"in that lands which should be laid open from Lammas-day had been unlawfully enclosed with gates and hedges; whereupon the lord gave order to Mr. Tenche his under-steward to impanel an inquest for inquiry thereof; which order the parishioners construing in their favour, assembled that Lammas-day (1st of August, 1592), with pick-axes and such like instruments, and pulled down the fences and brake the gates, having with them the bailiffs and constables to keep the peace."

Complaint was straightway made to my Lord by those who held of the Queen these lands which ran all the way from St. Giles's to Knightsbridge-in particular the tenants of Eubery Farm of 430 acres (whence the present Ebury Street); the Neat of 108 acres (whence the "Neat-houses," towards the river-side, Chelsea); St. James's Farm of 100 acres, and divers parcels of the possession of Burton St. John Lazarus of Jerusalem of 50 acres, which must have included the site of Leicester Square.

The records of the case give a very vivid picture of such an assertion of right in the time

of Elizabeth.

Some forty of the best and ancientest of the parishes of St. Martin's-in-theFields and St. Margaret's Westminster, assembled between five and six in the afternoon of Lammas-day, with no weapons more formidable than shovels and pickaxes, and proceeding to certain fields, near to the City conduit-heads,' about half-a-mile westward from St. Giles's-inthe-Fields, began to break down the fences, to the great dismay of Peter Dod, a staid citizen and grocer of sixty-five years or thereabouts, then attending upon certain of the City's works. Peter, "seeing some of them to be men that carried a show of some countenance," went up and demanded whence they were; and one of them answering, that they were of St. Martin's parish and St. Margaret's Westminster,

Peter asked, "Why do ye this?"

"It is Lammas-tide," was the answer; 66 and we throw down for common. And if we take here any cattle of any other men's than theirs of

1 Whence were laid pipes for the City water supply, near which the Lord Mayor had a banqueting house, for certain yearly festivities connected with the charge of the City Waterworks.

St. Martin's and St. Margaret's, after this day, we will carry them to the pound."1

"I never saw the like of this!" quoth Peter Dod, aghast. "If you may do this by authority it is well; otherwise, it is not well."

It was answered, "We have here the bailiff of Westminster and the officers of St. Martin's, and we have an authority from the Queen's Majesty and the Council, granted by King Henry and confirmed by Her Majesty," and named the Lord Treasurer to be one from whom they had their authority. They added that the next day there would be two hundred there, and that they must break open up to Knightsbridge and Chelsea.

So they went on in defiance of Peter Dod's warning, demolishing fences, "abating" banks, pulling down rails, and breaking open gates, and causing their herdsmen to bring as many as thirty beasts into one of the closes held by the City, and to keep them there feeding. And when next morning Dod asked the herdsman "Who willed him to put the cattle in there?"

1 Which stood close to St. Giles's Church (near the gallows, before its removal to Tyburn), and was famous for its blackguard surroundings.

C

“That did Mr. Henry Wells, Bailiff of Westminster," he answered. "Mr. Coles, Burgess, and Mr. Peach and Mr. Racie, Bailiffs, and they will bear me out in it."

On the 2nd of August the mob had grown from forty to sixty, who went westwards breaking the fences; and by the time they had reached Eubery Farm, near Chelsea, they had grown to twice the number, with one Cole, High Constable of Westminster the year before, leading them from field to field, with a written roll in his hand, pointing out where they should break and abate, and "lay all common;" pleading generally my Lord Treasurer's warrant, and finding countenance in the presence of my lord's bailiff, "that keepeth Tibbalds," and many saying they had the Council's letter for what they were doing.

Under pressure of these high-handed proceedings Her Majesty's poor tenants and farmers plead to my Lord Burghley that "if these disturbers have indeed his honour's consent and warrant, they are utterly undone; they pray that it may stand with his honour's good liking to commit the rest to the Star Chamber, and in the meantime to have the question of title deter

mined before his honour and the barons in the

Exchequer Chamber." Then comes the plea of those that had made this abatement of fences, "that the tenants of Eubery Farm had for their private commodity enclosed and made pasture of arable land, thereby not only annoying Her Majesty in her walks and passages, but to the hindrance of her game and great injury to the common, which at Lammas was wont to be laid open for the most part, as by ancient precedents thereof made doth more particularly appear, both in the time of Henry VIII.,' Edward VI. and Queen Mary. And by the grant made from Her Majesty to her new tenants, it appeareth that they are to enjoy the same lands in such sort as their predecessors did, which was then always Lammas ground, and was enclosed about 20 years past." The same plea is pleaded as to the other lands entered upon; and of the 50 acres holden of Her Majesty by lease, “aforetime property of Burton St. John Lazarus of Jerusalem, which in time past hath been Lammas and

1 It will be observed that there is no plea of Lammas rights earlier than Henry VIII.