Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/423

 n s. vi. NOV. 2, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

347

" SET UP MY (HIS) BEST. "(See 10 S. vi. 509 ; vii. 53, 175.) This expression, undoubtedly, was taken from the game of primero. See (among other works) John Minsheu's ' Plea- sant and Delightful Dialogues in Spanish and English' (1599), where in the dialogue upon Primero " R " says, " See here my rest, let every one be in," and "O" says, "I set my rest." There are mistakes in some of the answers to the query, apparently from the writers not understanding how the game was played. Each player put a stake into the pool, and part of his hand of cards was dealt to him. He then decided whether he would remain in the pool by adding another and larger stake, which was called " setting his rest," the last word thereof generally applying to the stake. The remainder of the hand was then dealt before the vying or betting com- menced. It is obvious that the term " rest " was derived from the break in the dealing, during which the money was staked ; and when the method of the game is under- stood, it is very easy to apply the different meanings of the writers in using the above expression.

Primero is a very interesting game, and very old, and there are scores and scores of allusions to it in old writers ; but it is not described in any of the books of games.

J. S. MG-TEAB. 6, Arthur Chambers, Belfast.

TRIPOS : TRIPOS VERSES. (See 10 S, iv. 124, 172, 292.) It is interesting to notice that a contributor to Tlie Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1795 (vol. Ixv.), attempted to solve the problem of the origin of this term in a letter headed ' Ambiguous Expressions of Cambridge Elucidated,' and the following extract may prove a side-light on the solu- tions already furnished :

" Perhaps it arose contemporary with the Oxonian celebrated ' Terra Filius,' which was abolished on account of its abusive and licentious tendency. The last writer of ' Terree Filius ' gives this description of it, in the first number of a work periodically published under that title :

' ' It has, till of late (says he), been a custom from time immemorial for one of our family to mount the rostrum at Oxford, at certain seasons, and divert an innumerable crowd of spectators who nocked thither to hear him from all parts, with a merry oration in the Fescenninc manner, interspersed with secret history, raillery and sarcasm as the occasions of the times supplied him with matter.'

" Now the Cambridge ' Tripos ' was, probably, in old times delivered like the ' Terree Filius ' from a tripod or three-legged stool, or rostrum, in humble imitation of the Delphic oracle. That

it is of great antiquity cannot be doubted, and that, in the year 1626, it very much resembled the ' Terrae Filius,' as above described, will appear manifest from the Cambridge statute, ' De tollendis ineptiis in publicis disputationibus,' enacted, at that time, in order to repress the encreasing asperity and impertinence of these annual productions."

The letter is signed " A Cantab."

CLIFTON BOBBINS.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

SIR JOHN TREGONWELL'S SECOND WIFE : GEORGE MARTEN. GEORGE MARTYNE, AND JAMES MARTEN, WINCHESTER SCHOLARS. The ' D.N.B.,' following the pedigree in Hutchins's ' Dorset ' (3rd ed.), i. 161, says that Sir John Tregonwell married secondly Elizabeth Bruce, and that this lady was buried 17 Jan., 1581/2. However, Dom Bede Camm, in a note on p. 237 of vol. ii. of his ' Lives of the English Martyrs,' says that she was by birth a New. She was certainly the widow of one Marten, though this is not noted in any printed pedigree so far as I am aware. Her eldest son, George Marten, was the betrayer of Blessed Thomas Sherwood, whose arrest was doubtless the occasion of Lady Tregonwell's house being twice searched in 1577 and 1580. By 5 Aug., 1580, she had entered into bonds of one thousand marks for the repair of herself and the rest of her family to their parjsh church to hear divine service according to her Majesty's laws ; but in 1585 another son of hers, James Marten, was a recusant, and apparently subsisting on a voluntary allowance made by his mother (Dasent, ' Acts of the Privy Council,' ix. and xii. ; ' Cal. S. P. Dom., 1581-90,' p. 283).

One George Martyne entered Winchester College in 1548 from Sutton, aged 12, and became a Scholar of New College, Oxford, in 1554.

In 1549 one George Martyne entered Win- chester College from Stroton (Strattoii), Bristol diocese, aged 12 and one Christopher Martyne, from the same place, aged 13. These would seem to have been brothers.

One James Marten entered Winchester College in 1553, aged 14, from Athelhampton, and was Fellow of New College 1558-9, removed for non -residence. See Kirby's Winchester Scholars,' pp. 128, 129, 131.