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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 3, 1000.

friends. Among these were my venerable friend Prof. Pillans, Charles Maclaren '(editor of the Scotx- man), and Robert Chambers. We had a long ' dander' together through the Old Town, our ta/lc

being in broad Scotch. Pillans in his position of

Rector of the High School had given rare evidence of his excellence as a classical scholar. He was afterwards promoted to be a Professor in the Uni- versity. He had as his pupils some of the most excellent men of my time. Amongst his intimate friends were Sydney Smith, Brougham, Jeffrey, Cockburn."

Nasmyth himself, it need hardly be said, was welcomed in the best society, from the Queen and Prince Consort downwards.

S. F. H.

Perth.

GUILD MAYOR (9 th S. iv. 538). The town of Preston (Lancashire) can claim a goodly list of charters, with numerous privileges granted, dating back to Henry II. To uphold these charters, as embodied in their Merchant Guild, an order was made by the mayor's court, circa 1348, for the " sayd Maior baliffes and burges there hey res and successors to sett a Gyld Marchand at every xx yere end," to be " held on the Monday next after the Feast of the Decollation of St. John Baptist."

It is an important canon held by the jury entrusted with the selection of mayor for the year that the Guild commemoration will be held that an experienced and influential man shall be chosen. Though for a period of some- thing like three hundred and twenty years the members of the house of Stanley have taken part in these jubilations in some form or other (as, in 1822, the then Earl of Derby provided a cockfight for 200 guineas), it will be the first time that a titled mayor, in the person of the present Earl, will have been appointed Guild Mayor.

Though the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 has annulled the favours contained in its charters, proud Preston does not allow its carnival to fall into desuetude, and no doubt the observance in 1902 will equal in glory its numerous predecessors.

At a fancy dress ball, held at the celebra- tion of 1822, the late Mr. James Crossley (one of the founders of the Chetharn Society) appeared as a " Lancashire waggoner " a personation a newspaper critic naively pro- nounced " a well-supported character."

RICHARD LAWSON. Urmston.

Lewis, in his 'Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales/explains that the Preston Guild, or ' Guilda Mercatoria,"a jubilee cele- brated every twentieth year, is the tenure by which the freemen retain their privileges It was originally granted by Henry II., and con-

firmed by the charter of Charles II. The mayor and other officers are elected by a jury of twenty-four guild burgesses, empannelled by two elisors who are appointed for that purpose on the Friday before the festival of St. Wilfred.

The Guild Merchants' festival is recorded as beginning in 1328, and to have been kept once in twenty years regularly since 1562. It was duly celebrated in September, 1862, and September, 1882.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

COWPER (9 th S. v. 44). It might seem strange that I did not refer to the pathos of Cowper, which is remarkable. It is always connected with his own troubles. It is not the pathos of Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Tasso, Shakspeare, Goethe. I observed that the style of several poets depended on that of Milton. I may give one instance to show how they followed, directly or indirectly, that great writer. In ' Paradise Lost ' is the expression

Me of these Nor skilled nor studious.

These words " nor skilled nor studious ' are in the 'Cider 'of Phillips. They can be found also several times in 'The Chase' of Somerville, who seems to be, in his style, under the influence of Phillips. I feel some- what uncertain how to spell the name of this last-mentioned author. Thomson, who refers to him with admiration in his ' Seasons,' spells the name as I have done. Cowper, M ho also pays a tribute of praise to him in his 'Task,' calls him Philips. E. YARDLEY.

"To PRIEST" (9 th S. iv. 514; v. 10). It is clear, from the courteous strictures of your more experienced correspondents, that I was hasty in assuming that priested was an un- desirable neologism. I have appealed to some clerical friends, and one, a D.D. of Oxford, vicar of an important South London parish, assures me that the word is nothing more than " ecclesiastical slang," and that he has heard bishops and other high dignitaries laugh at its use. In my f riend s words :

" I can find no such verb as to priest or to be priettted in Johnson or in any ecclesiastical authority. I do not think any such verb has ever been re- cognized. Printed is an obvious abbreviation of 4 being made or ordained priest,' in use only among clerics, and not often among them. Every pro- fession, the clerical not excepted, has its professional phrases, lying outside the dictionary of the average citizen. Such an expression is printed ; at least so it seems to me."

Priested, then, is an analogy with knighted. It is curious that in other substantives signi-