AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANOR OF STOKE LYNE IN OXFORDSHIRE, LATE THE
PROPERTY OF THE EARL AND COUNTESS OF SHIPBROOK.
The lord of the manor has a right, by ancient custom, to bear a hawk
about his arms agreeable to the print: it arose from the following
circumstance. When Charles the First held his parliament at Oxford, the
then lord of Stoke Lyne was particularly useful to the king in his
unfortunate situation, and rendered him service. To reward him he
offered him knighthood, which he declined, and merely requested the
king’s permission to bear behind his coat of arms a hawk, which his
majesty instantly granted. The present lord of the manor is Mr. Cole of
Twickenham, inheriting the estate by descent from the late earl and
countess, and whose family are registered in the parish church as early
as March 22, 1584. There is also a monument of them in the church of
Petersham, 1624; and another branch of the same family were created
baronets, March 4, 1641, supposed to be the oldest family in the county
of Middlesex.
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[Illustration: ~May-Day Dance in 1698.~]
This engraving of the milkmaids’ garland, and the costume of themselves
and their fiddler, at the close of the century before last, is from a
print in “Mémoires, &c. par un Voyageur en Angleterre,” an octavo
volume, printed “à la Haye 1698,” wherein it is introduced by the
author, Henry Misson, to illustrate a passage descriptive of the
amusements of London at that time. His account of the usage is to the
following effect:--
On the first of May, and the five or six days following, all the young
and pretty peasant girls, who are accustomed to bear about milk for sale
in the city, dress themselves very orderly, and carry about them a
number of vases and silver vessels, of which they make a pyramid,
adorned with ribbons and flowers. This pyramid they bear on their heads
instead of the ordinary milk-pail, and accompanied by certain of their
comrades and the music of a fiddle, they go dancing from door to door
surrounded by young men and children, who follow them in crowds; and
every where they are made some little present.
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