Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/461

 9* s, xi JUNE e, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ancient kind of Baskish. Using that hypo thesis for a guide, one may suppose tha some Baskish words may have crept ink the insular Keltic, and survived the oblitera tion effected by successive waves of Latin Anglo-Saxon, and Norman French. Can os, be one of these words 1 The Baskish root u^ has nearly the same sense, and is still usec in all parts of Baskland. It is pronouncec like oos in goose, roost. It is now, how ever, only found with the added infinitiva termination te. Uste means both croire and croyance. As a radical with the verb, it retains always the form uste, never, like ordinary infinitive nouns, being put in the locative indefinite case usten. Thus "1 believe " is not put " I have it in believing = dut usten," but "I have belief "=dut uste or uste dut. This peculiarity perhaps points to its being a foreign word, borrowed from the Gauls, or from the Kelts of Keltiberian Spain If this could be proved to have happened, it would be as easy to believe that the Sassenach borrowed oss from the Britons. Have old Keltic documents no trace of such a word. In the Acts of the Apostles, xiv. 19, Leigarraga translated " cuidans qu'il fust rnort " by ustez hila cen. Here ustez means by belief (i.e., believing), arid cen, that he was. In Acts xxi. 29, "lequel ils estimoyent " is rendered " cein uste baitzuten " ; not usten, as would be the case with an ordinary verbal noun. The Baskish for oser is ausart, ausarta, from Latin ausus, as appears clearly from Philip- pians iv. 3, where osent was translated by hau$u baitirade. The reprint of Leigarraga's New Testament of 1571, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, was finished at the University Press in Oxford on 29 May ; and I am responsible for its defects. E. S. DODGSON.

I have frequently heard this word used in Cheshire and Derbyshire in my early days, and used to consider it an expressive one. Halliwell in his 'Dictionary' defines " Oss. To offer, begin, attempt, or set about anything ; to be setting out ; to recommend a person to assist you. Chesh." Ray gives the Cheshire proverb "ossing comes to bossing." Edge- worth, temp. Hen. VIII., uses to oss for to prophesy. In one of the Edinburgh tales edited by Mrs. Johnston, in a story by Mrs. Howitt entitled 'Johnnie Darbishire, a Primitive Quaker,' the Quaker observes, "I'll never oss," an expression which needed explanation. But these are rather illustra- tions of the use of the word, and by no means either give or suggest the unde derivatur. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

FEES FOR SEARCHING PARISH REGISTERS

(9 th S. x. 148, 394; xi. 130, 252). A fee can certainly be required for searching parish registers. In the ' Suggestions for the Guidance of the Clergy with reference to the Marriage and Registration Acts,' sent by the Registrar-General to the clergy in 1901, the following information is given concern- ing fees :

"Every clergyman having the keeping of a Register Book of Marriages must ' at ail reasonable times' allow searches to be made in such Register Book, and give a copy certified under his hand of any entry therein, on payment of the following fees : For every search extending over a period of not more than one year one shilling. For every additional year sixpence. For every certified copy of an entry two shillings and sixpence, and one penny for the stamp to be affixed thereto."

The fee for searching marriage registers is thus definitely fixed by law (6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 86, 35). With regard to registers of baptisms and burials 52 Geo. III., c. 146, 16, runs thus :

"Nothing in this Act contained shall in any manner diminish or increase the fees heretofore payable, or of right due to any minister for the performance of any of the before-mentioned duties, or to any minister or registrar, for giving copies of such registrations, but all due, legal and accus- tomed fees on such occasions, and all powers and remedies for recovery thereof, shall be and remain as though this Act had not been made."

By 5 of this Act the register books are to be kept in an iron chest,

"and the said books shall not, nor shall any of them, be taken or removed from or out of the said chest, at any time or for any cause whatever, ex- cept for the purpose of making such entries therein as aforesaid, or for the inspection of persons de- sirous to make search therein, or to obtain copies from or out of the same, or to be produced as evi- dence in some court of law or equity," &c.

The production of the books for searching is, therefore, one of the ''before-mentioned duties " for which under 16 "a due, legal and accustomed fee" may be required. The customary fee for such searches, so far as my experience extends, is that stated in the Marriage Act of William IV. Is for the first year, and Qd. for each subsequent year and n parishes where this is the custom there is no doubt that these sums could be recovered )y process of law. It must be remembered that these searches lay much responsibility and trouble on the clergy. It is not safe to eave the books with strangers, therefore the ncumbent or some thoroughly trustworthy >erson must always be with the searcher, and as a search sometimes extends over several lours, household or parochial arrangements must be altered to provide a guardian for the >ooks. The fees in the case of long searches