278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«d S. VIII. Oct. 1. '59. 



. as to names of persons, things, and places, long 

 after. Such a form of speech may be seen in 

 many old records, which otherwise run throughout 

 in Latin. I have one before me dated 1431, 

 which is wholly in Latin, excepting where any 

 names of lands occur, and then the old name is 

 used in the older form, in this way : — 



" Unum pomarium vocati k Courte Orchai'd. 

 Una pastura, les Priests Moores. 

 Una acra, le Hedelond. 

 Una grava, le Hyghgrofe. 

 Una acra, le Black Acre. 



„ le lytel vvhete Crofte. 



„ le Clyffs. 



„ le longe fnrlonge. 



„ les white stones. 



„ le lytel mede," 



with many others. By degrees, and in the course 

 of time, the French article gave way to the Eng- 

 lish the, and so we got " the Devize?," " the 

 Hague," the Bath," &c., &c. H. T. Ellacombe. 

 Clyst St. George. 



Sale of a Man and his Progeny ; Serfdom (2"^ 

 S. vi. 90. &c.) — A MS. in the Cotton collection 

 Julius C. 7., p. 139., vo., contains the following 

 extraordinary deed, which may be translated 

 thus : — 



" Know all men by these presents that I, Katerna 

 D'Engaj'ne, who was wife of Sir Thomas D'Engayno, 

 Knight, have given, granted, and delivered for a certain 

 sum of money to Sir Edward Courtenay Earl of Devon, 

 Thomas Wattez " [or Watter ?], " my born thrall [nati- 

 vum meum] of Schaldewell, with all his goods and 

 chattels wheresoever found, together with all his pos- 

 terity and progeny [sequela et progenie] by him be- 

 gotten. Given at Exminster on Sunday next after the 

 Feast of All Saints. In the 8th year of Richard the Se- 

 cond, after the Conquest of England." 



The unhappy man could not have been a serf, 

 adscriptus glebce, or a villein regardant, who could 

 only pass with the land ; but a villein in gross, 

 who was sold like an ox or a sheep. Is not this 

 rather late for these sort of deeds ? 150 years 

 later Sir Thomas Smith tells us there was not a 

 villain in gross in all England. What was his 

 property in his goods and chattels, which seems 

 absolutely to have passed with him ? Could his 

 new master deprive him of them, or had he only 

 certain demands upon his time, or his labour ? 

 His children are sold with him ; could the buyer 

 separate them from him, and sell them to whom 

 he pleased, or did the family keep witli him, as 

 well as the goods and chattels ? Any information 

 on those points will, I think, be very acceptable 

 to those who interest themselves in ancient serf- 

 dom, or modern slavery. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Legends of Normandy and Bi-ittany (2°'^ S. viii. 

 227.) — An abundant store of veritable legends 

 are to be found in the pages of the old hagio- 

 grapher Albert le Grand, whose work was tirst 



published in 4to. at Nantes in 1637, and a second 

 edition, also in 4to. at Rennes in 1640. It is how- 

 ever to be observed, that great fault is found with 

 the venerable Albert for his extreme credulity by 

 the Abbe Tresvaux, who, in his work entitled Les 

 Vies des Saints de Bretagne (published in Paris, 

 1836), rejects as fabulous many of the statements 

 promulgated by his predecessor. In a search for 

 legends, T. W. S. will find many things to interest 

 him in the work of F. G. P. B. Manet, Histoit-e 

 de Petite^ Bretagne, on Bretagne- Armorique depta's 

 ses premiers Habitans connus (Saint-Malo, 1834). 



W. B. MacCabe. 

 T. W. S. will find in the following works some 

 of the information he wants : — 



1. " Legendes et Traditions de la Normandie, par 

 Octave F^rc. 8vo. Ptouen, 1845." 



2. La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse, Tradi- 

 tions, Legendes et Superstitions populaires. 8vo. Paris, 

 1845." 



3. " Coutumes, Mj'thes et Traditions des Provinces de 

 France. Svo. Paris, 1846." 



4. The various works of Le Roux de Lincj' and Edouard 

 d'Anglemont. 



5. " Les Romans de la Table Ronde et les Contes des 

 Anciens Bretons, par H. de la Villemarqud S" edition, 

 1859." 



" 6. Contes Populaires des Anciens Bretons, par Ville- 

 marque. 2 Vols. Svo. Paris, 1842." 



" 7. Barzas-Breis, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, 

 avec Notes, etc. Par Villemarque. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris, 

 1839." 



J. Macray. 



Le Foyer Breton, a book written by Emile 

 Souvestre, and published by Michel Levy Frcres, 

 contains many of the choicest legends of Brit- 

 tany. XL F. 



Keniish Fire (1" S. vii. 155. ; 2°"' S. i. 182. 

 423.)^— Shortly before the death of the late Earl 

 of Winchelsea, I had a letter from his lordship, 

 in which he said that he introduced into Ireland, 

 but did not invent, the Kentish fire. The occa- 

 sion on which it was introduced was at a grand 

 dinner given to the Earl by the Protestants of 

 Ireland on the 15th August, 1834, at Morrison's 

 Hotel, Dublin, the day after the great Protestant 

 meeting, to attend which his lordship came over. 

 When proposing the health of the Chairman, the 

 Earl of Roden, Lord Winchelsea accompanied 

 the toast with the " Kentish Fire ; " and in pro- 

 posing another toast, he " requested permission 

 to bring his " Kentish Artillery " again into 

 action. The Dublin Evening Mail newspaper, 

 in its commentary on the proceedings at that 

 dinner, on the 18th August following, said, " We 

 can assure his Lordship (Lord W.) that neither 

 his presence nor the ' Kentish Fires ' which he 

 was the first to kindle on this side the Channel, 

 will soon be forgotten." 



Having thus traced Its origin so far, I leave 

 the "Kentish Fire" in your correspondents' 

 hands. . Y. S. M. 



