marmalade and six oranges, costing 7s.
Six months later the municipal accounts of Lyme include an entry as
follows:--
"1595.--Given to Sir George Trenchard a fair box
marmalade gilted, a barrel of conserves oranges and
lemons and potatoes 22s. 10d."
Mr. George Roberts, in his "Social History of the Southern Counties," has
an interesting note respecting the potatoes named in the foregoing entry.
He says:--"The sweet potato (_Convolvulus Batatas_) was known in England
before the common potato, which received its name from its resemblance to
the Batata. This plant was introduced into this country by Sir Francis
Drake and Sir John Hawkins in the middle of the sixteenth century. The
roots were, about the close of the reign of Elizabeth, imported in
considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and were used as a
confection rather than as a nourishing vegetable."
We will close this paper with particulars of a present which may be
regarded more of an example of esteem than an attempt at bribery. Hull, in
the days of old, was noted for its ale. The Corporation of the town often
presented one or two barrels to persons to whom they desired to show a
token of regard. Andrew Marvell, the incorruptible patriot, represented
the place in Parliament from 1658 until his death in 1678. He was in close
touch with the leading men of the town, and wrote long and interesting
letters, detailing the operations of the House of Commons, to the Mayor
and Aldermen. In one of his epistles to the Burgesses of Hull he refers
to a gift of ale. "We must," says Marvell, "first give thanks for the kind
present you have been pleased to send us, which will give occasion to us
to remember you often; but the quantity is so great that it might make
sober men forgetful." Marvell's father was master of the Hull Grammar
School, and it was there the patriot was educated.
[Illustration: ANDREW MARVELL.]
Hull ale finds a place in proverbial lore, and is named by Ray and others.
Taylor, the water poet, visited the town in 1622, and was the guest of
George Pease, landlord of the "King's Head" Inn, High Street. In Taylor's
poem, entitled "A Very Merrie Ferry Voyage; or, Yorke for My Money," he
thus averts to Hull ale:--
"Thanks to my loving host and hostess, _Pease_,
There at mine inne each night I took mine ease;
And there I got a cantle of _Hull Chesse_."
The poet, in a foot-note, says:--"Hull cheese is much like a loaf out of
the brewer's basket; it is composed of two samples, mault and water in one
compound, and is cousin german to the mightiest ale in England." Ray
quotes the proverb, "You have eaten some Hull cheese," as equivalent to an
accusation of drunkenness.
Rebel Heads on City Gates.
The barbarous custom of spiking heads on city gates, and on other
prominent places, may be traced back to the days of Edward I. His wise
laws won for him the title of "the English Justinian," but he does not
appear to have tempered justice with mercy. In his age little value was
set upon human life. His scheme of conquest included the subjugation and
annexation of Scotland and Wales.
David, the brother of Llewellyn the Welsh Prince, had been on the side of
the English, and at the hands of Edward had experienced kindness, but in
return he showed little gratitude. In 1282 he made an unprovoked attack on
Hawarden Castle. Subsequently his brother Llewellyn joined in the rising,
and undertook the conduct of the war in South Wales, while David attempted
to defend the North of the country. In a skirmish on the Wye, Llewellyn
was slain by a single knight. David soon fell into the hands of the
English, and was sent in chains to Shrewsbury. Here he was tried by
Parliament, consisting of "the first national convention in which the
Common had any share by legal authority, and the earliest lawful trace of
a mixed assembly of Lords and Commons." Guilty of being a traitor was the
verdict returned, and David was condemned to a new and cruel mode of
execution, viz., "to be dragged at a horse's tail through the streets of
Shrewsbury, and to be afterwards hung and cut down while alive, his heart
and bowels burnt before his face, his body quartered and his head sent to
London." The head of Llewellyn was also to be sent to London, to be spiked
on the Tower encircled with a crown of ivy.
On the gates of old London Bridge have been spiked the heads of many
famous men--not a few whose brave deeds add glory to the annals of England
and Scotland. The heroic deeds of Sir William Wallace have done much to
increase the dignity of the history of North Britain. After rendering
gallant service to his native land, he was betrayed into the hands of the
English by his friend and countryman, Sir John Menteith, at Glasgow. He
was conveyed to London, was tried and condemned as a rebel, and on August
23rd, 1305, suffered a horrible death, similar to the fate of David,
Prince of Wales. His body was divided and sent into four parts of
Scotland, and his head set up on a pole on London Bridge. Edward I.
degraded himself by this cruel revenge on a patriotic man. In the
following year the head of another Scotch rebel, Simon Frazer, was spiked
beside that of Wallace.
[Illustration: OLD LONDON BRIDGE, SHEWING HEADS OF REBELS ON THE GATE.]
In the reign of Edward II., Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, rose to almost
supreme power, but his rule was most distasteful to the people. It was
oppressive and ended in disaster. In 1316, when the Earl was at the height
of his fame, he discovered that a knight formerly in his household had
been induced by the King of England to carry to the King of Scotland a
letter asking that some of his soldiers might slay him. The Earl was then
at Pontefract and had the knight brought before him, and by his orders he
was speedily executed, and his head spiked on the walls of the castle.
The Barons met the forces of Edward II. at Boroughbridge, in 1322, and
were totally routed, and their leaders, the Earl of Hereford was slain,
and the Earl of Lancaster was taken prisoner, and afterwards executed at
Pontefract. About thirty knights and barons suffered death on the scaffold
in various parts of the country, so that terror might be widely spread.
Some of the bodies were suspended for long periods in chains, and amongst
the number were those of Sir Roger de Clifford, Sir John Mowbray, and Sir
Jocalyn D'Eyville. They were hanged at York, and for three years their
bodies were hung in chains, and then the Friar Preachers committed them to
the ground. Another rebel, Sir Bartholomew de Badlesmere, was executed
at Canterbury, and his head was cut off and spiked on the city gate at
Canterbury.
At Boroughbridge Sir Andrew de Harcla displayed courage of a high order,
and was rewarded with the title of the Earl of Carlisle, and military
duties of a more important order were entrusted to him, but he did not
long enjoy his honours. The Scots advanced into this country and met the
English at the Abbey of Byland, and completely overpowered them; the Earl
remaining inactive at Boroughbridge with 2,000 foot and horse soldiers. On
a writ dated at Knaresborough, February 27th, 1323, he was tried for
treachery, his collusion with the Scotch was clearly proved, and the
following sentence was passed upon him:--"To be degraded both himself and
his heirs from the rank of earl, to be ungirt of his sword, his gilded
spurs hacked from his heels--said to be the first example of its kind--to
be hanged, drawn, and beheaded, his heart and entrails torn out and burnt
to ashes, and the ashes scattered to the winds; his carcase to be divided
into four quarters, one to be hung on the top of the Tower at Carlisle,
another at Newcastle, the third on the bridge at York, and the fourth at
Shrewsbury, while his head was to be spiked on London Bridge." "You may
divide my body as you please," said the Earl, "but I give my soul to God."
On March 3rd, 1323, the terrible sentence was carried out.
Under the year 1397, John Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," records
that the heads of four traitor knights were spiked on London Bridge.
On Bramham Moor, Yorkshire, on Sunday, February 19th, 1408, Sir Thomas
Rokeby, high sheriff of the county, fighting for Henry IV., completely
defeated an army raised by the Earl of Northumberland, and other nobles
who had revolted against the king. The Earl was slain on the field, and
his chief associate, Lord Bardolf, was mortally wounded and taken
prisoner, but died before he could be removed from the scene of the
battle. The heads of these two noblemen were cut off, and that of the Earl
placed upon a hedge-stake, and carried in a mock procession through the
chief towns on the route to London, and finally found a resting-place on
London Bridge. He was popular amongst his friends, and they greatly
grieved at his death. It was indeed a sore trial to those who had loved
him well to see his mutilated head, full of silver hairs, carried
through the streets of London, a gruesome exhibition for a heartless
public. The head of Lord Bardolf was also spiked on London Bridge.
Some passages in the life of Eleanor Cobham, first mistress and afterwards
wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, furnish an insight into the
superstitions of the period. She was tried in 1441 for treason and
witchcraft. The chief charge against her was that she and her accomplices
had made a waxen image of the reigning monarch, Henry VI., and placed it
before a slow fire, believing that as the wax melted the king's life would
waste away. She was found guilty and had to do public penance in the
streets of London, and was imprisoned for life in the Isle of Man. Three
persons who had assisted her crimes suffered death. One Margaret Jourdain,
of Eye, near Westminster, was burned in Smithfield. Southwell, a priest,
died before execution in the Tower, and Sir Roger Bolinbroke, a priest,
and reputed necromancer, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, and
his head was fixed on London Bridge. The Duchess, in the event of Henry's
death, expected that the Duke of Gloucester, as nearest heir of the
house of Lancaster, would be crowned king.
The details of Jack Cade's insurrection are well-known, and perhaps a copy
of an inscription on a roadside monument at Heathfield, near Cuckfield in
Sussex, will answer our present purpose:--
Near this spot was slain the notorious rebel
JACK CADE,
By Alexander Iden, Sheriff of Kent, A.D. 1450.
His body was carried to London, and his head
fixed on London Bridge.
This is the success of all rebels, and this
fortune chanceth even to traitors.
_Hall's Chronicle._
In 1496 two heads were placed on London Bridge; one was Flammock's, a
lawyer, and the other that of a farmer's who had suffered death at Tyburn,
for taking a leading part in a great Cornish insurrection.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was tried, and executed on June 22nd,
1535, nominally for high treason, but, as a matter of fact, because he
would not be a party to the king's actions. Shortly before his execution
the Pope sent to him a Cardinal's hat. Said the king when he heard of the
honour to be conferred upon the aged prelate, who was then about
seventy-seven years old, "'Fore heaven, he shall wear it on his shoulders
then, for by the time it arrives he shall not have a head to place it
upon."
Fisher met his death with firmness. At five o'clock in the morning of his
execution he was awakened and the time named to him. He turned over in bed
saying: "Then I can have two hours more sleep, as I am not to die until
nine." Two hours later he arose, dressed himself in his best apparel,
saying, this was his wedding day, when he was to be married to death, and
it was befitting to appear in becoming attire. His head was severed from
his body, and after the executioner had removed all the clothing, he left
the corpse on the scaffold until night, when it was removed by the guard
to All Hallows Churchyard, and interred in a grave dug with their
halberds. It was not suffered to remain there, but was exhumed and buried
in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower. The head was spiked on
London Bridge. Hall and others record that the features became fresher and
more comely every day, and were life-like. Crowds were attracted to the
strange sight, which was regarded as a miracle. This annoyed the king not
a little, and he gave orders for the head to be thrown into the river.
A similar offence to that of Fisher's brought to the block a month later
the head of a still greater and wiser man, Sir Thomas More. He was far in
advance of his times, and his teaching is bearing fruit in our day. His
head was placed on London Bridge, until his devoted daughter, Margaret
Roper, bribed a man to move it, and drop it into a boat in which she sat.
She kept the sacred relic for many years, and at her death it was buried
with her in a vault under St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury.
[Illustration: AXE, BLOCK, AND EXECUTIONER'S MASK. (_From the Tower of
London._)]
We learn from the annals of London Bridge, that in the year 1577, "several
heads were removed from the north end of the Drawbridge to the Southwark
entrance, and hence called Traitors' Gate."
Heads of priests and others heightened the sickening sight of the bridge.
We may here remark that Paul Hentzner in his "Travels in England," written
in 1598, says in speaking of London Bridge:--"Upon this is built a tower,
on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are
placed on iron spikes; we counted about thirty."
Hentzner's curious and interesting work was reprinted at London in 1889.
Sir Christopher Wren completed Temple Bar, March 1672-3, and in 1684 the
first ghastly trophy was fixed upon it. Sir Thomas Armstrong was accused
of being connected with the Rye House Plot, but made his escape to
Holland, and was outlawed. He, however, within a year surrendered himself,
demanding to be put on his trial. Jefferies in a most brutal manner
refused the request, declaring that he had nothing to do but to award
death. Armstrong sued for the benefit of the law, but without avail. The
judge ordered his execution "according to law," adding, "You shall have
full benefit of the law." On June 24th, 1683, Armstrong was executed,
and his head set up on Westminster Hall; his quarters were divided between
Aldgate, Aldersgate, and Temple Bar, and the fourth sent to Stafford, the
borough he had formerly represented in Parliament.
[Illustration: MARGARET ROPER TAKING LEAVE OF HER FATHER, SIR THOMAS MORE,
1535.]
Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins, on April 9th, 1696, suffered
death at Tyburn for complicity in a conspiracy to assassinate William
III., and on the next day their heads crowned Temple Bar. John Evelyn in
his Diary wrote, "A dismal sight which many pitied."
In May, 1716, the head of Colonel Henry Oxburg was spiked above the Bar.
He had taken part in the rising of Mar.
The head of Councillor Layer was placed on the Bar in 1723, for plotting
to murder King George. For more than thirty years Layer's head looked
sorrowfully down on busy Fleet Street. A stormy night at last sent it
rolling into the Strand, and it is recorded it was picked up by an
attorney, and taken into a neighbouring tavern, and according to Nicholls,
it found a resting place under the floor. It is stated that Dr. Rawlinson
"paid a large sum of money for a substitute foisted upon him as a genuine
article." He died without discovering that he had been imposed upon, and,
according to his directions, the relic was placed in his right hand and
buried with him.
The Rebellion of '45 brought two more heads to Temple Bar. On July 30th,
1746, Colonel Towneley and Captain Fletcher were beheaded on Kennington
Common, and on the following day their heads were elevated on the Bar.
Respecting their heads Walpole wrote on August 15th, 1746, "I have been
this morning to the Tower, and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar,
where people made a trade of letting spying-glasses at a halfpenny a
look." The fresh heads were made the theme of poetry and prose. One of the
halfpenny loyal sightseers penned the following doggerel:--
"Three heads here I spy,
Which the glass did draw nigh,
The better to have a good sight;
Triangle they are placed,
And bald and barefaced;
Not one of them e'er was upright."
We reproduce a curious print published in 1746 representing "Temple Bar"
with three heads raised on tall poles or iron rods. The devil looks
down in triumph and waves the rebel banner, on which are three crowns and
a coffin, with the motto, 'A crown or a grave.' Underneath was written
some wretched verses.
[Illustration:
"Observe the banner which would all enslave,
Which ruined traytors did so proudly wave,
The devil seems the project to despise;
A fiend confused from off the trophy flies.
While trembling rebels at the fabrick gaze,
And dread their fate with horror and amaze,
Let Briton's sons the emblematick view
And plainly see what to rebellion's due."
COPY OF A PRINT PUBLISHED IN 1746.]
It is recorded in the "Annual Register" that on "January 20th (between two
and three a.m.), 1766, a man was taken up for discharging musket bullets
from a steel cross-bow at the two remaining heads upon Temple Bar. On
being examined he affected a disorder in his senses, and said his reason
for doing so was his strong attachment to the present Government, and that
he thought it was not sufficient that a traitor should merely suffer
death; that this provoked his indignation, and that it had been his
constant practice for three nights past to amuse himself in the same
manner. And it is much to be feared," says the recorder of the event,
"that he is a near relation to one of the unhappy sufferers." On being
searched, about fifty musket bullets were found on the man, and these were
wrapped up in a paper with a motto--"Eripuit ille vitam."
Dr. Johnson says that once being with Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey,
"While we surveyed the Poets' Corner, I said to him:--
'Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur illis.'
(Perhaps some day our names may mix with theirs). When we got to Temple
Bar he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slyly whispered:--
'Forsitan et nostrum ... miscebitur _Istis_.'"
One of the heads was blown down on April 1st, 1772, and the other did not
remain much longer. The head of Colonel Towneley is preserved in the
chapel at Townely Hall, near Burnley. It is perforated, showing that it
had been thrust upon a spike. During a visit on May 21st, 1892, to
Towneley Hall by the members of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian
Society, the skull was seen, and a note on the subject appears in the
Transactions of the Society.
[Illustration: TEMPLE BAR IN DR. JOHNSON'S TIME.]
The heads of not a few Scotchmen were spiked on the gates of Carlisle, and
some romantic stories have come down to us respecting them. One of these
we related in our "Bygone England," and to make this account more complete
we may perhaps be permitted to reproduce it. "A young and beautiful lady,"
so runs the tale, "came every morning at sunrise, and every evening at
sunset, to look at the head of a comely youth with long yellow hair,
till at length the lady and the laddie's head disappeared." The incident
is the subject of a song, in which the lovesick damsel bewails the fate of
her lover. Here are two of the verses:--
"White was the rose in my lover's hat
As he rowled me in his lowland plaidie;
His heart was true as death in love,
His head was aye in battle ready.
His long, long hair, in yellow hanks,
Wav'd o'er his cheeks sae sweet and ruddy;
But now it waves o'er Carlisle yetts
In dripping ringlets, soil'd and bloody."
Many persons in Hull supported the lost cause of Henry VI., but the
governing authorities of the town gave their support to Edward IV., and
those that were on the side of the fallen king met with little mercy at
the hands of the local Aldermen. Mr. T. Tindall Wildridge, who has done so
much to bring to light hidden facts in the history of Hull, tells us that
the Aldermen in 1461 agreed that the head of Nicholas Bradshawe, for his
violent language, be set at the Beverley Gate--the gate that was at a
later period closed against Charles I., when he desired to enter Hull.
A number of the inhabitants who would not renounce their allegiance to the
House of Lancaster were ordered to leave the town on pain of death. "Among
these outcasts," says Mr. Wildridge, "was a women, who, coming back again,
was subjected to the indignity of the thewes (tumbrel or hand-barrow, in
which scolds were customarily wheeled round the town previous to being
ducked); she was thus led out of the Beverley Gate."
On the walls and gates of York have been spiked many heads, and with
particulars of a few of the more important we will bring to a close our
gleanings on this gruesome theme, though not one without value to the
student of history.
Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, strongly opposed the accession of
Henry IV., and warmly advocated the claims of the Earl of March. A
conspiracy against the king cost him and others their lives. It is
recorded that the king directed Chief Justice Gascoigne to condemn the
Archbishop to death. As might be expected from an upright judge who cast
into prison the king's son for contempt of court, he firmly refused to be
a party to a barbarous and unjust action. Another judge was quickly found
ready to obey the king's behest, and the requisite condemnation was
obtained. Scrope was beheaded on June 8th, 1405, in a field between
Bishopthorpe and York. Thomas Gent, the old historian of York, gives a
sympathetic account of the execution: "The poor unfortunate Archbishop was
put upon a horse, about the value of forty pence, with a halter about its
neck, but without a saddle on its back. The Archbishop gave thanks to God,
saying, 'I never liked a horse better than I like this!' He twice sang the
Psalm _Exaudi_, being habited in a sky-coloured loose garment, with
sleeves of the same colour, but they would not permit him to wear the
linen vesture used by bishops. At the fatal place of execution he laid his
hood and tunic on the ground, offered himself and his cause to Heaven, and
desired the executioner to give him five strokes, in token of the five
wounds of our Saviour, which was done accordingly." This is the first
instance of an English prelate being executed by the civil power. Lord
Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, Sir William Plumpton and others who were
mixed up in the conspiracy were beheaded. The heads of the Archbishop and
that of Mowbray were spiked and put up on the city walls.
On the last day in the year 1460 was fought the battle of Wakefield,
which ended in a victory for the house of Lancaster. Richard, Duke of
York, the aspirant to the throne, and many of his loyal supporters were
slain, some so severely wounded as to die shortly afterwards, and others
taken prisoners to be subsequently beheaded. The Duke's head was cut from
his body, encircled by a mock diadem of paper, and spiked above Micklegate
Bar, York, with the face turned to the city:--
"So York may overlook the town of York."
The head of the young Earl of Rutland, murdered by Lord Clifford, was also
set up at York. The headless bodies of the unfortunate pair were quietly
buried at Pontefract.
The heads of the following Yorkists were also set up at York "for a
spectacle to the people and also as a terror to adversaries:"--The Earl of
Salisbury, Sir Edward Bouchier, Sir Richard Limbricke, Sir Thomas
Harrington of London, Sir Thomas Neville, Sir William Parr, Sir Jacob
Pykeryng, Sir Ralph Stanley, John Hanson, Mayor of Hull, and others.
[Illustration: MICKLEGATE BAR, YORK.]