Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/158

 242 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9'"s.iv.sEPT.23,m wife who survived him. were buried in the chapel on the south side of Holy Trinity Church—the chapel which their son, Bishop Alcock, afterwards rebuilt. All the evidences connect William Alcock with Hull, and I do not believe there is a scrap of contemporary evidence connecting him, or any member of his family, with Beverley. Possibly we have a hint of the place of his origin in one of the clauses of his will: " Fabric* ecclesise paro- chialis de Southmuskham prope Newerk vis. viijd.", Two of William Alcock s sons, Thomas and Bobert, became burgesses of Hull by virtue of their father's burgess-ship. Thomas was chamberlain in 1462-3, sheriff in 1468-9, and mayor in 1478-9. Robert was sheriff in 1471-2 and mayor in 1480-1. That William Alcock's other son, the bishop, did not take up his freedom in Hull is doubtless due to the fact that, before he was old enough to be entitled to do this, he had adopted an avocation which rendered a mercantile bur- gess-ship of no value to him. The dates of the admission to freedom of the bishop's brothers, in connexion with other dates presently to be mentioned, enable us to determine, I think, that the bishop was William Alcock's second son. Raine says that he "appears to have been a younger son," since, I presume, his brother Thomas is mentioned in his father's will, whilst he is not. If the brothers took up their respective freedom at the age of twenty-two, Thomas would be born in 1426 or 1427 and Robert in 1432 or 1433. John Alcock was admitted to the order of sub- deacon on 8 March, 1448/9, to that of deacon on 29 March, 1449, and to that of priest on the 12th of the following mouth. If he was twenty or twenty-one years old at this time he would be born in 1428 or 1429. All the biographies of Bishop Alcock say that he founded the Hull Grammar School. All the histories of Hull say the same. That he re-founded it is certain. The royal licence enabling him to endow it is dated 3 July, 1482. His foundation deed is not now known to exist, but it was certainly seen by the Chantry Commissioners of Henry VIII. They give its date as 1499, but this is clearly a mistake. De la Pryme seems also to have seen the original deed, and he gives the date as 1484, which is very probably correct. But the school itself is mentioned in the Hull Chamberlains' Rolls as early as the municipal year 1434-5, and in a rental of the town dated 1347 a thorough- fare which adjoined its site is called " Scolestrete." I have shown that Bishop Alcock's father was a burgess, and consequently an inhabit- ant of Hull from the commencement of his apprenticeship to his death. At Hull, then, and not at Beverley, we are justified in believing his children to have been born. Since there was a grammar school at Hull, it seems impossible to believe that he sent his son to the Beverley school. And if Bishop Alcock was really born at Beverley 1 cannot understand why he should do so much for Hull and nothing whatever for the place of his nativity. J. R. Boyle. Hull. SIR WALTER SCOTT'S SCOTTISH DIALECT. I venture to think that your readers—that is, those of them who love Scott—may feel a little interest in the following. After long and now daily reading of the Waverley novels I have, I think, come to the con- clusion that the most intensely " Doric " of all the characters in these glorious fictions is Edie Ochiltree. Next to him I should be inclined to rank, in this respect, Cuddie Headrigg, Caleb Balderston, and Andrew Fairservice ; then—but I do not feel so con- fident of this—possibly dear old Dandie, the most universally beloved, I suppose, of all Scott's dramatis personw, at least of those of the male persuasion, as Artemus Ward would say. Meg Merrilies also speaks pretty "broad Scots," as Magnus Troil calls it; but Meg also, on occasion, indulges in what would be, but for the explanations in the foot-notes, decidedly obscure argot. See her talk with the smugglers near the beginning of the twenty-eighth chapter of 'Guy Mannering.' Of course there are many characters besides these who talk racy Doric Scotch, e. g., the Deanses, the Yellowleys, brother and sister, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and Peter Peebles. I should, however, be inclined to vote for Edie, Cuddie, Caleb, and Fairservice, as worthy to hold the field in the use of their native tongue against any others of their Waverley brethren. As this is only my own opinion, I should be glad if any of your readers would tell me if they differ from the conclusion I have come to. I was asked not long ago if Scott discrimi- nated between the dialects of different localities. Is there much, if any, difference between the Scotch of ' Guy Mannering' (Kirkcudbrightshire, or Dumfriesshire, and Roxburghshire) ; of 'Old Mortality' (Lanark- shire) ; and of ' The Bride of Lammermoor' (Haddingtonshire)? Perhaps Scottish dialects, at least south of " Aberdeen-a-way," do not differ from each other so much as, say, the