June 10, 1899.
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
1010
We are enabled to gather some interesting facts in regard to the life and experiences of the famous Coke of Holkham, from an article contributed to the “Norfolk Chronicle.” When Coke entered into possession of the Holkham Estate he found that the whole district was unenclosed, and what little attempt there was׳ at cultivation was of a most primitive character. There were sheep of the old Norfolk: breed, and with the exception of a few milch cows no cattle were kept on the farms. Everything that has taken place at Holkham is said to have been in consequence of a refusal of one of Coke’s tenants to accept the renewal of his lease at the rent of 5s. an acre. That induced the landlord to embark upon farm management, a matter regarding which he was altogether ignorant. It was then that Coke called around him a number of practical men, and annually invited the farmers from neighbouring districts to inspect his׳ farm ׳and discuss its management. These meetings laid the foundation of the famous Holkham “ sheep shearings,” the last of which was held in 1821. The land became so much improved that in 1787 wheat was for the first time sown upon the farm, and proved a profitable crop. The old system of agriculture gradually fell into disrepute, and West Norfoik was converted from a rye-growing into a wheat-producing district.
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Previously the tenants had been allowed to cultivate the land as they pleased, but under the new regime covenants were introduced into the leases, and this arrangement conduced to the improvement manifested all round. With regard to sheep, Coke, after trying the new Leicester breed and Merinos, eventually adopted the Southdowns ; while, with respect to cattle, after perservering for many years with the Leicester breed, he finally bred nothing but Devons. He is said to have raised the rental of his Holkham estate, which at the time of his father’s death stood at £2,200, to above £20,000, and the annual fall of timber alone averaged about £2,700. If Coke felled timber he, at the same time, interested himself in raising it, and it is related as an interesting fact that in the year 1832 he and his family were on board a vessel launched at Wells which had been built of oak produced from acorns planted by himself. In the erection and repair of farmhouses and out-buildings he spent more than £100,000 ; and the village of Holkham, which, when he succeeded to the property, contained only 162 inhabitants, had in 1833 a population of no less׳ than 900.
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the attention of the mediaeval “chucker out,” and were taken before the magistrate. There was a great massacre of Popish signs upon the demise of Queen Mary, but the Pope’s Head in Comhill, which existed in 1464, and the Mitre in Cheape, extant in 1475, are notable survivals. Judging from the fact that £500 was paid for a figure of Shakespeare for a sign in Little Russell-street, Drury-lane, the profession, he said, was not a bad stepping-stone to higher honours, such English academicians as Hogarth, Wilson, Morland, Old Crome and David Cox having painted actual pictures for signs.
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Many interesting old customs and traditions still linger in the rural districts. One of the most curious, which still survives׳ at Chippenham, Wiltshire, is that known as the “ Stocking ” of England, the latter being the name given to a portion, of the borough lands, whereof the pasture rights are vested in a certain number of freemen or burgesses o-f Chippenham. The right of pasturing horses and cattle thereon is held by virtue of a Charter issued by Queen Mary in the year 1553, which granted to the bailiff, as the chief townsman was termed, and “ his brethren, the burgesses of Chippenham, all ■that our close of pasture, with the appurtenances called Inglands, containing 17 acres,” besides various׳ other holdings ׳adjoining the town, comprising altogether 133 acres of excellent meadowland, a sufficiently valuable property for any country town to be proud of. The privilege of pasturage is contingent upon the occupancy of certain tenements called burgage houses, whose tenants to-day are entitled to the rights׳ conferred by charter upon the original recipients of the Royal favour. They are 124 in number, and of these persons between 40 and 50 exercise the privilege regularly at the present time. For a merely nominal fee such freeman may stock each six cows or heifers and two horses in Englands, little Eng-lands, Claypoles and Westmead, from the middle of May until the beginning of November, in due accordance with other usages of the borough. Each freeman has, furthermore, the! right to one farthingdale or a quarter of an acre of mowing grass in the field known as Westmead, and may cut and carry away the same.
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At the annual dinner of the Architectural Association, last week, the President, Mr. G. H. Fellowes Prynne, referred to the question of the decoration of St- Paul’s, and said that there was a critical side that they as architects felt they must take on the matter. They looked upon St. Paul’s Cathedral as a national monument, designed by one of the most able architects that England had ever produced. As architects they had a right to speak on the matter. In his recent letter to the “Times,” Sir William Richmond appeared to put himself on a very high pedestal, at least a higher one than any architect would care to place himself upon. The wish of ■all architects was to do nothing that was not in every way courteous to Sir William Richmond, but they could not, if they were worthy of the name of artists, look on and see this noble monument being utterly ruined. As architects they claimed that the architectural lines of the cathedral must be preserved. The Archdeacon of London, in response, said that with regard to the decoration of St..Paul’s, so far as he could speak for the decoration committee, they welcomed the frankest and freest criticism. The committee was, however, too weak to bear the strain of so great a work, and it would be well to add ׳to it several architects in sympathy with the genius of Sir Christopher Wren, as well as one or two member^.of the Royal Academy.
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An extremely interesting exhibition is that Which is being held in the apartments of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House. It shows the results of last year’s explorations within the walls of the ancient Romano-British city of Silchester. The evidence they afford confirms the view already accepted, that the site was occupied by a civil population and not by military. In addition to minor buildings, a large well-planned house of early date, several fine hypocausts, and a workshop have been unearthed, as well as a number of wells and pits, one of the latter having a double row of wooden stakes driven! into the bottom, probably for the impaling of wild animals. The remains of an earlier house were found ׳beneath the large one, with a rare mosaic pavement sufficiently intact to permit of huge slabs being pierced together and placed on exhibition. It was contrary to ancient government that human bones should be interred within the walls of a city, but evidently the modern evader of bye-laws and regulations had his prototype in remote days, since in a secret, out-of-the-way corner, some feet below the surface, has been found a jar full of calcined human bones. For the sum of £4,300 already spent upon them the excavations have given ample results, and it is hoped that the £3,000 still required by the exploration fund will be forthcoming in order that the work may be satisfactorily completed■
Prince and Princess Adolphus of Teck, the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Pembroke, Viscount Baring, Sir Arthur Bigge, Sir William King, Sir John Soundy, Colonel Eliot, Colonel Van de Weyer, Mr. Jeffreys, M.P., Mr. Mount, M.P., Mr. Martin J. Sutton, Mr. W. M. Harris, Mr. Edney Hayter, Mr. George Judd and Mi׳. Franklin Simmons, F.S.I. (secretary of the Royal Counties Society). The Royal pavilion was beautifully decorated, and was one of the sights of the showyard. Conspicuous among the floral adornments with which it was surrounded was a magnificent bed of the new flowering plant, Sutton’s hybrid nemesia, to which a silver cup was awarded at the Temple Flower Show last week.
Before leaving the showground the Duke of Connaught intimated, in response to a general request, that it would afford him much pleasure to accept the presidency of the society at the close of the Queen’s year of office. This announcement was received with much gratification by the members of the society, as the meeting of 1900 is to be held at Winchester, the ancient capital of England, and the capital also of the county in which the Royal Counties Society originated. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Tork attended the show on Wednesday.
flaks im tljB Mag.
We understand that Prince Ranjitsinhji has purchased the Norfolk estate known as the Mundford Field, comprising close on 100 acres, and situate between Methwold and Mumford.
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The Dundas Castle Estate, for the purchase of which Lord Crewe is said to be negotiating, adjoins Lord Rosebery’s Dalmeny Park domain in West Lothian. Attached to the ancient castle o׳f the Dundases of Dundas, one of the oldest families in Scotland, the modern Dundas Castle only dates from early in the present century. It is said that in recent years over £50,000 has been spent on improving the property, Which covers, in all, 1.980 acres.
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Mr. Herbert Gladstone,	the	Liberal	Whip,
intends building a handsome residence at Little-etone-on-Sea, in close׳ proximity to׳ die goli links, the venue of ihe recent Parliamentary handicap. The Corporation of New Romney, within which •borough Littlestone is situate, have just passed the plans of the proposed residence.
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It	is gratifying	to	find	that	a	well-known
member of the profession has made a timely and emphatic protest against the inadequate remuneration which is׳ frequently offered to those who undertake poor law valuations. At the recent fortnightly meeting of the Belpei׳ Board of Guardians notice of motion had been given by Mr. Waite to move a resolution that a valuer be appointed, to report on all inequalities of assessment, the salary to be! £150 a year, and the whole׳ time to be devoted to the work. The Hon. P. Strutt, however, objected, and said he did not see how they could get a qualified man to devote׳ his whole time to the work for £150 a year, and he׳ pointed out that valuation is a work that can only be properly discharged by well-trained and responsible men. After some discussion, Mr. Waite withdrew his proposal.
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Is Usk Castle the birthplace of kings? A correspondent of a provincial contemporary says not. He writes :—I believe the error is based on a couplet of Thomas Churchyard, the quaint old writer in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The couplet appears in his “Worthines of AVales ” ; in describing Usk Castle he says : —
" A castle there in Oske doth yet remaine,
A seat where kings and princes have been borne.”
To whom Churchyard refers it is impossible to say, but it is certain, as “Ladylift” proves, that neither Edward IV. nor his brother Richard III. was born there, and it is almost certain that Usk Castle in its beet days had no Royal apartments.
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A chatty paper on the revival of public signs, by Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, enlivened a meet-ing of the Society of Arte a few days since. Reviewing the history of signs in this country, the lecturer said that some existing signs vie with, and even surpass, our oldest families in their venerable antiquity. The Tabard and Bell in Southwark, for example, were mentioned by Chaucer in 1383, and the White Hart, hard by, was Jack Cade’s headquarters, and had been immortalised by many writers from Shakespeare to Charles Dickens. The White Hart in Bishopsgate bore, till quite recently, the date 1480 on its front. The Boar’s Head in East-cheap was mentioned in the time of Richard II., and was once London’s principal tavern. It was in this tavern that Prince Hal and his two brothers made such a riot that they merited
THE ROYAL COUNTIES SHOW.
The Royal Borough of Windsor was en fete on Monday, the opening day of the Royal Counties Society’s Agricultural Exhibition, held in the Home Park, by permission of Her Majesty the Queen.
The show was formally opened by Prince Christian, who was accompanied by Lord Brid-port and attended by Colonel the Hon. C. Eliot. Amongst other well-known persons present at the ceremony were the Right Hon. the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir Nigel Kingscote and Mr. P. A. Munitz, M.P., Prince Christian being received by ׳the officials of the Royal Counties Society, the Mayor of Windsor, and the mayors of all the different towns in which the society has held its show, the municipal authorities being attired in their robes. A formal welcome was extended to Prince Christian as the representative of Her Majesty, who is president of the society this year, by Mr. W. II. Beach, M.P., the Father of the House of Commons, and the oldest living vice-president of the society, and after the Mayor of Windsor had handed over to the treasurer the sum of £1,247 as the local contribution towards the show, at the same time adding that a further amount of £400 had been laid out in bringing water to the showyard, the exhibition was declared’ to be formally open, and the proceedings commenced in earnest so far as the public were concerned.
So far as the exhibition itself is concerned, it may be said that it was one of the very best that has ever been held near London, and well it may be, when it is remembered that amongst the exhibitors were Her Majesty the׳ Queen, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, his Royal Highness Prince Christian, the Countess of Abingdon, Viscount Baring, Lord Bathurst, the Hon. D. P. Bouverie, Lord Calthorpe, the Earl of Carnarvon, Earl Cawdor, the Lords A. and L. Cecil, the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Derby, the Earl Ellesmere, Sir Walter Gilbey, Mr. A. M. Henderson, M.P., Lord Llangat-toch, Lord Montagu, the Duchess of Newcastle, the Duke of Northumberland, Lord Poltimore, Lord Rothschild, Lord Wantage and many other of the leading breeders of the day. The entries of live stock were extremely good when taken all round ; the cattle classes were strongest, the horse section! being ■affected by clashing with the Wembley Show on Wednesday.
Mr. Henderson’s well-known Shire stallion Buscot Harold was proclaimed the champion of his sex in the Shire horse section, Sir J. B. Maple’s Dunsmore Gloaming, bred by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, occupying the corresponding position amongst the mares. In the cattle section everyone was glad to find Her Majesty exhibiting the champion Shorthorn cow Fairy, especially as she is a Windsor-bred animal, whilst the cup for the best Aberdeen Angus fell to the Rev. O. Bolden’s Proud Duke of Ballindalloch ; and that for the most perfect Sussex to! the Earl of Derby’s. Bangle. The Jersey classes were as usual particularly strong, Mr. Freeman Thomas taking the cup for a very promising young bull named Buttertooth, and Mr. M'Intosh that for heifers with Havering Carnatie.
A considerable amount of interest was evinced in the light horse ring. The hunters were a particularly good lot, with Mr. T. D. Johns’ well-known Gendarme in his old position of champion. This horse, however, was run close in the competition for this award ,by Mr. J, H. Stoke’s bay gelding Briton, the winner in the light-weight class, a really good sort, whilst in the three:year-olds Mr. T. Bradley was to the fore with Sequel, a charming brown. A capital performance over the jumps was given by Mr. James E. Kimber’s Star, the second position being filled by Mr. C. A. Daniell's nameless roan, which, however, was beaten a long way by the winner. The harness classes were not particularly strong, Mr. Evan’s bay mare Sonata defeating Mr. Foster’s dun gelding Norbury Squire, to the surprise of many, in the exceeding 14 hands 2in. class ; hut Mr. Foster was recompensed by a win in the cobs with his beautiful chestnut the Squire, which won easily ; Mr. Godsell’s charming chestnut Jersey Lily, being at the head of a moderate class of ponies.
Messrs. Sutton! and Sons, ׳of Reading, had an attractive exhibition of their seeds and roots.
Prince Christian presided in the evening at the annual banquet given by the council. His Royal Highness referred' in eulogistic terms to the interest taken by the Queen in the society, and to Her Majesty’s success as an exhibitor. He had, ,he said, telegraphed her successes to the Queen, and had received in reply the following telegram:—“I am delighted that all went off so well, and that I have won so many prizes.” The reading of Her Majesty’s telegram was received with loud applause.
On Tuesday Prince Christian again visited the show, and was accompanied by Princess Christian and Princess Amelie of Schleswig-Holstein. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Prince Arthur of Connaught were also present׳. Luncheon was served in the Royal pavilion, and among those who were present to meet their Royal Highnesses were