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the whole of this song was composed by me in the year 1825. I wrote it under a stag horned oak in Sir Beville's Walk in Stowe Wood. It was sent by me anonymously to a Plymouth paper, and there it attracted the notice of Mr. Davies Gilbert, who re-printed it at his private press at Eastbourne, under the avowed impression that it was the original ballad.

This acknowledgment was not forthcoming until many years later, however; and it was this fact which led Sir Walter Scott, Lord Macaulay, and several others to pronounce a premature opinion that the poem in toto was of genuine antiquity. Now although the couplet which Hawker, introduces as a chorus is part of an old chanty which is generally remembered in connection with the trial of the Seven Bishops in 1688, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bt., of the See of Bristol, being one of the number, its actual origin is not in connection with that event. It appears as a popular cry as early as 1628, when Cornish fears ran high fo the life of Sir John Trelawny (the first Baronet and grandfather of Sir Jonathan), who had incurred the grave displeasure of the House of Commons; and there is little doubt that the verse printed some twenty-five years after this, at the time John Lilburne's life hung in the balance, is an adaptation of the Trelawny cry. Your correspondent is

correct that Lilburne was not connected with Cornwall in any way, but the Cornish cry seems to have lent itself, with very little adaptation, to the Lilburne cause. That There were variations of the strain is evidenced by another altered version still extant. i.e., "Here's twenty thousand underground will know the reason why," referring to the Cornish miners' loyalty to the Trelawny

cause.

GILBERT JOHN ANDERSON.

Sanderstead, Surrey.

This is Hawker's note to 'The Song of the Western Men' [ut supra]:

It Hawker's Song '1 had the good fortune to win the eulogy of Sir Walter Scott, who also deemed it to be the ancient song. It was praised under the same persuasion by Lord Macaulay and by Mr. Dickens, who inserted it at first as of genuine antiquity in his Household Words,' but who afterwards acknowledged its actual paternity in the same publication.

It seems, however, that the refrain dates back to the earlier years of Charles I, John Trelawny, grandfather of the Bishop, was one of the leaders of the King's party in

Cornwall, and on May 13, 1627, was com-
mitted to the Tower by the House of Com-
mons for certain "offences against the
liberty of free election," and "contempt of
the House." The following lines were then
published in several places in London:
And must Trelawney die?
And shall Trelawney die?

We've thirty thousand Cornish Boys
Will know the reason why!

Mr. Byles in his 'Life of R. S. Hawker,' writes:

The evidence as to the antiquity of the refrain is strengthened by the fact that the Trelawney trial was not the only one in which it was used. A contributer to Notes and printed in Thurloe's State Papers,' and dated Queries (21st May, 1904) quotes from a letter 21st July, 1653, a similar couplet relating to the trial of one John Lilburne. There were many tickets thrown about, says the letter, with these words,

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And what, shall then honest John Lilburne die?

Three score thousand will know the reason why!

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May it not be supposed that between 1627 and 1653 the refrain became popular not only in Cornwall but elsewhere, and adapted in 1653 for the trial of John Lilbourne, who was not a Cornishman, and in 1668 for the trial of Bishop Trelawny ? H. P. HART.

Ixworth Vicarage, Bury St. Edmunds. [Mr. J. B. Wainewright thanked for reply.]

ST. MICHAEL AS WINGED BISHOP: DUMfries is not responsible for this monstrosity. FRIES (12 S. xi. 7).—Pre-Reformation DumThe seal of the burgh in use in 1516 (figured W. Dickie, 4th edn., 1910), bears a normal on p. 7 of Dumfries and Round About,' by representation of the archangel.

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The escutcheon mentioned in McDowall's book is still to be seen, let into the west wall of the Mid Steeple. The arms are the same as those of Gilbert Brown (d. 1612) last Abbot of the Cistercian Sweetheart Abbey, New Abbey, Kirkcudbrightshire, and of other members of the Brown family.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

CHILDREN (2 S. vii. 260; 12 S. xi. 351, 372, THE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE 417, 518). See also De Blainville's

Travels (London, 1767), Vol. ii, pp. 11-14, where the matter is discussed at some considerable length. De Blainville was at the Hague in January, 1705.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

"GO TO THE DEVIL AND SHAKE YOUR SELVES : TUNE (12 S. xi. 530).—I cannot help your correspondent, but I think it may interest him to know that in my youth I heard the bidding:

Go to the Devil and shave yourself, And when you come back behave yourself. Possibly somebody with an ear for rhyme substituted shave for shake, but in no wise is the prescription alluring. ST. SWITHIN.

Unless my memory is at fault, I used to hear this tune played in Guernsey some seventy years ago by the military band of a light infantry regiment, as their quick-step march. I think there must have been a song to the tune, as I remember a second line:

And when you come back behave yourselves, which suggests the conjecture of a variant shave for shake in the first line; but I do not remember having seen or heard anything but shake," or any line of the song (if any) beyond these two.

JOHN R. MAGRATH.

ST. MARY-ATTE-MOORE (12 S. xi. 432).Westow, a parish about five miles southwest of Malton (Yorks), on the left bank of the Derwent, has a church dedicated to St.

Mary del Mora, or St. Mary de la Mora. The Church stands about the middle of the parish, far away from any habitation, and serves as a parish church to Westow, Firby, Mennethorpe, and Eddlethorpe. Westow and its church were given by Walter Espee to the Priory he founded at Kirkham for Augustinian Canons.

Burton's Monasticon speaks of the place as follows: "The founder of this priory (Kirkham) gave this place and seven carucates of land thereto belonging, with church formerly called Mora, which was appropriated thereto."

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Torre's MS. at York says:- The Church of Westowe, anciently called Mora, was given to the Prior and Convent of Kyrkham, etc."

The Register begins in 1560.

C. V. COLLIER.

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dance and quaint pageantry and play have all along been popular, but the war took the youths, and the Sleights band of stots in consequence became non est. In the summer I went over to Goathland to give a lecture largely dealing with the origin of the Plough Monday celebrations, and at a meeting held immediately afterwards score of young men gave their names as willing to practise the dance and revive the old-time pageant. At this meeting some of the old swords, rosettes (a century or more old), a large old china watch worn by the clown or jester, and other curios were on view. Mr. F. W. Dowson has been one of the primary movers in the revival, and the sword dance has been practised all the summer. On the first Plough Monday after the Armistice I saw a band of Plough Stots" at Kirbymoorside (North Yorkshire), and I remember seeing as a boy bands of sword dancers in Cleveland, dancing beautifully on Plough Monday. At Guisborough, thirty years ago, my late father always had the band of stots" in the house to perform their play, after they had platted their given their dance and swords on the church green opposite. Turner, in his 'Yorkshire Anthology (P. 243) gives the Cleveland Fool Plough play with this preface:—

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Dragging a plough at Christmas and Easter. Performers: about a dozen, dressed grotesquely, with lath-swords and streamers. The Captain, dressed in cocked hat, forms a circle by swinging his sword round.

The main characters in his play are: Clown, Captain, Priest, Squire's Son, Tailor, Doctor, Prodigal. Portions of the rhyme are undoubtedly taken from one of the mystery plays. A somewhat similar play is given at p. 80, County Folklore,' Vol. iv (Northumberland).

J. FAIRFAX-BLAKEBOROUGH.

Grove House, Norton-on-Tees.

CHEESE-BEGGING RHYMES (12 S. xi. 471, 539). Surely the couplet given at the last

reference should run:

Good bread, good butter and good cheese Is good English and good Friese.

H. C-N.

DUXBURY. MINORS IN PRESTON CHURCH ROLLS (12 S. xi. 511).-Since sending my query on this subject I have discovered that the marriage licence of Lawrence Duxbury and Mabel Preston was dated 10 Sept., 1640. Therefore Henry Duxbury, their eldest son, 118432

whom I have described as an outside Burgess of Preston in the Guild Rolls of 1642, could not have been more than a year old at that date. At first sight this seems manifestly absurd, and the natural inference would be that the person admitted was an elder Henry, son of an elder Lawrence Duxbury, and that the Henry Preston, at whose instance he was admitted, was not his uncle (though he was uncle of the infant), but merely a friend.

It is, however, a fact that minors were entered on the Preston Guild Rolls. This is pointed out on p. xxxv of Mr. Abram's Introduction to the Preston Guild Rolls' (Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, 1884). As an instance of the truth of this I may mention the entries in the 1682 Rolls referring to the Swansey family:

Swansea, Alex'us jur'

Swansea, Henricus filius ejus
Swansea, Hugo frater p'd' Alex'i jur'
Swansea Will'us frater ejus jur'
Swansea, Henricus, filius ejus.

This means that three brothers were entered and sworn, and the sons of two of them (each son named Henry) were entered and not sworn. Now we know that Henry Swansey, son of William, was still a minor in 1685, while Henry, son of Alexander, was bapt. at Preston 27 April, 1675, and was therefore only seven years old when he was entered on the Rolls. A modern parallel may be the practice of sporting parents, who put their sons' names down for Lord's in infancy. In the light of these facts it does not seem impossible that Henry Duxbury, who is expressly stated to be "filius Lawr' Duxbury, was entered on the Burgesses' forens' " roll when only a twelvemonth old.

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H. B. SWANZY.

THE STOCKS (12 S. xi. 386, 438, 472, 492, 517).

Derbyshire:--There is in the dining-room or hall of Haddon Hall an iron staple fixed into the wall at such a height that when a man's wrist was fixed in it his arm would be drawn up over his head. In this it was customary in the good old days to insert the arm of any member of the company who did not drink down to the peg, and the drink was then poured down his sleeve.

Devon :-Torquay. There are parts of stocks of rather unusual design in the museum here. In 'Vanishing England,' by P. H. Ditchfield, there is an interesting chapter on Stocks, etc.

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One post was all that remained of the stocks here. It was very similar to the ones at Treeton, and stood near the church gates about sixteen years ago. In an old

Ecclesfield, near Sheffield. Ecclesfield Diary (1775-1845), which I edited and published in 1921, we read:

Thomas Chandler a young lad put into the Stocks for 2 hours Sep. 22 [1817] for a misdemairer (sic) at William Foster's Bottom of Church Lain (sic) Ecclesfield [The Stocks) stood in what is now known as Stocks Hill in the middle of the village.

Treeton, near Rotherham. The stocks were removed from this village about forty years ago, when their site was fenced into the churchyard by the Rev. Mr. Watkin. They consisted of two round-topped stone posts about three feet high, having each a groove some three inches wide cut down their inner face, but not continued to the top of the posts; in these ran two planks about 3in. x 12in., which must have been inserted' into the grooves before the posts were fixed in the earth. The upper plank could be lifted up to allow of the insertion of the culprits' legs into the two semi-circles cut into the respective upper and lower edges of the bottom and top planks, which were then locked together with a padlock or fetter-lock.

Whiston, near Rotherham. There was a very complete set here about forty years ago--very like the one at Treeton.

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SHELTON'S SHORTHAND SYSTEM (12 S. xi. 512). Shelton is said to have largely imitated John Willis's system of shorthand, but hardly improved on it. The system was used by Pepys in writing his Diary, and an account of the cypher will be found in the Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, Vol. ii, 1876, p. 131, by the late J. G. Bailey, F.S.A., together with four facsimile pages of examples.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

This Library possesses a comprehensive collection of early shorthand systems, including copies of the ? 1640, 1660, and 1710 editions of Thomas Shelton's Tachygraphia.' Details of Shelton's life are to be found in the D. N. B.'

H. TAPLEY-SOPER. Museum and Public Library, Exeter.

I purchased, some years ago, of R. McCaskie, Marylebone Lane, a facsimile (anastatic) "Tutor to reprint of Thomas Shelton's Tachygraphy or Short writing.' Possibly he could still supply a copy. Your correspondent should refer to Wheatley's Pepysiana,' p. 270, for an article on the subject by J. E. Bailey, F.S. A.

W. H. WHITEAR.

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tively, the sources available for her subject, to the same purpose; she has extracted from some of which have not before been examined them a vast number of details, and she has composed with these an elaborate sort of mosaic, fitted and fixed together in a lively narrative. Her humour lends interest to the drier matters, softens, as far as possible, what is harsh or melancholy, and enables her to produce an effect of actuality which considerably enhances the value of a book on other accounts also valuable.

It is well known that, on the whole, these three centuries were a time of decadence in monastic life. Our author lays great stress on this. Half-laughing at them, half-commiserating, she lifts for a moment out of oblivion the names and doings of many erring Abbesses and nuns, revealing nothing substantially new, but displaying in hard fact the grounds of frequent satire. In reaction from calumnies and exaggerations, there has been some sentimental tendency to gloss over the realities of monastic corruption. Here the reader will find chapter and verse for every statement, and may note that corroboration is not drawn from the tainted evidence " of Henry VIII's commissioners.

Good reasons are shown for modifying several common assumptions in regard to mediæval nunneries. The belief that they bore any considerable part in education is not supported by the documents, and the various household accounts go to prove that almsgiving and works of charity were usually restricted within definite and somewhat narrow limits. Nor are these houses to be thought of as open to all the womanhood of the time. With few exceptions, a nun was a well-born and well-bred person, having well-to-do friends in the world; and girls of the lower classes had not the refinement, nor yet the slight tincture of letters requisite for admission to her The theory of vocation as the company. modern religious understands it, had not been Power's investigations certainly go some way elaborated the Middle Ages and Miss to reinforce the familiar conception of a nun as an unwanted girl, whose dowry was insufficient to procure her a marriage suitable to her station.

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The economic side of life in a nunnery during these centuries receives very full illustration-may count, in fact, as the best part of the book. Good, too, are some paragraphs on the significance of the Bishops' registers as evidence, and on the proper validity of the argument from common form."

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But while recognising its many good points, together with the industry to which it bears witness, we cannot but notice several grave defects in this book. It is ill-constructed, much of it being scissors and paste work, which grows wearisome with repetition and Better selection and better aroverlapping. rangement might have reduced the volume to two-thirds of its size without sacrifice of any essential, rather with gain to clearness and force. The humour, often as we have said, pleasant and serviceable, often shows it

self cheap and jarring. Monastic failure a matter, after all, very easy to grasp-is emphasized beyond reason; and, in particular, scandalous stories are needlessly multiplied, even having their point dulled by being brought forward again and again. The whole account is lop-sided and uncomprehending, even in blame, like a pacificist's account of a military campaign. A few reminders that the documents, by their very nature, deal chiefly with wrongs and abuses, and that sometimes the visitations report "omnia bene" is not sufficient to keep the balance true; while the lack of any real recognition of a possible influence of their religion upon the outlook and the behaviour of nuns falsifies the picture yet further. So flippant a treatment of the interior aspect of monastic life as we get here, is both unphilosophical and poor history. The fourteenth century is, for English mystical literature, among the greatest, yet the allusions to it are few and casual. Some study of the relation of the nunneries to this would have been far better worth while than these pages of gibes. We do not, for example, remember any mention even of Margaret Kirkby, Richard Rolle's friend.

Omissions, indeed, or casual remarks where a purposeful account might be looked for, are sometimes surprising. There is little about the normal routine of a well-ordered house: the offices, the habit, the usual plan of nunnery buildings, the relations from the spiritual point of view, or that of discipline between the head of the house and the community in general. How often, during this period, was it customary for nuns to receive communion? Was it the custom for mass to be said daily in nunneries? How far were the nuns' chapels used for public worship? All this side of the matter seems to have little interest for our author compared with evidence for boredom, spite, lax morals, and undesirable intercourse with the external world. Yet it is, after all, more truly of the essence of the business, and at least should have had due place beside the other.

By the way, St. Syth is St. Osyth, not specially obscure saint.

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The Topography of Stane Street. A Critical Review of The Stane Street' by Hilaire Belloc. By Captain W. A. Grant. (John Long. 5s. net).

CAPTAIN GRANT was led to make this study of the topography of Stane Street, a district which he knows well, from reading Mr. Belloc's book on the subject. His work is a criticism of this book, which he treats very harshly, drawing attention to what he states to be a number of errors in measurement and direction, due to Mr. Belloc's "defective topography." His calculations seem to have been carefully done, and as he has a knowledge of surveying and worked throughout with a six

inch Ordnance map, we must take it that, failing an effective reply, Mr. Belloc cannot be acquitted of a certain amount of error. The more interesting part of Captain Grant's book, however, is not his somewhat unnecessary castigation of Mr. Belloc, but his theory of the manner in which the Roman engineers built the road and his conjectures concerning its route in places where the line has been lost. The Roman engineers, he be lieves, began by running an alignment from Chichester to London Bridge, and he advances reasons for thinking that the road was begun at the London end. In order to negotiate the South Downs, the southern part of this alignment was abandoned, though the northern part from London Bridge to Merton Abbey lies exactly upon it, a point that had escaped Mr. Belloc. The southern part of the road was built from Chichester to Gumber Corner, where it crossed the Downs and whence a second alignment was run, passing through Dorking, one of the Stane Street camps. But as the road on this alignment would have had to climb Leith Hill, the Chichester-Gumber Corner road was continued to Pulborough, near which it crossed the River Arun. From this point a third alignment was run, which the road follows nearly to Dorking, where it bends westward to "pick up," so to speak, the second alignment, and after crossing the River Mole at Burford Bridge, bent in again westward to the first alignment, which, in the author's view, it met at Ashstead. The three main alignments form what is called "closed traverse," and Captain Grant suggests that the Roman practice was to return to their first alignment at the earliest possible opportunity.

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The theory that the road followed the line, Ashstead-Epsom-Ewell-Morden, is the most interesting of Captain Grant's conjectures. This is the line of the first alignment from London Bridge to Merton Abbey, and the conjecture is strengthened by the fact that Roman remains have been discovered at Ashstead and Ewell. The author suggests that there is a reasonable hope that further archaeological research along this route may prove his theory.

Notices to Correspondents.

EDITORIAL Communications should be ad22, Essex Street, Strand, W.C.2."-Advertisedressed to " The Editor of Notes and Queries," ments, Business Letters and Corrected Proofs to The Publisher"-at 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks.

ANTI-PAPIST. The rules of N. & Q' forbid the insertion of controversial questions, however interesting.

Printed and Published by The Bucks Free Press, Ltd., at their Offices, High Street, Wycombe, in the County of Bucks.

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