afford a sufficient remuneration to the Master without such payment. 58 There is a small sum of 17. 6s. 8d. paid by The Corporation of Bristol to the Head Master of The Grammar School there, and 13s. 4d. to the Under-Master, called “ Hat Money," which has been so paid for a great number of years, but the origin of such payments cannot now be traced.59 SALTED MEAT. By a Statute which passed in the reign of HENRY the Eighth, beef and pork were ordered to be sold at a halfpenny a pound, -mutton and veal at a halfpenny half a farthing, money of that age, 60—and butchers were required to sell, between the 24th of October and the Nativity of St. John, at those prices. 61 The preamble of the Statute says, that 58 Rep. v. p. 73. 59 Rep. VI. p. 486. 60 Hume's Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 277. 61 Eden's State of the Poor, vol. i. p. 98, 99, note. T these four species of butcher's meat were the food of the poorer sort. This Act which was afterwards repealed, was evidently intended to regulate the Markets at that Season, when it was the custom to lay in a stock of meat to be salted. The custom of salting meat about the festival of St. Martin (the 11th of November), for winter consumption, was universal in this Island, and in all the Nations on the Continent of Europe. The Stock of Salted meat which was then prepared, was to last throughout the whole of the inclement months, until vegetation again became sufficiently forward to enable them to resume the use of fresh provisions, by the pasturage afforded to the flocks and herds. . There is a curious illustration of this remnant of old manners in the Will of THOMAS WILLIAMSON, of the County of Cumberland, who, in 1674, left the rent of certain lands, to be bestowed upon poor people," in mutton or veal at Martinmas "yearly, when flesh might be thought 66 66 cheapest, to be by them pickled or hung up and dried, that they might have something to keep them within doors upon stormy days," 6-that is, when the boisterous weather in these mountainous regions interrupted the husbandman in his work, he might have a stock upon which he could depend at those gloomy moments, and invigorate his strength against the season of renewed labour. The old inhabitants of the Parish of Whalley, in the County of Lancaster, describe the soil and climate of their Forests with great truth and simplicity,—" We find," say the Jurors, (in the reign of JAMES the First,)" that the quality of the said boothes and vaccaries is cold and barren, yet, by manuring, marling, and tilling, will yield a certain grain, called Oats, and, after such marling and tillage, in a short time it will grow to heath, ling, and rushes.”—And, in a humble petition to the King, they declare," that the soil of their country is extremely barren, and, Rep. v. p. 82. 62 as yet, not capable of any other corn but oats, and that in dry years, and not without continual manuring every third year, and that they have no timber trees within many miles thereof." 63. 63_It is difficult to read this account without shivering. The tenants within the Manor of Bradford, in the County of Wilts, pay a yearly rent, by the name of "Veal Money," to their Lord, in lieu of Veal which was paid formerly in kind.64 63 Whitaker's Hist. of Whalley, p. 177. ANCIENT PAYMENTS. BESIDES the notices of ANCIENT CUSTOMS and MANNERS, many LOCAL PECULIARITIES and PAYMENTS have likewise been remarked,-which will tend to show, how tenaciously the observances of Antiquity are retained, and how numerous those old Usages are, which still prevail in many parts of the Country. EASTER BREAD. At Swerford, in the County of Oxford, the Rector supplies a small loaf for every house in the parish, on Easter Sunday, which is given after Evening Service. It is understood, that this is given on account of a bushel of Wheat, which is payable out of a field, called "Mill Close," part of the glebe. Each house, whether |