188 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2na g. ifo 88., Sept. 6. '57. 



reading some old manuscripts, I found there, " Tylau 

 Iscoed, sef yw h3'ny, Tylau'r Iwerddon," " Tylau of the 

 Scots ; that is to say, Tylau of the Irish," for Scotia in 

 Latin, from the British word Iscoed, was given by all the 

 old writers to Ireland. Tylau (Tulal) migiU Avell be- 

 come the Latin Thule, as the Latin u represents the Welsh 

 y in Cunobelin for Cynvelyn, and in Prasutagua for Brasy- 

 dag. But TylaU is eometimes found in Welsh under the 

 form Tyle (Teelae). Ireland is an island, and so answers 

 to the idea of Thule among the Roman and Greek writers. 

 It is west of Europe, and taking into account the width of 

 the Atlantic Ocean, and the late discover3' of America, it 

 was Ultima, or the last land, and therefore the Ultima 

 Thule of the Latins seems to have been Ireland. Its 

 name could have reached the Romans through the Celtic 

 tribes on the continent." 



Pliny, Solenus, atid Mela, a Spanish geographer, 

 who lived in the time of Claudius Cassar, took the 

 Ultima Thule to be Iceland ; Camden to be Shet- 

 land. Might not the description we have of it 

 rather incline us, however, to suppose that New- 

 foundland was the real Ultima Thule, and that 

 the Latins derived their notion of it from the old 

 Scandinavian Sagas, in which its discovery was 

 sung long before Rome was dreamt of? It might 

 well have been mistaken for an island, and its re- 

 moteness, and the then supposed dreary solitude 

 of its position, magnified by the poets of the north, 

 would readily lead the poets of the south to invest 

 it with the dismal horrors of the Ultima Thule. 



T. Lampkat. 



PARISH Registers, 



Having had occasion lately to look at the parish 

 register of the town in which 1 live, 1 have 

 found several entries which I do not understand, 

 or on which I should be glad of farther informa- 

 tion and illustration. 



1. One register begins Nov. 17, 1559, which is 

 called " Initium regni dominos nostrae ElizabethaB 

 reginas." Is this a common mistake ? 



2. In the years 1650, '51, '52, and '53, the mar- 

 riages are very much below the average number ; 

 in 1654, '55, '56, and '57, they are above it ; and 

 then a^ain below it in each of the years 1658 to 

 '62. This deficiency is partly to be explained by 

 the defective state of the registers during all these 

 years, but the excess would seem to depend on (or 

 at any rate be connected with) the fact that 

 during the years 1654 to '57, all the marriages 

 (with only three or four exceptions,) were per- 

 formed by the Mayor, or by a Justice of the 

 Peace, or without any other ceremony than a 

 proclamation in the market " on three market 

 days," or in church " on three Lord's days." 

 From Graunt's Observations on the Bills of Mor* 

 tality it appears that there is in the parish regis- 

 ters of some other places the same excess of 

 marriages in very nearly the same years, pre- 

 ceded add followed by the same deficiency. Will 

 any of your readers explain or illustrate Uiie ? 



3. About the year 1783 there seems t6 have 

 been a tax on baptisms and burials. When did 

 this begin, and how long did it continue ?* 



4. Some persons are specified as having been 

 buried " in Imen.'* Many more are said to have 

 been buried " in all woollen," especially about the 

 year 1678, when after almost every name a cer- 

 tificate to-ihat effect is said to have been received 

 from a magistrate or member of the corporation. 

 In one or two instances the clergyman mentions 

 that he received no certificate " within the time 

 limited by the Act of Parliament." Indeed the 

 burying in woollen about this time seems to have 

 been so general that during the years 16|§ to '85 

 there is a column in the register headed, "By 

 whom the certificate was granted for the Burying 

 iti Woollen." What was the meaning of this 

 custom, and how long did it continue P M, D. 



Payment of M.P.'s. — When was the practice 

 of remunerating M P.'s introduced into this 

 country ? and when did it terminate ? Mr. George 

 Dawson, M.A. (of Birmingham), in a lecture 

 lately delivered in the metropolis, stated that he 

 believed Andrew Marvel, the zealous patriot of 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century, to have 

 been the last British representative that received 

 a salary from his constituents for his services in 

 parliament. Marvel sat in the House of Com- 

 mons for Hull, his native place, in the reign of 

 Charles II. Out of what funds was this item 

 defrayed ? Was it registered in the journals of 

 the corporation, and is any record of the same 

 still extant ? The idea of paying a member to 

 take his seat would not be countenanced in these 

 days ; it being more the custom for a member to pay 

 his electors, as the recent disclosures of bribery 

 and corruption amply testify. Henry Godwin. 



42. Upper Qower Street, Bedford Square. 



The Sign of '-'The Case is altered."^! have 

 frequently heard persons of the lower order in 

 this neighbourhood say, in reference to families 

 which had sunk in the social scale through their 

 own improvidence, " Aye, aye, they have come to 

 the sign of ' The Case is altered.' " I used to 

 wonder what this could mean, although the re- 

 ference was obvious enough. After many yeard 

 had elapsed I actually once saw a public-house 

 which had legibly inscribed on its sign-board 

 "The Case is altered." May I inquire whether 

 this is a common tavern sign ? and if so, to what 

 it owes its origin ? John Pavin Phllmps. 



Haverfordwest. 



* For notices of the stamp-dutvon baptismal registers, 

 see "N. & Q." 1»* S. ii. 10. 60. j 'iii. 94. } 2n'i S. iii. 240. 

 298. ; and for " burial in wooli«a," Bee !•» S. vols. v. vi. ic 



