Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/372

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. m. APRIL 22, 1905.

tenants under ecclesiastical lords. For instance, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's must have received a vast number of eggs from their many tenants ; see the particulars in the ' Domesday of St. Paul's,' Camd. Soc., pp. 17-19, 23. 26, 33-4, 43, 48, 51, 57, 62, 67-8, 72, 77, 81, 83, 104, &c. The eggs were to be collected " contra Pascha," and were to be paid at that feast "ad honorem Domini." At Worcester Priory the monks had eggs for supper at Easter and Trinity; see further instances in the 'Register of Worcester Priory,' Camd. Soc., pp. 25a, 32b, 33b, 127a, and in the ' Custumals of Battle Abbey,' Camd. Soc., pp. 27, 98-9, 118, &c. A short form for the Benediction of Easter Eggs is in the 'York Manual.' Surtees Soc., p. 43*.

W. C. B.

EASTER SEPULCHRE. (See 8 th S. i. 310 ; vii. 283; 9 th S. i. 284; vii. 264; 10 th S. i. 265.)- At St. Mary Woolnoth, in 1539, they paid "for watching of the sepulture, viij d " <' Registers' of S.M.W., 1886, p. xvii). In 1521 a testator left two ewes and two lambs to provide a light "afore the sepulcre at Morton, never to be put furthe from good irydaye, that candles be lighted afore the sepulcre, unto the resurrection on Eastre claie in the morning"; and in 1527 another testator ordered his tomb to be made of a convenient height, " that the sepulcre at Easter tyme may stand upon" it ('Visitations of Southwell,' Camd. Soc., pp. 119, 128). There are some notes on the Easter sepulchre in The Antiquary, xxxvi. 22. W. C. B.

PALM SUNDAY AND EASTER CUSTOMS. The following payments were made at St. Mary Woolnoth ('Registers,' 1886, pp. xvii, liii) :

1539. On Palme Sunday for brede ale and wyne geven to the preists and clarkes at reding of the Passion, vij' 1.

For palme flowers and caks on Palme Sunday, vi' 1.

1540. For setting up the railes upon the leds on Palme Sunday, iii d.

At St. Mary Woolchurch Haw :

1637, 1642. Herbs and flowers to strew the church at Easter, Is. 'Id., 3*. 2d.

W. C. B.

A MILITARY EXECUTION. In T.P.'s Weekly of the 7th inst. a contributor gives an account of 'A Military Execution' in Malta at the end of the year 1861, as it was told him, some five years ago, by the late General 'Keate. I doubt if Keate was present on the -occasion, but I was, and my recollections of it are distinct arid enable me to point out some inaccuracies in the account just pub- lished, especially as to the prisoner having jstood to be fired at, and falling forward, and

as to the troops having marched past the body in slow time.

I was then a captain in one of the regi- ments assembled in Fort Ricasoli to witness the execution.

The parade was formed at 7 A.M., the troops forming three sides of a square, whose fourth side (seaward) was vacant. The prisoner was in the cells near the entrance to the fort, behind the parade, and from these cells the procession started, to the music of the 'Dead March ' played by massed bands. It passed slowly along the front of the troops, from right to left. First came the Provost-Marshal, an artillery sergeant, then a dozen men with carbines (the firing party), then the massed bands with muffled drums, then four men carry ing a plain black coffin, then the prisoner, accompanied on one side by a comrade, and on the other by a surpliced clergyman who was reading quietly from a Prayer-Book. The prisoner was in his shell-jacket, which was unbuttoned at the chest and showed a linen shirt. His hands were pinioned in front of him. As he passed me I observed that his face was pale, and his eyes fixed on the coffin before him. Some artillerymen fol- lowed him. The procession having arrived at the blank side of the square, the coffin was put down, the bands filed off, and the prisoner, the clergyman, the comrade, and the Provost-Marshal remained together while the Assistant-Adjutant-General read the charges against the prisoner, the finding of guilty, the sentence " to be shot to death by musketry," and the confirmation by his Excellency the Governor, who was also general officer commanding in the island.

Then the Provost- Marshal blindfolded the prisoner and shook hands with him. The clergyman then shook hands with him, then his comrade.

The prisoner knelt on his right knee. The firing party also knelt, and under the cloud of smoke from the discharge of their carbines I saw the prisoner fall on his right side. Then the Provost-Marshal went close up to him and fired a pistol-shot into his head.

All the troops present then marched past the body in quick time, four abreast. A quantity of sand had been strewn for the man's blood to soak into. W. S.

ROGESTVENSKY. Every newspaper has adopted its own way of spelling the name of the Russian admiral now commanding in Eastern waters, and some have attempted to defend their idiosyncrasies. It may prob- ably interest your readers to know that he himself, when in this country ten years ago as