Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/116

 90 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S. X. FEB. 4, 1922. interesting correspondence. For instance, , I have to thank Mr. John Wilson, late of , the Whitby district and now of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, for an interesting letter! regarding the word " onstand," which 1 1 denned as meaning the balance of a sum j of money (corn or other payment in kind) j left after a certain portion had been paid j off by one or more instalments. The word i occurs in the old diary of Jackson of! Lackenby, which has been loaned to me, and is used in the following entry : " 1807, July 2nd, To cash paid Jackson Buckton on account of onstand, 40." Mr. Wilson, who has had extensive experience with the management of estates and with old deeds and records, writes : I am sending you an extract from a clause in a farm agreement in use in the North Riding of Yorks, touching upon the meaning of the word " onstand." I have never seen the word used anywhere else but in the Whitby district, nor in any farm agreement save the one from which the extract appended was taken. Some 12 or 15 years ago a fresh form of agreement was pre- pared for use to take the place of an older form, and I am rather glad to-day that I had something to do with the retention of the old word " on- stand " and all that it meant to an ingoing tenant. The old custom, when carried out correctly, meant that the incoming tenant took as his share of the grain crop already sown one-third of the stocks in one case and half the number of stocks in the other (i.e., the land set apart). The actual sharing of the harvest in this manner is rarely done now, but that was what it meant in actual practice and as understood in the Yorkshire dales to-day. Here is an extract from the form of agreement mentioned : The tenant shall also be entitled on quitting to the following allowances, which shall be settled as hereinafter provided, and be paid by the land- lord when and as fixed by the valuers or their arbitrator, namely : For an away-going crop of corn one -half of the arable land sown in due course of husbandry, the valuation of the same to be made immediately before the harvest, but in suchl vauation, deductions shall be made of the expenses of weeding, reaping, harvesting, threshing and marketing the crop, also of one- third of the valuation for onstand if the crop be sown after fallow or turnips, or rape eaten on, and of one-half if it be sown after potatoes, or turnips pulled off (the straw not to be included in the valuation but to belong to the landlord or the incoming tenant without any payment of compensation being made for the same). Regarding the " gairs," gairns," and " gairing," a correspondent writes to me from Bainton, Driffield : We use the word in this district in a slightly different sense to that you suggest in connection with the extract from Dobson's diary for 1807, in which he speaks of sowing " eight lands and , one gairn with red superfine wheat from London." Hereabouts in starting to plough a lot of rigs (or marks) are set parallel with the straight est hedge or fence. The " garins " are the short rigs which are common in most fields when one end is wider than the other, or has a corner or triangular piece at one end. J. FAIRFAX-BLAKEBOROUGH. Grove House, Norton-on-Tees. A TUDOR FIREPLACE AT ST. ALBANS. The following extract from The Herts Advertiser of the 21st inst. seems worthy of a corner in ' N. & Q.' The premises in question are situated amongst a block of some other very old buildings in the market place : A discovery which will prove of great interest to archaeologists has been made in the course of the refitting of the new premises which have been* acquired by Messrs. Boots, Cash Chemists, St. Albans. Following the demolition of a modern fireplace in a front room of the first floor, there came to light a very fine specimen of a Tudor fireplace, of stone. It is in four pieces, and is in an ex- cellent state of preservation. The carving on the stone is in practically the same condition as it was when first placed there. The specimen has been viewed by Sir Edgar Wigram, Mr. C. H. Ashdown and Mr. Bullen, who are quite certain that it is a fine example of the work of the Tudor period. We understand that the fireplace is to be placed in the new library which the firm are having made. It is thought that the stone, which is of the soft variety, was quarried at Dunstable. W. H. ENGLISH ARMY SLANG AS USED IN THE GREAT WAR. We much regret that, owing to the indisposition of MR. FORBES SIEVE - KING, the next article on this subject has had to be postponed. 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. EVELYN QUERIES. 1. Aug. 7, 1641. Evelyn refers to an " incomparable book, Hollandia Illustrate," which contains a picture of the wheel bridge used at the siege of Gennep. This cannot be Scriverius, as suggested by Dobson, whose book was pub- lished long before the siege. The title is probably due to the lettering on the book of Evelyn's bound copy. Can anyone direct me to the book or tell me its correct title ? 2. Aug. 8. Who was Sir Robert Stone, whose wife was apparently present at a cavalry mess ? In Shaw's ' Knights '