STRUT-STOWERS, AND YEATHERS OR YADDERS.
In the Collection of divers curious Historical Pieces printed by the Rev. Francis Peck at the end of his Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell, is—
"Some account of the Murder of the Hermit of Eskdale-side, near Whitby, in Com. Ebor. by William de Bruce (Lord of Ugle Barnby), Ralph de Peircy (Lord of Snealon), and one Allatson, a Gent., and of the remarkable penance which the Hermit enjoyned them before he died."
The story is briefly this:—On the 16th October, 15 Henry II., De Bruce, De Peircy, and Allatson were hunting the wild boar in Eskdale-side, where was a chapel and hermitage, in which lived a monk of Whitby, who was a hermit. The boar being hotly pursued by the dogs, ran into the chapel and there laid down and died. The hermit shut the door on the hounds, who stood at bay without. The three gentlemen coming up, flew into a great fury, and ran with their boar-staves at the hermit and so wounded him that he ultimately died. The three gentlemen, fearing his death, took sanctuary at Scarborough, but the Abbot of Whitby being in great favour with the king, removed them out of sanctuary, whereby they became liable to the law. The dying hermit (he survived till the 8th December), on the abbot's proposing to put them to death, suggested the following penance, to which, in order to save their lives and goods, they consented, and to which the abbot likewise agreed:
"You and yours shall hold your lands of the Abbat of Whitby and his successors after this manner, viz. upon the eve [or morrow before] Ascension Day, you, or some of you, shall come to the wood of Stray-Head, which is in Eskdale-side, by sun-rising, and there shall the officer of the abbat blow his horn, that ye may know how to find him. And he shall deliver to you, William de Bruce, ten stakes, eleven strut-stowers, and eleven yeathers, to be cut by you, and those that come for you, with a knife of a penny price. And you Ralph de Peircy, shall take one and twenty of each sort, to be cut in the same manner. And you, Allatson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut as aforesaid. And then ye shall take them on your backs, and carry them to the town of Whitby, and take care to be there before nine of the clock, and at the same hour, if it be a full sea, to cease your service. But, if it be low water at nine of the clock, then each of you shall, the same hour, set your stakes at the edge of the water, each stake a yard from the other, and so yeather them with your yeathers, and stake them on each side with your strut-stowers, that they may stand three tides, without removing by the force of the water. And each of you shall really do, perform, and execute this service yearly at the hour appointed, except it be a full sea, when this service shall cease; in remembrance that ye did most cruelly slay me. And that ye may the more seriously and fervently call upon God for mercy, and repent unfeignedly of your sins, and do good works, the officer of Eskdale-side shall blow, Out on you! Out on you! Out on you! for this heinous crime of yours. And if you or yours shall refuse this service at the aforesaid hour, when it shall not be a full sea, then you shall forfeit all your lands to the Abbat of Whitby and his successors."
There is a similar account, with verbal and other variations, "From a printed copy published at Whitby a few years ago," in Blount's Jocular Tenures, by Beckwith, pp. 557-560. In that account the word, which in Mr. Peck's account is "yeathers," is "yadders." Mr. Beckwith states, "This service is still annually performed."
Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, Canto II. st. 13.) thus alludes to the legend:
"Then Whitby's nuns exulting told,
How to their house three Barons bold
Must menial service do;
While horns blow out a note of shame,
And monks cry 'Fye upon your name!
In wrath, for loss of silvan game,
Saint Hilda's priest ye slew.'—
'This on Ascension Day, each year,
While labouring on our harbour pier,
Must Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear.'"
In note 2. C. the popular account printed and circulated at Whitby is given. It is substantially the same with that given by Beckwith, but for "strut-stowers" we have "strout-stowers;" and for "yadders" we have "yethers." It appears, also, that the service was not at that time performed by the proprietors in person; and that part of the lands charged therewith were then held by a gentleman of the name of Herbert.
I shall be glad if any of your correspondents will elucidate the terms strut-stowers, and yeathers or yadders.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge.