Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/266

 216 NOTES AND QUERIES. [s.x.HAi.i8.iM. attend the Parish Church on the first Sunday, or as soon after the election of the mayor as convenient for him to appear in robes. In places where one robe does duty for all mayors, short or tall, the postponement is not necessary. The Shrewsbury corporation went (I pre- sume it still goes) on a Sunday, I think the second after the election of the mayor, to St. Chad's Church. I believe I am right in stating that the Mayor of Ludlow, or his deputy, attended the Parish Church every Sunday, accompanied by the mace-bearers and a few of the corporation. It is probable that, in these so-called en- lightened days, when old customs are cried down, this procedure no longer exists. In towns in which a mayor is a Non- conformist it often happens that he goes on the earliest opportunity, with the corpora- tion, to his particular place of worship. I know this is so in Newport, Mon. In the past, in most places, the mayor, if a Non- conformist, generally went to the Parish Church. I well remember, in one town, the aldermen at least the most important of them stating they would not let the maces and State sword be taken into a church not belonging to the National Church. We are more tolerant in these days. HERBERT SOUTHAM. THE " HAND AND PEN " (12 S. x. 168). This sign was usually displayed by scriveners, occasionally it adorned the doors of " Fleet parsons." The fact that, two centuries ago, a letter was addressed from a house with a sign does not necessarily indicate that it was indited at a tavern. Many tradesmen let their " first pair of stairs " to lodgers, especially during the Parliamentary session, when country members brought their families to town. On Nov. 25, 1740, Edward Young wrote to the Duchess of Portland from " The 3 Golden Lions by Temple Bar," and in December from " The 3 Sphinxes, Temple Bar." On March 31, 1741, Johnson, writing to Mr. Lewis Paul of Birmingham, addressed from " At the Black Boy, over against Durham Yard, Strand." Without further evidence I have not felt justified in including any of these in the lists of inns and taverns. J. PAUL. DE CASTRO. "SOWMOYS" (12 S. x. 167). This is doubtless a variant of the obsolete north- country word sowmes = traces used in plough- ing, generally made of iron (see Halli well's ' Diet, of Archaic and Provincial Words ' and Wright's ' Diet, of Obsolete and Pro- vincial English'). ROBERT GOWER. The 'N.E.D.,' under the word "souni," defines this as the amount of pasturage which will support one cow, or a propor- tional number of sheep or other stock. The first quotation given to illustrate this meaning is the very passage quoted by Q. V. from the Roll of the Great Seal of Scotland, 1500. T. F. D. PSEUDO -TITLES FOR " DUMMY " BOOKS (12 S. x. 129, 173, 197). Under this title, ought not those chess and draughts boards to be included, that were made up to look like books 1 I can remember a chess-board that, when standing on a book-shelf, appeared to be two bound volumes. It was lettered ' History of England,' vol. i. and vol. ii. I know of a similar " dummy " back- gammon board, lettered on the back ' Arabian Nights Entertainment,' vol. i. and vol. ii. I cannot find that this form of " dummy " book is made at the present day. ETHELBERT HORNE. PILATE'S WIFE (12 S. x. 150). For the traditional name of Pilate's wife, Claudia Procula, I find a reference to the Gospel of Nicodemus ii. The question of Roman Governors being accompanied to their provinces by their wives is illustrated by two passages of Tacitus. In the third book of the Annals, chaps. 33 and 34, there is an account of a debate in the Roman Senate in A.D. 21, when Aulus Csecina Severus proposed that no magistrate in command of a province should be allowed to take his wife out with him. Cae cina began his speech by explaining at great length, as Tacitus tells us with an evident sense of humour, that he was on excellent terms with his own wife, who had brought him six children, and that he had made her stay ;in Italy, though he had served abroad for 40 years. He referred in the course of his argument to a former decision by which men were not to take their wives to allied or foreign nations. On this Furneaux has the following note in his edition of the Annals : The old rule (cp. M. Sen. Controy. 9, 25, 251), though it had such signal exceptions as Livia, Agrippina, Plancina, &c., was still on the whole prevalent (cp. Suet. Aug. 24). Ulpian (Dig. i. 16, 4, 2), while stating that the wife might go with her husband to a province, thinks he would be better without her, and mentions the decree (see on ' Annals ' 4, 20, 6) making him responsible for her