The chief duty of the "post" was to furnish horses to travellers, and for centuries the government kept this profitable monopoly to itself. A traveller could only hire a private horse when the "post" was unable in half an hour to supply him. The rates in the seventeenth century were 4d. for a guide to the next station, and 3d. a mile for each horse, a large charge for the horse. Wheeled vehicles in Elizabeth's time were not employed for travel or traffic. As the latter was done by the aid of pack-animals, some bulky and ponderous articles were used only at places accessible by water; as, for instance, Newcastle coal, which was long known in London and southern England as "sea-coal." The conveyance of passengers was by horseback, except that in some extreme cases a horse-litter might be had (yet the famous Wolsey, in his last sickness, rode along the Great Northern Road on the back of a mule). The guide was in charge of the horses, and on reaching the end of his stage took them back with the return passengers, if any there were; his services as guide were also necessary, for the "great" road was so little like a modern thoroughfare that in the open country strangers often lost their way, to say nothing of the dangers of molestation to a lone traveller.1

At about midway of this Great Northern Road the "Hundred "2 of Basset Lawe filled the northeast corner of Nottinghamshire, which there meets both Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. In Basset Lawe, near this junction, was the hamlet of Scrooby, -a post-station. Under Elizabeth, the "post" was William

1 This court posting-service was originated by Edward IV. (temp. 1461–1483) to obtain war news from Scotland. He had horsemen in waiting at every twenty miles; but so bad were the roads that the best speed of the message was only two hundred miles in two days. In 1484 Richard III., who tried to make his reign beneficent, increased his brother's posting-system, but seems not to have extended it to the West; for with prompt notice of Richmond's movements he would probably have repelled him, and by a long, intelligent reign have earned a far higher place among England's rulers than is due to his rival usurper, Henry VII.

2 The "Hundred" (North of England "Wappentake") is a Danish institu tion. It is supposed the "Hundreds," or subdivisions of the Shire, were so called from the number of families in each at the time the counties were origi nally divided by Alfred, - about 897.

1566-1587.]

WILLIAM BREWSTER.

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Brewster, -- probably the one who in the subsidy of 1571 was rated as of Scrooby-cum-Ranskill. The vicar of Sutton and rector of Scrooby was then Henry Brewster, who after thirtyeight years service was in 1598 succeeded by his son James (died 1614). These may have been the brother and nephew of the "post." The latter had a son, William, Jr., whose signature is, so far as may be, a general fac-simile of James's, a circumstance which suggests co-education.

This William Brewster the younger became the famous Elder Brewster of Plymouth. He was born in 1566-7, and must have been young when he went to Cambridge University; there, Bradford says, he "spent some small time," his stay being perhaps the shorter on account of previous training. While still in his nonage he left college and entered the service of Secretary of State Davison, a religious gentleman, who soon found him given to serious thoughts, and who, by a kindred feeling, was led to "esteem him rather as a son than a servant" (?), and to employ him in preference to his fellow-clerks in matters of trust and confidence. In 1585 Davison, as ambassador to Holland, took young Brewster with him, giving him the sight of a brave people in arms for national and religious freedom. As security for a loan to the Dutch, the English ambassador received the keys of three of their strong places; and these highly valued tokens he intrusted to Brewster, who so strongly felt the responsibility as to sleep with the big keys under his pillow. On leaving Holland, Davison was presented by the States-General with a gold chain or regalia, and this he directed Brewster to wear as they returned to Elizabeth's court. This brilliant life was of short duration.

Not two years after this embassy Elizabeth signed the death-warrant of Mary Queen of Scots. When execution had been done (Feb. 18, 1587), the English Queen sought to

1 For goods of annual value of £3.

2 This loan was £750,000. In 1616 James I., trying to raise money without leave of Parliament, remitted the debt for one third its face. This justly enraged his Puritan subjects.

avert its odium1 by pretending that some official had abused his authority; and to convince doubters, made a victim of Davison, throwing him into the Tower and putting his property into her own capacious pocket by a fine of ten thousand marks. Burleigh, Essex, and others vainly pleaded for the secretary as a most faithful and valuable servant, who, they nobly said, had only acted in concurrence with themselves. But it was two years before he was released, and all the pecuniary justice he ever obtained was a pension of £100 a year.

In adversity Brewster faithfully adhered to his patron, devoting himself to his service in all possible ways; but the time coming when no further aid was practicable, the attaché, then hardly twenty-one years old, turned away from the treacherous attractions of that court where Davison's powerful friends could have greatly advanced his favorite protégé, and returning to little Scrooby, acted as an assistant to his father in the duties of the "post." It is strange that Bradford should have said no more of his great friend's occupation or place of retirement than "he wente and lived in ye country."

2

In 1590, the senior Brewster dying, his son sought the vacant office; but it was given to Samuel Bevercotes. Davison, however, had sufficient influence with Postmaster-General Stanhope to secure a reconsideration and the final appointment of Brewster. The pay was 20d. a day, until in 1603 it became 25.3 If Brewster had the profits from entertaining travellers, his income may have ranged from £40 to £50 a year, a larger sum than probably was paid to most of the established clergy in his vicinity. Hunter has exhumed an interesting voucher

1 A great deal of sentimental sympathy is wasted over the unhappy fates of Mary and Charles Stuart, generally increasing in amount in ratio with the sympathizer's lack of acquaintance with their character.

2 The first regular Postmaster-General of England was Sir Thomas Randolph, appointed 1581; died 1590. In 1533, Sir Brian Tuke had some such title.

8 Master (?) mechanics then were paid 1s. a day, ordinary clerks about 4d., and State secretaries 5s. 6d. But money was worth at least five times as much as now for most purposes.

E. D. Neill's English Civilization, etc.

1590.] THE OLD BISHOPS' PALACE AT SCROOBY.

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of Brewster's business. In 1603 Sir Timothy Hatton, the archbishop's son, journeyed to London, and in his accountbook made this entry while going south: "Paid the post at Scrooby, conveyance to Tuxford, 10s.; for a candle, supper, and breakfast, 7s. 10d." He probably lodged with Brewster, and included the charge under the head of "candle." On his return he entered: "Paid at Scrooby, conveyance to Doncaster, 8s.; for burnt sack, bread, beer, and sugar to winc, 2s.; to hostler, 3d." This time he merely had a lunch. Tuxford is nine or ten miles south of Scrooby, and Doncaster nine miles north. It is not evident from this account what the distance was then reckoned to be, nor what rate was charged.

Of Brewster's dwelling, Bradford casually calls it "a manor of ye bishops," but does not suggest in what part of the kingdom it was. From this slight clew Hunter discovered it to be the ancient palace at Scrooby, that hunting-seat of the archbishops of York, situated at Hatfield Chase, a branch of Sherwood Forest, so charming to the readers of "Ivanhoe." The palace mentioned in Domesday Book was mainly built of timber; but its front was of brick, approached by a broad flight of stone steps; it contained two court-yards, and was defended by a moat. For centuries the Northern primates had there gathered the gay and noble in the hunting season, and their halls had witnessed through many generations such, not painfully subdued, wassail as even a prelate's table might then permit after the chase. Queen Margaret had stopped there in 1503 while journeying towards the Scottish crownmatrimonial, and in 1541 her brother, Henry VIII., had lodged there. In 1530 the great Wolsey in his disgrace, but still primate of York, spent here a portion of the last year of his life; on Sundays he officiated in some of the little churches near by, and on week days, proud and imperious no longer, visited and relieved the poor cottagers; in the garden of the palace he planted a mulberry-tree, which Brewster must have enjoyed, and which in its decay stood until blown down in 1879. Under the graver manners of Protestantism the good

primates Grindal and Sandys hardly needed a hunting-seat, and they were probably glad to put this property in charge of the senior Brewster as a man of official character; their successors, Piers and Hutton, did so intrust it to the younger Brewster. Hunter supposed that Sandys alienated this estate to his son, who leased it to Brewster; but Dexter finds the latter to have been merely agent for the archbishop of the time, and the premises still belonging to the See of York.

Brewster left office Sept. 30, 1607 (0. s.), and his place was filled successively by Francis Hall, John Nelson, William Nelson, and Edward Wright; in the latter's time, during the Commonwealth, the post-station was removed to the little market-town of Bawtry, about a mile to the northward; and (1658) a public wagon was provided to carry passengers from London to Bawtry, in three days, for 30s. No private person thereabouts could afford to maintain the " manor of the bishops," and as decay could only be stayed by costly repairs, the edifice was taken down, and its materials sold to make many smaller structures. By 1673 it had so thoroughly ceased to be, that the historian Thoroton then mentioned Scrooby as where "within memory stood a very fair palace." When in 1849 Hunter discovered the connection of Scrooby with religious events now to be mentioned, the loyal descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers became intensely interested. In 1851 Rev. Dr. Henry M. Dexter, of Boston, Mass., made a pilgrimage to the place; this he repeated in 1865, 1871 (when he spent a month there), 1877, and 1880. Nothing remained of the famous edifice, but the line of the moat was visible in the meadow close by the railway-station on the bank of the little Byton, a branch of the near-by and well-named River Idle. A large brick house which was in some way connected

1 In 1763 there was but one stage-coach between London and Edinburgh. It made a trip monthly, taking a fortnight each way (fare £4).

In 1880 market-fairs were held at Bawtry (Yorkshire) June 11th, November 16th, and November 23d. A branch of the Yorkshire Banking Company was there then, and the population was 930. Bawtry is nearly midway between Scrooby and Austerfield, but a little to one side. All three were on the Great Northern Road, though only Scrooby and Bawtry are on the Great Northern Railway.