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TANNER OF TAMWOETH. 31
Then woulde he lever then twentye pound, He had not beene so nighe.
" A coller ! a coller !" the tanner he sayd,
" I trowe it will breed sorrowe ; w
After a coller commeth a halter;
I trow I shall be hang'd to-morrowe."
" Be not afraid, tanner," said our king;
" I tell thee, so mought I thee, Lo here I make thee the best esquire tfs
That is in the North countrie.
" For Plumpton-parke I will give thee,
With tenements faire beside,— 'Tis worth three hundred markes by the yeare,—
To maintaine thy good cow-hide." iw
176. This stanza is restored from a quotation of this ballad in Selden's Tides of Eotww, who produces it as a good authority to prove, that one mode of creating Esquires at that time, was by the imposition of a collar. His words are, " Nor is that old pamphlet of the Tanner of Tamworth and King Edward the Fourth so contemptible, but that wee may thence note also an observable passage, wherein the use of making Esquires, by giving collars, is expressed." (Sub. Tit. Esquire; & vide in Spelmanni Glossar. Armiger.) This form of creating Esquires actually exists at this day among the Sergeants at Arms, who are invested with a collar (which they wear on Collar Days) by the King himself.
This information I owe to Samuel Pegge, Esq., to whom the public is indebted for that curious work, the OuriaUa, 4to. —Pekcy. |
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