THE HISTORY
O
THOMAS HICKATHRIFT.
PRINTED FROM
THE EARLIEST EXTANT COPIES.
AND EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
GEORGE LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A..
LONDON:
Printed FOR THE VILLON Society.
1885.


Introduction.
There seems to be some considerable reason for believing
that the hero of this story was a reality. The story tells us
that he lived in the marsh of the Isle of Ely, and that he
became "a brewer's man " at Lyn, and traded to Wisbeach.
This little piece of geographical evidence enables us to fix the
story as belonging to the great Fen District, which occupied the
north of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.
The antiquary Thomas Hearne has gone so far as to identify
the hero of tradition with a doughty knight of the Crusaders.
Writing in the Quarterly Review (vol. xxi. p. 102), Sir Francis
Palgrave says:—
"Mr. Thomas Hickathrift, afterwards Sir Thomas Hicka-
thrift, Knight, is praised by Mr. Thomas Hearne as a 'famous
champion.' The honest antiquary has identified this well-
known knight with the far less celebrated Sir Frederick de
Tylney, Baron of Tylney in Norfolk, the ancestor of the
Tylney family, who was killed at Aeon, in Syria, in the reign
of Richard Cceur de Lion. Hycophric, or Hycothrift, as the
mister-wight observes, being probably a corruption of Frederick.


vi Introduction.
of a sword, and the wheel for a shield or buckler, and thus armed
soon repelled the invaders. And for proof of this notable exploit
they to this day show, says Sir William Dugdale [Dugd. Hist, of
Imbanking, &c. p. 244; Weever's Fun. Mon. p. 866], a large
grave-stone near the east end of the chancel in Tilney church-
yard, whereon the form of a cross is so cut or carved as that
the upper part thereof (wherewith the carver hath adorned it)
being circular, they will therefore needs have it to be the grave-
stone of Hickifric^ and to be as a memorial of his gallantry.
The stone coffin, which stands now out of the ground in
Tilney churchyard, on the north side of the church, will not
receive a person above six feet in length, and this is shown as
belonging formerly to the giant Hickifric. The cross said to
be a representation of the cart-wheel is a cross pattee, on the
summit of a staff, which staff is styled an axle-tree. Such crosses
pattee on the head of a staff were emblems or tokens that some
Knight Templar was therein interred, and many such are to be
seen at this day in old churches."
Now the reference to Sir William Dugdale is misleading,
because, as will be seen by the following quotation, the position
of the hero is altered in Dugdale's version of the legend from
that of a popular leader to the tyrant lord himself:—" Of this
plain I may not omit a tradition which the common people
thereabouts have, viz., that in old time the inhabitants of the
neighbouring villages had a fierce contest with one Hickifric
(the then owner of it) touching the bounds thereof, which


Introduction. ix
sword, and tooke one of the cart-wheeles which he held as a
buckler; with these weapons he set vpon the Common aduer-
saries or aduersaries of the Common, encouraged his neigh-
bours to go forward, and fight valiantly in defence of their
liberties; who being animated by his manly prowesse, they
tooke heart to grasse, as the prouerbe is, insomuch that they,
ehased the Landlord and his companie to the vtmost verge of
the said Common; which from that time they haue quietly
enioyed to this very day. The Axell-tree and cart-wheele are
cut and figured in diuers places of the Church and Church
windowes, which makes the story, you must needs say, more
probable. This relation doth in many parts parallell with
that of one Hay, a strong braue spirited Scottish Plowman,
who vpon a set battell of Scots against the Danes, being
working at the same time in the next field, and seeing some
of his countreymen to flie from that hote encounter, caught vp
an oxe yoke (Boethius saith, a Plough-beame), with which
(after some exhortation that they should not bee faint-
hearted) he beate the said straglers backe againe to the maine
Army, where he with his two sonnes (who tooke likewise such
weapons as came next to their hands) renewed the charge so
furiously that they quite discomfited the enemy, obtaining the
glory .of the day and victory for their drad Lord and Soue-
raigne Kenneth the third, King of Scotland; and this hap-
pened in the yeare 942, the second of the King's raigne. This
you may reade at large in the History of Scotland^ thus abridged


Introduction.
by Camden as followeth."—Weever's Funerall Monuments,
1631, pp. 866-867.
And Sir Francis Palgrave, quoting the legend from Spelman,
observes,— "From the most remote antiquity the fables and
achievements of Hickifric have been obstinately credited by the
inhabitants of the township of Tylney. Hickifric is venerated
by them as the assertor of the rights and liberties of their an-
cestors. The 'monstrous giant' who guarded the marsh was
in truth no other than the tyrannical lord of the manor who
attempted to keep his copyholders out of the common field,
Tylney Smeeth; but who was driven away with his retainers
by the prowess of Tom armed only with his axletree and
cart-wheel."* This does not appear to me to put the case too
strongly. A tradition told so readily and believed so generally
in the middle of the seventeenth century must have had a
strong vitality in it only to be obtained by age.
Let us now turn to the other side, namely, the existence of
a traditional version in modern days, because it is important
to note that the printing of a chapbook version need not have
disturbed the full current of traditional thought. In a note Sir
Francis Palgrave seems to imply that the story was still extant
without the aid of printed literature. He writes:
"A Norfolk antiquary has had the goodness to procure for
us an authentic report of the present state of Tom's sepulchre.
Quarterly Review, vol. xxi. p. 103.


Introduction. xi
It is a stone soros, of the usual shape and dimensions; the
sculptured lid or cover no longer exists. It must have been
entire about fifty years ago, for when we were good Gaffer
Crane would rehearse Tom's achievements, and tell us that he
had cut out the moss which filled up the inscription with his
penknife, but he could not read the letters." *
And Clare, in his Village Minstrel, tells us that:—
"Here Lubin listen'd with awestruck surprise,
When Hickathrift's great strength has met his ear;
How he kih'd giants as they were but flies,
And lifted trees as one would a spear,
Though not much bigger than his fellows were;
He knew no troubles waggoners have known,
Of getting stall'd and such disasters drear;
Up he'd chuck sacks as we would hurl a stone,
And draw whole loads of grain unaided and alone."
And this view as to the existence still of a traditional form of
the story is almost borne out by what the country people only
recently had to say relative to a monument in that part of the
country over which Sir William Dugdale travelled, and of
which he has left us such a valuable memorial in his History of
Imbanking. A writer in the Journal of the Archaeological Asso-
ciation (vol. xxv. p. 11) says:—" A mound close to the Smeeth
Road Station, between Lynn and Wisbech, is called the Giant's
* Quarterly Review, vol, xxi. p. 102, note.


Introduction. xvii
a capteine in the warres can liue without manuell labour, and
thereto is able and will beare the post, charge, and- counte-
nance of a gentleman, he shall be called master, which is the
title that men giue to esquiers and gentlemen and reputed for
gentlemen."—Harrison's Description of England, 1577 (edited
by F. J. Furnivall for the New Shakspere Society, 1877),
P- "9-
Of yeomen he says, " And albeit they be not called master
as gentlemen are, or sir as to knights apperteineth, but onelie
John and Thomas,". &c. (p. 134): and of "the third and
last sort," "named the yeomanrie," he adds, " that they be
not called masters and gentlemen, but goodmen, as goodman
Smith, goodman Coot, goodman ; Cornell, goodman Mascall,
goodman Cockswet," &c. (p. 137).
Mr. Furnivall's note (p. 123) is as follows:—"Every
Begger almost is called Maister.—See Lancelot's 'Maister
Launcelet' in the Merchant of Venice, II. ii. 51, and the
extract illustrating it from Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth
of England, bk. I. ch. 20 (founded on Harrison, i. 133, 137),
which I printed in New Sh. Soc.'s Trans. 1877-9, P- I03-4-
Also Shakspere getting his ' yeoman' father.arms, and making
him a 'gentleman' in 1596.—(Leopold Shakspere, Introduc-
tion, p.veiiu)." We thus get still further indication of the early
date of the story, the significance of the title "Master" having
died out during the seventeenth century.
The following is a bibliographical list of some of the editions,


THE
PLEASANT HISTORY
OF
THOMAS HIC-KA-THRIFT.
Printed by 7. M. for W. Thackeray and T. Passinger.


8 The Pleasant History of
in one day then all his men would do in three; so that his
master, seeing him so tractable, and to look so well after his
business, made him his head man to go into the marsh, to carry
beer by himself, for he needed no man with him. So Tom
went every day to Wisbich, which was a very great journey,
for it was twenty mile the road way.
Tom going so long that wearisome journey, and finding that
way which the Gyant kept was nearer by half, and Tom having
gotten more strength by half then before by being so well kept,
and drinking so much strong ale as he did; one day he was
going to Wisbich, and without saying anything to his master or
to any of his fellow servants, he was resolved to make the
nearest way to be a road or lose his life, to win the horse, or
lose the saddle; to kill or be killed; if he met with the Gyant;
and with this resolution he goes the nearest way with his cart,
flinging open the gates for his cart and horses to go through;
but at last the Gyant spying him, and seeing him to be so bold,
thought to prevent him, and came intending to take his beer for
a prize, but Tom cared not a fart for him, and the Gyant he
met Tom like a lyon, as though he would have swallowed him.
Sirrah, said he, who gave you authority to come this way? Do
you not know that I make all stand in fear of my sight, and you
like a rogue must come and fling my gates open at your plea-
sure! How dare you presume to do this? Are you so careless
of your life? Do you not care what you do? I'le make thee
an example for all rogues under the sun; dost thou not see

—


Thomas Hickathrift. 25
home, and, as he pass'd thro' a meadow, in which there was
many Haymakers at work, the poor distressed troopers crying
out, Stop him stop him he runs away with two of the King's
troopers. The hay-makers laught heartily to see how Tom
hugged them along; ever and anon he upbraided them for their
baseness; declared that he would make minced meat of them
to feed the Crows and Jackdaws about his house and habitation.
This was such a dreadful lecture to them, that the poor rogues
begg'd that he would be merciful, and spare their lives, and they
would discover the whole plot, and who was the person that
employ'd them; which accordingly they did, and gain'd favour
in the sight of Tom, who pardon'd them upon promise that
they would never be concern'd in such a villainous action for
the time to come.


Thomas Hickathrift. 29
would appoint a punishment for her himself; which was this;
he bor'd a hole thro' her nose and tying a string therein, then
order'd her to be stript stark naked, commanding the rest of
the old women to stick a candle in her fundament, and lead
her by the nose thro' all the streets and lanes in Cambridge,
which comical sight caused a general laughter. This done, she
had her cloaths restor'd her again, and so was acquitted.