Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/377

 11 S. X. Nov. 7, 1911.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

371

Pausing here, I would observe that the bishop in question was Henry Burghersh, and that the power of a bishop to grant indulgences had been limited by Pope Innocent III. to the granting of a year's indulgence at the dedication of a church, and of forty days on other occasions. Messrs. Rashdall and Rait continue : " The effect of the Reformation was to put an end to these pilgrimages, and the brothers of St. Bartholomew were thus reduced to absolute want. The Fellows of New College devised a method to relieve their necessities by singing at the hospital. St. Bartholomew's Day had now acquired an unhappy association, and Ascension Day was selected in preference."

Pausing again, I should like to know the evidence on which it is stated that the change from St. Bartholomew's Day took> place after the Massacre.

The same writers go on :

" A similar performance seems also to have taken place on May Day."

and in a foot-note add :

" Wood says : ' New College men made choice of Holy Thursday because Magdalene College men and the rabble of the town came on May Day to their disturbance.' "

They then proceed to quote Wood (' Life and Times,' i. 289) as follows :

" There was sometime an auntient customs belonging to New College fellows : viz., on Holy Thursday every year some of the fellows of New College (with some of their acquaintance with them) did goe to St. Bartholomew's Hospitall, and there in the chapell sing an anthem of 2 or 5 parts. After that, every one of them would offer up money in a bason, being sett for that purpose in the middle of the chappell. After that, have some refreshment in the house. Then going up to a well or spring in the grove, which was strew'd with flowers round about for them, they sung a song of 5 parts, lately one of Mr. Wilbye's prin- cipium, ' Hard byachristall fountaine' [footnote, " From Thomas Morley's ' Madrigals : the Triumphs of Oriana,' London, 1607."] And after that come homeTjy Cheney Lane and Hedington Hill, singing catches. The choristers and singing men of New College did about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning sing an anthem on the tower ; and then, from thence to St. Bartholomew's."

Messrs. Rashdall and Rait conclude by observing :

" Wood adds in a note (December, 1659) : ' By the prevalence of Presbytery these customes vanish.' There is no trace of a revival of the custom after the Restoration, and Hearne, writing in 1729, speaks of it as having been long in desuetude (vol. cxxi. p. 49)."

I desire evidence :

(1) As to the date when the custom began.

(2) As to the date when the change was made from St. Bartholomew's Day to May Day.

(3) As to the date of the transference of the ceremony from May Day to " Holy Thursday."

(4) As to the date when the ceremony was performed for the last time.

I should also like to know :

(5) The exact site of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, near Oxford ; and

(6) the dates at which it was founded, and

(7) ceased to exist.

Two additional queries of a wider import are also suggested by the above quota- tions, viz. :

(8 and 9) When was the name " Holy Thursday " first applied to (8) Ascension Day and (9) Maundy Thursday respec- tively ?

At the present day " Holy Thursday " means Maundy Thursday exclusively.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" TROOPER " = COCK. Is a cock (do- mestic fowl) known as a " trooper " in any part of the United Kingdom ?

G. E. PRATT.

Delbury, Gloucester.

MOURNING LETTER-PAPER.

(4 S. iv. 390.)

R. B. P. asked at the above reference, on 6 Nov., 1869, " when the present fashion of using black-edged paper and envelopes first came up." As I have not noticed any reply, I venture to give an early instance ; and if R. B. P. is the gentleman I think he is, I hope he may find some little satisfaction in seeing his forty - five - year - old query answered, should the answer be deemed of sufficient interest to insert. And also, is this not a record for the original writer to see a reply after so long a period ?

In a volume I have of various sermons presented by the different preachers to the Duke of Sussex (both manuscript and printed) is one

" Preached at the Parish Church of Saint Mary, Rotherhithe, Surrey, on the Death of Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, who departed this life November 17, 1818. By the Revd. John Neal Lake, D.D., Chaplain to His Royal Highness, The Duke of Sussex."

This sermon is in manuscript throughout, and is written on fine quarto notepaper, the first page of each sheet being edged with a black border of about a quarter of an inch in width. The black is a dead, dull one,