Mickleham, Dec. 10. 1849.
_Spur Money_.--Two or three years since, a party of sappers and miners
was stationed at Peterborough, engaged in the trigonometrical survey,
when the officer entered the cathedral with his spurs on, and was
immediately beset by the choristers, who demanded money of him for
treading the sacred floor with armed heels. Does any one know the
origin of this singular custom? I inquired of some of the dignitaries
of the Cathedral, but they were not aware even of its existence. The
boys, however, have more tenacious memories, at least where their
interest is concerned; but we must not look to them for the origin of
a {374} custom which appears to have long existed. In the _Memorials
of John Ray_, published by the Ray Society, p. 131., there is the
following entry in his second Itinerary:--
"July the 26th, 1661, we began our journey northwards from
Cambridge, and that day, passing through Huntingdon and
Stilton, we rode as far as Peterborough twenty-five miles.
There I first heard the Cathedral service. The choristers made
us pay money for coming into the choir with our spurs on."
East Winch.
[The following note from _The Book of the Court_ will serve
to illustrate the curious custom referred to by our
correspondent:
"In _The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII._ edited by
Sir Harris Nicolas, there occur several entries of payments
made to the choristers of Windsor 'in rewarde for the king's
spurs'; which the editor supposes to mean 'money paid to
redeem the king's spurs, which had become the fee of the
choristers at Windsor, perhaps at installations, or at the
annual celebration of St. George's feast.' No notice of the
subject occurs in Ashmole's or Anstis's _History of the Order
of the Garter_. Mr. Markland, quoting a note to Gifford's
edition of Ben Jonson, vol. ii. p. 49., says, 'In the time
of Ben Jonson, in consequence of the interruptions to Divine
Service occasioned by the ringing of the spurs worn by persons
walking and transacting business in cathedrals, and especially
in St. Paul's, a small fine was imposed on them, called
"spur-money," the exaction of which was committed to the
beadles and singing-boys.' This practice, and to which,
probably, the items in Henry's household-book bear reference,
still obtains, or, at least, did till very lately, in the
Chapel Royal and other choirs. Our informant himself claimed
the penalty, in Westminster Abbey, from Dr. Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester, and received from him an eighteenpenny bank token
as the fine. He likewise claimed the penalty from the King
of Hanover (then Duke of Cumberland), for entering the choir
of the Abbey in his spurs. But His Royal Highness, who had
been installed there, excused himself with great readiness,
pleading 'his right to wear his spurs in that church, inasmuch
as it was the place where they were first put on him!'--See
further, _European Mag._, vol. iii. p. 16."]
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