Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/230

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. AUG., ms.

canons from the royal demesne, as he does not wish them to suffer loss ; but Roger de Gloucester had already provided compensa- tion for the garden ; in fact, one would suppose Coin Rogers to be much more valuable.

But whatever the date of Henry's charter, it is certainly surprising that it was not produced at the trial always supposing that the " quoted copy " is a genuine copy of a real charter. As to Roger's gift, there may have been no time to draw up a charter before he died.

It was the same Walter (not " William ") -de Gloucester who gave Little Hereford to his nephew, " William " being evidently only a slip of the pen or the printer.

G. H. WHITE.

23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

I do not think it is necessary to go so far afield as Kington in Herefordshire to explain the appearance of Henry de Pordt and Roger and William, sons of Adam de Pordt, ~&s signatories to a charter dated at Win- chester. The Hugh de Port who came over with the Conqueror " received as the reward of his services no fewer than seventy lord- ships, fifty-five of which were in Hampshire " {C. W. Chute, ' History of the Vyne,' 1888, p. 13). Adam was not an unusual name in the family ; a later Adam assumed " the iiame of St. John in place of De Port early in the thirteenth century " (ib., p. 15) ; and it was perhaps the William son of Adam, mentioned in the charter, who " endowed the chantry chapel " in the church of St. Andrew, Sherborne, " in the twelfth century, during the reign of Henry II." (ib., p. 14). The Henry de Pordt or Port who is also a signatory to the charter " is Tmown as the founder of the Benedictine Priory of West Sherborne, two miles distant from the Vyne, which was suppressed as an lien priory by Henry V., was afterwards given to Eton College, and now belongs to Queen's College, Oxford" (ib., p. 12).

JOHN R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.

STEVENSON'S ' THE WBONG Box' (12 S iv. 159). (6) From a song in Herd's collec tion, beginning,

Our gudeman came hame at e'en,

And hame came he ; And there he saw a saddle-horse

Where nae horse should be. (d) See ^Esop's fable of ' Hercules and the Waggoner.'

1. Ab agenda seems to mean " on the shelf." Is it perhaps short for remotus ab

agenda ("retired from active service")? do not know such a phrase in classical atin ; possibly it is a Scots law term.

2. Were not the travellers " obliterated " rom each other by being buried in their

arious newspapers, as Joseph was ?

3. A properly -minded clock would show ts gratitude to the man who had put it ogether by going ; if it proved ungrateful le would have to take it to pieces again.

4. " Advertised" clearly means " evident,'' ' obvious."

5. Is not " the three-letter E " the E which comes three octaves and two tones above the middle c ? The wires are marked with letters corresponding to the notes, and possibly in some pianos the octaves are listinguished by the number of times the etter is used.

6. As Morris seemed to think the whole world was against him, might he not think the "capable Scot" had combined with Michael to bring about his ruin ?

7. This is a poser. Johnny clearly means " I owe you a big debt " ; was he so reduced by hunger that thirty shillings seemed to him a vast sum ? He was hardly literary enough to mean, " You have proved a traitor to me, so I owe you the ' thirty pieces of silver ' for your treachery."

C. 'B. WHEELEB. 80 Hamilton Terrace, N.W.8.

(c) J. F. Smith was the writer of ' Minnigrey,' ' Stanfield Hall,' ' Woman and her Master,' ' The Will and the Way,' and half a hundred other serial stories in the middle of the last century. Some of these were eagerly read by Stevenson in his youth. Smith's father was well known in the East End of London, and he was a sort of actor- manager of the Crummies type who shone best in the "green-room" of the local theatre, telling yarns about his experiences on the road to Norwich and the Norwich Circuit. Me.

(c) For J. F. Smith see 11 S. x. 292 and references given there. J. D. H.

(d) The reference here must be to a well- known anecdote of ^sop' s master. Xanthus promised (in his cups) to drink the sea, and staked a large sum (practically his whole fortune) on the wager. Sobered the next morning, he asked ^Esop to get him out of the difficulty. By ^Esop's advice he had some drinking vessels taken to the seashore. Then, addressing his adversary, he said : " Yes, I will drmk the sea, but I did not