The Washington herald., 1912-04-05

What has become Of the good old
days when rents did not have to be
paid in hard cash, often at exorbitant
rates? There was time in Europe
never in this country-when hundreds of
broad acres were held by the yearly ten
der Of a rose or a peppercorn or a car
| nation, or by some trivial service rem
dered the lord OF the soil.
True enough, some OF these services
were not always agreeable, as. for in
stance, when Sir Solomon Atfelt, in re-
turn for his Kentish lands, had to ac-
company his sovereign on his sea trips.
and was obliged to hold the royal head
when his majesty was suffering from
seasickness; or when Mr.. Brienston, the
tenant of a Dorsetshire estate, had to
provide a man to go before the King
OF Englsnd's army during forty days,
when there should be war with Scotland,
bareheaded and barefooted, in his shirt
and linen drawers, holding in one hand
a bow and in the other an arrow without
feathers
This is somewhat humorous, but true
Many a man who founded a house that
at present may rank high in the peer
age of Britain held hundreds, often
thousands. Of acres as a reward for the
Slnlplc Outy Ol SOunuluS a norm dI nrSt
sight Of the invading Scots or other enc
niles Of the King, or by providing the
monarch each year with a bow, a lance.
or an arrow. It is recorded that a tailor
held an estate in Essex on an annual
payment Of silver needle to the Kings
exchequer. The rent for the Noting
ham Manor OF Elston consisted of a
pound OF cumin seed. two pairs of
gloves, and a needle of steel
osbert de Sutton was lord of a Shrop-
shire manor by providing a horse every
Michelmas to convey the Kings trea-
sure from the town OF Salop. For two
farms at Carlcoats, in Yorkshire. ne
other rent was paid for centuries ex-
cept a right-hand glove for one and a
left-hsnd glove for the other; and an
annual pair of tongs secured the ten
ancy of certain lands at Kings Bronze.
in warwickshire. In these less roman
tic days a ''peppercorn" has taken the
place OF tongs and gloves.
A valuable estate at Carlton, in Nor
folk. was held for many a generation
by the annual provision OF twenty-four
pasties of fresh herring for royal con-
sumption; and at Brug, in Shropshire,
each successive tenant was expected to
hand over to his lord his best beast.
side of bacon, a young rooster, piece
of cloth, and a barrel Of ale. But all
these ancient rents did not take such
a material form. They had their aesthetic
aspect, as in the parish of Lingfield, In
Surrey. where sixteen acres Of meadow
land were granted on st. Michaers Day.
in the year 1851 at the rental OF "a red
rose when demanded" and where the
tenant OF a farm in the uplands Of Pen
iston had to provide "a SNOWFALL in
summer and a red rose at Christmas"
a rent which he must have found some
difficulty in discharging.
A chaplet of roses at Yuietide was the
rent also asked OF Richard Crevel by the
Earl of Pembroke: and a red rose yearly
was long the crowns only revenue from
the manor of BuckIand. Several OF
these floral rents, like that of three
cloye-gillI1fiowers' for an estate at
Kingston, In Surrey. have been convert
ed within the last century into a modest
payment of one shilling a year.
A vicar in Warwickshire still holds his
''glebe' on the singular condition that.
IL the young men OF the parish catch
A hare and bring IL to him before 10
O'Clock, he must supply a calrs head
and 100 eggs for the breakfast of the
captors, with a dole" OF fourpence in
money, which. after all. Is a more CIV
ilized rent than for which an Earl or
warrenne granted his castle meadows
for town pasturage. namely. the pro-
vision of n mad bull. for batting, six
weeks before Christmas Day.
Some Of these curious old-time tenures