Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/135

 ii B. xi. FEB. 13, 1915 j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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asked, why do the English derive no benefit from sources that are thus copious ? What hoards of information do they contain, of which the majority of our countrymen, who are neither less studious, nor have less curiosity than their foreign contemporaries, are intirely [sic] ignorant 1

"It is true that the stores of continental lite- rary intelligence are nearly inexhaustible : but it is equally true, that they are widely scattered, and for this purpose inconveniently diffuse. The uncertainty, delay, labour, and expence of col- lecting them, in England, were the motives for their having been so long neglected.

" The editor of The European Repertory, being resident on the Continent, has procured the means of surmounting these impediments. He promises pleasure to himself from the task. It will be no common gratification if he can aid the progress of the arts and sciences, though it be only by in- dicating where some of these treasures may be found. Men who devote their lives to silent and solitary study, with the design of increasing general happiness, deserve to have their labour applauded, and their virtues known ; and to be the herald of their fame is an enviable office. To perform this duty as it deserves is more than can be hoped : to discharge it with unbiased fidelity is what will be attempted.

" The editor cannot expect but that errors will occur, at which his readers will be offended, and himself grieved. For some of these, he will, in a certain sense, be blameless. A journal, to be

Siblished at a given period, must proceed, aterials must be expedited ; time will not allow of a scrupulous revisal ; mistakes in the manuscript will occur ; the distant editor cannot be consulted ; references likewise and authorities cannot be compared ; and the most accurate superintendent must sometimes be in doubt. Such accidents a liberal reader will attribute to their proper cause, and pardon.

" That the editor is in the possession of re- sources for the work he has undertaken, and that these resources have every probability of increase, he can honestly affirm. Of the manner in which they shall be employed, time only can determine. Were he to encourage distrust, it would be of himself. Appeals are generally useless : com- plaints are often unfounded. In the majority of instances, the public treat claimants as favour- ably as they deserve."

Next I will give an outline of the contents :

An Essay on ' The State of German Literature.'

Review of Books, Philosophy, Legislation, Music, Belles Lettres, Antiquities, Natural His- tory, General and Individual History.

Historical Essays. The Russian Soldier. (Taken from a Sketch To be Continued.)

Manners and Customs of Nations. On the marriages of peasants in Silesia.

Biography. Life of Mozart, Account of Crette de Pallue.

Theatre. Germany, Denmark, France.

Miscellanies.

Literary Intelligence.

Inventions and Discoveries. Making Coffee from Acorns. Making sugar from turnips and beets. Making harp strings of silk (instead of cat-gut). Dirigible balloon.

Remarkable and other Facts. (Some curious little anecdotes.)

This is the sum of my knowledge on this periodical, and I hope some kind reader may happen to have the information at hand and will add to my total.

ELBRIDGE COLBY.

Columbia University, New York City.

(To be continued.)

" CULTUBA." What was the English equi- valent of this term in the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries ? It usually represented land which had been reduced to cultivation since the hidation or carucation of the vill that is to say, the cultura was an " im- provement," made on the village common or in the woodlands and wastes, for the increase of the cereal output of the com- munity beyond that which could be raised from the geldable land. These improvements- were held in shares by the lord or lords and the freeholders of the vill. It is probable that they were usually made by the con- certed action of the community, and not by individual enclosure.

Some authorities claim that " furlong " and "shot" are the English equivalents of cultura, but there is little or no evidence that this was so in Yorkshire and Lancashire. In these counties I have found several terms used as its equivalents, namely: (1) ofndm? an Old English word which was latinized as avenama, and is still found in field-names, as Anhum, Yanhum (cf. Avenham Lane, Boad, Park, &c., in Preston, co. Lane.) ;

(2) wang or wong, the Old Norse vangr, Old English wang or wong, meaning " land," " open-field," which frequently occurs in early Yorkshire charters in conjunction with " dale," as " wang-dale " or " wandale," meaning the " dale " or " parcel " of an individual owner in one of the town -fields ;

(3) warlot, Old English wcer (an enclosure, a fenced-in place) and Mot (a lot), allied to the Old Norse vorr and hlutr, which in con- junction would take the form vara-hlutr ;

(4) croft; (5) acre; (6) earth; (7) ridding.

I have recently noted the following instances of the use of some of these terms. About the year 1200 Ralph Pluket gave to the monks of Boche inter alia

" unam culturam, scilicet Herdewikecroft, que habet ad minus xx acras, et unam alteram cul- turam que vocatur Botildewellewong per suas rectas divisas." Dodsworth's MS. viii. f. 304.

A few years later Philip de Dalton gave to the nuns of Nunappleton

" quicquid pertinet ad dimidiam carucatam terre in Wandailes et in Warletes in territorio de Houum." /&., fo. 155 d.