Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/54

 38 [9"" S. IV. July 8, '99 NOTES AND QUERIES. But which form is the older in Britain ? Puteus harks back to the slimy bog, the most offensive aspect of a useful article. To rely on beat we have the A.-S. betan, Anglice better, i.e., to mend or feed the fire; so betan-fyr, equivalent to stoking, and quite independent oi puteus. A. Hall. " Per pro " (9th S. iii. 468).—As a business man with a classical as well as a commercial education, I have no doubt " per pro" is an abbreviation of per procurationem. This is borne out by the expression " giving the pro- curation." The position of a clerk holding it is nearly as high as that of a partner, and his signature in that form is as binding on a firm as that of a partner himself. On the other hand, any clerk can sign " per" or " pro" without his signature having the same binding effect. The examples are:— 1. Per pro : Brown, Robinson & Co. John Smith. ■2. Per John Smith. Brown, Robinson & Co. 3. Pro Brown, Robinson & Co. John Smith. E. M. A contraction of the Latin per procura- tionem, sometimes still further contracted into p.p., meaning "by procuration." The power of procuration is usually conferred by mercantile firms on some trusty servant or clerk for some specific duty. The most common case is the fluty of signing cheques, drafts, letters, &c, on behalf of the firm. Thus a clerk or manager (say Charles Benson), sign- ing on behalf of Bcrgmann & Co., would probably write P.p. [or per pro.] Bergmann & Co., Charles Benson. The above is the substance of an article on this term from Bithell's' Counting-House Dictionary.' Alf. Gardiner. Leeds. SPiisftllantDMS. NOTES ON BOOKS. *c. The Church Towers of Somerset. By E. Piper, K.P.E. Letterpress by John Lloyd Warden Page. Parts X., XI., XII. (Bristol, Frost & Reed.) We welcome with pleasure the aniiearanee of three more parts of Miss Piper's valuable and attractive work. Since the publication of the previous parts wo have revisited some of the noble edifices she depicts, and are consequently in a position to do justice to the beauty and fidelity of her reproduc- tions. One of those we have seen is St. Christopher's, Lympsham, the majestic Perpendicular tower of which underwent some alteration in the seven- teenth or eighteenth century. It is pointed to with some pride as a leaning tower, though its deviation from the perpendicular is but slight. The upper- most stage, with a pair of windows in each face, and its groups of pinnacles—the centre of each, as Mr. Page says, a spirelet—is supposedly of later date, and is very satisfactorily show n. Standing on the south side of the Mendip Hills, at the opening of Cheddar Cliffs, St. Andrew's, Cheddar, forms a fine feature in a picturesque and well-known land- scape. The resemblance between its lofty tower and that of Banwell is noted by Mr. Page, who holds it inferior in execution, and detects a certain want of delicacy in the sculpture. The grotesque gargoyles in the openwork parapet are a special feature. Wells has a claim to be the most idyllic— we had almost said the most ideal—cathedral city in the west of England. Among its attractions— sadly neglected, it is to be feared, by those who make but a short stay—is St. Cuthbert's Church, the glories of which are forgotten in the splendours of the Cathedral. Freeman, however, has declared the tower "in general effect one of the noblest" in Somersetshire, and therefore in England. By general consent it contests the supremacy with the tower of Wrington. Miss Piper's exquisite etching does full justice to the "immensely long panelled belfry windows," the turrets, and the specially elegant pinnacles, and preserves all the features of an all but unequalled edifice. St. Mary Mag- dalene's, Chewton Mendip, on the other side of the Mendips, is as ancient in its oldest portion as St. Cuthbert's, and retains more traces of antiquity. Its Perpendicular tower was built on to the church, and one of its stages is so recent as the sixteenth century. St. Peter and St. Paul's, Shepton Mallet, has a quaint and picturesque tower of the " Taunton type, and has wnat is called " the feeble beginning of a spire." The second stage has three niches, each containing figures. Last comes St. Andrew's, Mells, the tower of which, ricli in ornamentation, conveys an idea of great strength combined with grace. It is needless to say that in no other county can six towers of equal beauty be found in a space really only equal to a few miles. Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral. Arranged by the late Henry Bradshaw. Edited by Chr. Words- worth. Part II. (Cambridge, University Press.) Tins second part is divided into two volumes of unequal thickness. Its value is great, and the labour taken in compiling it must have been im- mense. A captious objector might find fault with the fact that several documents are included—some of very modern date—which bear little relation to Lincoln Cathedral; but such criticism would be uncalled for. Lincoln and Salisbury have acted and reacted on the ]K)litics and ritual of churchos far away, almost from the days of their foundation to our own time. If we arc ever to possess a his- tory of the medissval Church in England or its modern successor, worthy of the study of intelligent men, we must have accessible in printed form the documents in which the memory of these complex influences has been handed down to us. The work is so full of information that it is impossible in the space at our disposal to give any true picture of its contents, which rango from late in the eleventh century to 1895. Some of the documents here printed, we need hardly say, are of more general interest than others. The earliest of them is the