Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/83

 ii s. VIIL JULY 26, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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consequence 'scouted' by the whole bar. His chambers were a rendezvous for thieves."

In January, 1857, The Law Times asked by what two barristers he was proposed, and by whom of the Benchers approved.

The editor was then told by a correspon- dent :

' ' Mr. Saward is of as respectable an origin as most professional men ; was of as good character, is as well educated, and was possessed of as ample a pocket at the time of becoming a member of the profession ; but since then possibly spend thrift pro-

Sensities may have been the real cause of the egrading position in which he now stands, not unlike too many other men, doctors, clergymen, peers, bankers, &c."

At the investigation into the charges against him at the Mansion House, Saward was described as of " Villa House. Wal- worth Common, barrister-at-law." At the trial his description was* altered to that of "labourer." Sir F. Thesiger, who prose- cuted for the Bankers' Association, in his opening speech to the jury commenced by observing how deeply he regretted that the prisoner should have been called to the bar by the Society of the Inner Temple, " to which I have the honour to belong." Certain passages in his speech would imply that Thesiger once knew Saward and re- spected him. " Jem the Penman " had a brother, a solicitor, enjoying a good London practice. H. G. ARCHER.

" OXENDOLES " : " AUGHENDOLS " (11 S.

vii. 288). Will MR. ASHTON kindly quote the contexts in which these words' occur ? By doing so he may throw light on the meaning and history of the rather obscure Lancashire word haughendole (spelt also aghendole, haughendo, nackendole. nacHeton, naghendal, naghendole, naghleton), which seems hitherto to have been known only as a measure of capacity. According to Wright's ' English Dialect Dictionary,' it is "a half part or half measure ; a meal -measure of 8 or 8 J Ib. ; the quantity of meal usually taken for kneading at one time." The earliest quotation given is from the year 1613 : " one aghendole of meal." Other quotations show that the word has been discussed in Trans. Phil. Soc. (1858), p. 164, and in ' X. & Q.,' 1 S. vi. 9.

The ' Xew English Dictionary,' s.v. ' Eightin,' suggests that the word originally meant " eighth part " ; and MR. ASHTON may be able to interpret it in that sense in his document. It is, however, worth re- marking that dole is, or was, a Yorkshire (and Xorth- Country) word for " a division or share of land held in common field ; an

allotment, marked off only by boundary stones" ('E.D.D.'). And it may be con- jectured that if aughendol refers to land, and means " an eighth," then oxendole is an oxgang-dole, a dole of one oxgang, which was one-eighth of a carucate, and so presumably of the same size as an aughendole. Osken. a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century dialect form of oxgang, would give a form osken-dole, identical, save for metathesis, with MR. ASHTON'S word. There are also recorded the forms oxland, oxgate, oxengate, and oxen- going, equivalent to oxgang. The area of the oxgang varied from ten to twenty acres or more according to the locality.

L. R. M. STRACHAN. Heidelberg.

RELIC OF A FOOD OFFERING TO THE DEAD (11 S. vii. 348). Among the negroes of South Carolina the custom is still general of placing on the graves household articles, such as pitchers, lamps, vases. cups, &c., especially such things as had belonged to the deceased. One of the industrial schools even invites contribu- tions of broken crockery, which are sold to the negroes at nominal prices for this purpose. Slightly broken articles are pre- ferred because there is less danger of their being stolen. Common tumblers exposed to the action of sun and rain and half buried by the drifting of the sandy soil take on strange shades of lilac, suggestive of the iridescence of ancient glass. I have tried to learn the origin of this custom, but the negroes, no doubt in dread of our mockery, refuse to talk on this subject. I have, however, been told by a traveller that the practice is common in Africa.

LYDIA S. M. ROBINSON. Paoli, Pennsylvania.

"RAISING FEAST" (11 S. vii. 488; viii. 32, 57). It appears to have been customary at the close of the eighteenth century to give an entertainment to celebrate the completion of a building, and in Aris's Birmingham Gazette of 1 February, 1796. we read as follows :

" SOHO FOUNDRY. On Saturday last the Hearing Feast of the new Foundry lately built by Messrs. Boulton, Watt and Sons at Smethwick was given to the engine smiths and all other workmen employed in the erection."

As the phrase Rearing Feast is not placed in inverted commas, I conclude it was the generally accepted expression to denote that particular form of festivity. The querist should consult the ' N.E.D.' under " Raising " and " Rearing." R. B. P.