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English Topography Part III : Derbyshire - Dorsetshire
Preface |
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THIS volume deals with the three counties of Derbyshire, Devonshire
and Dorsetshire, each of them, as it happens being very fully
represented in the old Gentleman's Magazine. The contributions
present several points of great interest to the modern inquirer,
and which are not to be found in other publications, and it
is one of the pleasures of editing this portion of the "Library"
to find hidden away so many phases of local history which are
now of more than local importance.
Beyond the ordinary local information as to family history,
Church history, and topographical details-fully represented
in this volume, as they were in the previous volumes-there are
some notes upon subjects which are out of the general run. Thus
the interesting though meagre notes of local almshouses at Dorchester,
Chesterfield, Tavistock, Totnes, Sherborne and Beminster bring
into prominence the old system of supporting the poor and indigent,
which has died out before the inroads of modern officialism,
and which some of us think is better than the modern system.
The cry of the poor is bitter enough always, but it is made
more bitter than is necessary by the real and natural hatred
they have of the workhouse system and its hideous rigidity.
These almshouses are scattered about over the country, and they
are memorials of a time when the poor were considered to have
rights as citizens of an empire in the building up of which
they have had a share.
Another subject interesting to modern times is that of fairs,
and the recent report of the Markets Commission explains how
closely connected are our modern requirements to the ancient
methods of |
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vi Preface. |
meeting the necessities of the
people. The fairs and markets of South Zeal, Modbury, Honiton,
Plympton St. Maurice and Tavistock, have only a very few notes
given to them in the several communications, but they are very
useful as indicating the activity in the past in respect of
this important machinery for distribution of food supplies.
The old municipal rights of South Zeal, Plympton St. Maurice
and other places are described with some curious details.
Of customs and manners that are gone, never to be revived-the
expression of people's thoughts by their action-we have the
curious description of games played at Buxton, the custom of
separating the sexes at church at Bilstone, the bell-ringing
customs at Dorchester, for the labourers to begin their daily
work, at sundown, and at funerals ; and the custom of holding
schools in belfries, as at Milton Abbas. It is mentioned, in
connection with this place (p. 300), that the villein tenants
could not send their children to school without the consent
of their lords, a state of things not generally connected with
manorial rights. The curious mention of a brief for the renovation
of the Theatre Royal, in 1673, which occurs at Symondsbury,
is an interesting bit of dramatic history which is worth while
pursuing somewhat further, and perhaps some of our great authorities
on this subject -Mr. Joseph Knight, Mr. H. B. Wheatley, or Mr.
T. F. Ordish- may take up the fact and see how it influences
their researches.
County boundaries are not unchangeable, as may be seen by the
adjustment between Dorsetshire and Devonshire, mentioned on
page 248. The Church Barn, at Hardwick, mentioned on page 237,
is of interest just now, when the destruction quite recently
of the last one extant has revived interest in this subject.
The communications upon the Revolution House at Whittington
are of great historical interest, as they describe the condition
and traditions of the place in a way that could not be attempted
now. These historical monuments are vanishing gradually from
our villages and towns; but it should not be allowed, so long
as English people take interest in a history which is second
to that of no nation.
It is pleasing to think that the suggestion made in the preface
to the previous volume, that a catalogue of benefactions recorded
on church monuments should be undertaken, has found some considerable
response, thanks to the way in which some of the literary journals
took it up, particularly the Athenæum and the Antiquary.
At the meeting of the congress of archæological societies,
in July last, I brought forward a motion urging upon the local
societies to see to this subject, |
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Preface. vii |
and it was carried, with some
hope that good progress might be made in the near future with
this important subject. Many charities have been allowed to
lapse, and are recorded only on their church tablets, and the
Charity Commissioners now pursuing their inquiries over the
kingdom do not go outside the charities that now exist.
The contributions are very unequal in length. Plymouth is dismissed
with a paragraph. But the smaller places are perhaps what we
wanted to know more about. Mr. Barnes, the Dorset poet, and
Mrs. Bray, the correspondent of Southey, both contributed for
their respective counties. Not long before her death I had the
pleasure of seeing Mrs. Bray, and I well remember the vigour
with which she then spoke of her beloved Devonshire home. Place-names
are proverbially dangerous ground to venture far upon, but it
is worth notice that London place-names are repeated in Devonshire
four times.
Mr. F. A. Milne has read all the sheets and compiled the two
Indexes. The index of personal names is longer than either of
the two previous ones, thus showing that local family matters
have been increasingly attended to with reference to these three
counties.
G. L. GOMME. BARNES COMMON,
November, 1892.
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