2"* s. NO 67.. AFBiL 11. '67.] NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



299 



Burials, bought at the time, for the parish of 

 Wath, near liipon. Was there any provision in 

 the act to dispense with the stamps ? 



" A Register Book of the Baptisms and Burials in the 

 Parish ofWath, in the County of York, beginning 18th 

 October, 1783. Thos. Hattersley, Curate, Licensed 2nd 

 October, 1783, to register Baptisms, Marriages and Bu- 

 rials in Books without Stamps. In this Book are 40 

 Leaves or 80 Pages of Parchment." 



« N.B. The Register Duty Act was repealed in 1794." 



In the Marriage Register commencing in 1754 

 and ending in 1812, no remark is made in 1783 

 respecting the duty ; but in both registers there 

 are occasionally, in subsequent years, such notices 

 as the following: "Rec'^. the Duty thus Far, C. 

 Turner, Deputy Clolector." "P'*. the Duty thus 

 far, T. H." Patonce. 



"Brittoxy a Street in Devizes (2"'' S. ii. 431.) 

 — Since forwarding my Query, 1 have observed 

 in an abstract of Latin and English deeds relating 

 chiefly to the church and parish of St. Mary's in 

 Devizes, quoted in the Wiltshire Arclmological 

 Magazine, vol. ii., that in 1302 this street was 

 called " La Britasche," and in 1420 " La Brutax." 

 Will this assist in obtaining the derivation ? I 

 am obliged to Mr. Chabn.ock for his suggestion, 

 (2"* S. iii. 177.) but I fear it will not aid the en- 

 deavour. R. H. B. 



Leaning Towers and Croohed Spires (2°'' S. iii. 

 18. 175.) — I beg to enclose you an extract from 

 The History and Description of Gloucester, by 

 Geo. Worrall Counsel, on the above topics, at 

 pp. 147-8. Church of St. Nicholas : 



"At the west end of the nave is a square tower with a 

 spire on it, which has been taken down several yards, as 



it was feared that it would fall The church, when 



in its glory, was a fine gothic structure, having a slender 

 graceful tower of three stories, with angular buttresses 

 and large windows, the effect of •which is much injured by 

 the stump of the spire, like an amputated thigh in ancient 

 statuary. It certainly inclined a little in one direction, 

 and the sapient inhabitants of the parish had it taken 

 down for fear of its tumbling. Perhaps they never heard 

 of the falling Towers at Pisa and Caerphilly Castle,* the 

 latter of which hangs nearly eleven feet out of a perpen- 

 dicular." 



Here is a lamentable piece of Vandalism, pji- 

 rallel to that practised by the wiseacies of Great 

 Yurmouth, and mentioned in a former number of 

 "N. &Q." Theta. 



" Carrenare " (2""^ S. iii. 170. 217.) — In Italian 

 we have " carenare" (to careen a ship). I take 

 the noun " carrenare," as used by Chaucer, to be 

 equivalent to the Spanish "carenero" — a place 

 where ships were careened. 



* By the General Gazetteer of A. G. Findlay, Lond. 

 1857, — "Caerphilly, Glamorganshire. The ruins of the 

 castle more resemble that of a city than a single edifice ; 

 a circular tower about 75 feet in "height, incUnes 11 feet 

 iu. from its base." — P. 151). 



But let us look at the whole passage, with its 

 context. The lady was one who did not trifle 

 with her suitors : 



" Ne send men into Walakie, 

 To Pruise, and to Tartarie, 

 To Alisaundrie, ne into Turkic, 

 ^nd bidde himfaste, anone that he 

 Go hoodlesse into the drie see. 

 And come home hy the Carrenare, 

 And, Sir, be now right ware, 

 That man of you here saine 

 Worship, or that ye come again." 



That is (lines 1 — 3.), she was not one who would 

 wantonly despatch a lover to some far country. 



Nor (lines 4 — 6.) would she send him on a 

 fool's errand. 



Nor (lines 7 — 9.) would she say to him, " Sir, 

 take now good heed, that honourable deeds be re- 

 ported of you, ere you return." 



" Here saine," in line 8, hear say. " Saine," 

 not from see in this passage, as elsewhere ; but for 

 say, as In " The Knightes Tale : " 



" That nodes in on of the terms two, 

 That is to sayn, in youthe or elles age." 



The great difficulty of the passage lies, how- 

 ever, in lines 4 — 6., which I would thus para- 

 phrase : 



"Nor would she strictly command him to go forth- 

 with bareheaded into the dry dock, and come back by 

 the careening dock." 



Chaucer no doubt alludes satirically to some 

 faire ladye of the court, who had thought fit to 

 impose a similar pilgrimage on some humble .ad- 

 mirer. 



" See," in old English, was not limited to the 

 modern meaning of " sea," but might stand for 

 any large collection or receptacle of waters. So ^ 

 in Latin " pelagus " sometimes a large bath ; in 

 German " see " (masc), a lahe. Anox. 



Fashions (2"'^ S. iii. 33. 197.) — The old adage, 

 " varium et mutabile semper Foemina," may admit 

 of- an interpretation that materially qualifies its 

 meaning, and at the same time restores to the 

 poet that reputation for courtesy towards the ladies 

 which the common rendering would necessarily 

 impugn. Does it not apply to the exterior of the 

 fair sex, which from the days of Horace even until 

 now has ever been remarkable for the variety of 

 its transformations — " mutabile semper ? " In 

 reference, then, to the present /«sAzow I have made 

 the following extract from a letter in MS. written 

 about the end of the seventeenth century, from a 

 lady in London to her friend in Rye : 



" I hope your undercoat will please, 'tis very raoadish, 

 for this fashion has not bein seen before this winter .... 

 we see [a] veriety of under coates since the fashon is to pin 

 up ye upermost like a pedler, which all doe that walUe the 

 streets " 



W. S. 



Hastings. 



