Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. JULY is,

MANOR IDENTIFICATION IN DIVERS COUNTIES. The Devon and Cornwall Record Society are publishing the Feet of Fines for the counties of Cornwall and Devon. In the series of Fines in Divers Counties in the reign of Henry III. (to be published in the next issue) the following free tenements and manors are to be met with. I am anxious to identify these places and to give the modern equivalents for them as foot-notes. I should be glad also to receive hints as to where I could find information about the parties concerned in the Fines. The county, the place needing identification, the parties concerned, and the date of the Fine are given herewith.

Dorset (Ywer). Countess of Kent v. John de Burgo, 1247.

Kent (Cleyndon). Wm.de St. Amando v. Almeric de St. A., 1239.

Gloucester (La Wyke de Cerney). Ditto.

Norfolk (Burgh). Countess of Kent v. John de Burgo, 1247.

Norfolk (Causton). Ditto.

Norfolk (Newton). Ditto.

Stafford (Erleye). Ditto.

Somerset (Camel). Ditto.

Somerset (Cherleton). Ditto.

Somerset (Hengstregge). Ditto.

Somerset (Tottebere). Isabella de Percy v. Adam de Gay, 1243.

Suffolk (Exinges). William de St. A. v. Almeric de St. Amando, 1239.

Suffolk (Westhal). Countess of Kent v. John de Burgo, 1247.

Suffolk (Suther ton). Ditto.

Suffolk (Terrington). Ditto.

Sussex (Babinton). Wm. de Englefield v. Alan Basset, 1235.

Sussex (Gretham). Wm. de Englefield v. Gilbert de Basevil, 1236.

Warwick (Cumpton). Countess of Kent ?. John de Burgo, 1247.

Wilts (Cortington). Prior of Farleye v. Beginald de Boterell, 1259.

Oxford (Northbrok). Isabella Percy v. Adam de Gay, 1243.

Oxford (Lachebrok). Abbot of Grestong v. Peter Fitz Oger, 1250.

Replies direct would oblige.

J. HAMBLEY ROWE, M.B.

88, Horton Grange Road, Bradford.

"CHARMING-BELLS" TOR BIRD-CATCHING. I have recently obtained a set of what are here known as " charming-bells." The set consists of three small bells affixed to a wooden frame, to which a handle is attached. The pastime of "charming" birds, for which these bells were used, differed essen- tially from " bird-batting" or " bat-fowling," inasmuch as no nets were required. The operators, three or four in a company (and several companies might be at work in the same coppice at the same time),

entered the wood or coppice where the birds were roosting, bearing lanterns and keeping up an incessant ringing with the bells. The modus operandi somewhat recalls the strata- gem of Gideon, for the birds chiefly thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings, (locally "windles"), and starlings (smaller birds being disregarded) terrified by the noise, and dazed by the lantern glare, suffered themselves to be taken by the hand, or, if roosting aloft, as was the case on still nights, to be knocked down with the poles which the lads carried. A dark night with no moon was, I am informed, essential to success.

This method of taking birds was very common in this neighbourhood until some- fifty or sixty years ago, when, owing to the increase of game preservation, it seems to have died out, and only elderly folk know anything about it. The sets of bells have been broken up, and the bells in many cases adapted to other uses. I imagine that sets- are now very rarely to be met with.

I should much like to know whether "charming" birds was practised in other parts of England, and whether the sport is mentioned in old writers. W. F. ROSE.

Hutton Rectory, Weston-super-Mare.

OLD TUNES. Is there any known meaning to the name of " Money Musk " or " Moni- musk " ? What is its provenance ?

In Miles' s song in ' Fryar Bacon ' the fiddlers are made to play ' The Winning of Bullen ' and ' Upsy Frees.' I suppose the former refers to the taking of Boulogne under Henry VIII. The latter sounds tantalizingly Dutch : of what phrase, if any, is it a corruption ?

FORREST MORGAN. Hartford, Conn.

STEERING-WHEEL. About what date did the steering-wheel supplant the long tiller aboard ship ? When the change was made, was the barrel (?) horizontal, as to-day, or vertical, like a capstan ? All the works I have consulted (and they are many) care- fully avoid these particulars. C. E. D. Dublin, New Hampshire.

E. THAYER. I am trying to trace an ancestor named Ephraim Thayer, born July, 1727, in Norton, Mass., who went to England, entered the British Navy, and rose to some degree of distinction. Accord- ing to a Thayer family memorial, " He was promoted from grade to grade, until he was- appointed Admiral of his Majesty's fleets." He is said to have lived to an advanced age* possibly until 1814.