THE TALE OF THE WARDSTAFF.
Can any of your antiquarian correspondents furnish further elucidation of the strange ceremony of the gathering of the Wardstaff (which was in old time one of the customs of the hundred of Ongar, in Essex) than are to be found in Morant's History of Essex, vol. i. p. 126.? from whence it was incorrectly copied in Blount's Jocular Tenures by Beckwith, 4to. ed. It has been also more correctly given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, Part II. p. clvii., who justly styles it—
"a strange and uncouth fragment of the earliest customs of the Teutons; in which we can still recognise the tone and the phraseology of the Courts of the Eresburg. The Irminsule itself having been described as a trunk of a tree, Thor was worshipped under the same rude symbol; and it may be suspected that the singular respect and reverence shown to the ward-staff of the East Saxons is not without its relation to the rites and ceremonies of the heathen time, though innocently and unconsciously retained."
At the time of publication of his learned and interesting work, Sir Francis did me the honour to adopt some conjectural corrections of Morant's very corrupt transcript of the rhyme, which I furnished at his request, in common with others suggested by the late Mr. Price. Since that time, a more mature examination of it has enabled me, I think, to put it into a form much more nearly resembling what it must have originally been; many of the corrections being obviously required by the prose details which accompany it in the MS. from which Morant gave it. It may not, therefore, be unacceptable to some of your readers, to subjoin this corrected copy. It may be proper to premise, that "The Tale of the Wardstaff" is the tallying or cutting of it, and that it was evidently originally spoken in parts, assigned as under; although it should seem that there is no indication of this arrangement in the MS.
"THE TALE OF THE WARDSTAFF.
The Bailiffe of the Liberty.
"Iche athied[[3]] the staffe byleve,
Thanne staffe iche toke byleve,
Byleve iche will tellen[[4]]
Now the staffe have iche got.
Lord of Ruckwood Hall.
"Tho the staffe to me com
Als he hoveon for to don,
Faire and well iche him underfing
Als iche hoveon for to don.
The Bailiffe.
"All iche theron challenged,
That theron was for to challenge,
Nameliche,—this:—and—this:
And all that ther was for to challenge.
Lord of Ruckwood.
"Fayer iche him uppdede
Als iche hoveon for to don.
The Bailiffe.
"All iche warnyd to the Ward to cum,
That therto hoveon for to cum,
By SUNNE SHINING.
Lord of Ruckwood.
"We our roope theder brouhton,
A roope beltan[[5]],
Als we hoveon for don;
And there waren and wakeden,
And the Ward soe kept,
That the King was harmless,
And the Country scatheless.
The Bailiffe.
"And a morn, when itt day was,
And the sun arisen was,
Faier honour weren to us toke,
Als us hoveon for to don.
The Lords, and the Tenants
Fayre on the staffe we scorden,
Als we hoveon for to don,
Fayre we him senden,
Theder we hoveon for to sende.
The Bailiffe.
And zif ther is any man
That this wittsiggen can
Iche am here ready for to dôn
Azens himself, iche ône,
Other mid him on,
Other mid twyn feren,
Als we ther weren.
——
"Sir, byleve take this staffe,
This is the Tale of the Wardstaffe."
It will be at once apparent that this is a corrupt transcript of a semi-Saxon original of much earlier date; and by comparing it with Morant's very blundering copy, the conjectural corrections I have essayed will be perceived to be numerous. Many of then will, however, be found not only warranted, but absolutely necessary, from the accompanying prose account of the ceremony. The MS. from which it was taken by Morant, was an account of the Rents of the hundred of Ongar, in the time of John Stonar of Loughton, who had a grant of it for his life in the 34th year of King Henry VIII. He seems to have died 12th June, 1566, holding of the Queen, by the twentieth part of a knight's fee, and the yearly rent of 13l. 16s. 4d., the manor, park, chase, &c., of Hatfield Broad Oak, with the hundreds of Ongar and Harlow; and the Wardstaff of the same hundreds, then valued at 101l. 15s. 10d. As the Wardstaff is said by Morant to make a considerable figure in old records, it is reasonable to hope that a more satisfactory account of it may still lie amongst unsunned ancient muniments. All the old Teutonic judicial assemblies were, as Sir F. Palgrave remarks, held in the open air, beneath the sky and by the light of the sun. The following is a part of the ancient rhyme by which the proceedings of the famous Vehm-Gerichte were opened, which were first printed by Schottelius, and the whole of which may be found in Beck's Geschichte der Westphalischen Fehm-Gerichte, and in Sir F. Palgrave's work. The similarity of expression is remarkable.
"All dewile an düssem Dage,
Mit yuwer allen behage,
Under den HELLEN HIMMEL klar,
Ein fry Feld-gericht openbar;
Geheget BYM LECHTEN SONNENSHIN
Mit nöchterm Mund kommen herin,
De toel ock is gesettet recht,
Dat maht befunden uprecht,
So sprecket Recht ane With und Wonne
Up Klage und Antwort, WEIL SCHIENT DIE SONNE."
I must refer to Morant, to Beckwith or Sir F. Palgrave, for the details of the ceremony of the Wardstaff, which it should appear was observed at least as late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in Morant's time it had long been neglected. In the hope that some of your antiquarian correspondents may be enabled to throw more light on this very curious custom, I will merely add, that Morant suggests that it is possible some elucidation of it might be found "in the Evidence House in Hatfield Church, where (he says) are a great number of writings relating to the priory and lordship."
S.W. SINGER.
Jan 11. 1851.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
aþied, cut.
i.e. tally, or score.
i.e. a rope with a bell appended.