GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR
By ARTHUR H. SAVORY
OXFORD
BASIL BLACKWELL
1920
PREFACE
As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a
century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the
country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely
awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and
peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is
thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and
research.
Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because
those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the
trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become
exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared
altogether.
Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his
_Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most
eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as
his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have
attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal
which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of
producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it
themselves.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of
friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book.
Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while
still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr.
Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of
others--besides those whose names I give in the text--has been less
general and mostly confined to some details in the historical part of
the first chapter, and to portions of the subject-matter of the last.
Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gave
much valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigning
them to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on the
Emperors, with special reference to the events in Britain which
occurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped me
in a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some of
the historical details and information about the ancient roads.
Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much more
sunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding the
difficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to go
over the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly faces
of my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written of
them will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailing
sympathy and ready help.--ARTHUR H. SAVORY.
BURLEY, HANTS.
_January_, 1920.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM.......... 1
II. THE FARM BAILIFF...................................... 11
III. THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER..................... 23
IV. THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER........................ 35
V. AN OLD-FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD THICKER--A
GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD CARTER--A LABOURER......... 46
VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND
VILLAGERS........................................... 57
VII. MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS................ 80
VIII. MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN
EXPERIENCES--CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES............. 89
IX. THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL
INSPECTORS--DEAN FARHAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION....... 106
X. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWER-SHOW
--BAND--POSTMAN--CONCERTS........................... 119
XI. DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF
CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS..... 126
XII. FARM SPECIALISTS...................................... 141
XIII. THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY........ 153
XIV. ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY........................ 167
XV. PLUMS--CHERRIES....................................... 182
XVI. TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR............. 187
XVII. CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS
NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE............................... 207
XVIII. HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS....................... 220
XIX. METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN
URBE"............................................... 230
XX. CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET
HARVEST--WEATHER PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE-
WISP--VARIOUS....................................... 239
XXI. BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.. 253
XXII. PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY........ 264
XXIII. BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS............................. 271
XXIV. CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE
CREATURES--HARMONIOUS BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD
FURNITURE AND CHINA................................. 278
XXV. DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES
--STUPID PLACES..................................... 288
XXVI. Is ALDINGTON THE ROMAN ANTONA?........................ 294
INDEX....................................................... 306
"Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery!"
_3 King Henry VI_.
"When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights
I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible
entertainment which the country offers."
--THOREAU.
"Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother,
both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet
things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very
sweet, brother; who would wish to die?"
--BORROW: _Jasper Petulengro_.
GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR
CHAPTER I.
ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM.
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends."
--_Hamlet_.
"Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns."
--_Morte d'Arthur_.
In recalling my earliest impressions of the village of Aldington, near
Evesham, Worcestershire, the first picture that presents itself is of
two chestnut-trees in full bloom in front of the Manor House which
became my home, and their welcome was so gracious on that sunny May
morning that it inclined me to take a hopeful view of the inspection
of the house and land which was the object of my visit.
The village took its name from the Celtic _Alne_, white river; the
Anglo-Saxon, _ing_, children or clan; and _ton_, the enclosed place.
The whole name, therefore, signified "the enclosed place of the
children, or clan, of the Alne." There are many other Alnes in England
and Scotland, also Allens and Ellens as river names, probably
corruptions of Alne, and we have many instances of the combination of
a river name with _ing_ and _ton_, such as Lymington and Dartington.
The Celtic _Alne_ points to the antiquity of the place, and there were
extensive traces of Roman occupation to which I shall refer later.
The village was really no more than a hamlet ecclesiastically attached
to the much larger village of Badsey. In addition to Celtic, Roman,
and Anglo-Saxon associations, it figured before the Norman Conquest in
connection with the Monastery and Abbey of Evesham, the Manor and the
mill being mentioned in the Abbey records; and they were afterwards
set down in Domesday Survey.
The Vale of Evesham, in which Aldington is situated, lies at the foot
of the Cotswold Hills, and when approached from them a remarkable
change in climate and appearance is at once noticeable. Descending
from Broadway or Chipping Campden--that is, from an altitude of about
1,000 feet to one of 150 or less--on a mid-April day, one exchanges,
within a few miles, the grip of winter, grey stone walls and bare
trees, for the hopeful greenery of opening leaves and thickening
hedges, and the withered grass of the Hill pastures for the luxuriance
of the Vale meadows.
The earliness of the climate and the natural richness of the land is
the secret of the intensive cultivation which the Vale presents, and
year by year more and more acres pass out of the category of farming
into that of market-gardening and fruit-growing. The climate, however,
though invaluable for early vegetable crops, is a source of danger to
the fruit. After a few days of the warm, moist greenhouse temperature
which, influenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south-west up the
Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and
which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter
frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a
tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more
backward development.
The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years
had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had
dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long
use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled
garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle
and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming
one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall
black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming
a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself,
and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel
could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of
distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed
the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through
luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back.
The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness,
and reminded one of the "land in which it seemèd always afternoon."
The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately
behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond,
and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard
with its stables and cattle-sheds.
The village occupied one side only of the street, as it was
called--the street consisting of two arms at a right angle, with the
Manor House near its apex. The cottages were built, mostly in pairs,
of old brick, and tiled, having dormer windows, and gardens in front
and at the sides, well stocked with fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, and
this helped the cottagers towards the payment of their very moderate
rents, which had remained the same, I believe, for the best part of
half a century.
Throughout all the available space not so occupied, on either side of
the two arms of the street, and again behind the cottages themselves,
beautiful old orchards, chiefly of apple-trees, formed an unsurpassed
setting both when the blossom was out in pink and white, or the fruit
was ripening in gold and crimson, and even in winter, when the grey
limbs and twisted trunks of the bare trees admitted the level rays of
the sun.
The farm consisted of about 300 acres of mixed arable and grass land
on either side of two shallow valleys, along which wandered the main
brook and its tributary, uniting, where the valleys joined, into one
larger stream, so that all the grass land was abundantly supplied with
water for the stock. These irregular brooks, bordered throughout their
whole course with pollard willows, made a charming feature and gave
great character to the picture.
In the records of Evesham Abbey we find the Manor, including the lands
comprised therein, among the earliest property granted for its
endowment. The erection of the Abbey commenced about 701, and William
of Malmesbury, writing of the loneliness of the spot, tells us that a
small church, probably built by the Britons, had from an early date
existed there. In 709 sixty-five manses were given by Kenred, King of
Mercia, leagued with Offa, King of the East Angles, including one in
Aldinton _(sic)_, and Domesday Survey mentions one hide of land
(varying from 80 to 120 acres in different counties) in Aldintone
_(sic)_ as among the Abbey possessions at the time of the Norman
Conquest.
Abbot Randulf, who died in 1229, built a grange at Aldington, and
bought Aldington mill, in the reign of Henry III., when the hamlet was
a _berewic_ or corn farm held by the Abbey; and at the time of the
Dissolution it was granted to Sir Philip Hoby, who appears to have
been an intimate of Henry VIII., together with the Abbey buildings
themselves and much of its other landed property. The Manor remained
in the hands of the Hoby family for many years, and was one of Sir
Philip's principal seats. Freestone from the Abbey ruins seems to have
been largely used for additions probably made in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, for in some alterations I made about 1888, I found many
carved and moulded stones, built into the walls, evidently the remains
of arches from an ecclesiastical building, and Sir Philip Hoby is
known to have treated the Abbey ruins as if they were nothing better
than a stone quarry.
Leland, who by command of Henry VIII. visited Evesham very soon after
the Dissolution, says that there was "noe towene" at Evesham before
the foundation of the Abbey, and the earliest mention of a bridge
there is recorded in monastic chronicles in 1159.
There is a notice of a Mr. Richard Hoby, youngest brother of Sir
Philip, as churchwarden in 1602, and a monument, much dilapidated, is
to be seen in the chancel of Badsey Church, erected to the memory of
his wife and that of her first husband by Margaret Newman, their
daughter, who married Richard Delabere of Southam, Warwickshire, in
1608. Aldington afterwards became the property of Sir Peter Courtene,
who was created a baronet in 1622.
Another explanation of the origin of the carved and moulded stones
mentioned above may be found in the former existence of a chapel at
Aldington, for there is evidence that a chapel existed there
immediately before the Dissolution. In an article in Badsey Parish
Magazine by Mr. E.A.B. Barnard, F.S.A., brought to my notice by the
editor, the Rev. W.C. Allsebrook, Vicar, details are given of the will
of Richard Yardley of Awnton (Aldington), dated January 22, 1531, in
which the following bequests are made:
To the Mother Church of Evesham, 2s.
To the Church of Badsey, a strike of wheat.
To the Church of Wykamford, one strike of barley.
To the Chappell at Awnton, one hog, one strike of wheat, and
one strike of barley.
The chapel, however, disappeared, and seems to have been superseded by
the assignment of the transept of Badsey Church as the Aldington
Chapel, and in 1561-62 the first churchwarden for Aldington was
elected at Badsey. The assignment may, however, have been only a
return to a much earlier similar arrangement when the transept was
added to Badsey Church about the end of the thirteenth century,
possibly expressly as a chapel for Aldington.
That it was an addition is proved by the remains of the arch over a
small Norman window in the north wall of the nave, which had to be cut
into to allow of the opening into the new transept. A shelf or ledge
is still to be seen in the east wall of the transept, probably the
remains of a super-altar, and, to the right of it, a piscina on the
north side of the chancel arch, and therefore inside the transept.
A large square pew and a smaller one behind it in the transept were
for centuries the recognized seats of the Aldington Manor family and
their servants, and so remained until the restoration of the church in
1885, when the pews were taken down and a row of chairs as near as
possible to the old position was allotted for the use of the same
occupants.
In 1685 the Jarrett monument was placed immediately over the larger
pew in the east wall of the transept, bearing the following
inscription:
Near this place lies interred in hope
of a joyful Resurrection the bodies of
WILLIAM JARRETT
of Aldington in this Parish Gent, aged 73
years, who died Anno Domini 1681
and of Jane his wife the daughter of William
Wattson of Bengeworth Gent, who died
Anno Domini 1683, aged 73 years,
by whom he had Issue three Sons
and two Daughters. Thomas Augustin and
Jane ley buried here with them and
Mary the youngest Daughter Married
Humphrey Mayo of hope in the County
of Herreford Gent, and William
the Eldest Son Marchant in London
set this Monument in a dutiful
and affectionate memory of them 1685.
It is pleasant to think of William, the eldest son, "marchant,"
returning in his prosperity to the quiet old village, braving the
dangers and inconveniences of unenclosed and miry roads, and riding
the 100 odd miles on horseback, to revisit the scenes of his
childhood, in order to do honour to the memories of his father and
mother. What a contrast to the crowded streets of London the old place
must have presented, and one has an idea that perhaps he regretted, in
spite of his success in commerce, that he had not elected in his
younger days to pursue the simple life.
The monument is a somewhat elaborate white marble tablet with a plump
cherub on guard, and with many of the scrolls and convolutions typical
of the Carolean and later Jacobean taste. This monument was removed to
the north wall of the nave two centuries later, in 1885, when the
church was restored, to allow of access to the new vestry then added.
William Jarrett, senr., and his wife lived through the very stirring
times of the Civil War in the reign of Charles I., about twenty miles
only from Edgehill, where, in 1642, twelve hundred men are reported to
have fallen. It is said that on the night of the anniversary of the
battle, October 23, in each succeeding year the uneasy ghosts of the
combatants resume the unfinished struggle, and that the clash of arms
is still to be heard rising and falling between hill and vale. The
worthy couple must have almost heard the echoes of the Battle of
Worcester in 1651, only eighteen miles distant, and have been well
acquainted with the details of the flight of Charles II., who, after
he left Boscobel, passed very near Aldington on his way to the old
house at Long Marston, where he spent a night, and, to complete his
disguise, turned the kitchen spit. This old house is still standing,
and is regarded with reverence.
The cherub on the Jarrett tablet bears a strong resemblance to two
similar cherubs which support a royal crown carved on the back of an
old walnut chair which I bought in the village in a cottage near the
Manor House. The design is well known as commemorating the restoration
of Charles II. in 1660, and I like to think that in bringing it back I
restored it to its old home, and that William Jarrett, senr., who was
doubtless a Royalist, enjoyed a peaceful pipe on many a winter's night
therein enthroned. I noticed, lately, in a description of a similar
chair in the _Connoisseur_, that the cherubs are spoken of as
_amorini_; I have always understood that they are angelic beings
supporting or guarding the sacred crown of the martyred King, though
possibly the appellation is not unsuitable if they are to be regarded
in connection with Charles II. alone.
There is a story of a hosiery factory established by refugee Huguenots
at the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and the
Jacobean building adjoining the east end of the Manor House is
probably the place referred to. Later it became a malthouse, and later
still was converted into hop-kilns by me. Being of Huguenot descent
myself, I take a special interest in this tradition.
In 1715 Aldington took its part in preparing to resist the Jacobites,
and the following record is copied from an old manuscript:
A BILL FOR Y^e CONSTABLE OF ANTON DUN BY ME WM. PHIPPS.
_£ s. d._
1 musket and bayonet.................................. 0 0
1 cartridg box at..................................... 0 3 6
1 belt at............................................. 0 5 0
for 1 scabard and cleaning y^e blad and
blaking y^e hilt.................................... 0 3 6
-------
1 12 0
(_On the back_.)
Three days pay........................................ 0 7 6
half A pound of pouder................................ 0 0 8
for y^e muster master ................................ 0 0 6
for listing money..................................... 0 1 0
for drums and cullers................................. 0 3 0
-------
2 4 8
Thos Rock Con^{ble} 0 12 8
(IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e
YEARE 1716/5 NOV. Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS
CONS^{BL}
_s. d._
bringing in y^e Train souldiers....................... 3 0
spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester............ 1 6
One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock
collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of
admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as
with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by
the village children to the end of the lane.
William Tindal, in his _History of Evesham_, 1794, records the fact
that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent
as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the
first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an
ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor
House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched
stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these
disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the
modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the
old structure.
As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection
with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be
out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a
member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the
present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as
I am aware, previously appeared in any other book.
INSCRIPTION
ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH
OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE
COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND.
M.S.
_PENELOPES_
Filiæ perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi
Henrici Washington, collonelli,
Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton
Milite prognati;
ob res bellicosas tam Angl: quam Hiberniâ
fortiter, & feliciter gestas,
Illustrissimis Principib: & Regum optimis
Carolo primo et secundo charissimi:
Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiquâ, et
Generosâ prosapiâ Packingtoniensium
De Westwood;
Familiâ intemeratae fidei in principes,
et amoris in patriam.
Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda,
Divini Numinis summâ cum religione
Cultrix assidua;
Genetricis (parentum solæ superstitis)
Ingens Solatium;
Aegrotantib. et egentib. mirâ promptitudine
Liberalis et benefica;
Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta;
Ex hac vitâ caducâ ad sponsum migravit
Febr. 27 An. Dom. 1697.
[_Translation_]
INSCRIPTION
ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH
OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE
COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND.
M.S.
Sacred to the memory of
PENELOPE,
daughter of that renowned and distinguished
soldier, Colonel Henry Washington. He was
descended from Sir William Washington,
Knight, of the county of Northampton, who
was highly esteemed by those most illustrious
Princes and best of Kings, Charles the First
and Second, for his valiant and successful warlike
deeds both in England and in Ireland:
he married ELIZABETH, of the ancient and
noble stock of the _Packingtons_ of Westwood,
a family of untarnished fidelity to its Prince
and love to its country. Sprung from such
illustrious ancestry, PENELOPE was a diligent
and pious worshipper of her Heavenly Father.
She was the consolation of her mother, her
only surviving parent; a prompt and liberal
benefactress of the sick and poor; humble and
pure in spirit, and wedded to Christ alone.
From this fleeting life she migrated
to her Spouse,
_February 27, Anno Domini. 1697_.