106 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



[No. 118. 



Hornchurch ; Wrestling for the Boars Head. — 

 I have extracted from the Daily Neivs of the 5th 

 instant, the following paragraph, which appears to 

 have been quoted from the Chelmsford Chronicle, 

 relative to this custom : — 



" By ancient charter or usage in Hornchurch, a 

 boar's head is wrestled for in a field adjoining the 

 cluirch ; a boar, the property of the parish, having 

 been slaughtered for the purpose. The boar's head, 

 elevated on a pole, and decorated with ribbons, was 

 brought into the ring, where the competitors entered 

 and the prize awarded." 



The paragraph goes on further to observe that 

 if the prize be taken by a champion out of the 

 parish, the charter is lost. And I sliall be glad to 

 know the origin of the custom, and of the notion 

 of the charter or usage, as it is called, being lost 

 if the prize be taken away as before alluded to. 

 I observe that it is noticed in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine for April, 1828, p. 305. 



John Nurse Chadwick. 



[It may be as wuU to state, as a clue to the discovery 

 •of this ancient custom, that the tithes of Hornchurch 

 belong to New College, Oxford ; the warden and 

 fellows of which society are ordinaries of the place, and 

 appoint a commissary, wlio holds an annual visitation. 

 The lessee of the tithes supplies the boar's head, 

 dressed and garnished with bay leaves, &c. Several 

 curious notices are given by Hone in his works of the 

 custom observed at Christmas at Queen's College, 

 Oxford, of serving up at the first course at dinner, "a 

 fair and large boreshead upon a silver platter with 

 ininstralsye; " but he has omitted to furnish the origin 

 of the custom at Hornchurch. Perhaps some Oxonian 

 connected with New College will favour us with a 

 reply.] 



Spectacles. — In recent numbers of " N. & Q." 

 there have been several allusions to spectacles, 

 and as I am not aware of any clear and satisfactory 

 data relative to the origin or antiquity of this most 

 important auxiliary to the extension and useful- 

 ness of that sense upon which the enjoyment and 

 value of life so much depend'^, I beg to submit 

 the Query, What is the earliest form in which 

 evidence of the existence of this invaluable optical 

 aid to the human eye presents itself? H. 



[Dr. Johnson expressed his surprise that the inven- 

 tor of spectacles was regarded with indifference, and 

 had found no biographer to celebrate his deeds. Most 

 authorities give the latter part of the thirteenth century 

 as the period of their invention, and popular opinion 

 has pronounced in favour of Alexander de Spina, a 

 native of I'isa, who died in the year 1313. In the 

 Italian Dictionary, Delia Crusea, under the head of 

 " Occhiale," or Spectacles, it is stated that Friar Jordan 

 de Rivalto tells his audience, in a sermon published in 

 1305, that "it is not twenty years since the art of 

 making spectacles was found out, and is indeed one of 



the best and most necessary inventions in the world." 

 This would place the invention in the year 1285. On 

 the other hand, Dominic Maria Manni, an eminent 

 Italian writer, attributes the invention to Salvino 

 Armati, who flourished about 1345. (See his Treatise, 

 Degli Occhiuli. da Naso, inventati da Salvino Armati, 

 4to. 17-38.) On the authority of various passages in 

 the writings of Friar Bacon, Mr. Molyneux is of 

 opinion that he was acquainted with the use of sjiec- 

 tacles; and when Bacon ( Opus Majus) says, that " this 

 instrument (a plano-convex glass, or large segment of 

 a sphere) is useful to old men, and to those who have 

 weak eyes; for they may see the smallest letters suffi- 

 ciently magnified,'' we may conclude that the parti- 

 cular way of assisting decayed sight was known to him. 

 It is quite certain that they were known and used about 

 the time of his death, a.d. 1292.] 



Stoke. — What is the meaning of the word 

 stoke, with regard to the names of places, as 

 Bishopstoke, Ulverstoke, Stoke-on-Trent, &c.? 



W. B. 



[Bosworth (^Anglo-Saxon Diet.) derives it from 

 " sloe, a place ; lience stoke, a termination of the names 

 of places ; locus : — Wude stoc sylvarum loeus, Sim, 

 Dunelm. anno 1123."] 



Author of Psalm Tune '■'■ Doncaster." — Our 

 organist is about to add another selection of psalm 

 tunes to the large number already existing. He 

 has been able to assign all the tunes which it com- 

 prises to their proper composers, with one excep- 

 tion — the tune called " Doncaster," the author 

 of which he has failed to discover. Will any of 

 your correspondents kindly supply this deside- 

 ratum ? W. Sparkow Simpson, B.A. 



[The well-known tune called " Doncaster" was 

 composed by Dr. Edward Miller, for fifty-one years 

 organist of i)oncaster Church, but better known as the 

 author of The History and Antiquities of Doncaster. 

 See his Collection of Psalm Tunes fur the Use of Parish 

 Clmrches, 4to. 1790, pp. 32. 46. 106.] 



Dr. Henry Sacheverell. — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents refer me to a copy of the Assize Ser- 

 mon preached at Derby by Dr. Sacheverell, and 

 which formed part of the charge against him ? 



Li. J . 



[We can favour I-. J. with the loan of a co y of this 

 sermon for a week or two. It shall be left for him at 

 our publisher's.] 



MEANING AND ORIGIN Or ERA. 



(Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.) 



It would greatly assist the elucidation of this 

 word, if the earliest instances extant of its use, in 

 a chronological sense, could be ascertained. 



The dictionary of Facciolatus goes no further 



