CHOCOLATE HOUSES.

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY.

In Chappell's 'Popular Music of the Olden Time,' the oldest account of this tune is given as follows: 'According to Ralph Thoresby's MS. account of the family of Calverley, of Calverley in Yorkshire, the dance of Roger de Coverley was named after a knight who lived in the reign of Richard I. Thoresby was born in 1658. The following extract was communicated to Notes and Queries, vol. i. p. 369, by Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, Bart.:—Roger, so named from the Archbishop (of York), was a person of renowned hospitality, since, at his day, the obsolete known tune of Roger a Calverley is referred to him, who, according to the custom of those times, kept his Minstrels, from that their Office, named Harpers, which became a family, and possessed lands till late Years in and about Calverley, called to this Day Harper's roids and Harper's Spring.'

The earliest authentic notice I can find of it is in a very curious old tract, printed in the year 1648, or ten years before Thoresby was born, called 'A Vindication or justification of John Griffith, Esq., against the horrid, malitious, and unconscionable Verdict of Coroner's Jury in Cheshire: which was packt by means of that Pocky, Rotten, Lying, Cowardly and most perfidious knave, Sir Hugh Caulverley Knight, onely to vent his inveterate Hatred and Malice against me.' And, on page 5, Mr. Griffiths says: 'I purposely to vex Sir Hugh, and his Champion Dod, sent for a fidler, and during the time my fellow Coursers were drinking a Cup of Ale, we having run our Match, I and my Fidler, rid up to Sayton, and from one end of the town to the other, I made the Fidler play a tune called Roger of Caulverley: This I did to shew, that I did not fear to be disarmed by them, and they may thank themselves for it, for if they had not first endeavoured to mischief me, I should not trouble myself to have vext them.'

ROGER OF COVERLY.

'The Dancing Master,' 15 Ed. 1713.
Brit. Mus. C. 31, b. 21.

CHRIST CHURCH BELLS IN OXON.