Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/265

 ii s. x. SEPT. 36, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

a man " while tormented with a grievous mad- ness " ; and that of Margery le Chaumberlein, who was convicted at Hereford of the stealing of six oxen, and condemned to be hanged which sentence was executed upon her, and she was " let down as dead." She, however, afterwards miraculously revived.

Of several matters connected with the French war we may notice the ordinance " on informa- tion that the island of Porteland, co. Dorset, is so depopulated by the late pestilence and other causes thai the men remaining therein will not suffice to defend it " forbidding any men to leave it, or corn or victuals to be taken from it ; and the commission to the magnates of Sussex and of Kent to guard all ports and seashores, array defensible men, and make beacons " on information that galleys and other warships are hastening in no small number to England from distant parts."

In January, 1371, Coteshale, the Mayor of Oxford, was bidden to survey the walls and towers of Oxford, which were said to be undermined, crackod, and threatening to fall, as well as the town-ditch, which was blocked with filth, and to compel residents living and trading in the town to contribute towards the repairs. About the same time the walls of Bath had attention called to them having been, it was alleged, broken and weakened by evildoers, who took away the stones. Another commission which illustrates the ameni- ties of mediaeval life is that to Peter de Veel, Constable of the Castle of Gloucester, to compel the authorities of the town to cleanse and keep clean a tract called " Barelond," hard by the entrance to the Castle, upon which people were wont to throw out refuse, which caused an intolerable and dangerous stench, affecting not only the men in the Castle, but also passers-by, aad such as might be to the great harm and peril " also of the King and his household if perchance he should make stay there."- This last considera- tion seems not to have carried so much weight as might have been supposed with the municipal authorities of Gloucester, for whereas they were commanded (in November) to get things straight by the Purification next, they had done nothing in the matter at the end of May, and another commission to Peter de Veel had to be issued empowering him anew to compel them. Other commissions of a quasi-sanitary force are that to ihe Sheriff of Kent to mend the high road of Greenwich " as the King has learned that it las now become so deep that great peril arises 'or passengei-s, and the town is likely to be jlooded"; and that for inquisition to be made ' touching the water of Idel," which was so >bs( rue-ted by weeds and other matters for lack he meadows and crops.
 * >f its bed being cleaned that it was overflowing

The religious life of the day is illustrated hiefly by ordinances concerning property, but here are also one or two documents of different nd more abiding interest. Thus, under date 4 Feb., 1371, we find a "Protection for John ngram of Wi-oxston, sometime monk of the TV of .'Uedmenham, of the Cistercian dio- "se \sirl, who, withdrawing from the society of 1 choosing to live a solitary life in a avern or hidden place called ' Swannesnest ' by he Tower of London, where he waits upon the lost Ilicjh in quietness, ha~s been disturbed by lie ordinary." Perhaps some reader could tell

us more of this " Swannesnest." In July of that same year a commission, worded with some little justifiable heat, was issued to the Arch- bishop of York, instructing him to take measures to restrain one Adam de Lymbergh, Provost of the church of St. John, Beverley, from appro- priating to himself the common property of the church so thoroughly and shamelessly that the canons and clerks had not food enough to keep- them in working health. In July, 1374, William of Wykeham obtained the abolition of a right- of-way which went through the cathedral church and the cloister, and, being " considered common and public by all the inhabitants of the city and suburb," exposed the cathedral to thefts, damage,, and the disturbance of the services, and t he- monks to various temptations affording" matter for dissoluteness, loitering, grave scandal, vain thoughts, and empty delights by the thoughtless aspects and gossipings of secular and disreputable persons of either sex using the passage."

A few documents of miscellaneous interest are a licence to export wine to Prussia provided an equivalent quantity of wheat and rye be brought back to England ; another licence to solve the difficulties of one Thomas Bubb, who had brought rye " from the parts of Pouys," but could not sell it at cost price in England, and sought leave to get rid of it in Norway ; and a licence granted to a " bower " of York to send four yeomen and two grooms of his craft to Prussia to stay there Tor four years, and fashion there bows which were from time to time to be forwarded to York. In September, 1373, was granted " for the affection which the King bears towards Mary de Sancto Paulo, Countess of Pembroke " licence for Master James de Danmark, one of the scholars of her hall in the University of Cambridge, to- st ay and study in the University ; and in July, 1374, the King's protection was extended to his kinswoman Maud, Countess of Oxford he being given to understand that " certain persons, going- about to disturb the peace of the realm, purpose to ravish and carry off the countess against her- will, and have conspired together to do this."

It is tempting to point to further matters we confess to finding these Calendars a mine of endless interest and pleasure but the above scanty notes must suffice.

Tombstones and Monuments in Ceylon. (Colombo Government Record Office, 5 rs.)

Tms folio volume contains a list of inscriptions of historical or local interest on tombstones and monuments in Ceylon, with an obituary of persons not thus commemorated the latter an addition well worth while. It forms a valuable record r and we owe it to our esteemed contributor Mr. J. Penry Lewis. The idea was suggested by the publication, a few years ago, of similar lists for- Madras by Mr. J. J. Cotton, and for Bengal by the late Mr. C. R. Wilson.

Mr. Lewis tells us in his Introduction that the Dutch inscriptions have for the most part been published by Mr. Leopold Ludovici in ' Lapi- d.irium Zeylanicum,' but the English inscriptions, with the exception of a few published from time to time in Ceylon newspapers and periodicals,, and a number of ' Trincoin.-ilee Inscriptions to 1871,' privately printed by the late Mr. R. Massie, have been hitherto unrecorded. The Portuguese inscriptions, which would have been