A Quaint Old Custom.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1860, 7 June 1884, Page 6

A Quaint Old Custom.

The other day a quaint old custom was gore through at the chambers of Sir Frederick Pollock, fcko Queen's remembrancer in the royal courts of justice, when, on the part at the Corporation of London, Mr. Secondary lie Jersey, Sir Thomas Nelson (the City Solicitor), and Mr. Marshall Pontifez, the late Under Sheriff, attended to render rent service due to the Cro^n in respect of certain property granted to them centuries ago. Mr. Pontifex, having handed iv the late Sheriff's accounts, which, on the motion of the Secondary, were filed and recorded, proclamation was thus made :—": — " Tenants and occupiers of a piece of waste ground calWi the Moors, in the County oi Salop, come forth and do your servic3." The City Solicitor on that presented himself, and cut one fagoi; with a hatchet and another with a billhook. The next proclamation vtai : — " Tcndants and occupies of a certain tenement called the Forge, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, in the County of Middlesex, come forth and do your service." Sir Thomas Nelson, in discharge, counted six horse-shoe 3 and sixtyone nails, the Queen's remembrancer saying, " Good number." With that the proceedings, which had been witnessed, among others, by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, ended. The forge in question was pulled down in a riot in the reign of Richard 11., and not restored.