Notices of Books

( 299 ) NOTICES OU BOOKS. The History of Chislehurst: its Church, Manors, and Parish. By E. A. WEBB, G. W. MILIER, and J. BECKWITH. With numerous Illustrations, Maps, and Pedigrees. 4to. (London: George Allen. 1899.) THIS very handsome volume, containing no less than 487 pp., printed on hand-made paper, is dedicated to the Rev. Prancis Henry Murray, " for upwards of fifty-three years the devoted Rector of Chislehurst," whose portrait forms a suitable frontispiece to the book. Chapter I. is from the pen of Mr. J. Beckwith, who deals with the early history and sketches the development of the parish to the present day. The name Chislehurst, which was formerly written Chiselhurst, appears in a charter of King Edgar, 973, as Cyselhurst, and is derived, according to Mr. Beckwith, from the Saxon Ceosol and hyrst, meaning the wood on the gravel. The Parish Church, which has met with many vicissitudes during the present century, is well described by Mr. Webb, while Mr. Leland Duncan contributes a supplementary chapter upon the images, altars, and lights formerly within the Church. Mr. Webb also contributes a very interesting chapter upon the Manor of Scadbury, held by the Walsingham family for 245 years. Thomas Walsingham I., citizen and cordwainer of London, purchased Scadbury in the year 1424. He claimed descent from the Walsinghams of Norfolk, but Mr. Webb is unable to supply any proof of this. This Thomas Walsingham was the owner of considerable estates in the county of Kent, but resided chiefly in the parish of St. Katherine by the Tower. From his will, proved March 17th, 1457, we learn that the house at Scadbury had its armoury and chapel. He bequeathed his " Portos " or Breviary to the use of the Church of St. Katherine, together with three cloths of gold, which he had yearly lent for the Holy Sepulchre in that church; to his son Thomas he gave his other Breviary, which he used in the chapel in Scadbury, 800 NOTICES OE BOOKS. and which he had purchased of the Rector of Chislehurst, together with his amber praying-beads with a ball of musk at the end. His great Bible, which had been given him by the Lord Cardinal, he left to his son-in-law Thomas Ballard; and to his cousin Nicholas his father's Bible, covered in white leather with clasps of silver. The great-grandson of the above, Edmund Walsingham, distinguished himself at the Battle of Flodden Field, and became a persona grata to King Henry VIIL, who appointed him Lieutenant of the Tower, an office which he held for twenty-two years. Amongst the notable prisoners in his charge during those troublous times were Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Two letters of Sir Edmund's are quoted which give us a gruesome insight into what was expected from a Lieutenant of the Tower in those days. The first, to Thomas Cromwell, is dated October 25th, 1532 : " The people are quiet as far as I can learn, except the simple people, who will not give over their babbling tales. Tou wished me charitably to handle your gentle chaplain, Curtoyse by name, mild in countenance and crafty in condition. This I have done, for he says Mass every day and prayeth for you. I think Dr s Coke and Abell see one of them another at the Church sometime, but they speak not together. Abell would fain have one of the books in answer to his, but without your consent I will deliver none. The old Monk lieth with Dr Coke, the other three as yet lie together. Two of them wear irons; Frythe wears none. Though he lacks irons he lacks not wit nor a pleasant tongue. His learning passes my judgment. As you said, it were a great pity to lose him if he may be reconciled. Our greatest comfort here is to hear of the King's health. God send him safe return. PS.—Have in remembrance D1' Coke, Ch1 ' Coo. Will. Umpton has been here eighteen months." The second letter forms the postscript to the examination of one Robert Danyell, a Scotch saddler. After his signature Walsingham adds, " And according to your lordship's commandment, this Thursday afternoon I brought him to the rack, and there strained him, using such circumstances as my poor wit would extend to, but more I could not get out of him." The more celebrated Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, was the son of Sir Edmund's brother William Walsingham of Foot's Cray Manor. He is said to have been born at Chislehurst, but does not appear to have been otherwise connected with the place, nor was he very closely connected with the county, for he alienated his father's manor of Foot's Cray after 1578. NOTICES OE BOOKS. 301 Camden, the celebrated antiquary, came to reside at Chislehurst in 1609, and here he died in 1623, but whether Camden Place really occupies the site of the house in which Camden lived is uncertain. It was not known by this name until nearly a hundred years after his death. It was afterwards the property of Charles Pratt, who, when raised to the peerage on his appointment as Lord Chancellor, took for his title the name of his Chislehurst seat, but notwithstanding this fact he soon afterwards sold it on inheriting his cousin's estate of Wildernesse in Seale. For ten years, from 1870 to 1880, Camden Place was the residence of the ex-Empress Eugenie. The mansion is now the club-house of the Chislehurst Golf Club. Canon Murray contributes some interesting reminiscences of the Church and parish. His grandfather Lord George Murray, Bishop of St. David's, was the inventor of a telegraph, worked on the shutter system. This is described as a one-storied building, having over the apex of its roof a frame containing six divisions, in each of which was a swinging shutter hung from above and controlled by ropes passing through the roof. The London station was over the Admiralty, and the system was first worked on January 25th, 17.95, and continued in use until 1816. By means of a line of such telegraphs between Dover and London (one of which was at Chislehurst) a message could be conveyed from one terminus to another in seven minutes. In addition to the contributors already mentioned, Sir Walter Murton gives a sketch of the modern history of Chislehurst Common, and Miss E. Dorothea Gibson has a chapter on the origin and meaning of the names of places, fields, etc., in or around Chislehurst. Miss Gibson very properly points out that the name of the neighbouring parish of Paul's Cray should be St. Paulyn's Cray, and adds that it was always so called until comparatively recent times. We find, however, that James Walsingham, who died as long ago as 1538, described himself in his will as of Poule's Cray. Mr. Webb, in his account of the Manor of Scadbury, p. 151, makes Nathaniel Master (the first husband of Elizaheth Bourne, afterwards the wife of Thomas Walsingham V.) the son of Sir Edward Master of East Langdon. He was, however, Sir Edward's younger brother, and the seventh son of James Master (see the " Pedigree of Master," printed by the Rev. Geo. Streynsham Master in 1874). The children of this marriage of Thomas Walsingham with Elizabeth Master were, according to the late Canon Scott Robertson, all baptized at Little CbesterfieM in' Essex (Archceologia Cantiana, 302 NOTICES OE BOOKS. Vol. XV., p. 152). Mr. Webb, however, corrects this, and tells us that their baptisms are duly recorded in the Chislehurst Registers. Pedigrees of no less than fourteen families are given in this valuable addition to the history of our county, viz.: Murray, Pratt, De Scathbury, De Hardresham, Walsingham, Pelham, Bettenson, Farringdon, Bertie, Selwyn, Townsend, Manning, Anderton, Bowles, Comfort, Poyntill, Trenchfield, Ellis, Carmarden, Cunliffe, and Tryon. There are also two Maps and a good Index. We heartily congratulate both Authors and Publisher on the production of one of the best parochial histories that we have seen for a long time. The History of the Castle, Town, and Port of Dover. By the Rev. S. P. H. STATHAM. Post 8vo, pp. xviii and 462, 4 Plans and 13 Illustrations. (Longmans, Green, and Co. 1899.) ME. STATHAM has brought together many interesting particulars relating to the history of Dover, and his book will be found a useful supplement to the very heavy compilation of Lyons. " The materials for a History of Dover," says Mr. Statham in his Preface, " are fairly abundant." We would go further than this, and venture to say that few towns in the United Kingdom can offer a more promising field for the antiquary or topographer than the town which has so often justified its claim to be called the Key of our Island. The Town Accounts exist from the year 1365, and the Minutes of Common Assemblies from 1506; of these Mr. Statham makes commendable use. Unfortunately he gives no reference to his authorities in footnotes, the long list of books and other authorities printed at the beginning of the book being, in our opinion, a poor substitute for footnotes, and practically worthless to the reader. Mr. Statham devotes only 87 pages to the history of the Pharos and Castle, but gives us 127 on the lives of the Constables, many of them men who occupied a prominent place in English history, and whose careers are already sufficiently well known. On the whole, while recognizing much laborious and good work in Mr. Statham's book, we cannot say that it appears to us quite an adequate account of one of the most interesting towns in England. The truth is, that the history of Dover still remains to be written. NOTICES OE BOOKS. EOS Benenden Letters, 1753—1821. Edited by CHAELES FEEDEEICK HAEDT. 8vo. (London: J. M. Dent and Co. 1901.) THE Editor in his Preface states that he makes no claim that these Letters will be found of value to the historian or antiquary. We confess that we were somewhat disappointed to meet with this remark, but hoped that Mr. Hardy had taken too modest an estimate of the range of interest contained in these Letters. We anticipated (and not unreasonably from the headlines sent out with the prospectus) to find certain touches of local colour—some sidelight at least thrown upon the lives and manners of the good folk of'the weald of Kent during the latter half of the eighteenth century. But a careful perusal of the 178 Letters contained in the book has not given us any cause to conclude that the Editor was wrong in his estimate. The first 89 Letters are from one Richard Waite Cox, of the Sick and Hurt Office in Tower Hill, to his friend William Ward, a small freeholder and land agent of Benenden, and the amount of information they afford concerning Benenden or Kent is quite infinitesimal. Mr. Hardy has edited the Letters with much care, and has done all that could be done for such material, but he often raises our expectations in the Table of Contents after the " Snakes in Iceland " manner. For instance, Letter No. 9 is said to contain something about " The French prisoners at Sissinghurst." On turning to p. 9 all we find is, " I don't recollect to have seen or heard anything from Mr. Bell in the least tending to a dissatisfaction with your conduct as Barrack Master or otherwise." Letter 20 is called " Cox makes a jaunt to Benenden." All we hear about it is this: " Receive our best thanks for your civilities to us in the wild of Kent, and beg Mr. Ward, of whose attentions to us we are very sensible, to accept the same." Cox's Letters, in spite of a somewhat tedious and verbose style, contain some inter, esting comments on current events, and amusing criticisms on the various theatrical celebrities of his time, but of Benenden or Kent scarcely a word. When we turn to the Letters of William Ward a similar disappointment awaits us. Ward, as a correspondent, was not resident in Kent or even in England, and the dull letters he indites to his friends are mostly dated from Valenciennes, where, for some occult reason which even Mr. Hardy cannot fully fathom, he had taken up his residence during the last part of his life. In making these remarks we do not wish it to be understood that these Letters are devoid of interest. Thanks to admirable 304 NOTICES OP BOOKS. editing the book contains much information that is entertaining and useful, but we think that to dub the collection Benenden Letters was scarcely warranted by the contents. The Diary of Thomas Codes, 25 March 1607 to 31 December 1610, from MS. E. 31 in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral. Edited by J. MEADOWS COWPEE. 8vo. Twenty-five copies privately printed. (Canterbury: Cross and Jackman. 1901.) THIS is an expense book rather than a diary in the modern sense. I t contains the daily receipts and expenditure for two years and three quarters of Thomas Cocks, who, at the time of his death, which occurred in October 1611, had been auditor to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury for about twenty-six years. For his services as auditor Thomas Cocks received a salary of £12 per annum, but this somewhat meagre stipend was materially increased by the fees attached to the office, and by the enjoyment of certain leases held on very easy terms from the Capitular body; furthermore, the auditor was permitted to occupy the ancient Archiepiscopal Palace, which had been partly rebuilt by Dr. Parker in 1564, but was no longer made use of by the Primate. But although living in a palace, Cocks' life (as Mr. Cowper remarks; seems to have been singularly devoid of home comforts. His wife, who was " distracted in her wits," lived apart from her husband in the house of the Rev. William Walsall, one of the Minor Canons; his daughters were married; and of his two sons, Thomas the elder, an Oxford undergraduate, lived during his vacations with the Walsalls, while Roger the younger, while attending the King's School, was accommodated in the house of the Dean's butler.* At the Palace Thomas Cocks slept and took breakfast (a frugal meal, consisting of one half-pennyworth of bread, the same quantity of butter, and a pennyworth of ale) ; for the rest he boarded out, paying nine or ten shillings a week, to one of the Canons for his entertainment, and sending in his dinner wine from the " Sun," at which hostelry he dined when no table in the precincts was open to him. To John Chilman, his servant and clerk, he paid 3s. 6d. per week as board wages—not an extravagant sum, since the duties ranged from drawing leases to paring toe-nails! Being of a sociable * Thomas Cooks, jun., was afterwards Rector of Bonnington. Roger, the younger son, went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was afterwards a Curate in Suffolk. He was the author of a book called Sebdomada Sacra: A Weeh's Devotion, or Seven Poetical Meditations upon the Second Chapter of St. Matthew's &ospel (London, 1630), NOTICES OP BOOKS. 305 disposition few days seem to have passed without a game of bowls or cards, the losses and gains at which are all faithfully recorded in the Diary. Amongst the card games favoured by Cocks are " Ruffe, Crosse-Ruffe,Vye-Ruffe,Poste, Primavistye, Primero Noddye, Great Cent, Mount Cent, Iryshe, Crosse and Pyle, and Mawe." The auditor was fond of his pipe, which was, however, rather an expensive luxury with tobacco costing half-a-crown an ounce. A whole firkin of beer could be bought for the same sum, and a leg of mutton cost only one shilling. Sugar was very dear, but we learn that Cocks purchased for New Tear's presents two great sugarloaves at Is. 7d. per lb., and another of " Hand " sugar, weighing 11 lbs,, at Is. 9d. per lb. Archdeacon Fotherby was the fortunate recipient of the former, and Mrs. Walsall, whom Cocks styles his " Valantyne," of the latter. Like all books edited by Mr. J. Meadows Cowper, this is provided with an excellent Index ; a Glossary and some elucidatory footnotes are also added. Mr. Cowper has kindly presented to our Library at Maidstone a copy of this book, of which only twenty-five copies have been printed. We can only regret that he did not give a wider publicity to this curious little fragment of local history by printingit in Archceologia Cantiana. The Marriage Eegisters of the Parish Church of All Saints, Maidstone, from the year 1542 to the middle of the eighteenth century (1754). Transcribed and annotated by the late Rev. J. CAVE-BEOWNE, M.A. (London: Mitchell and Hughes. 1901.) THE late Mr. Cave-Browne made, we believe, a transcript of the greater part of the Registers of the Church of All Saints, Maidstone, but the Publishers were unable, owing to lack of support, to print more than a few sheets. The Marriages were, however, printed by Dr. J. J. Howard in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica; of these Messrs. Mitchell*and Hughes have now given us a reprint, together with a good Index. We hope that the remainder of Mr. Cave-Browne's transcripts may be published in the same way. In their Preface, the Publishers state that " the Registers are continuous, with the exception of a break in the reign of Queen Mary and considerable irregularity during the Commonwealth, and the whole forms a work of great value, especially when it is remembered that, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Allington Castle, the Mote, the Palace, Bucklands, Chillington House, and roii. xxv, x 306 NOTICES OE BOOKS. other neighbouring manor-houses were in the possession of the Wyats, the Woodvilles, the Tuftons, the Astleys, and the Knatchbulls." After this it is a little disappointing, on turning to the Index, to find (with the exception of Knatchbull) not one of these names ! Amongst the names that we do find are the following: Ayerst, Beale, Bensted, Best, Bix, Brydges, Csesar, Courthope, Crispe, Culpepper, Curteis, Darell, Ellis, Filmer, Finch, Fowle, Francklyn, Golding, Goslinge, Grayling, Kemsley, Lee, Line, Manwood, Merriam, Norwode, Petit, Pix, Polhill, Poste, Tilden, Twopenny, Walter, Watman, Willoughby, and Woollet. In tracing the lineage of any of the above families, and a vast number besides, the genealogist will meet with much assistance from these Registers, now made accessible by the labours of the late Mr. Cave-Browne and the public-spirited enterprise of Messrs. Mitchell and Hughes. A History of St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury. By the Bev. R. J. E. BOGGIS, B.D., Sub-Warden of St. Augustine's College. (Canterbury : Cross and Jackman. 1901.) THIS little book gives within a short compass a clear and succinct summary of the history of the great Abbey, the mater primaria of all the monasteries of England, as Elmham calls it, during the 940 years of its existence. In addition to a list of writers consulted, the author adopts the excellent method of quoting his authority for a statement definitely and specifically at the foot of the page. Later editions of Mr. Boggis's work will derive additional interest from the incorporation of the results of the excavations in progress at St. Augustine's, which the present volume was just too early to include. The author betrays a " prentice hand" here and there. It seems rather an over-statement to say that St. Martin's Church has been preserved " in its entirety to the present day;" if this were true the controversy which has raged over its date would be considerably simplified. One is surprised to find (p. 80) the Abbot addressing King Edwardi. as "Your Majesty," anticipating the use of that title in England by more than three hundred years. Thome's words are simply, " 0 domine mi rex!" In his account of Abbot Ralph de Bourne's installation banquet in 1309 the author comments on the " lavish expenditure " of this entertainment, and estimates the sum of £287 7s., the stated cost, as equivalent to £6800 in modern value; but if we go through the various items, as detailed by Thorne, this valuation seems to be excessive. For instance, 7s. 2d. a quarter appears to bave been paid for wheat; it NOTICES OE BOOKS. 307 would not require more than four times this sum to purchase a like amount at present prices. It would be nearer the mark to estimate that a sum not much exceeding £4000 would to-day amply furnish forth such a feast. But the extravagance appears even less when we remember that a large portion of the provisions was doubtless obtaiued from the Abbey estates, and comparatively little paid for in hard cash. The author, following some recent writers, lays we think too great stress upon the financial embarrassments of English monasteries, expressing his opinion that the dissolution found St. Augustine's on the high road to bankruptcy. A letter is quoted from one of the monks to his cousin John Paston in London, imploring help for his house, as evidence of the " utterly deplorable " state of the home finances; but we must bear in mind how universal was the lack of ready-money in the Middle Ages, before bankers existed, when rents were largely paid in kind, when comparatively little coin was struck. These very Paston letters give us repeated instances of men of undoubted wealth and resources making pitiable appeals for money, such as we should hardly expect from a schoolboy in these days, and pawning their plate and jewels to obtain advances. Royal and papal exactions had no doubt caused the alienation of a large portion of the Abbey property; and if the King's policy had been to apply pressure in that way, and crush the religious houses by taxation, instead of the more violent method adopted, the end, though more delayed, would have been as certain, but then it would be obviously unfair—and we hold it to be only less unfair in the events which happened—to charge the abbeys with improvidence and maladministration, or to represent their condition as intrinsically moribund. Apart from such exactions and the claims of hospitality, a very slender provision sufficed for the simple needs of the monks. Even when the end came, when the last Abbot gave up " the hopeless struggle," when vestments and bells were what the author, again anticipating the usage of a later age, calls " brought to the hammer," it appears that St. Augustine's had a net income of £1274—a sum sufficient to have paid about £40 a year (£350 of our money approximately) to each of the thirty monks. The average pension actually allotted to each monk (excluding the Abbot) was not more than £6 3s. 6d. Purther, the Benedictines were notoriously easy landlords. A few turns of the screw would have augmented their revenue materially. But a still more important point remains. Writers who insist upon the impendingruin of the religious houses seem to forget that at the time of their X 2 308 NOTICES OE BOOKS. extinction the country was on the threshold of a period of large expansion, when rents were not merely increased, but multiplied. Only forty years later William Harrison, in his well-known chapters in Holinshed's Chronicle, says the farmer's old rent of £4 had been raised to £40, and yet withal he was a richer man at the enhanced rent, and able to pay a fine for a renewal of his lease. A very moderate sprinkling of this golden shower might surely have proved sufficient to revive the drooping fortunes of St. Augustine's. The Architectural History of the Cathedral Church and Monastery of St. Andrew at Bochester. By W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 140 Wardour Street, W. 1900.) THIS work is a reprint of the two valuable papers which appeared in Vols. XXI I I . and XXIV. of Archceologia Cantiana, and which are no doubt fresh in the recollection of our members. Fortunately for the Editors, it does not come within their province to criticise what has already been published in these pages, for it would be hard to hit upon a blot in Mr. Hope's admirable monograph. Rochester, although one of the smallest, affords a striking example of the complex character of our English Cathedrals, in comparison with which the vast structures of France and Italy are as an open book. It needed all Mr. Hope's acumen, supplemented by the careful study of documentary evidence, to unravel the tangled web of the alterations and additions of perhaps twelve distinct periods extending over eight centuries, and to tell us when and why each stone found its place in the present building. The monastic remains at Rochester, it need hardly be said, admit of far less complete elucidation, and the site of many of the buildings must be conjectural, but Mr. Hope has identified existing fragments in a masterly manner, and thrown light upon many obscure points. This book should find a place in the library of all students of ecclesiastical aud monastic antiquities.