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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. IL SEPT. 3, im.

the king's peace. Constantino himself stood forth to answer him ; in the punning words of our author, "Constantinus, qui constans fuit in seditione, constantior exstitit in responsione." He asserted in defence that there was full warranty for their actions, and in fact that they justifiably might have pro- ceeded to more extreme measures against the men of Westminster for their base treachery. With regard to his treasonable cry of "Montjoie!" he maintained that the terms of the late agreement (ratified near Staines, 11 Sept., 1217) protected him.

The Justiciar, not wishing to infuriate the people, caused him secretly to be arrested with two others ; and at the dawning of the next day he sent the three under the escort of Fawkes de Breaute across the Thames. Here in the early morning Constantine, his nephew, and a certain Geoffrey were hanged, the last for having been the minister who proclaimed Constantine's decree in the City. Constantine, when the rope was about his neck, perceiving that all chance of reprieve was gone, offered 15,000 marks of silver for his life, which was refused. All this was carried out without the knowledge of the citizens, and the execution being over, Hubert de Burgh and Fawkes de Breaute entered the City with their troops, and arrested and imprisoned all those who had been concerned in the recent tumult. The latter were not executed, but according to the leniency of those rough days, some having had their feet and others their hands cut off, they were permitted to depart. Whereupon such terror was struck into the minds of the guilty ones, that many fled from the City never to return. The king, to make a further example, de- posed all the city magistrates and appointed others.

Such were the results of a wrestling match in the reign of Henry III. The king himself lived to repent the unjudicial execution of Constantine FitzAthulf, for when Henry demanded from Louis IX. the restitution of Normandy in 1242, the latter refused the request, inasmuch as the English king by this execution had broken the terms of the treaty. Hubert de Burgh, too, suffered, for on his downfall in 1232 the citizens of London did not forget to charge him with the unjust death of Con- stantine. At St. Cyriac in 1226 died the turbulent Fawkes de Breaute. He was found dead in bed, poisoned by drugged fish ; to quote the graphic words of the original, "Niger et fcetens, intestatus et sine viatico salutari et omni honore, et subito ignobiliter est sepultus siccis lacrimis deplorandus."

Thus, like Hamlet's father, was he sent to

his account,

Cut off even in the blossoms of his sin, UnhouseFd, disappointed, unanel'd ; No reckoning made.

CHE. WATSON. 264, Worple Road, Wimbledon.

' ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY'- NONSENSE VERSES.

(See 9 th S. xi. 486.)

I AGEEE with^ C. C. B. as to the common- mistake made in endeavouring to localize- dialect words too narrowly. The Dorset variant of the riddle given for a candle (it,, of course, only applies to a lighted one) is as follows :

Little Miss Etticott, In a white petticoat And a red nose ; The longer she stands The shorter she grows.

Whilst I am on this subject in connexion' with the ' English Dialect Dictionary,' may I be allowed to mention those verses which,, for want of a better name, may be called " nonsense verses," and with which, in some- form or other, this great dictionary will probably have to deal ?

I have a note before me in connexion with one of these, commencing " I saw a fish-pond all on fire" (which is contained in a long paper on 'Dorsetshire Children's Games/ which I contributed to the Folk-lore Journal' in 1889), which leads me to suppose that this form of versification is much older than is generally supposed. In the Fortnightly Reyieiv for September, 1889, in an article by- Miss Alice Law, appeared a verse of a very similar character, consisting of ten lines taken from an old MS. commonplace book (temp. 1667). This book is fully described^, and _is stated to have been discovered in turning out the contents of an old bookcase. This verse Miss Law describes as a "nonsense verse of extraordinary charm." So far as I remember, these ten lines were the same as in my Dorset version, only wanting two lines, which in the following October number of that review Mr. Joseph Knight supplied, and* which apparently complete the verse. This species of English verse-writing, for the proper understanding of which the punctuation must be altered, dates back to the middle of the sixteenth century, in verification of which' statement I would refer your readers to what may fairly be described as the first English comedy, 'Ralph Roister Doister,' written by Nicholas Udal, or Uvedale at one time head master of Eton and Westminster schools- and said to have been acted before 1553j