Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/89

 10* s. ii. JULY 23, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

69

Is it not strange that the natives should have given to a stone building, which was a novelty, the name they commonly used for a familiar type of wooden building ? Surely also it is improbable that the name Candida Casa would suggest itself to the mission- aries as appropriate for an ordinary stone church.

On the other hand, if " Candida Casa " was neither the name that the missionaries were likely to give of their own accord to a stone church, nor the translation of the name that the natives were likely to apply to a stone church, it is the name which the missionaries most probably did give to a royal house, and which would bo the most natural translation of the native name for a royal house.

No satisfactory site has been found for the original church. Could it possibly have been made of wood, like the house of a native king? Bede's tale of stone may well be an explanation of his own for the uncommon name. (It will be remembered that the tribal house was pillared like a rude Gothic cathedral ; though I am not sure that this makes it any more probable that St. Ninian's church was of wooa.) D. C. L.

THE RECTORS OF CROWHURST, SUSSEX. Some years ago I published a list of our rectors which I had obtained from the Bishop's Registry, commencing 1396. Re- cently, however, I have come across ' A List of the Rectors, Prebendaries, and Vicars of the Parish of Crowhurst, Sussex, presented by the Crown ' (' Sussex Archaeological Col- lections,' xvii. 106 ; xxi. 57, 58). This list dates from 1273 to 1471, but the names do not even in one instance coincide. I should be glad of any suggestion which would eluci- date this mystery. J. P. BACON-PHILLIPS.

Crowhurst Rectory, Sussex.

ISABELLA BASSET, 1346. Isabella, wife of Simon, Lord Basset of Sapcote, was daughter of William, Lord Boteler of Wem. Was this the first or second William, Lord Boteler? Who was Isabella's mother? She seems to have been living a widow in 1346. Her husband was dead in 1328. W. G. D. F.

'ROAD SCRAPINGS.' This is the title of a series of twelve etchings published in 1840-41 by N. Calvert, No. 30, Wakefield Street, Regent's Square. They represent coaching and travelling scenes, and are drawn and etched by an artist whose signature appears to be C. H. J., or it may be C. I., with these initials repeated upside down. Can any of my fellow-readers of 'N. & Q.' tell me the man's name ? C. W. S.

MARGARET BISET. (10 th S. i. 4G8.)

THIS same Margaret Biset, who saved Henry III. from an assassin on 9 September, 1238, is mentioned by Matthew Paris (* Hist. Angl.,' vol. ii. p. 380) as haying been sent as a companion to Henry's sister Isabel, when the latter went to Germany to marry the Emperor Frederick II. This event took place at Worms in the year 1235. Another maid also accompanied her (" Cum sua nutrice et magistra scilicet Margareta Biset, et altera ancilla aurifrigaria Londoniensi "). The story of saving Henry's life is given, vol. ii. pp. 412, 413. Margaret is there described as "quse- dam mulier, dominse reginse familiaris." In the same vol. p. 468, her death is mentioned as having taken place at Bordeaux, 1242 (" obiit quoque mulier sanctissima apud Bur- degalim Margareta Biset"). In 'Annales Monastici,' vol. iv. p. 431, the story of the assassin is once more repeated. It is in that part of the volume which gives the * Annales Prioratus de Wigornia.'

In ' Sarum Charters and Documents (ed. by Jones and Macray, p. 74) there is given a deed granting to Margaret Biset a corrody on the Priory of Maiden Bradley, in Somer- setshire, in return for her benefaction to the house. The date is circa 1210, and the docu- ment is a confirmation by the Dean and Chapter of Sarum of an agreement between the Prior of Maiden Bradley and Margaret Biset. The facts contained in the paper are briefly these: Henry Biset, once patron (advocatus) of the priory, granted to his sister Margaret, inasmuch as she was devoted to a life of contemplation and was a celibate, the rent of a certain place in the manor of Burgate ("centum solidos redditus in certo loco in Manerio de Burgate"), which she for a long time held for her own use. But later, pitying the poverty of the priory and the misery of the lepers there, she gave up the whole of the rent to this hospital to be held by it for ever. Then it appears that the members of the priory assigned an income to her for life, the items of which are mentioned, and amongst which is the donation of 2lb. of pepper (duas libras piperis\ to be presented on the Feast of St. Michael. Also she is to possess the houses which she has caused to be built for the establishment ("domos in curia nostra quas sibi fecit sumptibus suis fabricari ). At her death the entire property is to belong to the priory.

Under Maiden Bradley, in Lewis's * lopo-