Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/249

 2-< S. NO 12., MAR. 22. '56. j

NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

page and New Testament, and must thank the editor for having cleared up to me through his able Note, that mine is the 8vo. edition of 1534. On part of a leaf immediately preceding " Liber Genesis," there is recorded the following incident in a fine handwriting of the time :

" On the fourth day of Februarye, in the twentieth yere of the raigne-of our Soveraign Lady Queen Elyza- beth there fell such a snowe in England, and speciallie in Kent, for endless dryfte that men cold not travaill between Eie and London the right foot waye for the space of one whole month, and some yet of the said snows might be found the space of sevene weeks. SI."

I may be permitted to add for curiosity's sake, that I have, in the best condition, a copy of La Bible (the version of the Genevan church) De rimprimerie de Francois Estienne, 1567, with the name upon it of Rowland Lee, who had been its early owner, and of whom Myles Davis in his History of Pamphlets, London, 1716. p. 304. thus

" 'Tis a mistake to say Cranmer marry'd Queen Anne Bolen to King Henry VIII., though he was present at the ceremony performed by Rowland Lee, afterwards Bishop of Lichtield and Coventry and Lord President of Wales."

G. N.

OSroy (2 nd S. i. 73.) Not having seen (as yet) a reply to J. P., I beg to refer him to Scapula's Lexicon, where he will see copious extracts from Greek writers, sufficient perhaps to determine the meaning and scope of the word.

GEORGE LLOYD.

" You've all heard of Paul Jones, have you not ? have you not ? " (2 nd S. i. 55.) SERVIENS will find the words of this song, and also an account of the author of it (a native of the parish of Borijue, Kirkcudbright), in Mactaggart's Gallovidian En- cyclopcedia. A. B. ADAMSON.

Liverpool.

" Sleave-silk " (1 st S. xii. 58. 335.) In the Rates of Merchandises, that is to say, the Subsidy of Tonnage, the Subsidy of Poundage, &c., 1642, I find the following entries :

" Sleave silk, coarse, the pound cont. 16 oz., 00?. 13s. 04cZ. " Sleave silk, fine, or Naples sleave, the pound cont. 16 oz., 02/. 13s. Q-id."

This comes under the head of " unwrought," although N. Bailey says it is silk wrought fit for use. B. H. C.

Altar Bails (2 nd S. i. 95.) I believe the ab- sence of altar-rails is not very unusual. The church of Mauteby, the neighbouring parish, shows no traces of ever having possessed any. They are all of Jacobean, or later date ; and owe their in- troduction to Archbishop Laud, who ordered them in such churches as had had the chancel screen destroyed by the Puritan Iconoclasts. This order,

it is said, was occasioned by a dog having seized the eucharistic bread in one of the chancels thus robbed of its protecting enclosure. I can see little in their favour where a screen exists, a plain removable bar in any case answering all the pur- pose, and all architectural anachronisms are sim- ply an eye-sore, in a church otherwise in good keeping. E. S. TAYLOR.

Ormesby, St. Margaret.

White Paper injurious to the Sight (2 nd S. i. 126.)

In that part of Sir J. M'Neill's Tables for Cal- culating the Contents of Cuttings, Sj'c., on Canals and Railways, where the glare occasioned by printing great numbers of figures (to which con- stant reference must be made) on white paper, would not only have been an injurious, but most unpleasant proceeding, so far as the sight was concerned, the plan has been adopted of using tinted paper of various colours, in order to relieve the eye ; and, if I mistake not, in practice, the paper having a yellowish brown tint is found to do so the most effectually. E. W. HACKWOOD.

Etymology of Winchelsea (2 nd S. i. 190.) The etymologies cited by W. S. are all more or less absurd ; neither can I vote for his amendment of " Win-chysel-ea, white shingle island." W. S. derives win from a British root, but in Anglo- Saxon, from which language he fetched the other two syllables, win has a totally different meaning. Besides, such compounds of Celtic and Saxon terms are rarely to be found, except in the fancies of etymologists of a certain class. Again, the shingle at Winchelsea neither is, nor can ever have been, white. The true origin of the word I take to be Winceol, the name of an early proprietor of the place in Saxon times, and ea, river, or water Winceoles-ea, Winchel-sea " the river or water of Winceol." I may remark that this personal name was perhaps originally related to Winceslaus. MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes.

Tumulus at Langbury Hill (1 st S. xii. 364. 432.)

It seems due to your correspondent DUKATRIX, who was kind enough to give his opinion respect- ing the tumulus at Langbury Hill, near this place, to set before him the entire evidence on the sub- ject. I therefore transcribe the following note from the last edition of Hutchins :

" Xear this gate [Slaughter Gate], in a field belonging to John Kneller, Esq., is a long barrow, called Longbury. In the year 1802, permission being obtained from Mr. Kneller, the barrow was opened, and the remains of many human bodies discovered there. These remains were found on a light loam, on the natural bed of the soil ; with them were deposited round balls, apparently of clay, but for what purpose these balls were placed there must be left to conjecture. Over the bodies the natural soil was thrown, then a layer of flat stones, and lastly again the natural soil. The form of the barrow, and its situa-