Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish. By Robert Hudson. (Methuen and
Co. 15s. net.)—Mr. Hudson laboured at this book for many years, but died before it was published. It now appears under the editorship of his son. The " Warwickshire parish" is Lapworth, three and a half miles north of Henley-in-Arden. It is happy in the possession of a number of ancient documents, relating for the most part to lands held in trust for charitable objects, while its registers, beginning in 1561—this is but twenty- four years after their first institution—are fairly perfect. Then there are overseers' accounts (1688-1704, and from 1791-1826). A great variety of interesting matter has been thus preserved, and Mr. Hudson made a valuable book out of it ; the picture of pariah life, without containing anything very remarkable, is full of suggestive details. The oldest MS. dates from the thirteenth century, a piece of fine calligraphy, written in ink, which is as black as it was seven hundred years ago, and almost as regular as printing. The seals, Mr. Hudson tells us, are frequently attached to the parchment by rushes, which remain perfectly flexible. Prices and payments are among the noteworthy things preserved. So we find land held at a rent of 3s., and four woodcocks to be delivered between Michaelmas and Christmas. Then the appearance and disappearance of names is interesting. The names are set forth in an elaborate table. One of the most persistent is " Green." It appears from 1560 down to 1860. Clark and Cox (both with a variety of spellings) are similarly lasting, and of course, Smith (Smyth, Smythe). So are Taylor, Walton, and Ward. A curious story is told of one, Morteboyes, which came into the parish in 1590, and lasted down to 1849. The last Morteboyes was a schoolmaster, and fifty years after his death an old' woman came to the house where he had lived asking for him, as she wanted him to write a letter for her. Among the curiosities of social history is the practice from the dixteentir century onward of the parish letting out cows. "Three acres and a cow" were rented by a tenant in 1704 at £2 8s. a year, the land being valued at 30s. In 1854 we read: " Wages of agricultural labourers, 10s. to lls. a week. Flour, 13s. 6d a strike." (A-" strike" is a provincial word for a bushel.) This works out at nearly 11d. for the quartern loaf.
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