Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/217

 12 S. V. Auu., 1919/

NOTES AND QUERIES.

211

' ALBANIA.' In a letter to Joanna Baillie bout her new tragedies Scott wrote inter lia :

" Were it possible for me to hasten the treat expect in such a composition with you, I would remise to read the volume at the silence of 3onday upon the top of Minchmoor . ... It is in ich a scene that the unknown and gifted author c ' Albania ' places the superstition which con- sts in hearing the noise of a chase .... I have 'ten repeated his verses with some sensations of we in this place."

Dr. John Brown (of ' Rab and his Friends ' ime), who quotes this passage in his paper n Minchmoor, adds :

" The lines and they are noble, and must ive sounded wonderful with his voice and look >e as follows. Can no one tell us anything more
 * their author ?

here oft is heard, at midnight, or at noon, eginning faint, but rising still more loud, nd nearer, voice of hunters, and of hounds ; nd horns, hoarse-winded, blowing far and keen ! orthwith the hubbub multiplies ; the gale abours with wilder shrieks, and rifer din f hot pursuit ; the broken cry of deer .angled by throttling dogs ; the shouts of men, nd hoofs thick beating on the hollow bill, idden the grazing heifer in the vale barts at the noise, and both the herdsman's ears ingle with inward dread aghast he eyes he mountain's height, and all the ridges round, et not one trace of living wight discerns, or knows, o'erawed and trembling as he stands, o what or whom he owes his idle fear o ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend ; ut wonders, and no end of wondering finds." beg leave to repeat Dr. Brown's query in lese columns. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

PHILIP SCOT. Is anything known of the ithor of " A Treatise of the Schism of ngland, Wherein particularly Mr. Hales id Mr. Hobbs are modesty accosted: by tiilip Scot : Permissa Superiorum : Amster- im : Printed Anno Dom. 1650 " ?

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

'THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.' I should ce to know where the original " village acksmith " shop is situated. Several vil- ges claim the original, and to settle a spute information concerning the above 3uld be helpful. E. A. GARLICK.

AUTHORS OP QUOTATIONS WANTED. Can any reader tell me the author of the lowing lines, also when and where they first peared in print ?

NEVER AGAIN. I will laugh Avith you, I will jest with you,

I will dance with you down the year ; But trudge a day on a weary way ? Never again, my dear !

MOLLY H. SNELL.

INDENTURES.

(12 S. v. 148.)

IT is not at all probable that our current indentures are survivals of the practice of parting a sacrificed animal's carcase between those concerned in a contract.

In Smith's ' Compendium of the Law of Real and Personal Property ' it is stated as follows :

" Formerly when deeds were more concise than they are at present if they were made between two or more parties, it was usual to write both parts of which they were composed on the same skin of parchment with some words or letters of the alphabet between them, through which the parchment was cut in acute angles, instar dentiwn (from which they acquired the name of indentures or deeds indented), in such a manner as to leave half the words or letters on one part, and half on the other [for this 4 Cruise, T. 32, C. 1, sect. 20, is cited]. In its origin indenting was in all probability a mode of identification, by a com- parison of the parts at the point of indenting, and thus a guard against forgery or fraudulent substitution [for this 1 Pres. Shep. T. 50 is cited]."

It is not unlikely that the idea was taken from the tally, which, as is well known, we-s a stick upon which notches were cut, which was then split longitudinally so as to leave part of the notches on each half of the stick. The French bakers still keep in this way their customers' accounts for bread supplied. I have often seen the baker's halves of these tallies hanging up in his shop in a bundle, and have also seen children coming back from the shop carrying both the bread they had been sent to purchase and their parent's half of the tally, the latter of which had been taken to the shop to have the purchase recorded thereon. It is obvious that this is a complete protection against fraud. The two pieces of stick, produced as the two halves of the tally, must exactly fit together if they are genuine, while it is impossible for either party to attempt to alter the account without the half of the tally held by the other party, showing it at once.

The necessity for some check on the fraudulent alteration of the records of contracts was felt as early as the days of the clay tablets of ancient Babylon. There a very ingenious method was adopted. It is described in ' The Evolution of the Aryan,' by von Ihering, translated by A. Drucker (London, Swan, Sonneschein & Co., 1897), p. 207 :

" The arrangement consisted in the manufac- ture of two identically similar clay tablets, which,