2"* S. No 75., June G. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



4^9 



Master of Arts became in time the highest de- 

 gree;" but I have unfortunately omitted to 

 record the authority. The four dresses of the 

 D.D. I extracted from Ackerman, (See Univ. 

 Camb., vol. ii. p. 312.) An upright cup, whe- 

 ther of tliree or four corners, when turned into 

 a trencher, flattened a la Gibus, becomes four- 

 cornered. No priest ever wore a four-cornered 

 cap ; our dignified clergy wear the rose and 

 shovel, which no doubt springs from the three- 

 cornered. The Mus. Doc. wears a cap, not a 

 trencher. The sub-tunica, sottana, or soutane, 

 worn under the pallium, or gown, is not extinct 

 in this country. If Me. Jebb will walk to New- 

 gate Street, and turn aside into the ground where 

 formerly stood the Monastery of Grey Friars, he 

 will see from sixteen hundred to two thousand 

 lively legs of all sizes, and yet all lay legs, dis- 

 portnig themselves under the yellow soutane. 

 Doctors in Law and Physic wear a scarlet gown 

 with subtunic of scarlet cloth faced with fur. 

 Did not the ancient philosophers wear the sub- 

 tunic under the pallium ? and surely Mr. Jebb 

 will not contend that the castrati in the Cappella 

 del Coro at Rome did not wear the purple sot- 

 tana, or that all the singers now there, and who 

 wear this robe, are priests, or ever intend to be 

 priests. Mb. Jebb observes, " As to the soutane 

 or cnssock . . . laymen have no right to it." 

 Whilst writing on the sottana or soutane, I never 

 dreamt of confounding this robe with the sable 

 cassock which our dignified clergy have turned 

 into an apron. But the cassock, casaque or ho- 

 queton de guerre (see Nicot's Thresor de la Langue 

 Franqoise), was the upper garment, or loose cloak 

 or coat used by soldiers. Thus Parolles, in All's 

 Well that Ends Well, when describing the strength 

 of the enemy, says : 



"The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life 

 amounts not to 16,000 poll ; half of the which dare not 

 shake the snow from off their cassocks, lest they shake 

 themselves to pieces." 



On this passage Steevens writes that the " cassock 

 was a horseman's loose coat, and in this sense is 

 the word used by writers of the age of Shak- 

 speare." Singer also, in a note on this passage, 

 refers to the Thresor de la Langue Franqoise ibr a 

 very curious description of the casaque, and adds, 

 " there was a plebeian cassock, or gaberdine, worn 

 by country people, which is remarked upon both 

 by Nicot and Cotgrave." See also Fairholt On 

 Costume, who, I think, confirms my opinion that 

 the hands are the representative of the collar; 

 but he calls the soutane, a white woollen cassock 

 worn by priests under the rochet. The short cas- 

 sock, or black silk apron, of our priests, has been 

 noticed in «N. & Q.," (see 2"'^ S. ii. 411. 516.) I 

 have now, I believe, answered all Mr. Jebb's 

 Queries. The matter of examination and examin- 

 ation papers must await a distinct and future reply. 



A writer who signs QD.a;BENS complains that 

 I have not answered the question, " What is the 

 habit or costume in which Mus. Doc. Cantaur. 

 receives this degree ? " No such question was ever 

 asked. lie complains, furthermore, that I have 

 not performed the promise made in my commu- 

 nication (ante, p. 73.). If he read the communi- 

 cation he remarks upon, I think lie will find I 

 have done so. H. J. Gauntlett. 



Powys Place. 



GRAVESTONES AND CHURCH REPAIRS. 



(2"'J S. iii. 366.) 



The article on " Gravestones and Church Re- 

 pairs," is on a subject which it would be very 

 desirable should be followed up by some one 

 capable of giving the legal view of the subject. 

 The mania (for I can call it nothing else) for 

 church-beautifying is being so recklessly carried 

 out, that it behoves all persons now, previous to 

 putting up expensive testimonials to their friends, 

 to learn first what powers they possess for their fu- 

 ture preservation. A few years since I paid a visit 

 to the Abbey Church, Bath, where many years be- 

 fore two of my relations' brothers had, at a few 

 years' interval, been interred. On entering the 

 church, in a very narrow entrance passage, my eye 

 was caught by a mural tablet to the memory of the 

 one who died first ; and as I was wondering who 

 could have chosen such a place to put a monu- 

 ment, I saw at a few feet distance a tablet to the 

 other brother, the inscription running : " Sacred 

 to the memory of the brother of the above," &c., — 

 the tablet above being to a person no way con- 

 nected with the family. On mentioning this to 

 the person showing me the church, I was told it 

 was an oversight ; that the tablet had been in the 

 chancel, from which all monuments had been 

 removed, as they had been generall)' from all 

 parts of the church, and had been placed thicklj 

 m all the passages, on the staircase, and symmetri- 

 cally up to a given height down the nave. On 

 admiring one of the monuments in the latter situa- 

 tion, and being desirous to find the sculptors' 

 names, I was told it was probably lost, as the 

 plinth had been cut off to make the monument fit 

 into a given space ; and this had been done 

 generally. 



Subsequently, on mentioning these facts to a 

 gentleman In Bath, and asking if there was any 

 authority for such a procedure, he stated that 

 some weeks previous, having occasion to visit a 

 farmer on the hills, he found the farm-yard full of 

 old gravestones, tablets, &c. ; and on asking the 

 farmer if he had turned stone-mason, was told 

 they were old gravestones, monuments, &c., taken 

 out of the Abbey Church when repaired ; and that 

 he was told he might Lave them if be would be at 



