Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/119

 10" 8. IV. JULY 29, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. «hu,yL118ed iwooden d!slV,8 a"d culw of ,"°rn ! at- satisfactofV to add the dimensions table he would set apart the best morsels for the • what he called 'the dish poor in what he called 'the dish of the Lord Jesus. He died the father of twelve thousand religions." In a foot-note Owen quotes Bolland as his authority, and adds :— " It may interest some to learn that the Lady (iwenlhan, daughter of the last Keltic Prince of Uales, by his consort, Eleanor L)e Montfort, ended her days.as a nun of Sempringham, pen- sioned by her kinsman Edward II. It was a cheap provision." HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. A little before the birth of Gilbert his mother dreamt, it is said, that the moon had come down from the sky to rest upon her bosom ; and the fanciful disciple sees in it a that his childhood, pale, wan, and sickly as the crescent of the new moon, was destined by the grace of the Sun of righteous- ness to expand into a full orb of brightness. (See Newman's 'Lives of the English Saints,' vol. iv. pp. 17,. 18.) Albinus, St. Gilbert's faithful chaplain, told how Gilbert was tortured by ague, and when he urged him to try to shake it off. Gilbert asked him if he •wpnld bear it for him. Albinus consented. On the morrow, at the hour when the fever came, Albinus suffered instead of Gilbert, that'he might learn "how control over diseases lies not in the skill of man, but in the power of God " ('St. Gilbert of Serapring- ham and the Gilbertines,' by Rose Graham, F.R.HistSoc., 1901, p. 15 seq.). J* HOLDEN MACMlCIIAEL. See Alban Butler's ' Lives of the Saints,' 4 February. M.A.OxoN. [Reply also from MATILDA POLLARD.] PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY WILL REGISTERS (10"' S. iii. 488).—The official copies of wills proved in this court prior to those now at Somerset House, London, commen- cing in 1383, are said to have been lost or destroyed in Wat Tyler's Rebellion. But I have some doubt as to the truth of the asser- tion. Those to be met with in the Arch- bishops' Registers were proved during vacancies in the see. Such of the latter invaluable records as are now missing at Lambeth would probably be met with at llqme, and it seems a great pity that our Government has no_t made every possible enort to obtain their return, or, at least, an attested copy of them. W. I. R. V. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES (10th S. iii. 227, 292, 473).—When there is much doubt about the size of the leaves would it not be more occupied by the type ,on the respective pages ? I found this plan of much service when pre- paring a recent article on Sir W. Ralegh's ' History of the World," as, owing to cropping, •I-.-., the leaves varied considerably in size, so that I was unable to give their approxi- mate measurements. Under these circum- stances I substituted the space occupied by the type, and this I have since found to be of much use. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Salterton, Devon. [Ve have forwarded to COL. WALKER the specimen table sent by DR. BRUSHFIELD.] WILLESDEN FAMILIES (10th S. iii. 208, 293).—MR. HITCHIN-KEMP might gain some information regarding the Twyfords by ad- dressing Mr. Harry Twyford Peters, or his father Mr. Samuel T. Peters, both New York City. G. A. T. Albany, N.Y. FORESTS SET ON FIRE BY LIGHTNING (10th S. iv. 28).— The following is quoted from Sir H. Johnston, ' Uganda Protectorate,' i. 147 f. :— "These Nile countries are further devastated annually during the protracted dry season by bush fires. These may be started fifty times in a century by lightning setting fire to the stump of a tree, ana spreading the ignition thus to the grass ; but by far the most normal cause is the hand of man." W. CROOKE. CRICKET : EARLIEST MENTION (10th S. iv. 9)' — A manuscript in the Bodleian Library, dated 1344, which exhibits a woman in the action of throwing the ball to a man who elevates his bat or club to strike it, would seem to show the real origin, under the name of club-ball, of what— when the three-legged stool or cricket became an additional feature of the game— was known as "crickett." ., The following early eighteenth - century allusions to the game, before the evolution of the present square -shouldered bat from the ' "" and when the "gamesters," instead of "making runs," "ran notches," have not, I think, been noted : — • " On Monday is to be determined a Suit of Law on Dartford-Heath by a Cricket Match between the Men of Chinkford, and Mr. .Steed's Men ; they had a Hearingabout two Yeara'ago before the Lord Chief Justice Pratt, when the Merits of the Cause appear'd to be, that at a Match between the above- said Players, the Chinkford Men refused to play out the Game' at a. time the other Side had the Advantage : but the Judge, either not understand- ing the Game, or 'having forgot it', referr'd the said Cause back, to Dartford Heath, to be play'd on where they left off, and a Rule of Court was made for it accordingly." — Jtfist'i Wtekly Journal, 3 Sep- tember, 17*26.