474 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 267. 



Johnson, condescend to show on what authority 

 such word and its meanings are taken. 



It is interesting to ascertain at what period the 

 intestines of sheep superseded the old strings of 

 the lyre. If classical authority, however, can be 

 shown for the use of the word a-cptStj, I shall be 

 much favoured by such reply. (Query, Hippo- 

 crates or Galen ?) T. J. Bccktoh. 



Lichfield. 



Brasses of Notaries (Vol x., p. 165.). — Man- 

 ning, in his List of the Monumental Brasses re- 

 maining in England (Rivingtons, 1846), under 

 the head " Ipswich, St. Mary Tower," states that 

 the brass of "a notary, c. 1475, has been stolen 

 since 1844." W. T. T., however, mentions one of 

 the same date as still remaining. Is this the brass 

 alluded to in Manning's List ? If so, I should be 

 obliged if W. T. T. would rub it for me, and in 

 return I shall be happy to send him one of the 

 South Nottinghamshire or North Leicestershire 

 brasses. Charles F. Powell. 



Normanton on Soar, Loughborough. 



The DeviVs Dozen (Vol. x., p. 346.). — Is not 

 G. N. thinking of the " baker's dozen ? " I never 

 before heard of the Devil's dozen, and I would not 

 have the title and patronage of his Satanic ma- 

 jesty wantonly extended. C. 



" A per «e" (Vol. x., p. 122.). — 



" A per se (^ by itself), as denoting pre-eminence, is 

 not unusual in our old poets : 



' O faire Creseide, the floure and A per se 

 Of Troye and Greece.' 



Chaucer, Testament of Creseide, v. 78. 



' Right as our first letter is now an A, 

 In beaute first so stode she makeley.' 



Jd., TroUus, book v." 

 Richardson (from Junius). Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



" Lantern-jaws''^ (Vol. x., pp. 53. 116.). — Surely 

 there can be no good reason for disturbing John- 

 son's plain, matter-of-fact, explanation : 



" A term used of a thin visage, such as if a candle 

 were burning in the mouth might transmit the light." 



Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



Tenure per Baroniam (Vol. ii., p. 302.). — 

 Babo's Query has a long time remained unan- 

 swered, as to how tenure per baroniam differed 

 from tenure in capite. The following extract from 

 Selden, which is quoted by Hody in his History 

 of Councils, may do something towards elucidating 

 the point : 



" Upon the many differences and quarrels between the 

 king and many of his barons, divers baronies did escheat 

 to the Crown, either by attainders or otherwise, according 

 to the laws of that time, which, being in the king's hands, 

 were partly granted to others and partly retained, as 



ready rewards for such as the king would make of his 

 part, by giving them such escheats, or any part of them, 

 to be held of him in chief, as the ancient barons from 

 whom they had escheated had done. And of those es- 

 cheated baronies there is express mention in that grand 

 charter of King John, whence also we have it yet in that 

 of Henry III., which is used to this day. Divers barons 

 also were perhaps so decayed in their estates, that they 

 were not able any longer honourably to support their 

 titles. Now the other barons which were of ancient 

 foundation or blood, or of great revenue, or the majores 

 barones, foreseeing, it seems, how their dignity and power 

 might suffer much diminution, if the new tenants in chief 

 or patentees of those escheated baronies and the rest that 

 were decayed — being all barons by tenure, according to 

 the laws of that age — should have equality with them, 

 and be indiff'erently barons of the kingdom every way as 

 they were, procured, as we may justly think, a law in 

 some of those parliaments which preceded the grand 

 charter ; by which themselves only should hereafter be 

 properly styled and be barons, and the rest tenants in 

 chief only, or knights, or milites ; which title should be 

 given them as distinct names from barons. This could 

 not but much lessen the dignity and honour of the rest, 

 although they remained still as barons, according to the 

 former laws, as well as the greater did." — Selden's Titles 

 of Honour, p. 710. 



Some of your numerous legal readers will per- 

 haps now take up the subject, and discuss it more 

 fully than I am able to do. It is an interesting 

 though a difficult one. William Fraser, B.C.L. 

 Alton, Staffordshire. 



English Boohs of Emhlems (Vol. vii., pp. 469. 

 679. ; Vol. viii., p. 13.). — As the Rev. Mr. Corser 

 wishes for additions to his list of the English series 

 of books of emblems, I would call his attention to 

 a poem by S. Pordage, one of the school of Jacob 

 Bcihrnen. It has a very curious emblematical en- 

 graved frontispiece. There is a copy in the 

 British Museum ; the title runs thus : 



" Mundarum Explicatio : wherein are couched the 

 Mysteries of the External, Internal, and Eternal Worlds ; 

 showing the true Progress of a Soul, from the Court of 

 Babylon to the City of Jerusalem— from the Adamical 

 Fallen State, to the Regenerate and Angelical. Also the 

 Explanation of an Hieroglyphical Figure: a Sacred 

 Poem, by S. P. Armiger (London, 1663)." 



On a fly-leaf of this Museum copy is a note, 

 written in pencil, which I here transcribe at 

 length : 



" This did belong to Mrs. Martha Udney, Sub-Precep- 

 tress to the late Princess Charlotte of Wales. In the 

 year 1815 I visited Mrs. Udney, in order to examine and 

 borrow this book of her, on account of the extraordinary 

 plate. The book, with the plate, is scarcely to be seen in 

 any library. The husband of this lady was a Member of 

 the Supreme Council in India. 



« J. P., Nov. 12, 1834. 

 « Mrs. Udney died in 1831." 



Alfred Roffb. 

 Somers Town. 



Sir John Berrott (Vol. x., p. 308.). --Sir John 

 Perrott's Life may have been transmitted from 

 Ireland, but it bears obvious marks of having 



