Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/261

 9*8. XII. SEPT. 26, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

253

WADE will probably be able to construct a

digree of these people by the aid of the ex Nominum to * Cardiff Records,' which I hope to commence in a few weeks from now. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Monmouth.

DUPUY (9 th S. xii. 147). The Rev. Henry Dupuy was formerly rector of Langton Herring, Weymouth, to which he was inducted in 1857. He was B.A. of Corpus College, Cambridge, 1839, was ordained deacon the same year by the Bishop of Chichester, and priest in 1841 by the Bishop of Worcester. He was chaplain to the Brompton Hospital in 1850, prior to which he had served as chaplain in India. CHAS. F. FOESHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

VENISON FEAST (9 th S. xii. 47, 177)." The Records of the Burgery of Sheffield, commonly called the Town Trust, with introduction and notes by John Daniel Leader, 1897," pp. 179 and 180, have :

" The Burgerie of the Towne of Sheffeilcl. The Accompt of Robert Howsley Junior Collector there taken 21 Bt day of May 1664 for the Rents and Revenues belonging to the said Burgerie for one whole year ending att Martinmas last. To Thomas Skargell for charges att the venison feast 0-8-10. The Rev. Dr. Gatty records ('Sheffield Past and Present,' p. 77) that Earl Gilbert once every year allowed a gracious holiday to the apron men, or smiths. A number of bucks were turned into a meadow near the town, and the men were sent into it to kill and carry away as many as they could with their hands, and would sometimes slaughter about twenty, on which they feasted, and had money given them for wine. Under the more humane management of the Earl of Arundel the brutal holiday was abolished, but two bucks were given for the venison feast. This feast was probably an early form of the now well-known Cutlers' Feast; but we here see the Burgery participating in it."

H. J. B.

ST. MARY AXE : ST. MICHAEL LE QUERNE (9 th S. x. 425; 'XL 110, 231; xii. 170). MR. HOLDEN MAcMiCHAEL's unrivalled acquaint- ance with that interesting branch of local archaeology which deals with the history of trade signs leads him, in my opinion, to ascribe to their influence a wider area than that which properly pertains to it. Many thoroughfares, courts, and alleys have been named after these signs, but I have as yet failed to discover any traces of them in the official designations of churches. We do not, in fact, know with any certainty the date at \vhich the custom of suspending distinctive signs over shops and taverns became preva- lent in London and other large towns.

It was the practice of the law-writer and scrivener in mediaeval times to translate the indigenous appellations of buildings into

his own latinized jargon. In my first paper under this heading (9 th S. x. 425) I gave instances of this practice in the case of some of the ancient London churches. I do not, in fact, know of a single exception to this general rule, and MR. MACMICHAEL has not explained why the designation of St. Mary's Church was not latinized '* ad securim " instead of " apud Axe." Had the church been named after a thing this would almost certainly have been done.

MR. MACMICHAEL adduces two other churches whose appellations he thinks may be derived from trade signs. With regard to St. Margaret Pattens, I cannot at this moment lay my hand on a document in which it is found in a latinized form. I am inclined to believe that this was not a very ancient church. Stow says the lane was called St. Margaret Pattens Lane "because of olde time Pattens were there usually made and sold," but it is possible that it may have been due to some other source. There is, at any rate, no evidence that there was ever the sign of the Patten there.

As regards St. Michael le Querne, we are fortunately in possession of more satisfactory evidence. MR. MACMICHAEL'S theory is that it was originally called after the sign of a quern or hand mill, that this word got cor- rupted into "Le Corne," and that, through a misapprehension of the real meaning, this word was latinized into " ad bladurn." Stow speaks of this church as " Saint Michaell ad Bladum, or at the Corne (corruptly at the Querne), so called, because in place thereof, was sometime a Corne market, stretching up West to the Shambles." Now, if MR. MAC- MICHAEL is right, Stow, to whose veracity I am glad to see MR. MACMICHAEL bears testimony, must be wrong ; but there is evidence forthcoming that corroborates the old chronicler. In the Ninth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, part i. p. 20b, are entered certain deeds of the reign of Henry III. relating to tenements in the parish of St. Michael " ubi bladum venditur." A place where corn is sold may be termed a corn-market, and this phrase was probably the earliest form by which the church was designated. In the next entry mention is made of deeds of the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. relating to tenements in the parish of St. Michael "ad bladum." Bladum was a Low Latin word signifying corn, of which the origin is obscure (cf. Littre, s.v. ' Ble '). The next deed, also of the reign of Edward II., is written in French, and the church appears as "Seint Michel as Bleez." The English form St. Michael "atte Corne" appears in