Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/440

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NOTES AND QUERIES. C" s. vn. MAY 31, ma.

In 1613 there was a serious quarrel about the advowson of the living of Chalton, and this may explain the otherwise difficult passage from the Churchwardens' Accounts. See ' Exchequer Bills and Answers ' (Hants), Charles I., No. 49. For other authorities see J. E. COx, ' The Annals of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate ' ; Macray's ' Magdalen College Register,' vol. iii. ; and Ward's ' Lives of the Gresham Professors,' in which book Samuel Ball appears as a subscriber (cf. Gent. Mag., 1741, p. 500).

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

DEMOLITION or DICKENSIAN LANDMARKS IN BIRMINGHAM (11 S. vii. 325). Respecting the third building mentioned by MR. COR- FIELD as the private residence of Mr. Winkle, sen., the description given in the ' Pickw r ick Papers ' (p. 537 of the 1837 edition) hardly accords with the house MR. CORFIELD thinks was the one. This evidently was the house situate at the corner of Easy Row and Edmund Street (now hidden behind a large hoarding), and had a flight of some six or seven steps, while the one Dickens de- scribes had only three steps.

There are several houses still standing in Easy Row and Great Charles Street which much more accurately agree with Dickens's description of a house with three steps ; and formerly Paradise Street had, I believe, several such houses in it.

A canal with wharves runs at the back of the houses on the north side of Great Charles Street, so Mr. Winkle's house may very well have been in this street, which, to my mind, answers more nearly to a " quiet substantial- looking street " than does Easy Row.

EDW. ALEX. FRY.

227, Strand.

%c MEEND," " MYENDE," " MEAND " (11 S. vii. 363). I think that the term " La Munede " of the Perambulatio Forestse de Dene, A.D. 1281. meaning an area for wood- cutting, points to the etymology of the Meends of that forest. I would suggest that Munede is an Anglo-French form of a Med. Lat. munita, for immunitas, a privileged dis- trict, one " immune " from seignorial rights (see Ducange). For change of declension in munita, immunita, see Ronsch, ' Itala,' p. 258. The form munita would regularly become mynde in Old English. For change of Lat. t to O.E. d we may compare acetum > O.E, eced, abbatem > O.E. abbod, latinum > O.E. Iceden. In the Gloucester dialect this mynde would be represented quite regularly by the spelling and modern pronunciation

meend. See ' E.D.D.' (Grammar, 177, in Supplement).

I think that the Mean (Mene) in Gloucester names of places must be kept distinct etymo- logically from Meend (and other forms ending in d), and connected, with O.E. mcene (" com- munis "). See ' E.D.D.,' s.v. ' Mean,' sb. 2, 5.

We may compare the Kentish word for a common, Mennis (Minnis), which represents O.E. mcennes, gemcennes ("community"). A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

We have the same word denoting the same thing, viz., die Allmende = Allgemeinde, belonging to the adj. gemein(e) = gemein- schaftlich (" common "). In Bavaria the pasture held in common, die Gemeinweide y is called die Gemain, which corresponds exactly to O.E. gemcene. G. KRUEGER. Berlin.

EARLY ENGLISH PRINTED BOOKS (11 S. vii. 327, 377). I have turned to Collett'g work, as MR. JAGGARD kindly suggests, but find no help there at all. The ' Index of English Books in the Lambeth Library,' by Maitland, is perfectly well known to me, but contains no clue to either the Index to Herbert's and Dibdin's ' Ames ' or the great catalogue of early printed English books for which Maitland was collecting material. I am obliged to MR. JAGGARD tor the offer to lend Collett's Index. There is, however, a copy here. R. A. PEDDIE.

St. Bride Foundation Typographical Library.

COMING OF AGE (11 S. vii. 369). 'The | Lawes | Resolvtions | of Womens | Rights,' published in 1632, dealing with ' The Ages of Woman,' says :

" The learning is 35. Hen. 6. fol. 40. that a Woman hath divers speciall ages, at the 7. yeare of her age, her father shall have aide of his tenants to marry her. At 9. yeares age, shee is able to deserve and have dowre. At 12. yeares to consent to marriage. At 14. to bee hors du guard : at 16. to be past the Lords tender of a husband. At 21. to be able to make a feoffement : And per Ingleton there in the end of the case, a woman married at 12. cannot disagree afterward, but if she be married younger, shee may dissent till shee be 14." Lib. i. p. 7.

Blackstone, in his ' Commentaries on the Laws of England,' says :

"The ages of male and female are different for different purposes. A male at twelve years old may take the oath of allegiance ; at fourteen is at years of discretion, and therefore may consent or disagree to marriage, may choose his guardian, and, if his discretion be actually proved, may make his testa- ment of his personal estate ; at seventeen may be an executor ; and at twenty-one is at his own disposal, and may aliens his lands, goods, and chattels.