RHYMING CHARTER.

The following grant of William the Conqueror may be found in Stowe’s Chronicle and in Blount’s Ancient Tenures:—

To the Heyrs Male of the Hopton, lawfully begotten:

From me and from myne, to thee and to thyne

While the water runs, and the sun doth shine.

For lack of heyrs to the king againe,

I, William, king, the third year of my reign

Give to the Norman hunter,

To me that art both line[^[40]] and deare,

The Hop and the Hoptoune,

And all the bounds up and downe.

Under the earth to hell,

Above the earth to heaven,

From me and from myne

To thee and to thyne;

As good and as faire

As ever they myne were.

To witness that this is sooth,[^[41]]

I bite the wite wax with my tooth,

Before Jugg, Marode, and Margery

And my third son Henery,

For one bow, and one broad arrow,

When I come to hunt upon Yarrow.