424 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



r2'>d S. VIII. Nov. 19. '59. 



city, town, or camp, they and their posterity for 

 ever should be free. Some villeins of Cossey 

 sued, 1312, for leaving their lord's manor, suc- 

 cessfully pleaded this charter. (Blomefield's Nor- 

 folk, vol. ii. 409. 8vo. edit. Cossey.) The twofold 

 aim of this charter shows the policy from which 

 William never swerved, and the good fruit of 

 ■which much overbalanced the partial evil. It 

 must have considerably affected villenage. 



F. C. B. 

 Portioner (2""^ S. viii. 398.) — Po7iioner is said 

 in Bell's Dictionary and Digest of the Law of 

 Scotland to be " tlie proprietor of a small feu or 

 piece of land;" but this explanation is not satis- 

 factory. The proper meaning of the word is 

 most probably that given by Dr. Jamieson in his 

 Dictionary of the Scottish Language, " One who 

 possesses part of a property which has been ori- 

 ginally divided among co-heirs." G. 



Spontoon {p.^^ S. vi. 329. 421.; vii. 464.) — 

 Some time since an inquiry was made in " N. & 

 Q." respecting this weapon. Among the arms in 

 the museum at Sandhurst College is one thus 

 labelled : " Spontoon, carried by an officer, dis- 

 continued in 1787." GiiiBERT. 



Guildford. 



[A reference to "N. & Q." (2n<J S. vii. 464.) will show 

 that the spontoon was laid aside bv the " Guards " in 

 1786.— Ed. «N. &Q."] 



Stratford Family (2°^ S. viii. 376.) — In reply 

 to T. Nicholson, I beg to say the Irish branch 

 of the family trace lineal descent from the time of 

 Alfred. The Robert he mentions, who settled in 

 Ireland in 1660, was a younger member of the 

 family of Merevile, in the co. Warwick, who 

 were sheriffs and knights of the shire in temp. 

 Hen. II. and Edw. II. Nicholas was a member 

 in six successive parliaments of Edw. III. Robert 

 in two, in the same reign. John was Archbishop 

 of Canterbury in the same reign ; he was prime 

 minister during the king's absence in France in 

 1340. The county of Warwick was represented 

 by this family in the reigns of Richard II., Ed- 

 ward VI., Charles II., James II., William and 

 Mary, and Anne. 



I am sorry I cannot say for what the arms were 

 granted. De W . 



P.S. I have got a curious proclamation of 

 Charles I., signed by Juxon, &c., 1630, regarding 

 tithes in Ireland belonging to some early mem- 

 ber of the Irish family, to the father of Robert of 

 1660, I think for different reasons. I will send a 

 copy of it to the Editor of " N. & Q.," as I think 

 it would interest its readers. 



George Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh (2"* S. 

 viii. 11. 389.) — Very little seems to be known re- 

 specting the family or early life of this prelate. 

 Notices respecting him will be found in Bishop 



Mant's History of the Church of Ireland (vol. i. 

 pp. 108. 114. 124. 138. 175.); also in King's 

 Church History of Ireland (pp. 680. 694. 713.) 

 Collins's Peerage (vi. 144.) mentions that Gerald, 

 Earl of Kildare, caused George Cromer, Arch- 

 bishop of Armagh, to be appointed Lord Chan- 

 cellor of Ireland, July 5, 1532. He is said to 

 have been a person " of great gravity, learning, 

 and sweet demeanour." According to Bishop 

 Mant (i. 175.), he died March 15, and not March 

 16, 1543, as stated by T. V. N. A. T. L. 



James Thomson's Marriage (2"* S. viii. 50. 239.) 

 — The matrimonial ties of the poet Thomson 

 having been noticed, I was turning over the leaves 

 of my adversaria a day or two ago, and happened 

 to meet with the following extract, which may 

 elucidate the inquiry : — 



" Thomson, the poet, was married, and his wife lived 

 with him at Richmond ; but he kept her secluded from 

 his friends, and she appeared rather as a housekeeper." — 

 See Records of my Life, bj- John Taylor, in 2 vols., Lon- 

 don, 1832 ; vol. i. pp. 186-7. 



I have not the work to refer to, and I am almost 

 inclined to think there may be some mistake in 

 the matter ; but if this should meet the eye of 

 your valued correspondent Mr. Bolton Cornet, 

 I conceive he, being so well acquainted with every 

 thing relating to Thomson, might speak decisively 

 on this point. 22. 



Notes on Trees and Flowers (1'* S. xi. 460.) — - 

 I should like to know the botanical name of the 

 Herbe d'Or of Breton legends. Souvestre calls it 

 " Le Selage des anciens, que Ton croit etre le Cam- 

 phorate, plante appartenant "k la quatorzierae 

 classe des vegetaux (Didynamie)." Of course this 

 does not refer to the Selago of Linnasus, nor can 

 it be Lycopodium clavatum. The subject is far- 

 ther mystified by finding it in Alberti's Diet, (a 

 valuable aid in cases of obscure French), de- 

 scribed as Helianthemum, and as bearing a spike 

 of flowers ; the Italian name. Panacea chironia. 

 Alberti (ed. 1796) also has " Canforata," a plant 

 common in Provence and Languedoc, much used 

 medicinally. The legendary directions for gather- 

 ing the Herbe d'Or are evidently Druidical. 



F. C. B. 



Muffled Peal on Innocents' Day (P* S. xi. 8. ; 

 2°'' S. vii. 245. 306.) — It is still customary to ring 

 a half-muffled peal on the morning of this day at 

 St. John's church, Glastonbury, and a similar peal 

 on the burial of either of the ringers. J. G. L. B. 



Scavenger's Daughter (2"^ S. viii. 380.) — Al- 

 though the queries on this subject were partially 

 answered in your last, H. J. D. may be interested 

 in the following extract from a work in my pos- 

 session. The book is intitled Nicolai Sanderi de 

 Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani, printed 

 at Ingoldstadt, by Wolfgang in 1588. At the end 



