Oct. 14. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



307. 



Statutes, p. 167., second edition, states, that the 

 scholars in Queen's College at Oxford, who wait 

 upon their fellows, place their two thumbs upon the 

 table, and adds : 



" I have heard that the same ceremony is used in some 

 parts of Germany, whilst the superior drinks the health 

 of the inferior. The inferior, during this, places his two 

 thumbs on the table, and therefore is incapacitated from 

 making any attempt upon the life of the person who is 

 drinking." 



Does this ceremony yet prevail at Queen's Col- 

 tege, Oxford ? If not, when did it cease ? Bar- 

 rington's book was published in 1766, at which 

 time the ceremony was observed. And is there 

 any place in Germany where a similar ceremony 

 is practised, as mentioned by Barrington ? 



Fra. Mewbukn. 



Darlington. 



Van Tramp's Watch. — Can any of your 

 readers afford information as to the present pos- 

 sessor of this curious time-piece ? Many years 

 since it was in the hands of a watchmaker of Pon- 

 tefract named Booth, and from him it is said to 

 have passed with " the writings " to a George 

 Booth, who went to America, and died at Brook- 

 lyn, U. S. 



The watch-works were at one time fitted to a 

 clock face, and used as a time-piece ; but the 

 original case, key, &c., were" preserved with great 

 care. 



Is anything known of this piece of mechanism ? 



Ebor. 



Dedication of Avington Chui'ch. — What is the 

 dedication, if any, of the ancient parish church of 

 Avington, on the river Kennet, near Hungerford, 

 in the county of Berks ? I. J. 



The Lord of Vryhouven of Holland^ — In the 

 Genllemaris Magazine for 1791 is a note that 

 Peter Huguetan, Lord of Vryhouven, had given 

 nearly 600,000Z. for charitable purposes ; and in 

 the Report of the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge, it appears that in 1797 that body 

 received 66,334Z. 3.?. 10(Z. from the same person. 

 Where can a farther account of this remarkable 

 man and his benevolence be found ? 



Henrt Edwards. 



:^tn0r ^uert^iS tottib ^n^fiocrsf. 



Carolus Antonius a Puteo. — In the cleaning 

 and restoring a portrait in my possession, the 

 following names appeared across the top of the 

 picture : " carolvs . antonivs . a . pvteo." Can 

 any of your readers inform me of such a person ? 



H. B., F.R.C.S. 

 Warwick. 



[A learned individual of this name is noticed in Jocher, 

 Gelehrten- Lexicon, s. v. : — " Car. Anton, de Puteo, son of 



Francis, Marquis of Romagna and Count of Pendera, was 

 born at Bugella on Nov. 3, 1547. Having first well 

 studied the Latin and Greek languages, he turned his 

 attention to philosophy and theology, and afterwards to 

 law, in which he became a doctor, practising for some 

 time as an advocate at Turin. He next became Judge of 

 the High Fiscal Court at Florence, and in 1582 Arch- 

 bishop of Pisa. He wrote I)e Potestate Principis ; de 

 Feudis ; left behind him many excellent works in manu- 

 script; and died July 18, 1607."] 



'■'• Affiers" Alefounders. — In the Norfolk Chro~ 

 nicle of Aug. 19, 1854, it is stated that — 



" At a Court Leet, or Law Day, and Court of the Portmen 

 of the borough of New Buckenham, &c., the sub-bailiff, 

 aifiers, searchers and sealers of leather, examiners of lish. 

 and flesh, alefounders, inspector of weights and measures, 

 and pinder, were appointed." 



I want to know what the " affiers' " and " ale- 

 founders'" offices are; though I suppose the 

 latter to be the ale-conners, explained by Halli- 

 well as inspectors appointed at Courts Leet, to 

 look to the goodness of bread, ale, and beer. The 

 searchers and sealers of leather, without doubt,, 

 were originally intended to enforce the " many 

 good laws made (and one still wanting to enforce 

 the keeping of them) for the making this mer- 

 chantable commodity" (Fuller's Worthies, Mid- 

 dlesex). E. G. R. 



[In Blount's Law Dictionary they are called "Af- 

 FEEREus (afferatores), probably from the Fr. affier, i. e. 

 to confirm or affirm : those that are appointed in Courts 

 Leet upon oath, to settle and moderate the fines of such 

 as have committed faults arbitrarily punishable, and have 

 no express penalty set down by the statute. The form of 

 their oath you may see in Kitchen, fol. 46. The reason of 

 this appellation seems to be, because those that are ap- 

 pointed to this office do affirm upon their oaths, what 

 penalty they think in conscience the offended hath de- 

 served. But 1 find in the Customary of Normandy, cap. 20., 

 this word affeure, which the Latin interpreter expresseth 

 by taxare, that is, to set the price of a thing, as ccstimare, 

 indicare, §-c., which etymology seems to be best."] 



FentorHs Notes on Milton. — I want information 

 in the subject of a volume of emendations of the 

 text of the Paradise Lost, published in 1725, and 

 written by one Fenton. Who was he ? All I 

 know on the subject is from a review of the book 

 in the Getitlemaii s Magazine, vol. i. (February). 

 C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



Birmingham. 



[Our correspondent has only to refer to Johnson's Lives, 

 or any biographical dictionary, for notices of Elijah Fen- 

 ton, who is thus memorialised by his friend Pope : 



" A poet, bless'd beyond the poet's fate, 

 Whom Heaven kept sacred from the proud and great. "^ 



In 1725 Fenton revised a new edition of Milton's WorkSf 

 and prefixed a life of the author.] 



King John's Palace. — King John's Palace In 

 Tottenham Court was his hunting palace : here 

 King John and his nobles enjoyed the sports of 

 the field in hunting wolves, wild bulls, wild boars, 



