ALEXANDER ALLAN.-In the Queen of May 19, 1883, there is a brief notice of the death at Brooklyn of Alexander Allan, "a dramatist of celebrity," born 1810 in London, a relative of John Galt, the novelist, and the friend of Halleck, Charles Dickens, and J. Wallack, &c. What are the titles of Mr. Allan's dramas? R. INGLIS. ENGLISH SELLING THEIR CHILDREN.-W. A. O'Conor, in his 'History of the Irish People,' p. 64, says: "The English people had been in the habit of selling their children to the Irish as slaves." This refers to the reign of our Henry II. No authority is given for this statement. Can it possibly be true? E. COBHAM BREWER. DO BLACKBIRDS POISON THEIR YOUNG TO SAVE THEM FROM CAPTIVITY ?-It is commonly believed in some parts of the country that blackbirds do this, and the idea is used by Hood in 'The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies': Close intricacies to screen Birds' crafty dwellings as may hide them best, Oak Cottage, Streatham Place, Brixton Hill, S.W. MRS. GLASSE.-A lady who has been reading Mrs. Glasse's 'Cookery-Book' (ed. 1758) asks me if I can tell her the modern names of the following fish, "proper to eat in the Midsummer Quarter." Being quite unable to do so, I pass on her inquiry to N. & Q.,' in the hope that some more learned reader will be able to enlighten her. Shafflins, Glout (?), Tenes, Tollis, Homlyn, Kinson. Ropley, Alresford: JONATHAN BOUCHIER. VESTMENTS OF BLUE COLOUR.-Every one who has made himself acquainted with the ritual customs of English people before the Reformation knows that blue was a common colour for church vestments. The Roman use rejects blue as an ecclesiastical colour. Dr. Rock says, in his 'Church of our Fathers,' vol. ii. p. 259," Rome herself never uses sky-blue." It is not probable that so learned a liturgical antiquary should have fallen into error. I have, however, been informed that although blue was not used generally in the Latin rite, it was was employed in the Pope's private chapel, and it has been suggested that this may have been the reason that blue was one of the liturgical colours in this country. Can any of your readers give information on the subject? ΑΝΟΝ. "THE BELLS OF OUSELEY."-The sign of a well-known inn at Old Windsor. Will any contributor kindly state the origin or meaning of this sign? J. N. LINES FROM DANTE.-Lord Granville is reported to have said, in a speech at Dover on the Jubilee: "One of the morning papers had quoted some magnificent lines of Dante, describing how the crowd had met and passed each other in double columns at the jubilee ordered by Boniface VIII." What are these lines; and to what have they reference? JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. BOOK-PLATE-To whom belongs the following ex libris? The arms of the City of London, crest, supporters, and motto, and beneath, in two lines, 'Fyn. Segellak. wel. | Brand. en. vast. Houd.' W. M. M. TRANSLATEE. -In an article on The French Version of the Golden Legend' (7th S. iii. 469) MR. PEACOCK gives a quotation in which there is this curious sentence: "Aussi des sainctz nouueaulx translatee de Latin en fra'cois." Does the English word translated thus come from the old French of 1554 ? W. M. M. ASSIGNATS.-Where shall I find descriptions of each variety of this paper money? GEO. CLULOW. TOMBLAND FAIR, NORWICH.-Mr. John Timbs says, in his 'Things not generally Known,' vol. v. p. 45, upon the subject of Maundy Thursday: "Tombland Fair, at Norwich, held on this day, took its origin from people assembling with maunds, or baskets, of provisions, which the monks bought for distribution on Easter Day." I shall be glad if any 'N. & Q.' readers will refer me to a work confirming this and giving faller details. GEO. C. PRATT. GABBARD.-What are the origin and composition of this word? It means some sort of barge or market-boat. I find it in the 'Diary of a Visit to London in 1775,' by Dr. Thomas Campbell, printed in Johnsoniana,' a supplement to Mr. Napier's excellent edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson.' Dr. Campbell came from Ireland, and probably the word gabbard is still in use there. Visiting Stratford-on-Avon, the doctor says "Little gabbards with coals and groceries, &c., come up here from Bristol." J. DIXON. ELA FAMILY.-Can any one give information of the surname Ela, its origin, location, &c., in Eng land or elsewhere in the Old World? It has been a family name in Massachusetts, U.S., since 1656, which indicates that it must have come from England. When did it originate; and does it now exist in England? D. H. ELA. Boston, Mass., U.S. STRAFFORDE AND WANDESFORDE.-In what volume of the Gentleman's Magazine are letters of Strafforde to Wandesforde to be found? FRANCESCA. some PRESERVATION OF MEDALS.-Which is the best way of keeping rare medals or coins? Should they be wrapped up in a soft material-tissue paper or cotton wool-or left exposed to the air? Are there boxes made on purpose to hold them? B. R. STORY IN BLACKWOOD': SOURCE OF POEM.— Can any of your readers tell me in what number of Blackwood a story came out, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again"? Also, was a poem called 'Departure,' beginning "When I go away from my own dear home," in Blackwood; and when? MAC ROBERT. FLUELEN.-Passing along the St. Gothard railway, I first came to Goschen and next to Fluelen. That a Scriptural name should be given to a place is easily accounted for from the knowledge of the Bible; but how did Fluelen, the name of a person or a place in Wales, come to Switzerland ? W. J. BIRCH. MILMAN'S 'SAMOR.'-In the late Dean Milman's 'Samor, Lord of the Bright City,' the horse of King Vortigern Favorin (p. 310) and the sword of Hengist, " "the widower of women (p. 315), are mentioned. Do we owe these names to the imagination of the poet, or are they taken from some old chronicle, romance, or lay? K. P. D. E. SIR JONATHAN TRELAWNY.-Has any life of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Winchester, been published? ALPHA. PAVIEL: TILE TREE: PITHEMUS: CHERPIBINT. I shall be glad to have the following terms explained : of fresh wormwood, and so distil a third time."-P. 15. Paviel.-" Put this water upon another like_paviel Tile Tree.-"Mistletoe of tile tree."-P. 32. Pithemus.-"One ounce of pithemus."-P. 61. Cherpibint." Dip cherpibint in it, and lay it on the wound."-P. 69. The pages refer to a work entitled 'Choice and Experimented Receipts in Physick and Chirurlearned Sir Kenelm Digby, Knt., second edition, gery,' collected by the honourable and truly London, 1675, from which the quotations are taken. None of the words occur in any glossary I have. C. C. B. COLONEL EDWARD TYNTE, GOVERNOR OF NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA, 1709.—This gentleman, who was the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Tynte, Vicar of Yatton, Somerset, was constituted Governor of Carolina, July 19, 1709, and died in the following year. I should be glad to know where he was buried, and if there is any monument to his memory. Perhaps some of your American readers can enlighten me. The following lines, by his friend Dr. King, of which I have a MS. copy, an arbitrary symbol, and used more commonly speak as to his abilities : Ad Amicum. Tynte was the man who first from British shore, His tuneful Harp attending Muses strung, On such foundations learned Athens rose, ST. DAVID KEMEYS TYNTE. Balnageith, Torquay. Replies. LIVERY OF SEISIN. (7th S. ii. 167, 258, 332, 374). The suggestion that the grass, rushes, or straw twisted about the seals of old deeds might be a relic of the legal form of livery of seisin was somewhat unceremoniously dismissed at the last reference by DR. JESSOPP, who describes it as a mere fad, in vogue from about Hen. VI. to Hen. VII. I should be much interested to hear of any further reasons he may have for his view. At present, if I may say so with due respect for his authority, I think he has overestimated the strength of negative evidence. In the first place, the deed mentioned by your correspondent KAPPA is dated seventy years before Hen. VI. Again, the lack of instances after Hen. VII. may be accounted for by the Statute of Uses (27 Hen. VIII.), which led to conveyances by feoffment with livery being generally superseded by mere indentures of lease and release. Besides, at this date writing was not so rare an accomplishment, and the signatures of witnesses to a memorandum on the back of the deed stating that possession was given in their presence would be more satisfactory evidence than straw on the seal. This plan was the rule temp. Lord Coke. Some light is thrown on this subject, and also on that of tenure by the rod and the straw, by the history of investiture, which may be said to go back at least to the Book of Ruth. There we are told (iv. 7) that it was the custom in Israel in former times for a man to pluck off his shoe and give it to his neighbour, in order to provide testimony of redeeming and changing. Spelman (Gloss.") distinguishes between proper and improper investiture; the former being delivery of possession by means of the thing itself, of which he mentions livery of seisin as an instance; the latter being by means of a symbol, as a sword, banner, ring, &c. Watkins (Copyholds') seems to hold to this distinction, and suggests that a staff or verge was than others in delivering possession to copyholders because the steward naturally held a staff of office. However, that the distinction was inapplicable as regards livery of seisin is shown by Thoroughgood's case (9 Rep.,' 136 b, 137 b), where it was decided that livery could be made by a mere symbol having nothing to do with the land. between actual and symbolical investiture may be The impossibility of drawing a real distinction seen from the vast and varied array of instances collected in Du Cange ('Gloss.,' s. v. "Investitura"). From him we learn that symbols of special affinity with the thing transferred were originally used and recognized; as, for land, a turf or clod; a bough of a tree for what was above the surface. Sometimes were added festuca (as equivalent to fustis, of which more below), a rod or verge, which all indicated dominium. Later, the knife or sword indicated the jus evertendi, disjiciendi, metendi, &c. The ring, the banner, &c., had all originally reference to special properties or dignities; but after a time the meaning of the ancient forms was neglected, and anything was used which came handy for the occasion. After some instances of the careful preservation of the symbols as evidence of the investiture, a passage follows which is of special interest as bearing on the present question. Sometimes, says Du Cange, the symbol of conveyance was woven or sewn into the instrument, or bound up with it. He had himself seen in the chartulary of St. Denis several charters "in quarum imis limbis intextæ erant festucæ vel certe pusilla ligni fragmenta." The following quotations from extant documents are clear evidence of the practice: "In testimonium hujus donationis nummus iste huic cartæ appensus est quum per ipsum donatio facta est" (charta of Robert, Bishop of Langres); cum baculo præsenti paginæ insuto......concedimus" (charta of Louis VII. in favour of the church of the Virgin at Saintes, an. 1140); "reliquimus cum quodam fusili [melted wax?] huic chartæ inherente" (at St. Hilary's, Poictiers, an. 1104); "per quoddam lignum quod huic pergameno conjunctum est" (at St. Jean d'Angely); Hanc donationem fecit per corrigiam in hoc pergamento pendentem" (at St. Eparchus, Angoulême, an. 1000); "reliquit in manu domini Ausculphi abbatis cum junco, qui in ora cartulæ insuitur" (at St. Jean d'Angely). A grant or surrender to the church of Notre Dame at Paris, quoted by a later editor (s. v. "Festuca "), is especially remarkable. It is expressed to be made per hoc lignum," on the four faces of which it is actually written, or rather engraved. The rod is half a foot long and about an inch thick. Having shown that the practice of fastening the symbol of conveyance to the written instrument did exist, I add below some instances of the use of particular symbols, which, though not described as so fastened, may be compared to the cases of straw, &c., mentioned by previous correspondents. The rush, juncus, mentioned above, may be put in both categories. In the following quotations the word festuca, fistuca, fistucus occurs. Above it is treated as equivalent to baculum or virga; but its meaning in Columella and Pliny was rather stalk, though it seems also to have been applied to the rod used, according to Plutarch, in the ceremony of manumitting slaves. If as a symbol of conveyance it was anything more than a stalk, how could it have been knotted (nodata), as appears below? It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the supposed derivation of "stipulation" from the use of a straw in a similar way, instances of the word stipula being actually applied to the symbol of investiture seem very rare. The following are from Du Cange (s.v. "Festuca"): "per hanc chartulam sive per festucam" (monastery of Gemblours, an. 950); a charter, an. 1258, "qua Abbas Arreviarensis* ex bulla apostolica mercatores Romanos de bonis mobilibus Campsorumt ubicunque possent in distractu comitatus Campaniæ inveniri, regis nomine, per traditorem cujusdam apostolicæ paleæ, secundum quod in tradendis possessionibus de consuetudine in istis partibus observatur......investit." Under "Culmus" are given three instances from the conveyances of the Abbey of Fulda: "habeatis potestatem culmo subnixam "[i. e., roboratam]; "hoc sit actum...... culmo subnixum "habeatis potestatem stipulatione subnixam." In Muratori (Antiq. Ital. Med. Ev.,' tom. ii. diss. 22) are grants by the Counts of Verona and Tuscany in 911 and 952; and Du Cange (under "Festuca nodata") quotes another from Mabillon's 'Benedictine Annals' dated 997. In all these pen, ink, and parchment are coupled with the clod, the bough, the fistucum nodatum (in Muratori notatum), and the knife as instruments or symbols of conveyance, and each is declared to be made according to the Salic law or the law of the Franks. Haltaus (Gloss. Germ. Med. Ev.), under "Halm," cites a grant in German in 1296 by a Landgrave of Alsatia, "mit eim Halmen als das gewöhnlichen," besides others in 1328, 1406, and 1509. Stipula occurs in 1074, and calamus in 1185 and 1342. The conclusion I draw from the above and the evidence of other correspondents is, that the "strawing" of seals probably had something to do, directly or indirectly, with livery of seisin; but it must be very doubtful how far its significance was recognized in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by those who practised it. Common conveyances must perforce have been prepared very often by not very learned persons, and This must be a misprint for Arremarensis, which would refer to the abbey of Rameq, in Champagne, or thereabouts. † Who were the Campsi? it would probably be the business of a mere chirographer to melt the wax and insert the straw. Certainly in the case of Lord Stanley's deed in 2 Ric. III., referred to by MR. UNDERHILL, the plaited rushes were not required to pass the seisin. The deed is a release, and not a feoffment, nor does it deal with land, being expressly limited to actiones et demandas personales. I see the accuracy of speaking of the seisin of the copyholder is doubted. Littleton himself uses the expression. Seisin then meant real possession, though now technically confined to legal possession of freeholds. According to Williams (Seisin of the Freehold,' p. 126) the copyholder has a quasiseisin of his own, a seisin at the will of the lord; while, by virtue of the occupation of the copyholder, the lord has a feudal seisin. CHAS. FREDC. HARDY. this query, and since the answer to it appeared, DE LA POLE (7th S. iii. 289, 414). Since I sent which HERMENTRUDE kindly sent, I have seen two notices which to a certain extent enable me to answer it myself, but I still want some more information. the third son of Michael, second Earl of Suffolk, The statement of Sir Thomas de la Pole being then rested on the authorities of Burke's 'Extinct Peerage' and of Blomefield's 'Norfolk,' but I have of the Yorkshire Family of Stapelton,' 1884, in lately seen Mr. Chetwyn Stapylton's Chronicles which is repeated the same thing, and he also Genealogica,' vol. v. pp. 156-7, where it is also quotes Nichol's 'Collectanea Topographica et said that Thomas, the third son of Michael, the second earl, married Nicholas Cheyney, and had Katherine, only Ann, the daughter of daughter and heir, who married first to Sir Miles Stapleton of Bedale, Knt., and afterwards to Sir Richard Harcourt." 66 No son is mentioned, nor is the other marriage of Ann Cheyney, as given by HERMENTRUDE, and it is rather curious that, for a lady of her rank, the date of death of Katherine de la Pole is left so uncertain. It is said that her will was proved in 1488, Jan. 23, when her daughters and coheirs Joan, married to Sir Christopher Harcourt) were (Elizabeth, married to Sir Wm. Calthorpe, and respectively fifty and forty-eight; but the Thetford jurors say she died on July 31, 1490. Which date is correct, and where is her will printed? of Shurland, co. Kent? Was Nicholas Cheyney of the family of Cheyney B. F. SCARLETT. to extend the Commerce of England, and discourage the introducing of French Modes and oppose the importation of French Commodities." See 'The Anti-Gallican Privateer; being a Genuine Narrative from her leaving Deptford September 17, 1756, to the Present Time' (1757). G. F. R. B. "[April 23, 1771]. Being St. George's Day, was held the anniversary feast of the laudable society of Antigallicans. They went in procession to Stepney Church, where the Rev. Mr. Evans, chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor, preached an excellent sermon, suitable to the occasion; after which the stewards went in a body, and waited on the Lord Mayor in the Tower, and paid their compliments on behalf of the whole society, and afterwards returned to the Mile-End Assembly-room, where there was an elegant entertainment provided. After dinner they elected the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor Grand President for the year ensuing, which office his Lordship accepted with the utmost politeness and respect."Annual Register, vol. xiv. p. 98. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. The Library, Claremont, Hastings. INN SIGNS (7th S. iii. 448; iv. 35).—Yes; it was an error. My Cambridge B.A. correspondent wrote such a vile hand that I misconstrued "Pickerel" for "Pickle." The correction of the error by your two correspondents has, however, given another example of the strange name of an inn sign, omitted from Hotten's book, wherein no mention is made of "The Pickerel." CUTHBERT BEDE. LORD MAYOR'S DAY (7th S. iii. 497; iv. 49).— In my reply to MR. ELLIS, by a careless reading of my authority (Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History,' at pp. 384, 385, second edition), I erroneously wrote "three weeks" (1. 13) where I should have said "about ten days." After 1641 Michaelmas term commenced ordinarily on October 23; but in every seventh year, from a technical peculiarity of the calendar with which I need not trouble the reader, the first of that term was one day later. NEMO. Temple. CHARLOTTE BRONTË: CURRER BELL (7th S. iii. 517).-Margaret, daughter and sole heir of Matthew Wilson, of Eshton Hall, Gargrave, Yorkshire, married, first, Rev. Henry Richardson Currer (Rector of Thornton, where Charlotte Brontë was born), and, secondly, her cousin Matthew Wilson. A daughter of the first marriage was Miss Richardson Currer, of Eshton Hall, who collected a celebrated library there. This lady, with her literary fame and masculine appellation, a relative of Carus Wilson, and resident about half-way on the road between Charlotte Brontë's home at Haworth and the school at Cowan Bridge, seems a likely person to have been in the young authoress's mind when choosing a name under which to evade the question of sex. Perhaps also she had something to do with the idea of Shirley.' The sons of the second marriage were Matthew Wilson, of Eshton Hall, created a baronet 1874, and the Rev. Henry Currer Wilson (b. 1803). The latter was evidently the the vicarage of Tunstall on his father's presentation. person mentioned in my query, and succeeded to It is odd that I should have dropped upon this answer to my own query just in the same way that I dropped on the passage that suggested the query itself-in looking for details of places with which my own family was connected. CHAS. FREDC. HARDY. iii. 495).-Richard Hill, of the Hawkstone family, HILL, AT THE COURT OF ST. GERMAINS (7th S. was in France in 1685 and 1686; but whether he was still there after the abdication of James II. I cannot say. See the eighth letter of Daniel Sandford, reprinted in Salopian Shreds and Patches' (Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal), March 30, 1887. W. B. 'BARNABY RUDGE' (7th S. iv. 24).-Dickens is quite right with reference to Paper Buildings. They were first built in the reign of James I., burned down in the Great Fire, rebuilt, and again burnt down by the well-known mistake of Mr. Maule, and finally rebuilt in 1848. See 'Old and New London,' chap. xvi. University College, W.C. DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE. |