Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/145

 ii s. x. AUG. is, MM.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

' AUT DlABOLUS AUT NlHIL ' (1 1 S. ix. 270).

This story appeared in Blackwood's Maga- zine in November, 1888, under the signature X. L. It was reprinted with four or five other short stories in 1894 by Methuen. The author was Mr. Julian Field, who also wrote ' The Limb.' I may mention that I supplied this information to L' Intermediate (30 Mars, 1914) after inquiry of Messrs. Blackwoou. MARY H. BENSLY.

Reydon Cottage, South wold.

FOLK- LORE QUERIES: ROBINS (11 S. x. 29, 78). A detailed account of four robins setting upon and deliberately doing to death another of their species was given in The Daily Mail of 30 Sept., 1907. The fray was witnessed from start to finish by the writer, Edith Grey Bumand of Pinkhurst Grange, Horsham, Siissex. JOHN T. PAGE.

In Hertfordshire it was always said that if you killed a robin you would break your leg*. HAROLD MALET, Col.

0n

Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. No. LXV. (Cambridge, Deighton, Bell & Co., 5s. net.)

A NOTABLE paper in this number is that entitled ' The Reformation of the Corporation of Cam- bridge, July, 1662,' the materials for which have been collected by Dr. Palmer mostly from the notebooks of Sir Thomas Sclater, Justice of the Peace for Cambridgeshire from 1660 to 1684. They are in the Bodleian in three volumes. In addition to warrants and references to the pro- ceedings of the Commissioners for regulating Cor- porations, there are many entertaining notes. Those about conventicles have very vivid touches. There are several references to the well-known Nonconformists Holcroft and Oddey. In one of the later books is an account of the granting of licences at the Easter private sessions held at " The Griffin " in Linton in April, 1682, which will be found important to all who are interested in the early history of licensing. One of the conditions was that the applicant " had to pro- duce a certificate, under the hand of the clergy- man of his parish, that he had constantly resorted to the parish church, and had received the Sacra- ment according to the usage of the Church of England, during the year preceding."

The Rev. G. Montagu Benton supplies particu- lars of a Saxon brooch lent for exhibition by Mr. Arthur Thornewill. Although of the well- known cruciform type, it is interesting as having been found in Derbyshire, where such brooches are of rare occurrence. Mr. Brindley discourses on ' Mediaeval and Sixteenth-Century Ships in English Churches'; and Mr. Benton in a second paper describes a damask linen cloth woven with snrrod designs, and dated 1631, and states that " these cloths, although manufactured primarily for domestic purposes, were sometimes, on accounl

of their costliness and suitability of design, pre- sented to churches for altar use." Since the paper was read Mr. Kirke, the owner, has pre- sented the cloth in question to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Dwelly's Pariah Records. 3 vols. (E. Dwelly r Margate Road, Ilerne Bay. Vols. I. and II., 15s. net each ; Vol. III., la. 6d. net post free.)

THE first two volumes contain the first portion of he Bishop's Transcripts at Wells, being those that are in the most fragile condition. These have- Deen copied from the originals by Mr. Arthur J. Jewers, under the editorship of Mr. E. Dwelly, who points out that " these transcripts are of particular value to any one collecting information ibout a family and knowing the county they belonged to, but not the parish or parishes. A search through the transcripts, which are com- paratively few in number, will generally, in a very short time, disclose connections with parishes- that one might have hunted for in vain for years by going through all the registers in several arishes." As the Devon and Cornwall Record ociety have taken in hand those at Exeter, Mr- Dwelly decided to begin with those at Wells.

Mr. Jewers, who rightly commends Mr. Dwelly's public-spirited enterprise in starting on the task of minting at his own expense these transcripts of Somerset registers, states that at Wells they were for a considerable time lying loose in a room in one- of the gateway towers. Although they had been gathered up and fastened in bundles, Mr. Jewers found them to be wrongly endorsed, and many of the early returns in a state of decay from damp. It was only by the aid of a powerful magnifying- glass that the "contents could be deciphered. The dates of the transcripts range from 1597 to 1677- The two volumes include about 28,000 names.

The third volume contains all the monumental inscriptions in the parishes of Reculver cum Howth, Herne and Herne Bay, with tricks of all the armorial bearings, and rubbings of the old brasses. A view of St. Martin's Church, Herne Bay, is also given. This is the first volume of the series to be devoted to monumental inscrip- tions.

The English Borough in the Twelfth Century. By Adolphus Ballard. (Cambridge University Press, 3s. 6d. net.)

THIS little study is composed of the two lectures delivered by the author at Oxford in October of last year. Students of his works on Domesday Book and on British Borough Charters will not be disappointed as to the clearness and solidity of the account offered them here, even though they may feel constrained to follow some other inter- preter with regard to this or that disputable point. The first lecture ' Burgess and Lord ' is, in particular, excellent. We have seldom come across an instance of better handling of complicated matters, or more telling choice and use of illustrative facts. The frequent com- parisons between the details of English and of French custom in the matter of municipal charters are in a treatise jjecessarily so brief a useful and well-managed feature. The greatest con- trast, as Mr. Ballard points out, between these charters in England and in France during the twelfth century is the exemption from toll which the English borough enjoyed. Calais and