(25) Wroth Money

(25) WROTH MONEY.

Brand does not appear to have noticed this interesting custom, and for the following paragraphs I am indebted to Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures of National Life and History, with notes by Michael McDonagh. Speaking of the ceremony at Knightlow Cross, he says:--"A tribute which dates back for 1,000 years, and connects the present with that remote past, when the central counties of England were for the most part a wild and uncultivated chase, is rendered on Knightlow Hill, near Dunchurch, Warwickshire, on the early morn of St. Martin's Day. Known as 'wroth money,' it is paid to the Duke of Buccleuch, as an acknowledgment of certain concessions made by his ancestors on pain of a forfeit for every penny of 20S. or 'a white bull with red nose and red ears.' Before dawn on St. Martin's Day, representatives of the townships which owe tribute, as well as crowds of spectators, wend their way to Knightlow Hill from all points of the compass. There on the summit, and close to the Holyhead Road, they gather round the base of an old cross. The Duke's agent then reads out the name of the parishes and hamlets which are called upon to make payments, whereupon the persons responsible for such dues drop their coins into the hollow of a large stone. In all there are 25 places which have to pay wroth money, the amount ranging from 1d. to 2s. 3-½d. The whole amount due (only 9s. 4d.) is usually collected, though within recent years there have been defaulters on several occasions. Once during the last century the prescribed penalty for nonpayment was enforced. When the collection is completed and the Duke's agent has checked the names on the list, the company adjourn to the village inn, which by its sign, the 'Dun Cow,' helps to perpetuate the legend of the slaying of the gigantic dun cow by Guy, Earl of Warwick. Here breakfast is served at the Duke's expense to those who have made payment, and subsequently the whole company, long churchwarden pipes in hand, drink his grace's health in tumblers of rum and milk. . . . In an ancient charter preserved in Broughton House, Northamptonshire--a charter which has only once been challenged, and having then (in 1685) been confirmed, has since remained undisputed--wroth money is merely declared to be a legal tribute for ancient privileges, the nature of those privileges not being defined."