Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/246

 200 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. nature of minutiae worth noting, and those who have a special interest in Essex will from these pages be able to add not a little to the pic- ture in their minds of Colchester in the fourteenth century. Clearly it held as quarrelsome a set of people as any town in the country, and was governed, too, by men who had some sympathy for litigiousness, for cases are adjourned for inquiry which seem hardly hi themselves to be worth "the time of the Court. A very pleasant feature of this edition of the Court Bolls has been furnished by Mr. Gurney Benham in what he has entitled * " Who's Who " of the Principal Personages.' He has extracted from the Bolls all the particulars relating to about a score of prominent persons, and set them out in short and lively biographies, which, though they necessarily consist for a great part of rather dry small matters, present character quite effectively. John Elianore, Member of Parlia- ment, many times Bailiff of Colchester, lawyer (as his frequent activities in the Courts testify) and engaged how precisely is not known " in the service of the King," appears as the most important of the Colchester townsmen ; he founded the wealthiest of the town's chantries, and liberally endowed the Grammar School, which still, we are told, despite diminutions, enjoys 400 a year from his estates. Benedict de Cokefeud is a name that turns up once or twice. Is this a descendant of Bobert and Adam de Cokefeld whom we know in the pages of Joceline of Brakelond ? The Abbot of St. Edmunds twice occurs in Benedict's company as having, like him, failed to do suit at the Law Hundred. The Law Hundreds were held three tunes a year, and Mr. Benham is inclined to put the Hokeday session on the third rather than the second Monday after Easter. Benedict de Cokefeud cannot be followed up in these pages, but there is ample material for biographical notes of many personages beyond those Mr. Gurney Benham has dealt with, and we echo his hope that his example may incite others to trying their hands at disentangling the records in this way. No better plan could be found for winning a thorough familiarity with the Bolls, and an excellent index exists to lighten the work. The matters dealt with hi the Courts are those which meet us hi most similar records. Fore- stalling, the sale of bad fish and meat, assaults, thefts, disputes, vagrancy make up a great part of them. The objects by which defendants were distrained are now and again interesting ; and some of the offences diverting or unusual. The most extraordinary situation revealed is that where William de Hetha, chaplain, com- plains that Boger Cartar forcibly entered his house to look there for Peter de Astpn's wife a proceeding which, it seems, was justified by William's having agreed with Peter to support her at his table for a whole year for three marks. Peter de Aston, in the " Who's Who " biography, is treated on this matter somewhat jocosely, and the incident referred to as " a little scandal" but William's attitude seems rather that of a school from which a boarder is withdrawn with- out notice. Could Peter de Aston's wife who seems to have been a troublesome woman have been mad, or deemed to be bewitched, and therefore placed in William's care ? The Bolls record a full assembly of the Burgesses of Colchester on May 14, 1311, to discuss the Town's right to exact toll from the Bishop of London coming to the Borough or put distraint therefor upon him or his men and merchandise, , a dispute in which the Burgesses did not succeed in maintaining their liberty. We learn that the place-names which occur in these Bolls are to be examined in a subsequent volume ; the surnames have been dealt with in The Essex Review for April, 1921. A Little Ark containing Sundry Pieces of Seven- teenth-Century Verse. Collected and edited by G. Thorn-Drury. (P. J. and A. E. Dobell, 7s. 6d. net.) To the student of seventeenth-century literature and biography, and to all lovers of the quaint and the rare this book will be a treasure. It consists of small pieces, between twenty and thirty in number, of which about one-third have never been printed before, and the re- mainder are practically unknown. Those first printed comprise a version of Ben Jonson's Praeludium to his Epode in ' Love's Martyr,' which differs entirely from that printed, except in the last line and a half ; some consolatory verses addressed to Massinger by Henerie Parker on the failure of two plays ; the prologue and so-called songs out of Walter Montague's strange pastoral, ' The Shepheard's Paradise ' ; some " characters " and other conceits by Bobert Davenport the dramatist, to which an interesting little piece of bibliographical history attaches ; some verses addressed to John Cleveland by Mildmay, Earl of Westmorland, which fill a tiny gap in literary biography ; and, last, a scurrilous poem by Edmund Waller on the marriage of old Sir John Denham the poet to young and too sprightly Miss Margaret Brooke. Among the pieces previously printed but so rare that perhaps only Mr. Thorn-Drury knew of them are a striking elegy on Nell Gwynn, which confirms the date of her death as Nov. 14, 1687 ; an elegy on Mrs. Behn, by ' A Young Lady of Quality,' which is full of interest and if we may say it- amusement ; a prologue and epilogue by that lively lady herself, poems by Shirley, and elegies on the actors Clun, Angel and Charles Hart. Mr. Thorn-Drury does not pretend that his " Ark " is full of good literature. Indeed, his very inform- ing and amusing notes show that no one could be more tickled than he at the quaintness of these rescued waifs. But the collection has its solid critical and scholarly value, besides being a rare morsel for curious palates. JJottce* to CorregponbentSu ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a, guarantee of good faith. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "-Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, B.C. 4; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' N. & Q.,' Printing House Square, London, E.G. 4.