Bailiff
ate heartily, but his clerk would not touch, saying he had as lief chew
soap. There was also a bottle of Ararat milk, and a flagon of ale, for we
were afraid to set French wines before them, lest they should fall to
wondering how they were come by.
Elzevir took the candle, chiding me a little for being late, and set it
in a brass candlestick in the middle of the table. Then Mr. Clerk takes a
little rule from his pocket, measures an inch down on the candle, sticks
into the grease at that point a scarf-pin with an onyx head that Elzevir
lent him, and lights the wick. Now the reason of this was, that the
custom ran in Moonfleet when either land or lease was put up to bidding,
to stick a pin in a candle; and so long as the pin held firm, it was open
to any to make a better offer, but when the flame burnt down and the pin
fell out, then land or lease fell to the last bidder. So after dinner was
over and the table cleared, Mr. Clerk takes out a roll of papers and
reads a legal description of the Why Not?, calling it the Mohune Arms, an
excellent messuage or tenement now used as a tavern, and speaking of the
convenient paddocks or parcels of grazing land at the back of it, called
Moons'-lease, amounting to sixteen acres more or less. Then he invites
the company to make an offer of rent for such a desirable property under
a five years' lease, and as Elzevir and I are the only company present,
the bidding is soon done; for Elzevir offers a rent of 12 a year, which
has always been the value of the Why Not? The clerk makes a note of
this; but the business is not over yet, for we must wait till the pin
drops out of the candle before the lease is finally made out.
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