flat little sington House. The mansion was on the 16th branch line which ran out of Lower Edmon- ult. sold in upwards of a hundred lots for old ton, and for years did service as the only building materials, and two hundred small means of communication between Enfield and houses will shortly spring up on the site. London, by a wide sweep round Stratford, Bow, and Mile-End, was terminated at its Enfield Stoke Newington. ALEXANDer Andrews. end by a fine old red brick mansion of the period of Queen Anne, which was utilised as the terminal station. The monstrous absurdity of dragging the Enfield people so many miles out of their way at last dawned upon the minds of the [With the March Number of LONG AGO, we shall give a pen-and-ink sketch kindly placed at our disposal by Messrs. photo-lithograph of the "Old House at Enfield," from a Penstone & Batterbury.-EDITOR.] FAMILY MUNIMENTS. existence, and larger results might have been anticipated had increased funds been placed at our THE Royal Commission of Historical Manuscript disposal. The confidence reposed in your Comappointed four years ago, with an annual grant missioners by the various owners of manuscripts of £1,000 a year (since increased to £1,200) for has been most gratifying, and their readiness to the purpose of enquiring into the historical records assist the Commission deserves public acknowledgscattered about the country in the private collections ment." of our nobility and gentry, has just issued its third In April, 1871, the Earl of Shaftesbury signified report, which includes the following collections in to the Commission his wish to present his valuable England and Wales:-House of Lords: Dukes of collection of manuscripts to the Public Record Devonshire and Northumberland, Marquises of Office, an offer which we need hardly say "was Lansdowne, Salisbury, Bath, Bute, Northampton, gratefully accepted." These papers have since been Westminster, Earls of Devon, Shaftesbury, De-La- arranged and catalogued by Mr. Sainsbury, one of Warr, Fortescue, Chichester, Effingham, Lords Gage, the officers of the Public Record Office, and the Wharncliffe, de L'Isle and Dudley, The Bishop of Commissioners "desire to testify their appreSouthwark, Sir H. Bedingfeld, Sir Charles Bunbury, ciation of the gift which Lord Shaftesbury Sir William Cope, Sir P. De Malpas Grey-Egerton, has thus generously bestowed on the nation." M. P., Sir Edmund Filmer, Sir Gerald FitzGerald, The correspondence relates to the third Earl, the Sir W. H. B. Folkes, Sir H. Gunning, Sir Thomas celebrated author of the "Characteristics," and the Hare, Sir Charles Isham, Sir Rainald Knightley, letters by and to John Locke, and papers by him Sir N. W. Throckmorton, Mr. Whitehall Dod, Mr. will be found particularly valuable, especially the C. J. Eyston, Rev. Francis Hopkinson, LL.D., copy, in Locke's hand, with corrections by him, of Messrs. J. H. Lee, W. J. Legh, H. Styleman Le the first set of "Constitutions for Carolina:" The Strange, T. C. Marsh, Richard Orlebar, F. Peake, collection of papers was contained in one large R. Phelips, Rev. Walter Sneyd, Mr. R. E. Egerton chest and three smaller boxes. Warburton, Mr. George F. Wilbraham, Mr. Matthew In this, as well as in their second Report, the Wilson, Miss Othen, Corporation of Axbridge, Cor- Commissioners call attention to the fact that one poration of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Treasurer of Ber- effect of their operations has been that several colwick-upon-Tweed, Corporation of Bridgewater; Dow-lections have passed from private into public hands, ning College and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and have thus become accessible to the historical Churchwarden's accounts of Cheddar, Corporation student. The authorities of the British Museum of Kingston-on-Thames, County of Somerset, Stonyhurst College, Corporation of Totnes, City of Wells, Dean and Chapter of Wells, Vicars Choral of Wells Cathedral, and Dr. Williams' Library. Scotland.-Duke of Montrose, Marquis of Bute, Earl of Seafield, Earl of Glasgow, Lord Rollo, Sir A. Edmonstone, Sir P. K. Murray, Mr. James Dundas, Mr. Robert Dundas, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Ross King, Mr. C. H. D. Moray, Mr. John Webster, Mr. R. G. E. Wemyss, and University of Glasgow. Ireland.-Marquis of Ormonde, Earl of Granard, Historical Memoirs of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond, Rev. M. Molony (Parliamentary History of Ireland, by Hugh Howard, LL.D.), the Black Book of Limerick, and Chief Baron Willes' Memoranda on Ireland. The Commissioners record with pleasure the readiness with which landowners and others provided their long-hidden and half-forgotten treasures for examination and arrangement : have during the present year purchased the important papers belonging to the Earl of Macclesfield, which were noticed in their last Report. This collection includes the correspondence of George Stepney, during the period he was employed as the King's Commissary and Deputy in Saxony, and also the correspondence of George Cresset, while engaged in negotiations at several German courts. Earl Fortescue has allowed the commissioners to print some letters by Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III., to Lord Clinton, showing the keen interest which he took in election contests, even to the large disbursements of money; and a note showing Pitt's sentiments towards Lord Granville on the fall of Addington in 1804. The inspection of the valuable collection of papers belonging to the Marquis of Salisbury has been commenced. The marquis is preparing a complete and detailed catalogue of all his papers, on the plan of the calendars of State Papers, in course of publication by Her Majesty's Government. "Upwards of one hundred collections have been inspected and reported upon during the past year, With reference to the University of Glasgow, a result which must be considered satisfactory when the Report says:-The records of the University it is remembered that many of these collections are are full and complete from the commencement, large and extensive. Altogether not less than 280 and selections from them have been printed for collections of documents have been examined dur- the Maitland Club, in four volumes. The records ing the three years your Commission has been in contain a mass of charters of lands belonging to religious houses in Glasgow which were granted to wife, and his family under the old thatched roof. the University. Many of them are of early date, Beyond its traditions and its historical fame, and of great value for the purposes of local history. there seemed to be nothing of interest in the With an excusable pride, some owners of his old building: it had plain stone walls, was detorical manuscripts desire to retain possession of void of lofty pillars, groined roofs, or any their ancestral archives, and yet are willing that architectural grandeur, and began from decay they should be inspected, described, and catalogued of the thatch and other portions to be scarcely by the Commissioners, who, in return will arrange, fit for a human habitation. As such, most repair, and bind collections which may be trans- owners would have pulled it down and converted mitted to them. In this way the deeds and the materials to some more modern and profipapers belonging to Lord Wharncliffe have been table use. We are glad to find, however, that examined and stamped during the past year. in the present case the owner, having some reDuring the same period several volumes of manu- gard, if not veneration, for the historical assoscripts belonging to the Corporations of Abingdon ciations of the old building, has at considerable and Hythe, have been repaired and bound, the cost put it into thorough repair, restored it as Standish Deeds belonging to Mr. Peake have been far as practicable, and converted it into dwelrepaired, the binding of the volumes of papers lings. Unless fire or other unexpected belonging to Mr. R. Phelips has been completed, calamity should destroy it, a portion of the old and a large collection of charters and papers be- abbey will certainly be standing at the comlonging to Sir Gerald FitzGerald has been arranged, mencement and probably at the termination of classified, and catalogued. Among the collections the next century. When the abbey was intransmitted to the Commission during the past year habited by the monks the roof was doubtless of for examination are those of the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Effingham, Lord Colchester, Lord Wharncliffe, Sir Gerald FitzGerald, Mr. J. H. Lee, Mr. J. J. Rogers, and Miss Othen. The Commissioners have also taken under their charge the vast accumulation of documents belonging to the House of Lords, which filled eleven large cellars in the basement of the river front of the Palace of Westminster. The commissioners report of these that "a great number of papers have during the past year been cleaned and stamped and removed from the cellars on the the river level to a convenient place for sorting. Most of the papers yet discovered of an earlier date than 1700 have been sorted and dated, but it is more than probable that many other papers belonging to this period may still be found as the work goes on." Among them are the letters of Charles the First captured by the Parliament after the Battle of Naseby, and then ordered to be published by both Houses of Parliament. Some of these letters prove how garbled were the copies which the Parliament sanctioned with its authority. Divers Notes. THE ABBEY OF SPALDING.-These extracts concerning one of our oldest and most famous abbeys, taken from the Stamford Mercury, Nov. 22, 1872, are worthy of record in LONG AGO:— "A small portion of the once large and farfamed Abbey of Spalding escaped the demolition which befell the ancient edifice in the last century. For many years the old relic was occupied by a market-gardner, who cultivated the land surrounding it, and stored his produce, his * wood and thatch, for it is recorded that when the valiant Ivo Taille-Bois, with his forty menat-arms, threatened the place, some of the monks proposed sending a messenger into Spalding town, which was scarcely two good bow shots distant,' to summon the whole neighbourhood to defend it, but the superior of the monks bade them reflect that the neighbourhood was very thinly populated by timid serfs-that most of the good men of Spalding town who possessed arms and the art of wielding them had already taken their departure for the camp of refuge; and at last the superior said, 'We cannot attempt a resistance, for by means of a few lighted arrows the children of Satan would set fire to our upper works, and so burn our house over our heads.'" THOMAS RATCLIFFE. EMENDATION OF SHAKESPEARE.-In "As You Like It" (act iii. scene i.), the usurping duke has passed sentence of banishment on Oliver, unless and until he can find his brother. Oliver appeals thus "Oh, that your highness knew my heart in this ! The duke's rejoinder (as hitherto printed), runs thus "More villian thou. Well. Push him out of doors; Make an extent upon his house and lands; The second line was probably written by Shake- "And let my officers of Escheature.” CRYPT IN LAWRENCE POUNTNEY-LANE. The Editor of LONG AGO begs to call the attention of archæologists to the fact (to which his notice has been kindly directed by Mr. Batterbury, architect, of 110, Cannon-street,) that a crypt with two arches has just been opened to public inspection by its conversion into a carpenter's shop. The floor is some four or five feet below the street level, and the outer wall, to the height of about eight feet, is of rough stone, upon which a house of the latter part of the eighteenth century has been built. Mr. Batterbury also pointed out to the Editor a noble specimen of a city mansion of the Queen Anne period still standing in Sherbourne-lane. We may probably enter into fullest details in our March Number. LADY HAMILTON.-There is a remarkable in themselves, may, collectively, form a valuable They were two bonny lasses, letter from Lady Hamilton, in the diaries of the Right Hon. George Rose [i. 240] in which she urgently begs him to ask Mr. Pitt to give a place then vacant to Lord Nelson's brother-inlaw; and to make him happy in his family, by doing something for him who is doing all he can for his country. This letter is only dated the "4th of November," and Mr. Harcourt, the editor, observes in a note that it is difficult to fix the date of this letter, he remarks that it could not have been in 1803, for Pitt was not At each repetition of the word "rashes" (rushes) then in office, and it would not have been in they loosen hands, and each picking up a lot of 1805, for Nelson was then dead, he therefore rushes, throw them into the air, so that they imagines it must have been written in 1804. I may fall on everyone in the descent. Many of think the date of this letter may, with certainty, the articles made with rushes are hung over the be stated to be the 4th of November, 1805, be- chimney-pieces in houses, and in children's bedcause the place asked for fell vacant in that rooms as ornaments or samples of skill, and year, and besides, though Nelson died on the there remain until the next season, or until the 21st October in that year, yet his death was not general cleaning out at Christmas. I have met known in London till the 6th of November; with these articles in our large manufacturing consequently the letter derives an additional towns, in houses where they are treasured as interest from the fact that when Lady Hamilton memorials of some rare, bright summer holiday wrote it Nelson had been dead nearly a fort--perhaps the only one in the owner's whole night, but she did not know it till two days sub- weary town-life-spent with friends in the sequently. EDWARD SOLLY. country, or kept as reminders of bright scenes and fairy dells which passed away with childBIRMINGHAM. This discovery is even more hood. It is some years since I noticed these interesting than at first sight appears. things, and time may, ere this, have removed away from home and so from access to my these wee ceremonials in connection with rushlibrary, but in all the pictorial examples I re-bearing, but I doubt not that they may still be member of S. Martin, he is represented as divid- observed in some parts of Derbyshire. ing his cloak and giving half to one beggar, and this also coincides with his legend. correspondent (No. 1, p. 21), is correct in saying that two beggars are shown in the Birmingham fresco, it is a very curious deviation from the usual mode of representation. I am If your THOMAS NORTH. RUSH-BEARING.-I am glad that LONG AGO proposes to gather in its pages the minutiae of what remains of our old customs. They are numerous, and though of seeming little import THOMAS RATCLIFFE. Replies. THE HISTORY OF BEER AND BREWERS (No. 1, p. 17).-The following items I offer in continuation of this subject. They are from the Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury of Aug. 4, 1871 : 1623, Feb. 15.-The burgesses of Grantham inform the Council that they have suppressed all |