Porton and Grately, associating with an enormous flock of Bramblings. He tried to get near them several times, but without success, and at last they left the district in safety. One of these birds was killed some years ago at Brixton Devérell, and passed through King's hands. And a few years back one was shot at Mere by a Mr. S. Doddington, as Mr. Baker informs me. Hart also says they occur occasionally at Christchurch, but they are by no means commonly met with there. Plectrophanes Lapponica. "Lapland Bunting." This extremely rare species of Bunting I mention inasmuch as I saw a specimen in Hart's Museum, on November 13th, 1878, which he informed me had been killed in the neighbourhood many years back, and had belonged to the Rector of Studland, who had had a good collection of local birds. It, with some others, belonged now to a Mr. Pike, for whom he was going to re-stuff it, as well as an Ivory Gull, which had also been killed somewhere in the bay. It is an exceedingly rare visitant to us, and therefore I think it worth while to record this specimen as having occurred in the Christchurch district. Emberiza Miliaria. "The Lark or Corn Bunting." Quite common amongst us, and may be seen and heard with its peculiar note, half twitter and half chatter, on almost every hedge-row dividing our cornfields, from which it will flutter with legs at first tucked up and then depending, to settle on some bent, or corn-stalk, in the middle of the field. Some little time since I surprised a Kestrel on an apple tree in the garden, and observing that it had dropped some prey, I went to look, and found it was a fine Corn Bunting, with which it was going to diversify its usual diet of frog or mouse. To a casual observer this bird may seem very like a Sky Lark at a short distance, but he will be always able to distinguish it at once by its habit of settling on the hedge, or some stalks of corn or grass, not far off from him. Emberiza Citrinella. "The Yellow Hammer." One of the most beautiful of our common birds. In fact some cocks-and they differ greatly in brightness-will match, or eclipse, any Canary in its depth of golden beauty. In Cornwall it goes by the name of "Gladdie," though what the derivation may be of the term, I know not. Their beautiful little nests, lined with horsehair, I suppose no man, who has ever been a boy, is ignorant of, nestling down in some snug hole in the bank, from which the bird flits up from under your very feet. The bird has a most peculiar and drawling kind of song, if you can call it one, the last syllable of which they prolong in a very quaint manner, and which always used to be likened in my younger days to the following words: "A very little bit of bread and no che-e-e-e-ese!" the first words being uttered very rapidly, and the latter prolonged ad libitum. The next time my reader hears our little friend, let him see if he cannot recognize this humble petition. Emberiza Cirlus. "The Cirl Bunting." This bird is very likely to be mistaken by the unobservant ornithologist for a dull specimen of the last species, which it greatly resembles. They are not very numerous, but are widely scattered round the neighbourhood, and it would not be hard to procure specimens of them. About 1868 Mr. Norwood shot a pair of these birds not far from Salisbury. Champion also tells me that he has trapped them occasionally on the downs round the "Great Yews," a copse some three or four miles off, and near Red-lynch. They are always to be found round Mere, where they breed annually, and from which place Mr. Baker tells me he could procure specimens almost at any time, if they were wanted. But they are, no doubt, rather local in their habits. The cock bird can be at once distinguished from the Yellow Bunting by its black throat, and duller plumage generally. Of the Ortolan BuntingEmberiza Hortulana, I can gather no information. Emberiza Schaniclus. "The Reed Bunting." A very prettilymarked little bird is this, which is also quite common in our watermeadows. The cock bird is not altogether unlike a small neat House Sparrow, with its black head and chin and mottled brown back, which has given rise to its sometimes being called the "Reed Sparrow," although in reality it is a very different kind of bird. I have taken its nest frequently in our withy-beds, which is generally beautifully concealed in an osier stump, and which very often would be undiscoverable, were it not for the anxiety of the parent bird, who flies off at your approach, and tries every method of decoying you away from the vicinity of its nest, with the same arts as the Partridge or the Lapwing. It will throw itself at your feet, tumbling about as if tipsy, and then shuffle along with seemingly broken pinions, using every effort it can think of to make you follow it, and then, when you are at a safe distance from its nest and eggs, it will fly off in the most provoking manner, rejoicing at having done you. Meyer notices a curious characteristic of this bird, which I can certainly bear witness to, that it invariably lines its nest with black horsehair, and black only, and "it would be a curious matter to observe," he says, "the lining of nests of this species in counties where black horses are not generally met with, as, for instance, in some parts of Suffolk." Whether this peculiarity holds good universally in all parts, I cannot however say. The Bishops of Old Sarum. By CANON W. H. JONES, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar of Bradford-on-Avon. (Continued from Vol. xvii., p. 191.) HUBERT WALTER, 1189-1193. OR five years after the decease of JOCELIN DE BOHUN, there was no Bishop appointed for the see of Sarum. When we add to these the seven closing years of Bishop Jocelin's life, in which, on account of his infirmities, he had to delegate his duties to a suffragan or assistant Bishop, it gives us a long period during which the see was bereft of the superintendence of its proper diocesan. Its administrators were Herbert Archdeacon of Canterbury, Jordan then Dean of Sarum, and Richard Fitz-Ebrard, VOL. XVIII.-NO. LIII. Q who duly accounted for the income of the see, the offerings at the high altar at Whitsuntide, and the proceeds from the Rectory of Saldeburne (Shalbourn), then in the hands of the king, on account of a controversy touching the advowson of the same.1 2 Nor were matters much mended, when a successor was at last appointed in the person of HUBERT WALTER, for it is questionable whether, during the four years that he nominally held the see, he resided at all in the diocese. In any case his history belongs rather to that of the Archbishops of Canterbury-for he was advanced to the primacy in 1194-and it has been well told by Dean Hook. HUBERT WALTER, who is said to have been a native of West Dereham, in Norfolk, was nephew, pupil, and confidential friend of Ranulf Glanville, Justiciar of England and Prime Minister of Henry II. Amongst others well able to befriend him, he seems to have been brought under the notice of Baldwin, once Chancellor of Sarum, who, after having held the see of Worcster, became in 1185 Archbishop of Canterbury. Through his interest with the king, Hubert Walter was, about the year 1186, promoted to the Deanry of York, in succession to Robert Boteville. Three years afterwards, the king, Richard I., within a few weeks of his accession to the throne, at a council held at the Abbey of Pipewell in Northamptonshire, nominated him to the see of Sarum. He was consecrated shortly afterwards (October 22nd, 1189) by Archbishop Baldwin in the Chapel of St. Catharine, Westminster. In the year 1190, within a few months only of his appointment as Bishop of Sarum, Hubert Walter went, together with Archbishop Baldwin and Ranulf de Glanville, to the Holy Land, to join the king in his crusade for the recovery of " the holy sepulchre " from the hands of the infidels. He was present at the siege of Acre, where, within a short time, died both Ranulph de Glanville and Archbishop Baldwin. By the latter he was appointed executor to his will. He continued in the camp till the close of the siege, 1 Magn. Rot. 31 Hen. II. 2 Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. II. proving on more than one occasion that he could wield the sword as well as the crosier. Together with other bishops he re-consecrated the principal churches of the city of Acre, which the pagans had polluted, and, building, altars, once more celebrated upon them the holy mysteries. Moreover he obtained permission for priests to officiate, one at the Holy Sepulchre, and one at Nazareth. Immediately after the return of Hubert Walter to England, in 1193, the monks of the metropolitical Church of Canterbury met together and elected him to the primacy in succession to Archbishop Baldwin. The election was not however unchallenged; and, strangely enough, the principal appellant was Herbert Archdeacon of Canterbury, who so soon afterwards succeeded him in the see of Sarum. The grounds of the appeal, which was laid before the Supreme Pontiff, were, first of all, that the king was in captivity, and then, secondly, that the Bishops of England whose duty it was to have been present at such an election were not there.1 Roger of Wendover however is careful to tell us that he was elected canonically. He was duly enthroned at Canterbury on the day after the Feast of St. Leonard, 1193. Immediately afterwards, by command of King Richard who was still in captivity, the general administration of affairs in England was entrusted to his care. Much concerning him will be found in the introduction to the fourth volume of Roger de Hoveden, published in the Rolls Series, and edited by Professor Stubbs. He belonged rather to the secular and statesman school, than to that which may be termed the devotional and spiritual. Of the Bishops of Old Sarum, Roger and Hubert Walter belong to the former, Osmund and Richard Poore to the latter. He could in any case have given very little personal care to his diocese; still his memory was for some centuries preserved here, and, according to Leland, an annual obit was observed for him in the Cathedral.2 1 Tum quia Rex in captione erat, tum quia Episcopi Angliæ, quorum est interesse electioni Cantuarensis Archiepiscopi, non interfuerunt electioni illi. Hoveden, III., 213. 2 See Wilts Mag., i., 168. |