10 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°a S. NO 105., Jan. 2. '58; 



but any list of judicial names will easily supply 

 the proximate period.* Y. B. N. J. 



Rhythmical Book-keeping. — A friend recently 

 told nie, in conversation about various methods 

 of giving instruction in book-keeping, that he al- 

 ways made use of the following lines as his guide, 

 and that all prpblems of account were resoluble 

 by them : — 



" By Journal laws what I receive 

 Is Dr. made to what I give. 

 Stock for my debts must Dr. be, 

 And Cr. by property. 

 Profit and loss accounts are plain, 

 I debit Loss and credit Gain," 



Fras. W. Rowsell. 



Lord Coke's Etymologies. — Placitare (to plead), 

 " quia bene placitare super omnia placet, aut quia 

 placitare non placet." 



Pratum (a meadow), " Quasi paratum." 



Terra, " from tero, to rub." 



If Lord Coke had possessed a Sanskrit dic- 

 tionary, he might have seen the root in dhara, a 

 word the remains of which may be found not only 

 in Arabic, Turcic, Hebrew, Tartar, and Greek, 

 but in all the Gothic, Teutonic, and Celtic lan- 

 guages and dialects. R. S. Chabnock. 



Gray's Inn. 



Wells Elections in Olden Times. — The follow- 

 ing is a curious (though probably at the time 

 by no means unusual) instance of " undue influ- 

 ence " in the choice of an M.P. It occurred on 

 the death of Sir Robert Stapylton, one of the 

 members for Wells, when a letter was received 

 from the Lord Chancellor requesting the consti- 

 tuency to elect his nominee, and it appears that 

 ^his request was acceded to. 



" Ath October, 1561. At a Meeting of the Corporation 

 held this day, present Alexander Towse, the Mayor, and 

 15 other members, when the following record was made : 



" Havinge received Lfes of request from the Rt. Hono. 

 the Lord Chancellor, the Earle of Salisburie, for choosinge 

 of one Edward Forcet, Esqre., to bee a Burgess in Parlia- 

 ment for this Cittye of Welles, in the place of Sir Robert 

 Stapilton, Knight, deceased, whose request in that be- 

 halfe the pties above named are willing to accomplishe, 

 but forasmuche as the said Mr. Forcet is as yett noo 

 burgis swome amongst them, and therfore not enabled to 

 stand in that place before he bee first sworne, accordynge 

 to an aunciente order in that behalfe formerlye vsed ; It 

 is therfore nowe condiscended and agreed by the con- 

 discende of all those psons above named, that a Ire from 

 the Maior and the rest of his brethren, w* other the bur- 

 geses, shalbe directed vnto Mr. Kirton, our Recorder, Mr. 

 Pine, and Mr. Hughes, desireinge them that if it will 

 please Mr. Forcet to come downe in tyme to take his 

 oathes, accordinge as others in like cases have vsed, wee 

 shalbe verye well contented vppon the Lres of theise 

 hono. psonages to accept of hym for a burgis in Parliam* 

 for the supply of the said Sir Robert Stapilton." 



It appears by subsequent entries in the Convo- 

 [* It was in September, 1823.— E©.] 



cation Book that Mr. Forcet did not come to 

 Wells to be sworn, but having been elected M.P. 

 for the city he was sworn as a burgess before the 

 Lord High Chancellor of England, Ina. 



Wells. 



Chestnut or Oak in oldBuildings. — Some contro- 

 versy has lately sprung up at the Royal Institute 

 of British Architects, as to whether the timber in 

 many of our old buildings is the sweet chestnut or 

 white oak. It has been argued that the former is 

 not indigenous, as its name " Spanish " Chestnut 

 imports ; but, on reading Caesar's Commentaries, 

 lib. 5, he says expressly, " The Britains have every 

 kind of timber tree except the beech and the fir 

 — ' pr£eter fagum et abietem.' " Now at the time 

 he wrote he had been repulsed in his attempt to 

 cross the Thames, and had consequently never 

 seen the beech woods of Buckinghamshire ; but 

 he had been through Kent, in every hedge of 

 which the chestnut now grows freely ; and surely 

 if he missed the beech, could hardly have failed to 

 notice the want of the chestnut, which, iu his own 

 country, is more common than beech, and more 

 valued, as it affords .an important article of food to 

 the north of Italy. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



"iTTiros. — I am of opinion that the Greek '/ttttos, 

 the Welsh kefyl, the Irish copul, and the Latin 

 caballus, owe all their apparent differences to 

 well-known permutations of letters ; and that the 

 varying sounds are nothing more than the attempts 

 of various tribes of men to pronounce one and the 

 same word. I take, to illustrate my view, the two 

 that are widest apart, 'liriros and caballus. It is well 

 known that the Greek aspirate is often found re- 

 presented in other languages by" the gutturals g 

 and k. From erepov comes ceterum, the c of course 

 having the hard sound. Under the effects of this 

 change, linros would become cippos. The inter- 

 change of b with p is equally common and indis- 

 putable : admit this, and the word takes the form 

 cibbos. Sir J. Ware, in his Antiquities of Ireland, 

 states — 



" Inter quadrupides notandi imprimis Equi quos Hobi- 

 nos sive Hobbyes vocant, oh mollem gressum magno in 

 pretio habiti — ab hoc equi genere, equites quidam, levis 

 armaturas, dicti sunt Hobellarii." 



Here I observe that the '/n-iros plainly appears 

 in hobbyes, and also that the second b is dropped 

 in hobinos and hobellarii. This justifies the re- 

 duction of the cippos above to cipos or cibos : from 

 which we have the old Latin cabo, and thence 

 caballus. I need scarcely notice the common inter- 

 change of the a with i. .It appears in abigo, con- 

 tingo, deficio ; from ago, tango, and Jacio. But, 

 moreover, 'Itnros, .Police 'Ikkos, gives eqims ; which 

 of course belongs to the same family. Observe, 

 moreover, that in Ware's hobbyes we haye our 



