Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/345

 us. V.APRIL is, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

281

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1913.

CONTENTS. -No. 120.

NOTES : The Society of the Clerks of Assize, 231 Charles Dickens, 284 A Runic Calendar, 235 Signs of Old London, 236 "Rood- Loft" Lords of Appeal and the Peerage Cheshire Words. 1300 " Regatta ": West- Country Use of the Word, 237.

<JUERIES : Forlorn Hope at Badajos " Confounded red herrings'' Gower : "an uzerper" Constables' Staves Biographical Information Wanted Burrows - Brooke Frances Walsingham " Skivvy " : " Up "Napoleon's Kmblemofthe Bee, 283 Col. Nathuiiel Gordon Band of Dragoon Regiments Mary Putnam Jacobi : Mrs. Ellis Place - Names Reign ley Stephen Grellet Assignment of Arms Torrens Gustavus Harrison Didiington Farm, Warwickshire The Stone's End, Borough Punch and Judy, 289 -"Mizpah" Epitaph Leyson Family Carlyle : Explanations Wanted Jean Paul : Novalis : Jacob Behmen Logan, Laughtn Ross of Balnaaowan Non - Parochial Registers Henry Gilbert Sibbering D^vil and the Lawyer, 290 Miss Buss and Miss Beale, 291.

REPLIES : Legend of the last Lord Lovell. 291 Mistake of Scott's Earldom of Derwentwater. 293 Edgar Allan Poe's Mother- Dogs in Churches, 294 The Top-Hat in Sculpture Isaac Newton and his Namesake Norwegian Legend Omar Khayyam Bibliography De Ruyter : Tromp, 295 Robin Qood English Edition of Casanova Foreigners accompanying William III. Tobacconists' Highlanders Walter Brisbane Black D igs : Gabriel Hounds, 296 Peveril Family Capt. Dennis Mahony Women and Tobacco Dinner-jacket Prime .Serjeant " Paint the lion "Municipal Records Printed, 297.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'Thomas Dekker : a Study'

Reviews and Magazines. Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

THE SOCIETY OF THE CLERKS OF ASSIZE.

AMONGST the records of th^ South-Eastern Circuit, taken over by me on my appoint- ment in 1887, wa^ a little book, 5| in. by 3J in., formed of two volumes bound together in leather. It is a MS. relat ng entirely to the meetings of the Society o" the Clerks of A -size between the years 1678 and 1851. Early entries in the book afford ample evi- dence that the Society had been in existence for very long before the earlier of these dates, and there is no definite statement of the rules of the Society. These, however, appear to have been few and simple. The Clerks of Assize were to mee^ and dine toge her on the day appointed for nominating the Sheriffs ; if a Clerk of Assize could not himself appear, he was to give notice to the Steward of ihe occasion, and was to send one of his officers as his deputy. On failing

to do this he rendered himself liable to a fine, which at one time (1697) was twenty shillings, and at others ten shillings. Having met and dined, the members elected one of their number Steward for the next occasion, and it became his duty to appoint the place of meeting and the time. Those present at each dinner signed this little book ; and as it was a rule that every newly appointed Clerk of Assize should, on joining the Society, pay not only his own " club," but the whole reckoning, the book affords material for the compiling of a complete list of Clerks of Assize between 1678 and 1851, to which list, from other sources, I have added the names of such as were appointed since 1851 and up to the present day.

With the exception of the years 1688, 1729 (in which, " Being a very Poor Yeare, there was nor Eatinge nor Drinkinge "), 1758, 1794, and 1828, the Society met once, and sometimes four times, in every year for 173 years.

In most instances the name of the tavern or inn at which the meeting was held is given, and the Society was very constant to certain of them. It dined no fewer than 107 times at the " White Hart Tavern," Holborn, between 1789 and 1851. The "Divell Taverne in ffleet street " entertained it eleven times, and so on. There is frequent praise of the fare, but on 3 Nov., 1693, the landlord of the "Bull Head Taverne neere St. Dunstan's Church in ffleet street " failed to please, and the entry is this :

" the company but 5 and d is sett

upon the howse by the Clerks of the Assizes the Bill being very unreasonable." The bones of discontent seem to have been " A Cod & two paires of soules & Quart of Oysters & shrimps," costing 14s., and " a Duck & 2 teale," costing 6s., against both which items is written " very base." The " ffrigasas off Chickens & Rabbetts " of 7 July, 1679, and the " peepinge chickins & sucking Rabbetts " of 10 Feb., 1680, called forth no praise or condemnation. On the latter date the economical Steward obtained and entered " abate for fire left, Is. 6rf." The Society seems, towards the end of the eighteenth century, to have had a predilection for " Mountain " at Is. 3d. a bottle, and a little later " Capillaire " appears with comparative frequency in the bills, which are invariably set out at length, and appear since 1693 to have been very moderate.

It is probable that a certain amount of business was transacted at these meetings, but the references to anything of the kind