The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-20


 6NHE name of Richard TIilles is not
 widely known in the world of let
 9 ters, in fact, his works never have been published in full, but the manu- script of his writings is prized pos session of the library of Balliol college Ovford, where it doubtless will outlive the published works of many better known authors.
 MT. Hilles, it has been ascertained py James Anthony Froude, who delighted III the pieces he wrote, was just an aver age Englishman who lived in the be- ginning of the sixteenth century. He evl- dently did not aspire to literary honors' had no charm of style and apparently no great fund of information on any subject. But he was careful meth- odjcal man with habit of setting down in diary the ordinary happenings Of the day, to which he was wont to add verse here and there of his own com position-ballads, nursery rhymes whlcn he perhaps sang to his children, prayers provers, recipes, prescriptions rules or conduct, treatises on tlorseshoeing, cour- tesy, conundrums and other trivialities Of so little importance that MT. Froude has given to his manuscript the name or '.The Commonplace Book of Richard Hll- les"
 MT. IIilles had indeed a commonplace view of things. Thus he sets 1t down as memorable of the year 1534. "This year on Palm Sunday even, which was the 2Sth day of March, was great sudden tempest of wind, and broke open two windows at Whitehall at Westminster and turned up the lead of the King 5 new tennis play at York palace, and broke off the tyles of three goldsmiths houses in Lombard street, and folded up the lead at Pewterers' hall and cast 1t down into the yard, and blew down many tyles of houses in Lonon and trees about Shoreditch."
 Strolling out on a bright May day, the chronicler witnesses the progress to Greenwich of Stephen Peacock, lord mayor of London. MT. Peacock, he tells us with what we might almost take for humor if we didn't know MT. Hilles bet ter was a haberdasher in private life. This year the 29th day of May, the mayor of London, with the aldermen in scarlet gowns, went in barges to Green wich, with their banners, as they were wont to bring the mayor to Westminster, and the bachelors barge hanged with cloth of gold on the outside With pan- ners and bells upon them In their best manner, with galley to wait upon her, and a foyst with & beast therein which shot many guns. And then they fetched Queen Anne up to the tower of London, and in the way on land about Limehouse there shot many great chambers of guns, and at the tower as she came on land was shot innumerable many guns" A little involved, but it is very evident it was a great show and MT. Hilles en- joyed it. The year following Christo- pher Ascue, draper, was mayor and MT. TIilles records:
 Item: The first of April Wolf and his wife, that killed the two Lombards in boat upon Thames, were hanged upon two gibbets by the water side between London bridge and Westminster. Item: There was great sudden storm in the narrow sea. and two ships of the Zealand fleet were lost, with cloth and men and all, for they sank in the sea. In 15S5 and 1886 Sir John Allen. mercer, was mayor. Item: The Kennel Bakers had horns to blow to give folks warn ing to cast out their dust" The Kennel Rakers' we should say were the white wings under the Allen administration and kept the streets swept for few days before election. Item: Every man that | three times in the week to wash the l streets" In this same year MT. Hilles | got 1t as a piece of gossip that the King | had got his hair cut and ran to set it down: Item: The King caused his own ] head to be knotted and cut short, and his were all the lords and all knights, gentle l men and serving men that came to the
 court"
 Dropping now into MT. Hille's poetry we find that he wrote sort of free
 verse like Amy Lowelrs:
 1 Here lyeth the fresh flower of Plantage-
 Here lyet the white rose in the red set; i Here lyetl the nozzle Queen Elizabeth; 1 Here lyet the princess departed by death;
 | Here lyeth the blood of our country | royal
 Here lyeth the favor of England immor-
 Here lycth Edward the Fourth in pie ture
 Here lyeth his daughter and pearle pure; l and considerable more. Reflecting on | the transitory nature of this life-a | thought that has occurred to many-Mr IIilles thus strikes the note of Omar:
 Alisander was but earth that all the world wan,