[Footnote 2: It refers to Sir Robert Ker Porter's third great battle-piece,
AGINCOURT: which memorable battle took place October 25, 1415. Sir Robert
presented it to the city of London, and it is still in the possession of
the corporation: it was hung up in the Guildhall a few years since.]
[Footnote 3: In 1808, Sir R. K. Porter accompanied Sir John Moore's
expedition to the Peninsula, and attended the campaign throughout, up to
the closing catastrophe of the battle of Corunna. On his return to England,
he published anonymously, _Letters from Portugal and Spain, written during
the March of the Troops under Sir John Moore_, 1809, 8vo.--ED.]
_Lord Ball of Bagshot._--Coryat, in his _Crudities_, vol. ii. p. 471.,
edit. 1776, tells us that at St. Gewere, near Ober-Wesel--
"There hangeth an yron collar fastened in the wall, with one linke fit
to be put upon a man's neck, without any manner of hurt to the party
that weareth it.
"This collar doth every stranger and freshman, the first time that he
passeth that way, put upon his neck, which he must weare so long
standing till he hath redeemed himself with a competent measure of
wine."
Coryat submitted himself to the collar "for novelty sake," and he adds:
"This custome doth carry some kinde of affinity with certain sociable
ceremonies that wee have in a place of England, which are performed by
that most reuerend Lord _Ball_ of Bagshot, in Hampshire, who doth with
many, and indeed more solemne, rites inuest his brothers of his
vnhallowed chappell of Basingstone (Basingstoke?) (as all our men of
the westerne parts of England do know by deare experience to the smart
of their purses), to these merry burgomaisters of Saint _Gewere_ vse to
do."
Will any of your readers state whether the custom is remembered in
Hampshire, and afford explanation as to the most Rev. Lord Ball? The
writers that I have referred to are silent, and I do not find mention of
the custom in the pages of Mr. Urban.