Aug. 25. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



139 



leave to absent himself for a se'nnight, upon the 

 king's hunting in the forest ; hath leave, paying a 

 buck to Mr. Speaker." (June 12, 2 James I.) 



A Lawyer outvoted by a Jackdaw. — This was in 

 a case for a " b for costs in a prohibition," which 

 was " dasui ' 'le division of the House ;" for 



" a jackdaw how m at the window during his 

 (Mr. Fuller's) speech, which was called omen to 

 the bill." (May 31.) 



Bill against cosily Apparel. — Mr. Brook's speech 

 for this bill (18 Jac. I.) Is a prose version of the 

 New Courtier s Alteration, or second part of what 

 is now called the Old Country Gentleman. He 

 at'tributes to extravagance in dress, decay of the 

 public treasure, the ceasing of old-fashioned hos- 

 pitality, the debts of knights and gentlemen ; and 

 what he terms the inequality of trade, importation 

 and exportation. (Only think of) "18Z. a year 

 by a great courtier for shoe-strings ! " Now-a-days, 

 roses worn by members of this House on their 

 shoes cost more than did their fathers' apparel ; 

 and he concludes by observing, that gilding and 

 lace are clothing neither for winter nor summer ; 

 Scripture teaching us that man's first covering, 

 even by the gift of heaven, was nothing but skins. 



Quoting Latin. — The trick so common among 

 the members at that time, of dragging in Latin 

 upon all occasions, was a fashion strengthened, if 

 not set on foot, by the king's pedantry. It was 

 all very well in Sir Francis Bacon and such as he, 

 but must have been insufferable when Sir Roger 

 Owen could not allude to a straight line, without 

 adding : " Brevissima extensio a puncto ad punc- 

 tum." The greatest array of Latinisms occurs in 

 the numerous debates about the Union of Scot- 

 land and England, which being a pet project of 

 James's would of course attract his eye. But 

 (independently of the quackery here referred to) 

 it is worth adding, that if the disjointed jottings- 

 down of these brief but energetic debates touch- 

 ing Scotland were judiciously linked into con- 

 tinuous dialogue, they would bring out an array 

 of facts and arguments more instructive than whole 

 chapters of formal history-writing. 



N.B. — There are two diflferent diaries of the 

 first five years of James. 



Fulsome Homage towards the King. — This it 

 must be confessed showed itself more in words 

 than in deeds ; but the words are often inexcus- 

 ably extravagant, and James is perpetually re- 

 ferred to as guided by maxims and influenced by 

 a motive power unknown to common men. Sir 

 George Moore said, " They could not follow a 

 better guide than his Majesty ; though, like Peter, 

 afar ofT." (March 19, 21 James I.) A more glaring 

 instance of abject homage could hardly be fur- 

 nished than by the examination of Edward Floyd, 

 Esq., for speaking jeeringly of the Queen of Bo- 

 No. 304.] 



hernia, James's daughter. One member after 

 another starts up and proposes some cruel or gro- 

 tesque form of punishment ; such as boring the 

 tongue, pillory, fining, flogging, riding backwards 

 on horseback with his beads and friar's girdle 

 about him. Sir George Goring moved for " twelve 

 rides on an ass, at every stage to swallow a bead, 

 and twelve jerks to make him." " As he laughed 

 at the loss of Prague, therefore let him cry by 

 whipping." Sir Edward Wardour : " As many 

 lashes as the Prince and Princess are old." Mr. 

 Angell : " A gag in his mouth to keep him from 

 crying and procuring pity." Sir Francis Seymour 

 of Marlborough delivered his judgment as follows : 

 " To go from Westminster at a cart's tail, with 

 his doublet oflT, to the Tower ; the beads about 

 his neck, and to receive as many lashes by the 

 way as he had beads." It is satisfactory to add, 

 that the merciful part of the House prevailed ; and 

 though the riding backwards and fining were in- 

 flicted, there was " no blood." James, in one of 

 his messages to the Commons, tells them that " he 

 was infinite, and his occasions infinite" (vol. i. 

 p. 946.) ; but the House, without presuming to 

 question this modest attribute, do not appear to 

 have considered it necessary to promise a corre- 

 sponding " subsidy." 



Act against Scandalous and Unworthy Divines. — 

 This, which is usually attributed to the Long Par- 

 liament, was first brought forward under James I. 

 (April 28, 1621.) 



The Long-how versus the Gun. — An act, in 

 1621, for the preservation of game is based on the 

 now "inordinate shooting in pieces;" but it was 

 opposed as absurd, the long-bow being now an 

 obsolete weapon, and " guns being the service of 

 the state :" meaning thereby that the practice of 

 gun-shooting was valuable, however acquired. 

 Yet, though the long-bow is declared obsolete at 

 the period here mentioned, it is certain that at the 

 commencement of the civil wars, twenty years 

 later, it v/as an arm by no means neglected by the 

 parliament. It may also be remembered, that Sir 

 Walter Scott has introduced its use into the 

 Legend of Montrose in 1643, greatly to the con- 

 tempt of Dugald Dalgetty. 



Pwity of Elections. — Mr. Noy, on this point, 

 tells the House a story of Lord Bruce of Brem- 

 berghe, for only uttering the word reminiscar by 

 way of threat to one Roger, a Baron of the Ex- 

 chequer, being adjudged: To go up and down 

 Westminster Hall, in his hose and doublet, without 

 his hat ; to go to all the courts, and then to go to 

 the Tower. " And tit it were," he then adds, 

 " that these men (divers Yorkshire constables) for 

 forestalling freedom of election, and terrifying 

 men with as much as reminiscar, should go to the 

 Tower." Then, as to the qualification of voters, 

 there is abundant evidence that electors in bo- 



