Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/275

 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 215 of such parochial happenings does not exist for such a remote period. One is sorry to deprive the family of what is no doubt a cherished tradition, but historical accuracy must receive attention. The knowledge that the pedigree of this family can be traced through the register in unbroken succession since 1604 to the present day should be sufficient to sustain their pride in their beautiful village and interesting old church. H. Tapley-Soper. 179. Some Studies in the Topography of the Cathedral Close (IX., p. 188, par. 156.) — My quotations from The Shillingford Letters and Papers as to the words "eygge" and "egge" were from pages 94 and loi. The passage cited by Mrs. Rose-Troup containing the word " fryth " occurs, I find, on p. 86 ; and on inter-comparison I agree that by " egge " Shillingford must have meant " hedge," notwithstanding that the N. E. D. gives " egge " as the I3th-i7th century form of "edge," whereas no form of " hedge " appears therein without the initial h. The N.E.D., the E. D. D., Halliwell PhilHps, and Britten's Old Farming Words supply various definitions of overgrown with such, but those apparently best answering to the " grete drie fryth " that " late was sette yn the cymytere " are : — " a hedge, especially one made of wattled brushwood " ; "a hurdle " ; " an enclosure surrounded by a wreathed or wattled hedge." The E. D, D. cites, too, an item from Woodbury Chw. Accts. of 1604, " Pd. for freath and freathing about the Parish Close." To revert to Shillingford (p. loi), it is not quite clear whether the " gret parcell of tymber " was enclosed " to " the frith, or " to " " the bak side of the costlewe billyng." (By the way, I wonder whether the latter was the " Hos- pitium de le Egle," which stood opposite the Guildhall.) If the frith was a strip of ground confined by a hedge, and lay between the back of the High Street houses and the path bordering the churchyard, it may have been comprised in the " Margeria Exon'," as may " the eygge bytwene the cimitery and the cyte," " in " which a man was stabbed, but it is possible that the terms "fryth," ^^egge" and
 * frith " or " fryth," e.g., underwood, brushwood, or ground
 * ' eygge " all designated a single hedge-row, and that this