him by the fragment of an old ballad quoted by Merrythought in Fletcher's comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle, namely :—

"When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,

In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.

...

Mallet states that he believes this was all that existed of the old ballad. The entire song, consisting of twenty verses of four lines each, entitled Fair Margaret and Sweet William, is printed by Bp. Percy, Reliques, 1765, iii. 121, as from a "modern copy picked up on a stall," and contains the above-quoted verse preserved in Fletcher's play, on which the bishop notes that "it has acquired importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language, the song entitled Margaret's Ghost, .. the elegant production of David Mallet, Esq." It is plain, then, that there was a well-known ballad about "Margaret's ghost" in 1611, when the comedy was written, of which Mallet only knew four lines, and that these suggested to him the poem entitled William and Margaret. I believe both ballads are to be found in all editions of Percy's Reliques. In the sixth edition, 1823, there is a note referring to a book published in 1773 called The Friends, in which there is a different version of Mallet's ballad, put forth as the real original, which Mallet had appropriated half a century before. The editor of the Reliques observes, "Probably altered by some transcriber from Mallet, than which nothing is more common in popular songs and ballads." Thompson, in 1776, claimed this ballad for Marvell, and printed it in his Works (4to., i. xx.); Whether the ballad was really founded on fact is another question; but Mallet says that the lines in Fletcher's play had "reminded him of an unhappy adventure much talked of formerly, and so given birth to his poem." EDWARD SOLLY.

but this was soon admitted to be a mistake.

"COKER" FOR COCOA" (5th S. xi. 487.) Perhaps the following, which I extract from the late Mr. H. Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, 1851, No. 16, and addressed in a letter to that gentleman, will answer MR. LUNDIE'S query :

"Mr. Mayhew has been favoured with the following from Messrs. Keeling and Hunt, gentlemen to whom he is indebted for much valuable information:

"Monument Yard, London, 7th April, 1851. "Sir,-Your correspondent, C. B, of Portland Town, has properly questioned the accuracy of the word "Coker," as applied to nuts sold under the generally known title of "Cocoa," the proper derivation being "Cocos nucifera," one of the palm tribe and a native of India, first imported in 1690. From the researches we have made, we can only infer the word "Coker" is a corruption, or, more properly speaking, a Custom-house licence, to create a distinction in the mode of levying the duty on this description of fruit, and the kernels of a nut which is the

produce of a different description of tree, and the decoction of which is used so generally for the purpose of beverage; for the term "Coker" we find, upon reference to the Customs Acts of Parliament, was classified many years back by Mr. Hume, the then Chairman of the Board of Customs, and has been retained accordingly.

"The correct word is "Cacao," "Coco," from whence the English adaptation "Cocoa," is decidedly correct; but the word "Coker" and other anomalies are retained in order to discriminate between the duties levied upon articles bearing similar names, but different in use-in a similar way to Prunes (the French for Plums), which pay 7s. per cwt. duty, and Plums, commonly called French Plums, which pay 20s. per cwt. "Coker" nuts, commonly called "Cocoa," are now free of duty; while Cocoa in husks and shells pay one penny per pound duty. "We are, Sir,

"Your obedient servants, "Henry Mayhew, Esq., "KEELING AND HUNT. &c., &c.'" S. J. H.

Sim

"Coker-nut, n. (Com.) The cocoa-nut. This mode of spelling cocoa-nut was introduced by the London Customhouse in order to distinguish more widely between this and other articles spelt much in the same manner, and monds. Homans."-Dr. Webster's Comp. Dict. of the is now extensively used in commercial circles. Eng. Lang., revised by Chauncey A. Goodrich, D.D., LL.D., and Noah Porter, D. D.. 4to., London, Bell & Daldy, no date (preface dated 1864). FRANK REDe Fowke.

24, Victoria Grove, Chelsea.

66

not explain in my note (ante, p. 41) the meaning C. C. C. OXFORD (5th S. xii. 41, 133.)-I did of the double date, as I thought nobody would be unaware of the fact that ancient accounts rarely begin on Jan. 1, and that, therefore, a double year know why April 19, 1579, should be undoubtedly must be taken in quoting from them. I do not added," as your correspondent informs me, if it is not found in the original. Nor do I see why this gentleman confidently asserts that what I have certain statements which may be tested by an stated is " worse than useless." I have made examination of the original; I have drawn no inferences. But I can assure MR. BAILY that

the utility of all facts depends on the capacity of those before whom the facts come.

J. E. T. R.

CURIOUS ENTRIES IN PARISH REGISTERS (5th S. xii. 85.)-In the parish register of Warleggan, in Cornwall, is the following entry, similar to some of those at Toddington noted by MR. F. A. BLAYDES:

ground Feb 25. 1681. George Piper, an Anabaptist tumbled in ye

Though possessing a somewhat extensive acquaintance with parish registers, I have never seen a like entry, and I think it may be explained that Piper, being an Anabaptist, had died unbaptized, and consequently was not entitled to be buried with the rites of the Church. The same remark will apply to the Toddington burial of Dec. 31, 1719,

and probably to the others in which, in the register of that parish, the body is described as "hurl'd into ye ground."

The Warleggan registers, which commence in 1542, contain many interesting entries besides the mere facts of baptisms, marriages, and burials, e.g., there is the following note :

1684. Warleggan Chancel built [rebuilt?] May 84, by A. T. R. W. [Ambrose Triggs, Rector of Warleggan]; 1685. The rails of the Communion table made.

In 1618 is an entry giving an account of the planting of a number of trees in the churchyard, with the names of the parishioners who planted them and the day of their doing so.

Ambrose Triggs, above mentioned, was instituted to the benefice in 1673, upon the death of William White, whose burial is thus recorded :

1673. Mr. William White, Minister of this parish, and a very good man, died with a Cancer in his mouth July 1673. Ambrose Triggs, Rector, Aug. 1673. Ambrose Triggs was "Rector also of Boconnoc and Chaplain to ye Right honorable Lady Mohun." "All the trees in the town place planted by A. T. R. W., except 6 Old trees," &c., followed by a description of certain alterations in the lawn and garden. His burial is thus entered :

1706. Ambrose Triggs, Rector of Warleggan, died the 12th day of July by three of the Clock in the morning and was buried July 14, 1706.

1752. Mary Baudris (the late Rectors widow) was buried ye 6th April aged 100.

1746. Daniel Bawdris, Rector was buried Aug. 12. 1717. Mathew Baudris a French Refugee, brother of Daniel Baudris Rector, buried March 16, 1717, and a moorstone (granite) set upon his grave May 30, 1718. I find also the following entry :

1762. William Best was buried August the 30 1762, 100. 1762. Elizabeth Best his wife was buried Aug. 30. It is to be noted that the above persons William Best and Elizabeth his wife, Died within a Quarter of an hour of each other and were buried at one time and in one grave. I may add that I do not find the name Baudris in the late Mr. Durant Cooper's Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England, 16181688 (Camden Soc., 1862), though John Baudry

appears therein.

Bicknor Court, Coleford, Glouc.

JOHN MACLEAN.

To hurl=wheel on a barrow, &c., is still quite a common expression in Scotland. "Hurled to the grave" is probably carried to burial on a wheeled bier. X. C.

AVOURS (5th S. xii. 88.)-The meaning of this word may be seen by a reference to the earlier form of spelling the word. In Henry VII.'s instructions for his tomb there is, "And in the sides and both ends of our said towmbe we wol tabernacles bee graven, and the same to be filled with ymages, specially of our said avouries (or patron saints) of coper and gilte" (Handbook to West. Abbey, abr. ed., Lond., Bell, n.d., p. 33). The

word belongs to the old law term "avoury," French "advouerie," which implies the justifying or maintaining an act, and the "avoir" would be the one who does this; the advocate, or patron, was the patron saint. Minsheu has: "Avourie, à Gall. avouer, ou advouer, i.e. to avow, avouch, approve, justify or maintaine (a terme of law), is where one taketh a distresse for rent, or other things, and he that is distrained, sueth a replevin: now he that tooke the distresse, justifying or maintaining the act is said to avow, and that is called his avowrie." Compare Spenser's F. Q., vi. iii. 48,

"He bad him stand t'abide the bitter stoure
Of his sore vengeaunce, as to make avoure
Of his lewd words and deedes which he had done,"
where "to make avoure means to justify.

ED. MARSHALL.

"His nine accustomed avoués or guardian saints, This surely must be a misprint for avoués. to whom he calls and cries." Mid. Lat. advoco was to call in the aid of a superior power in your defence. Hence advocatus, Fr. avoué, an advocate or defender; and advocatia, protectio, tuitio (Ducange), specially applied to the protection of a guardian saint. Advocatiam Dei et S. Vedasti sibi profuturam assumpsit." H. WEDGWOOD.

MARY, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE BRUGES, SIXTH LORD CHANDOs (5th S. xii. 27.)-The query of your correspondent anent the posterity of this lady is of some little genealogical interest, inasmuch as in them-should any now exist-vests the representation of Anne, eldest daughter of Ferdinando, fifth Earl of Derby, and senior coheiress of the Lady Eleanor Grey, the younger granddaughter of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. So far as I am aware, in none of the numerous published pedigrees of "royal descents" is this line alluded to, a circumstance the more remarkable considering the very near place it at one 66 Protestant suctime appeared to hold in the cession." Descendants of Mary (or, as it should be, of the last century, and it is very doubtful if they Margaret) Bruges certainly existed in the middle are yet extinct. Her first husband, William Brownlow, was (according to a pedigree in Beltz's History of the Chandos Peerage) of Snaresford, or Snarford, co. Lincoln, and died in 1675. He was doubtless connected with the Brownlows of Hemsby, but his name does not appear in any account of that family that I have seen. issue of this marriage was an only daughter, Elizabeth, afterwards the wife of Philip Doughty Esq., who, apparently in right of this marriage, succeeded to the estate of Snarford. The last of the Doughtys of Snarford-whether a lineal descendant of this marriage I do not know-bequeathed the estate to Sir Edward Tichborne, Bart., who thereupon assumed the Doughty surname and arms. After the death of her first husband Margaret Bruges

The

three empty brackets, so that there were probably at one time no less than seven helmets, and, as some of the brackets have hooks, it is not unlikely that coats of arms, gauntlets, or swords once hung from them. The sextoness informed me that one of the missing helmets fell down some years ago. The churchwarden picked up the pieces, and the remainder of the history of that helmet is a blank; it was never heard of again. W. H.

It is stated in the Mirror that the flags, &c., carried in procession at the funeral of the great Lord Chatham, were hung up in the church near his seat at Hayes, in Kent. Are they still there? According to Brayley's History of Surrey, the armour of Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, who died in 1638, is arranged in detached portions round the chapel on the south side of the chancel in which he lies buried. E. Walford, M.A. Hampstead, N.W.

Some pennons, &c., probably of the Markenfields, have survived the recent "restoration" of Ripon Minster, and still hang in the north transept.

J. T. F.

I have seen the lines "Our life," &c., as an inscription upon the window of an inn. The first two differ from those quoted by HIC ET UBique : "Life is an inn; think, man, this truth upon; Some only breakfast, and are quickly gone." FREDERICK W. MANT.

Teddington.

SIDEMEN (5th S. xi. 504; xii. 31, 78.)—It might be inferred from MR. TOMLINSON'S quotation from the Annals of Cartmel that the members of the vestry at that place were known as "sidemen" so early as 1597. In the extract referred to, bearing date May 17 in that year, they are called "the xxiiijtie sworne for the weale of the church," and, if I remember right, the word sidemen does not occur in the Cartmel church books until 1751. The general form of oath required to be taken before admission into the "societye and felloweshippe of the twenty fourty" was as follows:

and att all times hereafter (as neede shall require) bee "You shall sweare that you shall from time to time ayding and assisting unto the churchwarden of this p'ish of Cartmell, for the well governeinge, proffitte, and goode of the churche, as one of the xxiiijtie elected for the saide p'ish, as well in advising and assisting of the churchwardens for the time being for the good of the church

oulde churchwardens, that the parishioners bee not from tyme to tyme, in takeing of the accomptes of the wronged therein, to the best of yo'r skill and understandinge. Soe helpe you God and by the contents of this book." WILLIAM O. ROPER.

"Such is our lot-We linger out the day;

Who stays the longest has the most to pay." Perhaps the following epitaphs may amuse your readers. In the churchyard, South Cave, three miles from Welton, Yorkshire, in memory of Richard and Susan Scatcherd :

"That Dick loved Sue was very true;
Perhaps you'll say what's that to you
That she loved Dick, and in it's this,
That Dick loved Sue and that made bliss."
Also at Welton, Yorkshire :-

"Here lie's he, ould Jeremy,

Had seven wives, and eight (sic) times married been ;
Now here in his age, he lies in his cage
Under the grass so green.”

13, Doughty Street.

WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S.

The members of the governing body of the parish of Cartmel were not called "sidesmen" in the sixteenth century, as would appear from the passage quoted by MR. TOMLINSON: until 1751 they were styled "the twenty-four." This form of vestry was not uncommon in the north of Lancashire, and is of great antiquity. Goosnargh, Lancaster, and Preston had each its "twenty-four sworn men"; Kirkham has thirty. At Garstang in 1734 the "twenty-four" were called "gentlemen sidesmen." For the oath taken at Goosnargh see "N. & Q.," 3rd S. vii. 211. Of the origin and history of the institution I have given a sketch in The History of Goosnargh.

H. FISHWICK, F.S.A.