Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-11-22 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

VIII. for "xj payr of glovesij. s iia.,  Prince Henry, son of James 1., spent enormous sums on dress; in one year alone he ran up debts to the amount of £4,574----he was then a boy of fourteen, and his purchases included 31 pairs of gloves, some of them "lined through with white velvet, and laid with three gold laces, anzl gold fringe curled."  Some gloves formerly worn by monarchs are still preserved. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is a pair which belonged to Queen Elizabeth. A pair is still in existence said to have been presented by Charles 1., when on the scaffold, to Bishop Luxen. Lady Jane Grey, the thirteen days Queen, when about to be executed, gave her maiden, Mistress Tilne7, her gloves and handkerchief. A pair once worn by Mary Queen of Scots is to be seen at Saffron Walden Museum, and another pair is in the Bodleian Library. At New College, Oxford, William of Wykeham's gloves are preserved; they are adorned by a red circle surrounding the sacred monogram. Gloves of bishops varied greatly in style and value. Those worn by Richard de Gilavesend, Bishop of London, who died in 1303, were valued at five pounds, a large sum of money in those distant times; this pair is described as being worked with gold and enamtlled. Seven years later died Bishop Button of Exeter; his gloves are only recorded at npence for the pair. Bishops' gloves ware always of a lavender tint. During the reign of Henry I. the infamous Rudolph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, made a successful attempt to escape from the Tower. It is related that he forgot to don his gloves, and in sliding clown a rope his hands were flayed to the bone.  The glove as a challenge now calls for our attention. In 1557 the Rev. Barnard Gilpin was presented with the living of Houghton-le-Spring; he soon made his power felt, and became known as the "Apostle of the North." Deadly feuds were by no means uncommon in his parish, and a glove was even suspended in his church. When he saw it he directed his sexton to take it down, but the man dared not touch it, pleading that the owner would enter into mortal combat wih anyone who ventured to remove it. Mr Gilpin by the aid of a long staff got possession of this emblem of enmity. He denounced the barbarous custom of challenges in a sermon which he took an early opportunity of preaching from his pulpit. I hear," he said "that there is one among you who, even in this sacred place„ has hung up a glove to this purpose, and threatened to enter into combat with whomsoever shall take it down." Biting the glove in bygone times was a sure prelude to a quarrel; it is a practice mentiOned by Shakespeare and other authors. "It is yet remembered," says Scott, "that a young gentleanan. of Teviotdale, on the morning after a hard drinking bout, observed that he had bitten his glove. He instantly demanded of his companion withwhom he had quarrellEd,and insisted on instant satisfaction, asserting that though he remembered nothing of the dispute, yet he was sure he would never have bit his glove unless he had received some unpardonable insult. He fell in the duel, which was fought near Selkirk in 1721."  At the Coronation of an English Sovereign it was the custom for the champion of England to ride into Westminster Hall and throw down his glove as a challenge to anyone who disputed the new monarch's right to the Throne. This ceremony was performed at the Coronation of George IV. but omitted when William IV. and Victoria were crowned.  Mary Ashford, according to an epitaph in Sutton Coldfreld Churchyard, was murdered on May 27, 1817. A man, named Abraham Thornton was suspected, and tried at Warwick Assizes, but was acquitted. The brother and next of kin of deceased,