Black-rent, or Black-mail, was a certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or
other consideration, paid (says Cowell) to men allied with robbers, to
be by them protected from the danger of such as usually rob or steal.
P.T.W.
* * * * *
ANCIENT STATE OF PANCRAS.
(_For the Mirror._)
Brewer, in his "London and Middlesex," says--"When a visitation of the
church of Pancras was made, in the year 1251, there were only forty
houses in the parish." The desolate situation of the village, in the
latter part of the 16th century, is emphatically described by Norden, in
his "Speculum Britanniae." After noticing the solitary condition of the
church, he says--"Yet about the structure have bin manie buildings, now
decaied, leaving poore Pancrast without companie or comfort." In some
manuscript additions to his work, the same writer has the following
observations:--"Although this place be, as it were, forsaken of all, and
true men seldom frequent the same, but upon deveyne occasions, yet it is
visayed by thieves, who assemble not there to pray, but to waite for
prayer; and many fall into their handes, clothed, that are glad when
they are escaped naked.
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