Parliament, respecting the deterioration of the quality of "Huers, bonettes and cappes," alleged to have arisen from the use of fulling mills.[1] A cap, or a livery hood, it will ho remembered, was a customary present at the period, a little gratuity or annual retaining gift, as appears by the various Statutes against Maintenance.
Proofs are found in these rolls of the excitement, in which the country bordering on the sea coast of the south of England was kept by alarms of attacks from the French, during the wars of Henry V. The College was often obliged to incur the expense of sending men-at-arms to assist in the defence of the country, in their Manor of Hamble, now known as Hamble-le-Rice, situate at the mouth of the Southampton Water. I may cite as an instance the following, which occurs in the 4th of Henry V.:—
In expensis dñi Willelmi Hayne, Walteri Harley, Magistri Will'mi Grover, et aliorum de Collegio equitantium et peditantium ad Hamele in le Rys, et ibidem existentium per IIII dies pro defensione patriæ contra inimicos dñi Regis et regni sui et totius patriæ, una cum expensis Walteri Wallyngford et aliorum hominum secum peditantium ad Hamele prædictam pro simili causa, alia vice, et ultra expensas factas et solutas per Rob. Tichfeld firmarium ibidem, xs ixd ob. In cordulis et capitibus sagittarum empt. cod. temp, xiid. In dato III tenentibus de Roppele existent. apud Hamele prædicta, per unum diem et unam noctem post recessum hostium, pro majore securitate, &c., xiid.
In the same year, the following liberal gratuity was given to the messenger, who brought to the College the tidings of the glorious victory of Agincourt. It will be observed that the terms, in which the entry is made, show the astonishment excited in England at the vast number of prisoners taken in that battle. It is as follows:—
In dato Joanni Coudray, filio Edw. Coudray, armigero Dñi Epo' Wynton: deferenti novos rumores ad Collegium de ultra mare, de ducibus, comitibus, baronibus, militibus et aliis generosis de Francia captis per Dñm Regem nostrum nunc Angliæ, in quodam bello facto apud Agyncourt in Picardia in festo Sc'orum Crispini et Crispiniani, anno regni sui 3tio et usque in Angliam postea cum dicto Dño Rege duetis, vis viiid.
I shall conclude with a few extracts taken from a roll, headed, Expensa ultra onera consueta ab anno Regni Rie. 2ndi, xviiio usque annum Regni Hen. 4ti. 4tum. The first item which I shall cite is the cost of a pair of Organs:—
In I pari organorum emptorum anno Reg. Hen. 4to cum cariagio a London, vilib iiis iiiid.
There is nothing in the cost of such organs to put them out of the reach of many a church, and religious house. Yet it would seem that such instruments in those days were either not to be met with everywhere; or that there must have been something peculiarly good in the College organs, for they were frequently borrowed by the Bishop of Winchester, and sent to him at his residence at Waltham, and even so far as Farnham and High Clere. In the 8th of Henry IV., the following charge occurs in the Bursar's roll:—In expensis VI scolarium deferentium organa de Collegio usque hospitium dñi Epi' de Waltham, ixd ob. In 2nd of Hen. V. they had been sent to the Bishop at Farnham, as appears by the following:—
In expensis clericorum et puerorum Collegii cariantium organa Collegii
- ↑ Parl. Rolls, vol. vi., p. 223. The Promptorium Parvulorum gives—"Huwyr (al. Hurwyr,) Tena." In the Bursar's Roll, 12, 13 Hen. IV., above cited, with gloves and purses bought at London for presents, is the item—"In vi. huyres cappes empt', pro donis dandis, iiiis."
