as our materials for judgment are, we cannot help admiring it very much. It is almost enough to make one fall in love with an arbitrary government. Of course we do not wish to see the fourteenth century return, or the seneschal of Castle Combe sitting in Downing Street; but we can well imagine that the constitution and administration of this and many another little imperium in imperio worked well. It is quite possible that in such a state of things, and with such circumstantials, common sense in the heads and somewhat undefined powers in the hands of honest men, who had familiar knowledge of the parties, very commonly led to substantial justice. Perhaps they were not as particular about statute-letter, or exact precedent, as Sir Vicary Gibbs or Lord Eldon might have been; but what then? Was Richard Symonds to go on making the place a bear-garden, just because nobody had done it before in precisely the same way, or because he had kept within the letter of such of their laws as had any letter at all? The reader may never have heard of him, but no doubt all the folks living at Upper Combe and Nether Combe on the 15th of April, 1387, knew what sort of person Richard Symonds was. They had talked over his doings often enough, and had made up their minds that he was really too bad, and they felt quite certain that whatever brawls disturbed the street he was, somehow or other, at the bottom of them. Well, then, when there had been numerous assaults committed by the lord's tenants one upon the other,' though no record is produced to show that Richard had assaulted any body, yet it was probably very right, not only to fine him xxs., but to stigmatize him with the worst brand which the good people of that time and place could set upon any delinquent-to denounce him to his contemporaries, and register him for posterity, as an habitual disturber of Castle Combe-yea, communis perturbator pacis in perturbationem totius dominii.'

Richard North, too, in the year 1413, was presented simply on the ground that he was a constant disturber and one who stirred up strife among his neighbours-' communis perturbator pacis et motor litis et jurgii inter tenentes domini contra pacem domini Regis.' Two years after the jurors prayed that Richard Riche, who seems to have been a kindred spirit, though probably a manufacturer in good circumstances, might be required to find sufficient security for his good behaviour. They complained that he interfered in all quarrels- intromittit de omni querelâ ad perturbationem pacis et totius communitatis tenentium domini hic-a termination worthy to stand beside Anstey's tunc.' But to our own minds the leading case on this subject is that of an unlucky man whom we have already had occasion to mention both

both as a sufferer and as a sinner. Maurice ap David, as we know, had his blood shed by the candlestick of John Reod. The thing was wrong, the candlestick was forfeited, and John Reod was fined vjd. That was in May 1428; and then, as we have seen, in the following November, Maurice ap David was presented as a common dicer, and fined ijd. We may now add that, in the next March, it became incumbent on the tythingman to present that Richard Waleys, lying in wait by night about nine o'clock-assaulted Maurice ap David at Castle Combe, and there with a cudgel of no value-cum uno baculo nullius valoris '-beat, wounded, and ill-treated him so that his life was despaired of. Waleys could not deny the charge; and was happy to get off with paying a fine of iijs. ivd. on the spot, and giving security to keep the peace towards all the King's lieges under a penalty of xl. with two or three sureties of vl. each. This seems a severe punishment for beating (one knows not on what provocation) a convicted and twopence-fined dicer, who had probably been staying at the alehouse to the very last moment allowed by the law; for why else was he noctivagating about the town at the unnatural hour of nine? Is it not probable that the solution may be found in the matter of aggravation which the tything-man, brief and pithy as his presentments generally were, on this occasion so touchingly introduced? It was not merely that Richard Waleys had beaten one of the lord's tenants, or one of his own neighbours, but that he had done it to the great discomposure of the rest- perturbando et de somno suscitando tenentes domini circummorantes.' What if Maurice had taken the beating quietly? or if Richard had beaten him out of hearing? It is vain to speculate; especially as the tything-man was forced to add the pregnant declaration quod est communis perturbator pacis.'

Surely there is deep repose in this. The dew of peace fell heavily on the happy valley-the restoring manna of night-rest that must be gathered up by sunrise and will not abide the noon. One is irresistibly carried away to Messina :- You shall make no noise in the streets,' said Dogberry, for the watch to babble and talk is most tolerable, and not to be endured.' No noise— not even to talk. If you hear a child cry in the night you must call to the nurse and bid her still it,' chimes in Verges. They are both in a tale'—a tale that had lasted, more or less, as truth in common life, to the days of Shakspeare; but which is now almost to be classed with old-world stories, and scarcely to be understood by a generation who, even in our little towns, are (as Sir Thomas Browne expresses it) acting their antipodes,' and rampaging about, gas-lighted, and wide awake, at midnight.

6

While we are on the subject of assaults and breaches of the peace it may be worth while to make one other remark. Of course we do not know from what number of cases Mr. Scrope has made his selection, and we notice the matter rather as a suggestion to him, than as pretending to reason on, or even to state, a fact. We have seen that in the year 1428 Maurice ap David was beaten with a candlestick, and in the year after with a cudgel; but (with one single exception) we do not observe the use of any other weapon before the sixteenth century. Sometimes, indeed, it is not clear, as when, in 1415, Richard Spencer, already mentioned, levavit hictus' on the rector; or when, in 1481, supposing the parties to be real (for we are again haunted with a suspicion of Bunyanism), John Loverygge insultum fecit' on Thomas Churche 'cum malis verbis,' where it seems probable, though it does not appear certain, that he added blows. In 1524, however, John Brewer killed William Bull with a sword. How he came to have one, and what he was doing with it on the Sunday after Candlemas, we are not told; but his evil example does not seem to have been followed, even in his own family, which, from circumstances already alluded to, we may presume to have been large. At least, in 1544 we find Robert Brewer reverting to the primitive candlestick, and fined ixd. for the use which he made of it. The weapon was on this occasion valued at viijd., whence we may infer that both candlesticks and assaults had become dearer since the days of Maurice ap David. The exception to which we have alluded seems, not only from its isolation, but from the name of the offender, to have been foreign, and not 'in a concatenation accordingly' with the manners and customs of the natives. It is the case of John Portyngale, who was presented on the 22nd of May, 1394, for drawing a hanger or wood-knife (extraxit j. baselard) on Robert Bokeler (p. 326). The names of Maurice ap David and Richard Waleys who beat him, as well as that of David Owell, the victim of the twice-drunk Richard Sarjant, (and perhaps others may occur in assault cases,) have likewise a somewhat foreign appearance, and lead to a suspicion that those who bore them were not genuine Wiltshire folk, but Welshmen by descent, if not by birth.

But we have gossiped long enough with these good people, whose acquaintance we are glad to have made. We have not entered into anything like criticism of the volume containing their history, because when a gentleman sees fit to print a history of private property, from documents in private custody, and to limit his book to private circulation, it seems as if he had a right to do it in his own way, and was scarcely amenable to public criticism. Nor could that tribunal be tempted to exceed its

powers,

powers, if, as in this case, he does it in a goodly quarto of 400 pages, exhibiting, along with unequivocal marks of knowledge and hard work, as much technical ornament as good sense and a chaste love of art will sanction. There is little merit in passing by such trivial matters in the way of errata and corrigenda as have caught our eye in a cursory view of the work; but there is one mistake so important as to require specific notice. It will be obvious to all the author's friends who sympathize in his taste for antiquarian research. In his Preface Mr. Poulett Scrope says—

Monuments rapidly decay; deeds and MSS. are continually destroyed or lost; libraries and collections of drawings, &c., are broken up and dispersed. Is there no spirit of antiquarian and local research left in the county [we will take the liberty to read country], that will struggle to save from oblivion what still remains decipherable of the relics of our past history? At all events, I have endeavoured to fulfil my share of a seemingly sacred duty in the following volume.'—p. vii.

The writer's question is a most important one, and we should like to put it seriously to the consciences of all those whom Providence has, by inheritance, purchase, office, or otherwise, made the trustees of unknown truth. Our own view of things leads us to answer that there is such a spirit; that it is struggling; that it has in some considerable degree succeeded--and that its success will be much promoted if those who are similarly circumstanced will do half as much as Mr. Poulett Scrope has done. But when that gentleman speaks of having fulfilled his share of what he justly esteems a sacred duty, we cannot help smiling at the odd delusion. Why, when he has set before the public, and placed within the reach of unknown students, and antiquaries who have more coins in their cabinets than in their purses, the curious and interesting information which he now circulates among his friends, accompanied by such other matter as his ample stores will furnish for its illustration-when he has done this, he will be only beginning. We certainly do feel that he has a great deal of work before him, but we have no fear of his doing it well. Indeed, unless the whole character of Castle Combe is changed, he must speedily do something for his own sake and that of his neighbours. If he does not take some such precaution as we have suggested, what can he expect but to be overrun with antiquaries and archæologists of all sorts, who will rush to the diggings which he has indicated 'in perturbationem totius dominii?'

We hope to be pardoned for concluding with the expression of our regret that one great-perhaps the greatest-motive of our author in the undertaking of this costly volume has been negatived by a decree against which there is no appeal. Mr. George Poulett Thompson, brother to the late Lord Sydenham,

assumed

assumed the name of Scrope a good many years ago, on marrying the only child of the last male of the most considerable then remaining branch of a family which had been in earlier days endowed not only with very great estates, but with two baronial coronets and an earldom. His father-in-law, the late amiable William Scrope, of Castle Combe in Wilts, and of Cotherington Hall in Lincolnshire, had been distinguished through a long life as a sportsman ;-in his latter years he won no little honour as a writer on such pursuits-which had never interfered with the zeal and diligence of the scholar and student. His volumes on Deer-stalking and Salmon-fishing will not soon be forgotten. He was also about the first amateur painter of his time, and well known as a liberal patron of Art. He naturally took a deep interest in the records of his noble lineage, and it must be lamented by many besides ourselves, that his death occurred just soon enough to prevent him from tasting the gratification which his affectionate heir had designed especially for him in the completion of this History.

ART. II.-1. Diseases of the Human Hair. From the French of M. Cazenave, Physician to the Hospital of St. Louis, Paris; with a Description of an Apparatus for Fumigating the Scalp. By T. H. Burgess, M.D. 1851.

2. Hygiène Complète des Cheveux et de la Barbe: Basée sur des récentes découvertes physiologiques et médicales, indiquant les meilleures formules pour conserver la chevelure, arrêter la chute, retarder le grisonnement, régénérer les cheveux perdus depuis long-temps, et combattre enfin toutes les affections du cuir chevelu. Par A. Debay. Paris, 1851.

SINCE

INCE the world began hair has been an universal vanity. Our young reader will doubtless confess that, as his name is tossed up from landing to landing by imposing flunkies, he passes his hands carefully through his curls to give them the last flowing touch ere he enters the ball-room--while Mr. Layard, from out the royal palace buried by the sand-storms of thousands of years, has shown us what thorough 'prigs' were the remote Assyrians in the arrangement of their locks and beards. What applies to the male sex does so with double force to the women; and we have not the slightest doubt that Alcibiades fumed at the waste of many a half-hour whilst his mistress was 'putting her hair tidy,' or arranging the golden grasshopper. Not only as a means of ornament has the hair been seized upon by all

classes