Knight of the Shire

“ Not Sir Tristram, Sir Caledore, Sir Launcelot—no, nor Arthur himself—was ever truer knight, was ever gentler, braver, bolder, more stanch of heart, more loyal of soul, than he to whom the glory of the Brigades was trusted now; never was there spirit more dauntless and fiery in the field; never temper kindlier and more generous with friends and foes. Miles of the ridge and furrow, stiff fences of terrible blackthorn, double posts and rails, yawners and croppers both, tough as Shire and Stewards could make them, awaited him on the morrow ”

“ That all knights of the shire shall be actual knights, or such notable esquires and gentlemen, as have estates sufficient to be knights, and by no means of the degree of yeomen. This is reduced to a still greater certainty, by ordaining, 9. That every knight of a shire shall have a clear estate of freehold or copyhold to the value of six hundred pounds per annum, and every citizen and burgess to the value of three hundred pounds ”

“ And that for this present Parliament, and all other Parliaments to be holden and kept up for this Realm one Knight shall be chosen and elected to the same Parliaments for every of the Shires of Brecknock, Radnor, Mountgomery, and Denbigh, and for every other Shire within the said Country or Dominion of Wales; and for every Borough being a Shire-town within the said Country or Dominion of Wales, except the Shire-town of the foresaid County of Mereoneth, one Burgess ”

“ For (as I rather conceive, though not without much hesitation) not only all freeholders, but all persons whatever present at the county court, were declared, or rendered, capable of voting for the knight of their shire. Such at least seems to be the inference from the expressions of 7 Henry IV., c. 15, ‘all who are there present, as well suitors duly summoned for that cause, as others.’ And this acquires some degree of confirmation from the later statute 8 Henry VI., c. ”

“ The Scots in time of the late parlement, taking occasion of the absence of the northerne lords, and also by reason of great mortalitie that afflicted the northerne people that yeare, inuaded the borders, tooke the castell of Warke, that was assigned to the safe keeping of sir Thomas Greie knight, who then was at the parlement, as one of the knights of the shire, by meanes of whose absence, the enimies the sooner (as is to be thought) obteined their desire, and so kept that castell a certeine time, and finallie spoiled it, and ouerthrew it to the ground. ”

“ How to Show a Shire
A few remarks on the above subject will not come amiss, at least to the uninitiated, for it is tolerably certain that, other things being equal, the candidate for honours which makes the best show when it is actually before the judges stands the first chance of securing the honours.
It must not be expected that a colt can be fetched out of a grass field one day and trained well enough to show himself off creditably in the ring the next; and a rough raw colt makes both itself and its groom look small. ”

“ There is no doubt that a set of good feet often places an otherwise moderate Shire above one which has other good points but lacks this essential; therefore all breeders of Shires should devote time and attention to the production of sound and saleable bottoms, remembering the oft-quoted line, “The top may come, the bottom never.” In diseases of the feet it is those in front which are the most certain to go wrong, and it is these which judges and buyers notice more particularly. ”

“ Item, the people of the saide Shire of Kent, may not have their free election in the choosing knights of the Shire, but letters bene sent from divers estates to the great Rulers of all the Country, the which embraceth their tenants and other people by force to choose other persons than the common will is. ”

“ The wealth of the luckless people poured into the king's treasury; the busy secretaries recorded in the Rolls a mass of profits unknown to the accounts of earlier days. The great barons who presided over the Shire courts found themselves practically robbed of power and influence. The ordinary courts fell into insignificance beside those summoned by the king's judges, thronged as they were with the crowd of rich and poor, trembling at the penalty of a ruinous fine for non-attendance or full of a newly-kindled hope of justice. ”

“ He is but lent, Scotland asks no more; and when heaven smiles on this poor country, smiles in liberty and peace, trust me, such devotedness will not have been in vain. Our youthful knight will lay many a wreath of laurel at his mother's feet, nor will there then be need to guard her name from scorn. See what new zest and spirit have irradiated the brows of our warlike guests; we had scarce deemed more needed than was there before, yet the visit of Sir Henry Seymour, bearing as it did a challenge to strife and blood, hath given fresh lightness to every step, new joyousness to every tone. ”

“ Siward, earl of Northumbria, invades Scotland, and puts Malcolm, son of King Duncan, in possession of Cumbria. The Saxon Chronicle tells us that in the year 1054 ‘Earl Siward went with a large army into Scotland, both with a naval force and a land force, and fought against the Scots, of whom he made great slaughter, and put them to flight, and the king escaped. ”

“ People crowded to see a chief who had eaten dozens of men, and so many presents were given him that when he came back to Sydney he was a rich man. He sold everything, however, except his suit of armour, and with the money he bought 300 muskets and plenty of powder, which he took with him to New Zealand. Having [Pg 198] reached his home he informed his tribe of the career of conquest he proposed; with these muskets he was going to destroy every enemy. “There is but one king in England,” he said; “there shall be only one among the Maoris.” ”

“ Trust me, my private apartments shall be ever open to so peerless a knight.”
“Nay, Lady,” replied Sir Patrick, “the title thou hast been pleased to bestow on me belongeth not to me but to Sir David Lindsay and Sir William Dalzel, who have this day so nobly supported the honour of Scotland.”
“They are brave knights, ’tis true,” replied the lady; “yet be there other qualifications in knighthood than mere brute strength or brute courage. That thou hast enow of both of these to the full as well as they, we who have heard of Otterbourne do well know. ”

“ Without a tear she backed her own brave palfrey, and rode, attended by a dozen servitors, faithful amid her sorrows as they had been in brighter days, into the rebel host. Little was there of courtesy, of that demeanor which becomes a subject in presence of his queen, a true knight before a lady. Amid the taunts and jeers of the vile soldiery, covered with dust and humiliation, she entered upon that fatal progress which, commencing in a conditional surrender, ended only when she was immured, beyond a hope of rescue or redemption, within the dungeon-towers of Loch Leven! ”

“ They are devoted to their country, and are willing for her sake to follow me to victory or to death. As I am a knight, I am sworn to defend the cause of right; and where shall I so justly find it, as on the side of bleeding, wasted Scotland? How shall I so well pursue my career as in the defense of her injured sons? ”

“ The historian tracing the origin of the ancient shires of Wales is guided by the analogy of England. The Anglo-Saxon shires [39] were of two classes. Those of the first class were originally distinct royalties, formed by the Anglo-Saxons out of lands acquired from the Britons. Those of the second class arose from the dismemberment of the larger kingdoms, and seem to have been formed by placing one or more wapentakes or hundreds under the government of an ealdorman or earl. In some instances smaller shires have been annexed to a larger district. ”

“ Even after the union of the two kingdoms under one sovereign, when the term "Borders" had been changed to "Middle Shires," as being [x] more suitable to a locality which was now nearly in the centre of his dominions, the long cherished distinctions and prejudices of the inhabitants were maintained in all their vigour; and it required a long period of conflict with these to be persevered in, before the extinction of the border feuds could be completely effected. These distractions have now been at an end for more than two centuries. The mountains look down upon a peaceful domain ”

“ Many years ago, while the 79th Highlanders formed the garrison of Edinburgh Castle, Her Majesty the Queen, who had very lately ascended the throne of Great Britain, paid a visit to the metropolis of her Scottish dominions, and a guard of honour from the above regiment was despatched down to Holyrood to keep watch and ward over the royal person. ”

“ There, too, hath been the birth-place and the abiding shrine of freedom—the bulwark and the bastion of patriotism and loyalty. Ascending higher, these—the peoples of the rejected and despised places of the earth—have ofttimes begotten and been honoured to wear the crowning attribute of piety. Turning to the history of Scotland or of Switzerland, for illustration, and taking merely a military retrospect, there it will be found. All centuries, all ages, all circumstances, are witness to the bravery and the fidelity of their mountain-soldiers. ”

“ With a little patronage, we prophesy, that in a very few years the histrionic establishment of Sydney would have risen in respectability; and the humble performers would, by tacit leave, or open permission, have been allowed to use the same encouraging affixes to their names, which dignify their prouder brethren and sisters in the mother country. What a moral advancement, what a lift in the scale, to a Braham or a Stephens of New South Wales, to write themselves Mr. and Miss! The King here has it not in his power to do so much for a Commoner, no, not though he dub him a Duke. ”

“ In the Middle Ages the knights of the shire were the mere nominees of the wealthy or noble class, returned to Parliament by the power of the lord’s retainers, while the burgesses of the towns preserved a braver and freer tradition. ”

“ The Duke of Albany, as representing majesty, kept up all the state that Scottish majesty was capable of, in its impoverished irregular state. Hosts of rough lawless warriors, men-at-arms, squires and knights, lived at free quarters, in a sort of rude plenty, in and about the Castle; eating and drinking at the Regent’s expense, sleeping where they could, in hall or stable, and for clothing and armour trusting to ‘spulzie’; always ready for violence, without much caring on whom exercised—otherwise hunting, or lounging, or swelling their master’s disorderly train. ”

“ A right heroic princely man, he rises upon us through the mists of time, his successful defence of the castle against William the Lion, of Scotland, during many months' siege, being the grand deed about which his name and fame revolve. And this was no common deed, for the city during that time was invested with 8,000 Scotch soldiers, and the resolute garrison were at fearful extremities, and on the very brink of yielding, when an accident–the Scotch king being taken prisoner at Alnwick–at last delivered them from their peril. ”

“ On a gentle eminence, the very eminence on which, a few short years before, the English Somerset had posted his gallant forces, lay the army of the queen, its long front bristling with rows of the formidable Scottish spear, its wings protected by chosen corps of cavalry, the firm and true adherents of the house of Stuart, or the daring, though licentious vassals of the duke of Orkney, and the royal banner, with its rich embroidery, floating in loud supremacy. ”

“ Why shouldst thou leave Scotland, where thou mightst be made happy? To permit beauty so divine, and excellence so rare, to quit the Caledonian soil, would be a foul disgrace to the gallantry of its chivalry. Deign, I beseech thee, to listen to my ardent vows; let me be thy faithful knight. The love thou hast kindled in this bosom is unquenchable. ”

“ On November 7 John sent letters to the sheriffs bidding each one of them cause the knights within his shire to appear as previously directed, with their arms, the barons also in person but without arms, “and”—so ran the writ—“that thou cause to come thither at the same time four discreet men of the shire, to speak with us concerning the affairs of our realm.” [861] This writ is the earliest known instance of an attempt to call into council on “the affairs of the realm” representatives of the freemen of the shire, as distinguished from the tenants-in-chivalry. ”

“ The first trip up the Shire was made early in 1859, and after two hundred miles of navigation Livingstone and Kirk found themselves effectually stopped by impassable rapids and cataracts and by hostile natives. Livingstone named the cataracts after his friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and returned to Tete. In March Livingstone and Kirk again started for the Shire and, leaving the steamer near Katunga, proceeded on foot. The journey resulted in the discovery of Lake Shirwa, a salt lake to the east of the Shire highlands. ”

“ Elections of knights of shires have now of late been made by very great outrageous and excessive number of people, dwelling within the same counties, of the which most part was people of small substance and of no value. ”

“ Yow may judge what we will gett in Strathharig, Badenock, Athol, Marr, and the duke of Gordon’s lands, besides the loyall shires of Bamf, Aberdeen, Merns, Angus, Perth, and Stirling. I hope we will be masters of the north, as the king’s army will be of the south. ”

“ The Sheriff of Linlithgow and the Earl Marischal, both completely armed, save their heads, with certain captains of the queen's bands, were arraying them under arms—i.e., in modern parlance "calling the roll," and seeing that each proprietor, as summoned by his tenure, had brought his proper quota of men-at-arms on foot and horseback, all properly accoutred according to the acts of Parliament. Every lord, knight, and baron, possessing a hundred pounds of yearly rent, was clad in bright armour, "and weaponed effeirand to his honour;" ”