AN ELIZABETHAN RENT-ROLL1 WILLIAM, EARL OF PEMBROKE (1502-1570) in 1562
ordered a survey to be made of his estates. The results were recorded * Historical Roman Coins. Described by G. F. Hill, MA. London: A. Constable and Co. Lies. 6d. net.] t Survey of the Lands of William, First Bari of Pembroke. With Introduction by Charles R. Straton. 2 vols. Privately printed at the Orford University Pre= for Presentation to the Members of the Roxbarghe Club. in a stately document worthy of the great possessions which were described therein. The Earl was a wealthy man, owning large domains, which had come to him by inheritance, by tie fall of less fortunate players in the political game, and by his marriages. This document, with pictures showing Wilton House, the likeness of the Earl himself, and various mansions, churches, &c., has been reproduced at the cost of Lord Pembroke, furnished with an explanatory introduction, and presented to the members of the Roxburghe Club, to the great benefit of all who are interested in such studies. Lord Pembroke, it is clear, understands the duty of the modern patron. Authors look elsewhere for encouragement and reward, but there are cases in which wealth can still render help to literature. The laws of supply and demand do not affect such a book as this. It could never have seen the light, with all its wealth of information, local, economic, and historic, but for private munificence. We must be satisfied with one example of its contents, the parish of Staunton St. Bernard, about six miles east of Devizes. First come three "free tenants" paying respectively 22 is. 6d. (for something like two hundred acres), nil, and 21 2s. The nil return is curious. It is explained that the property, a water-mill and its surroundings, was owned by "a certain William Bird, Clerk, attainted of High Treason," so that "both service and revenue are extinguished." Next we have three brothers holding for the term of their lives a farm with two hundred and eighty acres of arable and forty-five of pasture, with rights of grazing on Melke Down for some hundreds of sheep. For this they were to pay 217 and thirty fleeces of wool of the estimated value of 21 6s. 8d. (the produce of a sheep in wool would, therefore, be just over 100 This is followed by a list of sixteen "customary tenants" paying together 218 12s. 6d. The rents, when we examine them separately, seem small. Richard Hamlen, for instance, pays 22 3s. 10d. for a dwelling, a water-mill, more than seventy acres of land, and a right of pasturing on the downs and on the common land a hundred and fifty-five sheep. But then we find he has paid a fine of 212. After the enumeration of the tenancies comes an account of the "Commons and Downs" (Communia et _Mantes). The benefice is described as consist- ing of a rectory paying 220 to the Lord and a vicarage a which the value is not given. Both rectory and vicarage are now held by the incumbent.
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