Chapter XXXIII: The Gilds of Lincolnshire--(Continued) (5)

THE International Conference of Librarians, which was to have been held at Toronto about the beginning of September, has been postponed, with a view to a gathering at New York or Boston in the autumn of 1885.

THE first edition of Braun and Hogenberg’s plan of London, from the “Civitates Orbis Terrarum” (1572), has been reproduced for the Topographical Society of London.

MR. F. S. DRAKE, the historian of New England, has discovered the names of one hundred persons who took part in the destruction of the British tea in Boston Harbour. He has published the names in a volume called “Tea Leaves.”

MR. ANDERSON, of Kirkwall, has in the press a new Guide to the Orkney Islands, in which special attention will be paid to antiquarian remains and traditional lore. Sir Henry Dryden has revised his notes for this work.

AMONG the treasures in the late Prince of Orange’s collections are numerous paintings, miniatures, historical documents, and ancient relics of high value, in addition to the jewels of his mother, the late Queen Sophia.

IN January next will be commenced a new journal called “The Manx Note-book,” to be devoted to the history, antiquities, and legendary lore of the Isle of Man. The work, which has been undertaken by Mr. A. W. Moore, of Cronbourne, Isle of Man, will be published quarterly.

MR. T. LOCKE WORTHINGTON has in preparation an historical account and description of the cathedral church of Manchester. The work will be published by subscription through Mr. J. E. Cornish, of Manchester, and will form a quarto volume, the impression being limited to 250 copies.

THE new volume of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” contains an article on “Palmyra,” by Professor Robertson Smith, in which the story of Zenobia is re-written by the light of the Aramæan and Greek inscriptions, and of the coins that have recently come to light.

THE Committee of the Octagon Chapel, Bath, where Sir William Herschel was organist from 1766 to 1782, invite subscriptions towards a memorial window of “the most distinguished citizen who ever lived in Bath.”

FEGGEKLIT, on the Island of Mors, Denmark, the reputed birthplace of Hamlet, is for sale by private treaty. On a hillside that forms part of the estate will be found the grave of King Fegge, who was the identical person slain by the young Prince to avenge the “most foul murder” of his father.

FOR thirty-two years Captain Burton has been working more or less at his translation of the “Arabian Nights.” The book now nears completion. Captain Burton will reproduce in English as closely as possible the original text, and for this reason in particular the work will be issued to subscribers only.

MESSRS. BICKERS & SON have purchased the copyright of Lord Hervey’s “Memoirs of the Reign of George II.,” and are about to issue a new edition in three volumes, uniform with their new edition of “Wraxall’s Memoirs.” The original edition, published by Mr. Murray in 1848, has long been very scarce.

THE valuable collection of ancient coins formed by the late James Whittall, of Smyrna, was sold by Messrs. Sotheby in July. The number of lots was 1,668, the sale lasted nine days, and the total amount realised was £3,951 6s. Many of the coins are extremely rare, and some are believed to be unpublished.

THE current number of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society contains the first portion of a sketch of South African history from the pen of the late Sir Bartle Frere, who read the paper now published at a meeting of the Society in 1883. The first section deals chiefly with the first ten years of the Dutch settlement, which are chronicled in some detail.

DR. A. HARKAVY, of the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, has completed his examination of the newly found Hebrew manuscripts of several books of the Old Testament, and at the request of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences he has communicated to that body the results of his labours in a report in German, entitled “Bericht an die Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu St. Petersburg.”

THE Queen, it is said, is taking no little interest in a new book compiled by Mr. Harold Boulton, Mr. Malcolm Lawson, and Miss Annie Macleod, which will bear the title of “Songs of the North.” The book will be fully illustrated by the leading Scottish artists. A Gaelic translation is in hand, and the Queen has graciously given express permission that the book should be dedicated to herself.

MR. F. DANBY PALMER has just published, in a thin quarto volume, “The History of the Tolhouse at Great Yarmouth,” of which some account, together with an illustration, has been given in these pages (see _ante_, pp. 1-5). The work has been written by Mr. Palmer in the hope of assisting the effort now being made to preserve an ancient building, for many ages connected with the history of his native town, of events connected with this municipal structure from the thirteenth century to the present time.

THE August number of the _Century_ contains the first of a series of three papers by Mr. W. J. Stillman, recording the experiences of a classical expedition undertaken for that magazine. Mr. Stillman’s object was to trace the wanderings of Ulysses, as described in the “Odyssey,” and to identify, as far as it is possible to-day, the localities visited by the Ithacan king. The articles will be illustrated by Mr. Fenn, from photographs and sketches made by Mr. Stillman.

THE annual festivities in honour of St. James were on the point of terminating on Sunday, July 27, at Santiago, in Spain, when a telegram was received from Rome by the Archbishop, announcing that the Sacred Congregation had declared the bones found about four years ago under the high altar of Santiago Cathedral to be truly those of the Apostle, Spain’s patron saint, ineffectually sought for hitherto since they were concealed, from fear of Moorish raids, in the foundations of the cathedral in the year 1100, by Gilmirez, the first Archbishop.

THE complete renewal of the leaden envelope of the dome of St. Peter’s Church, in Rome, has just been completed. It has occupied twelve years, and has cost over 200,000 lire (£8,000). The original covering was applied to the dome in an imperfect fashion, which made continuous repairs a necessity. The total weight of the new cover is given at 354,305 kilogrammes; and if it were spread out flat it would occupy an area of 6,152 square metres, or about an acre and a half. In stripping off the old plates, three of them were found to be of gilded copper.

SOME interesting items of theatrical history are contained in the rings which Mr. Irving wears as Malvolio. One is engraved, “Formerly the signet-ring of David Garrick. Henry Irving, from Edwin Booth, 1881.” Another is the celebrated enamel ring, with head of Shakespeare, which Garrick used to wear, and which he bequeathed to his butler, and which was afterwards presented to Mr. Irving by Lady Burdett-Coutts. And still another signet is thus inscribed--“Tyrone Power, to his friend Harley, 1830.”

AN embellished copy of Baskett’s edition of the Bible, printed at his press at Oxford in 1817, and known as “The Vinegar Bible,” was included among the rarities sold last month at Messrs. Sotheby’s rooms. The volume had inserted in it some 750 additional plates relating to architecture, natural history, &c. In the same batch of books was a copy of Buck and Daniel’s Cambridge Bible, 1638, in which the curious misprint in Acts vi. 3, “_Ye_ [for _we_] may appoint” was for the first time printed.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear among the contents of the magazines for August: _Edinburgh Review_, “The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon,” and “The Chiefs of Grant;” _Church Quarterly_, “The Church in Old London;” _Quarterly Review_, “Peter the Great,” and “Greek Archæology;” _Art Journal_, “Castelfranco and its Altar-piece, by Giorgione,” “The Western Riviera, Nice,” and “The Isle of Walcheren;” _Cornhill_, “Some Literary Recollections;” _English Illustrated Magazine_, “Winchester,” and “Cutlery and Cutlers at Sheffield;” _Temple Bar_, “Westminster School.”

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Mr. C. Golding, Colchester (chiefly topographical of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries); Mr. H. Lowe, 89, New-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand; Mr. W. Withers, Leicester; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3, Bull-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Wyllie & Son, Union-street, Aberdeen; Mr. J. Salkeld, 314, Clapham-road, S.W. (including a large number of books from the libraries of the late Sir G. Bowyer, Mr. Joseph Payne, and others); Messrs. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William-street, Strand, W.C.; Mr. Loescher, Turin.

AT a recent meeting of the Society for Preserving the Memorials of the Dead, a letter from a correspondent was read in which it was stated that, whilst on an architectural tour, he found a register book open in the church and the leaves blown on the floor, or at least, such of them as dampness and the mice had not obliterated. Although the living had been held by one family for nearly 300 years, and is a very rich one, the writer adds: “I venture to affirm that a family could not prove its descent for three generations from its parish register.” It is also stated that parchment registers, having one side vacant, were sometimes cut up for directions for game!

A REPORT has been received from the committee appointed with reference to the preservation of the ancient records of the county of Middlesex. The index of these valuable historical documents is very nearly completed, and they have all been properly classified and housed, so that they will be preserved from any damage in the future. The documents altogether number 16,000 separate records. The money allotted for the purpose of classifying them not being found sufficient, it has been decided, on the motion of Mr. Basil Woodd Smith, that a further sum of £200 be granted for the completion of the fittings of the new record room and the sorting and calendaring of the records.

MESSRS. CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS lately disposed of the collection of old Sèvres and Chelsea porcelain, old French decorative furniture, snuff-boxes, and other decorative objects, the property of the late Mr. W. King. Among the best prices obtained were: A statuette of a nymph, by Falconet, in statuary marble, 400 gs.; a Louis XVI. clock, in case of gros-bleu Sèvres porcelain, surmounted by a mask of Apollo, 215 gs.; a pair of Louis XVI. ormolu candelabra, with large Dresden figures of a shepherd and shepherdess, 165 gs.; an oblong bloodstone box, carved with hunting subjects, the lid studded with diamonds, £270; a fine oblong double box, formed of slabs of agate, set with diamonds, £205. The sale realised over £4,600.

_On_ Saturday, June 28, Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods sold at their rooms the splendid collection of paintings by the old masters, the property of Sir Philip Miles, M.P., known as the Leigh Court Gallery. Five pictures were purchased for the National Gallery--the grand upright landscape by Gaspar Poussin, “The Calling of Abraham,” “The Adoration of the Magi,” by Bellini; the two Hogarths, portrait of Miss Fenton, afterwards Duchess of Bolton, as “Polly Peachum,” and “The Shrimp Girl;” and Stothard’s “Canterbury Pilgrims.” The total paid for these pictures was under £4,000. The two Alfieri Claudes were purchased by Messrs. Agnew--the “Apollo Sacrifice” for 5,800 guineas, and the “Landing of Æneas” for 3,800 guineas--while the little picture of the “Herdsman at the Ford” was bought by the same firm for 1,950 guineas, and the Murillo “Holy Family” for 3,000 guineas. The little predella panel by Raphael, “Christ bearing His Cross to Calvary,” was also purchased by Messrs. Agnew for 560 guineas, and has passed into the collection of Lord Windsor. Several important pictures were bought in. The sale realised nearly £44,300.

AMONG the later additions to that most interesting corner in the Health Exhibition where Old London is reproduced is a collection of views and etchings of Old Southwark, shown by Mr. S. Drewet (F. S. Nichols & Co.) in the Guard Chamber over the Bishop’s Gate. Old London Bridge as it appeared in the time of Henry VIII. and at several periods since until its demolition may here be seen, as well as some of the historic buildings of Southwark--Winchester Palace, &c., and its famous hostels, the old Tabarde and the White Hart, of which the picturesque characteristics have been preserved in etchings by Mr. Percy Thomas. Some reproductions of old maps and a small collection of pottery, weapons, and coins found in the borough of Southwark, and most of them during the progress of excavations on the site of the old Tabarde Inn, should not be passed unnoticed. The rooms over the workshops on the north side of the Old London street at the Exhibition have been filled with furniture of antique form, and the walls hung with tapestries from the Royal Tapestry Works at Windsor. Along the south side a very fine collection of armour, arms, and ancient and mediæval ironwork has been arranged by Messrs. Stark & Gardner, among the contributors being Lady Dorothy Nevill, Sir Coutts Lindsay, the Rev. Canon Harford, Mr. J. G. Litchfield, and Mr. J. E. Gardner, F.S.A.

THE sale of the first portion of the extensive library of the late Mr. James Crossley, President of the Chetham Society, took place at the rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, on Monday, July 21, and six following days. Many of the books were in an imperfect and stained condition, which considerably affected the prices realised. Ainsworth’s Memorials, described by the owner as “by far the rarest book connected with Halifax,” being stained, sold for only £3 3s.; and Brown’s Religio Medici, the 1642 surreptitious impression, £6 10s. Byron’s Hours of Idleness, first published edition, brought £4 6s. Milton’s Paradise Lost, first edition, with first title-page, £25; and other copies, with second, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth title-pages, £16 18s.; Paradise Regained, first edition, £3 17s. 6d. The Philobiblon Society’s Publications, £25. Miscellanies, 20 vols., £21. Miscellanies, in one stout volume, £51. Shelley’s Queen Mab, first edition, wanting title, £4 6s. Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions, £49. Camden Society’s Publications, £10 10s. Chetham Society’s Publications, £25 10s. Abbotsford Club Publications, £15 10s. Spenser’s Fairie Queene, first edition, £12 10s.; second edition, £10 10s.; and 1617 edition, with autograph of Ben Jonson, £10 10s. Shakespeare’s Plays, Second Folio, £17; Third Folio, imperfect, £12; Fourth Folio, £9 10s. Tracts and Pamphlets, £16, £60, £39. Watson’s Halifax, £9 9s.; and a copy with Canon Raines’s MS. notes, £37. The 2,824 lots realised nearly £3,600.

DR. SCHLIEMANN has been in London for a week or two. He has in preparation a book on his discoveries at Tiryns. The _Academy_ communicates the following details with regard to these discoveries: “The walls of the prehistoric palace which Dr. Schliemann has disinterred at Tiryns are formed of limestone and clay; the latter has been turned into brick by the action of fire, while the stone has been burnt into lime. In some places the surface of the walls had been coated with stucco, on which traces of painting can still be observed. The colours used in these paintings are black, red, blue, yellow, and white; and Professor Virchow has pointed out that the blue is composed of pulverised glass mixed with copper, but without cobalt. One of the paintings represents the same pattern as that found on the roof of the thalamos attached to the Treasury of Minyas at Orchomenos. Another depicts a man riding on an ox, whose tail he holds. The artist has made three attempts to draw the tail, and has forgotten to obliterate the two unsuccessful ones. The paintings have been carefully removed and sent to Athens. Among the ruins of the palace twenty-seven bases of limestone columns have been discovered, but no drums, besides a sandstone capital in the old Doric style. The chambers of the building were full of objects of all kinds, including pottery, obsidian knives, rude hammers of diorite, and grape-stones. No iron has been met with, and but little metal of any sort, though lead is relatively plentiful. All traces of writing are equally absent. The pottery resembles that of Mycenæ, but the presence of obsidian and the scarcity of metal imply that Tiryns was the older city of the two.”

THE name of John Payne Collier has been so long known to all those persons who take an interest in literature, that the recent sale of the first portion of the books and manuscripts which had belonged to the editor of “Shakespeare” by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, was certain to excite much attention. The second portion of the library is reserved for a future sale. Of those just sold, the more interesting lots were: Ballads, &c., an interesting manuscript of the seventeenth century, including a period of about sixty years, a most curious collection of ballads, quotations from Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Sir W. Raleigh, and summary of its contents by J. P. Collier, who gave Hoope £25 for the volume--£52 (Quaritch); Cartwright (W.), Comedies, &c., portrait by Lombart, manuscript note by J. P. Collier, with the rare cancelled leaves “On the Queen’s Return from the Low Countries,” and the uncancelled leaves on the same, £5 15s. (Quaritch); Cibber (C.), “Tony Aston’s Brief Supplement to C. Cibber, his lives, &c., notes by Collier, extremely rare--£2 15s. (Westell); Collier, J. P., Punch and Judy coloured etchings by G. Cruikshank, notes by author among others--“The plates in this volume were coloured by Cruikshank; he gave it to me”--£5 10s.; Collier, J. P., “Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakespeare’s Plays,” with a great mass of manuscripts, notes by Collier, 1853--£40 15s. (A. R. Smith); Cruikshank, 24 illustrations of “Punch and Judy,” India proofs, with a portrait of the artist himself etched at the bottom of one of the plates, and a view on another, &c., S. Prowett, 1828--£19 5s. (Richardson); Baxter (N.), Sir P. Sydney’s “Ourania,” autograph signature, and manuscript corrections by author, 1606--£9. (Stevens); Collier, J. P., “History of English Dramatic Poetry,” profusely illustrated by rare portraits, autograph letters, and manuscript notes by Collier, 1879--£59 (Stevens); Collier, J. P., “An Old Man’s Diary Forty Years Ago,” 1832-33, only 25 copies printed, illustrated like the last named, 1871-72--£150. (B. F. Stevens); Cooperi, T., “Thesaurus Linguæ Romanæ et Britannicæ,” “This book before it was rebound belonged to John Milton, as is testified in his own handwriting in more than 1,500 places,” manuscript note by Collier--£3 11s. (Quaritch); “Miltoni pro Populo Anglicano Defensio,” with autograph of O. Cromwell--£8 15s. (Quaritch); Shakespeare’s works, 1844-53, Mr. Collier’s working copy, manuscript notes, and letters from his friend--£10 (Ellis); Peckham, Sir G., “A True Reporte of the late Discoveries, &c., of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Kt.,” very curious and rare, John Charlewood for John Hinde, 1583, and many other rare tracts, in one volume, with manuscript notes by Collier--£210 (Quaritch). The entire proceeds of the sale were a little over £2,100.

Antiquarian Correspondence.

Sin scire labores,
Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.

_All communications must be accompanied by the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication._

DR. FRANCIS MALLETT.

SIR,--Dr. Francis Mallett, Vicar of Rothwell, near Leeds, instituted 7 January, 1533, is styled in the church register, “Magister Franciscus Malett: Sacre Theologie Doctor.” He resigned this living before 1547. In the catalogue of vicars, he is designated “Mr. Francis Malett, cap.” (capellanus or chaplain).

In a sketch of the life of Arthur Yeldard, one of the first Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford, founded by Sir Thomas Pope, it is stated that Mr. Yeldard, while at Cambridge (in 1553) for his better support in study, received an annual exhibition from the Princess, afterwards Queen, Mary, by the hands of Dr. Francis Mallet, her chaplain and confessor, the last master of Michael House in Cambridge, and dean of Lincoln.

Again, I find that a Dr. Francis Mallett, as master of St. Katherine’s Hospital,[34] offered to resign the mastership in 1559.

On December 18, 1573, a “Dr. Mallett” was buried at Normanton, and it is remarked in the parish register that there remained unpaid for his burial in the church, 3s. 4d.

I wish to ascertain, if possible, whether the instances given refer to one and the same man or no; and if so, whether he was a member of the ancient family of the Mallets of Normanton, in Yorkshire.

JOHN BATTY.

_East Ardsley, near Wakefield._

ARMS OF JOSUAH BARNES.

SIR,--I send you a description of the armorial plate, dated 1700, of Josuah Barnes, who was appointed Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge in 1695, and of whom Bentley said that he knew as much Greek as an Athenian cobbler. (1) For Greek Professor--Argent and sable, party per chevron: in first, the letters Alpha and Omega sable; in second, a grasshopper argent. On a chief gules a lion passant guardant or, impaling (2) Barnes--Argent, a lion rampant gules, crowned; in dexter chief a mullet; a chief or. The crown and mullet have no tincture marked.

The crest over a healm (an owl argent on a wreath argent and sable) and the mantelling (gules doubled argent) are those of the Greek Professor. Below is the motto--

“Hæc mihi musa dedit
Vix ea nostra voco;”

and under this--

“Josua Barnes, S. T. B. Græc. Ling. Cantab.
Prof. Reg. Eman. Coll. Soc. 1700.”

According to grant of arms to the five Regius Professors, the lion passant guardant is marked in his side with the letter G sable, and the owl has its legs, ears, and beak or.

J. HAMBLIN SMITH.

_Woodbridge, Suffolk._

PORTS AND CHESTERS.

(See _ante_, pp. 47, 96.)

SIR,--Mr. Round adds nothing of value to what has gone before.

(1) As to the alleged “borrowing,” the word port must, on Mr. Round’s own showing, have been taken up, adopted, or _borrowed_ by the so-called English pirates, before they incorporated it into their language; the question is, when?

Bosworth says that A.S. port means town in English, but that scholar has now fallen into discredit, for others doubt or deny his accuracy; further, we find it used as a compound, thus: portreeve, portsoken, portman. Portreeve is, I affirm, by transition from the Latin _portus_. The port of London extends from Yanlett Creek to Staines, so that the “city” itself is dwarfed by the larger jurisdiction appended to it; we can readily explain the anomaly, but the usage appears to have extended to other places where the hythe or haven, _i.e._, boat-shelter, is not so clearly marked and then the word is thrust back upon us in a sense that we repudiate.

It is further complicated with “gate” or “doorway”; portsoken, for, instance, means a liberty outside the gate or port of Aldgate, and in many northern towns where the Danes settled in force, we find the word port used for gate, as thus: Westport, Eastport, but it is not to be read as west or east-_town_; so the portman might mean a burgess told off to keep watch and ward over any particular gate of his own town; just as we have “wards,” _i.e._ guards, in London, originally confined to gates but extended to intermediate parts of the entire wall, for that was the primitive arrangement.

The Viking invaders used boats that could be pushed up comparatively narrow streams, and it might be contended that any inland place thus reached would be a _port_ of debarkation.

(2) My word “ramify” expresses a real difficulty; I did try to spread out or extend Mr. Round’s argument under its different heads and branches, _i.e._, to follow up the various _ramifications_ of his literary matter, with a view to the extraction of a tangible meaning; and I still contend that his words _do_ imply that caer was put for castrum; but it is certain that this “native form” was unknown on the south-eastern coast, for the transliteration shows that the Romans met with dune or dinas, not caer or ker.

A. HALL.

A BAKER BLESSED.

(See _ante_, p. 44.)

SIR,--Will Mr. Hussey take a suggestion for a half-answer to his query? It may possibly put him on the track of the origin of the lines that he quotes:--

In “Hamlet,” Ophelia says: “The owl was a baker’s daughter.” The ideas floating through her mind are connected with St. Valentine’s Day.

Grimm gives a story that “the cuckoo was a baker’s (or miller’s) man, and that is why he wears a dingy meal-sprinkled coat. In a dear season he robbed the poor of their flour, and when God was blessing the dough in the oven, he would take it out, and pull lumps out of it, crying every time, ‘Guk-guk,’ look, look; therefore the Lord punished him by changing him into a bird of prey, which incessantly repeats that cry.” This story, Grimm says, is doubtless very ancient, and was once told very differently. “That ‘dear season’ may have to do with the belief that when the Cuckoo’s call continues to be heard after midsummer, it betokens dearth.”

Again Grimm alludes to one of the many superstitions concerning the cuckoo in spring, and says that in some districts a rhyme runs thus:

“Kukuk _beckenknecht_
Sag mir recht,
Wie viel jar (jahr) ich leben soll.”

Here the idea of the baker is brought in.

Grimm gives a story of the woodpecker, which has also to do with the baking element. A combination of the Scandinavian with the saint-legendary element.

In Norway the red-hooded blackpecker is called Gertrude’s fowl, and the origin is thus explained. The story will be found in Mr. Stallybrass’ translation of Grimm’s “Teutonic Mythology” (see vol. ii. p. 673), together with much curious information concerning rhymes and charms, which may possibly be of some help to Mr. Hussey in his researches for origins of curious old rhymes and verses.

J. G.

AN ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.

SIR,--A find of some archæological interest was made a few days ago in the churchyard of Hitcham, Bucks. In digging a grave on the south side of the (Norman) nave, a stone cist, or sarcophagus, was discovered 4 ft. 6 in. from the present surface. Fourteen years ago a similar cist was found; with the remains were a quantity of iron rings, 1¼ in. diameter, and iron nails, but no other indication of there having been a coffin. The head of the present cist was then brought to view, but not disturbed. The inside dimensions of the present cist were 6 ft. in length, 12 in. wide at the head, and 8 in. at the foot; 19 in. at its greatest width. The south side was composed of 5 slabs, the north side of 6; the covering slabs were 5 in number; also 1 at the head and foot--18 stones in all, 13 in. deep at the head and 12 in. at the foot; the side stones averaging 4 in. and the covering stones 5½ in. in thickness. The chalk or claunch stones of which the cist is composed were rudely squared and hewn or axed on all sides with a tool 1 in. wide, and rounded on the edge; one other tool 3 in. in width, the axe marks being sharp and clearly defined. A large and perfect skeleton was enclosed, but no trace of a coffin, wood or metal. The bed or floor of the grave was composed of fine gravel-pit sand. The bones were considerably crystallised; probably the body was covered with carbonate of lime. The skull bore traces of having lain in a liquid; it was very friable, and crumbled at the touch; the femur measured 18½ in. in length. Llewellyn Jewitt says: “The mode of burial seems this: when the body was placed in the stone cist, or sarcophagus, it was fully draped in its usual dress. It was laid flat upon its back, at full length, at the bottom of the cist; any relics intended to be buried with it were placed by its side. Liquid lime or gypsum was then poured in, upon, and around it, the face alone being left uncovered by the liquid. The body was thus completely (with the exception of the face) encased in liquid lime, which, when it became set, formed a solid mass. When these are brought to light and opened, a perfect impression or mould of the figure of the deceased appears on the bed of plaster or lime in which it had been enclosed, and, in some instances, the texture, and even the colours of the dress is clearly defined. Some years ago a cist was opened at York, in which the body of a woman clothed in rich purple, with a small child laid upon her lap, was clearly discernible in the plaster.”

Whether this was an interment of the Roman-British or Anglo-Saxon period the orientation was very decided in this case, as in the five others I have seen in this spot, they all lying due east and west. Two-thirds in length of this very interesting relic had to be removed to obtain the depth required for the new grave. I collected the bones and placed them in the remaining third portion left undisturbed.

JAMES RUTLAND,

Hon. Sec. Berks Archæological and Architectural Society, and Maidenhead Field Club and Thames Valley Antiquarian Society.

HANG _The Gables, Taplow_, _August, 1884._

_TO CORRESPONDENTS._

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

THE continuation of Mr. J. H. Round’s paper on “Port and Port-Reeve” is unavoidably postponed to our next.

Books Received.

1. History of the Parish of Ruardyn. By Sir John Maclean, F.S.A.

2. History of the Wrays of Glentworth. By Charles Dalton.

3. Northamptonshire Notes and Queries. Part iii. Northampton: Taylor & Son. July, 1884.

4. English Etchings. Part xxxix. D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place, W.C.

5. Johns Hopkins University Studies. Second Series, vii. Baltimore. July, 1884.

6. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. No. cli. Boston, July, 1884.

7. Western Antiquary. Part ii. Plymouth. July, 1884.

8. Journal of the British Archæological Association. Vol. xl. Part ii. June, 1884.

9. Poems. By Lewis Gidley. (2nd Edition). Parker & Co. 1884.

10. Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Notes. Part iv. _Chronicle_ Office, Leigh.

11. The Hull Quarterly and East Riding Portfolio. No. iii. Hall, Brown & Sons.

12. Ye Historical Sketch of ye Olde London Streete. By T. St. Edmund Hake. Waterlow & Sons. 1884.

13. “Aberdeen Printers.” By J. P. Edmond. Parts i. & ii. Aberdeen: Edmond & Spark. 1884.

Books, etc., for Sale.

Works of Hogarth (set of original Engravings, elephant folio, without text), bound. Apply by letter to W. D., 56, Paragon-road, Hackney, N.E.

Original water-colour portrait of Jeremy Bentham, price 2 guineas. Apply to the Editor of this Magazine.

A large collection of Franks, Peers, and Commoners. Apply to E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

Books, etc., Wanted to Purchase.

_Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, several copies of No. 2 (February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the current number will be given in exchange at the office.

Dodd’s Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen’s Art and Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and Queries, the third Index. Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” (Ingram and Cooke’s edition), vol. iii. A New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers’ Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

_W. Dampier, del._]

_The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer._

Our Old County Towns.

_NO. II.--SEAFORD, SUSSEX._

ON the Sussex coast, between Newhaven and Eastbourne, stands the “ancient town and port” of Seaford, a place which was formerly of some importance--seeing that it could boast of returning two Members to Parliament, and that it contained no less than seven churches; but, having been disfranchised under the Reform Act of 1832, it degenerated into an obscure fishing village, from which condition, like many other places on the southern coast, having felt the impulse of fashion, it is now rising to the dignity of a watering-place.

In very early times the site of the present town was doubtless chosen as advantageous to the dwellers on the coast, and many traces of Roman occupation have been discovered hereabouts, particularly near the cliff overlooking the eastern part of the town, where is an extensive earthwork, locally known as the Roman Camp. About the year 1820 evidences of a Roman cemetery were disclosed at Green-street, in this neighbourhood: these included sepulchral urns and coins, among the latter being one of Antonia, daughter of Marc Antony.

Somner has fixed upon Pevensey as the Anderida of the Romans; and a great battle between the Saxons and Britons in 485, at Mereredesburn, is thought to have been fought in this locality.

Seaford suffered considerably from the ravages of the French in their “descents” on the English coast; and it was probably in the invasion in 1545 that the place was burnt, and its several churches and other public buildings destroyed.

There is a tradition that the privileges of the borough were first granted by Edward I., in consequence of its inhabitants having supplied the king with the gift or loan of “five ships and eighty mariners;” the said “privileges” comprised exemptions from toll and custom, namely, “lastage, tollage, passage, rivage, appensage, wreck,” &c., and with rights of “soc and sac and toll,” and freedom from “justices itinerant.” The town received its charter of incorporation from Henry VIII. At that time Hastings was in a pitiful state, as recited in the charter.

In the reign of Charles I. the town was made a member of the Cinque Ports, which comprised Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe, Rye, Winchilsea, Seaford, Pevensey, Fordwich, Folkestone, Feversham, Lydd, and Tenterden; now, however, it is but a “member” of the first-named port, though with “separate local jurisdiction.”

The government of the town is a municipal corporation, consisting of a bailiff or mayor, jurats, and an indefinite number of freemen. The bailiff is also (_ex officio_) coroner for the liberty; and the jurats, who are local magistrates and may be twelve in number, are chosen by the freemen, who were formerly styled “barons.” These “barons” of the Cinque Ports possessed extensive and peculiar privileges under their charters, and attended the Brotherhood and Guestling of the Cinque Ports Parliament, the last of which was held at New Romney, in July, 1828. The first bailiff, elected in 1541, was one John Ockenden.

The bailiff is annually elected on Michaelmas Day, with quaint formalities, which are thus set forth by Mr. M. A. Lower in his “Memorials of Seaford:” “At the summons of the church bell the assembly of freemen takes place in the town-hall, and after the _pro formâ_ business has been gone through, the _freemen_--leaving the jurats behind them on the bench--retire in a body to a certain gatepost near West House, and there elect their chief officer for the year ensuing. The motive for this singular proceeding seems to have been the prevention of unfair influence on the part of the magisterial body. The townsmen are attended on this occasion by the serjeant-at-mace in his proper costume, bearing the ensign of the bailiff’s authority in the shape of a small mace of silver, which is ornamented with the arms of Queen Elizabeth. The procession commences at a place called the Old Tree, where it appears the town pillory anciently stood, as it is called in old documents ‘the Pillory Tree.’ The place of execution, or rather the perquisite of the ‘finisher of the law,’ is still pointed to by the name of a piece of land called ‘Hangman’s Acre.’” The Pillory Tree was standing in 1578. The site is now marked by the “Old Tree” Inn.

In the 37th year of Elizabeth, the cucking-stool, the pillory, and the butts are mentioned in a “presentment” by the jury as in a state of decay. The pillory was an instrument of punishment to be met with in former times in most old county towns; but the cucking or ducking-stool was not so common, on account of its peculiar construction and use. It could, of course, be used only in such places as had a convenient pond or piece of water at hand wherein to “duck” its unfortunate occupant. The cucking-stool is referred to by some of the older poets. Thus Gay writes:--

“I’ll hie me to the pond, where the high stool
On the long plank hangs o’er the muddy pool,
That stool, the dread of every scolding quean.”

Down to the sixteenth century, Seaford had a harbour of its own. The river Ouse flowed between the town and the shingly beach to find an outlet at Seaford Head, or Cliff End, and ships floated up to the houses, in much the same fashion as they do at Shoreham even to this day; but by the accumulation of shingle through the action of the tides its outlet was diverted, and the harbour destroyed. A grant of Queen Elizabeth, dated 1592, speaks of the “decayed haven of Seaforth, called Beame lands,” &c. This land, now used for the purposes of recreation, but still retaining the corrupted name of the Bemblands, exhibits but few traces of the river-bed which of old conferred upon the town the distinction of a Cinque port. The haven in the end became a duck-pool.

Seaford is a borough by prescription, and from the end of the thirteenth century, as stated above, returned two members to Parliament, and it was at one time represented by the celebrated statesmen, the elder Pitt and George Canning; this borough was long remarkable for the obstinate election contests between the partisans of the two noble houses of Lennox and Pelham, and also for the open display of “bribery and corruption,” which formed perhaps the chief political interest of its worthy burgesses.

Seaford gives the title of “Baron” to the family of Ellis, Lords Howard de Walden; and it may be added that the custom of “Borough English” prevails here, whereby property descends to the youngest son.

The arms of Seaford are (like those of the other Cinque Ports) the dimidiated lions of England, with the three ships’ sterns. The town, however, has an ensign peculiar to itself: “Or, an Eagle displayed azure;” while the seal of Seaford, of which we give a representation, bears on the obverse an eagle, and on the reverse an antique ship.

The lordship of the manor of Seaford has belonged successively to families of historic fame, notably the Warrens, the Poynings, the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, the Monteagles (to whom it was granted as a reward for valour), and the Pelhams. One member, at least, of this last-named family exhibited bravery in the defence of the town, if we may judge from the following verses which appear on the monument of Sir N. Pelham at Lewes:--

“His valour’s proof his manly virtues prayse
Cannot be marshalled in this narrow roome,
His brave exploit in Great King Henry’s dayes
Among the worthye hath a worthier tomb;
What time the French sought to have sacked Sayfoord,
This Pelham did repell ’em back aboord.”

There are still to be met with in Seaford one or two old buildings which would delight the antiquarian visitor. The Plough Inn possesses a fine old chimney-piece; and the “Crypt House,” and the Court House with its jail beneath--somewhat similar to the Tolhouse at Great Yarmouth, already described in these pages[35]--will not prove uninteresting. Among the old records of the town is one referring to a curious trial which took place here in the reign of Elizabeth, in which the prisoner claimed the “benefit of clergy.” The entry, which we quote from the “Memorials of Seaford,” runs as follows:--

“Nich. Gabriell, a shepherd, was found guilty of stealing six shep, (sheep) at Chintinge. On being asked by the bailiff if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he claimed _the benefit of the clergy_, which was granted by the Court. Robert Hyde, Vicar of Seaford, and another clergyman, handed him a book to make proof of his learning, whereupon he read it off like a clerk (_legebat ut clericus_), and thus the heavier penalty was commuted for branding on the hand.”

The parish church, dedicated to St. Leonard, exhibits marks of considerable antiquity, being mostly of the Decorated period; the tower dating back to the Norman era. It has been recently enlarged and repaired, not in the best of taste; prior to that time the body of the fabric had been “a vile piece of patchwork, to which painted shutters on the outside of all the lower windows gave a truly grotesque appearance.” The original chancel is supposed to have been burned down in the general conflagration of the town already mentioned. In the nave, opposite the south porch, is a curious piece of sculpture. A tablet in the belfry records the recasting of the bells in 1807.

The bay of Seaford is one of the most dangerous parts along the coast, in consequence of its numerous shoals and rocks, and consequently the spot has become noted for its wrecks and “wreckers.” The latter are referred to by Congreve in his epilogue to the “Mourning Bride:”--

“As Sussex men that dwell upon the shore
Look out when storms arise and billows roar;
Devoutly praying with uplifted hands
That some well-laden ship may strike the sands,
To whose rich cargo they may make pretence,
And fatten on the spoils of Providence;
So critics throng to see a new play split,
And thrive and prosper on the wrecks of wit.”
E. WALFORD, M.A.

“Port” and “Port-Reeve.”

BY J. H. ROUND, M.A.

_PART IV._

(_Completed from p. 24._)

TURNING now to _ceaster_, I claim it, as I claim _port_, as a distinctively English word. Just as, ever on the same principle, I see in the use of _weal_ (wall)--a word etymologically derived from _vallum_--for a _stone_ wall (_murus_), an indication that the Teutonic rovers, struck by a phenomenon to them so strange as a fortification even of earth, formed for themselves, out of _vallum_, a word denoting a barrier _irrespective of its material_, so I contend that they formed for themselves, from a phenomenon so strange as that _castrum_ which faced them on the border of “the Saxon shore,” the word _ceaster_ by which to denote a walled enclosure, _irrespective of its size_. Is it not a striking thought that, in these English rovers, we have the forefathers of those to whom, as they gazed on the Norman donjon,--

“Both the name and the thing were new.... Such strongholds, strange
to English eyes, bore no English name, but retained their French
designation of _castles_.”[36]

Thus, to return, as when they made the acquaintance of a stone wall (_murus_), they would apply their word _weal_ to it, so, when they reached the large Roman towns of the interior they would apply to them, as being walled enclosures, their own word “ceaster,” _totally independent of the proper name by which they were known to Roman or Briton_.

Now here we have an instance of the striking results that may follow from minute analysis of “these interesting philological fossils.” For it follows, as a corollary from the above proposition, that the point of view from which all historians, whatever their school of thought may be, have hitherto agreed to look at “-ceaster,” is entirely erroneous and misleading. So far from being essentially a _Roman_, I shall prove it to be essentially an _English_ termination. Thus, though in no way a follower of Mr. Freeman’s sweeping theories, I go, it will be seen, in this matter of fact, even beyond the exponent of the extreme “Teutonic” view.

Let us ask ourselves, in the first place, what we mean when we talk of towns with the _-ceaster_ termination having retained their “Roman names.” Mr. Pearson, for instance, who is a follower of Mr. Coote, asserts that--

“Roman local names were preserved by the conquerors as they found
them.”[37]

Even Mr. Allen, though an independent thinker, contends that--

“The English conquerors did not usually change the names of Roman
or Welsh towns, but simply mispronounced them about as much as we
habitually mispronounce Llangollen or Llandudno.”[38]

And he goes, indeed, so far as to assert that--

“There are nowhere any traces of clan nomenclature in any of the
cities. _They all retain their Celtic or Roman names._”[39]

Take, then, the case of Gloucester. Mr. Freeman and Prebendary Scarth undoubtedly represent, on these questions, the opposite extremes of thought. The former would minimise, and the latter would make the most of the survival of “Roman names,” yet on this point they are at one. “A few great cities,” says Mr. Freeman,

“and a few great natural objects, London on the Thames and
_Gloucester_ on the Severn, still retain names older than the
English Conquest.”[40]

“London and Lincoln,” says Prebendary Scarth,

“and _Gloster_ are noteworthy examples of places retaining, like
many others, the Latinised forms of still earlier names.”[41]

And yet, as Mr. Allen most truly observes--

“To say that Glevum is now Gloucester is to tell only half the
truth; until we know that the two were linked together by the
gradual steps of Glevum castrum, Gleawan ceaster, Gleawe cester,
Gloucester, and Gloster, we have not really explained the words at
all.”[42]

It is the advantage of an unflinching analysis such as this that we are immediately confronted in black and white with a form of which the existence is necessarily involved, though hitherto surely overlooked. That form is “Glevum castrum.” This then is the question that we have to ask: _was “Glevum castrum” ever the name of Gloucester?_ “Glevum” we know, and “Gleawan ceaster;” but if we cannot demonstrate the existence of a form “Glevum castrum,” the continuity of the chain is severed; there is between them a missing link.

Now for this form, although, as I have said, it is a necessary postulate to the accepted theory, there is absolutely, we may at once assert, no evidence whatever. Indeed, as in this same article Mr. Allen has himself observed,--

“The new comers could not have learned to speak of a ceaster or
chester from Welshmen who called it a caer; nor could they have
adopted the names Leicester or Gloucester from Welshmen who knew
those towns only as Kair Legion or Kair Gloui.”[43]

Thus, then, as the Roman name was “Glevum,” and _not_ “Glevum castrum,” we see that “Gloucester,” the English name, is _not_ the “Roman name” preserved--is not even, though Mr. Freeman would admit it, “older than the English Conquest.”

But as yet we have only ascertained that “Gloucester” (that is to say, “Gleawan Ceaster”) was a new, an English, name. We have still to learn how it was evolved, and what the name really meant in the mouths of “the English conquerors.”

To solve this further problem, there are two points that must be borne in mind. The first of these points is that “ceaster,” though now only found in place names, and therefore, naturally, to our ears, a component of proper names, was, in the mouths of the earliest English, not a proper but a common name. We are reminded, for instance, by Mr. Grant Allen, that in Beowulf the city-folk are described as the “dwellers in ceasters;” and even so late as the days of Alfred, Chester, as Mr. Freeman loves to remind us, is spoken of as “a waste ceaster,” that is a deserted city. How, then, did this English word _ceaster_, a word formed to denote an object for which, being new to English eyes, a new word had been added to their speech, pass out of use as a general term, and become a component of certain proper names, embalmed in which it has descended even to our own day? Mr. Allen contends (though the suggestion surely is irreconcilable with his previous hypothesis of _Glevum castrum_ having existed as a Latin form) that

“Sometimes they [_i.e._, the English] called the place by its
Romanised title alone, with the addition of _ceaster_; sometimes
they employed the servile British form; sometimes they even
invented an English alternative; but in no case can it be shown
that they at once disused the original, and introduced a totally
new one of their own manufacture,” &c.[44]

Now this brings me to the second of the two points of which I spoke; this is, that in the names we are considering, such as Gloucester and Doncaster, we have to deal with two component parts, and that the _nomen ipsum_, the real English name, is always to be sought in the second part, and not, as has hitherto, it would seem, thoughtlessly been assumed, in the first. That is to say, that in _Gleawan ceaster_, as an instance of the original form, we are to seek the true English name in the _ceaster_, and not in the _Gleawan_. So far from seeing in this form “the Romanised title alone, with the addition of ceaster,” we ought to see the English word _ceaster_ imposed by the conquerors upon the city of _Glevum_, a prefix to _ceaster_ being only added where necessary to distinguish it from other _ceasters_. This is illustrated by the parallel case of the three Romanised forms, _Venta Icenorum_, _Venta Belgarum_, and _Venta Silurum_. In each of these three forms the true place-name was _Venta_ (Gwent), and the tribal names are mere suffixes, added for the sake of distinction. This parallel will also illustrate the contrast between the Roman and the English Conquests. For whereas the Romans were contented to Latinise “Gwent” as _Venta_, the English, settlers rather than conquerors, acting as their descendants have done in America, not as they have done in Hindostan, ignored the Roman or, more accurately, the Latinised British name, and, in their own tongue, called _Glevum_ “Ceaster.” Here I must again quote from Mr. Allen’s able paper, as clearly establishing this proposition, although the inferences we draw from it are not the same:--

“Thus, in the north, Ceaster usually means York, the Roman capital
of the province; as when the ‘Chronicle’ tells us that ‘John
succeeded to the bishopric of Ceaster;’ that ‘Wilfrith was hallowed
as Bishop of Ceaster;’ or that Æthelberht the Archbishop died at
Ceaster.’ In the south it is employed to mean Winchester, the
capital of the West Saxon kings and overlords of all Britain; as
when the ‘Chronicle’ says that ‘King Edgar drove out the priests at
_Ceaster_ from the Old Minster and the New Minster, and set them
with monks.’ So, as late as the days of Charles II., ‘to go to
town’ meant, in Shropshire, to go to Shrewsbury, and in Norfolk, to
go to Norwich. In only one instance has this colloquial usage
survived down to our own days in a large town, and that is at
Chester, where the short form has quite ousted the full name of
Lega Ceaster. But in the case of small towns, or unimportant Roman
stations, which would seldom need to be mentioned outside their own
immediate neighbourhood, the simple form is quite common, as at
Caistor in Norfolk, Castor in Hants, and elsewhere.”[45]

I must explain very carefully the difference between Mr. Allen’s point of view and my own. While I see the true English name in the English word “Ceaster,” and look upon its prefixes as merely added to distinguish one “Ceaster” from another--just as in “East Bergholt” (Suffolk) and “West Bergholt” (Essex), or in the widely separated “East Grinstead” and “West Grinstead” of Sussex, we recognise the original name of each village as “Bergholt” and “Grinstead” respectively--Mr. Allen, by the absolutely converse process, would see the true English name in the full compound, such as “Glewanceaster,” whether formed by simply Anglicising a Latin “_Glevum castrum_” (see p. 423), or, as he elsewhere holds (p. 434), by using the “Romanised title alone, with the addition of ‘Ceaster.’” He consequently sees, in the simple “Ceaster,” not the original form, but a corruption, a “colloquial usage:”--

“As a rule, each particular Roman town retained its full name (?),
in a more or less clipped form, for official uses; but in the
ordinary colloquial language of the neighbourhood they all seem to
have been described as ‘Ceaster’ simply, just as we ourselves
habitually speak of ‘town,’ meaning the particular town near which
we live, or, in a more general sense, London.”[46]