Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/524

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY 29, igoa

sale at different times for very paltry sums, and have most likely got into the hands of persons ignorant of their value. It has been suggested to me that some of them may be in "the Wolverhampton Museum. Fuller information would be very welcome, and well worthy of record in ' N. & Q.'

A. POTTS. The College, Chester.

TBESSAC DE VERGY (10 S. xi. 370). Pierre Henri Tressac de Vergy was, if we are to believe the Chevalier d'Eon's report of a conversation with him, a man of good birth, an advocate of the Parliament of Bordeaux, who had spent his fortune in riotous living, but had eventually resolved to secure advancement in a legitimate manner, and had obtained in 1764 an appointment with the Count de Guerchy, just named ambassador from France to the English Court. The history of his machina- tions as a tool of De Guerchy against D'Eon, and of his subsequent reconciliation with him, is to be found in any of the numerous biographies of the Chevalier.

I have before me a broadside, headed by a fine mezzotint portrait of De Vergy, published on 4 Feb., 1775, by Wm. Humphrey, Gerrard Street, Soho. The lower half of the sheet is occupied by a short account of his life and a copy of his will. We are told that

" This extraordinary Personage died at a Village near London the First Day of October 1774, aged 42, confirming by his dying Declara- tion ^ (made in the Presence of several worthy Magistrates, and other respectable persons) the Will he made, as set forth underneath ; as also all that he has sworn, touching the above Black Affair [the quarrel between De Guerchy and D'Eon]. His Body (which, according to his said Will, he desired to be carried to Bourdeaux, to be there interred among his ancestors) was soon after his Decease removed to an Undertaker's, where it still remains in a leaden Coffin, unburied, waiting further Directions, or those of the Lieutenant of Police of Paris."

A copy of De Vergy's will follows, as proved at Doctors' Commons by his executor, 10 Oct., 1774:

" This Account is by Desire of Nathaniel Jones, Esq., sole Executor of the said Will, published to all the World, to do Justice to the much- injured Chevalier d'Eon, to whom, in Testimony of the Respect and Esteem Due to his Character, the above plate is humbly inscribed, by his most obedient Servant W. Humphrey."

I should mention that this very broadside was in the collect on of prints and papers of the Chevalier d'Eon, whose cunning hand we see in the compilation and publication of a narrative wholly in his favour.

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

THE RHINE A FRENCH BOUNDARY (10 S. xi. 307, 375). MR. H. DAVEY'S allusions to the ' Rheinlied ' as "a feeble effusion " fitted to an " accepted tune no better than the words " seem scarcely as well justified as his record of fact that it "appeared in 1840, and made a great sensation." Those readers of ' N. & Q. who wish to know how the ' Rheinlied ' affected some far from feeble minds, not only in Germany but much more here, may be recommended to consult a contribution of my own at 7 S. xii. 403, on ' Sir Robert Peel and the Unity of Germany.' The extracts therein given from letters written in the autumn of 1841 by Baron Bunsen, then Prussian Minister to the Court of St. James, and Sir Robert Peel, at that time Prime Minister, dealing specifi- cally with this song, testify to the sensation it caused. ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

LICENCES TO TRAVEL: PASSPORTS (10 S. xi. 149, 233). The term "passport" occurs in the South Tawton churchwardens' accounts much earlier than Queen Anne or William III., thus :

1597-8. "P'd for making of passports, xij d " 1610. " P'd for a pasport for a Roge iij d . " 1610. "For a pasport for a man and his wife." 1610. " For two pasports for Rog's."

E. L.-W.

"BOTEMEN": "LANDBOTE" (10 S. xi. 369). Neither, apparently, is it necessary that there should be navigable water where one finds a " housebote," which is described as compensatio, and signifies estovers (etoffer or estoffer, to furnish), the French equivalent of the Saxon bote, and meaning any kind of sustenance in this case " housebote " being a sufficient allowance of wood to repair or to burn in the house, and sometimes called " fire-bote." " Plough-bote " and " cart- bote " refer to wood employed in making and repairing all instruments of husbandry ; likewise " hay-bote " or " hedge-bo te " is wood for repairing hays, hedges, and fences (vide 2 Stephen's ' Com.' 3).

Similarly " man-bote " was a recompense for homicide or a pecuniary compensation for killing a man ; and Cowel has the following s.v. " lambote " :

" Manerium de Berton parva reddit aulae Thomae de Redgrave annuatim, ad pascha, iiii. denar. et aulse de Cnapwel de Tudenham annuatim, ii. Deuar eo quod le pyse molendini Domini debent jungere pasturae de Tudenham et habere in ilia pastura Lambote. Ex Cartular. S. Edmundi, MS. f. iii."

Then there was " theft-bo te," or com- pounding for a felony, paying money to have goods stolen from one returned, without