THE REGISTER OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
8114—The entry which your reviewer (Spectator, November 3rd, p. 686), and apparently the editor of the Register of Magdalen College, VoL V., find inexplicable—viz., in 1785-1810, "Pro custodia Castelli de Dovor, 10s. 2d."—is obviously a case of castleguard or castleward; and there should be no difficulty in determining from which of the College estates it was due. Castleguard was a form of knight service, found in Domesday Book, and usually remitted for a money payment by the thirteenth century. It was found not only in Kent and Sussex, for Dover, Hastings, Pevensey, and other castles, but also for castles inland, such as Windsor, Rockingham, Norwich, Craven, Richmond, Wallingford, &c., and very commonly in connexion with the knightly tenants of the great Abbeys (see Pollock and Maitland's "History of English Law," I., 257). Most of this feudal tax was commuted long ago, especially where " wardable " lands passed to lay owners at the dissolu- tion of the monasteries ; but no doubt many instances are still to be found. Lower down your reviewer misquotes Troilus and Cressida, IL, ii., 166; Aristotle thought young men "unfit to hear," not to teach, "moral philosophy."—I [We stand corrected.—En. Spectator.]
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