Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/231

 ii s. vi. SKPT. 7, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Townshend, which points out the wretched- ness of the fifteen - year - old bride. After describing the dress she says :

" She look'd extreamly pritty but so melan- choly it made my heart ache ; when she was brought up to ye Table, the tears ran down her Cheeks, after some little time she recover'd herself, and went thro' the Ceremony rery well but one saw with what difficulty she commanded herself. She was obliged to lye down upon a bed at St. James, before the Ceremony began, and take drops, very near fainting and then fell into a flood of tears. I own poor thing I love her much the better for this that tho she was going from liveing a very Dull life to be a great Queen, she felt so much concern at leaving her own family, I wish she is not sick before she sets [off] to her King."

In ' A Queen of Tears ' W. H. Wilkins merely states that " she looked pale and dejected."

A. FRANCIS STEUART. 79, Great King Street, Edinburgh.

PRIMERO. This very old game of cards is described in the ' Oxford Dictionary ' (' H.E.LV) at vol. vii. p. 1363, col. 3, where it is stated that each card has thrice its ordinary value. That is not the case. The only cards which were multiplied by three were three of the ranks the two highest (the seven and six) and the five. The oldest version known of Primero was played with a pack of twenty-eight cards the ace to seven of each suit, being the Hombre pack without the court cards. In it the values of the cards were as follows : Seven = 21 points, six =18, ace = 16. five = 15, four = 4, three = 3, and two = 2 points. Ambigu is the only game now played, that I know of, which carries the features of Primero. It was first named in the Paris Academic of 1659. It is mentioned in English literature, and a description of it in English will be found in the ' Academy of Play ' (Newbery). The game is not noticed in the Dictionary.

J, S. McTEAB.

6, Arthur Chambers, Belfast.

SIR JOHN PRISOT, CHIEF JUSTICE. Such information as Foss and the ' D.N.B.' give tends to connect this eminent lawyer with Kent. Should any inquirer wish to pursue the subject, I would direct his attention to the neighbourhood of Cambridge ; for in a collection of Haslingfield deeds which I have lately seen, I find the Chief Justice himself and .others of his name occurring over a considerable period of time. The first name is Walter Prisote, 1356; the next John Prisote (Prysott), which is mentioned at frequent intervals from 1375 to 1438. Probably these are not all notices of the

same person ; indeed, John Prysote " senior ' ' occurs in 1425. From 1425 to 1448 there is mention of a Richard Prysott. and again from 1455 to 1465. The Chief Justice himself is party to a deed of 1453 ; and there is a second mention of him (in the past tense) in 1467. Margaret Prysott occurs in 1455. A John Prysott " of Haslingfield,"' 1455, is perhaps the same person who is called John, son of William Prysott, in 1457, and whose widow Agnes occurs in 1477. These notices are not sufficient to make a pedigree of the family, but seem to indicate that for some genera- tions their home was probably in Hasling- field, or not far away.

There are similar indications of a family named Roun in the same place from 1293 until late in the fifteenth century.

W. H. B. BIRD.

THE LONDON BRICKLAYER. An excellent summary of ' Roman London,' by Prof. Haverfield, in the second number of The Journal of Roman Studies, brings one very near the life of those bygone days. It notes that a tile from a bonding-course in the Roman town-wall was dug up in Warwick Lane in 1886, and had the inscription, " Austalis goes off on his own, every day, for a fortnight," on which the Professor has the following interesting comments :

" Workmen often go off thus, and other work- men notice it ; this man wrote down his observa- tions, and wrote in Latin. It seems to follow that some of the bricklayers of Londinium could read and write and used Latin. I have heard this conclusion doubted on the ground that a bricklayer of the Roman empire would not have known how to read and write. The doubt is idle. Inscribed tiles of this kind, plainly written by labouring men, have been found in one place or another in Britain and other Roman provinces in scores. The truth is that in the lands ruled by Rome education was better under the Empire than at any time since its fall unto about 1848.

The London bricklayer of 1835, to judge from chap, v., ' Sevendials,' of 'Scenes' in ' Sketches by Boz,' had not advanced much in education, though, perhaps, he shared the views of his Roman predecessor concerning periods of leisure. Here is the comment of Dickens :

" In addition to the numerous groups who are idling about the gin-shops and squabbling in the centre of the road, every post in the open space has its occupant, who leans against it for hours with listless perseverance. It is odd enough tnat one class of men in London appear to have no enjoyment beyond leaning against posts. We never saw a regular bricklayer's labourer take any other recreation, fighting excepted.

HlPPOCLIDES.