Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/320

 314

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 s. v. DEC.,

Neither " drof silver " nor " drof court " occurs in the ' N.E.D.' ; but it has " Drof- land. Old Law. Also ? dryfland and erron. driftland," with a quotation of 1660 which defines it as land " holden by the service of driving," and gives some examples. ' Wharton,' on the other hand, says :

"Drift-land, Drofland or Dryfland, a yearly rent paid by some tenants for driving cattle through a manor."

Under "Drove" (sb.) the 'N.E.D.' mentions " drove-way " as a road or track along which there is right of way for cattle, and quotes from ' Rental Glaston.' (1239-52) a passage containing " quoddam iter quod vocatur Drofwei." I am reminded that the lane along the south side of our playing- fields here used to be known as " Bull Drove " before the local authorities elected to re-name it "Gamier Road" in memory of Dean Gamier.

" Perksilver " does not seem to be in the ' N.E.D.' Probably " perk " is the same as " park," an enclosure. Has any reader met with " perksilver " ? What precisely does it mean ?

The phrase "ad ii lagh.," &c., in my quotation from the College accounts evi- dently means " at two law-days at Martinmas and hocktide." See "law-day" in the 'N.E.D.,' where " laghe-daye " occurs in a quotation of 1331. H. C.

Winchester College.

THE THIRD REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON PUBLIC RECORDS, just published, includes a recommendation with reference to the care of local records of a public nature which should be of special interest to the educated in some London areas. Not only are these local records often unknown until publicly advertised for sale, but they are still more improperly cared for, mutilated, or heedlessly destroyed. The records of local courts of olden times, of major and minor Corporations, Councils, District Boards of Works, Paving and Road Commissions, Administering Vestries under the original Metropolis Local Government Act, &c., and the maps and plans by which they were assisted to conclusions, have frequently been left in charge of ancient solicitors or minor retired officials who combined private business with their public work, and kept such documents in their private offices. The Commission now re- commend that district repositories should be established by which all records relating to the area served shall be housed, catalogued, and otherwise indexed. The long existing and increasing chaos, and the indifference

of new authorities to their existing powers,, form a serious obstruction to the labours- of antiquaries, historians, and other research- students. Such humble and not undeserving or useless folks will certainly perceive the propriety of the Commission's recommenda- tion that the district repositaries should be placed in charge of men trained to the work of records-keeping in : the Public Record Office, and that that Office should constantly inspect and supervise the methods of cus- tody and classification employed, and so- gradually introduce a rational and uniform system for the identification of all records in the kingdom.

It has often been pointed out that one of; our national defects is our invincible ignor- ance of history ; and there is consequently a lack of judgment in meeting emergencies- similar to those in British or Continental history. It is now cogently urged that thia national ineptitude can perhaps be moderated by the cultivation of the historical spirit ; and none wull gainsay that one of the essentials for the evolution of that spirit is a. scientific appreciation of original evidence. Not to mention other nations, the French are greatly superior to us in historical knowledge, and perhaps in political instinct on foreign affairs, mainly because the- materials for their historians are so well arranged by archivists who make it the business of their lives, that the historians- themselves are relieved of the drudgery of delving for facts and can devote themselves to the elucidation of principles. Me.

A CURIOUS CHRISTIAN EPITAPH. In 'Christian Inscriptions,' just issued by the - Rev. H. P. V. Nunn, M.A., No. 30 is trans- cribed thus :

" Somno Aeternali. Aurelius Gemellus qui vixit an...et Mes. VI11. Dies XVIlI, mater h'lio carissimo Benemerenti fecit in pace commando Basilla inno- centia Gemelli." (Lateran Museum).

" To Eternal Sleep. Aarelius Gemellus. who lived ...years, eight months, eighteen days. His mother to her most dear and well-deserving son made (this) in peace. I commend to Basilla the innocence of Gemellus."

The inscription is, of course, in large Roman- characters, and it exhibits three anomalies- in structure. " Somno ./Eternali " is some- what strange on a Christian tombstone,, suggestive almost of a disbelief in immor- tality, unless the expression be qualified/ by the common Catacomban "in pace.'" Also " Commando " and " innocentia " must have been illiterate blunders for Commends and innocentiam. J. B. McGovERN.

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