"Like the thieves of the sea he would track us,
And shatter our ships on the main ;

But we had bold Neptune to back us,—
And where are the galleons of Spain?

"His carackes were christened of dames,

To the kirtles whereof he would tack us;
With his saints and his gilded stern-frames,
He had thought like an egg-shell to crack us;
Now Howard may get to his Flaccus,

And Drake to his Devon again,

And Hawkins bowl rubbers to Bacchus,

For where are the galleons of Spain ?"

Passing over Philip's well dissembled mortification, the national rejoicings, and Elizabeth's procession from Whitehall to St. Paul's, we will take a last look at Tilbury, not quite deserted by gallant soldiers and wise statesmen, although the great danger is now over. Let us glance over Secretary Walsingham's shoulder, as he addresses himself to the Chancellor, exonerating the commanders of the fleet from blame, although lamenting the escape of the beaten enemy. His letter bears date of the 8th of August, and these are the words that his pen forms :-"I am sorry the Lord-Admiral was forced to leave the prosecution of the enemy through the want he sustains ; our half-doings doth breed dishonour, and leaveth the disease uncured."

A

The Lawless Court.

BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A.

COURT without justice, one can fancy a

cynic saying, is nothing very remarkable, nor necessarily a feature of bygone days, but a lawless court is certainly unique; yet such a court, in name at any rate, the law-abiding county of Essex boasts.

This Lawless Court, or Court of Cockcrowing, is held annually at a spot known as King's Hill, in the Parish of Rochford, shortly after midnight on the Wednesday morning following Michaelmas Day.

At the appointed place of meeting stands a post, white-painted, about five feet high, to which the Steward of the Manor goes in procession from the King's Head Inn, with the tenants and with torch-bearers ; the company generally, assisted by any others who may be attracted by the singular ceremony, cockcrowing lustily. Arrived at the post, all at once become silent, while the steward or his deputy reads in a loud

whisper the summons of the Court: "O yes! O yes! O yes! All manner of persons that do owe suit or service to this court, now to be holden in and for the Manor of King's Hill, in the Hundred of Rochford, draw near and give your attendance, and perform your several suits and services, according to the custom of the said manor. God save the Queen!" Then by the flickering light of the links, and in the same low voice, the roll is called of all persons owing service to the court, and of the lands in respect of which they owe it; answer being made by each tenant or his proxy in similar manner. The court is closed with another whispered proclamation; upon which, extinguishing their torches, and with a renewed outburst of cockcrowing, the company disperses.

Such is the present fashion of holding this strange court; anciently, it differed in some few details, which rendered its proceedings much more mysterious. The rents were formerly actually paid at this quasi-secret meeting, the attendance of the tenants, and the payment of their dues being checked off on the post with a piece of charcoal taken from a large faggot-stick forming one of the torches. The tenants more

over were required to pay their homage kneeling, for which a genuflexion, scarcely to be called a reverence," has got itself substituted.

66

The status and the origin of the lawless court have given rise to much questioning. Though in form apparently a manorial court, the old title (which is in doggeril Latin rhyme) makes no mention of the lord of the manor, but on the contrary distinctly calls it "the Court of the Lord the King." This title has been thus translated* : 'King's Hill, in Rochford, to wit. The Court of the Lord the King called 'the Court without Law,' holden there by the custom thereof before sunrise, unless it be twilight. The steward alone writes nothing but with coals, as often as he will, when the cock shall have crowed; by the sound of which only the court is summoned. He crieth secretly for the king in the court without law ; and unless they quickly come, they shall the more quickly repent; and unless they come secretly, let not the court attend. He who hath come with a light erreth in behaviour. And until they be without light they are taken in default. The Court without Care, the Jury of Injury, was

* "The Lawless Court: a paper on the constitution, style, origin, and significance of the Court at Cockcrowing, holden at Rochford, in Essex." By William Henry Black, F.S.A. London, 1869.

holden there on the Wednesday (before day) next after the feast of Saint Michael, Archangel, in the year of the reign of king. . . ."

From the above it would appear that the torches must be an innovation, since it is an

error in behaviour" to come with a light; and the vociferous cockcrowing—a reminiscence of the time when they waited for an actual cockcrow before opening the court-must be an equal, if not a greater, error in those that are charged to "come secretly." The whole ordering of the court is plainly to gain, or to affect, perfect secrecy. It meets at the most secret hour of the night, and with no other summons than the cockcrow; its business is transacted in darkness, and with whispers; and of those transactions none but the steward must make note, and he with such rough and, as it were, impromptu materials as the whitened post and a piece of charcoal.

As to the origin of this custom, Camden (in the supplement to his "Britannia,") thinks that "this strange kind of punishment may seem to be inflicted for the negligence of the inhabitants in guarding the sea coasts." Mr. Black looks upon the post at the meeting-place of the Court (which it is almost superfluous to say, is not the