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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL JAN. 12, 1901.

that you are able and well qualified to perform the office, business, and functions of a midwife, as also that you are a person of good life and con- versation, and a member of the church of England. we therefore, as much as in us lies and as far as by law \ve may or can, do admit, authorize and empower you to use and exercise the said office, &c., of a midwife in and throughout our Diocese of Norwich, with the best diligence you may or can, indifferently to poor and rich, and also to perform and accomplish all things about the same according to your oath thereupon made and given upon the Holy Evangelists, as far as God will give you grace."

A bishop had no power to grant licences to persons not residing in his diocese. The archbishops could license in any diocese within their provinces.

CHARLES WILLIAMS, F.R.C.S.E.

Norwich.

P.S. It is necessary to remember that the Gild of Barber-Surgeons was simply a society, fraternity, or company ; it had no power whatever to grant licences to any person to practise medicine or surgery, nor could it give permission to any licensed person to practise in London or any other city. In Norwich, as elsewhere, the permission was given by the mayor and council. I will cite an example taken from the Assembly Books of the Corporation of Norwich :

"17 Oct., 1077. Christopher Gornal of St. Martin in ye Fields hath leave to practise physick and chirurgery in his chamber iu ys [this] city until further order, he having produced ye lycence of the Right Rev. Father in God, ye Lord Archbishop of Canterbury."

'Go TO THE DEVIL AND SHAKE YOURSELF' (9 th S. vi. 469). The following extract from vol. i. of The Cheshire Sheaf ' (pp. 86-7) may interest your correspondent :

"In 1803, during the warlike excitement that then prevailed, Chester raised a large and efficient regiment of Volunteers, 1.300 strong, with Col. Roger Barnston for its popular Commandant, The regiment used to be marched after each parade to the Colonel s house in Foregate Street, in the circular area in front of which they were formally disbanded, and where also the Colours, the present home of wliic.li we are unable to give, were presented to the Volunteers by the lady of their Colonel in March,

. w/ r ay as, ^ e y were returning up Water- gate Street from their usual parade on the Roodee,

the rein ^ If" (:a "' ltt e . with hi lordship therein, drove down Northgate Street- turning

bimCd*! U ' e C T' S as to set betVeen Jhl band and the grenadier company of the re-nment and so roceeded along Eastgate Street" thj

cheered

the no small chagrin of the

Bishop, whose always imperturbable face looked more than ever rigid and impassive, as he found himself the unwelcome centre of this sudden popular mirth."

This, the description of an eye-witness, was written by the late Mr. Samuel Johnson Roberts, formerly a leading solicitor in Ches- ter city and father of Mr. Russell Roberts, the well-known Chancery barrister.

Henry William Majendie was nominated as twenty-fifth Bishop of Chester on 24 May, 1800, and consecrated on 14 June. He was translated to Bangor in 1810.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.

Lancaster.

Since writing I have found this old jig is till published in Boosey's 'Musical Cabinet Dance Series,' No. 65, p. 20, No. 46. I was specially interested in finding it in Crabbe's 'Convert,' Tale xix., because of an amusing incident connected with it and the Duke of Buckingham, about 1795, which is told in 'The Records of the Corrie Family,' part ii. p. 34, in which the authoress says that the tune is mentioned in the biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who states that she and her brothers and sisters used to dance to the old tune during their merry evenings at home together. M. B. WYNNE.

Allington Rectory, Grantbam.

When Sir Godfrey Webster contested Chi- chester as a Radical in 1826, the special tune played by his band was

Go to the devil and shake [shave ?] yourself, And when you come back behave yourself.

So, at least, I was told many years ago by an old fellow who had played the bassoon in that band. E. E. STREET.

Chichester.

PITCHED BATTLE (9 th S. vi. 286, 497). When the history of the verb to pitch is worked out, I think it will be found that the reference is to the choosing of the ground and the pitching of the tents beforehand, as indicated in ' H.E.D.' Shakespeare has pitched battle, and also pitched field, and speaks of pitching tents, pavilions, and stakes. In Middle English I can find no mention of pitched battle. The corresponding phrase is "in pleyn battayle," as in Chaucer, ' C. T.,' 988. But Stratmann shows that Robert of Gloucester speaks of the pitching of stakes and of tents, ed. Hearne, pp. 51, 203.

The ' Century Dictionary ' refers us to Sir Philip Sidney's 'Apology for Poetry,' where we may find the phrase " a pitched fielde." No reference is given, but see Arber's ed., p. 64. WALTER W. BKEAT.