RURAL LIFE IN HAMPSHIRE.* IT seems at first sight a
curious anomaly that rural subjects should figure so largely in literature at the present time, when the impulse to drift citywards—apparent more or less among all ranks of society—is causing politicians grave mis- givings, and has resulted in the counteracting movement known as the Garden City Association. Probably, however, this same impulse helps to contribute in some degree to the popularity such topics enjoy, since it swells the number of those people who are dependent upon others for their know- ledge of rural things. The urban reading publio may be roughly divided into two classes, both of which are ready to extend a welcome to books that deal in the right spirit with rustic themes. That section which, led by choice or habit, elects to dwell amidst bricks and mortar, and wtioh would regard banishment therefrom as equivalent to a sentence of exile, is fully sensible, as a rule, of the charms of the country, provided it be viewed from a sufficient distance,— through a glass darkly. Like the tourist in Italy who on being shown Fra Angelico's masterpiece exclaimed that it was too gaudy for his taste, these town-lovers prefer the copy to the original. Very different are the sentiments of the workers whom stern necessity alone chains to the streets. The few weeks of the holiday season form their sole opportunity of companionship with Nature, and the volume has justified its existence which succeeds in rending, if but for a moment, the smoke-laden atmosphere that envelops them and letting in a breath of sweet air, a gleam of pure sunshine ; which refreshes their eyes with a cool vision of green pastures and sleeping woods. Nowadays every county, we had almost said every hamlet, has its chronicler, and to the number of "local" books must be added that under review. It differs from many of its predecessors, being rather a historical survey than a description of rustic scenes, and in this respect the title is perhaps somewhat misleading. Canon Capes has set himself to trace the growth of a quiet little village, of which be has been for many years rector, lying among the Hampshire hills at the point where that county touches the confines of Surrey and Sussex. The author's style is simple and direct, and he brings to his task the wide know- ledge and scholarly research which we should expect from him• His chief sources of information are the parish records,— namely, the Rolls of the Manorial Courts, the church registers, and the overseers' accounts. He does not, however, confine himself to these, but quotes many other ancient documents, accessible to the student only, including the Selborne Charters and the archives of Winchester Cathedral.
Although, as Canon Capes remarks in his preface, the book is calculated to appeal primarily to those conversant with the district indicated, we can heartily recommend it to the general reader, for it affords an excellent and most inter- esting example of how a rural settlement, on emerging from the chaos wrought by the Norman Conquest, attained through successive stages its present condition. The parish of Bramshott was carved out of five manors which were held directly of the King by feudal tenure, and with Coronation claims now in our minds it is amusing to note some of the conditions laid upon the chief tenants. Thus, "the lord of Acangre was bound to provide a pack of white hounds when the King would hunt. At Rogate and for Gentles it was only needful to present a red rose in lieu of rent. In other manors the personal service was to take the form of holding the King's head when he was seasick or of saying a Paternoster or Ave for him every day." These five manors, their several lords and occasional villagers, absorb the earliest notices of the place. Not until the thirteenth century is there any documentary evidence of the existence of the church which we are half accustomed to regard as the raison d'elre of the parish. Among the charters of the Priory of Sel borne is a deed of gift witnessed, along with others, by one Matthew, who was rector of "Brembelsete" from 1225 to 1230. This same cleric became involved in a quarrel about the tithes—a burning question then as now—and after appealing from the decisions of the Priors of Wallingford and Eynsham to the Papal Court, he was confirmed for life in the enjoyment of the dis- puted charges. They included not only hay and corn, stock
• Bwrai Ws iw Homvpshirs. By W. W. Capes. London: NsCmjWs Sal Co. Psi 64. Wt.]
of all kinds, fish from the stream, and pigeons in the cot, but literary earnings also, which in those days could not, we imagine, have swelled to any great extent the church's income. Until the passing of the Tithe Commutation Act tithe-owners could, and in many instances did, exact a tenth part of the farmer's poultry produce, even to the eggs laid by his hens, and the present writer has heard old housewives refer in no measured terms to the inconvenience and illwill which these vexatious proceedings occasioned. From Parson Matthew downwards, the ecclesiastical history of the Hampshire village, though meagre as to detail, shows few gaps. Bramshott seems to have been more fortunate than many of its neighbours in its spiritual pastors :— " The worst that is recorded against them by the Episcopal Registers is that one Rector in the fourteenth century was not residing, and the Archdeacon was bidden to ascertain the cause. The churchwardens' accounts bear witness to the liveliest interest taken by all classes and both sexes in church matters, for women served as wardens and appeared at vestry meetings. The parish was a little free republic of which the State hardly book notice until after the Reformation, when its machinery was used for civil objects, such as to raise subsidies and provide for the trained bands."
Full of interest are the excerpts Canon Capes gives us from the long series of Court Rolls, which, beginning in 1280, extend over a period of nearly four hundred years. They were preserved by an unknown hand, to be eventually restored to the place where centuries before they had been compiled, and the picture they present of mediaeval social conditions
reminds us of that which M. Jusserand paints 133 vividly in his delightful hook, Wayfaring England. The first entries in
the records of the Courts Baron and Leet deal with various acts of trespass for which the sub-tenants are responsible. Their cattle had a knack of straying into the lord's pasture,— a natural habit, since his meadow-land was invariably the best and fences were few. " Intrusive pigs are munching the acorns in his wood or the stubble in his cornfields, or sheep have strayed into his oats. Fines of a few hens at first, later of a few pence, are entered in crabbed Latin on the margin of the roll, and the total formed an essential part of the profit of the manor." The Courts appear to have administered justice impartially, without respect of persons. One rector was fined because eighty of his sheep were found among another man's oats; a second who broke open the " pinfold" where his horse was impounded was mulcted to the extent of fourpence for this breach of the law. On one occasion the lord of the manor himself was condemned in his own Court for blocking a bridle-path, was fined forty pence, and was ordered to remove the obstruction without delay,—a delightful piece of indepen- dence on the part of the homage. " A frequent matter of complaint and fine," the author tells us, " was the neglect of the sub-tenant to do his duty by his homestead and land, which he held on strict conditions, or to pay for it by services in kind. Entries like the following come frequently,— 'Ditches, house and garden of Peter atte Valghe are neglected — let them be repaired under fine of twenty shillings. " More burdensome than scouring ditches or renewing fences was the villein's obligation to work on the lord's demesne when his own land was probably needing his .care " The amount of forced labour was rigidly defined, and there is abundant evidence of exacting stewards and discontented tenants. 'The homage present and acknowledge that they ought to do the mowing of the lord's meadow, and lift, and spread, and carry off the hay at the charges of the tenants with- out any pay.' Again,—' The whole homage present that if they do not harrow for the Lent sowing each is to give sixpence.' A few years later the whole homage is fined forty pence for con- tempt shown to the lord, for that they refused unjustly the lord's table and forbade to reap his corn: " The harvesters struck work, in short, because the food pro- vided for them by the lord was not to their taste! The Rolls show that poaching proved as attractive in those rude times as it has ever been, and not to the peasantry alone. Priests and deacons too joined in the illicit sport, and organised a hunt in their own Bishop's park. Many were the raids committed on the ponds and woods of Bramshott. The cruel and irksome forest laws, by which a man's life was held cheaper than a deer's, must have pressed heavily on the inhabitants of this district, which embraced a part of the:Royal Forest of Woolmer. Here King Edward I. built himself a hunting lodge containing " an upper chamber with two chimneys, a small chapel, and two wardrobes, a hall of wood, plastered over and painted, and a kitchen near it." The total outlay on its erection, including the workmen's wages, amounted to £17 13s., which seems a moderate sum seeing the house boasted six glass windows. To it was attached a little garden for the Queen's use, the cost of which, we are told, was half a mark.
From the state of villenage described by the earlier records Canon Capes traces the slow growth of liberty and more prosperous conditions. Freedom was longer in reaching the peasant in the field than his brother in the town ; and as late as 1405 a villein on Ludshot Manor was fined for not working four days in autumn for his lord. This was, however, a solitary instance, and little more than a century after Harrison, when inveighing against the luxury of the age. complains that the farmers have learned to garnish their cupboards with plate, their beds with silk hangings, and their tables with fine linen, and that servants, not content with an upper sheet, require also one below them, "to keepe their bodies from the pricking strawes." The later history of Bramshott is supplied mainly by the church registers, and the overseers' accounts, that from a few simple doles of money and clothing to sick and aged folks developed into a complicated system of poor relief. The author unsparingly denounces this system, which by encouraging idleness and offering vice a premium had a disastrous effect upon the morals of the people. In 1812 John Monkhouse, rector, wrote a summary of the state of the village and concluded with the words : " I would give ten of my parishioners for one honest man, till the whole population was renewed. With this observation I close the book wishing my parishioners were the best of all people. Alas !" The description given of the village at this period is, in truth, anything but pleasing : " sheep-stealing and highway robbery were rife ; and the herds of deer in the Royal forests were so thinned by poachers that it was deemed useless to replace those stolen. There are residents still living who can remember and can name the man who, tiring of his wife's company, took her from Bramshott with a halter round her neck and sold her at Headley Fair." Happily manners and morals have improved since then ; the little corner where three counties meet is no longer a byword for lawlessness among travellers, who to-day may enjoy its beauties without fear of molestation. We could wish that Canon Capes had thought fit to tell us more about the natural features of his parish, which meet with scant justice from the photographs scattered through the book.
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