Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/245

 12 S. X. MAR. 11, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 199 SAMUEL MAUNDER (12 S. x. 94). He was born in 1785 in Devonshire, and died at his house in Islington on April 30, 1849. JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. UNIDENTIFIED ARMS (12 S. x. 130). Will it assist your correspondent to know that at Ewell there is a brass shield, the last j remnant of the brass to Richard Bray and wife Joan, 1559, upon which the Bray arms impale those of Saunders, the latter being Sable, a chevron ermine between three bulls' heads cabossed, argent ? In 1913 this shield was removed from the ruined t6wer of the old church, where it lay alone, and was fixed to a slab of stone together with an inscription plate recording the removal, which stone was then fixed to the wall of the new church. See also Burke's ' Armory ' under * Saunders of Surrey, Pembroke and Derby.' WALTER E. GAWTHORP. 16, Long Acre, W.C. GEZREEL'S TOWER (11 S. viii. 404). White's successor, " Prince " Michael Keyfor Mills, leader for many years of the Gezree- lite sect, has recently died at Gillingham aged 65. Since May last the building has been occupied by the Gillingham Co-operative Society. J. ARDAGH. AUTHORS WANTED. (12 S. x. 152). 1. The French saying usually quoted in the form " Tout homme a deux patries," &c., was discussed in L'Interm4diaire,vol. Ixv. (Jan.-June, 1912). The passage from Act. III., scene ii., of Henri de Bornier's ' La Fille de Roland ' (acted in February, 1875), was given as follows (Charlemagne loquitur) : " Dans le livre des temps pour mon regard ou verts O France 1 je lirai ta gloire ou tes revers ! Ta gloire ! oh 1 puisse-t-elle, aux 6poques pro- chaines, Croltre en s'affermissant comme croissent les chenes, Offrir 1'abri superbe et 1'ombre de son front, Nation maternelle, aux peuples qui naitront, Afln qu'on dise un jour, selon mon esperance : Tout homme a deux pays, le sien et puis la France ! " It was asserted by more than one correspondent that the thought expressed by Bornier was origi- nated by President Jefferson. No authority, however, was given for this statement. One contributor, after pointing out that Jefferson succeded Franklin as Minister Plenipotentiary in France, wrote : " On ne saurait guere dire dans quelle circon- stance il emit son celebre aphorisme, car il aimait a le renter a tout propos." One would like to have a reference for at least one of these occasions. EDWARD BENSLY. J?ote on The General Eyre. Lectures delivered in the University of London by William Craddock Bolland. (Cambridge University Press. 6s. net.) REMEMBERING Mr. Bolland' s recent lectures on the Year Books we opened his new volume with no little pleasure, and now, having our- selves greatly enjoyed it, recommend it heartily not only to students of law and history, but also to students of literature. The former, indeed, may well consider themselves obliged to make acquaintance with this study, for it presents the pith of much unpublished material, of the highest interest, brought to light by Mr. Bolland' s re- searches. The importance of the Eyres in medieval history needs, of course, no pointing out. Their full significance can hardly be seen without a" clear understanding of the working of the or- dinary courts. Mr. Bolland, therefore, supplies first a delightful and vivid picture of the assembly of the freeholders at the county court held by the Sheriff, sketching the competence of that court, as also of the hundred and manor courts, and outlining the procedure. Then, upon this background, he draws out for us the intrusive and terrible action of the Commission of the King's itinerant Justices, whose powers were in effect royal and superseded all other jurisdiction. So deeply did men hate these courts and such con- fusion and suffering did they cause that an Eyre could be held in the same locality only once in seven years. Twelve men from every hundred and a reeve and four men from every town within the county were summoned under severe penalties to the Eyre, where also the county court was compelled to give attendance. The Justices in Eyre had before them particulars of all cases and causes requiring investigation down to the remotest detail of each. They could enforce the most rigorous exactness and fullness in all reports ; and the closest compliance with the most preposterous demands for the execution of which often an impossibly brief time was allowed. The penalty for failure, voluntary or involuntary, was of a harshness wellnigh incre- dible ; the ejection of a family from its home might follow what was rather a mistake or mis- fortune than an offence. The theory of the Eyres, according to official proclamations, was paternally benevolent : the vast discrepancy between theory and practice is, however, not difficult to account for. The Justices in Eyre had for their real task the collecting of money for the King. Pretexts for fines, pretexts for seizure of men's lands and goods, were the true objects of their searching inquiry into the rights and wrongs of great and small. They descended upon the terrified and afflicted county like a press to wring wealth out of it ; and the two centuries during which this institution flourished must, at these recurrent visitations, have been little less fruitful in misery than the administration of a Verres. All this is best understood by a consideration of definite instances, and by having in the imagina- tion some view of the actual scenes and pro- ceedings. Mr. Bolland supplies these admirably,