Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/351

 ii s. V.APRIL is, 19.2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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" ROOD-LOFT." In the first volume of the registers* of the quondam parish of St. George, Botolph Lane, Billingsgate Ward, a vestry note of 16 Oct.. 1593, bears witness to an uncommonly late retention of a "" Rood-.Lo/," it being then agreed " that the pulpip [sic] shalbe taken downe & Removed into a more convenient plasse Agreed upon, & allso by the same consent the Roode, Loft Is to be taken Awaye for the more convenient plassinge of the pulpipp." ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

LORDS OF APPEAL AND THE PEERAGE. (See ante, p. 36.) The following sentence in an article at the above reference seems to call for some comment :

" On the other hand, there are lords of Parlia- ment who are not peers the Lords of Appeal, for instance, who have the right to a writ of summons while in office only, though they are barons for life."

Presumably, by " Lords of Appeal " we are intended to understand the four Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. The other Lords of Appeal, viz., the Lord Chancellor and such peers as are holding or have held high judicial office, are in no different position from any other members of the peerage. It is not correct, however, to say even of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary that they have the right to a writ of summons while in office only. Although this was the law from the passing of the Appellate Jurisdic- tion Act, 1876, till the enactment of the amending Act of 1837, it never actually operated except in one case, and then only for a single session. When Lord Blackburn resigned during the recess of 1886, there was a general feeling that such services as Lords of Appeal in Ordinary might be willing to give should not be lost to the nation because of their resignation. The result was the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1887, which repealed the restrictive words in the Act of 1876.

Whether Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are peers, or merely lords of Parliament, is a more difficult question. It may be argued from the fact that they are called " Lords of Parliament. " in section 6 of the Act of 1876, while the hereditary peers are called " Peers of Parliament " in section 5, that it was not intended to confer the full dignity of peerage npon the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. On the other hand, it is enacted that they are to rank as barons for life, and, unless an

Botolph, at 19, Eastcheap.
 * Penes Mr. Harry Bird, Vestry Clerk of St.

entirely new meaning is to be given to the word " baron," it follows that they are peers. Certainly the almost invariable prac- tice is to speak of them as life peers, but, so far as I know, the point has never been formally decided. F. W. READ.

CHESHIRE WORDS, 1300-1360. The follow- ing words occur in the ' Accounts ' of the Chamberlains of Cheshire, 1301-1360, recently issued by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. The general text in which they are embodied is Latin.

Pastes and weures for strengthening a floor.

Rayles and shores.

Spikyngnails, bordnails, schingclnails, lat[h]nails, led nails.

Iron craumpons and coynz, for fixing stones on a bridge.

Lathes, thachbordes, clamstodts (? clamp- studs).

Sadelbrasses and headstalls.

The cost of throkyng three ploughs, Bd.

In slenyng of a cart with new felyes, I2d.

Axseltrez.

Iron for ploueclutes and cartclutes.

Tezeres bought for carthorses.

Two naffes (naves or hubs), bought for one cart.

One cartbond plough.

Two oxen crocunes, sold for ISs.

Locks called platelocks for the gate of Beeston Castle. (Is this the origin of " pad- lock," which the ' N.E.D.' cannot explain ?)

A pair of anewes ( ? rings of iron).

Lyour (tape) and nails for fastening down the exchequer cloth.

Wyre for measuring up land.

It is quite unnecessary to ask the meaning of most of these words, and they are given merely as early examples. But throkyng, slenyng, tezeres, crocunes, and weures require explanation. R. S. B.

"REGATTA" : WEST-COUNTRY USE OF THE WORD. The Western Morning News of 26 December, 1911, under the heading of ' Whitchurch Regatta,' says :

" The Boxing-day meet of the Sperling Harriers at Whitchurch, or, in local parlance, Whitchurch ' Regatta,' is the great event of the sporting year in the district around Tavistock."

Then, given in facile "journalese," comes a description, couched in more or less nau- tical terms, of a meet of harriers and the conseq\ient hunting of the hare.

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.A. Teignmouth.