Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/287

 10*8. HI. MARCH 25, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

235

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

battle of Hastings, but came and resided in this cell as a hermit till his death.

My late father, Thomas Hughes, F.S.A., in his 'Stranger's Guide to Chester' (1857), writes :

" Moving along to the eastward, we see a curious old house crowning the edge of the cliff on the left and known as the 'Anchorite's Cell.' Here it is traditionally affirmed that King Harold, merely wounded, not killed, at the battle of Hastings, was conveyed by his friends and lived the life of a hermit for several years."

There is an ancient plan of St. John's Church in the Harleian MSS. representing its state before 1470. In his recent book on ' Chester, in Methuen's "Old English Towns Series,' Mr. Bertram Windle writes :

" The plan above alluded to shows that there were two cells for anchorites near St. John's Church, and the block of stone on which one oi them is perched still remains."

In the handbook on ' Chester ' issued last year " under the authority of the Corpora- tion " it is stated :

"To the south, on a pillar of rock, stands an anchorite's cell of great antiquity, known as ' The Hermitage.'"

Lancaster.

A list of "Anchorites' Dens" in England will be found in Bloxam's 'Principles of Gothic Architecture,' eleventh edition, vol. ii. pp. 163-85. ANDREW OLIVER.

QUARTERSTAVES (10 th S. in. 165). It Seems

extremely improbable that quarterstaves should be regulated in size and price by statute. And it is still more unlikely that (were that granted) the deplorably inadequate 'Indexes to the Statutes of the Realm' would direct any one to the enactment required. The splendid indexes in the last volume of the ' Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland' make the student of English history envy his brethren over the Border. The price of the quarterstaff used by Henry Randall is stated in order to comply with the requirements of the common law, and not to ascertain the size of the weapon. If Miss LEGA-WEEKES will refer to the appendix to MilT'j. B'ackstone's 'Commentaries,' she wUl find in the form of indictment that " the said Peter Hunt with a certain drawn sword made of iron and steel, of the value of five

shillings him the said Samuel Collins

did strike, thrust, stab, and penetrate." It was, I believe only on 7 August, 1851, that the technical obligation to state the price of the weapon used was finally abolished Bv section 24 of statute 14 & 15 Viet., c. 100, it is provided :

" No indictment for any offence shall be held

insufficient for want of the statement of the

value or price of any matter or thing."

It would be interesting to know how long the common-law requirement was maintained in the United States, and what other systems of law insisted on ascertaining the price of what proved (or was intended to be) the lethal weapon ; and whether the practice still survives in any of them.* Q. V.

PENNY WARES WANTED (10 th S. ii. 369,415' 456 ; iii. 16, 98). I have just come across the following in Mrs. Raffald's 'Cookery Book' (1807): in the receipt 'To Roast Woodcocks or Snipes,' "toast a few slices of a penny-loaf "; in the receipt 'To Roast a Hare,' "make your pudding of the crumb of a penny-loaf" ; and in the receipt 'To Roast Larks' is the follow- ing : " take the crumbs of a halfpenny-loaf." ERNEST B. SAVAGE.

St. Thomas, Douglas.

"VINE" INN, HIGHGATE ROAD (10 th S. ii- 327, 433). This ancient hostelry still exists, as MR. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL may see for himself if he will take a walk along the Highgate Road. It has been rebuilt of late years, and I believe that the rude hands of the licensing justices have not been laid upon it. It lies about fifty feet back from the roadway, and adjacent to it is another hostelry known as "The Woodman."

R. B. P.

SAXTON FAMILY OF SAXTON, co. YORK (10 th S. iii. 129, 175). Of course COL. PRIDEAUX is right is saying that Saxton meant "Seaxa's town." There is another Saxton in Cambridgeshire, which I explained in the same way in 1901.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

HERALDIC MOTTOES (10 th S. iii. 49,92,111). As one who corresponded with Mr. C.N. Elvin on this subject, I am interested in C. S.'s proposal to undertake a new edition of the Handbook of Mottoes,' 1860. Mr. Elvin wrote to me in 1867 that he had an immense number of additional mottoes, but did not then see his way to publishing a second edition ; and he does not seem to have done so, his only other publication, so far as I know, being Anecdotes of Heraldry ' (Bell & Daldy, 1864). Some of his relations may still be living at ast Dereham, and might be communicated with.

The only other collection of mottoes with which I am acquainted, beyond those in the

Oue of the latest English cases on the subject s Reg. r. Polwart (Trin. 1841), reported in ' Queen's 3ench Reports ' (N.S.), vol. i. 818 sqq.