500
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JUNE 17, iwe.
'here are those which form part of the troublous
history of Ireland ; those pertaining to laws and
charters, such, for example, as the Inspeximus
of the charter granted to the burgesses of Tenby; and those pertaining to the wool, cloth, and corn trades.
We may close this notice with the mention of a few odd facts by way of curiosity. As we know, hermits sometimes made it their work in life to keep bridges in repair ; here we have a grant (June 14, 1376) of pontage for one year to the 'hermit William de Baby, for the repair of " le Petypount " by Oxford. In November, 1374, a
commission was appointed in Northumberland to -inquire into the carrying away by certain evildoers
of "a great fish called a 'whal, found upon the coast of the river of Warnet, and pertaining to the King as wreck. Under date Feb. 5, 1375, is an Inspeximus of the will of that Michael, Bishop of London, who, with all good precautions as to
the holding of keys and the deposition of securities, bequeathed a chest containing one thousand marks to stand in the treasury of St. Paul's, and serve as a sort of emergency fund from which any poor man might borrow up to 10Z., and persons
- of higher standing up to higher amounts.
These few notes must suffice ; their main purpose is to give our readers some indication of the fascinating wealth of detail which this par- ticular ' Calendar ' contains being itself neither the poorest nor the richest which we have recently had the pleasure of looking into.
.A Mcdiceval Burglary. A Lecture delivered at
the John Bylands Library on Jan. 20, 1915, by
T. F. Tout. (Manchester, University Press ;
London, Longmans, and Quaritch, Is. net.)
THE burglary in question was perpetrated in
April, 1303, by one Richard Pudlicott a ruined
Flanders merchant, it would seem who contrived
to break into the " treasury " or storehouse in the
crypt under the chapter-house of Westminster .Abbey, where the King's valuables were kept.
How he effected this cannot be told with certainty, there being two conflicting accounts of it, but of -these the more likely is the one which connects both the Keeper of the King's palace at West- minster and some of the brethren of the Abbey with the audacious enterprise. The story has come down in considerable and highly interesting
detail, but we will not take off the edge of it by setting it forth, desiring, as we do, to recommend it to the direct attention of our readers. It is not absolutely a new discovery, as students of the period know ; but it is here related by Prof. Tout in the light of his latest work upon the subject, and also with uncommon liveliness and charm. Moreover, it is used by him as the occasion for giving an exceedingly clear and easy outline of part of the methods and conditions of the ad- ministration of government at this period. Those who have followed Prof. Tout's recent investiga- tions know that he is engaged upon the relations
between the Boyal Household and the Offices of State with regard to the general management of the country, and has traced a much greater importance in the activities of the Household, and especially of the Wardrobe, than had hitherto been recognized. It was to the Department of the Wardrobe that the King's treasure, in the keeping of the Westminster Benedictines, be- . longed ; but at the date of the burglary the .business of this Department was being transacted
from York, whither Edward I. and his household
had removed for the period of the Scotch war.
The Westminster palace was in the keeping of John Shenche, who held that office, together with the Keepership of the Fleet Prison, in right of his wife. His deputy suffered for complicity in the burglary, but, strange to say, he himself escaped, though he seemed no less deeply implicated, retained his post, and, as records belonging to subsequent reigns show, handed it on in due course to John Shonche, his son. Our readers may remember a mention of this personage which cropped up in a review of a Calendar in our own columns at p. 191 of our last volume.
The proceedings against the numerous persons accused of being concerned in the burglary tailed off, during a period of about two years, from con- siderable keenness and severity to comparative indifference, and Prof. Tout takes occasion to remark how characteristic of mediaeval man was this want of exactness, this failure to finish a thing up. He might certainly bring for- ward a number of examples of the same kind of thing from the France of the early fourteenth century, where, if ferocity against an accused person did not have its whole way fairly soor, an affair was as likely as not to peter out. Reflect- ing upon this, however, we found ourselves wonder- ing whether mediaeval character had any more to do with this than mediaeval circumstance. The laboriousness of all kinds of business in the absence of time-saving machinery, and with division of labour comparatively rough and inadequate, must have tried men's patience sorely, especially in those offices where business tended to accumu- late. Mediaeval and modern man seem to be alike intolerant of tediousness, only their methods of escape therefrom are different.
This brochure, which has the further advantage of being beautifully printed, is illustrated with a plan of Westminster Abbey and Palace and two photographs : one from a rough drawing, with which a chronicler, whose MS. is in the British Museum, has illustrated his account of the outrage, and another in the same MS. depicting the almost contemporary attack upon Boni- faiCe VIII. at Anagni, by the men-at-arms of Philip le Bel. Both are sufficiently amusing.
The Athenaeum now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made whereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks in ' N. & Q.'
tas 10 (K0rasp0tttout2,
A. C. (Stratford), MR. JOHN LANE, and MR.
G. H. ROWBOTHAM. Forwarded.
MR. R. PHILLIPS. The word "meend" or " mynde " was discussed at 11 S. vii. 363, 432.
REV. J. B. McGovERN ('Milton and Dante". Milton, 'Samson Agonistes,' 486-7; Dante, 'In- ferno,' I. 60.
MR. J.B. WAINEWRIGHT. MR. CHARLES S. BOOG is much obliged for the answer about the Ghent Paternoster
CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 457 col. 2, ' Family Portraits mentioned in Wills,' 1. 5, for "Buckly " read " Buckby."
