Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/73

 9* s. vii. JAN. 26, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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extra Barras Novi Templi London, in liberum socagium per servicium xviijr/. per annum ad scaccarium Regis solvend. Quodqtie Johannes filius dicti Thoniae est haeres, &ca." F. 231.

" 17 Edw. III. Rogerus le Marshall tenuit die quo obiit in dominio suo ut de feodo de Rege in liberum socagium mesuagium cum pertinentiis in parophia Sanpti Cleinentis Dacornm extra Barram Novi Templi London, per servitium vj. ferr. equorum cum clavis ad ea pertinen. et iiijd ad scaccarium Regis pro omni servitio annuaMm reddend. Quodque Johanna et Johanna sunt filije et haeredes, &ca." F. 236 b.

This last inquisition gives a curious instance of a man having two daughters of the same name, and it also possesses other interesting features on which I do not now propose to enter.

Surrounding the church was a small col- lection of houses, which was known as a "^ vicus." This "vicus," which was some- times known as "Vicus Dacorum" and sometimes as "Vicus Sancti dementis," is frequently mentioned in early records. I may refer to the following entries in Messrs. Hardy and Page's ' Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex,' vol i No. 48 (7 Henry III.), p. 16 ; No. 73 (14 Henry III.), p. 18 ;* No. 103 (17 Henry TIL), p. 20; No. 150 (23 Henry III), p. 23; and No. 409 (44 Henry ILL), p. 41. That in these documents "Daci" was equivalent to " Dani," or was perhaps an abbreviation of " Danici," is, I think, clearly proved by another name which ^occasionally is met with in the fines. This is " Densemanestret," No. 108 (18 Henry III.), p. 20; No. 180 (23 Henry III.), p. 25 ; No. 258 (31 Henry III.), r>. 30 : or "Denschemanparosch,"Nol 441 (50 Henry ILL), p. 43. This was evidently the street or parish of the Danish men, and was the English equivalent of the Latin " Vicus " or " Parochia Dacorum."

A map of the Strand in those days would have shown another church and village to the westward the church of the Holy Innocents, with its encircling " Vicus Innocentium." To the north was the hamlet of Aldwych, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, and to the south the highway leading to Charing, and known as the "Vicus de Stranda," or, short! v, as "la Straunde." From Charing the "Vicus de Westmonasterio " led by the " Regalia Strata," or King Street, to the Palace and Abbey and the moor beyond which held the drainage of Tothill and St. Ermin's.

W. F. PRIDEAUX. Ramsgate.

Marescallus, who may have been an ancestor of Koger le Marshall, whose Inq. p.m. is-noted above,
 * In this fine is recorded a conveyance to Walter

" KEEL." It is well known that there are more words than one spelt keel in English, two of which have sometimes been mixed up or confounded. These are keel 1, the bottom timber or ridge of a boat or ship = L. carina, and keel 2, the local name of a kind of river and canal boat now or formerly used on the east coast of England from the Tyne to the Yare and the Norfolk Broads, the latter has the interest of being, if not descended from, yet cognate with the three ce6las or cyulas in which, tradition said, Hengst and Hors first brought their forces to Britain. In preparing the article on this word keel in the 'Dictionary' I have received from ME. R. OLIVER HESLOP, of Newcastle, a distinguished authority on Northern words and things, whose 'Northumberland Words' is one of the most important of the splendid series of local glossaries published by the English Dialect Society, an account of the keel used on the river Tyne. This contains much more information than I am able to incorporate in the ' Dictionary '; and as I think it important to place the whole upon record, for the benefit of present and future inquirers, I venture to send it to ' N. & Q.,' to which I will refer readers of the * Dictionary ' for more detailed information. J. A. H. MURRAY.

The following is MR. HESLOP'S account of

the keel :

The old coal keel of the Tyne was originally a carvel-built vessel; about forty- two feet in length by nineteen feet in the beam. It was used for carrying coals from the staiths or "dykes" erected on the banks of the upper waters of the Tyne to the ships lying in the lower parts of the harbour, and was therefore adapted for navigating the shallows of the higher reaches of the river. It carried eight chaldrons of coal of 53 cwts. each, making a cargo of 424 cwts. of coal, and when thus loaded the draught of a keel was about four feet six inches.

The keel had one square sail carried on a light mast, which could be unshipped to allow of passage under the arches of the Tyne Bridge. In the absence of a fair wind, in the deeper parts of the river, the keel was rowed by the united exertion of the four " hands " who formed the crew, and were familiarly spoken of as the " keel-bullies." The rowing was done by one heavy oar, which was worked over the starboard side of the bow by three of the crew, whilst the skipper kept the course or steered by means of a lighter oar, called the"swape," worked by him QQ the side opposite to the large oar,