2nd s. VII. May 7. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



373 



aged persons formerly speak of the subject, I am 

 enabled to say, though there is much that is erro- 

 neous in the story, it is not wholly unfounded, if 

 suicide be substituted for murder. The facts are 

 these; On Saturday, 29th October, 1774, at three 

 o'clock in the morning, a great alarm was occa- 

 sioned by a gentleman blowing out his brains in 

 the lane which separates the Kew and Richmond 

 Gardens. The sentinel on duty at the palace 

 heard the report, but could not quit his post. 

 The watchman, however, immediately proceeded 

 to the spot, and found the body, which was re- 

 moved to the vestry-room in Kew Chapel. It 

 was not discovered who the unfortunate gentle- 

 man was, and not being recognised, he was buried 

 by the parish. These particulars are abridged 

 from the General Evening Post (newspaper) of 

 Tuesday, 1st November, 1774. *". 



Bishop Sprafs Retort. — 



" When the Stuarts were restored, he became Chaplain 

 to the Duke of Buckingham. During the first dinner at 

 which he was present in this peer's residence, this witty 

 profligate remarked that he wondered why it generally 

 happened the geese were placed near the clergj'. ' I 

 cannot tell the reason,' rejoined Sprat, ' but I shall never 

 see a goose again without thinking of your grace.' The 

 Duke immediately discerned that his new Chaplain was 

 the man he needed, anifrom that time Sprat always 

 supervised his patron's luerary works, and assisted him 

 much in the composition of the Rehearsal." — Note to 

 Burnet's History. 



Fj^ancis Teench. 



Islip Rectory. 



Price of Bible as published 1625. — In a fine 

 copy of The Holy Bible, the present authorised 

 text, by B. Norton and J. Bill, 1625, is the fol- 

 lowing memorandum : — 



" Robert Wantlopp Que this Boocke and Bought it in 

 the yeare of our Lord God 1626. Witness by Thomas 

 Wantlopp, and it cost the Fule Sume of twelfe shillinges, 

 and Neyther more nor Lese. O^" 12« Q\" 



It contains the Genealogies, Old and New 

 Testaments, with the Apocrypha and the singing 

 psalms, tunes, and prayers. A thick small 4to. 

 volume. It exhibits a good contrast to the Roman 

 Catholic New Testament, small thin 4to., 1600, 

 which was published at twenty shillings, in order, 

 as was said at the tim'e, to prevent the poor from 

 possessing it. Query : Was the word " Oue " 

 commonly put for " Owneth " at that period ? 



George Offor. 



A Mother of Four Families. — Many items of 

 extraordinary cases in family history and do- 

 mestic relationship have been inserted from time 

 to time in " N. & Q. ; " but it would probably be 

 difficult to find many parallels to that of Katha- 

 rine Leighton, daughter of Sir John Leighton of 

 Wattlesborough, co. Salop, an esquire of the body 

 to King Henry VIII., by Joyce, daughter of Sir 

 Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley. She is stated to 



have been married " to Ric. Wygmore, of Lon- 

 don, 1st husband ; Lymmer of Norfolk, 2nd hus- 

 band ; CoUerd, 3rd husband ; Edward Dodge, 4th 

 husband ; and had yssue by them all 4." ( MS. in 

 Coll. Arm. G. 15. p. 43.) J. G. N. 



The Salic Law reversed. — 



" The law of regal succession in this petty state (At- 

 tinga) was a curious contrast to the Gallic law called 

 Salic, men being excluded from the throne. From re- 

 mote antiquity, princesses of Attinga had possessed the 

 sovereignty of Travancore; but a few years after thia 

 (early part of last century), an alteration was made in 

 this respect." — Bombaij Quarterly Rev., vol. ii. p. 55. n. 



E. H. A. 



®.ntxiti. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE CURVED FORM OF THE OLD 

 DIVISIONS OF LAND. 



Our arable land, as is well known, originally 

 consisted of large open fields, of which there were 

 one or more in each parish, corresponding, I have 

 reason to believe, with the bides, carucates, and 

 quarentines in Domesday, and known by such 

 names as North-Field, Church-Field, Mill-Fur- 

 long, &c., from their localities. As more arable 

 land was required by an increasing population, 

 new fields appear to have been made. These 

 fields, or furlongs, were subdivided into parcels of 

 various dimensions, seldom exceeding an acre, 

 lying side by side like the teeth of a comb, and 

 held by the tenants, either in fee-soccage or by 

 copy of Court Roll, each of whom had the right 

 of cultivating his own soil and taking the crop ; 

 but after harvest the feed of the entire field was 

 open to the flocks of the community, and gene- 

 rally that of the lord also, in some cases exclu- 

 sively. These arable strips, called lands or londs^ 

 were divided from each other by narrow grass 

 ridges termed mire-balks or meer-balks. In course 

 oT time many of these lands, adjoining each other, 

 would, by purchase and inheritance, fall into the 

 hands of one proprietor, who, by licence, given 

 or usurped, would surround his possession with a 

 fence, and it then became an enclosure. By de- 

 grees this became a general practice : we find in 

 the times of the Tudors strong remonstrances 

 against it, and in Norfolk a rebellion excited. Of 

 late years the abolition of fold-courses over these 

 lands, and enclosing them, has been legally effected 

 by means of Inclosure Acts, until but few re- 

 main unenclosed ; yet still they may be seen here 

 and there, and then it may also be seen that the 

 grass lines of demarcation are, almost without ex- 

 ception, curvilinmr. And wherever a portion of 

 land has been enclosed at an early period, the 

 hedges raised upon and In lieu of the grass balk 

 preserve the curved line. Under the present 

 system of straight fences and square -fields, those 

 forms are rapidly disappearing ; but the traveller 



