[The history of the renowned "Hookey Walker," as related by John Bee, Esq., is simply this:—John Walker was an out-door clerk at Longman, Clementi, and Co.'s in Cheapside, where a great number of persons were employed; and "Old Jack," who had a crooked or hooked nose, occupied the post of a spy upon their aberrations, which were manifold. Of course, it was for the interests of the surveillants to throw discredit upon all Jack's reports to the heads of the firm; and numbers could attest that those reports were fabrications, however true. Jack, somehow or other, was constantly outvoted, his evidence superseded, and of course disbelieved; and thus his occupation ceased, but not the fame of "Hookey Walker.">[
See of Durham.
—Can any of your readers inform me of "The privileges of, and the ancient customs appertaining to, the See of Durham?"
H. F.
Clapham, Nov. 3. 1851.
[These relate most probably to the palatine rights of the Bishops of Durham, granted by Egfrid, King of Northumbria, in 685; when he gave to St. Cuthbert all the land between the Wear and the Tyne, called "the patrimony of St. Cuthbert," to hold in as full and ample a manner as the king himself holds the same. This donative, with its ancient customs and privileges, was confirmed by the Danes, and afterwards by William the Conqueror; in addition to which, the latter made the church a sanctuary, and the county a palatinate. Its bishop was invested with as great a power and prerogative within his see, as the king exercised without the bounds of it, with regard to forfeitures, &c. Thus it was a kind of royalty subordinate to the crown, and, by way of eminence, was called The Bishoprick. For an account of the ancient customs connected with the cathedral, our correspondent is referred to the curious and interesting work of Davies of Kidwelly, entitled, The Ancient Rites and Monuments of the Monastical and Cathedral Church of Durham, 12mo. 1672, which has been republished by the Surtees Society.]
Replies.
CONVOCATION OF YORK.
(Vol. iv., p. 368.)
This body (of which I am a member) ought to meet on the same occasions with that of Canterbury; but owing to the neglect or the wilfulness of its officials, many omissions and mistakes occur. I have heard a commission to further adjourn the Convocation, from a day to which it previously stood adjourned, read the day after that on which it ought to have assembled, but which day had arrived and passed without any one recollecting the fact! Our Convocation appears at no time to have acted a very prominent part, though its constitution is far better fitted for a working synod than that of the southern province. In the latter the parochial clergy are so inadequately represented as to be much outnumbered by the dignitaries appointed by the crown and the bishops; but in York there are two proctors chosen by the clergy of each archdeaconry and peculiar jurisdiction, and two by each cathedral chapter; thus affording a complete counterpoise to the deans and archdeacons who are members ex officio. Another peculiarity in the Convocation of York is, that it assembles in one house, the bishops commonly appearing by their proxies (priests), and the archbishop presiding by his commissioner, who is always the dean, or one of the residentiary canons of York.
In 1462 (temp. Archbishop Booth) the Convocation of York decreed that such constitutions of the province of Canterbury as were not prejudicial to those of York should be received, incorporated, and deemed as their own (Wilkins's Concilia, vol. iii. p. 580.). Under Archbishop Grenefeld it was decreed that since the Archbishop of York hath no superior in spirituals except the Pope, no appeals should be suffered to the Archbishop of Canterbury (p. 663.). At an earlier period the northern metropolitan laid claim to all England north of the Humber, with the whole realm of Scotland (Wilkins, vol. i. pp. 325, 479, &c.). In a provincial council at London, A.D. 1175, his jurisdiction was denied over the sees of Lincoln, Chester, Worcester, and Hereford, upon which he appealed to the Pope. With the exception of Chester, however, none of these sees were finally retained in the province.