contemporaries. But what is of national importance, is the spirit of maritime discovery, which is noticed in the Itinerary, and which existed at Bristol, even before the time of Amerigo Vespucci, and her own Sebastian Cabot, who has been hitherto placed at the head of our English navigators. The passage is very curious. He first notices "the loss of a ship called the Cog-Anne, which was bound to Jerusalem to convey pilgrims, and was lost in 1457, near Modon port, on the continent of the Morea, when thirty-seven men from Bristol were drowned; and that the bishop caused a new chapel to be made, to pray for their souls." P. 202. And p. 227, where he says, " that Robert Sturmy was the captain of the vessel."-" In 1480, July 7th, the ship of John Jay, the younger, of 800 tons, and another, began their voyage from Kingrode to the island [the continent] of Brasile, to the west of Ireland, ploughing their way through the sea.... and Llyde was the pilot of the ships, the most scientific mariner of all England [scientificus marinarius totius Angliæ], and news came to Bristol, on Monday, 18th of September [1481], that the said ships sailed about the sea during nine months, and did not find the island or coast, but returned to a port on the coast of Ireland for the repose of their ships and mariners." P. 268. This attempt to discover the American coast was fourteen years before it was effected by Columbus, in 1493.

In the "Proeme" to the "William of Wyrcestre Redivivus," the author has introduced himself in an imaginary dialogue with the venerable Wyrcestre, and exclaims, "How do I envy you a sight of Bristow, in the year 1480! Then were the massive walls and gates entire-the castle, with its lofty and magnificent keep, "the fairest tower in westernlond," proudly reared its headnow levelled with the earth, "the baseless fabric of a vision.” The two beautiful churches of the Franciscans and Carmelites, one with its slender spire, and the other with its handsome tower, each then rivalling the neighbouring church of St. Stephen, and now known only by their sites-so many windows" richly dight" with iridical colours-shrines and altars of exquisite carving all demolished by indiscriminating zeal, or hidden from the sight, by worse taste." P. 10.

1 Naves Bristolliæ pertinentes, 1480, p. 224. The great wealth of several of the merchants is proved by their munificence.

2 Born 1451, ob. 1516. Sebastiano, the son of Giovanni Cabotto, a Genoese merchant settled in Bristol, was born there in 1477. He discovered "Newfoundland" in 1497. It is probable that at the time of his death, in 1557, he had attained to his eightieth year.

There is not a more rational object of antiquarian curiosity than the real state of ancient towns, and their progressive transformations. Who, that examines the old maps of London, but finds the comparison with the modern metropolis a very interesting investigation?—as a view hitherto unknown is presented to him, and many an association, moral and political, arises in his mind. This is a sensible curiosity, which leads to important reflections. We become conversant with the forms of past ages, not merely by imagining what they might have been, but by receiving evidence of what they were. means "old things become new ;"

Τ'ΑΡΧΑΙ ΟΤ ΟΙΣΘΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΚΑΙΝ' ΕΙΣΙ ΣΑΦΩΣ.

By such

CECONOMIA ROKEBEIORUM.

[BY THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A.]

Rokeby's lords of martial fame,

I can count them name by name:
Legends of their line there be

Known to few, but known to me.

Song of the Minstrel. Rokeby. Canto V.

WHERE the Greta meets the Tees stand the two villages of Rokeby and Mortham. Rokeby is on the left, and Mortham on the right bank of the Greta, about half a mile nearer to the point of union: they form together but one parish, the church being at Rokeby. The elegant seat of Mr. Morritt at Rokeby is surrounded by a park. At Mortham are considerable remains of one of those embattled and turreted mansions, which, in former times, afforded places of abode, as well as the means of personal security, to that class of gentry which was only just below the peerage. There was once a Castelet of similar construction at Rokeby. A little higher on the stream of the Tees are remains of the abbey of Egliston, where many of the ancient lords of Rokeby and Mortham were interred.

A celebrity has recently been given to the romantic beauties of this vicinity by the "Rokeby" of Sir Walter Scott. "The situation of Mortham," he observes, "is eminently beautiful, occupying a high bank, at the bottom of which the Greta winds out of a dark, narrow, and romantic dell, and flows onward through a more open valley to meet the Tees, about a quarter of a mile from the castle." Few persons visit this neighbourhood without observing with what extreme accuracy of observation

and felicity of expression the poet has described the passage through the glen:

"A stern and lone, yet lovely road

As e'er the foot of minstrel trode."

Or view "Egliston's gray ruins," or "Rokeby's turrets high," without feeling that the charm of poetry is thrown over them. A rare and enviable privilege! In the land of ancient song, every little stream, every mound, creek, and promontory, every lake and every village, is ennobled by being mixed with the fine imaginings of the gifted bard. But in England few indeed are the places which speak to us through our poetical associations. Sir Walter Scott has in this respect done much for his own country; and we perhaps more delight to accompany him to the margin of the lakes, and over the fells and the fields of his own land. We could wish such a charm to be thrown over more of the landscape of England.

The poet has touched upon the historical interest which belongs to Rokeby and Mortham; and he has given what professes to be a pedigree of their ancient lords. It was no part of his plan to enter critically into the history of those lords; and it is, after all, but a confused idea of the rank and character of the ancient Rokebys, which the reader can form from the poem or the notes. It is our intention in the present article to furnish the reader with some distinct and definite information on this subject, that he may see something of the antiquity, the character, and the eminent services of the family who held for many centuries this now "charmed" spot. In preparing it we shall be much indebted to a manuscript history of the family, composed in 1565, by Ralph Rokeby, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn. He has given to his memoir the title "Economia Rokebeiorum." It was originally composed for the instruction and benefit of five nephews, the then rising hope of the family. It was revised by the author in 1593, when additions were made to it. Again, in 1654, it was transcribed by another member of the family, Thomas Rokeby, Esq. of Gray's Inn, afterwards Sir Thomas Rokeby, and a judge. It has been since transcribed, and some additions made to it, by the present Mr. Rokeby, of Northamptonshire, from whose copy the few extracts in the notes to "Rokeby' were made, and the song of "The Felon Sow of Rokeby, and the Friars of Richmond," printed, which song or "jargon," as Ralph Rokeby calls it, has been preserved, by being incorporated with the history of the Rokebys in this manuscript '.

Two copies of this manuscript have been seen by the writer of this article: the one made by Mr. Rokeby, the other among Thomas Wilson's genealogical collections in

We scarcely need inform our readers that all the lands abutting on the course of the Tees, as their northern border, were given by the conqueror to Alan, Earl of Bretagne, and constituted his English Earldom of Richmond. These lands were distributed among the junior members of his family, and his other followers, and in that distribution Rokeby became parcel of the possessions of the family known by the surname of Fitz-Alan, a northern baronial house, whose principal seat was at Bedale. The heirs of Brian Fitz-Alan, the last of the family, are returned Lords of Rokeby, in the great inquest of the 9th Edward II. But their interest at Rokeby was little more than nominal, for beneath them there was a subinfeudation in favour of a family who, residing on the lands of Rokeby, were usually described as de Rokeby, till, at the time when the convenience of an invariable surname began to be felt, that description became a personal appellative.

It was the tradition of the family, that they had been seated on their lands from before the Norman conquest. Nothing is more probable; for of the actual owners of single manors a very large proportion sprung from the Saxon population, persons who were continued on sites on which they had resided before the conquest, only holding their lands by a different and perhaps more burthensome tenure. Of the chiefs of this house, about or a little after the conquest, nothing_however is known. The pedigree printed in the notes to "Rokeby" contains the traditionary genealogy. When it was compiled, or by whom, is unknown; and Ralph Rokeby, who looked upon these subjects with a critical eye, has not deemed it deserving of being admitted into his narrative. "Howbeit," says he, speaking of the generations before Edward II.'s time, "to convey your pedigree by just descents, the negligence and ignorance of former times hath denied any evident and certain proofs:" but he appeals to the record of the trial between Scrope and Carminow, in which one of the Rokebys was a witness, for proof of the ancient gentility of the house, all the witnesses being persons of ancient family, arguing that that which was ancient then, is, a majore, ancient now.

The house in which the Rokebys resided stood on the site of the present mansion. In the notes to "Rokeby" we are told that in the present house part of its walls are inclosed. Ralph Rokeby says, that he had heard it was burnt by the Scots in King Edward II.'s time. Only the chapel and dove

the public library at Leeds. The latter wants the judge's additions. It was from this copy that Dr. Whitaker printed "The Felon Sow of Rokeby," in his History of Craven, and subsequently the whole manuscript in his History of Richmondshire.

cote, with some portions of the ground-sills of the walls, were remaining. Rokeby was abandoned about the time of Edward II. or Edward III., and the family crossed the Greta, establishing themselves at Mortham, where they had acquired a house and estate by marriage with the heiress of a family of equal rank. A grant of free warren at Mortham, Brignal, and Cabergh, was made to Thomas de Rokeby in 9 Edward III.1

In the person of this Thomas de Rokeby the family first appear prominent in public life, and his introduction to the public service in the high employments in which we find him afterwards placed was owing to a remarkable incident.

The circumstance is related by several of our old chroniclers, but most minutely by Froissart, who tells us that, in the first year of the reign of King Edward III., the Scots, under the command of the Earl of Moray and Sir James Douglas, ravaged the country as far as Newcastle. Edward was in those parts with a more powerful army, and an engagement was expected and wished for, when the Scotch army suddenly disappeared, and no information could be gained respecting the route they had taken. The young king caused it to be proclaimed throughout the host, that whoever should bring certain intelligence where the Scotch army were, should have one hundred pounds a year in land, and be made a knight by the king himself. Immediately fifteen or sixteen knights and esquires passed the river with much danger, ascended the mountains, and then separated, each taking different routes. On the fourth day, Rokeby, who was one of them, gave the king exact information where the Scotch army lay.

This is not a legendary story, invented by some family annalist or doting chronicler of public affairs, the veracity of the * chroniclers being here supported by the most authentic records of the realm; and it is a gratifying fact, that we are so often enabled to prove circumstances in our old chronicles, which on a first view have an air of romance and fable, by authentic documents. In the patent rolls, 1 Edward III. is a grant to Thomas de Rokeby of 1007. to be taken annually from the exchequer, till 1007. lands shall be provided for him, in which the service is described nearly as it is related by Froissart: and in the same rolls, 5 Edward III. m. 7, is a grant to him in fee of the manor of Paulines-Gray, in Kent, with lands in the North, which had lately belonged to Michael and Andrew de Harcla,

1 See the Calendar to the Patent Rolls. Rokeby is not named in this grant. In the same calendar is reference to a grant of free warren, 39th Henry III., to Henry de Rokeby, in all his lands in Rokeby: but this was another Rokeby, now Rugby, in Warwickshire.

> This patent is printed in the Foedera, ii. 717.