Notes and Queries

RELATING TO BERKSHIRE.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Communications are invited upon all subjects of Antiquarian or Architectural interest relating to the County. All Literary Communications should be sent to the EDITOR, Barkham Rectory, near Wokingham, written on one side only of the Paper.

It is requested that all MSS intended for printing should be written on foolscap paper, in an orderly manner, with REPLIES, QUERIES, and NOTES on SEPARATE and the name or initials of the writer appended to each communicatian.

SHEETS,

Notes.

IT is intended in the course of the summer to publish the Registers of St. Mary's, Reading (1538-1754). Terms of subscription will be sent on application to Rev. G. P. Crawfurd, 38, Baker Street, Reading.

AN OLD PORTRAIT.—Mr. T. Lewis recently discovered in a cupboard in his house at the corner of Bridge Street, Caversham, a portion of a painting in panel which before it was mutilated must have been a very fine example of the portraiture of the period of (Circa) 1580-1620. The fragment shows on the left of the spectator the head of a man, evidently a "person of quality" with a moustache and pointed beard and wearing a ruff and coif. On the right is the top of a child's head and over it the inscription "John Deane Ætatis Suæ 9." Above this is another inscription, the only word of which can be read is "tyme." There can be no doubt as to the antiquity of this relic, as the characteristics correspond exactly with the description of many of the portraits exhibited at the Tudor and Stuart exhibitions. The Richard Deane of the Commonwealth period who was in turn both Colonel and Admiral had an uncle Sir Richard Deane who was Lord Mayor of London in 1628-9, and the portrait may have been an early likeness of this worthy and his son or of other members of the same family. How such a picture came to Caversham and its ultimate fate of being cut up to form shelves can only be conjectured. The most probable theory is that it once adorned the walls of the Mansion in Caversham Park, and after one of the several changes of ownership of that splendid demesne was sold as old lumber to a person with no knowledge of artistic merit.-W. WING.

Queries.

SPARSHOLT CHURCH.-I am venturing to write to you to ask you if you can tell me whether there are in existence any pictures of Sparsholt Church (interior) shewing a screen which once existed between the chancel and nave.-HENRY A. REDPATH.

Where are these three places in Radinges Hundred from Domesday Survey. Sewelle, Praxmere and Offelle? Lysons gives the first two as Sulhamstead and Peasemore, but hazards no opinion as to the last. What authority had he for this, as Peasemore is in Faircross Hundred ?-EMMA E. THOYTS.

Replies.

HEDGES.-I. Certainly there were enclosed fields with hedges before the Enclosure Acts of 1760. In the Manor Rolls of Clent, 1520, the breaking of fences was at Clent, as elsewhere, a common offence, for which a fine of fourpence was commonly inflicted. Seebohm's reference to Fraser's "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry" also shows this, for he speaks of open, or "champion" field farming as a system already out of date in his time, and as rapidly giving way to the more economical system of enclosed fields. Also in the "Costomary of Tettenhall Regis," a copy of which (from a much earlier document) was made in 1604, mention is made of house-bote, hay-bote, or hedgebote, which were the common rights of copyhold tenants to take necessary timber to repair houses, and "stuff to make and amend hedges" from land leased to them. The Roll of the Court Leet of the Manor of Bromfield, Shropshire, 1607, speaks of one Margerie Davies making an exchange of her tenement, and having a "way for her appointed and-set down, which is now the way the hedge goeth." In the memorials of Ashe, hedge-bote is mentioned for the first time in the Patent Roll of 16 Henry VIII., i.e., 1525. Queries 2 and 3 belong more to the practical agriculturalist than to the archæologist, but we would venture to say that the nature of the soil will account for the difference; that when the nature of the crops-hops, fruits, &c.-requires shelter, tall hedgerows are the rule, whereas in the fen-country, where the wind and air are needed to counteract the natural moisture of the land, low hedges are found. In Essex it is obligatory that hedges bordering on the high road should be cut to a certain level.-EDITOR.

FINCHAMPSTEAD PARISH.-The history of this parish seems to have had little attention. There were several manors in it: East Court, West Court and Eversley, probably others besides. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions: An. M.XCVIII. In this year in the summer at Finchamstead, in Berkshire, a pool welled out blood so as many trustworthy men said who should have seen it Neither Lysons nor Parker says anything about a brass of 1635 to "Elizabeth, daur. and heiress of John Taylor, of Finchamstead, gent., and wife of John Blighe, 1635," and daughter Jane, then 5 years old. The lady wears the large hood or calash which covered the head and shoulders and fell down behind the back nearly to the ground. This brass was in existence in 1863.—E. E. THOYTS.

Reviews.

THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY AND NATURALIST.-We have received the first volume of this important publication, which we hope will form the commencement of a valuable and interesting series of works relating to the Antiquities of the neighbouring county of Hants. The volume before us contains the reports of the meetings of the Hampshire Field Club, which, under the direction of Mr. T. W. Shore, has done so much to elucidate the subjects of Archæological interest in the wide field covered by that Society. As far as we are aware, no permanent records of the meetings of the Field Club have hitherto been made; full accounts of these gatherings have appeared in the Hampshire Independent; but it is highly important that the transactions of all local societies should appear in some permanent form. This work has been accomplished in the volume before us, which will be welcomed by all who take an interest in the history of Hampshire. In addition to the records of the proceedings of the Field Club, there are many local Notes and Queries, and other Archæological and Natural History matters which have appeared in the columns of the Hampshire Independent. Among the contributors appear the names of the Rev. W. Benham, F.S.A.; Rev. J. Silvester Davies, F.S.A.; the late Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A., and Mr. Shore, whose valuable paper on "The Basis of Hampshire History," is worthy of all praise. The histories of the North Hants and Southern Berks are so closely blended that there are several articles which would interest the members of our Society, notably the "Yew Trees in Hants and Berks." The volume is published in an attractive manner, and we congratulate Mr. F. A. Edwards upon the production of the first volume of what will doubtless become a useful and valuable series. There is a very full index which adds greatly to the usefulness of the book.

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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF CHILTERN IN OXFORDSHIRE, by Rev. M. T. Pearman, M.A., Vicar of Twade, Kent. The Oxfordshire Archæological Society has published Mr. Pearman's researches into the history of the Chiltern Hundreds of Oxfordshire. This pamphlet of twenty pages contains a large amount of hitherto unpublished

matter, and is the result of much laborious original investigation. The name of the "Chiltern Hundreds" is familiar to political personages, especially in connection with any disagreement which an unfortunate member may have with his party; but we question whether many are acquainted with the history or even situation of the localities, the name of which is so well known. In the Harleian MS. 34 districts bearing the name are mentioned as anciently existing in England, but most likely, says Mr. Patmore, the tract of country in Oxon and Bucks known as the Chiltern Hundreds is the district referred to in the MS. The author begins his history in the early times of the West Saxons 571 A.D. and continues it to the time of the Civil War. Many points of valuable information are brought out, e.g., the records of the Hundred Courts, the names of those who were fined, the evidences of the insurrectionary spirit that characterised the year 1549, the anti-reformation ideas which the rapid changes in religion produced, the hanging of certain vicars upon their own church steeple. We recommend all who are able to procure a copy of Mr. Pearman's paper which is of great historical value and interest.

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PERFORATED STONE IMPLEMENT FOUND IN THE PARISH OF WITHYCOMBE RALEIGH, described by Dr. T. N. Brushfield, and reprinted from the Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the advancement of Science, Literature and Art. This stone has a singular history; a doctor found it propping open a cottage door, covered with a coating of bright green paint. A ploughman had found it in a field and used it for the purpose of a door prop. It is a fine specimen of the Paleolithic period, and Dr. Brushfield is fortunate in having found it.

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WALTER OF HENLEY'S HUSBANDRY.-The Royal Historical Society has published an attractive and extremely valuable volume containing Walter of Henley's Husbandry, together with an anonymous Husbandry of the early part of the fourteenth century, Seneschancie, or Office of Seneschal (author unknown) and Robert Grosseteste's Rules. One of the MSS. of Henley's Husbandry belonged to the Monastery at Reading, and contains a collection of statistics and much interesting information about the relations of the Abbey and the town. Some of this has been printed, from other sources, by Coates in his History of Reading. The MS. is one of two

copies which were written at Reading, and is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge. The volume contains many quaint and curious items and advice to agriculturists which even at the present day is not out of date.

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THE "CAMDEN LIBRARY," edited by G. Lawrence Gomme and J. Fairman Ordish. Under this title Mr. Elliot Stock announces the issue of yet a new series of antiquarian works, which will be written by several of the leading archæologists of the day. The antiquities and curiosities of the Exchequer, Old London Theatres, English Homes in the Past, Monastic Arrangements are some of the volumes which will be looked forward to with pleasant anticipations by all lovers of archæology.

THE " ANTIQUARY" for April contains a brief account of the recent discoveries at Thebes, a description of a Romano British village at Bampton (Oxon), an illustrated review of Mr. William Andrews' new work an "Old Time Punishments" (which states that the stocks were last used at Newbury in 1872), and an interesting article on the Augustinian Priory at Barnwell.

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"THE RELIQUARY (April) contains some admirable illustrations of Yorkshire Chalice Brasses, Encaustic Tiles of Dale Abbey, and of the smaller Cathedral Churches of Ireland, some of which are architecturally very poor and insignificant when compared with our English minsters. The Editor has commenced a series of short notes entitled " Miscellanea," which will be eagerly welcomed by the readers of the Reliquary.