Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/513

 9* 8. VIL JUNE 29, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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it was first published, but after all it was characterized by a controversial bias in favour of the Nonconformists. It is probable there may be inaccuracies in Walker's ' Suf- ferings of the Clergy,' but I never heard of a controversial character being attributed to the book so as to make it unreliable.

Again, we have the instance of Dr. Turton and Dr. Wiseman in the earlier years of the last century. Dr. Turton was Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, and afterwards Bishop of Ely. Dr. Wiseman had published a book on the Eucharist and the interpretation of St. John vi. in connexion therewith. Dr. Turton published some remarks on this. Dr. Wiseman replied, and Dr. Turton rejoined. Some one had cast discredit on the learning of Dr. Wiseman, on which Dr. Turton remarked that he (Dr. Turton) had cast no reflection on Dr. Wiseman in this respect; but he complained of Dr. Wiseman for writing in a controversial manner, and said that he was " learned after the manner of a controversialist, not after that of a student." Dr. Turton, moreover, specified certain of Dr. Wiseman's controversial methods.

The secondary title of this article, 'The Exigencies of Controversy/ is taken from the Hanserd Knollys Society's publication of ' Tracts on Liberty of Conscience,' issued by the Baptists a good many years ago. This publication affords, if I am not mistaken, in its introduction and other places, some apt illustrations of the asserted " exigencies of controversy." Examples of this kind might be multiplied to a great extent, but I will now add no more. S. ARNOTT.

Baling.

BETHLEM. The official name of the hos- pital appears to be Bethlem, a Bill having just passed the House of Lords, and being before the House of Commons, which bears the title Bethlem Hospital Bill. D.

" GREY GROAT." In Christopher Marlowe's play * The Jew of Malta ' Ithamore, the slave, says, "I '11 not leave him worth a grey groat" (Act IV. sc. iv.). This passage is quoted in the 'H.E.D.' as an emphatic equivalent for " groat," and compared with " brass farthing." This is obviously correct, but I think Mar- lowe had something further in his mind. Was not he thinking of the debased currency issued during the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII. ? What is known as the third coinage of that king contained two ounces in twelve of alloy, and those of the fourth coin- age wore far more debased, being only half silver and half alloy. I have often examined

coins of these issues. They are very grey indeed, utterly unlike the bright pieces of former days The first coinage of Edward VI. was also of a very inferior character. Long after it was remedied this disgraceful state of things must have left a deep impression on the popular mind, and an allusion to the almost worthless grey groats, which many people in the latter years of Elizabeth must nave seen and all have heard of, would be very effective with an audience whose fathers had suffered by the depreciation of the old standard value of the silver currency. The 'H.E.D.' quotes from ' The Abbot ' of Sir Walter Scott, chap, iv., " I would have been his caution for a grey groat against salt water or fresh." So the phrase seems to have become proverbial. See Hawkins's 'Silver Coins,' pp. 132, 135, 139. EDWARD PEACOCK. Kirton-in-Lindsey.

" BERTH "= TO LAY DOWN FLOOR-BOARDS. This meaning is given in the * Diet, of Kentish Dialect ' as occurring in the parish books of Wye, in Kent, during the reign of Henry VIII. In the year 1640, from the parish of Kingston, near Canterbury, the following presentment was made at a visitation of the archdeacon : " that many of the pews of the parish church are old, ruinous, unbirthed." A second pre- sentment in the same year : " Our pews lack bearthing, which we are about to perform."

At the neighbouring parish of Swingfield, in 1661, the owner of a certain estate in the parish "at his own proper cost and expense caused the same two pews to be new birthed, heightened, and amended," <fec.

In the ' H.E.D.' is given, " Berth, to board, cover, or make up with boards." The above examples occur in the visitations of the Arch- deacon of Canterbury, now. in the cathedral library at Canterbury.

From St. Margaret's, near Dover, in 1608, the following presentment was made : "That the chamber or loft under the bells is not birthed or boarded, but lieth all open very dangerously." ARTHUR HUSSEY.

Tankerton-on-Sea, Kent.

KYRIE ELEISON. A few Greek words re- main unchanged in the Latin service-books of the Western Church. Of these the most frequent are " Kyrie Eleison," which, as they formed part of all litanies, long and short, were so often repeated that they passed into familiar speech. Thus in 'Don Quixote, part i. ch. vi., mention is made of a hero named Don Kirieleison de Montalvan, who is a cha- racter in the romance 'Tirante el Blanco. At the battle of Toulouse, in April, 1814, Wei-