616 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 139. 



all the *West Kentish men' they ruined and 

 plundered." 



A.B. 1009. "Then came the vast hostile army 

 (Danes) to Sandwich, and they soon went their 

 way to Canterbury ; and all the people of ' East 

 Kent ' made peace with the army, and gave them 

 3000 pounds." 



" Thus, I trust, I have satisfactorily shown from 

 our ancient annals, that the distinction between 

 ' Kentish Men' and 'Men of Kent,' existed at a 

 period long anterior to the Norman Conquest, and 

 is distinctly recognised in the foregoing historical 

 passages. And its origin may, I think, be attri- 

 buted to the ancient division of the Jutish king- 

 dom of Kent into the two dioceses of Canterbury 

 and Rochester. 



" Our Gavelkind Tenure and free Kentish cus- 

 toms, of which I have attempted a history in my 

 recently published Consuetudines Kancice, gave 

 rise to our well-known old provincial song of 

 ' The Man of Kent,' its burthen being : 

 " Of Briton's race — if one surpass, 

 ' A Man of Kent' is He." 



Charles Sandys, F.S.A. 



Canterbury." 



%tp\iti t0 jMtuor cauericjS. 



Specidum Christianorum, Sfc. (Vol. v., p. 558.). — 

 In case no fuller information should be forth- 

 coming on this tract, allow me to refer Mb. Simp- 

 son to Ames's Typographical Dictionary, p. 113., 

 where is an account of what is apparently another 

 edition of the above, printed by William Macli- 

 linia, or Macklyn, about the year 1480. The title 

 runs thus : Incipit liber qui vacatur Specidum 

 Xpristiani. It is a short exposition of the common 

 topics of divinity of that time, for the most part in 

 Latin, but there is some English which is chiefly 

 in rhyme. The first English lines are — 



" In heauen shall dwelle alle cristen men 

 That knowe and kepe goddes byddynges ten." 



At the end, after — 



" Explicit liber qui vocatur speculu Xpriani, Sequi- 

 tur exposicio oracionis dominice cu quodam bono nota- 

 bili et septe capitalia vicia cu aliquibus ramis eoru." 



Afterwards — 



" Sequuntur monita de verbis beati Ysldorl extracta 

 ad instruendu homine qualiter vicia valeat cuitare et 

 in bonis se debeat informare." 



The whole concludes with this colophon : 



" Jste Libelhis impressus est i opulentissima Ciui- 

 tate Londoniarum per me Willelmum de Machlinia ad 

 instanciam nccnon expensas lienrici Vrankenbergh 

 mercatoris." 



The author is said to be John Watton in the 

 Catalogue of MSS. in England and Ireland, C. C.C., 

 Oxon. n. civ. p. 53. J. Eastwood. 



Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire (Vol.v.t 

 p. 512.). — A querist writes to know where any of 

 these may be seen. 



The original manuscript (three vols, folio) was 

 given to the library of the College of Arms, 

 through the hands of Sir Charles Young, by the 

 Rev. R. W. Huntley of Boxwell Court, about 1835, 

 who became possessed of it by a legacy from a 

 descendant of Mr. Smyth. There Is another copy 

 in the " Evidence Room," at Berkeley Castle ; and 

 another in the library of Smyth Owen, Esq., a 

 descendant from the author, at Condover Hall, 

 Shropshire. There is another copy in the posses- 

 sion of the Hon. Robert Berkeley at Spetchley 

 Park, Worcestershire. And an imperfect copy 

 was sold at the sale at Hill Court, Gloucester, in 

 1846. It was bought by a bookseller for Mr. 

 Pigott of Brockley ; it was resold in 1849, but to 

 whom I could never find out. This last is also in 

 three vols. ; two of these match in the binding, but 

 the third does not : the leather of this odd vol. is 

 thickly studded with the portcullis. The imper- 

 fection of this set consists in being unfinished^ in 

 many parts. Mr. Huntley's is considered the first 

 copy of that at the castle ; and that at Condover 

 was probably Mr. Smyth's own. The Hill Court 

 copy seems to be about the same date. 



The Abstracts and Extracts of these MSS. as 

 published by Fosbroke in 1821, are but a tanta- 

 lising meagre sample of the very rich store of 

 genealogical and historical information which the 

 originals contain. H. T. Ellacombe. 



Clyst St. George, Devon. 



M. Barriere and the Quarterly Review (Yol. v., 

 pp. 347. 402.).— As I see that J. R. (of Cork) 

 has resumed his correspondence with " N. & Q.," 

 I beg leave to call his attention to his statement, 

 and °to my inquiry under the above references : 

 any one or two instances of what is stated to be 

 " so frequent " a practice will suffice. C. 



" / do not know what the truth may be" (Vol. v., 

 p. 560.). — The lines run thus in the Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel, Canto ii. 22. : 



" I cannot tell how the truth may be, 

 I say the tale as 'twas said to me." 



J. Eastwood. 

 [J. M.— D. P.Waters — Naso— L. X. R. — W. J. 

 B. S. — B. R. J. — Mary, &c., have also furnished us 

 with Replies to this Query.] 



Optical Phenomena (Vol, v., p. 441.). — You 

 have not yet published any satisfactory reply to 

 the optical Query of N. B., at p. 441. of the pre- 

 sent volume. I apprehend there is not much 

 difficulty in finding the solution. I attribute the 

 phenomenon to the refraction of light through a 

 stratum of air that is more dense than the sur- 

 rounding air. Every solid is coated by such a 

 stratum. This is the well-known fact of adhesion. 



