146 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 146. 



not move five yards in the streets without meeting 

 with little boards suspended at shop-doors, Avhei'eon 

 are painted the lettei-s " P.," " V.," " A.," repre- 

 sentatives of the words Puo, Vinko, Aguardiente, 

 which being interpreted signify, bread, wine, 

 spirits. Considering Mr. Ford's habitual accu- 

 racy, and his intimate knowledge of the Spanish 

 language, it is singular that he should have made 

 this mistake. J. Y. J. 



Funchal, Madeira. 



riVERIES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 



The following passages in The Journal of Nicholas 

 Assheton, of Downham, in the County of Lancaster, 

 Esq., edited by the Rev. F. 11. Raines, M.A., F.R.S., 

 for the Chetham Society, exhibit a curious exam- 

 ple of the use of liveries, and of the mean services 

 performed by country gentlemen in the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century. 



"1617, Aug. 11. — My brother Sheiborne his taylor 

 brought liltn a suit of appa'il, and us two others, and a 

 live'y cloake, from Sir llic. Houghton, that we should 

 attend him at the King's coming, rather for his grace 

 and reput", shoeing his neibors love, then anie exacting 

 of mean service. 



" Aug. 12 .... To Mirescough. Sir Ric. 



gone to meet the King ; wee aft"" him to ... . 

 Tiier the King slipt into the forest another way, and we 

 after and overtook him, and went past to tlie Yate : 

 then Sir Ric. light; and when the King came in his 

 coach, Sir Ric. stept to his side, and tould him ther 

 liis Maj' forrest began: and went some ten roodes to 

 the left, and then to the lodge. The King hunted and 

 killed a buck. 



"Aug. l.'i. — To Mirescough; the court. Cooz 

 Assheton cama w"' his geiitlemanlie servants as anie 

 was there, and himself excellently well appointed. The 

 King killed five bucks. The Kinges spuclie ab' lib'tie 

 to pipeing and honest recreation. Wee that were in 

 Sir Ric' liv^ bad nothing to do but riding upp and 

 downe. 



"Aug. 14. — Us three to Preston .... Wee 

 were desyred to be merrie, and at nyght were soe. . . 



" Aug 15. — The King came to Preston : ther at the 

 crosse Mr. Breares the lawyer made a speche, and the 

 corpor" presented him with a bowie ; and then the 

 King went to a banquet in the townhall, and soe away 

 to Houghton : ther a speche made. Hunted and 

 killed a stagg. Wee attend on the lords' table. 



" Aug. 16. — Houghton. U'lie King hunting: a 

 great companie : killed affore dinner a brace of staggs. 

 Verie hott: soe hee went in to dinner. We attend t/ie 

 lords* table. 



"Aug. 17 Houghton. Wee served the lords with 



hiskett, wyne, andjellie. 



" Aug. 18. — The King went away ab' 12 to Lathome. 



Wee back with Sir Ric. Hee to seller 



and drunk with us, and used us kindiie in all man"" of 

 friendlie speche. Preston: as merrie as Robin Hoode 

 and all his fellowes. 



" Aug. 19 All this morning wee plaid the bac- 

 chanalians." 



Esquires and gentlemen, in the present day, 

 would be somewhat astonished by a message re- 

 questing them to don the livery of a relation, 

 friend, or neighbour, even although it might be 

 " rather for " a worthy knight's " grace and re- 

 putation, showing his neighbours' love, than any 

 exacting of mean service." J. Lewelyn Curtis. 



iHt'nar §,aUg, 



Inscription over Plato's Door. — The inscription, 

 said to have been fixed over Plato's door, dyew/j.i~ 

 rprjTos /uTjSfls eiVko), has not, I believe, been traced 

 higher than Tzetzes (Chil. viii. 972.), and is 

 often incorrectly given ay. ovists elff. Following 

 up a hint of Fabricius, 1 have found the inscrip- 

 tion in Philoponus {Comm. in Aristot. de Anim., 

 reverse of sign. D i ir, near the top of the page, 

 ed. Venefc. 1535). This carries it up fo a date 

 earlier, by more than 500 years, than that ordi- 

 narily given. As some distinguished writers have 

 been mistaken in this matter, your readers may be 

 pleased to have the mistake corrected, and some of 

 them may perhaps be able to trace the passage to 

 a still earlier authority. J. E. IJ. Mayor. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 



Cock and Bull Story. — The following extract 

 may be interesting to some of your readers. It is 

 found in The Universal Character, hy which all the 

 Nations in the World may understand one another's 

 Conceptions, reading out of one Common Writing 

 their own Mother Tongues, Sfc. By Cave Beck,, 

 M.A. Lond. 1G57. 



" The Egyptians of old had a symbolical way of 

 writing by emblems and pictures, which might be read 

 by other nations instructed in their wisdom, but was so 

 hard to learn, and tedious in the practice, tliat letters 

 soon justled tliem out of the world. Besides, most ot 

 their hieroglyphicks were so catachrestical (the jiicture 

 showing one thing to the eye, and a quite different 

 sense imposed upon it), tliat they justifi'd the painter 

 who drew a misshapen cock upon a sign-board, and 

 wrote under it ' This is a bull.'" 



II. T. Wrotik 



Temple. 



Etymology of the Word " Apro7i." — Napery is 

 defined by Skinner, Linteamiida domestica ; and 

 the word api'on, notes Whitaker (^Craven, p. 232.), 

 has plainly lost a letter, probably by a mistake in 

 dividing it from the prefix A Naperoun, or an 

 apron. 



In 1388, the Prior and Convent of Durham 

 made a life-grant of the office of Keeper of the 

 Naprym the Hostillar's Hall {Hist. Dunelm. Scrip. 

 2Yes. p. clviii.) Wm. Sibney Gibson. 



Newcastle-ou- Ty ne. 



