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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. iv. DEC. so, 1011.

THE RATING or CLEBGY TO FIND ARMOUR (11 S. iv. 468). In the 'Coventry Leet Book ' (transcribed by Mary Dormer Harris), vol. ii. p. 318, are the names of priests of Bablake who gave money, part of 40Z., for fourteen men to go with Warwick to fight against the Lancastrians, " kyng Kerry and quene Marget. ' ' The names of the priests are given in a paragraph by themselves, following a list of 166 names of Coventry laymen with the amount they each paid. I quote from the paragraph : " Will Haddon, warden, 2s. Qd., and the 11 following ' Capel- lani ' 4d. each [here follow their names]. Rob. Wode and Joh. Blake, ' Clerici,' 2d. between them." The amounts given by the laymen range from 13s. to Qd. This was in the year 1461.

JESSIE H. HAYLLAR.

Brighton.

In a short paper on ' County Armaments in Devon ' (Trans. Devon Association, vol. xli. p. 339) I have touched upon this subject of the military liabilities of the clergy, and have quoted at full length an interesting document at the Record Office (State Pap. Dom., vol. ex. 34), dated 1576, the preamble of which runs thus :

" Whereas the Bisshoppes and Clergie upon greate consideration were charged by Statute A p [i.e., first] of King Edw. the sixt w th horse and armure, and afterward, A 4 & 5 Ph. & Mary, were discharged by ther owne finesse then sitteng at the helme, under color of a better p'vision by a new statute then p'f erred, repealing all former actes for horses and armoure, and wittingly omitteng to chardge themselves again in the new ; hit is most requisite (the reason and cause still remeyneiig) by some way to reduce them to the former chardge. The reason by which they stand bownd (though their persons be exempt) to arme others, is principally the law of nature and nations, w ch bindeth all p'sons to the defence and p'servation of their naturall contrey. Also laws in France, and in all places abowte us, w ch chardge the clergie w th contribution to warres in respecte of ther temporaries."

Among the Augmentation Books at the Record Office (vol. Ixxvii.) is a list, annotated by Mr. Salisbury as probably of 16 Hen. VIII., of inhabitants of the Hundreds of Westrygg and Kirrier, co. Cornwall, setting forth under each parish :

" First the yerely vaylor of the Spiritual men is possessions, and of their goodis and their harnys, by their othis, according to the seid commission ; and afterwards, the yerely vaylor of the temporall men is londis, and of their goodis and harnys." At " St. Nyots " the vicar, Robert Tubbe, whose " possessions " in decimis, obla- tions, &c., amount to 131. 6s. 8d., and the value of his " goods " to the same sum, is entered as " full Harnyssed."

A Harleian MS. (6939, 225) gives "A Note or View of the armoure imposed upon the whole clergie within the diocese of Exeter, taken 1595." In this, under the heading " Light Horses," names of two or more clergymen are sometimes bracketed together, as combining to furnish one such. I should think probably the same official machinery was employed for the " survey " of clerical armour as for the assessment or collection of " Clerical Subsidies."

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

May I refer DR. W. M. PALMER to the last published volume of the Chetham Society, ' The Township Booke of Halliwell,' 1640- 1762, which I had the honour to transcribe and edit ? Therein he will find many instances of arms and accoutrements of war- fare being supplied by the township and by special rating, especially for the armies fighting during the Civil War. A Poll Tax for arms and militia was collected at Halli- well so late as 1745, and realized 3Z. 12s. 6d. ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

Reference Library, Bolton.

" DILLISK " AND " SLOOK " (11 S. iv. 469). The statement that " the dictionaries do not help " us is not true of the ' N.E.D.' and * E.D.D.' : dictionaries which are neglected, though they are the best. Both say that dillisk is another form of dulse. The ' N.E.D.' has not yet come to slook ; but the ' E.D.D.' has " Sloke, also sloak, slouk, sluice, a name given to various species of Algae, esp. Ulva lactuca, Ulva latissima, and Porphyra laciniata."

WALTER W. SKEAT.

To Irish readers these words present no difficulty, sloke being the name universally used in Ireland for the seaweed called laver in England. Dillisk or dulsk is a red (rather like maiden-hair fern) seaweed, which is dried and then chewed by many

?eople, particularly in the north of Ireland, t used to be sold from carts or barrows in the streets of Dublin, the principal vendors having their stands at Carlisle Bridge and at the gates of Trinity College. They have disappeared.

Soyer came to Ireland during the famine of 1847 to organize cheap and effective cookery for the population, then starving by reason of the total failure of the potato crop, and no doubt suggested these succulent seaweeds as being obtainable free for the trouble of gathering them. L. A. W.

Dublin.