"'P., be quiet, and don't expose yourself!' sharply interrupted his lady. P. was silenced, and betook himself to the bottled stout.
"'These lands,' continued the antiquary, 'were held in grand sergeantry by the presentation of three white owls and a pot of honey——'
"'Lassy me! how nice!' said Miss Julia. Mr. Peters licked his lips.
"'Pray give me leave, my dear—owls and honey, whenever the king should come a-rat-catching in this part of the country.'
"'Rat-catching!' ejaculated the Squire, pausing abruptly in the mastication of a drum-stick.
"'To be sure, my dear sir; don't you remember that rats once came under the forest laws—a minor species of venison? "Rats and mice, and such small deer," eh?—Shakespeare, you know. Our ancestors ate rats; and owls, you know, are capital mousers——'
"'I seen a howl,' said Mr. Peters."
"Bolsover Priory" is one of those few places mentioned by Ingoldsby that have not been identified with any real place in Kent. It might have been taken to mean the ruins of the Preceptory at Swingfield Minnis, some two miles from Tappington, had not Barham expressly said, in his prefatory notes to the "Witches' Frolic," that they were not the same.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, DEMOLISHED 1901.