Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/149

 9* 8. VII. FEB. 23, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1901.

CONTENTS. No. 165.

NOTES : -Gavelage and Pillar Tax, 141 Spenser, ' Locrine,' and 'Selimus,' 142 -Family of Sir Francis Mitchell, 144 Plots of Plays - Prohibition of Wine among Hebrews, 145 Greek Pronunciation ' Rule, Britannia,' 146 "Caendo"=Cercando Changes in Country Life -Shake- speare and Vondel, 147.

QUERIES : -?hips of War on Land, 147 Source of Quota- tion Rutter Family 1 ' Bougees " : " Buggies " - Sack and Sugar" Belongs with "Verses on the Irish Famine " Jeher's cooks " -Lay Canon J. E. Foster J. Foulis F. N. Fortune -Source of Lines Abraham Elder, 148 Questing Beast May-water John Parr " Four-and- Five" Visiting Tickets -Cockade of House of Saxony Chisel Marks Sarson Stones Verses on the late Queen Battle of Seetabuldee " Rouen " and "Succe- daneutn." 149 Author of Recitatin Malt and Hop Substitutes King and Queen Equal -Public Mourning, 150.

REPLIES : Ugo Foscolo in London, 150 Unclaimed Poem by Ben Jonson, 151 Grierson of Dublin Gold Florin- Date Wanted, 153 Moon Lore Dr. Creighton's Funeral Bright or ' Cranford 'Serjeant Hawkins Old London Taverns-Boca Chica, 154-Portrait of Sir J. Thorold- N. & Q.' in Fiction " Galluses "=Braces Arundel : Walden W. Beadle Rose and Zorzi Families Gossage of Spratton Blankets, 155 Language to conceal Thought J. M. W. Turner, 156 " To palmer" "Let them all come" Brasenose College, Oxford " Lanted ale," 157 Ralegh's Signature Flogging at the Cart Tail, 158.

NOTES ON BOOKS : -Rhys's Celtic Folk-lore ' Bouri- not's ' Canada under British Rule 'Keller's ' Madagascar' ' Quarterly Review ' ' Edinburgh Review ''Man.'

Notices to Correspondents.

GAVELAGE AND PILLAR TAX.

(Concluded from p. 82. )

JACOB GRIMM, in his book on the antiquities of German law,* quotes a document, made in the year 889 and confirmed in 993, relating to the decima tributi,

" quae de partibus orientalium Francorum ad fiscum dominicum annuatim persolvi solebat, quse secun- dum illorum linguam steora vel osterstuopha vocan- tur."

He does not know what osterstuojtha means, but says that if stauf, a stoup, a cup, be meant, we ought to read stoupha instead of stuopka. He thinks that the word refers to a tax paid at Easter. As regards steora, Kluge has suggested a connexion between the modern German Steur, tax. and O.H.G. stiura, a post, pillar ; and stuopka in oster- stuopka appears to have the same derived meaning, so that, to put the combined word into an English form, we might call it Easter- stoop, i.e., Easter tax (or taxes). The Late Latin stopkarius, which Du Oange quotes from an old glossary, t appears to mean a

'.Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer,' 1854, p. 298. Late Latin forms of stiura are steura and steyra (Du Cange).

t The words quoted are, " Tributarius Romanus et Stopharius nominatur qui censum Regi solvit."

man who was taxed by the stoops or posts of his house, as the gabularius was a man who was taxed by the gables of his house.

Not only do Euglish mediaeval records tell us of gafol and gabulagium, but on the Con- tinent we meet with forcagium, which also seems to mean fork-tax.* In addition to forcagium, Du Cange gives forckagium, forciagium, &c. He says that forchagium is a tribute exacted from every furcia, or house, and that it means the same avS foagium, hearth-tax. He also mentions/brc^a, which, perhaps mistakenly, he regards as a tax extorted by violence ; and he defines forcatica as a tribute which, in his opinion, was paid on booths (stationes) at fairs, such booths having been supported by "forks."t

That peasants' houses were supported by "forks," even in classical times, may be seen from passages in several authors. In particular I would refer to the following description of a cottage in Seneca, 'Epist.,' 90:

"Furcse utrinque suspense fulciebant casara : spissatis ramalibus, ac fronde congesta, et in proclive disposita, decursus imbribus quamvis magnis erat. Sub his tectis habitavere securi. Culmus liberos texit : sub marmore atque auro servitus habitat."

Here we have a small cottage supported by a "fork" at either end, and apparently con- sisting, like an ordinary booth, of one bay. Such a cottage may have been strange to the eyes of the philosopher, and he drew from it a lesson in morals by comparing the slaves who dwelt beneath marble and gold to the free men whose bodies were sheltered by a roof of thatch held up by wooden " forks. "J If in our days it seems difficult to under-

From what source does the Late Latin stuiva, tribute, come? And what is the origin of the English verb to stump up, to pay cash ? The word " stoop" is common enough in the Midland counties. When 1 was a boy there was an inn in Dronfield called "The Blue Stoops." Posts of wood, painted blue, stood in front of the principal entrance. Wackernagel has stupe, staupe, a post.


 * " Dedi Majori-Monasterio decimas omnium

meorum reddituum prsetei talliam meam et

Forcagium." " Forchagium. Census qui a singulis furciis seu domibus exigitur, idem quod Foagium " (Du Cange).

f "Tributum, ut opinor, quod pro statione in nundinis, quse furcis fulciebatur habenda, pensi- tabitur." Cf. " Et faciunt in nundinis Sancti Cuthberti singuli ij villani unam botham." 'Bol- don Book' (Surtees Soc.), p. 4. "Boothage," of which an example is given in the 'N.E.D.,' may be also compared.

J I quote the passage in Seneca from Facciolati's 'Lexicon' (English edition, 1828), s.v. casa, and do not know to what part of the world, or to what time, it refers.