Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/254

 208

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIIL SEPT. 14, 1907.

(gturus.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" HOSPITATUS " IN DOMESDAY. In the the heading ' Terra Episcopi de Cestre,' occurs this entry :
 * Shropshire Domesday,' p. 1, col. 2, under

" Isdem Episcopus tenet unum manerium Melam In Hundredo Civitatis [Sciropesberie, i.e., Shrews- bury]. Non est neque rait hospitatus. Reddebat xx. solidos tempore Regis Edwardi ; modo xvii. solidos et iiii. denarios."

What is the exact meaning of hospitatus ? Eyton (' Antiquities of Shropshire,' vi. 359) takes the word to be written in error for " hospitattim, a word akin to colonatum. In another passage of Domesday a ' domus hospitata ' is opposed to 'mansip yasta.' The bishop's manor, in fact, though within the borough, was not occupied by any burgesses or other free tenants. Neither does it seem to have been geldable." Blakeway, in his ' History of Shrewsbury Hundred' or Liberties,' written about fifty years before Eyton's time, also read it as hospitatum, that is, " those who occupy it under the bishop do not reside upon it " ; and he suggests that, as

" the bishop had certain cottages and burgesses in Shrewsbury, it is probable that they were employed in the tillage of this property, from which they could so readily return home every night to their cottages in the town." Shropshire Archceological Transactions, Second Series, iii. 329.

But 4 does hospitatus necessarily mean " inhabited " ? May it not refer to the procurations, or board and lodging for the bishop and his suite, which it seems that the mesne-owners of ecclesiastical property were bound to provide for great ecclesiastics oh their journeys ? Du Cange says, " Hos- pitium, idem quod gistum, procuratio," and refers to the Synodus Ticenensis, anno 855. I would refer also to the ' House- hold Roll of Bishop Swinfield ' (Camden Society), i. cxxxvi, where the editor gives later authorities in proof of the owners of appropriated tithes being bound to provide board and lodging for bishops on their journeys.

And in the case before us, does it not simply mean that the Bishop of Chester on his journeys could not require pro- curations to be provided by his Meole tenants ? Melam (Monk Meole and Crow Meole) was a large and important manor of one hide, and it is difficult to believe that it was not " inhabited " by any resident farmers. W. G. D. FLETCHER, F.S.A. Oxon Vicarage.

MIRACULOUS BIRTH. According to the belief of the Baloches, Shahzad, son of Chakur, was brought into being by a shadow passing in front of his mother, Mai, although no one was there. After the child was born Mai sent a message to her absent husband, saying that he was not to grieve, since the boy had been begotten by the shadow of & saint. When Chakur came home and greeted the baby, it answered him, although it was only six months old, and after going through the orthodox forms of salutation, said, " I was begotten by the shadow of 'All." 'All is greatly revered by the Baloches. A poem of this mystically- begotten Shahzad begins : "I recite the praises of the Lord, of the mighty Muhammad Mustafa, of royal 'All, tie lion of God." See M. Longworth Dames/ ' Popular Poetry of the Baloches,' vol. i. pp| 135, 138.

Do instances of miracuous births of this type still occur in Muhanmadan countries ; or is it thought that they happened long ago, but not now ?

That the belief in sucH wonder-offspring was once as common in Europe as it still is among the heathenry of Australia may be

lathered from ancient hi

folk-lore. Can any one tel me the name of

the latest European whc one of these marvellous bi bhs ?

WEKE-ACRE." In an

to inquire into the tenun of a tenement

appertaining to the mano

Grantham, the jury found hat it had been

held by certain services,

ory and modern

held to be M. P.

ssize held 1337-8

of Denton, near

amongst which,

as the Latin expands and ^aiislates, were

"by service of reaping one acrepf land in autumn for diet which is called ' Weke-a^ret and of finding one man to mow corn in autumn toryne day called ' Bone-day.' "Assize Roll 1400, nu Tenants worked gratis for tleir lord on " boneday," but what was " wke-acre ? " Wright's ' E.D.D.' gives " acre\ as a verb connected with reaping, so pernps tenants reaped for a week, and this wat their diet during that time. ALFRED C. EWELBY.

PEACOCK ON CHURCH BELLS. ome time ago a question was asked concernig the use of the peacock in religious symbosm.

In F. Uldall's recently publishecbook on Danish church bells, ' DanmarksMiddel- alderlige Kirkeklokker,' 1906, two .stances of peacocks stamped on bells ai given (pp. 137, 140). I cannot read Danh, but I gather that the " Paafugl " be,kened immortality and " Forfsengeligheder? Do instances of its use on bell-stamps o^ur in other European countries ? &S.