Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/157

 9* s. v. FEB. 24, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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have been of considerable public importance but I have so far been unable to ascertain the object of the banquet. If any of youi readers could throw any light on the matter I should be very grateful. J. G. B.

VICE-CHANCELLOR, cp. PAL. LANCASTER. When was this office instituted 1 Where is to be found a list of the persons holding the same previous to 1760? The earliest holder that I have met with is Thomas Fell, who was appointed by the Long Parliament in 1649, and probably held the same unti] his death in 1658. In 1679 Sir John Otway, M.P. for Preston, was Vice-Chancel lor. What was the date of his appointment, and who followed him 1 W. D. PINK.

VICE - ADMIRAL. What were supposed to be the duties of vice-admirals in the county palatine of Durham, and were they entitled to wear any distinctive uniform ? I believe that the appointments to this rank were in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant of the county for the time being ; but I fancy that no one has been appointed for many years. Perhaps some of your correspondents can throw light on this matter, and inform me when the order was formed; whether there is any list of those who were appointed ; and whether this distinction existed, or exists, in any other county in the United Kingdom. C. W. BELL.

DRYDEN'S OAKS IN SCOTT. Can any one inform me whether Dryden, in the following lines in Scott's 'Ballad of Rosabelle,' refers to a district or a village ; and, if so, whether the name is connected with the poet, whose family originally came from the North ? 'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak, And seen from cavern'd Hawthornden.

P. MUNDY.

RICHARDSON FAMILY. Will someone kindly tell me what is known of the following persons, mentioned in the list of benefactors to the county of Derby in Glover's 'History of Derbyshire ' 1 Elizabeth Richardson, Dron- field, 1684; Samuel Richardson, Srnalley, Horsley, &c., 1711 ; John and Samuel Richard- son, Smalley School, 1712. I wish information also about William Richardson, mentioned by Dr. Cox (' Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals,' ii. 231) as a surveyor of roads in 1727. CLARA THOMSON.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED.

A broken song, it had dropped apart Just as it left the singer's heart ; A broken prayer hardly half said By a tired child at his trundle bed.

STUBBS.

THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH COINAGE. (9 th S. iv. 431, 504 ; v. 29.)

THE following remarks will conclude my provisional statement in this matter, and I shall be glad to hear what objections can be urged against the outline which I have drawn up.

Since the pound corresponds to the hide of land and its associated house of 20 bays, and since the shilling corresponds to the bay of 240 square ft., or the twentieth part of that house plus six acres, it follows that- the penny corresponds to the twelfth part of such a bay plus half an acre.

Though a house could be built in bays of uniform size, and therefore be valued, taxed, or alienated by the bay, we cannot divide the bay itself in this manner. We can divide a bay of 240 square ft. into halves by a " brattice," or partition, and we can divide it into quarters ; but it would be impracticable to divide it into twelve actual portions. We can so divide the acres, but not the bay.

In such a case it would be convenient to make use of a diagram to represent the indi- visible floor of a single bay.

Now if we take a sheet of architects' "sec- tional lines," in which, say, the eighth of a square inch represents a square foot, we can readily divide a surface representing 240 square ft. into 12 rectangular divisions. Each division will be 5 ft. long and 4 ft. broad, and will contain 20 square ft. A.nd then if we colour every alternate division black we shall have a representation of an incomplete chess-board.

An actual bay could be marked out in this way, or the divisions on its floor could be represented by alternate pieces of black and white marble.

But a simpler plan would be to paint or draw the twelve divisions in miniature on a board or stone.

However absurd or childish the actual division of the bay by means of a diagram may at first sight appear to us, we must bear in mind that in no other way could the relationship between the quantity of house- room and the quantity of land, or between Doth these quantities and the monetary units, lave been demonstrated. If a law of pro- portion between house and land be applied applied to the lesser. Further, we must remember that in days when arithmetic was either not popularly understood or was of the rudest kind, this marking out of the
 * o the greater quantities it must also be