422
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL NOV. 27, 1009.
When certain inmates of St. Mary's Abbey,
York, separated themselves from the parent
house that they might lead more ascetic
lives, Thurstan the Archbishop gave them
a wild valley on the banks of the Skell in
which to build their new home. During the
depth of winter, in or about 1132, they
retired to this wild and then uninhabited
spot, where they chose a 'gigantic elm for
their first home. They must have fenced it
in and covered it with thatch to protect
themselves, at least in part, from the blasts
of winter. There were then (as there are
now) yew trees growing near the river.
These are said to have also been turned
into temporary homes for some of the
wanderers.
' The History of Forest Trees,' by the late P. J. Selby (1842), contains an account of some of the more interesting yew trees in this country and in Ireland (pp. 374-80). After reading this it has occurred to me that a good work would be accomplished if a catalogue, with descriptions and measure- ments, were made of all the yews in the British Islands which are more than a century old. Such a work would no doubt be an arduous undertaking, but much valuable information, of great service alike to the botanist and the antiquary, would be acquired. EDWARD PEACOCK.
[We have much pleasure in printing the above article from the still-active pen of, probably, the oldest living contributor to 'N. & Q.' (see post, '"Notes and Queries" Commemoration,' p. 433). MR. PEACOCK'S first communication appeared on p. 104 of the second volume of 'N. & Q.' (13 July, 1850) ; and our readers will, we are sure, join with us in expressing the hope that MR. PEACOCK may long continue to give ' N. Q.' the benefit of his accumulated experience and wide reading.
' N. & Q.' contains much on the age of yews ; see, e.a.,8 S. x. 431 ; xi. 276, 334, 433 ; 9 S. ii. 53 ; vi. 29, 154, 218, 278, 377. Mr. W. Baltimore devotes 53 pages to the yew in his recent work, ' Holly, Yew, and Box' (John Lane). A more important work on the yew is mentioned post, p. 436, under ' The Yew in Poetry.']
MILITARY MUSTERS: PARISH
ARMOUR.
SIRHAMOND L'ESTRANGE of Hunstanton, Norfolk, who wrote early in the seventeenth century ' A Treatise touching the Imposition of Arms' (Harl. MS. 168, p. 61), divides them into two classes : " Private Arms, which are such as are found and main- tained by particular persons for their general estates, and Common, such as are taxed upon towns, and therefore called Town Arms."
The latter, he avers, were never mentioned
or appointed in any law or statute before
J that of 4-5 Philip and Mary, and he holds
it to be a great wrong and grievance that
persons of estate should be called upon to
contribute under both headings ; indeed,
he says " it hath been a long time often
controverted, and as often almost diversely
resolved, whether Town Arms ought to be
assessed upon all the inhabitants, or OIL
those only who find not Private Arms."
Both kinds are explicitly alluded to in the- heading of an Elizabethan State Paper (vol. Ixx. No. 7) which I may cite as typical.. It runs :
" The Certificate and Answer to the L'res and Articles sente from the Quenes Ma ties mooste honorable previe Counsel, dated the x th of April,, 1570, as touching the charge since the firste musters, which began in Aprill, 1569, that the Countie of Essex hath been at for newe increase of armour, and other things in common. Made by Thomas Lucas & George Trike, Esquires, Allotted by division, amongst other Justices of Peace of that Countie, to make inquisition in that behalfe, unto the Hundred of Tendring. [Of], all that which hath been layde uppon pry vat men sum corseletts and pykes, sum qualivers- and Harquebuzes and murryons although that charge doothe farre surmounte the charge which in common the townshippe hath been put unto, wee do certyfle nothing, because the artycles- dooth appeare to louche only the charge growing in common uppon the towneshippe."
Among the items for the parish of Moth Clacton are
" One harquebutt furnished for Towne armor, xl- ij' 1 .
" The charges for trayning of viij men and for Soldyers in Somer paste, X s .
" The money assessed and collected for ij qualyvers (ij, iij, or more persons charged to every qualyver, at xxviij' the peece), lvj s .
The sum total is " viij 1 , xviij 8 vj d ."
In this instance it is not clear whether the persons charged upon their private estates had also to contribute a quota towards the common arms ; but in another case they were evidently not thus doubly mulcted. ' A Boke of harnes,' taken 30 Sept., 1559, and quoted by Sir H. Dryden in his valuable paj>er on the Northamptonshire Militia (printed in the Transactions of the Associated Architectural Societies, vol. xx. p. 352), yields inter alia the following particulars for the Hundred of Sutton :
" Farnyngho' : Jeffrey Dormer, gentylma', doth furnish a lyght horseman, and the rest of the town an archer on foot. Holmedon : the towne is charged to furnysshe out on byllman. Warke- worth towne : an archer. Grymsburye and Nethercote .... one billman. Middleton and Ovcr- thorpe : William Wilks is charged with himself as a light horseman, Thomas Taylor to furnish an. archer, and the rest of that towne an archer.'
