Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/599

 10 s. VIL JUNE 22, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

495

tribute, which elsewhere is done by retainin passers-by with a rope across the roac kissing the women, or chairing the men ?

At St. Thomas's, Sarum, there is a commo ntry for the gatherings " at Hoktyde an Frick Friday."

What is the earliest record of Hocktyde

T. S. M.

These instances of hock may be useful : 1222. Manorial tenants pay wardpenn age rights from " hokedai " to " ad vincula ('Domesday of St. Paul's,' pp. 74, 105
 * ' in termino de hokedai," and have pastur
 * and see the editor's note on p. civ).

1240. Tenants pay customary rents a Christmas and at " Hockedey " ; and ther is a payment called " Hocselver " (' Registe of Worcester Priory,' pp. 106, 110, 114, 117 153). /.-,

1283. Services are to be rendered from " Hokedei " to Michaelmas ; and the quarter days are St. Thomas, Ap., " Hoke day," St. John, and Michaelmas (' Cus tumals of Battle Abbey,' pp. 4, 31, and often, and glossary, p. 165).

1297. Tenure of land in Somerset began at "la Hockeday " (' Placita coram Rege 1297,' Record Soc., p. 12).

13th cent. The courts of a Devonshire manor were held at Michaelmas and at '" le Hockedai " (Genealogist, N.S., vi. 172).

1343. Parliament was opened " 1'ende- meyn del Hokkeday " ('French Chron. of London,' 93).

1357. A Hampshire lease dated " Hocke- day " (Genealogist, N.S. xi. 10).

1638. Court of Hungerford Manor, Berks, "'called the Hocktide Court" ('Wiltsh. Inquis. p.m.,' Record Soc., p. 268).

1642. "April 25, Hockday " ('Diary of John Rous,' 121).

There are some interesting historical notes on hockday in The Assoc. Archit. Soc. Papers, v. 54, 61 ; and I may add a reference to 7 S. i. 324. W. C. B.

I should like to add a few items to my former communication.

A note of mine from Bracton ('De Legibus Consuet,' vol. ii.) runs :

"According to ancient custom he may be said to be of any one's family who has dwelt in the house of another person for three nights, because a first night he may be termed uncnth (A. -S., unknown), but on the second gu*t (guest), on the third night Hoghenehyne (ageu hina. A.-S., his own hind or domestic)."

Is the interpretation of the last word incon- trovertible ?

In ' The Romance of our Ancient Churches,'

by Sarah Wilson, 1899 (p. 165), from the churchwardens' accounts of (as I under- stand) Cheddar, the curious item is quoted : " paid Richard Crispin's hog and maide for Whitelymeinge of the yle that was built, ijs. vd"

At Chagford, a Stannary town, as earlv as 1480, accounts are rendered to the head- wardens by two men, " custod' Instaur' de le hogynstore," in 1488 described as " custod' de le hogner's store," in 1500 and 1502 as wardens of the goods and chattels of " the store of the hogners."

In a Clerical Subsidy Roll (Exeter 24/9) temp. Ric. II. I note as the name of one of the clerics of the Deanery of Dunsford " Pet' Hogeman." E. LEGA-WEEKES.

[For Hockday see also 5 S. v. 364 ; xi. 329, 494 ; and for Hocktide at Hungerford, 5 S. i. 339. Hog- get, a yearling sheep, also a year-old colt, will be found in the 'N.E.D ,' which further supplies an immense number of quotations under hog, hoggaster, hoggerel, &c.]

MIRAGE (10 S. vii. 390, 453). The phenomenon described by PROF. SKEAT s not infrequent in fact, it is almost usual on the French and Italian Riviera di Ponente, .e., east of Genoa.

In certain states of the atmosphere, and generally in the early morning or evening, nterior towering above the coast-line, and appearing to be at a distance of 25 or 30 miles. The nearest point of Corsica to this Dart of the mainland is about 100 miles, while the mountains are perhaps 10 or 5 miles further off. The convexity of the arth prevents the possibility of directly eeing any such distance, even from the hills ying behind Mentone, San Remo, or Jassio ; but on several occasions I have seen orsica with great plainness while standing n the shore at one or other of those places. Allowing a height for human eyes of, say, feet from the ground, I think the " offing " not more than a few miles off, though of ourse the horizon extends largely with very foot of rise. W. C. J.
 * he island of Corsica is seen well up above
 * he horizon, with the mountains of the

A description of a mirage seen on the 'hames was given by Dr. Wollaston (Secre- ary of the Royal Society) in 1797. Abroad, he mirages seen by Kleber's army in Egypt n 1798, and by the French army in Syria n 1799, are well known ; and another re- markable one is described by Lord Roberts n ' Forty-One Years in India,' vol. i. p. 393.

R. B. Upton.