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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. A, so, 1910.

CATALOGUES OF MSS. (11 S. i. 204, 251). As one taking a considerable degree of interest in the preservation and accessibility of certain classes of MSS. and records, I have followed T. C.'s usefully suggestive note and the reply of V.H.I.L.I.C.I.V. with the deepest interest. While it appeared to me that a complete series of catalogues of private collections of MSS. would be very desirable, I can understand that inconvenience to individual owners might well result from their compilation, as V.H.I.L.LC.I.V. suggests.

There is, however, one query that I should like to put to the latter correspondent. How are the mass of the " competent researchers, ' ? to whom he expresses himself willing to afford access to his MSS., to learn of their existence unless they are referred to in some public catalogue somewhere.

W. McM.

SCOTCHMEN IN FRANCE (11 S. i. 48, 173). One of the above was Adam King, a mem- ber of a family sometime seated at Barra, near Auld Meldrum, Aberdeenshire (vide 'A Great Archbishop of Dublin, Wm. King, D.D. 3 ), described in Dempster's 'Hist. Eccles. Gentis Scotorumqua viri sanctitate, literis, dignitatibus toto orbe Illustres, ? &c., 1627, as

" Adamus Regius, vulgo Kyng, Edinburgensis, bonis artibus instructissimus, ad miraculum usque doctus, maximo auditorum concursu philosophiam Parisiis docuit, et mathematicas, in quibus facile eo seculo princeps habebatur. Venit in Acaderniam Parisiensem, anno 1585, vivit adhuc Edinburgi, et in senio erudite advocati munus gloriose implet."

He was author of several poems in Latin printed by Dr. Arthur Johnstone of Aberdeen in ' Delitise Poetarum Scotorum hujus sevi illustrium,'- Amsterdam, 1637 ; and he edited and translated into English a small 8vo now in the British Museum :

" Ane Cathechisme or schort Instruction of Christian Religion drawen out of the scripturs and ancient Doctours compyled by the Godlie and lerned father Peter Canisius, Doctour in Theologie. With ane Kallendar perpetuale, &c. maid be M. Adame King, professeur of Philosophe and Mathematixis at Paris. At Paris. Imprented be Peter Hyry, 1588."

CHARLES S. KING, Bt. St. Leonards-on-Sea.

SHROVE MONDAY : COLLOP MONDAY (US. i. 288). Hone's ' Every-day Book, ? vol. i., Feb. 14, says :

" Collop Monday. The Monday before Shrove Monday is so called because it was the last day of flesh-eating before Lent, and our ancestors cut their fresh meat into collops, or steaks, for salting or hanging up till Lent was over ; and hence, in

many places, it is still a custom to have eggs and

collops, or slices of bacon, at dinner on this day

" Polydore Virgil affirms of this season and its delicacies, .that it sprung from the feasts of Bacchus, which were celebrated in Rome with Rejoicings and festivity at the same period. This therefore, is another adaptation of the Romish church from the heathens ; and it is observed by Brand, that on Shrove Monday, it was a custom with the boys at Eton to write verses concerning Bacchus, in all kinds of metre, which were affixed to the college doors, and that Bacchus' verses ' are still written and put up on this day.' The Eton practice is doubtless a remnant of the Catholic custom."

R. A. POTTS.

The day was called Goodtide Monday (Gudtydmonday) in 1426, as appears from 'The Coventry Leet Book * (E.E.T.S.), p. 103, a note to which refers to ' E.D.D.,* " Gooddit. 51 I am unable to give a ' N.E.D.*

reference.

H. P. L.

The ' Century ' and the ' Standard * dictionaries mention Shrove Monday. Fos- broke's ' Antiquities,* p. 646, speaks of Collop or Shrove Monday. TOM JONES.

[MR. P. A. RUSSELL also thanked for reply.]

" PLAINS " = TIMBER-DENUDED LANDS (10 S. xii. 81, 194, 238). I have noted an instance in which " plain " is clearly opposed to " wood, ?? assuming that the Latin piano here equates the English "plain," which I think is undoubtedly the case. This passage occurs in a charter of Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d. 1149), printed in extenso by Dr. Round in his ' Studies on the Red Book of the Exchequer, 1 pp. 8-9. The relevant clause runs :

"Prseterea decimam de Cupefald in messe, in vitulis, in agris, in porcis, in caseis, et in omnibus que decimari debent more catholieo tarn in nemore quam in piano fideliter annuo."

G. H. WHITE.

Lowestoft.

"BRUCK" (11 S. i. 287). Duly entered as a Shetland and Orkney word in the ' Eng. Dial. Diet.,* with a quotation ; and fully explained.

Brock is likewise duly entered as known in Scotland, Ireland, and four English dialects in four senses, including ' ' broken victuals, ll in the same neglected work. And the etymology is given at p. 410, viz., from A.-S. broccan, dat. pi., fragments, as occurring in Matthew xv. 37, in the Hatton MS. of the A.-S. Gospels.

I wonder when the existence of the E.D.D.* will become generally known ; t was finished in 1905.

WALTER W. SKEAT.