PARLIAMENT HILL.-Why was Parliament Hill, London, N.W., so named ? I have heard it said, Because the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot stood there to watch the House of Parliament be blown up.

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

AUTHORS WANTED.

I should be glad to know who wrote the following::

1. How thick with acorns the ground is strewn rent from their cups and brown!

How the golden leaves of the windless elms come singly fluttering down!

The briony hangs in the thinning hedge, as russet as harvest corn;

The straggling blackberries glisten jet, the haws are red on the thorn;

The clematis smells no more, but lifts its gossamer weight on high--

If you only gazed on the year, you would think how beautiful 'tis to die.

2. In the golden glade the chestnuts are fallen all: From the sered boughs of the oak the acorns fall,

"THE SWORD OF BANNOCKBURN." (12 S. viii. 151.)

PROBABLY the sword referred to under this title is the blade preserved at Douglas Castle in possession of the thirteenth Earl of Horne, who represents in the female line the ancient Lords of Douglas. It is said to have been given to the Good Sir James of Douglas by Robert I., King of Scots. There is nothing in the blade itself inconsistent with its traditional origin, for it is not a double-handed sword like that ascribed to Wallace, long preserved in Dunbarton Castle and now, if I mistake not, in the Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig near Stirling. Double-handed swords were unknown until nearly one hundred years

after Wallace's death. But if the swordblade at Douglas be genuine, as it well may be, the verses bitten into it by acid are certainly of later date, being in Roman characters. Moreover, the mention of many good men of one surname does not fit the chronology, seeing that family surnames were still in a state of flux in the early part of the fourteenth century, and very few persons as yet had borne the territorial one de Douglas." Many years ago I transcribed the legend on the sword-blade. It runs as follows:

66

So mony gvid as of the Dovglas Beine
Of ane surname was never in Scotland seine

I wil ye charge efter that I depart
To holy grayfe and thair bvry my hart

Let it remain for ever both tyme and hovr
To the last day I sie my Saviovre

So I protest in tyme of al my ringe [reign] Ye lyk subjectis had never ony Keing. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

JOHN BEAR, MASTER OF THE FREE SCHOOL AT RIPON (12 S. viii. 150). In 1730 the master of Ripon School was a Mr. Barker who might be the John Barker of Christ Church, 1717, B.A., 1721; M.A., 1724. He was succeeded in or before 1732 by Mr. Steevens or Stephens. J. B. WHITMORE. 41 Thurloe Square, S. Kensington, S.W.7.

"AUSTER "LAND TENURE (12 S. viii. 109). -Yesterday, or was it on July 15, 1882, I made a somewhat similar inquiry in the columns of N. & Q.' thus :

In the Enclosure award of the parish of Weston-super-Mare dated in the year 1810the Commissioner appointed for the purpose, and awards :after making various awards, sets out, allots,

"The residue and remainder of the said moor, common, and waste lands unto, for and amongst the several proprietors and persons claiming and being allowed rights of common thereon in respect of their tenements commonly called old Auster or ancient tenements situate within the Parish of Weston-super-Mare in the proportions and manner hereinafter mentioned that is to say, unto James, &c."

I received several replies, and to my mind, the correct solution from MR. G. FISHER, who wrote :--

66

"The word Astre is often used in old documents for the hearth, and for the dwelling house. A provincial use of the word in the latter sense in Shropshire is noticed by Lambarde, Peramb. Kent,' 563. Other instances are found in the local idioms of Montgomeryshire, and in many parts of the West of England, where Austerland' is that which had a house upon it in ancient times."

The Austerland generally passed to the youngest son or daughter.

Sandys

(p. 155) :—

'Consuetudines Kanciae' has

"If a man die seised of landes in Gavelkinde, of any estate of inheritance all his sonnes shal have equall portion....there ought to be graunted to the eldest the first choice after the division so to the part of the youngest there ought to be allotted in the division that piece of the mesuage which our treatise callethastre,' that is to say, the stocke, harth, or chimney, for fire; which woord (as I thinke) was derived of the Latine astrum, a starre, bicause the fire shineth in the house as the starre therof; and which, though it be not now commonly understood in Kent, yet do they of Shropshyre and other parts receive it in the same signification till this.day." ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

THE PACKERSHIP OF LONDON (12 S. viii. 111).—This was an officer charged with the packing, or supervision of the packing, of exported goods liable to custom. The Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London gives several entries relating to this Office. Letter Book "L." records the reversion in 1495 of the Offices of " "Pakker

ship and " Gawger Shippe for a certain term to a Robert Goodeyere, Mercer, and gives the following note:--

"The offices of packing all manner of merchandize and of gauging wine-vessels (to see if they contained lawful measure) were granted (inter alia) to the Mayor and Commonalty in

"that Robert Fitzherbert, the Common Packer,thenceforth take for his labour for the package of every hundred calf-fells (he finding the cords for such packing) the sum of 8 pence."

A similar office is mentioned in P. L. Simmond's 'Dictionary of Trade Products, Commercial Manufacturing, and Technical Terms,' 1858 :

Packing Officer: an excise officer who superintends or watches the packing of paper, and other exciseable articles. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

Henry Chamberlain in his 'History and Survey of London' (1769), at p. 229, writing of King Charles I., in 1640, says :

"The citizens....advanced the king a considerable sum of money in consideration of his granting them another charter: by which, after survey, or scavage of all goods, and of baillage,. first reciting their former privileges of package, two hundred pounds, confirmed the said offices, 'his majesty, in consideration of four thousand and created ordained and constituted an office merchandize whatsoever, and an office or carriage or officer of package of all sorts of goods and and portage of all wools, &c., and merchandize whatsoever; and did ratify and confirm the fees set down in the tables hereunto annexed, due to the said office. And his majesty did also give and grant the said offices of scavage, or surveying, baillage, package, carriage and postage, citizens of London to be exercised and occupied and their lawful fees, to the Lord-mayor and by sufficient ministers or deputies.... Waich charter is dated the fifth day of September, in the sixteenth year of his reign."

Chamberlain, then, pp. 229-35, proceeds to set forth in detail: (1) the Scavage Table of rates inwards; (2) the Balliage [sic] Duties outwards; (3) the Package Table of Rates; and (4) Fees taken by the packers and water-side porters for landing and shipping out the goods of strangers. Probably the Packership of London had ceased to be granted by patent to a private individual. for some considerable time before 1640.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT..

WAT TYLER (12 S. viii. 110) -Stow in his 'Survey of London' (ed. 1842), at p. 151, says:

"I find that in the 4th of Richard II. these stew-houses belonging to William Walworth, then mayor of London, were farmed by Froes of Flanders, and spoiled by Walter Tyler, and other rebels of Kent," and his note is :

"Li. St. Mary Eborum. English people disdayned to be baudes. Froes of Flaunders wereTM

PARLIAMENT HILL.-Why was Parliament Hill, London, N.W., so named ? I have heard it said, Because the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot stood there to watch the House of Parliament be blown up.

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

AUTHORS WANTED.

I should be glad to know who wrote the following::

1. How thick with acorns the ground is strewn rent from their cups and brown! How the golden leaves of the windless elms come singly fluttering down!

The briony hangs in the thinning hedge, as russet as harvest corn;

The straggling blackberries glisten jet, the haws are red on the thorn;

The clematis smells no more, but lifts its gossamer weight on high

If you only gazed on the year, you would think how beautiful 'tis to die.

2. In the golden glade the chestnuts are fallen all: From the sered boughs of the oak the acorns fall,

"THE SWORD OF BANNOCKBURN." (12 S. viii. 151.)

PROBABLY the sword referred to under this title is the blade preserved at Douglas Castle in possession of the thirteenth Earl of Horne, who represents in the female line the ancient Lords of Douglas. It is said to have been given to the Good Sir James of Douglas by Robert I., King of Scots. There is nothing in the blade itself inconsistent with its traditional origin, for it is not a double-handed sword like that ascribed to Wallace, long preserved in Dunbarton Castle and now, if I mistake not, in the Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig near Stirling. Double-handed swords were unknown until nearly one hundred years

after Wallace's death. But if the sword-
blade at Douglas be genuine, as it well may
be, the verses bitten into it by acid are
certainly of later date, being in Roman
characters. Moreover, the mention of many
good men of one surname does not fit the
chronology, seeing that family surnames
were still in a state of flux in the early part
of the fourteenth century, and very few
persons as yet had borne the territorial one
de Douglas." Many years ago I tran-
It
scribed the legend on the sword-blade.
runs as follows:-

So mony gvid as of the Dovglas Beine
Of ane surname was never in Scotland seine

I wil ye charge efter that I depart
To holy grayfe and thair bvry my hart

Let it remain for ever both tyme and hovr
To the last day sie my Saviovre

So I protest in tyme of al my ringe [reign] Ye lyk subjectis had never ony Keing. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

JOHN BEAR, MASTER OF THE FREE SCHOOL AT RIPON (12 S. viii. 150). In 1730 the master of Ripon School was a Mr. Barker who might be the John Barker of Christ Church, 1717, B.A., 1721; M.A., 1724. He was succeeded in or before 1732 by Mr. Steevens or Stephens. J. B. WHITMORE. 41 Thurloe Square, S. Kensington, S. W.7.

AUSTER "LAND TENURE (12 S. viii. 109). -Yesterday, or was it on July 15, 1882, I made a somewhat similar inquiry in the columns of 'N. & Q.' thus:

In the Enclosure award of the parish of Weston-super-Mare dated in the year 1810the Commissioner appointed for the purpose, after making various awards, sets out, allots, and awards :

"The residue and remainder of the said moor, common, and waste lands unto, for and amongst the several proprietors and persons claiming and being allowed rights of common thereon in respect of their tenements commonly called old Auster or ancient tenements situate within the Parish of Weston-super-Mare in the proportions and manner hereinafter mentioned that is to say, unto James, &c.”

I received several replies, and to my mind, the correct solution from MR. G. FISHER, who wrote :—