Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/375

 i2s. VIIL APRIL, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 305 with those of English blood. The vast population of the great Republic comprises descendants not only of the British but of most of the races under Heaven as Presi- dents Wilson and Harding would testify. The Pilgrim Fathers cannot be held respon- sible for over a hundred millions of people. Elsewhere ('Historical Essays,' i. 325; 1886) Freeman says : "It is perhaps worth noting that seven years ago I looked on these ugly and needless words viz., ' proclivities,' ' reliable,' and the like as Americanisms (1871)." What is wrong with the time-honoured word " Briton " ? Is it poetical ? It need be none the worse for that in a country which has produced more poets than has any other modern nation ; and certainly no one will accuse " Britisher " of being poetical ! If we must generally avoid the terms " English " and " Englishman " for fear of offending the susceptibilities of the sister kingdoms, the gallant little Princi- pality, and the great Dominions overseas although in times of stress the predominant partner has still to pay the more part of the bill in blood and gold yet the term Britons would connote all these races. And as long ago as 1547, J. Harrison wrote (< Exhort : Scottes ' ) : " When these hateful termes of Scottes and Englishemen, shall be abolisshed, and blotted oute for ever, and we shall al agre in the onely title and name of Britons." Dryden in 1679 writes : " See, my loved Britons, see your Shake- speare rise " ; Thomson in 1740, " Britons never will be slaves " ; King George III. in 1760 gloried in the name of Briton and if he did not spell it correctly, he certainly never wrote it " Britisher " ; Sir John Moore sleeps " in the grave where a Briton has laid him" ; and in 1886 Tennyson cried, " Britons, hold your own ! " Let us follow Tennyson, and leave the term Britisher to other people. If it be true that every Englishman is an island, he has at any rate carried the soil of his country on the sole of his shoe into every quarter of the globe ; and such an insularity as this has not always been an evil. His language has, perforce, ever been a hospitable one in the acquisition and adoption of new forms and foreign terms ; but there must be a limit to the dilution of the King's speech by jargon especially in such a case as that of " Britisher," where an ugly and unnecessarv word is substituted for a better one. A. R. BAYMJY. ALDEBURGH. EXTRACTS FROM CHAMBERLAINS'^ ACCOUNT-BOOK. i 1625-1649. (See ante, pp. 163, 224 5 265.) IN the Moot Hall is an interesting Letter Book, 1625-1668, but unfortunately neither the letter carried by Thomas Insent on the 21st of January " in answer to the Lords," nor the "Lords' letter" is recorded. The item for " beere fore the men when the Dunkerk came to the heeth for carryeing of things too and againe" suggests that the Dunkirkers actually landed at the south of the town, beyond Slaughden, at a place called Catmore's Heath, and that men were employed to carry ammunition, &c., to the men defend- ing ; or perhaps the invaders had only done what they had previously accomplished, viz., reached " within muskett shott " of the town. 16 PAYMENTS. 26 To Willm Bardwell for wyne spent the 3th of January at the Venison feast the som of. . . . . . . . 01 09 00 more paid the same day for 5 ghest bedes .. . . 00 05 00 To Willm Bardwell for Comunion wyne dd at 2 severall tymes. . . . 00 07 03 Paid for procklimacons Janvary 7th 1625 00 02 00 Paid unto Robt Felgate January 10 money wch he laid out for a bucket and for mending the irons of the well and for nayles. . 02 00 Paid for a sheepskine for spunges for the gunner. . 00 00 10 Paid for labourers for carryeng of coynes and riveing of a rope upon the Beakon and men for loading the peeses. . . . 00 01 08 Paid for sheepeskyn to cover the Bouge barrell. . -. . 00 01 03 Paid unto Thomas French January 2 1 for the Marshalsies and mayned souldiers. . 00 06 08 Paid January 21th to Thomas Insent for his journey to London to carry an answer to the Lords 00 10 00 Paid unto the Constables for carryeing of a prisoner to Melton Jayle. . . . 00 08 00 Paid february 2 to mr Jeggles of Southould for and towards the charge of Sute in petitionyng to the Lords of the Counsell for wastage for Iseland North seas and Farry, the some of. . . . . . 05 QO 00 Paid february 1 unto mr Thomson Towne Clerke to pay the Shreefe for the fee farme upon the charter the sume of 01 00 00 more pd unto him the same day to pay the Shreefe for the Indentures for the Bur- gesses 00 04 00 Paid february 4 unto Benjamen Reynolds for mending of the glase windowes of the Church 00 05 06