“Mem, To turn off Peter for shooting a Doe while she was eating
    Acorns out of his Hand.

    “When my Neighbour John, who hath often injured me, comes to make
    his Request to Morrow: 

    “Mem.  I have forgiven him.

    “Laid up my Chariot and sold my Horses, to relieve the Poor in a
    Scarcity of Corn.

    “In the same Year remitted to my Tenants a Fifth Part of their
    Rents.

    “As I was airing to-day, I fell into a Thought that warmed my Heart,
    and shall, I hope, be the better for it as long as I live.

    “Mem.  To charge my Son in private to erect no Monument for me; but
    not to put this in my last Will.

* * * * *

No. 623.  Monday, November 22, 1714.  Addison [1].

  ’Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
  Vel pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
  Pallentes umbras Erebi noctemque profundam,
  Ante, pudor, quam te violem aut tua jura resolvam. 
  Ille meos, primos qui me sibi junxit, amores
  Abstulit:  ille habeat secum, servetque sepulchro.’

  Virg.

I am obliged to my Friend, the Love-Casuist[2], for the following Curious Piece of Antiquity, which I shall communicate to the Publick in his own Words.

  Mr.  SPECTATOR,

’You may remember, that I lately transmitted to you an Account of an ancient Custom, in the Manors of East and West-Enborne, in the County of Berks, and elsewhere.  If a Customary Tenant die, the Widow shall have what the Law calls her Free-Bench in all his Copyhold Lands, dum sola et casta fuerit, that is, while she lives single and chaste; but if she commits Incontinency, she forfeits her Estate; Yet if she will come into the Court riding backward upon a Black Ram, with his Tail in her Hand, and say the Words following, the Steward is bound by the Custom to re-admit her to her Free-Bench.

’Here I am, Riding upon a Black Ram, Like a Whore as I am; And, for my_ Crincum Crancum, Have lost my Bincum Bancum; And, for my Tail’s Game, Have done this worldly Shame; Therefore, I pray you Mr. Steward, let me have my Land again.’

’After having informed you that my Lord Coke_ observes, that this is the most frail and slippery Tenure of any in England, I shall tell you, since the Writing of that Letter, I have, according to my Promise, been at great Pains in searching out the Records of the Black Ram; and have at last met with the Proceedings of the Court-Baron, held in that Behalf, for the Space of a whole Day.  The Record saith, that a strict Inquisition having been made into the Right of the Tenants to their several Estates, by a crafty old Steward, he found that many of the Lands of the Manor were, by default