n s. xii. SEPT. *, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
191
Motes on
Calendar of the Fine Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office : Vol. V. Edward III., 1337-1347. (Stationery Office, 15s.)
A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office. Vol. VI. (Stationery Office, 15s.)
THE most characteristic documents in this volume the work of Mr. A. B. Bland of the 'Calendar of the Fine Bolls ' for the decade crowned by the victory at Crecy, are the orders to sheriffs, bailiffs, and the like, containing the names of persons whom the king has discharged from their obliga- tion to find men-at-arms, hobelers, and archers for his service, in consideration of a money payment made by them. These fill some twenty-five pages of the Calendar, and are worth examination. There are two interesting documents connected with the defence of the realm : the first, the commission of 1338 to John de Scures and Thomas Coudray to hold the town of Southampton in the king's behalf," the mayor, bailiff's, and men of that town, holding it at fee farm to be kept safely to the king's use, having abandoned it on the coming of certain aliens in galleys, so that the latter invaded the town, plundered and occupied the same, to the dishonour of the king and realm" ; the second, a commission to the Constable of Carisbrooke Castle, issued in 1341, reciting that the king has been given to understand his enemies are about to invade the Isle of Wight in force, and ordering the return of all who have lands there, and who had withdrawn for fear of attack they, and their households, wives and children in order to its defence. They are to " stay there " (or send armed men to stay there according to the extent and value of their lands) and there seems a certain shrewdness about requiring the presence, should the landholders return in person, of their families with them. Another detail concerning the Isle of Wight is given us in a commission of 1339, directing the construction of a peel or peels in the port of Shamelforde, for defence against the aliens, the same to be built of the oaks in the king's forest on the island which lately had been thrown down in great numbers by a violent storm.
Of a deeper-going, if less picturesque, interest arc, however, the numerous and important entries relating to the wool trade. The financial difficulties of this decade were, as all students know, of a critical n.iture. Within these years falls a distinct and bitterly contested change in the financial policy of the Crown, the ousting of foreign merchants, the establishment of the English staples. Not much could be made out from these pai;cs conn-ruing the broader developments of the situation ; but the activity of the whole country in the matter of the wool trade, the vigilance and determination of the Crown, the business done with foreign ports, the details of the \scalth of the commodity to be disposed of, and its different holders, and its assessment for 1 In- benefit of the king matters such as these are well illustrated. This forms, in fact, the principal topic of the volume ; but we may mention a few stray points of which we made note. Licences wre issued, in 1338 to landholders in Devon, and in IIMI to landholders throughout England and \\ 'ales, to dig their own soil to find gold and silver
and treasure the finds to be surrendered to the
king, whereof two-thirds of the silver and a
moiety of the gold and treasure were to be
restored to the lords of the soil. There is a
commission to the sheriff of W T ilts concerning
treasure trove at Orcheston St. George said to
have been concealed. Under 15 Feb., 1339, we
get the order to the Mayor of London to deliver to
John Shenche, of the inheritance of his mother
Joan, " a messuage in the suburb of London
called the Flete prison," held in chief " by the
serjeanty of keeping all prisoners to be committed
there, and of repairing the bridge of Flete when-
ever need be " ; the same John Shenche holding
also, and likewise of the inheritance of his mother,
the bailiwick of keeping the king's palace at
Westminster, which entailed upon him certain
business and services when the king came there,
and sundry perquisites upon his departure.
The ' Catalogue of Ancient Deeds ' is, as some of our readers will know, a medley of considerable confusion, in which is to be found no order but that of chance numbering place, time, and subject alike being disregarded. The deeds are given in abstracts which were made by Mr. J. B. W. Chapman ; and the Index, which alone renders the volume tractable, was compiled by Mr. J. J. O'Reilly. Mr. O'Reilly has rendered it the more useful by dividing it into three alphabets of " persons," " places," and " subjects."
The Compleat Angler. By Isaak Walton and Charles Cotton. With an Introduction by R. B. Marston. (Oxford University Press, Is. Qd. net.)
THIS volume belongs to the " Oxford Edition of Standard Authors." The copy in our hands is in cloth boards, and represents the simplest and cheapest form of the issue. We have seen few editions so admirable. Most carefully executed as to matters of scholarship bibliography, text, and Introduction it is printed in excellent type upon good paper. A considerable number of this series has already come out, and these books consti- tute not the least of the services rendered to literature by the Oxford Press.
This is no time of day to appraise the literary and humane qualities of ' The Compleat Angler/ What can be said about them has been said long ago and many times re-echoed. And the obvious reflection that any one to whom it occurs to turn W T alton's pages will find him just now wholesome and refreshing reading remote as he is from our present cares may well be left to our readers to elaborate for themselves. It may be that some part of his effectiveness and charm, when read from this point of view, arises directly from his having applied himself to write ' The Compleat Angler ' in somewhat the same spirit as one of us to-day might read him oppressed by wars and calamities, and seeking that peace of nature and of homely occupation and knowledge, which does r after all, underlie our worst turmoil.
Mr. Marston in his sympathetic and pleasant Introduction wisely gives most of his space to another consideration whether or no ' The Compleat Angler ' is antiquated as an instructor in the art of angling. He comes to a conclusion highly favourable to Walton favourable both as to his information concerning the habits of fish and as to the methods and devices of the sport recommended ; in fact, he says that in both
