to get still more: for Mr. Nicholas Wortley attempted to take the tithes in kind, but Mr. Francis Bosville opposed him, and there was a decree in favour of the modus in 37th Eliz. The vicarage of Penniston did not go along with the rectory, but with the copyhold rents, and was part of a large purchase made by Ralph Bosville, Esq., from Queen Elizabeth, in the 2d year of her reign: and that part he sold in 12th Eliz. to his elder brother Godfrey, the father of Francis; who left it, with the rest of his estate, to his wife, for her life, and then to Ralph, third son of his uncle Ralph. The widow married Lyonel Rowlestone, lived eighteen years, and survived Ralph. "This premised, the ballad apparently relates to the lawsuit carried on concerning this claim of tithes made by the Wortley family. Houses and churches were to him geese and turkeys:' which are titheable things, the Dragon chose to live on. Sir Francis Wortley, the son of Nicholas, attempted again to take the tithes in kind: but the parishioners subscribed an agreement to defend their modus. And at the head of the agreement was Lyonel Rowlestone, who is supposed to be one of the stones, dear Jack, which the Dragon could not crack.' The agreement is still preserved in a large sheet of parchment, dated 1st of James I., and is full of names and seals, which might be meant by the coat of armour, "with spikes all about, both within and without." More of More-hall was either the attorney, or counsellor, who conducted the suit. He is not distinctly remembered, but More-hall is still extant at the very bottom of Wantley [Warncliff] Wood, and lies so low, that it might be said to be in a well: as the Dragon's den [Warncliff Lodge] was at the top of the wood' with Matthew's house hard by it.' The keepers belonging to the Wortley family were named, for many generations, Matthew Northall: the last of them left this lodge, within memory, to be keeper to the Duke of Norfolk. The present owner of More-hall still attends Mr. Bosville's Manor Court at Oxspring, and pays a rose a year. 'More of More-Hall, with nothing at all, slew the Dragon of Wantley.' He gave him, instead of tithes, so small a modus, that it was in effect, nothing at all, and was slaying him with a vengeance. The poor children three,' &c., cannot surely mean the three sisters of Francis Bosville, who would have been coheiresses, had he made no will? The late Mr. Bosville had a contest with the descendants of two of them, the late Sir George Saville's father, and Mr. Copley, about the presentation to Penniston, they supposing Francis had not the power to give this part of the estate from the heirs at law; but it was decided against them. The Dragon (Sir Francis Wortley) succeeded better with his cousin Wordesworth, the freehold lord of the manor, (for it is the copyhold manor that belongs to Mr. Bosville,) having persuaded him not to join the refractory parishioners, under a promise that he would let him his tithes cheap: and now the estates of Wortley and Wordes worth are the only lands that pay tithes in the parish. "N. B. The two days and a night,' mentioned in ver. 125, as the duration of the combat, was probably that of the trial at law." KEMPY KAYE. From Sharpe's Ballad Book, p. 81. THIS singular production seems to be an extravagant parody of The Marriage of Sir Gawaine. This supposition is rendered probable both by the occurrence of the name of Sir Kay, and by the resemblance between the lady in that ballad (or in King Henry) and the daughter of Bengoleer, or of Goling. Mr. Sharpe thought this ballad to be of the same class as Sir Guncelin, translated from the Danish by Jamieson, (Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 311,) in which, as in the following piece, the characters are giants. Kempy Kaye's a wooing gane, Far far ayont the sea, An' he has met with an auld auld man, "Gae scrape yeersel, and gae scart yeersel, And mak your bruchty face clean, For the wooers are to be here the nicht, And yeer body's to be seen. "What's the matter wi' you, my fair maiden, You luk so pale and wan? I'm sure you was once the fairest maiden 7, 8. Var. For Kempy Kaye's to be here the nicht, Or else the morn at een. 5 10 |