318 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2»d S. No 68., April 18. 



•57. 



Bullad of Sir John le Spring (2"'> S. iii. 254.) — 

 There has been no occasion to doubt that this was 

 one of the effusions of Mr. Surtees, the historian 

 of Durham since it was introduced in 1839 into 

 the Memoir of that gentleman, by Mr. George 

 Taylor, prefixed to the fourth volume of the County 

 History. In the second edition of the same Me- 

 moir, edited by the Rev. James Raine for the 

 Surtees Society, 1852, 8vo., it will be found at 

 p. 242. ; Mr. Raine there stating : — 



" Of this ballad I have various copies before me. I print, 

 however, from that which appears to have received Mr. 

 Surtees's latest corrections." 



Inquirers, therefore, should turn to this source 

 for it, and not to the works of Mr. Cuthbert Sharp 

 and Mr. Richardson, whose copies are more or 

 less imperfect. Mr. Raine has carefully edited all 

 the beautiful poetical fragments left by Mr. 

 Surtees, of whom he remarks : 



" In his imitation of the old ballad style of by-gone 

 days, he has had no equal in modern times; and the 

 regret that he did not live to finish the History of the 

 County, upon which he had so long been engaged, is in- 

 creased when it is made known that after its completion 

 it was his settled plan to compose what he often spoke of 

 as his Bishopric Garland, to consist of a publication of 

 ballads by his own pen, founded on the historical tradi- 

 tions of the county." — Preface, p. ix. 



Such a course was in some degree due to the 

 sincerity of literary history, for so many as three 

 of these compositions had been inserted by Sir 

 Walter Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scotish 

 Border, as ancient ballads. These are: 1. "The 

 Death of Featherstonhaugh," which was first in- 

 troduced into Marmion; 2. "Lord Eurle;" 3. 

 "Bartram's Dirge:" and so was a fourth, from 

 the same skilful hand, viz. " Lord Derwentwater's 

 Good Night," in Hogg's Jacobite Relics (vol. ii. 

 p. 30.) But to whatever extent Surtees had im- 

 posed upon the credulity of Scott, who on his part 

 had mystified so many thousands, every doubt will 

 be found satisfactorily cleared up by Mr. Raine, 

 upon the certain evidence of Surtees's autograph 

 manuscripts. J. G. N. 



Brickwork (2"^ S. iii. 149. 199. 236.) — On this 

 subject may I ask whether it is customary in any 

 part of England to build walls, houses, &c. brick- 

 on-edge ? I have noticed some dozen specimens 

 of such building in different parts of the country, 

 the_ greater number in Hants. Such a method of 

 laying the bricks struck me at first as being simply 

 a builder's " freak." I should be glad to know 

 whether it is so or not ? R. W. Hackwood. 



" Exchequer'' (2"'^ S. iii. 230.)— In Les Termes 

 de la Ley is given the following exposition of this 

 term : — 



" Exchequer (Scaccarium) comes of the French word 

 JEschequier, id est. Abacus, which in one Signiiication is 

 taken for a Counting-Table, or for the art or skill of 



Counting. And from thence (as some think) the place or 

 Court of the Receipts and Accounts of the Revenues of the 

 Crown is called the Exchequer. Others have otherwise 

 derived the name. But the Exchequer is defined bv 

 Crompton, in his Jurisd. of Courts, fol. 105., to be a Court 

 of Record wherein all causes touching the Revenues of 

 the Crown are handled." 



Sir Thomas Ridley, in his View of the Civill and 

 Ecclesiasticall Law, 1676, treating of the honours 

 that the exchequer giveth, writes as follows : 



" Fifthly followed the Treasurer, who was Master of all 

 the receipts and Treasure of the Prince, publick or private, 

 and of all such officers as were underneath him : then the 

 Prenotary, chief Notary or Scribe of the Court, who was 

 called Primicerius. To this purpose note, that the an- 

 cients for want of those more proper materials, which 

 experience hath discovered to our times, were wont to 

 write in waxen Tables, as may be observed out of the 

 Junior Plinie in an Epistle to Tacitus. Note also, that 

 upon occasion given for inrolling of their names, who 

 bare any ofiice or dignity, the use was, to set the highest 

 degrees in prima card, in" the first place of the Table: from 

 hence they were called Primicerii ; and for this cause, the 

 Law here calleth the chief notary Primicerium." 



May not, therefore, the origin of the term exche- 

 quer be derivable from the two Greek words Xi'afco, 

 to mark with the letter X, and, as it were, to cut 

 cross-wise, thus denoting the Latin decern, or the 

 Greek numerical value of 600 ; and Ki)pos, wax. 

 Hence a waxen table, which by the art or skill of 

 counting (being a series of X's marked upon it), 

 presented to the eye a chequered appearance. 



CORNWALLIS. 



Notes on Regiments : Raw Troops (2"'' S. 

 passim.) — 



" Some of the most brilliant actions, and some of the 

 greatest victories, have been achieved and won by means 

 of that daring impetuosity which hurries raw troops into 

 the thickest of an enemy. A thousand instances might 

 be adduced from ancient and modern history, to prove 

 the correctness of this remark. It may perhaps be suffi- 

 cient for our purpose to refer the curious reader to the 

 bold and unexpected charge whieh was made against the 

 French troops in Germany, by Elliot's new-raised light 

 horse. The laurels of Emsdorff are still the glory of the 

 15th regiment of dragoons, and every man who has the 

 honour of belonging to this distinguished corps looks 

 back with a spirit of exalted emulation at the recorded 

 valour of their raw and unexperienced predecessors." — 

 James's Military Dictionary. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Spitting (2"* S. iii. 244.) — So also the common 

 practice of spitting on the first piece of money 

 taken in a day, which may be seen in any market- 

 place. In Cambridgeshire, too, I have heard the 

 phrase, " a piece of bread and spit on It," used to 

 imply that the bread had nothing upon It. I 

 never could divine the derivation or exact mean- 

 ing of the phrase, and shall be only too glad if 

 some of the readers and correspondents of " N. 

 & Q." will explain it for me. K. K. K. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 



