Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/89

 10 8. VII. JAN. 26, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of the earlier Edwardian levies, though much might be said about their eccentricity ; but I will confine myself to Tudor examples, because they are more easily checked by reference to the wills of persons taxed.

When we hear of a tax of 4s. in the pound on land and 2s. Sd. on goods, we imagine something approximating to our own heavy imposts ; but when we find the land esti- mated at 6d. an acre rental, and the " goods " at a mere nominal value, which bears no relation whatever to the actual personalty of the owner, we are rather inclined to sigh for the long-lost generosity of the sixtenth- century assessor. How a man can leave 120Z. to his two daughters after devising free- hold estates to each of his sons, together with cattle, horses, farm implements, armour, and plate who has paid only on 51. of " goods," seems inconceivable. But this is not all. By some inscrutable system these subsidies seem to be so arranged that estates which pay their modest quota one year, frequently escape altogether the next, so that it is no uncommon thing to find a man's name on three or four Elizabethan rolls and absent on the rest ; while at the end comes an Inquisition post mortem solemnly declaring his estate at just twice the value he has been taxed for, and even then very low according to the charges he puts on it in his will.

I should be very glad to learn whether my experience, gathered from a few counties and localities, is a general one, and whether any explanation other than the caprice of friendly assessors can be alleged for it. So far as lands are concerned, it seems evident that the " ancient rents " were accepted as the basis of taxation long after they had ceased to represent the lettable value of the property. Is it possible that the sum at which the goods are valued really means the estimated interest of a capital equal personal estate ? This was certainly t the earlier method of assessment.

A. B. Victoria, British Columbia.

WYBERTON, LINGS. I shall be glad to be referred to any papers dealing with the history of this church, and to any pictures of interior or exterior. I presume the fifteenth-century church is still standing. R. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

BISHOP ISLAND, SOUTH PACIFIC. Bishop is the name of a rocky island in the South Pacific, south of Macquarie Island. Can any one give a clue to the naming of this

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island ? A brother of my grandfather, Thomas Bishop or Bishopp, named Joseph or William or Hugh (both of them ran away from school in 1796-7 Thomas to Russia, and his brother to India), is understood in the family to have given his name to an island in the Pacific and to have perished there in missionary work. Both of the boys are believed to have been the sons of an officer in the Guards who was sent out to India to teach gunpowder-making at Fort St. George (Debrett, 1828, Zouche).

ROBERT MICHELL. Galenic, Truro.

ROWE'S ' SHAKESPEARE.' I possess N. Rowe's first edition of Shakespeare : " Lon- don, Jacob Tonson, 1709," 6 vols., 8vo ; frontispiece, Shakespeare's bust on pedestal. The title-page says " adorned with cuts." The only plates in mine are in vol. vi., viz., one plate to each of the six doubtful plays. Will some one tell me if my copy is short in plates, and how many there should be ? The volumes show no sign of any plates being torn out.

The seventh volume of poems, published in 1710, I do not possess. If the six plates to the doubtful plays are all there should be, my edition is perfect. JOHN TUDOR.

74, Torquay Road, Newton Abbot.

" BOSSING." What is the meaning of this word in the Cheshire proverb (cited by Ray, 'North-Country Words' [1674-91], s.v. ' Osse ') " Ossing comes to bossing " ?

I find the saying in the fifteenth- century MS. Digby 52, If. 28, in the Bodleian, with a gloss :

Ossyng comys to bossyng : Vulgus opinatur quod postmodum verificatur. But this does not seem to solve the difficulty.

Q. V.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. I have a reference to " an old ballad " : Sabina saw, but would not see ; Sabina heard, but would not hear. Can some kind soul complete the reference ? J. K. LAUGHTON.

Who is the author of the following ?

If more is needed to be known, Our Lord will teach thee that When thou shalt stand before His throne,

Or sit as Mary sat.

The lines are remembered as having been once quoted by Archbishop Whately in a sermon. KOM OMBO.

SIR JOHN GIBSON'S PORTRAIT. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell of a portrait in