Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/50

 NOTES -AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. JAK. is, 1002.

demeaning himself Orderly and Schollar-hke On all Occasions, Shall suffer 5 Lashes.

11 Item, Whosoever strikes, challenges, or quar- rells with Any of his Schoolfellows at any time or in any place, Shall [after due Exammacon thereof had] surely receive 8 Lashes.

12 Item, Whosoever is found Guilty of a small Fault Three Times together, and instead of amend- ing Behaves himself stubbornly and contumaciously, Shall receive 9 Lashes.

13. Item, Whatsoever Boy is found Five times successively In the Monitor's Bill (tho' but for petty faults) Shall suffer 3 Lashes.

14. Item, Whatsoever Monitor is found Negligent and Remiss In the discharge of his Duty and Office, Shall receive 10 Lashes. .

15. Item, What Boy soever omitts the doing of his Exercise at Night, without Good reason can be given, shall suffer 5 Lashes.

16. Item, What Boy soever performs not his Exercise appointed in the holy-days, Shall on his return to School receive 10 Lashes.

17 Item, What Boy soever in Buying or belling In or out of School shall fraudulently cheat or impose On his schoolfellows or Any Other, shall on due conviccon receive 9 Lashes.

18. Lastly and to conclude, Whatsoever Boy finds or knows his Schoolfellows To be guilty of the Breach of any One of These Articles [or any other Misdemenour, which is contrary to good discipline & the known orders of y e School] and does not give the Weekly Observator' timely Information Who is presently to acquaint the Master therewith ; But connives at the s (l Delinquent, Shall (if found out) assuredly suffer for the Other, whom he foolishly spar'd, and receive Without y benefitt of Clergy 15 Lashes.

Nisi exequantur, pereunt Leges.

H. H. CKAWLEY. Stowe-Nine-Churches, Weedon.

MERCIAN ORIGINS. (Concluded from p. 3.)

ONE district remains that of the Pec seetna dwelling in our Derbyshire. The ' Tribal Hidage ' shows that these people were distinct from the Mercians proper, just as the Gyrwas were. They may have come from the north-east through Doncaster anc Sheffield, or along the Trent Valley ; or it is just possible that they were an offshoot ol the West Saxon settlements along the Severn The hills provided them with a boundary or. the north and west, while on the east the great forest of Sherwood (does this mean Division Wood ?) would cut them off from the people of Nottingham.

Thus the limits of the states bordering Mercia have been roughly traced ; they con firm the conclusions derived from Bede': statement about the Northern and Southerr Mercians, and show how small was the area these occupied before the rise of Penda. The doubtful districts are Derbyshire and Staf fordshire, with parts of Cheshire and Shrop

hire ; and in the south Surrey. The latter eems to have been originally Kentish, but arly conquered by the West Saxons (' Chron.,' >68), and then practically annexed by the Mercians ; while, ecclesiastically, it was at irst by turns attached to the South Saxon or Winchester diocese, finally adhering to the atter, from which it may be concluded that, whatever their political fate, the people were n the main West Saxon.

In course of time many of these difficulties nay be cleared away by the patient efforts of students, each pursuing the portion of the nquiry he finds congenial. Dialect and folk- -ore, with such customs as borough English, the physical peculiarities of the people, place- names and the names in the old pedigrees of
 * he kings, and church dedications may all

contribute. In the last-named branch of the nquiry we have St. Chad in Lichfield diocese, St. Edmund in East Anglia, and St. Botolph in the Fen country. The Fenmen also seem to have had a devotion to St. Andrew ; and St. Helen is popular within the York sphere of influence. Place-names have yet to be roperly investigated and classified. It may e found that such names as Stoke and Stow have a bearing on the settlement of England ; for instance, the Stokes appear most numerous in the south, and spread north on the lines of the West Saxon advance ; yet there do not seem to be any in the Isle of Wight or in the Jutish district of Hampshire, and there is but one in Kent, by the mouth of the Medway, where it may represent an East Saxon colony. In place-names there is a distinction to be made between personal or family names and tribal names : the former are naturally attached to the home- stead or group of homesteads where the person or family dwelt, but the latter belong to a whole district, and when found attached to a single township it is reasonable to assume that this township was either just on the boundary of the tribal district or quite out- side it. For example, a Kentish Town in the middle of Kent would be an anomaly, there would be no distinctiveness about it ; but in London it would be appropriate for a settle- ment of Kentish men, though it appears that the London district so called has no con- nexion with Kent. Similarly a family name like English must have been first given to Englishmen living outside their country, and the Scotts are border families.

II. The expansion of Mercia begins with Penda, who " first separated the kingdom of Mercia from that of the Northmen" (Nen- nius, Appendix). The 'Chronicle' gives the outline of his career thus :