Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/478

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. III. Nov., 1917.

desired you to get for me, vizt., the hat (which pray let be of good old fashion, since the new is so ugly) and the combs, knives, &ca., entreat you to procure me a backsword* with a handle like yours, if you can get it, or any other toolef that will not cost too much money, and 1 or 2 small picture glasses^ if Procurable, and | dozen ordinary knives or any other toys fitt to give away, for which disbursements I hope you will be furnished with effects of mine upon the sale of the girdles.

the letter to send in your pacquett I shall get ready, as also some small token to the waterman's wife, after the dispeeding away the next goods from hence, which will be in a small time.

In a former I desired you to send me word what goods you hear are most re- questable with the ships, which pray fayle not to doe Per your next. [Unsigned]

[Endorsed] To Mr Vickers October 14th: 70

LETTER LXXII.

Richard Edwards to John Marshall (rough draft). (O.C. 3499.)

Cassumbuzar October 14 1670. To Mr Marshall

the hurry of your unexpectedly sudden departure from this place made me forget to ~aske you the amount of those things you did me the favour to bring me from Pattana, so that I know not but I am your debtor for what they might come to more then you were imbursed of mine ; therefore desire you would Per next (if your leisure Permitt) advise me their prizes, || as also the pallampoos you de- livered Mr Vickers to send me, which arrived my hands last night, togither with 2 bamboes, for which I humbly thanke you ; and heartily to begg the honour of yoxir comands, if in any thing I may serve you, that so I may expresse (for I can't complement) how unfeignedly I desire to be accounted Sir

Your reall friend and humble servant

T> "pi

[Endorsed] To Mr Marshall October 14th 7C

R. C. TEMPLE. (To be continued.)


 * A sword with only one cutting edge.

t A weapon of war.

j Transparencies. In Letter LXXV. Edwards describes them as " looking glasses pictured on the back side."

Knick-knacks, trifles. |j Price.

SUGAR : ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENG- ,AND. Haydn's ' Dictionary of Dates/ wenty-fifth edition, p. 1323, says, " It is not known at what date sugar was in- roduced into England," and quotes 1497 as the earliest date mentioned. In view of the prominent position which sugar occupies at the present moment, the under- mentioned extracts from the, I think, un- jaralleled series of original Receivers' Rolls n the possession of the City Corporation f Exeter may be of interest, as they supply an earlier record by nearly fifty years. In the entries for 29-30 Henry VI. (1450) we find :

" Itm in di u de suger empt de Joh'e Kelly p" wafers inde fiend p' dno de Byvers p' pc majoris

" Itm in ij n de suger empt de Joh'e James p* [pocras inde fiend p' dnS de Byyers p' p c majoris ij 8 ."

In Henry VI. 's reign the value of money was about ten times that of the present day, at which rate sugar would then have ost 15s. per Ib. H. TAPLEY-SOPEH.

Exeter City Library.

THE DUTCH IN THE THAMES. Many persons who are not acquainted with the maritime history of the Thames are ex- pressing surprise at the constant presence of Dutch schluyts off Billingsgate and in the Pool. But it is common knowledge among along-shore folks that these Dutch eel-boats and their guard and warder have been coming under royal charter for at least three hundred years, and probably much longer ; and that the Dutch status in the North Sea and the Thames originated in a time when the Netherlands and their trade allies dominated the sea-commerce of the whole English East Coast, and when International Law had not even its nominal existence. Since Canning assured us in his- celebrated riming dispatch that In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch. Is offering too little, and asking too much,

it may be recalled that this chartered privilege of the Dutch schluyts and of the North Sea fishers subsisted even throughout naval wars between the young Dutch Republic and the English Government of various forms. For, as we know from the diarists and letter-writers, the North Sea Brotherhood of the Banks, and many mariners withal, had the easiest notions of allegiance to either, or, indeed, to any Government ; and, anyway, the trade was a mutual advantage. The herrings which were dumped upon the little quays by Ratcliff Cross Stairs and were " cried " at