Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/106

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. AKOL, wis.

The details of the valuation are not given, but it is clear how it was arrived at. In 1379 a pound weight of silver was coined into 300 pence instead of the original 240 ; therefore, in order to convert pounds in weight into pounds in currency, it is necessary to add one-fourth, or 5s. in the pound. This gives 121. 5s. Wd. The ratio of gold to silver was taken as 11 to 1, and thus we obtain the final figure of 1371. 13s. 4d. As the valuation was made to secure the lender, and not for purposes of sale, naturally there is no allowance for the making

Evidently we cannot understand the entries in Croke's account book in this sense, as it would involve the silver spoons weighing nearly half a pound each. The explanation I venture to suggest is that by the seventeenth century the meaning of expressing weights in pounds and shillings had been lost, and so an endeavour was made to rationalize the old custom by inserting the value and calling it the weight. This is quite parallel to what has frequently happened where an old form has become unintelligible. It would be useful to have other examples from the same period.

F. W. READ.

BOSCOBEL RELICS. Boscobel House having recently changed owners, the Caro- line relics there have also been sold under the hammer, and The Wolverhampton Express and Star of March 21, 1918, contains a report of the sale. The principal relic was the banqueting table of the Penderels at which King Charles dined on the Sunday during his stay at Boscobel, and from its excep- tional form and its associations with the monarch it realized 100Z. The Boscobel Visitors' Book (13 vols.) fetched 91. Some of the items, however, had no association with Charles. S.'A. GRUJST>Y-NEWMAX.

Walsall.

" DOBBIE." I cannot find this word in the ' English Dialect Dictionary.' It is used, in a very local way, for a caretaker of a school or church, and, as far as I can discover, it seems to exist only in one parish that of Emanuel, Bolton, Lanes. It may be of interest to record it.

ARCHIBALD SPARSE.

" CD." PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. (See ' Notices to Correspondents,' ante, p. 92.) Besides " unopposed returns,"

" The government can also, and frequently does, on its own initiative, lay papers before the house, papers technically known as ' com- mand papers ' because they are supposed to be

presented by command of the king." See ' Parliament :" its History, Constitution, and Practice,' by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the House of Commons, new and revised edition, 1912, p. 114.

An " unopposed return " is issued at the- request, formally moved, of any member of Parliament. It is " Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed," and is- numbered and dated, but not marked " Cd." ROBERT PIERPOLNT.

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.

STENDHAL : A FORGOTTEN ARTICLE. In the " Correspondance de Stendhal, publiee par Ad. Paupe et P. A. Cheramy " (Paris, 1908, ii. 489), Henry Beyle writes to his friend Sutton Sharpe as follows :

" ... .Le livre le plus amusant qui ait paru depuis un an en France, c'est les ' Memoires de Tilly ' . . . .J'ai fait un article sur Tilly, c'est le premier article que j'aie fait depuis dix-huit mois Un Anglais de mes amis, qui traduit mes articles, a craint de gater sa reputation en crivant sur un livre aussi libertin que Tilly. Pouyez-vous donner mon article 4 quelque journal litteraire en Angleterre ? "Letter dated Aug. 14, 1828.

Has this article been published, and, if so, in which review ? In her very exhaustive dissertation on ' Stendhal et 1'Angleterre ' (Paris, 1908), Miss Doris Gunnell devotes a chapter to " les articles de Stendhal ecrits pour des revues anglaises." but Count Tilly's Memoirs are passed by in silence.

Can some English Stendhalian help a Danish confrere ?' (Dr.) TAOE Buri.

Copenhagen.

BARREL-ORGANS. The third volume of ' The Ency. Brit.' contains an excellent article on barrel-organs, wherein it is men- tioned that the first barrel-organs imported into England came from the Low Countries. Dr. Enschede of Amsterdam is collecting material for an elaborate history of these popular musical instruments. The writer of the above-mentioned article does not give any reference to prove his assertion of the Dutch origin of the British barrel-organs, and Dr. Enschede will be infinitely obliged if a reader of ' 1ST. & Q.' can assist him in finding proof of the statement in the ' E. B/ W. DEL COURT.

47 Blenheim Crescent, W.ll.