Amongst the more ancient rhymes are those respecting grants of land. The following is a good example, and is from Derbyshire:-- "Me and mine Give thee and thine Millners Hay And Shining Cliff, While grass is green And hollies rough." The old story of the grant is thus related. Years ago, a member of the ancient family of Lowe had the honour of hunting with the king and his nobles. Lowe rode a splendid horse, the only one in at the death. The king admired the animal very much, and the owner presented it to His Majesty. The horse "mightily pleased the king." Some little time afterwards, Lowe waited upon the king to beg a brier bed and a watering-place, which were Shining Cliff and Millners Hay. The request was at once complied with. The tale does not end here. It is related that "an envious courtier told the king that he did not know what he was doing, for what he was giving away was a great wood with a large tract of land." Upon this, Lowe said to His Majesty: "King or no king?"--"Why, king, Lowe." Adding with prompitude: "The brier-bed and watering-place are thine:" the rhyme above quoted being given as the title for the grant. It is asserted that Athelstan granted the first charter to the ancient borough of Hedon, Yorkshire, in these words:-- "As free make I thee As eye see or ear hear." It is said a similar charter was granted by the same king to the neighbouring town of Beverley. An old, old Norfolk rhyme says:-- "Rising was a seaport town, And Lynn it was a wash; But now Lynn is a seaport town, And Rising fares the worst." It is said at Norwich:-- "Caistor was a city ere Norwich was none, And Norwich was built of Caistor stone." "About half-way between Curbar and Brompton, to the right of the turnpike leading from Barlow to Sheffield," writes William Wood, "there is, far on the moor, a very level flat piece of ground, near a mile square, most remarkable for its boggy nature, so much so that it is dangerous to cross, or at times to approach. Here, before the Roman invasion, says the legend, stood a town or village, the inhabitants of which lived, according to Diodorus Siculus, in small cots or huts built of wood, the walls of stakes or wattles, like hurdles, and covered with rushes or reeds. These dwellings, with their inhabitants, were swallowed up by one of those convulsions of nature so destructive at times to the habitations of mankind." Respecting Leechfield and Chesterfield are the following lines current in Derbyshire:-- "When Leechfield was a market town, Chesterfield was gorse and broom; Now Chesterfield's a market town, Leechfield a marsh is grown." Respecting Nertoun, a Somersetshire village, near Taunton, is this couplet:-- "Nertoun was a market-town When Taunton was a furzy down." A Scottish rhyme says:-- "York was, London is, And Edinburgh will be The biggest of the three." Says a popular English rhyme:--