Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES. po s. x. SEPT. 12, im

I am aware that Mr. Eyton found it diffi- cult to identify Turstin Flandrensis with Turstin de Wigmore, but the following quotations are sufficient proof of the fact.

From Domesday (Herefordshire) :

"The lands held by Alured de Merleberge. The same Alured holds Cuure (Cowarne). Agnes, the wife of Turstiu de Wigmore, holds this manor."

From ' Historia et Cartularium Monasterii GloucestriEe,' DCXXL, vol. ii. :

"Know all men present and to come that I, Eustace, son of Turstin the Fleming, at the request of my mother Agnes, have given to St. Peter and the brothers of Gloucester a hide of land in Pen- combe, which is called Suthenhalle The wit- nesses of this thing are Turstin the Fleming, my brother ; William, a priest of the said town, 5 ' 1 &c.

DCXXV., vol. ii. p. 122 :

"Know all men present and to come that I,

Eustace de Wytteneye, knight, have given to

the monks and lord Reginald, Abbot of St. Peter's at Gloucester, a hide of land which is called Suthenhalle in the parish of Pencombe, which my ancestors heretofore gave to the said holy men," &c.

As Pencombe formed a portion of the pos- sessions of Agnes, wife of Turstin de Wig- more, she was the Agnes, mother of Eustace. The first deed must have been made soon after the Conquest, at least as early as 1100; the second deed in the time of the Abbot Reginald de Hamme, who did not become abbot till 1263, at least 175 years later. Probably the second deed was rendered necessary by the passing of the Statute of Mortmain 1279.

JAS. WIGMORE.

BEN JONSON AND BODENHAM. There is a belief, which amounts almost to a certainty, that Ben Jonson's ' The Case is Altered ' is an early play, and the drama referred to by Thomas Nashe in his ' Lenten Stuffe,' 1599. Now Bodenham's ' Belvedere ' actu- ally quotes from the play, thus proving that ' The Case is Altered ' was in existence as early as 1600, and in its present form. Jonson ignored ' The Case is Altered ' when he collected his plays for publication ; and there can be no doubt that the present play was never revised by him, the oaths in it being the same as those used in the early versions of ' Every Man .in his Humour ' and omitted in the folio plays or altered so as to escape penalties.
 * E. M. out,' which Jonson either entirely

The quotations in Bodenham are of such a nature as to be almost certainly overlooked by any one not intimately conversant with Jonson's work, and this fact, perhaps, accounts for their having been missed up to now. C. CRAWFORD.

" POPE'S HEAD TAVERN." Cunnigham (' Handbook of London,' 1849, p. 668) gives as the first mention of this tavern a passage quoted in Herbert's ' Livery Companies,' ii. 197, to the effect that in the fourth year of Edward IV. (1464) a wager was made between an Alicant and an English gold- smith, in the tavern called " The Pope's Head " in Lombard Street, that " the Eng- lishmen were not so cunning in workman- ship of goldsmithry as Alicant strangers." It would be desirable to trace this passage before its use by Herbert ; but even if authenticated, I suggest the following is more acceptable :

^ "Twelve deeds relating to the sale, &c., from Sir Henry Owen to George Monoux, of six tene- ments : four in Lombard Street, in the parish of St. Mary Wolnoth, and two in King Street, Corn- hill, in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhlll; also of ' The Pope's Head Tavern ' in Lombard Street, in the parish of St. Mary, Wolnoth, which formerly belonged to Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. These documents are dated from 6 Edw. IV. (1467) to the 10 of Hen. VIII. (1519)."

The above is taken from a description of a parcel of deeds relating to Sir George Monoux occurring for sale at Messrs. Puttick's, 4 Dec., 1851.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

" BAAL-FIRES " NEAR BELPER. Nearly sixty years ago I saw on Midsummer night a big bonfire blazing on the highest point of " The Chevin," a mile from the right bank of the Derwent, between Belper and Milford. The folks called it " Belfire," and my parents told me that it was a relic of Baal-fires, which were lighted on Derbyshire hills in olden times. About the fire there were boys and men from the villages and farms near. There was a good bit of horse-play, and drinkings from brown jugs were fre- quent ; but there was no dancing proper, though a good deal of hopping, skipping, and jumping was going on. My mother said she had seen those fires from her home on the hill on the other side of the Derwent from the time she was a little girl : she was born in 1798. Her father, then a middle- aged man, remembered when there were regular dancings around fires on the same spot on " The Chevin " on Midsummer's night. One part of " The Chevin " ridge is called " Firestone."

As certain as the end of June and the beginning of July came, we youngsters (some of us were indeed "wee") made little fires for days together, composed of dry keks and grass with sticks and twigs, and, joining hands in a ring, danced round