Dec. 9. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



469 



to prove that yeoman is originally a military title derived 

 from the kind of weapons with which they fought in 

 ancient times, 



" After the Conquest, the name of yeomen, as to their 

 original office in war, was changed to that of archers. 

 Yeomen of the crown had formerly considerable grants 

 bestowed on them. In the fifth centur}' (fifteenth ?) John 

 Forde, yeoman of the croune, had the moytie of all rents of 

 the town and hundred of Shaftesbury ; and Nicholas Worthy, 

 yeoman of the chamhre, was made baillieffe of the lordships 

 of Scaresdale cmd CJiesterfelde, within the county of Derby ; 

 all which prove that the title of yeoman was accounted 

 honourable, not only in remote antiquity, but in later 

 ages. 



" Yeomen, at least those that frequent palaces, should 

 have their education in some academy, college, or univer- 

 sity, in the army, or at court ; or a private education that 

 would be equivalent. Then our Latin writers would be 

 no longer so grossly mistaken as to their notion in this 

 respect. In Littleton's Dictionary, and I believe in all 

 our other Latin dictionaries, yeomanry is Latinised plebs ; 

 and yeoman, rusticus, paganus, colomis. The expressions 

 of 'yeomen of the crown,' 'j'eomen of the chamber,' 

 •yeomen of the guard,' ' yeoman usher,' show the impro- 

 priety of this translation; for thereby it is plain that 

 yeomen originally frequented courts, and followed the 

 profession of arms. Yeomen of the crown were so called, 

 either because they were obliged to attend the king's 

 person at court and in the field, or because they held 

 lands from the crown, or both." — From Gent. Mag., 

 vol. xxix. p. 408. 



Abmigeb. 



CHARLES I. AND HIS RELICS. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 173. 578. ; Vol. vii., p. 184. ; Vol. x., 

 pp. 245. 416.) 



A complete list of the numerous authentic relics 

 of the Royal Martyr would be an acceptable offer- 

 ing to " N. & Q." Perhaps of no other man are 

 there so many memorials existing, and none pre- 

 served with such religious care as those of the 

 first King Charles. There is scarcely a museum 

 in the country, public or private, which does not 

 contain some relic or other, purporting to have 

 belonged to this unfortunate monarch. Doubtless 

 some of them at least are mere forgeries ; and it 

 "would be a task worthy the contributors of " N. 

 & Q." to separate, as far as possible, the genuine 

 corn from the chaff. The Ashburnham watch is 

 a case in point. 



At page 245. of the current volume we read 

 that the king gave his watch at the place of exe- 

 cution to Mr. John Ashburnham, and that this 

 watch is still preserved, with other relics of the 

 martyr, in Ashburnham Church. Now, I think it 

 can be satisfactorily proved that Mr. John Ash- 

 burnham was not near the king on the morning 

 of his execution, and certainly not upon the scaf- 

 fold with his royal master ; the watch therefore, I 

 take it, could not have been given to him at the 

 place of execution. In a narrative of the trial and 

 execution of King Charles, written by Thomas 

 (afterwards Sir Thomas) Herbert, who, with the 



good Bishop Juxon, was in almost sole attendance 

 on the king after his trial, we have a very parti- 

 cular account of the various articles presented by 

 King Charles just previous to his decapitation. 

 His gold watch was confided to Mr. Herbert's 

 care, to be delivered to the Duchess of Richmond, 

 which duty was religiously performed. The small 

 silver clock that hung by his bedside was carried 

 by Herbert, at the king's request, towards the 

 place of execution ; and while passing through 

 the garden into the Park, the king " asked Mx. 

 Herbert the hour of the day, and taking the 

 clock into his hand, gave it to him, and said, 

 'Keep this in memory of me,' which Mr. Her- 

 bert kept to his dying day." Another watch, a 

 gold alarum, appears by a previous paragraph to 

 have been sacrilegiously purloined by a general 

 officer of the Praise- God Barebones fraternity. 

 The question now naturally arises, Is there any 

 authority for this legend of the Ashburnham 

 watch ? and, if so, where is it to be found ? 



While on the subject of watches, I may state, 

 quoting from Brayley and Britton's Description 

 of Cheshire, that at Vale Royal, in this county, 

 the residence of Lord Delamere, there is, or then 

 was, a watch said also to have belonged to King 

 Charles, and to have been given by him to Bishop 

 Juxon upon the scaffold. The watch came into 

 the Cholmondeley family by an intermarriage 

 with the Cowpers of Overleigh, near this city, 

 who were related to the Juxon family. This is 

 another- of those historic doubts which the corre- 

 spondents of " N. & Q." would be laudably em- 

 ployed in clearing up. T. Hughes. 

 Chester. 



THE ZOUAVES.* 



(Vol. X., p. 365.) 



The Gaouaoua or d'Ait-Gaoua, also called 

 Zouaouas, whence the modern word Zouaves, 

 are a Kabyle or primitive Berbere population 

 inhabiting the mountainous district between Bou- 

 gie and Dellis, and remarkable for their spirit 

 of independence and bellicose disposition. In- 

 trenched within the natural fastnesses of the 

 country, they were formerly enabled to brave the 

 Mussulman authority of Bougie, and, notwith- 

 standing they were subsequently brought to ac- 

 knowledge the sovereignty of the Sultan, they 

 carefully abstained from all acts which might 

 imply either their submission or defeat. It is 

 even said that some of the tribes, the Beni-Khe- 

 lili amongst others, have never paid contribution 

 to the Turks. Like all the Kabyles, the Zouaves 



* Etudes sur la Kabyle, proprement dite, by M. Carette ; 

 Histoire des Berberes et des Dynasties musulmanes de l'j£- 

 frique septetitrionale, translated by Baron de Slane ; and 

 La Grande Kabylie, by Gen. Daumas. 



