Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/185

 12 s. ii. AUG. 26, 1916. ] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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that a farmer had been thrown into a pro- found and long-lasting sleep. This sleep was a judgment of God, because the man had said he wished, that the Almighty would let the weather alone. This sudden reappearance of the first half of an ancient tradition was very striking. B. L. R. C.

FlELDINGIANA : MlSS H AND (12 S. i-

483 ; ii. 16, 38, 137). It may be worth nothing that this name on the monuments remaining in Ipsley Church, Warwickshire, is Hubaud, and not Huband. Hubaud and Hubaut are, I believe, pretty common French surnames, and forms of the Hubbald to be found on p. 219 of vol. i. of Mr. Henry Harrison's ' Surnames of the United King- dom,' now in process of completion.

A. C. C.

"TADSMAN" (12S.ii. 129). The individual who in the days of Elizabeth enjoyed this patronymic is nowadays usually known as a " nightman." WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

THOMAS ASTLE (v.s. ' Inscriptions in St. Mary's Church, Battersea,' 12 S. ii. 126). He was author of a book on old writing.

E. E. COPE.

0n

The English Civil Service in the Fourteenth Centurt/. A Lecture delivered at the John Rylands Library on Dec. 15, 1915, by T. P. Tout. (Man- chester, the University Press ; London, Long- mans and Quaritch, Is. net.)

PROF. TOUT expresses here the opinion that the personal element in history is still " somewhat overstressed." The context shows that he is referring to the interest taken in exceptional individuals, some part of which he would like to see transferred to the " ordinary person." If the said " ordinary person " has not been so well known or well liked as he deserves to be by the general run of students and readers, we think it is largely because, hitherto, we have not had nearly as many studies as we want of just the kind Prof. Tout gives us. The personal element is strong in them, and it is that which makes them at once so lively and so instructive. He gives here an excellent condensed account of the development of the main branches of the mediaeval " civil service " from departments of the King's house- hold, tracing the history of clerical administra- tii>n. and the gradual intrusion of the Laity into office ; making distinct the several characters of the Exchequer, the Chancery, and the Privy Seal ; and giving some idea of the range of work and the competence and the methods of the mediaeval Gfovernment office. In conclusion, he sketches t<>r us, in their capacity of civil servants, the three figures of John Winwick, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Thomas Hoccleve. He warns us not to consider Chaucer's official work as merely nominal, remind- ing us that he was compelled by the terms of his

appointment to write his rolls with his own hand r and to be " continually present " to discharge his duties. It is, however, the case that he was let off this particular work on occasion, for in 1377 we find him allowed to depute Thomas de Eyesham to act for him and write the rolls of office/ with his own hand during Geoffrey's pleasure. This, no doubt, was in reference to Chaucer's part in the embassy into France of the following" year, but later on he was allowed to have a per- manent deputy.

Headers of ' N. & Q.' who are interested in the history of words and which of us is not ? will like Prof. Tout's discussion of the rise and growth of the term " civil service." He is inclined to think the ' N.E.D.' deals with the matter some- what too summarily. We should think his con- jecture that it was adopted through the perhaps unconscious mediation of Sir Charles Trevelyan,. hits the mark. The East India Company first invented it, using this technical phrase to denote those of their officials who were not of the military profession. When, in 1853, there arose a movement for reforming and reorganizing the public adminis- tration of Great Britain, Trevelyan, who had been a " civil servant " in India, drew up, with Sir Stafford Northcote, a report on the situation and its demands, in which occurs the first instance of the phrase Prof. Tout has found. It became current in the correspondence and discussion to- which the report gave rise.

We trust Prof. Tout will forgive us for a sugges- tion. Pleasant and vivacious as his pages are, they would be yet pleasanter and not less vivacious if he would go over them once with nothing but grammar and the logic of sentences in his mind- We quote two examples of the fault we venture to complain of, and could furnish more. On p. 1 he speaks of gentlemen flocking to Government offices " at hours varying inversely with their- dignity." At p. 5 we have," No instances of the use of these terms can be found in our language before the reign of George III. It originated apparently. . . .It seems first to have been used." . . . .But we would certainly rather have a lecture of Prof. Tout's a little hasty and ungrammatical' than not have it at all.

JOTTINGS FROM RECENT BOOK CATALOGUES.

THE new Catalogues which have come to our hands strike us as above the average in interest. We note first one or two items which may well arrest the attention of millionaire collectors or trustees of well-to-do institutions. Such is a fine piece of fourteenth-century writing by an Anglo- Norman scribe ' Le Roman de Merlin ' which would appear to be Robert de Borron's version of the story, and is worth noting, not merely as a long 11 nd well - executed MS., with many miniatures and other decorations, but also as important in the matter of text. This is priced by Messrs. Maggs.who now own it, at 1.250J. A MS. of per- haps yet greater general interest is also in Mes.-rs. Maggs's possession, and they are asking 850J. for it Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales,' followed by Lydgate's 'Story of Thebes.' Between the two is inserted n Chronological History of England, which enables the date of the script to be lix.-d at 1449-50. There are a few imperfections. We note that a long poem, which the cataloguer has not described, follows the Lydgate. If we