Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/467

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S. I. JUNE 4, 3 98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

459

"ordered"; for it is not the dinner that is ordered, but the waiter to bring it. The case seems to be eye to eye with " the law is still in force"; not "forced," though the law- breaker is forced. On the other hand, the more common expression " It 's on order " is ungrammatical, seeing that the name of a thing stated in an order can hardly be external (on) to that order. C. E. CLAEK.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Life in an Old English Town. By Mary Dormer

Harris. (Sonnenschein & Co. )

IN choosing as representative of English life in medi- jeval and Renaissance times the city of Coventry the editor of that " Social England Series" of which the present volume constitutes a part has made a wise perhaps an almost inevitable selection. For such a purpose Coventry was commended by its age (its bishopric was founded in the seventh century), its situation (almost in the centre of Eng- land), the manner of its development, and the character of its institutions. It cannot establish whatever may be the boasting of its inhabitants an antiquity equal to that of York, Colchester, or other English cities, and it was decidedly backward in such things as the introduction of printing. It has, however, a splendidly picturesque historical and mythical record, it preserves a fair number of edifices of antiquarian interest, and it illustrates in a striking manner the development of communal rights and the establishment 01 civic privileges. It has, moreover, special distinctions. Whatever may be its historical value or significance, Godfrey oi Wendover's legend of Lady Godiva has taken hold of popular as well as poetical imagination, and won a certain amount of recognition at the hands even oJ history, while the presence of that fabulous monster Peeping Tom is as much felt in its streets as such things ever are. The Coventry mysteries or pageants moreover, stand conspicuous among the perform ances of the guilds of different cities. In few places can the growth and establishment of an independent community be more conveniently studied. From the earliest recorded period the Coventry men were free from the most oppressive feudal burdens they were quit of all personal service, and were not compelled, in order to carry in the crops o their lord's demesne, to quit their own affairs nor were they bound to bake at his oven or follow him to distant wars. They had, however, no voice in the town government, and were, indeed, subjed to three powers the king, the Earl of Chester, anc the Prior of Coventry. With Ranulf Blondyil Earl of Chester, they made a bargain by which they obtained the same rights and privileges as were enjoyed by the burgesses of Lincoln. Tht charter granting them these rights is quoted bj Miss Harris from the Corporation MSS. It is I in 1186 by Henry II. A facsimile of a portion o I the beautiful MS. is also given. This privilege and others subsequently accorded them, preparec the way for the fierce struggles with the Prior o Coventry, which here, as in other places where "< similar conflict of authority arose, were prolongec
 * assigned byDugdale to Blond vil, and was confirm e<

nd sanguinary. After a struggle of twenty years he Indenture Tripartite, between Queen Isabella, he Corporation, and the Priory, set the dispute at est. On these and other matters Miss Harris writes learnedly and well, her book being one in which the antiquary will delight. It has some well- ixecuted illustrations from photographs and old )rints. A chapter of special excellence is that on ' Daily Life in the Town." We know not, indeed, where the daily proceedings of Englishmen, which established England as Merry England and laid the bundationsof our national greatness and prosperity, jan be better or more agreeably studied.

Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536-1810.

Edited by Sir Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of

Arms. (Dublin, Ponsonby.)

WE have here a well-printed large octavo volume of upwards of five hundred pages, furnishing a com- plete key to the Prerogative wills of Ireland, pub- lished not at the expense of the Treasury, as we in our simplicity think it ought to have been, but at the risk of a private person. Wills have been ightly called the foundation stones of pedigree. Such is generally the case, even in England ; but it is so to a far greater degree in the sister island. Old parish registers are there much rarer than in this country. During the greater part of the time that the penal laws were in force the Catholic priests dare not keep registers; and afterwards, when a change came over the popular feeling, many that had been kept were, from one cause or another, lost or destroyed. The late Mr. FitzPatrick, in his ' Life of Dr. Doyle,' gives an entertaining instance of how one of them came to be lost. It was during the insurrection of 1798 that a body of Royalists acquired and carried off, among other plunder, the register of a certain Catholic parish. Probably it was written in Latin. Whether this was so or not, it is clear that those into whose hands it fell could not read it, for they thought it to be a list of rebels, whom they at once set out in search of. Protestant parish registers of old date are not so uncommon as Catholic ; but war, non-residence, and general neglect have played great havoc with them.

The Prerogative series of wills in Ireland may be compared with those proved in the Archbishop of Canterbury's court, known to our fathers as Doctors' Commons. Testamentary documents from every county of Ireland are to be found there, for if the testator had effects of the value of five pounds outside the diocese in which he lived, it was neces- sary that the will should receive probate in the court of the Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland. The documents calendared here form by far the most important collection of Irish wills ; but there are others from the various diocesan will offices, which are now preserved in the Public Record Office in Dublin. There are, we believe, no printed calendars of any of these except such as relate to the Dublin diocese. The rest should be taken in hand at once ; and no better model could be fol- lowed than that of the volume before us. The type is clear and not too small, and the book seems from first to last remarkably free from misprints. We have, in fact, only detected one. Under the date 1743 occurs " Katherine, duchess dowager of Buckinghamshire and Normandy." This is a mis- print for Normanby. The lady was an illegitimate daughter of James II. by Katherine Sedley. She was the third wife of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, and is believed to have caused