Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/74

 58 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vm. J AN. 15, 1921. in Gramer and so create hym Master. Then shall the Bedell purvay for every Master in Gramer a shrewde Boy, whom the Master in Gramer shall bete openlye in the Scolys, and the Master in Gramer shall give the Boy a Grote for Hys Labour, and another grote to hym that provydeth and the Palmer, &c. de sigulis. And thus endythe the Acte in that Facultye.' " We know of the existence of similar ceremonies at Oxford. The degree was not a popular one ; very few names are mentioned in the University register of either University. F. A. RUSSELL. 116 Arran Road, Catford, S.E.6. "To OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE " (12 S. viii. 29). This expression doubtless owes its origin to Smollett who in ' Roderick Random ' says : " Harkee, my girl, now far have you overrun the Constable? I told him that the debt amounted to eleven pounds." WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. It appears from the 'New English Dic- tionary ' that this phrase, with the meaning of spending more money than one has, was used much earlier than Stevenson and Besant. Brewster in his ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ' explains the phrase by saying, " The constable arrests debtors and of course represents the creditor ; wherefore to overrun the constable is to overrun your credit account." G. F. R. B. Yes, people used to talk of doing that in the last century. Perhaps their expenditure led them into excesses, beyond those with which a parish constable could deal. The expression may have originated on the stage as many others have that are now almost unintelligible from want of context. ST. SWITHIN. To overdraw one's banking account, or spend without caution. This is the usual meaning, and though Shakespeare did not use the proverb, a phrase in 'Macbeth' illustrates it : "To outrun the pauser, reason. " There is another possible meaning of the saying, whereby in outrunning the police- man you could secure safety, instead of losing it. Old Bell Yard, Fleet Street, at one time, had nearly two scores of taverns, each with a "bolt-hole" at the rear. Some of the drinkers there, up to the eyes in debt, at a given warning, drinking- vessels in hand, would sally forth down the back yards, and so beyond the jurisdiction of Fleet Prison bailiffs, ever on the prowl for victims. In Scotland "constable " is the name o a very large tumbler or glass goblet, out of which a guest is compelled, to drink should he fail to consume less than the average drink of the assembled company. At the- Radish feast " on May 12, celebrated at Levens Hall, near Kendal, each visitor stands on one leg only, gives the toast : " Luck to Levens as long as the Kent flows," and then drains the large glass " constable " (see at 5 S. viii. 248). If he requires the " constable " recharged, the chances are he won't repeat the feat on one leg, in which case he would " outrun the constable. " W. JAGGABD, Capt. - MATTHEW PARIS (12 S. viii. 28). The passage asked for is in the 'Chronica Major a,' under the vear 1243, on pp. 279 y 280, vol iv. of Dr. H". R. Luard's Edition in the Rolls series. The occasion is a contro- versy between the Dominicans and Francis- cans. " Et quod terribile est, et in triste praesagium, per trecentos annos, vel quadrirgentos, vel amplius, ordo Monasticus tarn festinanter non cepit praecipitium, sicut eorum ordo, quorum, fratres, jam vix transactis viginti quatuor annis, primas in Anglia construxere mansiones, quarum aedificia jam in regales surgunt altitudines. Hi jam sunt, qui in sumptuosis et diatim ampliatis aedificiis, et celsis muralibus, thesauros exponunt impreciabiles, paupertatis limites et basim suae professionis, juxta prophetiam Hyldegardis Ale- manniae, impudenter transgredientes." On comparing this with the English version that was quoted it will be seen that "hardly forty, " ought to be " hardly twenty- four, " and that the Latin adverb qualifying the last word of the extract is not impru- denter, but impudenter. Dr. Luard notes that this passage, with what follows about the extortions of the- friars from the dying, has been erased in the original MS. at Corpus Christi College. Cambridge, and that his text is here supplied from the Cottonian copy. EDWARD BENSLY. THE OLD HORSE GUARDS BUILDINGS (12 S. vii. 232, 258). A note in The General Advertiser of Oct. 16, 1749, states that the old Horse Guards building was to be pulled down that winter. The same paper (Oct. 12, 1750), states that " yesterday a free Passage was opened under the new Stone Arch at the Horse Guards, for Coaches, - &c., into St. James' Park." The present building must therefore have been well on the way to completion at that date. A. H. S.