Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/287

 128. VII. SEPT. 18, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

235

Peter Neve, or Le Neve as he callec himself, b. 1661-2, d. 1729, was madeNorroj King of Arms in 1704 His printed work include 'Le Neve's Baronets,' and 'L Neve's Pedigrees of the Knights, &c.' H left a very extensive manuscript collection which was sold by auction in 1730-31.

The popular tradition concerning th crest and motto of the Black Prince is un -supported by history, and the authenticity o this legend is doubted by those who hav gone into the question. The crest of th blind King John of Bohemia was not i plume of ostrich feathers, but the wings of a vulture expanded (Olivarius Vredius), alsc German (Ich Dien) was not the language o the Bohemians. Dr Meyrick says that the cognisance and the motto originally belonge to the House of Hainault, and that botl: were adopted by Edward III. and hi family in compliment to Queen Philippa who was a daughter of the Count of Hainault German being the language of the Court o ^Hainault. CONSTANCE RUSSELL

Swallowfield Park, Reading.

[MR. A. R. BAYLEY, and MR. H. J. B. CLEMENTS valso thanked for replies.]

CULCHETH (12 S. vii. 71, 172, 193) : " Culeheth (Wigan and Cumberland) Cum. C. c 1141 Culquith ; also Culchet. Wig. C. 1200-1 Culchet, Knlehet, 1300 Culchyt, 1311 Culeheth Par older is 793 Mercian Chart, Celohyth, which eems the same name. Probably ' strait ' 01 a ' kyle ') and cord, pi. coydd, ' a wood '." (John- ston's "The Place- Names of England and Wales,
 * passage in the wood,' W. cul, a ' strait ' (G. caol,

1915) * S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN.

WalsalL

THE WEATHER, 1639/40 (12 S. vii. 190). I have a Family Bible dating back to 1642, .iand in it is the record " a pomp frozen over, May, 1698." E. BEAUMONT.

1 Staverton Road, Oxford.

"NoR DID FLY FOR IT" (12 S. vii. 6, 59, 178). The legal import of this phrase has scarcely been brought out. Apart from the imprisonment, trans- portation or death penalty consequent upon being found guilty of a felony, a prisoner was liable to the forfeiture of his property for attempting to escape from justice. Giles Jacob (whom MR. GILBERT will recollect in ' Joseph Andrews ' i. 15) in his ^bona fugilivorum) as "the proper goods for him that flies upon felony, which aiter i;he flight lawfully found on record do belong to the King or Lord of the Manor."
 * Law Dictionary ' defined Fugitive Goods

Every felony tacitly produced a forfeiture, but flight was a separate offence for which a man could be punished even if found not guilty on the indictment. Thus Hale L. C. J. in his 'Pleas of the Crown,' 1736 i. 362 says :

" If a party be acquitted of treason or felony, the jury that acquits him ought to enquire of his flight for it, and if they find he fled, what Goods he had, for his goods and chattels are thereby forfeited ; but this is b\it an inquest of office, and therefore is traversable by the party."

It is probable Fielding has this passage in mind when he painted the couch-scene quoted by MR. GILBERT for he possessed Hale's tomes and heavily annotated them while reading for the Bar from 1737 to 1740.

All forfeitures for felony and treason were abolished by the Forfeiture Act, 1870, but long before "their abolition they had ceased to be of any financial importance. In the year 1870 they produced 1,317. "Most felons were poor, and the rich ones disposed of their wealth between arrest and convic- tion." ' Kenny's Criminal Law, 1904,' p. 100. This is well borne out by W. B. H. 's recollec- tions of the Northampton Assizes of 1865. The Forfeiture Act was still law, but Pollock C.B., knowing it had become a dead letter looked the difficulty in the face and passed on. J. PAUL DE CASTRO.

1 Essex Court, Temple.

RENTON NICHOLSON (11 S. xi. 86, 132, 175, 196 ; 12 S. vii. 216). There are several editions of Renton Nicholson's autobio- graphy and its adaptations. Here, for example, is one undated but evidently ssued in 1863, that is about the same period as the 'Autobiography of a Fast VEan ' cited by W. B. H. at the last reference.

" 'Fast Life : an autobiography ; Being the Re- ollections, Rencounters, Reverses and Reprisals of i Man upon Town, who has seen all that can be een and knows all that can be known, of life in Condon and Paris,' &c."

This is also published by S. Vickers in green boards. The text founded on Renton Nicholson's book has much new matter elating to continental travel, &c. I suggest hat "erst " on title referred to by W. B. H.

a colloquial abbreviation of "erstwhile," leaning " on occasions." Any one familiar pplication. The copies before me were urchased some years ago from a book- eller who obviously did not understand the pplication as he catalogued this author nder "Legal." ALECK ABRAHAMS.
 * dth the autobiography will understand the