Oct. 30.]

Buckinghamshire.

The manor of Chetwode—a small village about five miles from Buckingham—has been the property of the Chetwode family from Saxon times. Though of small extent, it is the paramount manor of a liberty or district, embracing several other manors and villages, which are required to do suit and service at the Court-Leet held at Chetwode every three years. The lord of Chetwode manor has also the right to levy a yearly tax, called the “Rhyne Toll,” on all cattle found within this liberty, between the 30th of October and the 7th of November, both days inclusive. The commencement of the toll, which is proclaimed with much ceremony, is thus described in an old document of Queen Elizabeth’s reign:—

“In the beginning of the said drift of the common, or rhyne, first at their going forth, they shall blow a welke-shell, or horne, immediately after the sun rising at the Mansion-House of the manor of Chetwode, and then, in their going about, they shall blow their horne the second time in the field between Newton Purcell and Barton Hartshorne, in the said county of Bucks, and also shall blow their horne a third time at a place near the town of Finmere, in the county of Oxford, and they shall blow their horne the fourth time at a certain stone in the market of the town of Buckingham, and there to give the poor sixpence; and so, going forward in this manner about the said drift, shall blow the horne at several bridges called Thornborough Bridge, King’s Bridge, and Bridge Mill. And they also shall blow their horne at the Pound Gate, called the Lord’s Pound, in the parish of Chetwode..... And also (the Lord of Chetwode) has always been used by his officers and servants to drive away all foreign cattle that shall be found within the said parishes, fields, &c., to impound the same in any pound of the said towns, and to take for every one of the said foreign beasts twopence for the mouth, and one penny for a foot for every one of the said beasts.” All cattle thus impounded at other places were to be removed to the pound at Chetwode, and if not claimed and the toll paid within three days, “then the next day following after the rising of the sun, the bailiff or officers of the lord for the time being shall blow their horne three times at the gate of the said pound, and make proclamation that, if any persons lack any cattle that shall be in the same pound, let them come and shew the marks of the same cattle so claimed by them, and they shall have them, paying unto the lord his money in the manner and form before mentioned, otherwise the said cattle that shall so remain, shall be the lord’s as strays.” This toll was formerly so rigidly enforced, that if the owner of cattle so impounded made his claim immediately after the proclamation was over, he was refused them, except by paying their full market price.

Though the custom is still regularly observed, it has undergone some changes since the date of the above document. The toll now begins at nine in the morning instead of at sunrise, and the horn is first sounded on the church-hill at Buckingham, and gingerbread and beer distributed among the assembled boys, the girls being excluded. The officer then proceeds to another part of the liberty on the border of Oxfordshire, and there, after blowing his horn as before, again distributes gingerbread and beer among the assembled boys. The toll is then proclaimed as begun, and collectors are stationed at different parts to enforce it, at the rate of two shillings a score upon all cattle and swine passing on any road within the liberty, until twelve o’clock at night on the 7th of November, when the “Rhyne” closes.

The occupiers of land within the liberty have long been accustomed to compound for the toll by an annual payment of one shilling. The toll has sometimes been refused, but has always been recovered with the attendant expenses. It realised about 20l. a year before the opening of the Buckinghamshire Railway; but now, owing to Welsh and Irish cattle being sent by trains, it does not amount to above 4l., and is let by the present lord of the manor for only 1l. 5s. a year.

The existence of this toll may be traced to remote antiquity, but nothing is known of its origin except from local tradition, which, however, in this case has been so remarkably confirmed, that it may safely be credited. The parish of Chetwode, as its name implies, was formerly thickly wooded; indeed it formed a part of an ancient forest called Rookwoode, which is supposed to have been conterminous with the present liberty of Chetwode. At a very early period, says our tradition, this forest was infested with an enormous wild boar which became the terror of the surrounding country. The inhabitants were never safe from his attacks, and strangers who heard of his ferocity were afraid to visit or pass through the district, so that traffic and friendly intercourse were seriously impeded, as well us much injury done to property by this savage monster. The lord of Chetwode, like a valiant knight, determined to rid his neighbourhood from this pest, or to die in the attempt. Bent on this generous purpose, he sallied forth into the forest, and, as the old song has it,—

Matters being thus settled, the neighbourhood rung with the praises of the gallant deed of the lord of Chetwode, and the news thereof soon reached the ears of the king, who “liked him so well of the achievement,” that he forthwith made the knight tenant in capite, and constituted his manor paramount of all the manors within the limits and extent of the royal forest of Rookwoode. Moreover, he granted to him, and to his heirs for ever, among other immunities and privileges, the full right and power to levy every year the “Rhyne Toll,” which has already been described.

Such a custom as the “Rhyne Toll” is not without its use. It is a perpetual memorial, perhaps more convincing than written history, of the dangers which surrounded our ancestors, and from which our country has happily been so long delivered that we can now scarcely believe they ever existed.—The Book of Days, vol. ii. pp. 517-519.