Various
Bygone Berkshire
The fine for disobedience or ill-behaviour was often enforced in this curious medium. One John Bristow, in the reign of Henry VI., was fined 4,000 tiles for disobedience to the Mayor, but the fine was reduced to 1,000, with a sufficient quantity of lime. Any person who should quarrel was ordered to pay to the Church of St. Giles, six pounds of wax, and to the Guildhall, 500 tiles.
The third company was the tanners and leather sellers' company, including also the shoemakers, curriers, glewers, saddlers, jerking sellers, bottle-makers, collar-makers, and cobblers.
In the rules of this company we find certain regulations which show that while the guild afforded protection to the tradesmen, it also acted the part of a somewhat severe tyrant. Here is a very severe enactment which might seem somewhat opposed to the freedom of our times. No shoemaker was allowed to make any boots or shoes in any part of the town, but only in Shoemakers' Row, that is to say on the east side of the street, from the Forbury Gate to the Hallowed Brook, under pain of forfeiting 3s. 4d. each time. No one was allowed to go and work where he pleased, but only in the part of the town prescribed by the guild. This company seem to have been the chief promoters of bull baiting and bear baiting, since there is a rule forbidding these sports to be held on the Sabbath day during service, on pain of 12d., to be paid by each householder where the baiting is.
The fourth company was that of the clothiers, an important industry in old Reading; and this included the dyers, weavers, sheermen, shuttle-makers, and ash-burners.
No clothier was allowed to use more than two looms, but Mr. Aldworth, who was a privileged person, might have four. No clothier might weave cloth for another clothier. There are sundry other regulations, which show the severity of the company's laws.
The victuallers' company embraced the vintners, innholders, bakers, brewers, butchers, fishmongers, chandlers, maltmakers, flax-dressers, salters, and wood mongers.
The rules of this company do not, I believe, appear in the Corporation documents, but from other sources we find that the members of the guild were strictly enjoined to observe Lent, and were forbidden to kill or dress meat in that season without a license from the Abbot. Also to prevent imposition on the part of the publicans, two ale tasters were appointed to set the price of beer. The Corporation in former days performed a duty from which the present members of the municipal council would doubtless shrink. It assumed the power of regulating the price of such articles as beer and bread. In the time of Edward VI. a quart of best beer could be obtained for 1d.
These, then, were the five companies which formed the old guild Mercatory of Reading. They did not form (as Mr. Man says in his History of the town) "a society of mechanics and merchants without pretending to interfere in the government of the borough." In fact the guild was rather aristocratic in its tendency, and later on we find that the lower class of tradesfolk formed craft guilds in order to protect the interests of the artizans and smaller tradesmen. Of these the higher guild was very jealous, and frequently exerted its power to oppress the craftsmen and their guild. In the history of nearly every borough we find instances of contention and jealousies between the two bodies. One instance of this occurred in the year 1662, "when the cobblers petition to the Corporation against the shoemakers for mending and repairing old ware in violation of the ancient orders of the borough."
It seems strange to us to think of the time when a man could not sell what he liked, or live where he liked, or work at any trade he pleased; but such freedom was impossible under the old guilds. No one could ply his trade in a town unless he was a freeman of the company; e. g., "in July, 1545, one Robert Hooper, a barber, being a foreigner, was this day ordered to be gone out of the town at his peril, with his wife and children," and the town sergeants were ordered to shut up his shop and see poor Robert Hooper and his wife beyond the borough boundaries. And the distinction between the various trades, between the carpenters and joiners, between the joiners and sawyers, and as we have seen between cobblers and shoemakers, and the privileges of each class were jealously guarded. Absurd as these restrictions were, the early guilds contributed greatly to the making of England. Green thus writes of them: – "In the silent growth and elevation of the English people the borough led the way. The rights of self-government, of free speech in free meeting, of equal justice by one's equals, were brought safe across the ages of Norman tyranny by the traders and shopkeepers of the towns. In the quiet, quaintly-named streets, in town mead, and market place, in the Lord's mill besides the stream, in the bell that sounded out its summons to the borough moot, in the jealousies of craftsmen and guilds, lay the real life of Englishmen, the life of their home and trade, their ceaseless sober struggle with oppression, their steady unwearied battle for self-government."
Again, speaking of the policy of Edward I., who built up the power of the towns in view of checking the lawless tendencies of the barons, he says: —
"The bell which swung out from the town tower gathered the burgesses to a common meeting, where they could exercise their rights of free speech and free deliberation on their own affairs. Their merchants' guild, over its ale-feast, regulated trade, distributed the sums due from the different burgesses, looked to the repair of the gate and wall, and acted in fact pretty much the same part as a Town Council of to-day. Not only were all these rights secured by custom from the first, but they were constantly widening as time went on. Whenever we get a glimpse of the inner history of an English town, we find the same peaceful revolution in progress, services disappearing through disuse or omission, while privileges and immunities were being purchased in hard cash. The lord of the town, whether he were king, abbot, or baron, was commonly thriftless or poor, and the capture of a noble, or the campaign of a sovereign, or the building of some new minster by a prior, brought about an appeal to the thrifty burghers, who were ready to fill again their master's treasury, at the price of a strip of parchment, which gave them freedom of trade, of justice, and of government. For the most part the liberties of our towns were bought in this way by sheer hard bargaining."
We have observed the numerous charters granted to Reading. The charter of Henry III., to which his successor refers, is the earliest known one, and in that we find the words: —
"Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, etc., to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, etc., greeting. Know ye that we will, and command for ourself and our heirs, that all the burgesses of Reading who belong to the guild Merchant in Reading may be for ever free from all shires and hundred courts, and from all pleas, complaints, tolls, passages, ways, carriage ways, and that they may buy and sell wheresoever they will throughout all England, without paying toll, and no one may disturb them under forfeiture of 10 marks." This was confirmed by Edward I., and by successive kings. These charters were granted to the guild, the immediate predecessor of the corporation, the "warden" of the guild ultimately being called the "mayor."
But there was a great opponent to the rights and freedom of the good citizens of Reading in the person of the high and mighty Lord Abbot. Referring to the original charter of the abbey granted by Henry I., we see what extensive sway was placed in the hands of the abbot. He ruled Reading with a powerful hand, and when a former mayor of this town, in the time of Henry VI., thought he would like to have a mace carried before him as a badge of office, the abbot objected. The mayor appealed to the Crown, but he was told it was contrary to the franchise and liberties of our church and monastery, that he was only a keeper of the guild at Reading, admitted by the abbot, and might only have "two tipped staffs" carried before him as a badge of office.
The extensive powers given to the abbot produced constant struggles for power between the guild and the ecclesiastical rulers. Sometimes they even came to blows, and the townsmen often assaulted the abbot's bailiffs in the execution of their duty. The men of Reading were cited in the reign of Henry III., 1243, to show what warrant they had for any privileges which they claimed as members of the guild. The sheriff of Berks received a strict injunction to prevent the men of Reading from interfering with the abbot's lawful rights. Two years later "a final and endly concord" was established between the contending parties, but in 1351, the dispute revived; quarrels arose about the election of a constable for the town, and the contention was not settled for 200 years. In 1430, abbot Henley seized from the guild the out-butchery, or shambles, used by butchers not living in the town, which was another bone of contention.
The abbot received part of the fines paid by those who wished to become freemen of the guild. He received a fine of 5d., called chepin-gravel yearly from every member. He exercised criminal jurisdiction, tried prisoners, admitted and selected the warden or mayor, and in many ways held powerful sway over the good folk of this ancient borough.
But the day came when his power ceased, and the abbey was dissolved. By degrees the guild obtained more power, but the Reformation shook the fabrics of the old guilds of England, and they found that they had only exchanged masters, and that the new master was rather more masterful than the old, requiring inventories of guild plate, lands, and revenues, and appropriating much of their superfluous wealth to his own exchequer.4
In the time of Queen Elizabeth, the guild merchant, the chrysalis, broke its shell, and became the full-winged corporation of mayor and burgesses, although its place of meeting was still called the Guildhall, and was situated somewhere near the Hallowed Brook, where the worthy brethren were often disturbed in their deliberations by the Laundry women "beating their battledores," which was the approved style of washing clothes in those days. Subsequently the old Church of Grey Friars became the Guildhall until the old building was erected, from whose ashes the modern Town Hall phœnix-like arose.
The old burgesses, or members of the guild, were very provident. In time of Queen Mary it was ordered that every burgess should pay 20s. over and above his accustomed fine, as a fund for the relief of burgesses in old age or want.
Berkshire has not been remarkable for its guilds. The guild of the brotherhood of the Holy Cross at Abingdon has been already mentioned. At Maidenhead we find a guild incorporated in 1351, probably for the purpose of keeping in repair the bridge over the Thames, one of the most ancient in the county. This corporation was called "the Fraternity or Guild of the Brothers and Sisters of Maidenhythe." Of minor guilds there would be examples in almost every village and town, but no records of them remain. The guilds of Reading are the only ones of real importance; and I have attempted to point out the chief points of interest in connection with their growth and development, and to describe briefly the origin of these institutions which played so important a part in the making of England.
The Scouring of the White Horse
By E.R. Gardiner, m.a
The story of our village feasts, and of the way in which the rude forefathers of the hamlet were wont to enjoy themselves, forms a chapter in our manners and customs which cannot but have considerable interest to the student of bygone times. One of the most interesting relics of this kind pertains to the County of Berks. Upon White Horse Hill in that county, there used to be celebrated at stated intervals a feast known throughout the countryside as "The Scouring of the White Horse." This has been so admirably and exhaustively treated by Judge Hughes, Q.C. (Tom Brown) in his well-known book on the subject that it is almost hopeless for anyone writing on the same topic to do otherwise than follow in his wake.
A few words on the history of the White Horse of Berkshire seem necessary as an introduction to the subject, although its origin, like that of the old historic earldom of Mar, seems to be lost in the mists of antiquity. White Horse Hill is the highest point of the range of chalk hills which the traveller by rail sees on his left hand as he journeys down the Great Western Railway between Didcot and Swindon, and is plainly seen as he approaches Uffington Station. Its summit reaches the height of 856 feet, and commands an extensive view over what is known as the Vale of White Horse, no less than eleven counties being, so it is said, visible therefrom. It derives its name from the rude figure of a horse cut out in the chalk on the north-west side of the hill, some 374 feet long, and with its outline marked by trenches ten feet wide, cut two or three feet deep in the turf to the white subsoil. A very common tradition ascribes its formation to King Alfred, in memory of his decisive victory over the Danes at the battle of Æcesdun, something over a thousand years ago. The tradition has no doubt arisen from the fact that the Saxon standard was a White Horse, the well-known names of Hengist and Horsa being probably mere forms of this ensign. If this were the only turf carving of a similar character to be found in England, there might be a good deal to say in favour of this tradition. But such figures are not rare, and some of them have, for cogent reasons into which we have not space to enter, been attributed to times far more remote than those of Saxon and Dane. With regard to this particular turf-carving, although we may allow the horse to have been the Saxon standard, and that King Alfred, in setting up "his banner for a token," would only have been following ancient practice, yet, plausible as this may sound, it would have been far more in accordance with what we might have expected had he set up a cross to commemorate his victory. In fact, not so very far away, in the hamlet of Monks Risborough in the Chiltern Hills, there is a hill figure of a cross, nearly a hundred feet in height, which, with quite as good if not better reason, is conjectured to be a memorial set up by Alfred, to record a victory over the Danes at Bledlow. And further, the figure of a horse as a badge or device is far older than Saxon times, for on a coin of Cunobelin (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare), who reigned in Britain, A.D. 40, the figure of a horse on its reverse is very similar to the turf-carving with which we are dealing. Indeed, there is much more in favour of these hill-side figures being of a date far anterior to Saxon or Roman times. For to the right below White Horse Hill is a high mound known as the Dragon Hill upon a piece of ground at the top of which grass does not grow. Here was ample scope for a tradition, which, coupled with the name of the Hill, developed into the story that this was the identical spot on which St. George (or "King Gaarge," according to the rustics) slew the Dragon, and that no verdure ever grew on the place over which its poisonous blood flowed. But unfortunately this derivation collapses when it is found that the name of the Hill should be Pend-ragon, which, in Celtic, signifies "Chief of Kings," and was, as Mr. Wise points out in his letter to Dr. Mead, written in 1736, the common appellation of a British King constituted such by vote in times of public distress. Thus, as we learn from Cæsar's Commentaries Cassibelan was chosen Pendragon by the allies at the time of Julius Cæsar's invasion. So much then for the history and traditions of the White Horse.
The festival called the "Scouring," about which we are more immediately concerned, is, comparatively speaking, a manageable subject, although the aforementioned Mr. Wise, writing 150 years ago, speaks of it as a ceremony, which, "from time immemorial has been solemnized by a numerous concourse of people from all the villages round about." The importance which he attaches to it seems to us at this time of day a trifle exaggerated, for, after appealing to all persons who have a regard for ancient customs whether such a solemnity would not deserve the countenance of the nobility and gentry, a sentiment in which many will heartily join, he goes on to suggest that if the festival were solemnized at regular intervals, say of four years, the common people would use it as a mode of reckoning their time, which would then very properly be done by speaking of the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year of the Scouring of the Horse: and not only this, but the worthy author goes on to say he should not despair of its creating a new era in English history, viz., The Restoration of the Saxon Olympics. Here surely we have enthusiasm gone mad.
The first Scouring, according to Judge Hughes, Q.C. (who is really the authority par excellence on the subject), about which there is any authentic information, was held in 1755, and the sports then appeared to be pretty much the same as those held about a century later. The chief prize for backsword play, or cudgel play, as it was sometimes called, was won by a stranger, who appeared in the garb of a gentleman, and who held his own against all the old "gamesters," as the backsword players who had won or shared a first prize at any revel, were then called. As soon as he had won the prize, he jumped on his horse, and rode off. There was some speculation as to who he might be, and presently it was whispered about that he was Tim Gibbons, of Lambourn, who had not been seen for some years, and about whom some strange stories had been afloat. A descendant of his, a native of Wodstone, a village which nestles at the foot of the White Horse, gave the following account of his ancestor: – "Timothy Gibbons, my great-grandvather, you see, sir, foller'd blacksmithing at Lambourn, till he took to highway robbin', but I can't give 'ee no account o' when or wher'. Arter he'd been out, maybe dree or vour year, he and two companions cum to Baydon; and whilst hiding theirselves and waiting their hopes in a barn, the constables got ropes round the barn-yard and lined 'em in. Then all dree drawed cuts5 who was to go out fust and face the constables. It fell to Tim's two companions to go fust, but their hearts failed 'em, and they wouldn't go. So Tim cried out as 'he'd show 'em what a Englishman could do,' and mounted his hos and drawed his cutlash, and cut their lines a-two, and galloped off clean away; but I understood as t'other two was took. Arter that, maybe a year or two, he cum down to a pastime on White Hoss Hill, and won the prize at backswording; and when he took his money, fearing lest he should be knowed, he jumped on his hoss under the stage, and galloped right off, and I don't know as he ever cum again to these parts. Then I've understood as things thrve wi' 'un as 'um will at times, sir, wi' they sort o' chaps, and he and his companions built the inn called 'The Magpies' on Hounslow Heath; but I dwon't know as ever he kep' the house hisself, except it med ha' been for a short while. Howsomever, at last he was took drinking at a public house somewheres up Hounslow way, wi' a companion, who played a crop wi' 'un, and I b'liev' a' was hanged at Newgate. But I never understood as he killed anybody, sir, and a'd used to gie some o' the money as he took to the poor, if he know'd they was in want."
The next Scouring, of which there seems to be any record, took place in 1776, concerning which the following printed handbill was published: —
"White Horse Hill, Berks, 1776.
The scowering and cleansing of the White Horse is fixed for Monday, the 27th day of May; on which day a Silver Cup will be run for near White Horse Hill, by any horse, &c., that never run for anything, carrying 11 stone, the best of 3 two-mile heats, to start at 10 o'clock.
Between the heats will be run for by poneys a Saddle Bridle and Whip; the best of 3 two-mile heats, the winner of 2 heats will be entitled to the saddle, the second best the Bridle, and the third the Whip.
The same time a Thill Harness will be run for by cart horses, &c., in their harness and bells, the carters to ride in smock frocks without saddles, crossing and jostling, but no whipping allowed.
A Flitch of Bacon to be run for by asses.
A good Hat to be run for by men in sacks, every man to bring his own sack.
A Waistcoat, 10s. 6d. value, to be given to the person who shall take a bullet out of a tub of flour with his mouth in the shortest time.
A cheese to be run for down the White Horse Manger.
Smocks to be run for by ladies, the second best of each prize to be entitled to a Silk Hat.
Cudgel playing for a gold-laced Hat and a pair of buckskin Breeches, and Wrestling for a pair of silver Buckles and a pair of Pumps.
The horses to be on the White Horse Hill by nine o'clock.
No less than four horses, &c., or asses to start for any of the above prizes."
Then came a Scouring on Whit Monday, May 15th, 1780, and of the doings on that occasion there is the following notice in the Reading Mercury, of May 22nd, 1780: – "The ceremony of scowering and cleansing that noble monument of Saxon antiquity, the White Horse, was celebrated on Whit Monday, with great joyous festivity. Besides the customary diversions of horse racing, foot races, etc., many uncommon rural diversions and feats of activity were exhibited to a greater number of spectators than ever assembled on any former occasion. Upwards of thirty thousand persons were present, and amongst them most of the nobility and gentry of this and the neighbouring counties; and the whole was concluded without any material accident. The origin of this remarkable piece of antiquity is variously related; but most authors describe it as a monument to perpetuate some signal victory, gained near the spot, by some of our most ancient Saxon princes. The space occupied by this figure is more than an acre of ground."
There was also a list of the games, which was the same as that in 1776, excepting that in addition there was "a jingling-match by eleven blind-folded men, and one unmasked and hung with bells, for a pair of buckskin breeches."
An old man, William Townsend by name, whose father, one Warman Townsend, had run down the manger after the fore-wheel of a waggon, and won the cheese at this scouring, told the story, as his father had told it to him, how that "eleven on 'em started, and amongst 'em a sweep chimley and a millurd; and the millurd tripped up the sweep chimley and made the soot flee a good 'un;" and how "the wheel ran pretty nigh down to the springs that time."
The next Scouring seems to have been held in 1785, concerning which one William Ayres of Uffington, aged about 84 years, in 1857 made the following statements: – "When I were a buoy about ten years old I remembers I went up White Hoss Hill wi' my vather to a pastime. Vather'd brewed a barrel o' beer to sell on the Hill – a deal better times than now – Augh! bless 'ee, a man medn't brew and sell his own beer now: and oftentimes he can't get nothin' fit to drink at thaay little beer-houses as is licensed, nor at some of the public-houses too for that matter. But 'twur not only for that as the times wur better then – But I be gandering shure enough, – well now, there wur Varmer Mifflin's mare run for and won a new cart-saddle and thill-tugs – the mare's name wur Duke. As many as a dozen or moor horses run, and they started from Idle's bush, which were a vine owld tharnin'-tree in thay days – a very nice bush. They started from Idle's bush, as I tell 'ee, and raced up to the Rudge-waay; and Varmer Mifflin's mare had it all one way, and beeat all the t'other on 'um holler. The pastime then wur a good 'un a wonderful sight o' folk of all sorts, rich and poor. John Morse of Uffington, a queerish sort of a man, grinned agin another chap droo' hos collars, but John got beeat – a fine bit o' spwoort to be shure, and meead the volks laaf. Another geeam wur to bowl a cheese down the Mainger, and the first as could catch 'un had 'un. The cheese was a tough 'un and held together, a did I assure 'ee, but thaay as tasted 'un said a warn't very capital arter all. Then were running for a peg too, and they as could ketch 'un and hang 'un up by the tayl had 'un. The girls, too run races for smocks – a deal of pastime to be sure. Then wur climmin' a grasy pole for a leg of mutton, too: and backsoordin', and wrastlin', and all that, ye knows. A man by the name of Blackford, from the low countries, Zummersetshire, or that waay someweres, he won the prize, and wur counted the best hand for years arter, and no man couldn't break his yead; but at last, nigh on about twenty years arter, I'll warn 'twer – at Shrin'um Revel, Harry Stanley, the landlord o' the Blawin Stwun, broke his yead, and the low-country men seemed afeard o' Harry round about here for long arter that. Varmer Smallbwones, of Sparsholt, a mazin' stout man, and one as scarce no one, go where 'a would, could drow down, beeat all the low-country chaps at wrastlin', and none could stan' agean 'un. And so he got the neam o' Varmer Great-Bwones. 'Twur only when he got a drap o' beer a leetle too zoon, as he were drowed at wrastlin', but they never drowed 'un twice, and he had the best men come agean 'un for miles. This wur the first pastime as I well remembers, but there med ha' been some afore, for all as I knows. I ha' got a good memorandum, and minds things well when I wur a buoy, that I does. I ha' helped to dress the White Hoss myself, and a deal o' work 'tis to do 't, as should be, I can assure 'ee. About Claay Hill, 'twixt Fairford and Ziziter, I've many a time looked back at 'un, and a' looks as nat'ral as a pictur'."
Between 1785 and 1803 there were probably at least two Scourings about which no reliable information seems to have been obtained.
At the Scouring of 1803 Beckingham of Baydon won the prize at wrestling; Flowers and Ellis from Somersetshire won the prize at backsword play; the waiter at the Bell Inn, Faringdon, won the cheese race and at jumping in sacks; and Thomas Street of Niton won the prize for grinning through horse-collars, but it was said "a man from Woodlands would ha' beeat, only he'd got no teeth. This geaam made the congregation laaf 'mazingly."
Then came a Scouring in 1808, at which the Hanney men came down in a strong body and made sure of winning the prize for wrestling. But all the other gamesters leagued against them, and at last their champion, Belcher, was thrown by Fowler of Baydon. Two men, "with very shiny top-boots, quite gentlemen, from London," won the prize for backsword play, one of which gentlemen was Shaw, the Lifeguardsman, said to be a Wiltshire man himself, who afterwards died at Waterloo. A new prize was given at this pastime, viz., a gallon of gin or half-a-guinea for the woman who would smoke most tobacco in an hour. Only two gipsy-women entered, and it seems to have been a very blackguardly business, but it is the only instance of the sort on record.
There seems to be some doubt as to the date of the next Scouring, which was either in 1812 or 1813, but Judge Hughes thinks it was most probably in the latter year, because the clerk of Kingston Lisle, an old Peninsula man, told him that he was at home on leave in that year, and that there was to be a Scouring, and all the people were talking about it when he had to go back to the wars. At this Scouring there was a prize of a loaf, made out of a bushel of flour, for running up the Manger, which was won by Philip New, of Kingston-in-the-Hole, who cut the great loaf into pieces at the top, and sold the pieces for a penny a piece. The low-country men won the first backsword prize, and one Ford, of Ashbury, the second; and the Baydon men won the prize for wrestling. One Henry Giles had wrestled for the prize, but it is supposed took too much beer afterwards; at any rate he fell into the canal on his way home, and was drowned.
The next Scouring, about which any record is found, did not take place till 1825, and it seems to have been the largest gathering there has ever been. The games were held at the Seven Barrows, which are distant two miles in a south-easterly direction from the White Horse, instead of in Uffington Castle, for some reason which does not appear. These seven barrows are popularly supposed to be the burial places of the principal men who were killed at Ashdown.
After this there was no Scouring till 1838, when, on the 19th and 20th of September, the old custom was revived under the patronage of Lord Craven. The Reading Mercury says that no more auspicious year could have been chosen for the revival "than that in which our youthful and beloved Queen first wore the British Crown, and in which an heir was born to the ancient and noble house of Craven, whom God preserve."
The next took place in September, 1843, about which it is recorded that the Berkshire and Wiltshire men, under Joe Giles, of Shrivenham, got the better of the Somersetshire men led by Simon Stone at backsword play; and then were two men who came down from London, who won the wrestling prize away from the countrymen. There seems to have been some difficulty in getting the elephant's caravan up the Hill, for Wombwell's menagerie came down for the Scouring, and, though four-and-twenty horses were put to, it stuck fast four or five times. It does not seem to have struck the Berkshire folk that it would have been simpler to turn the elephant out and make him pull his own caravan up.
In September, 1857, was celebrated the festival so admirably described by Judge Hughes in his book, "The Scouring of the White Horse," to which we would refer our readers.