The Frome Oldford and Berkley sites are either side of a crossroads at the top of Oldford Hill, on the margin of the north common field.
An Indenture dated 10th September 1635 of church lands leased to Richard Treasure, includes “. . . and also other three acres of the said ten acres doe lye in another feild of Frome Selwood aforesaid called the Northfeild that is to say one acre of the said three acres doth lye nere Beggers bushe the way leading to Bartley on the Northside thereof and the land of Sr Thomas Thynne knight in the tenure of William Johnsons on the Southside thereof . . “.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Berkley, Dommett, Frome, Oldford, Quinn, Somerset, Tithe, West Woodlands | No Comments »
A terrier dated 30 March 1528 of the manor of Annington in Botolphs, lists under “Buttells Dene. The Furlonge called Quochman otherwyse Beggers busch to begyn at the north syde under Hendersch and soe to goe southe to beggers bush.” It is possible the name is older as the document states “this terror is a copie of an old Terror and wryten verbatim with that terror” (WSRO, Wiston Ms. 5163). It is recorded again in 1635 “…in Buttles Deane in the furlong call[e]d Quochmans furlong al[i]as Beggers Bush abutting upon the Land of Edward Hyde…”’(WSRO, EP1/25/3). I am not aware of any later records.
The precise location cannot be found but it is in the Adur valley, and could well be on the parish boundary between Botolphs and Coombes. The Beggars Bush at Sompting is about two miles to the south west, up Winding Bottom towards Steep Down.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Annington, Sompting, Sussex, derogatory, proverb | No Comments »
John Taylor, the Water Poet, in the dedication to his The Praise, Antiquity and Commodity of Beggary, Beggars & begging, etc. (1621) refers to “Beggars Bush, neere Andever, or to his Hawthorne brother within a mile of Huntingdon”. The second is clearly the Beggars Bush at Godmanchester, which is the most well known, probably through Saxton’s map. The first “neere Andever” is a mystery.
It must refer to Andover, Hampshire. However, I can trace no Beggars Bush site in or near Andover, nor can Hampshire Record Office. It may have been a name for a minor location only used briefly. There is at Andover a Coldharbour a similar derogatory place name often found near Beggars Bushes. East of that and on the south side of London Road is a Folly Copse and an area now named Round Bush Copse.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Andover, Coldharbour, Godmanchester, Hampshire, John Taylor, early sites, pubs | No Comments »
Presently the name of an unoccupied farm and State Forest Nature Reserve in the Albany Division of Cape Province, South Africa. The situation is very similar to the earlier “frontier” sites at Philipstown, County Offally and Charles River, Virginia.
Albany is the area south and east of the Great Fish River. The first Europeans to settle the area were trekboers in the 1770s. It was known as the Zuurveld (sour grassland) from the characteristic of the grass to lose nutritional value after about 4 months grazing.
The area became the scene of conflict in the 1780s between Dutch East India Company and the Xhosa, and then between the British and Xhosa & Khoikoi, in the British Army’s first introduction to “bush warfare”. Between 1779 and 1878 there were Nine Frontier Wars. From 1811 the British adopted a policy of driving the Xhosa across the Fish River, and a series of frontier forts was erected. The name Albany was imposed in 1813, probably after the birthplace in New York of Jacob Cuyler, the landrost (governor). The motto on the coat of arms of the Division is “Take Root or Die” taken from a phrase in an autobiography of an early settler describing his necessary attitude on arrival. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Charles River, County Offaly, Dublin, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Virginia, barracks | 6 Comments »
“And as the matter is made knowne vnto my Lorde the preacher is sure to go by the worst and the recusant to carrie all the honestie: Yea the preacher shalbe a busie enuious fellow one that doth not obserue the booke and conforme himself according vnto order and perhaps go home by beggars bush for any benefice he hath to liue vpon. For it may be the Bb. will be so good vnto him as to depriue him for not subscribing. As for the recusant, he is known to be a man that must have liberty of his conscience. Is this good dealing brethren.”
Text & Usage
The Epistle was a pamphlet of 54 pages published in October 1588 in response to A Defense of the Government established in the Church of England for Ecclesiastical Matters (1587) by Dr John Bridges. It was the first of a series of anonymous tracts supporting the presbyterian cause against Archbishop Whitgift’s attempts to impose uniformity of worship and promote the power of bishops over clergy. The Epistle stated it was “Printed overseas, in Europe, within two furlongs of a Bounsing Priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, Gentlemen”.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Christopher Marlowe, Literary, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, proverb | No Comments »
“The great Patrimonies that wealthy men leave their children after their death, make them rich: but vice and other marthriftes happening into their companies, never leave them until they bee at the beggers bush, where I can assure you they become poore.”
Usage
This is one of the earliest recorded literary uses of the phrase. It is used in a literary sense of falling into poverty, in this instance by one’s own folly. The author did not feel any need to elaborate or explain it. This suggests it was already in common use. The usage is similar to the earlier alternative beggarly attributes – Isabel Plumpton’s Beggars Staffe and William Bullein’s Beggars Barne. There is no suggestion that it was a real location.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, Literary, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
“Sir for God sake take an end, for we are brought to begger staffe, for you have not to defend them withall.”
This comes from a moving personal letter from Isabel Plumpton (“your bedfellow”) to her husband Sir Robert Plumpton urging him to end the litigation that was ruining them. Sir Robert, Warden of Knaresborough Castle, was involved in numerous legal cases involving his inheritence, and actions by Sir Richard Empson, the King’s Agent. His title to the estates was bound up in such a way that he could not sell it to raise money to cover the costs. Having lost at York Assizes he had gone to London to appeal. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
“These with Syrenlike allurement so entised these quaint squires, that they bestowed al their flowers vpon them for fauours, they themselues walking home by Beggar’s Bush for a penance.”
Usage
This is earliest mention of Beggar’s Bush recorded in the OED. It is characteristic of the literary usages. The phrase is clearly a literary one, involving the fall of the favoured through their own foolishness. Elsewhere in the same work Greene uses the term Weeping Cross in the same context, which was earlier used by William Bullein.
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Posted: March 12th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Christopher Marlowe, Henry Chettle, Londons Ordinary, Martin Marprelate, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, William Bullein, canting | No Comments »
“Fellowes are so braine sicke now adaies if thei haue but tenne shillynges, yea, though thei doe borowe it, will be twoo or three times a yere at Westminster haule ; let wife or children begge ; & in the ende thei go home many miles, by foolam crosse, by weepyng cross, by beggers Barne, and by knaues Acre, &c. This commeth of their lawing ; then thei crie, might doe ouer come right, would I had knowen as muche before, I am undone, &c. “
Usage
The text includes classical references, items from morality plays, and early usages of popular turns of phrase. The phrase”to go home by” is identical with early examples of the Beggars Bush phrase. The alternative places are all proverbial. This shows that the usage with Beggars Bush is only a variation of a proverbial phrase. The context is almost identical to the circumstances of the Plumpton Correspondence using the similar Beggar Staff.
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Posted: March 10th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ditchling, Isabel Plumpton, Literary, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
” . . . almost brought to beggars bush . . .”
Usage
The usage is consistent with the literary use. We know the phrase was in use in Oxford before 1623 from the Twyne Correspondence. It seems likely to have to originated with Mabbe, who was a faithful but not literal translator. The phrase does not appear in an edition of 1706 described as being newly “done into English”. In Mabbe’s translation of La Celestina (as The Spanish Bawd) by Fernando de Rojas he uses the similar phrase, “She was as well known to them all, as the begger knows his dish”.
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Posted: March 1st, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Brian Twyne, Izaak Walton, Literary, Oxford, dish, proverb | No Comments »
