The Portland daily press., 1881-03-22

| Campus de Easten, in the Parish of St.yBo-
| toph. Intra murOs ct terminus de Bugyhdm.
| | have read no more and enough, too"
| took the parchment from him and carried it
| to my own room, thinking nothing more
| about it. L did not mention anything about
this meeting with Dick Musty for whom
now felt pity rather than anger
remember, as well as any in my life, the
day when at last my father de-
cided finally that fighting would be
worse than folly and that the Bran
bles must 60 to Mr.. Horace Jones. Mr.. Eve
Ign Viner had been talking everything over
with us-not that there was much left to
talk about-and had staid to dine. He took
things well, must say. Instead of losing
his appetite he talked about what chances
he would have if he went to the bar: and
would not even go back to the great ques-
ton. now that it had been settled for good
and all. He made all sorts of talk for every-
body, and presently, in an incidental way,
we got upon local matters, and one of us
mentioned the singularities of the name of
that churchless parish, ''St. Botolph in
Turn" We all made guesses at it's origin.
and at last said:
Il think it must mean ST. Botolph inter
nus, or n-TerminibTs-or within the walls
or boundaries of the town."
by JOve," said my father, SIT might be I!
But did not know you were such a scholar
as that, Tom. How did you get hold of that
idea? st. Botolph in Turn is within the
town boundaries; SO much is true"
''Pm afraid I can't claim the guess as
quite original" said 1. "Oddly enough, l
got it from an old deed that was among old
Parson Evans's papers, which I've got up
stairs, and will show you if you like, as it
seems curious in its way I'll tell you the
whole story, but not now"
brought the half-deciphered document
out of my bedroom, which my father recog-
nized at once as the parchment he had TAX
en- from the hands of Dick Musty. We
looked at it in the manner of the very I'M
skilled psychologists that we were.
'How oddp' said Mr. Evelyn Viner.
Campus de Easton means Easton Field, the
other name for the Brambles. A curious ac-
cident, indeed.'
''And the Brambles is still rated to St. Be-
tolph," said l.
wished had not brought down the doc
ument, after all. But Mr.. EVELYN Viner
spoke as if it mattered nothing to him. I
believe in his heart he was fool enough to
be half glad that Miss Margaret was to come
to him poor, so that he might work for her.
'Tom,' said my father, this document
is really, curiosity. must show it to the
Mayor, and we'll have the rest of it made
cut when we've got nothing else to do. It's
odd l never noticed there was anything of
the sort about this deed. But remember,
it was the day l was taken ill. 1t shows
how careful town ought to be about pre-
serving the evidence of its boundaries. The
nature of the ownership of the Brambles
has always happened, you see, to make it
perfectly lmmaterial whether that part of
st. Botolph lay within or without the town !;
and Mr.. Wilfred Jones voted as freeman.
This old document may prove important
evidence of town rights in time to come.
Why-but-heaveng he suddenly cried out,
starting from his chair.
thought he had been seized with a sud-
den tit and was about to fall. Mr.. Viner
also started towards him, and, in truth, there
looked reason for alarm, considering his re-
cent illness and his chronic worry about the
Brambles, and his apoplectic flush, and his
vain efforts to speak word. But at last he
waved us away from him, and fell back
again into his chair.
Then he raised his fist and brought it down
upon the old Latin sermon with bang that
made the glasses ring.
"HurrahP' he shouted. ''Three cheers
for Miss Peggy, and a fig for Mr.. Horace
Jonesvi
Had he gone mad after all?
Tom ! Has there been single case of the
Brambles passing to the heir-at-law of an in
testate within the memory of the law?"
NO." said I. "How could there be-till
now-when it belonged to the college till it
was bought by Mr.. John Jones? But-don't
you feel well?'
"Well? Tom, don't you be a fool! Then
: there's been continuous custom-continu-
GUS custom because there hasn't been pos
sibility of breach"
"What breach? What cuStom?' I could
only look at Mr.. Viner in despair and think
of his senses before my eyes,
SIS the Brambles in Burgham or not?''
Surely, sir, if that document is to be be-
lieved."
SIT is to be believed. 1t is legal proof,
and proof is good custody, sir; and uncon-
tradicted and uncontradictable by all the
Horace Joneses in the habitable globe! The
Brambles is in Burgham. And what's the
tenure of lands in Burgham? You, Burgh-
ham lawyer, don't know"
CT"
'sThen I'll tell you. and Pm ashamed of
you! It's Borough English, sir, and by the
custom of Borough English, ali lands and
tenements within the Bounds of Burgham
go to- the youngest son, instead of the eldest,
where there's no WILL"
need not carry the history of the case
farther than by saying that the strange old
custom of Borough English, which still pre-
walls in other places than Burgham, and the
origin of which has defed theory to discov-
er, effectually disinherited Mr.. Horace Jones
simply because he was his fathers eldest
son, and gave the Brambles to Miss Marga-
ret because she was the heiress of the young
est son of old John Jones.