Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/474

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. JUNE 9, 1000.

20 in., having five locks of curious construc- tion, originally brought from Selsey." If I recollect rightly, this chest was not made of planks, but was roughly hewn out of a solid oak trunk. The see of Selsey was trans- ferred to Chichester in 1075, and the site of the old Saxon cathedral is now covered by the waves. V. L. OLIVER.

"TwiBiL" (9 th S. i. 243). See 'The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools,' MS. Ashmol. 61, fol. 23, printed in Hazlitt's 'Early Popular Poetry':

Ze, ze, sayd the twybylle, Thou spekes euer ageyne skylle. I-wys, i-wys, it wylle not bene.

See, also, Skelton's 'Poems against Gar- nesche ' :

She callyd yow Syr Gy of Gaunt, Nosyd lyke an olyfaunt, A pykes or a twyoyll.

Mr. Dyce's note refers to the ' Promptorium Parvulorum,' and to ' Ortus Vocab.' (1514), in which bijwnnis is explained as " a tvvyble or axe, a twall." RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

LAYMEN BEADING THE LESSONS IN CATHE- DRALS (9 th S. v. 376). The following appears in the Cork Constitution of 21 May with reference to Limerick :

" A special service was held yesterday morning at St. Mary's Cathedral, and was attended by an immense congregation, very many people having to stand, despite the fact that the ordinary seating accommodation had been largely increased. The Yorkshire Light Infantry, under the command of Colonel Sir H. Johnson, attended in full force with their band, which assisted in the service. Colonel Johnson read the first lesson, the second being read by the Bishop of Limerick. The preacher was the Rev. Canon Wills, Rathkeale, and the collection was on behalf of the Mafeking Relief Fund. At the close of the service the National Anthem was sung.'*

C. DEBOSCO.

Laymen never read the lessons, under any circumstances, in Exeter Cathedral.

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

I have in my possession a postcard in which Dean Gregory states that laymen occasionally read the lessons at Welsh ser vices in St. Paul's Cathedral.

CHARLES HIATT.

For years past Lord Grimthorpe has actec as lay reader at St. Alban's Cathedral.

ANDREW OLIVER.

THE COLOURED Cow OF HAMBURG (9 th S iii. 369). "Die bunte Kuh" (coloured cow was the name of a famous warship employee by the Hansa, or confederation of Hamburg

nerchants in the Middle Ages, to subdue )irates. It is the model of this vessel which langs from the roof of the cellars of the lamburg new Rathaus, and after which that pecial compartment of the Ratskeller still sears its name of the " Bunte Kuh."

E. B. B.

LEITH HALFPENNY (9 th S. v. 377). This is ne of a very large series of eighteenth-een- ury tokens struck by tradesmen at the end if last century, at a time when the Govern- ment neglected to supply the traders with
 * /he necessary small change. The edge of the

}iece in question should read, " Payable in Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow." It is a common token, but the issuer is now un- known. The only complete work describing all these tokens is James Atkins's ' Trades- nen's Tokens of the Eighteenth Century,' 8vo. 1892. ARTHUR W. WATERS.

Tokens were issued by corporations, banks, and tradesmen during the period when the copper coinage was scarce, and, except in certain years, was illegal. Boyne's 'Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century ' says :

' For the convenience of rechanging the numerous varieties of tokens, tradesmen kept boxes with several divisions, into which those of the various tradesmen and corporations were sorted, and when asufficient number were collected they were returned to the issuers to be exchanged for silver." The Leith halfpenny has on one side Britannia seated, "Leith half penny," ex. 1797; on the other a man-of-war sailing, sprigs of leaves below, "Leith halfpenny"; round the edge, "Payable in Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow." Another issue with the same obverse and reverse has round the edge, " Payable at the shop of Joseph Archibald." JOHN RADCLIFFE. [Other replies acknowledged.]

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Life of Dante. By the late E. H. Plumptre, D.D. Edited by Arthur John Butler. (Isbister & Co.) A NEW edition of * The Life of Dante ' by the late Dean of Wells, uniform with the elegant edition of Messrs. Isbister & Co. of the * Divina Com media,' the ' Canzoniere,' and the dean's ' Studies and Estimates,' is welcome. Something has been learnt, as Mr. Butler says, within the last fourteen years concerning Dante and his epoch, and the " exuberant conjecture" of the early edition has been pruned. Enough has, however, been left to satisfy most appetites, and the shade of the deceased dean should it still concern itself with mundane affairs will scarcely rebuke Mr. Butler for what he has done. The life of Dante is chiefly distinguishable from that of Shakespeare inasmuch as the personal revelations with which the works of Dante abound