THE DOMESDAY BOOK

MR. URBAN,-There is an often-cited passage in Ingulphus || that shews a tradition existed of there having been a Domesday Book preceding that of William the Conqueror. From the expressions he uses it may be collected that no such book had been seen by the Chronicler, and that he had not obtained any other than a traditionary report concerning it; but (in conformity with the tradition then existing) he ascribed it to King Alfred.

tuarensis. etc." (Bibl. Arundel, 310,) which was written by W. Biholt, a monk of that abbey,* about 1300, as I collect from the handwriting and from the circumstance that an abridgment of the statutes contained in it does not notice any statute of later date than the 7 Edw. I. The references to some survey or document of that nature, or as the Latinized jargon calls it, the Domusdey of Saint Edward, coupled with the notice of the place theretofore called platenholt, together with the distinction noted with regard to another place, "Sellinge," scil. that it was "of the ancient demesne of Saint Augustine," so clearly point to a pre-existing Domesday Book that I feel obliged to call your readers' attention to these entries, notwithstanding the assertion contained in the dissertations on Domesday Book, that "the most diligent investigation has not been able to recover among the records, either of the Saxon or of later times, the slightest indication that such a survey was ever known. Had it existed in the century immediately preceding the Norman Conquest, it would have prevented the necessity of giving those minute descriptions of land so common among the later Saxon charters." Appendix (M) to Second General Report from the Commissioners on Public Records, p. 383.

"Beawesfeld.

P. 129. "Offa Rex Merciorum tempore Sancti Lambertit Cant' Archiepiscopi xiij. dedit Manerium de Beawesfeld cum pertinentibus, quod Manerium solebat pertinere ad vestitum monachorum ut patet in Dom9deio Sancti Edwardi Regis, quod ibi vocatur platenholt. Sed nunc per incuriam alienatum. Et Abbas recipit decem solidos de ecclesia in signum dominij tanquam firmam, ut patet in compositione inter nos et Archidiaconum.

"Bodisham et Wylrintone.

P. 132. "Egelnot bigga dedit sancto Augustino Bodisham et Wyryntone consensu domini sui Regis Edwardi tempore Eadsini Cant' Archiepiscopi xxxmi. Et Wyryntone solebat pertinere ad cibum monachorum sicut patet in dom❜deyo Sancti Edwardi. Set ambo maneria nunc tenentur per certum redditum et liberum servicium et sectam ad magnam curiam.

[NOTE. The discovery made by our Correspondent is one of great interest and importance, should the view which he has taken of "the Domesday of King Edward " prove to be correct; but that there were several local records which received the name of Domesday will, we think, appear from "The Domesday of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London," which is being edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Archdeacon Hale. For the estates of the cathedral church of Christ at Canterbury such a Domesday will be found printed in Somner's Canterbury (edit. Batteley), pp. 47 et seq. and in the Monasticon (new edit.), vol. i. pp. 100 et seq. In that record the destination of the rents of each manor is particularised as pro cibo monachorum, pro vestitu, &c. and it is such a Domesday, or possibly another portion of the very same, that we conceive "the Domesday of King Edward" may have been.-EDIT.

MISREADING IN WILLIAM OF WORCESTRE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE CLOISTERS AT NORWICH.

Norwich, March 15.

MR. URBAN,-In the course of some recent investigations into the early history of Norwich Cathedral, I was struck by the frequent repetition in most of the later

accounts of a reference to a boss in the

Cloister said to represent the Espousals, or Sacrament of Marriage, and stated to

be at the south-west corner, over the door of the Refectory.

On looking for it, I could find no boss answering that description. The boss immediately over the Refectory door has Adam and Eve, with the tree of knowledge between them.

Blomefield appeared to be the first to

*Described in Tanner's Not. Mon. tit. "Canterbury," as "Registrum hujus Abbatis, Byholt appellatum, MS. penes dom. Heneagium Finch de Ravenston in Com. Buckingh. 1646. Collectanea inde in bibl. Dewesiana." John Rastell also refers to

this book, under this name, in his Termes de la Ley, p. 54, ed. 1579.

Lambertus, or Lambrithus, A.D. 762 to 791. Heylin.

Eadsinus, Eadsius, or S. Eadlinus, A.D. 1038 to 1050. Heylin.

refer to it, in his account of the building
of the Cloister; his words are: "The
other five arches and the south side of the
Cloister, to the arch where the Espousals
or Sacrament of Marriage was carved on
its top, were rebuilt by Bishop Salmon
and his friends." Further on he adds:
"The west side from the Espousals afore-
said, with the fine carved entrance towards
the Refectory or common eating-hall, to-
gether with the lavatories, and the door
entering into the Strangers' hall, was built
by Jeffrey Simonds, rector of St. Mary in
the Marsh." (Vol. iv. 8vo. edit. p. 3.)
He again alludes to it at p. 42: "At the
grand south entrance marked D in the
plan, [the Refectory door before named]
are the Espousals or Sacrament of Mar-
riage carved in stone; the custom being
formerly for the couple who were to be
married to be placed at the church door,
where the priest used to join their hands
and perform the greatest part of the matri-
monial office; it was here the husband
endowed the wife with the portion or
dowry contracted for; which was there-
fore called dos ad ostium ecclesiæ, or the
dowry at the church door; and from
hence the poet Chaucer, who lived in
Edward the Third's time, in his Wife of
Bath, hath this:

"She was a worthy woman all her live,
Husbands at the church dore had she five.

"On the right hand of this door are the two lavatories. . here the monks used to wash their hands before they went into the common eating hall, the towels hanging on the left hand of the door."

Blomefield nowhere mentions his anthorities for these particulars; but it is clear that the Itinerary of William of Worcestre formed the foundation of his account of the erection of the Cloisters.

edition of the Monasticon. Of Salmon's and Simonds's work it has, according to the Monasticon version, the following account:-" Residuum vero v. versus ecclesiam cum ostio ejusdem et versus ostium quo transitur ad infirmarium et ab illo ostio usque ad illas le civerys in quibus maritagia dependent, factum est sumptibus Johannis Elys* Norwicensis episcopi et aliorum amicorum. . . . A maritagiis vero cum ostio refectorii ac lavatoriis factum est sumptibus Galfridi Simonds rectoris de Marisco..."

The principal difference between this part of the description and the version of Nasmith is, that in the latter "maritagia" and maritagiis are written "mariatagia" and "mariatagiis."

It occurred to me that all Blomefield's story about the " Espousals "' had its origin in a very trivial error in his tran script of the Itinerary, and that any difficulty in understanding Worcestre's de scription would be obviated if the word "maritagia" should turn out to be a misreading of "manutergia" (towels) in the original MS.

Under this impression I wrote to a Fellow and Librarian of one of the Colleges, begging him to make a careful inspection of the MS. in the Corpus Library. This he was kind enough immediately to do, and he reports to me that the particular words in the original are “manit'gia" and "manit’giis.”

Salmon's work therefore reached from the Infirmary door to the arches "where the towels hang;" Simonds's work commencing From the towels."

66

I trouble you with this long exposition, because Blomefield's description and Nasmith's transcript have been very extensively made use of, and also because it shows how necessary it is in all our investigations to look carefully into original authorities-for here a single stroke of the pen makes all the difference. Yours, &c.

HENRY HArrod.

This Itinerary is in the Library of Corpus College, Cambridge, and was published by Nasmith in 1778, and an extract from it, derived from Nasmith, but with several emendations, is printed in the last ILLUSTRATION OF THE DOMESDAY SURVEY OF CHINGFORD, CO. ESSEX, and FEUDAL HOMAGE PERFORMED THERE.

Mr. URBAN,-In Domesday Book, in the account of the manors in the county of Essex belonging to the cathedral church of St. Paul's, it is related of the manor of Chingford that it had been deprived, since the days of the Confessor, of one hide and eight acres of meadow by Peter of Valoines:

"De hoc manerio abstulit Petrus de Valoniis unam hidam et viij. acras prati quæ pertinebant manerio tempore regis

Edwardi."
ii. 12, b.)

(Domesd. tit. Chingefort,

In a cartulary still in the custody of the Dean and Chapter, called the Liber Pilosus (for the perusal of which I have to express my acknowledgments to the Ven. Archdeacon Hale), I have met with a very interesting illustration of this passage of the Domesday survey. It is a certificate recording the restoration by the same Peter, on his deathbed, of the land at

* Bishop Salmon was called John of Ely.

Chingford, which he had unjustly withheld from the Church: and it takes the form of a letter or certificate addressed by the bishop (Hugh de Arevall, or Orivall, who held the see from 1075 to 1084) to R. de Valognes, the son of Peter:

"H. Ep'c. R. de Valonio salt'. Testimonium porto Canonicis de S'c'o Paulo q'd Pet's pat' tuus moriens reddidit eis quandam hidam de t'ra quam injuste tenu'at quietam et sine om'i calumpnia apud Cingfort et egit inde penitenciam et quesivit absolucionem. presentib' Will'o de Albinio et Will'o filio suo et multis aliis instantib; et s'vientib3 in morte sua." [fo. 5, a.]

It is not only as a fragment of local or territorial history, but also with reference to the baronial family of Valognes, that this record is of importance. Dugdale, in his Baronage, i. 441, states that Peter de Valognes enjoyed at the Domesday survey twelve lordships in Essex, one in Cambridgeshire, one in Lincolnshire, seventeen in Hertfordshire, twenty in Norfolk, and six in Suffolk; in which last county, at Orford, his descendants had their capital seat, or head of their barony. He states that the same Peter founded the priory of Binham, in Norfolk, in the lifetime of King Henry I. and was appointed by that monarch, in the 7th year of his reign, a commissioner to inquire concerning the liberties, &c. of the church of Ripon. Dugdale further states that Peter left Roger his son and heir, who flourished in the time of the Empress Matilda.

But the charter before us shows that the first Peter was dead in the time of Bishop Hugh, that is, during the life of the Conqueror; and that he left a son and heir R(obert) or R(oger): wherefore, there appears good reason to conclude that there were two more generations, or heads of the family, than those enumerated by Dugdale.

Happening to possess another document relating to Chingford, of some antiquity, though of considerably later date than the former, I take the opportunity to append it. It relates to the performance of a

feudal homage, of which I believe similar instances existed elsewhere, which was rendered at the parsonage of Chingford, as the relief for entering on a tenement at Chingford Hatch. The performance recorded took place early in the reign of Elizabeth, and the manuscript is evidently contemporary; but, as its orthography is especially uncouth, I have not thought it necessary to retain it.

The

"The xijth day of October, the year of our Lord God a thousand five hundred three score and one, came Richard Hobsonne and Allx his wife, and Roger Netteltone his servant, and Mary Hobsonne his maiden, to the parsonage of Chengford, at the commandment of Robert Lee, being farmer of the said parsonage for William Axford then being parson: and there the said Richard Hobsonne did his homage and paid his relief in manner and form here follows for one tenement at Chengford Hatch, the which half was purchased of George Monoxe, esq. First, the said Richard did blow three blasts with a horn at the said parsonage, and afterwards received of the said Robert a chicken for his hawk, a peck of oats for his horse, a loaf of bread for his greyhound, and afterwards received his dinner for himself, his wife, his man, and his maiden. manner of his coming to the said parsonage was on horseback, with his hawk on his hand, and his greyhound in his slip, and after dinner he blew three blasts with his horn at the said parsonage, and then paid twelve pence of lawful money for his relief, and so departed. All these ceremonies were done for the homage and relief of the said tenement at Chengford Hatch, as before had been done and accustomed to be done out of time of mind, as did appear by the report of Thomas Doosson, being of the age of fourscore years, William Cordell the elder, being of the age of threescore years, John Coydell, the age of threescore years. These being witnesses: George Stondon, George Shelley, William Cordell the younger, John Kyng, and Thomas Clarke, and others." Yours, &c. T. E. T.

REMARKABLE FROST IN THE WINTER OF 1683-4.

MR. URBAN,- Our ordinary historians do not, I think, say much if anything of a remarkable frost which occurred in the winter of 1683-4, though it is mentioned in some of the letters and diaries of the time. Perhaps it may be of use to some future historical reader of the Gentleman's Magazine if I briefly draw attention to the circumstance.

с

On the fly-leaf of my copy of Lambard's Archeion, or a discourse upon the High Court of Justice in England, "printed by E. P. for Henry Seile, dwelling at the Tyger's-head in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1635," there is the following note in the handwriting of the seventeenth century :"Bought at a shopp upon the Ice in the middle of the Thames, Jan. 26th, 1683.

*The c before a vowel in Saxon has the power of ch.

Ye ffrost began about ye beginning of December [1683], and people kept trades on ye Thames as in a ffaire till ye 4th ffeb', 1683-4, above forty coaches daily plying on ye Thames as on drye land."

The Historian's Guide or Britain's Remembrancer, published in 1690, "at the Green Dragon without Temple-bar," says, under date January 28th, 1683-4, "This month was so hard a frost that the River of Thames was so frozen that many hundreds of booths were built thereon; coaches in term time went to and from the Temple to Westminster, and foot passengers as thick as in any street in London. There were also several diversions, as bull-baiting, nine-pin playing, &c. and a whole ox roasted on the Ice against White-hall."

The MS. note in my Archeion gives the date when the ice begun to break up, the 4th of February, the very day on

which the Earl of Danby was brought
from the Tower, where he had been kept
a prisoner five years; and consequently,
contrary to the usual custom with state
delinquents, he must have been carried
through the city and along the Strand to
Westminster, a circumstance which has
hitherto escaped notice. Indeed the fact
of his being brought up on that day at
all is overlooked by Lingard and the ge-
neral historians. The frost set in a day
or two before Algernon Sidney's execu
tion a fact which might be usefully re-
membered by the future biographer of
that distinguished patriot; for I cannot
believe that the world will always be con-
tent with the incomplete and spiritless
prolusions of Meadley and Blencoe on
so rich and interesting a theme to all
lovers of their country and their country's
liberties.
Yours, &c. D.

March 15th, 1852.
BARTHOLOMEW FRERE, Esq.

had an interest, was wrecked on the Bone
Bequez, to the west of L'Ancresse Bay,
Guernsey, on Sunday the 12th of that

month.

Yours, &c. C. E. L.

LINES FOR A BOX BY THE LATE MR. URBAN, -The following lines, commemorative of a very curious coincidence, were written by the late Bartholomew Frere, esq. They are engraved on a box in my possession, and which was made from a portion of a water-butt, stamped with the name "George and William," washed on shore near Worthing, together with other portions of the wreck, on the 23rd of January, 1834, at which place I then happened to be staying. This merchant ship, the George and William, bound from Jamaica to London, and freighted with produce in which I ROMAN URNS AND FRESCO PAINTINGS AT ST. OLAVE'S CHICHESTER. Chichester, March 25.

MR. URBAN,-You have already made mention of some discoveries which have been made in the ancient church of St. Olave in this city, and of which I for. warded to you a statement, which you were kind enough to publish in your Magazine for February.

In the number for this month there is a notice from a Correspondent who does not entertain the opinion of the writer of the previous article; but he is in error, no doubt, as the arch described is undoubtedly Roman.

The recent discovery of two Roman urns must serve to convince any one that this church was built on the site of a Roman temple, and it is most probable that the urns which contained the ashes of the dead were deposited under the arch.

The statement I inclose was published in the Sussex Express of last week. "In the early part of the week the workmen employed in the alterations of this ancient church, found built into the upper part of

Dum Georgii et Wilhelmi inutile heu gerens
Nomen carina ab occidentis insulis
Redit sinum in Aremoricum adacta frangitur,
Securus inter hæc sibi otium parans
Herus peragrat littus adversum Angliæ,
Sparsasque cernit fluctuum ludibria,
Navis ruinas advehi et novit suæ ;
Hinc jussa fieri quam videtis pyxidem,
Gazis virisque perditis supersum EGo.

the wall, at the east end, two Roman urns, which are at present in the possession of Messrs. Johnson and Inkson, the churchwardens of the parish. Many have visited the church since the discovery, and on Wednesday, as a parishioner, Mr. Beatson, accompanied by Mr. Dale, were inspecting that portion of the wall where the urns were found, their attention was arrested by glimpses of colour shewing through the plaster on the wall above the former locality of the altar. These gentlemen proceeded to remove the several coats of whitewash and plaster, which have no doubt been accumulating for centuries; and after working with considerable perseverance and intense care for some time were at length rewarded by the discovery of a brilliant series of fresco paintings, the colouring of which was in a wonderful state of preservation. The series consists of a centre piece of two figures, seated on a bench of trellis-work, and six full-length figures on either side. The figures in the centre are supposed to represent our