Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/193

 8fcS.vLAuG.25.i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 159 Mat hew Turbervile, gentleman, and Alice Turber- vile, spinster, both of Newton Nottage. Three Turbervilles were pursued for the same offence in 1629, and six Turbervilles of Sker or Skerr in 1636. Christopher Turbervill, gentleman, is in the Gaol Calendar for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Other entries concerning the imprison- ment and the deaths in gaol of Turbervilles or their si-rvaiits appear. One Turberville was found guilty of highway robbery and presumably hanged. He demanded money with menaces and with these Welsh words, which we print us an exercise for a few of our readers, " Sefwch, God dammoch chwi, efe ceiswch arian chwi." Among those bearing witness against Phillip Evans, accused of being " a Popist CMC] priest or lesuitte, was Mayne Trott. a deformed man who had been Court Dwarf to the kings of Spain and England. A charge in 1692 is the forcible abduction and marriage of Mary Tayn- ton, an heiress. In 1748 a jury of matrons decided that Catherine Llewelin, condemned to death, was " quick with child." Jane Morgan was sentenced tn In- "whipt" for stealing seven pounds of Scotch snuff. In 1745, instructions being sent out from Trinity House concerning disaffected persons, the Customs officers report that " there are no Papists or Non- jurors in Glamorgan except a few ' of the meaner sort' "—a statement at variance with what we have previously read. The Customs House officials, from whose records this statement is drawn, complain of the unprotected state of the coast and the in- ability to resist any foreign invasion should such be attempted. These extracts are fairly indicative of the sort of matter to be found in a portion of this volume. Of more directly antiquarian interest are the'Notes on the Manors of the Cardiff District' and the accounts of ' The Lords of Cardiff,' with which the volume opens. Of special value is the ' South Wales Chantries Certificate.' showing the royal confiscation of the property of ecclesiastical institutions—of such value, indeed, that we wish Mr. Matthews had seen his way to print it in its entirety. We are shown not only the extinction of lights which were burnt before altars, shrines. and images, the cessation of dirges, obits, and month's minds, but even the closing of the poor school at Llandaff Cathedral. The number of " houseling people," that is, Easter communicants, in each parish is named. Thus in the parish of "Saint Mary's in kardyf" there "be howseling people iiijc [400]." Thomas Morgan's 'Commonplace Book,' with which the volume ends, is a curious record of expenses—principally, but not wholly, private—of an exact and careful country gentleman of ancient lineage and modest fortune. Abundant matter of varied interest is, it is seen, supplied, the work being admirably executed throughout. The illustrations constitute a special and an attractive feature. In the views of Cardiff Castle, &c., the atmosphere is finely kept. We wish Mr. Matthews would not use " by(e)gone " when he means begone or gone by. Otherwise we have nothing but praise to bestow. Obligation is avowed to Mr. John Stuart Corbett for antiquarian assistance. The head and tail pieces of Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., are excellent, and the book remains a credit to all concerned. A History of Aberdeen and Banff. By William Watt (Blackwood 4 Sons.) MB. WATT'S 'History of Aberdeen and Banff' is u, well-executed piece of work, and a welcome addition to the "County Histories of Scotland." Abundant materials are, it is true, provided to his tiand, the publications of the Spalding Clubs, Old and New, constituting in themselves a mine prac- tically inexhaustible of information concerning the north-eastern counties of Scotland. The matter available has, however, been well employed, and the record furnished, though saddening in many respects—as what Scottish history is not?—is, at any rate, readable and well arranged. In dealing with Scottish as with English counties, the same ground has to be continually retraversed. Owing to its remote and formerly inaccessible position, Aberdeenshire — by which name, following tho example of the author, we may well speak of the entire district depicted—has few traces of Roman remains, and few trustworthy signs of Roman occupation. That the fleet of Agricola may have sailed up the long coast line is probable enough; but this, like other things, remains in the domain of conjecture. The district is, however, specially rich in flint implements of war and the chase. That flint workshops such as are found in the neigh- bourhood of the Pfahl-bauten of Moosseedorf, at Wauwyl and Bodmann, existed at the confluence of the Leochel and the Don is certain, though flint is not native in the neighbourhood (see Evans's 'Ancient Stone Implements'). As Mr. Watt does not trouble himself about these, we may follow his example. It is not, indeed, until the time of Bishop William Elphinstone (1431-1514) that the work becomes much more than a record of the ambitions and greeds of Keiths, Gordons, Leslies, Forbeses, Menzies, Setons, Ogilvies, Stewarts, and other turbulent and predatory families. Not even with the foundation by Elphinstone of Aberdeen Uni- versity does the strife of ignoble interests cease. These things are too familiar in early Scottish history to justify exclamation. A green spot in a desert is, however, reached when we read of this noble foundation of the enlightened and, presum- ably, illegitimate descendant of an old and noble family. Profiting by what he had seen of the short- comings of the Glasgow University, and recognizing the claims of the two model universities of Bologna and Paris, Elphinstone carried out a scheme in advance of any to which effect was given in a pre-existing British university. Half a century was to elapse before the English universities obtained what Aberdeen possessed from the first, a professorship of medicine, which, indeed, Edin- burgh and St. Andrews could not boast until more than two centuries later. For Bishop Elphinstone it is claimed that to hie initiative was due the introduction of printing into Scotland. The first volume of the ' Breviary of Aberdeen' appeared in 1509. Herbert, of course, mentions the book of poems issued by Chepman & Myllar a year earlier, but this may pass. It is curious and hard of belief, though apparently true, that no Greek types were known in Edinburgh so late as 1579. The defiant motto of the Earls Marischal—" They haif said : Quhat say they ? Lat thame say"—was attributed to the callous manner in which the Keiths grasped the spoils of the Church. It is sad to find that while martyrdom for conscience' sake is unknown in the history of Aberdeen, the records of the city are stained by very numerous executions for witch- craft. In 1597 no fewer than twenty-four people suspected of this offence were burnt to death in the city. We find that women against whom nothing worse than suspicion could be brought