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vast variety of trees, among which the native oak, vigorous and luxuriant, shoots up in great abundance. Mr. Shaw says, that the whole forest does not contain less than 1000 acres of oak timber, a greater quantity, than perhaps any district in England can boast of possessing. The venerable Swilcar, a tree of immense size* and majestic appearance, is situated in an open lawn, surrounded by extensive woods, and is supposed to have stood upwards of six hundred years. It is thus addressed, in truly poetical strains, in the poem of " Needwood Forest:"

"Hail, stately Oak, whose wrinkled trunk hath stood
Age after age the sovereign of the wood;
You, who have seen a thousand springs unfold
Their ravel'd buds and dip their flowers in gold;
Ten thousand times yon moon relight her horn,
And that bright eye of evening gild the morn.

Yes, stately Oak, thy leaf-wrapp'd head sublime
Ere long must perish in the wrecks of time
Should o'er thy brow the thunders harmless break,
And thy firm roots in vain the whirlwinds shake,
Yet must you fall. -Thy withering glories sunk,
Arm after arm shall leave thy mould'ring trunk."

A white or red marly loam, more or less tenacious, but seldom approaching to the harshness of clay, forms the soil in almost every part of Needwood. About a thousand acres are sufficiently light for turnips, and seven thousand more, are equal to the productions of the finest crops of any species of grain, or to the feeding of cattle of the first rate kind. When brought to a proper state of cultivation and improvement, which can easily be effected, and we trust will shortly take place, this

tract

• This noble oak measures 21 feet round the trunk, at the height of five feet. The lower stem is ten feet high clear, the whole height 65, and the extent of the arms 45 feet. It contains 1000 feet of solid timber. Pitt's Survey. Shaw's Staffordshire.

tract of country will be one of the most delightful and fertile districts in Great Britain.*

At the south extremity of Needwood, lies the village of Yoxal. This village, which was formerly a market town, is finely watered by the stream of Swarbourne, which serves, during a great part of its course, to divide the different soils in this portion of the county, the one side of its channel being of a deep loam or clayey soil, and the other an ebb soil with a a gravel bottom. The church dedicated to St. Peter, is a spacious and elegant structure of stone, having a tower surmounted by handsome pinnacles at the one end. In the interior are a variety of antique and modern monuments. At a short distance from the village, a number of vessels, probably the remains of Roman antiquity, were discovered a few years ago, but most of them unfortunately went to pieces in the act of raising them.t These vessels contained a considerable quantity of ashes, and fragments of human bones, and were composed of a very soft species of coarse brown earth.

The village of Wichnor, or Whichnoure, is situated east from Yoxal, on an eminence near the north bank of the Trent, at a short distance from the point at which that river becomes the boundary between this county and Derbyshire. It is particularly deserving of notice, because of the singular tenure by which the manor was held by Sir Philip de Somerville, in the reign of Edward III. under the Earl of Lancaster, as lord of the honour of Tutbury. After enumerating two small fees, the charter proceeds

* Mr. Pitt says, that at least 8000 acres of this forest are susceptible of the highest improvement, and estimates their value in this state at 51. per acre, or 40,000l. per annum; whereas, in their waste condition they are not worth more than 4s. per acre, or 18001. per annum. Under these circumstances, the cultivation of Needwood, is certainly an object worthy of serious attention, both from the increase it would afford to the national capital, and to the revennes of the proprietors. Pitt's Survey, p. 187.

One of the few got up entire was deposited in Mr. Green's Museum at Lichfield, and is engraved and described in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 44. p. 358.

proceeds thus: "Nevertheless the said Sir Philip shall fynde meyntienge and susteiyne, one bacon flyke hanging in his halle at Wichenore, ready arrayed all tymes of the yere, bott in Lent to be given to everyche mane or womane married after the day and yere of their marriage be passed; and to be given to everyche mane or womane married after the dey and yere of their marriage be passed, and to be given to everyche man of religion, archbishop, prior, or other religious; and to everyche preest, after the year and day of their profession finished, or of their dignity reseyved in forme following. Whensoever that any such before named wylle come for to enquire for the baconne in their own person, or by any other for them, they shall come to the bayliff or porter of the Lordship of Whichenour, and shall say to them in the manere as ensewethe:

"Bayliffe or porter, I doo you to know that I am come for myself (or, if he come for any other shewing for whome,) one bacon flyke, hanging in the halle of the Lord of Whichenour, after the forme thereto longinge.

"After which relation, the bailiffe or porter shal assigne a daye to him, upon promise of his fey the to return, and with him to bring tweyne of his neighbours, and in the meyn time the said bailif shall take with him tweyne of the freeholders of the lordship of Whichenoure, and they three shal goe to the mannour of Rudlowe, belonging to Robert Knyghtley, and there shall somon the foresaid Knightley, or his bayliffe, commanding him to be ready at Whichenour, the day appointed at pryme of day with his carriage; that is to say, a horse and sadyle, a sakke, and a pryke, for to convey and carry the said bacon and corn a journey out of the county of Stafford at his costages; and then the sayd bailiffe shal with the sayd freeholders, somon all the tenants of the said manoir to be ready at the day appointed at Whichenour, for to doe and performe the services to the baconne. And at the day assigned all such as owe services to the baconne shall be ready at the gate of the manoir, from the sonne risinge to none, attendyng and awayting for the comyng of him and his felowys chapaletts, and to all those whiche shal be there to doe their their services deue to the baconne: and they shall lead the said demandant, wythe-tromps and tabours and other manner of mynstralseye to the halle close where he shal fynde the lord of Whichenour, ready to deliver the baconne in this manere."

"He shall enquere of him which demandeth the baconne, if he hath brought tweyne of his neighbours; who must answere, They be here redy; and then the steward shall cause these two neighbours to swere yf the said demandant be a weddyt man or have be a man weddyt, and yf syth his marriage one yere and a day be passed, and yf he be a freeman or villeyn: and yf his seid neighbours make othe that he hath for hym all these three points rehersed, then shal the bacon be take downe and brought to the halle dore, and shal there be layed upon one half a quarter of wheatte, and upon one other of rye: and he that demandeth the baconne shall kneel upon his knee, and shall hold his right hande upon a booke, which shal be laid above the baconne and the corne, and shall make oath in this manere :

"Here ye Sir Philip de Somervyle, lord of Whichenour, mayntayner and giver of this baconne, that I A, syth I wedded B. my wife, and syth I had her in my kepyng and at wylle by a yere and a daye after our marryage, I would not have changed for none other, farer ne fowler, richer ne powrer, ne for none other descended of gretter lynage, slepyng ne waking, at noo tyme, and if the seid B. were sole, and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wife before all the wymen of the world, and of what condytions soevere they be, good or evyle, as helpe me God and his seyntys, and this flesh and all fleshes.

And his neighbours shal make oath that they trust verily he hath said truely. And yf it be founde by his neighbours aforenamed, that he be a freeman, there shall be delyvered to him halfe a quarter of wheatte, and a cheese; and yf he be a villein, he shal have half a quarter of rye, withoutte cheese and then shal Knyghtley, the lord of Rudlowe, be called for to carry all their things to fore rehersed, and the said corn shall be layd upon one horse, and the baconne apperteyneth shal ascend

4

cend upon his horse, and shall take the chese before hym, if he have a horse, and yf he have none, the lord of Whichenour, shall cause him to have one horse and sadyl, to such tyme as he passed bis lordshippe, and so shal they departe the manoyr of Whichenour, with the corn and the baconne to fore him, him that hath wonne ytt, with trompets, tabourets, and other manoir of minstralsce, and all the free tenants of Whichenour, shall conduct him to be passed the Lordship of Whichenour; and then shall they retorne, except hym to whom apperteiyneth to make the carriage and journey withoutt the countye of Stafford, at the costys of his lord of Whichenour, and yf the seid Robert Knyghtley, do not cause the baconne and corne to be conveyed as is rehersed, the lord of Whichenour, shal do it to be carryed, and shal distreigne the said Robert Knyghtley, for his default for one hundred shillings in his manoir of Rudlowe, and shall kepe the distresse so takyn irreplevisable."

No motives, as far as we know, are assigned by antiquaries. for the institution of this curious custom, except the mere whim or caprice of the noble Earl, by whom the charter to Sir Philip de Somerville was granted. Whether it was calculated to afford to the inquisitive in such matters any just data upon which to calculate the proportion between the number of the happy and unhappy in the married state, we shall not pretend to determine. It is not, however, eertainly much to the honour of matrimony, that since this practice was first established, few have dared to claim the prize, and three couples only have obtained. it, one of which, having quarrelled about the mode of preparing the bacon for the table, was adjudged to return it.*

No demandant for the flitch having appeared during several centuries, a wooden one was long ago substituted in its stead, a friendly monitor to the young and free, to be cautious of trusting themselves in the hymeneal noose.

The

*The other two couples were a sea officer and his wife, who had never seen one another from the day of their marriage, till they me at the hall; and a simple pair in the neighbourhood; the husband, a goodnatured sensible man, and the wife luckily dumb Spectator, No. 608.

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