_Haybands in Seals_ (Vol. iii., p. 186.).--The practice mentioned by MR.
LOWER, of inserting haybands, or rather slips of rush, in the seals of
feoffments, was common in all counties; and it certainly was not confined
to the humbler classes. Hundreds of feoffments of the fifteenth century,
and earlier, have passed through my hands with the seals as described by
MR. LOWER, relating to various counties, and executed by parties of all
degrees. In these instances, a little blade of rush is generally neatly
inserted round the inner rim of the impression, and evidently must have
been so done while the wax was soft. In some instances, these blades of
rush overlay the whole seal; in others, a slip of it is merely tied round
the label. In delivering seisin under a feoffment, the grantor, or his
attorney, handed over to the grantee, together with the deed, a piece of
turf, or a twig, or something plucked from the soil, in token of his giving
full and complete possession. I have generally supposed that these strips
of rush were the tokens of possession so handed over, as part and parcel of
the soil, by the grantor; and that they were attached to the seal, as it
were, "in perpetuam rei memoriam." In default of better information, I
venture to suggest this explanation, but will not presume to vouch for its
correctness.