PARISH HISTORIES.

IF there should happen to be anywhere a writer contem- plating the possibilities of a history of his own parish, lie may be recommended to study the quotation which Mr. Wilbraham Cooper places on the title page of his "History of the Parish of Cuclifield" (Clarke, Hayward's Heath). It is from a letter written by the late T. W. Erie to the Rev. J. H. Cooper, the well-known antiquary of Sussex, and breathes the proper spirit of patriotic hyperbole. "Mankind is divided into two great categories: those who love Ouckfield and those who don't or do not know it." That is the right way to look at the making of a book of local history. Politics may divide parties ; religions may unsettle families ; the vote may or may not be the one thing desirable ; the single question asked by the parish historian is whether or not you know, and therefore love, his parish. In the case of the Cuckfield historian there is no doubt. Mr. Wilbraham Cooper has given to his task a devotion inherited from his father, and the result is a continuous and admirably arranged survey of the history of a typical south-country parish, from pre-Conquest days to the present time. Naturally the interest of such a book is mainly local, but a scholarly and thoughtful work must have its suggestions for other writers ; it may possibly call into existence the history of another parish. That is one of the most valuable results of local patriotism

and local effort they stimulate effort and patriotism else- where.

The historian of another parish, for instance, may take the headings of the chapters in this book and see whether he would not himself add other chapters. Here there are nine, and they deal with Cuckfield before the Nor- man Conquest; the Conquest and days of Feudalism ; the Church and Vicarage; the Manor and its Lords ;

Some Other Cuckfield Families ; the Schools ; Industries and Population ; Highways and Means of Communication; and a note on the fight of 1642 on Hayward's Heath. That is an attractive list ; what might be added to it P The geology and physical configuration of the neighbourhood naturally ask for treatment ; but these, as a fact, are dealt with in the first chapter, which peoples the Weald of Sussex with the paheolithie men who walked dryshod from the Continent into Britain, and the megalosaurus, plesiosaurus, crocodile, and turtle, whose fossil remains have been dug from the Hastings sands and clays. Mention of these extinct monsters, however, suggests the inclusion in the parish historian's scheme of a chapter on the local flora and fauna, and Cuckfield, more readily than other parishes, might supply a starting-point. The derivation of the name of Ouckfield has long been a source of local argument. Cookfield some hold that it should be, and point for corroboration to the neighbouring parish of Henfield. There was a vicar of Cuckfield in 1637 who wrote a letter to the Vicar of Henfield with the salutation, "Thomas Gallager Johanni Gallinagro S. D. P." But Henfield is Hamfelde in Domesday Book, and Coekfield, the Suffolk parish, was originally Cochanfeld, so that the " cock " derivation will not do. The earliest spelling seems to be Kukefeld, and that spelling of 1092 was followed by Cucufeld in 1121. So that Ouckfield is probably the feld, or clearing, of the cuckoo—a derivation which a Sussex man would be the more inclined to accept readily because of the country legend which especially connects the cuckoo with Heathfield, another Sussex village. Heathileld in Sussex is Hefful, and it is at Hefful Cuckoo Fair on April 14th that the old woman lets the cuckoo out of the basket. Nothing is more likely than that a particular field or clearing in the forest should get the name of being the first in which the cuckoo is heard; for it must have been a habit of migrant birds thousands of years ago, as it is to-day, to select particular places where they are always to be seen and heard earlier than in other places. April 14th is just about the average date for the arrival of the cuckoo in Sussex ; he takes longer to reach the northern counties. It would be interest- ing to be able to compare the earliest recorded dates of the return of each of the migrants in a large number of parishes in the same county.

The registers and the church book, naturally enough. supply Mr. Cooper with some of the most interesting of his facts. Here and there the records attract because of their quaintness. We may read, for instance, of the works of Mr.

Thomas Vicars, one of the Cuckfield clergy, who in 1619 edited two visitation sermons of Robert Mandeville, of Queen's College, Oxford, entitling them " Timothie's Task, or a Christian Seacard Guiding Through the Coasts of a Peace- able Conscience to a Crown Immortal." Mr. Vicars also published a translation of a German theological work, which he called "Heavenly Knowledge . . . done into English by T. V., MA." But other parish records are really valuable as throwing light on the local customs as regards apprenticeship, the payment of wages, and so on. Copies of indentures of apprenticeship under the Elizabethan poor- law show that a young man apprenticed to a yeoman in 1610 received as wages twopence a quarter for four years and four- pence a quarter afterwards; in addition to this, when be was twenty-four, he was to receive in a lump sum two shillings.

Even a hundred years later the scale of wages paid for free labour in Sussex reads oddly enough. Timothy Burrell, of Ockenden, has left an interesting record of the sums which he paid for work done for him in the house and out of doors.

He writes on May 5th, 1683, that

"Sarah Fuller came as dairymaid at the wages of 45s. pr an. Abraham Holford came as footman 1st of June at wages of 30s. pr an., with coat, breeches, and hat, John Hall came as coachman, let July ; his wages were £8 pr an., a mat, and breeches. I gave him 2s. 6d. more for catching moles. Margaret Lawes came as chambermayd at the wages of Ms., and Mary Coley as cook at GO% pr an."

How many moles did John Hall catch for half a crown?

Twopence a akin, dried and clean, is the present-day price in Sussex. As for indoor service we read that in 1692, "Edward

Virgoe came as Promo, Condo, Cleric°, Camerarius at 23 per annum." Promo presumably means to take out of store, and condo to lay up (the Latin words are used especially in regard

to wine), so that Virgo° must have been a sort of butler or steward. Here are some other extracts from the diary :—

"Paid Groon for a new jack £1 10s. Od., and he is to keep

the wheels and pulley in good order for Gd. a year. Oct. 17. Payd Hollybono for setting the old pales by the orchard at the pond at 10d. pr rod, which was a little too much, for he worked 3 days but gently, 4s.

1700. I paid Lashinar, carpenter, for 36 days' work at Chownos barn, 2s. 6d. per diem. To his journeyman 24 days' work at 20d. per diem, to his apprentice 41 days at is. per diem. Jack Packham bath worked at Chownos 18 days. I paid him for his work

For boor, bread and cheese at the rearing of the barn, Is. 1710, March 26th. I payd the saddler for John Coachman fall- ing drunk off his box when ho was driving to Glynde, in part of his wages, £1 7s. Gd."

Another Sussex chronicler, the Rev. Arthur Young, who in 1793 drew up for the Board of Agriculture and Internal De- velopment a "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Sussex," gives an interesting table of the prices of various kinds of food in Cuckfield at the end of the eighteenth century.

"Flour, per gallon, lid.; peck loaf, 130.; choose, per lb., (hi.; butter, per lb., 9d.; pork, per lb., 7d.; malt, per bushel, 6s. 6d.; brush faggots, per load, £1."

In reference to the latter item he explains that "a load is 100 faggots. A common family consumes 300 and a cord of

wood (14 feet in length, 3 feet high, and 3 feet wide). Some families consume 10 bushels of coal in addition to the above per annnm." Wood instead of coal was in general use, of course, only a little more than a hundred years ago. Pork, it will be noticed, is the only butcher's meat mentioned. These prices ought to be compared with the scale of agricultural wages given by Young as regards Cuckfield farm labourers. These were as follows, the sums for reaping, mowing, and hoeing being reckoned per acre, threshing per quarter, and other wages per day :-

"In winter, is. 4,d.; summer, is. ad,; harvest, 2s. Heaping wheat, 8s. to 9s.; oats and barley, Is. 6d. to 2s. ; peas, 3s. Mowing grass, 2s. ; clover, is. 6d. Hoeing turnips, 5s. 6d. Threshing wheat, 3s.; barlpy, ls. 8d.; oats, is.; peas, is. Od. Women in winter, 6d.; in summer, 9d.; in harvest, is."

Other conditions, besides those of labourers' wages, were different in Young's days from those of the Sussex we know.

Oxen were used for ploughing as well as horses, and Young notes that "sensible farmers preferred to plough with cattle harnessed rather than yoked, for the yoke caused great waste of power." He compares the cost of horses and oxen doing the same draught work as follows :-

01 On •

s.

Horses.

s.

Eight oxen at 412 96 0 Four horses at £25 ..„.. 100 0 Yokes and chains for six at 14s. 4 4 Harness at 45e. 90 hix slimmer months at 2e. per

Oats, two bushels per week 52 0 week 20 16

Hay and herbage Illt es. per Ditto winter months at 2e.

1.41

0

15 12

Farrier, wear and tear ...

40 £147 0

If they rest two or three months

£880 12

they may afford a profit of ...

8 0

£189 0

However, he eventually decides in favour of horses as being able to plough an acre a day continuously throughout the year, and the work being worth 42s. per week, as against the oxen ploughing nine mouths in the year with work worth 30s. per week. This works out, for oxen's work at £54; horses', £105. To-day the comparison would be between the cost of horses and rf achinery. But oxen were used for ploughing in the neighbourhood of Cuckfield within the memory of men who are still young. The writer was given a pair of ox-shoes by a gardener only a year or two ago.

The remark that "it is the duty of every clergyman to write a history of his own parish" has become a commonplace. But he for his part may inqu!xe whether it is also his duty to find a publisher for the histery when it is written. That is a real difficulty. London publishers, we may suppose, look doubtfully at books which to them appear to have only a local interest. Local printers and publishers, on the other hand, seldom care to risk large sums in producing books which may or may not be successful. The conse- quence often enough must be that the parish history remains unwritten. Might not this difficulty be removed, possibly, by the founding of some such society as that which exists for the purpose of publishing parish registers ? A Parish History Society which numbered only two or three persons in each parish would have a membership of thousands. It might be in some way affiliated to or subsidized by the County Archreelogical Societies. It might encourage research into local records and the collection of local information; it might select authors for different parishes and lay down general rules on which the parish histories should be put together. It might even publish parish histories under its own auspices, for with a membership of several thousands paying only a small subscription it would have a good income. The work would need forethought and judgment and a guiding mind ; but at the end of a dozen years or so such a society would have made a. contribution not only to parochial, but to national, history.