ranks1 are not mentioned. It was usual for a husband to devise to his wife the furniture of his own chamber, "totam cameram meam," but coverlids and best linen sheets are specified, and once or twice a best bed of tapestry-work, with a tester.

Bequests for obituary masses and requiems were dictated by the same superstition as in other places. There was a certain rate paid for them in point of number and duration; but sums actually bequeathed depended upon the piety of the individual. Their legacies to their servants and to the poor were large, and extensive in their objects. They were enjoined, for the relief of the lame and blind, mending highways, and giving portions with poor maidens in marriage. The provision made for the payment of just debts was of prime consideration 5.

That their obsequies should be solemnized according to the ritual, with care, if not with pomp, as in certain instances, was an especial direction. In order to avoid the manifest injustice of entirely alienating property from the children or relatives of the deceased, for the perpetual support of chantries and obits, the priests were contented, or found it their policy to be contented, with such establishments for a term of years, with remainder to certain individuals of the testator's family, named in their wills; and in some instances, for pious uses in general, according to the discretion of the mayor and chief burgesses for the time being, and of which many instances occur during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

1 See Testamenta Vetusta.

2 The legacies to the parish churches were chiefly vestments richly embroidered, and service books. "To St. Stephen's, duos libros vocatos missales" (two books called Missals); etiam sex paria vestimentorum, viz.: unus par de velvett super velvett broideringe cum unâ cruce de redde velvett, item aliud de nigro velvett, broideryd cum unâ cruce de clothe of golde; the others were no less splendid.-J. Shipward, 1403. John Vielle, 1398, orders a thousand masses "et unum annulum ferentem unum lapidem de columpnâ ad quam ligatus fuit Dns. Noster Jesu Christus" (a ring bearing a piece of the stone pillar to which J. C. was tied) to St. Stephen's church.

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3" Johanni Berkley serviente meo £40; Waltero Bontflower serviente meo 66 marcs, 8 solid." Walter Derby, 1385. Margaretæ Lewes unum lectum 1 superlectulum, 1 par lodicum, 1 par lenthiaminum et £6. Cuilibet puellæ serviente meo 1 lectum" (a bed, one pair of blankets, and one pair of sheets, and six pounds in money. To each of my servant-maids a bed).—William Coder, 1473.

4 Walter Frampton above mentioned, directs many messuages to be sold and divided into four parts "unam pauperibus cæcis et claudis" (blind and lame); 2m. in maritagiis pauperum juvencularum. 3tiam. in emendatione viarum et pontium. 4tm. inter religiosos mendicantes" (four orders of which were established in Bristol).

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5"Si quis voluerit jurare super librum, quod sum in debito, illi, quod solvatur." -John Vielle, Jun.

6" Twenty-four men to carry torches et cuilibet portatori togam de nigro friseo (frieze cloth) cum caputio de albo friseo; et in ecclesiâ Sti. Stephani, quotidie, ij. torchys ardentes, coram sepulchrum meum.' "-J. Shipward, before mentioned.

7 Pro 2 sacerdotibus, celebraturis, ad summum altare, per 25 annos, singulis diebus

In several of the wills of the aldermen, who may be supposed to have attained the years of extraordinary discretion, there are prudential clauses respecting their widows, which might not so well suit with modern liberality. Walter Derby, in 1385, leaves many tenements and an ample dower to Joan his wife; but upon this absolute condition,

"That she should not re-marry, but keep herself sole and chaste; but if she should take to herself a man, to cohabit with her, (which God forbid!) and the same can be lawfully proved, then that the mayor and common council shall immediately, and without delay, enter into possession, and sell them for pious uses."

Walter Frampton, in 1388, states the same case more severely, and orders,

"That the tenements so bequeathed shall be sold separately, by the sound of the trumpet, at the High Cross, without fraud or collusion."

In later wills, requests occur to the mayor and sheriffs, to take the best security, in case of a second marriage, that the widow, being executrix, and her new husband, should not be empowered to injure the portions of the children of the former marriage. Such was the wisdom of our simple forefathers!—but as the opinions and manners of society are proportionably improved since the fifteenth century, our churches are now built by taxes levied upon the people; and the property of orphans is protected and diminished by interminable suits in chancery.

With regard to the state of navigation and shipping about this period, the former enumeration of those which belonged to Canynge will give us a clear view of its extent, if we consider that he was one only of many opulent merchants, who were his

post obitum meum; et post, completos, unum sacerdotem qui teneat anniversarium meum," &c. (two priests to celebrate before the high altar for 25 years, and afterwards one, for my anniversary).— Ejusdem.

"Item, volo quod quam cito dicta Isabella se maritaverit, vel, quod absit, concubinaria fuerit ; vel, quod absit, scortata fuerit, et hoc probari poterit, quod tunc executores mei, si vivant, intrent et penes se retineant omnes possessiones dicta Isabellæ, et eam totaliter expellant, absque aliquo processû judiciali vel autoritate superioris, &c. et dicta tenementa, &c. vendant, factâ trinâ publicè proclamatione, cum tubâ, ad altam crucem, et plus offerenti vendantur, sine omni fraude, et collusione postpositâ."Ejusdem ut sup.

"Johannæ uxori meo totam cameram et omnia utensilia aulæ et coquinæ (all household furniture); with several tenements eâ conditione, ut non maritetur, sed se solam et castam servet quamdiu vixerit," &c. with the same forfeiture.-Walter Derby, 1385. 2 In the course of two centuries, the following churches were built by individuals:

contemporaries'. But what is of national importance, is the spirit of maritime discovery, which is noticed in the Itinerary, and which existed at Bristol, even before the time of Amerigo Vespucci, and her own Sebastian Cabot, who has been hitherto placed at the head of our English navigators. The passage is very curious. He first notices "the loss of a ship called the Cog-Anne, which was bound to Jerusalem to convey pilgrims, and was lost in 1457, near Modon port, on the continent of the Morea, when thirty-seven men from Bristol were drowned; and that the bishop caused a new chapel to be made, to pray for their souls." P. 202. And p. 227, where he says, " that Robert Sturmy was the captain of the vessel."-" In 1480, July 7th, the ship of John Jay, the younger, of 800 tons, and another, began their voyage from Kingrode to the island [the continent] of Brasile, to the west of Ireland, ploughing their way through the sea.... and Llyde was the pilot of the ships, the most scientific mariner of all England [scientificus marinarius totius Angliæ], and news came to Bristol, on Monday, 18th of September [1481], that the said ships sailed about the sea during nine months, and did not find the island or coast, but returned to a port on the coast of Ireland for the repose of their ships and mariners." P. 268. This attempt to discover the American coast was fourteen years before it was effected by Columbus, in 1493.

In the "Proeme" to the "William of Wyrcestre Redivivus," the author has introduced himself in an imaginary dialogue with the venerable Wyrcestre, and exclaims, "How do I envy you a sight of Bristow, in the year 1480! Then were the massive walls and gates entire-the castle, with its lofty and magnificent keep, "the fairest tower in westernlond," proudly reared its headnow levelled with the earth, "the baseless fabric of a vision." The two beautiful churches of the Franciscans and Carmelites, one with its slender spire, and the other with its handsome tower, each then rivalling the neighbouring church of St. Stephen, and now known only by their sites-so many windows" richly dight" with iridical colours-shrines and altars of exquisite carving all demolished by indiscriminating zeal, or hidden from the sight, by worse taste." P. 10.

Naves Bristolliæ pertinentes, 1480, p. 224. The great wealth of several of the merchants is proved by their munificence.

2 Born 1451, ob. 1516. Sebastiano, the son of Giovanni Cabotto, a Genoese merchant settled in Bristol, was born there in 1477. He discovered "Newfoundland" in 1497. It is probable that at the time of his death, in 1557, he had attained to his eightieth year.

There is not a more rational object of antiquarian curiosity than the real state of ancient towns, and their progressive transformations. Who, that examines the old maps of London, but finds the comparison with the modern metropolis a very interesting investigation?—as a view hitherto unknown is presented to him, and many an association, moral and political, arises in his mind. This is a sensible curiosity, which leads to important reflections. We become conversant with the forms of past ages, not merely by imagining what they might have been, but by receiving evidence of what they were.

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means old things become new;"

Τ'ΑΡΧΑΙ ΟΤ ΟΙΣΘΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΚΑΙΝ' ΕΙΣΙ ΣΑΦΩΣ.

By such

CECONOMIA ROKEBEIORUM.

[BY THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A.]

Rokeby's lords of martial fame,

I can count them name by name:
Legends of their line there be,
Known to few, but known to me.

Song of the Minstrel. Rokeby. Canto V.

WHERE the Greta meets the Tees stand the two villages of Rokeby and Mortham. Rokeby is on the left, and Mortham on the right bank of the Greta, about half a mile nearer to the point of union: they form together but one parish, the church being at Rokeby. The elegant seat of Mr. Morritt at Rokeby is surrounded by a park. At Mortham are considerable remains of one of those embattled and turreted mansions, which, in former times, afforded places of abode, as well as the means of personal security, to that class of gentry which was only just below the peerage. There was once a Castelet of similar construction at Rokeby. A little higher on the stream of the Tees are remains of the abbey of Egliston, where many of the ancient lords of Rokeby and Mortham were interred.

A celebrity has recently been given to the romantic beauties of this vicinity by the "Rokeby" of Sir Walter Scott. The situation of Mortham," he observes, "is eminently beautiful, occupying a high bank, at the bottom of which the Greta winds out of a dark, narrow, and romantic dell, and flows onward through a more open valley to meet the Tees, about a quarter of a mile from the castle." Few persons visit this neighbourhood without observing with what extreme accuracy of observation

and felicity of expression the poet has described the passage through the glen:

"A stern and lone, yet lovely road
As e'er the foot of minstrel trode."

Or view "Egliston's gray ruins," or "Rokeby's turrets high," without feeling that the charm of poetry is thrown over them. A rare and enviable privilege! In the land of ancient song, every little stream, every mound, creek, and promontory, every lake and every village, is ennobled by being mixed with the fine imaginings of the gifted bard. But in England few indeed are the places which speak to us through our poetical associations. Sir Walter Scott has in this respect done much for his own country; and we perhaps more delight to accompany him to the margin of the lakes, and over the fells and the fields of his own land. We could wish such a charm to be thrown over more of the landscape of England.

The poet has touched upon the historical interest which belongs to Rokeby and Mortham; and he has given what professes to be a pedigree of their ancient lords. It was no part of his plan to enter critically into the history of those lords; and it is, after all, but a confused idea of the rank and character of the ancient Rokebys, which the reader can form from the poem or the notes. It is our intention in the present article to furnish the reader with some distinct and definite information on this subject, that he may see something of the antiquity, the character, and the eminent services of the family who held for many centuries this now "charmed" spot. In preparing it we shall be much indebted to a manuscript history of the family, composed in 1565, by Ralph Rokeby, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn. He has given to his memoir the title "Economia Rokebeiorum." It was originally composed for the instruction and benefit of five nephews, the then rising hope of the family. It was revised by the author in 1593, when additions were made to it. Again, in 1654, it was transcribed by another member of the family, Thomas Rokeby, Esq. of Gray's Inn, afterwards Sir Thomas Rokeby, and a judge. It has been since transcribed, and some additions made to it, by the present Mr. Rokeby, of Northamptonshire, from whose copy the few extracts in the notes to Rokeby" were made, and the song of "The Felon Sow of Rokeby, and the Friars of Richmond," printed, which song or " jargon," as Ralph Rokeby calls it, has been preserved, by being incorporated with the history of the Rokebys in this manuscript '.

'Two copies of this manuscript have been seen by the writer of this article: the one made by Mr. Rokeby, the other among Thomas Wilson's genealogical collections in