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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. MAR. 25, me. from the subjoined statement of Erasmus in his celebrated letter of defence to Martin Dorp of May, 1515, if I apprehend his meaning aright, an even earlier date of publication is possible:—

"Diversabar id temporis apud Morum meum, ex Italia reversus deinde quorum instinotu scripseram, eorumdem opera deportatus in Galliam libellus, formulis excusus est, sed ab exemplo non solura mendoso, verum etiam mutilo"

This seems to me to imply either that the MS. was sent on in advance to Paris before its author set out thither, or that a clandestine and mutilated copy had got into the hands of a printer, and prompts the question: Was this Gourmant's undated edition of which Erasmus complains? If so, I suggest 1510, of which Mr. Allen admits the possibility, as the probable date of the first issue. I am quite at one with him as to the "impossible year-date, 1508, which is added to the preface for the first time in the Froben edition of July, 1522," but on what reasonable hypothesis did it become affixed thereto?

A word as to the incubation and inception of this work which, together with all Europe, Leo X. hailed with delight, recognizing in it "our old friend again," which Coleridge regarded as "the most pleasant book of Erasmus," and which Mr. E. Emerton declared was "about as funny as an average copy of Punch." Froude says (Lecture VII.), in calm ignorance of his blunder, that "it [the 'Moria'] was finally cast into form on a ride from Calais to Brussels, where it was written down after a week's labour." How came Froude to stumble into this crass error? Had he never read the opening words of the Prefatory Letter to More, in which Erasmus states clearly that he thought it out when riding, not "from Calais to Brussels," but "ex Italia in Angliam"? The slip is as unpardonable as it is characteristic.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

MOYLE OF BAKE, ST. GERMANS.

SOME confusion exists with regard to the early portion of this pedigree in fact, down to the acquisition by the family of the manor of Bake, which is, incorrectly, stated to have taken place in the time of Edward III. The pedigree commences with Robert, who is said to have been the father of Reginald, whose son Roger (29 Edward I.) is given as the father of William, living in the first year of Edward III. The second son of this William, named Roger, is stated in the

pedigree to have married Joan, the heiress of William Bake. As the name of this Roger and Joan Moyle, his wife, occur in the Patent Rolls, June 17, 6 Edward IV.. (1466), it is pretty evident that Roger could not possibly be the son of William, living in the first year of Edward III., and thus a period of 139 years has to be accounted for.. The descent of Joan Bake from Adam de Back (10 Edward III.) and Christina Tredinnick, which includes Fortescue and other families, is also given in the Visita- tion pedigree of Moyle, and this may be verified by the pedigrees given in the Rea Rolls, De Banco, Michaelmas, 5 Ed- ward IV., m. 542 (1465), and Early Chancery Proceedings, Bundle 26, No. 565,. and certainly shows that the Moyles could not have been in possession of Bake in the reign of Edward III. Various conjectures have been offered as to the family's residence before acquiring Bake, but none seem satisfactory. John Philipot, Somerset Herald, speaking of Sir Thomas Moyle of Eastwell, of whose family the Moyles of* Bake were said to be a branch, called him

"a man descended of a noble and right ancient race in Cornwall and Devon, whose arms as well as name have suffered much alteration by the iniquity of time, for their original appellation being from a place yet in possession of some of this surname called Moels Court, and in elder time some branch thereof, honoured with the dignity of Baron de Moels of Cadbury, were often summoned to the Parliaments, as Mr. Camden in his ' Britannia ' hath noted. In process of time, which wresteth each: name to be significant, the primitive name almost extinguished by suffering conversion into Moyle- In manner the ancient coat of Moel with some super- fluous insertions was thrust into the second place,, and a mule (alluding to the present sounding of the name) assumed or assigned for their paternal coat."

Whatever grounds there were for this sup- position, there can be no doubt that the name Moyle is derived from the Cornish and Welsh word moel, meaning bare, barren, or bald. The arms of Moel were : Argent, two bars gules, in chief three torteaux. Crest : a mule passant ppr. The superfluous in- sertions that Philipot speaks of render the coat (which is so given in the Visitations for both the Kentish and Bake Moyles) : Gules, a greyhound courant argent between two bars of the same, charged with three martlets sable, in chief three plates.

The father of Sir Thomas Moyle of East- well, according to the pedigree, married a daughter of Arundell, and, secondly, a daughter of Sir Robert Drury, and this may account for the martlets and greyhound^ though why the Moyles of Bake should bear these charges is unaccountable.