Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/572

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.vii. DEC. 11,1920.

Inquest for Winnentona Hundred (p. 66), the saint is allowed exemption for 1 hide of demesne. Eleven Cornish acres equal 110 ordinary, just under a hide.

(That the exemption in the geld rolls should exceed the apparent liability in Domesday hidage is not an uncommon feature of those puzzling returns, and in Devon, for instance, has taxed to the utter- most the ingenuity of Mr. Reichel.)

I think that the theory will account for the rather numerous instances in which fractions of thirds appear, as : Trenant 1 ,

Trewent - (p \ 2 r ? 3) ~ Demesne, 1 hide - Trelant J 4 Cormsh acres - Trecut (p. 205) Gelds for f virgate

2 Cornish acres.

Garuro (p. 205) "In which is" ^vir- gate 1 Cornish acre.

Lastly, I may mention a curious entry I have come across in Somerset. There is a holding at Blachamora (p. 398) by Roger de Corcella. To this has been " added " 1 ager terrce which a thegn held in King Edward's day. On this single acre are two bordarii, and it is worth 3s. As the average value of a hide of 120 acres in Somerset is rather less than 20s. (Maitland, 'Domesday and Beyond,' p. 465), and as bordarii are generally credited with crofts of 5 ordinary acres or more (ibid., p. 40 ; Vinogrado'ff, 'English Society,' p. 456), it looks very much as if we had here an acre of the Cornish type. Blachamora, the main holding, was assessed at one virgate (30 acres) and valued at 5s.

MR. WATKIN'S ferlings (ante, p. 437) are evidently the fourth of a hide, and equal a virgate in the usual phraseology.

J. A. RUTTER.

CHURCH LITTON (12 S. vii. 392). The " Church Litton " at Newport, Isle of Wight, is the old burial ground of the town, which has been closed for many years. Prior to 1582 the people of Newport buried their dead in the churchyard of Carisbrooke, their mother church. In that year, how- ever, Newport was subjected to a very serious visitation of the plague. P. G. Stone ( * Architectural Antiquities of the Isle of Wight ,' pt. ii., p. 117) says ;

"The town was almost decimated, the road to Carisbrooke being, it is said, blocked by the dead- carts on their way to and from the parish ceme- tery, which became so crowded that license was granted to the inhabitants to form a burying-ground

of their own. The graveyard still exists, with its- sixteenth-century entrance, which has been too evidently patched from time to time. For two- years the plague raged with unabated vigour, during which 206 persons died. So great, indeed, was the distress, that a rate was levied through- out the Island for the relief of the suffering inhabitants."

Litton is from the A.-S. lie, a dead body,, a tomb, or grave, and A.-S. tun which signifies a plot of ground fenced round or enclosed, hence, a close or field. See Bosworth's 'A.-S. Dictionary,' which gives lie-tun as a sepulchre. Hence " Church- litton " means the " church grave yard."

Both "litton" and " church-litton " are still in use in the dialects of several of the southern counties. See Cooper's ' Sussex Glossary ' : Sir W. H. Cope's ' Hampshire- Glossary ' (which under " Litten " gives a- reference to 'N. & Q.,' 1 S. x. 400, where there was apparently a discussion as to this word) and Roach Smith's 'Isle of Wight Glossary ' under " Church-litten. "

The following are illustrations of the use- of the word in the Isle of Wight ;

"Item to M r Chike for tymber for the Lytton Rayles." (Arreton Parish Accounts for the year 1649 quoted in the second number of The Island Quarterly.)

" Arreton. In y north side of y e chawncell in y e Litton syde is wryghten in brasse : Here in this toombe lyeth, &c.'' (Sir John Oglander's MSS., edited by Long, p. 195.)

In Maxwell Gray's novel 'The Reproach of Annesley,' the old village sexton, speaking of the doctor, is made to say :

" Without he you'd a ben in lytten long with your vatther up in the narth-east earner by the wall ;:. aye, you'd a ben in church lytten, Mr. Nobbs, sure enough ! "

Your correspondent might also consult the ' New English Dictionary ' under both "Litten " and "Church-litten."

WM. SELF-WEEKS.

EMERSON'S ' ENGLISH TRAITS ' (12 S- vii. 428). 1. The "savants of Somerset House " is explained by the following extract from p. 84 of Besant and Mitton's; 'The Strand District,' in the 'Fascination of London ' series :

" In the new Somerset House, erected 1776-1786- architect, Sir William Chambers were for many years held the meetings of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Astronomical, Geological and Geographical Societies."

2. A bricklayer's labourer who shoulders- the hod has a hard and risky employment, and, in past times at any rate, was not lavishly paid for his practically unskilled