3nds.v.i2i.,ArEiL24.'58.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



347 



payinw a shilling for the use of the gown. I 

 don't know whether the same form is practised 

 now. John Fenwick. 



Newcastle-upou-Tyne. 



Jridges' Whistles (2°'i S. v. 213.) —The officers 

 of the great Carracks wore whistles, by the sound 

 of which they directed their men in a storm, and 

 boatswains still use them in our navy. . 



At the great Cobb Ale of Lyme Regis — a 

 feast kept up for many days of each Whitsuntide 

 for the maintenance of the cobb or harbour there, 

 the mayor presided. A silver whistle and chain 

 were given to the borough for the use of the 

 mayor, to be worn at this great feast. 



The Puritan members of the corporation suc- 

 ceeded in putting this yearly celebration down in 

 the reign of James I. 



The whistle was an appendage to a great of- 

 ficer for use at a time when his supremacy was 

 conspicuous. Its sound might be heard in spite 

 of the din of the feast. G. R. L. 



Dover. 



Cha, Tea (2"* S. v. 275.) — To the reply al- 

 ready given may be added that Tea does not 

 occur in the New World of Words, 5th edition, 

 1696. Kersey, besides introducing the new word, 

 has given greater precision to the definition of 

 Cha, which in the 5th ed. stands thus : — 



" The leaf of a tree in China, which being infused into 

 water, serves for their ordinary drink." 



Cha differs little from the Russian Tchaij, 

 which is probably immediately derived from the 

 Chinese name of the plant. R. S. Q. 



The Mandarin name for the article is " Cha." 

 It is so called generally through the interior ; but 

 in the black tea region it goes by the name 

 teay, a local corruption of the same book-character, 

 pronounced cha. When our countrymen went 

 first to China, they went to that part of the coast 

 where cha is pronounced teaa or teay, and met 

 with large numbers of the black tea factors, who 

 pronounced it in the same way. It is not sur- 

 prising, then, that the sound of it according to a 

 local brogue should creep into our English vo- 

 cabulary. William C. Milne. 



Draycott Arms (2'"i S. v. 293.)— Arms of Dray- 

 cott or Draycote oi Dray cote, Staffordshire, and of 

 Loscoe, Derbyshire : — " Paly of six, or and gules; 

 over all a bend, ermine. Crest, a dragon's head 

 erased, gules. " Losco " arms are also stated to 

 be " paly argent and sable" &c. The family, 

 originally of Draycote, Staffordshire, is said to 

 have settled at Losco, Derbyshire, about the latter 

 end of the fifteenth century. Other " Draycotts" 

 appear also to bear " a cross " variously em- 

 blazoned, as " patonce," " engrailed," &c. 



F. B. D. 



Diurnals of Charles I. (2°^ S. v. 295.) —- To 

 OxoNiENsis I venture to suggest, that by simply 

 looking under the word Diurnal, he may not 

 succeed in the object of his search, I have found 

 at the British Museum Mercurius Aulicus, a Diur- 

 nail, commencing Sunday, Jan. 1, 164f, and con- 

 tinued to Saturday, Nov. 23, 1644. These are in 

 one volume, and dated at Oxford. Having found 

 what I wanted, I had no reason to prolong my 

 search ; still such is the magnitude of the collec- 

 tion of those tracts in the British Museum, that I 

 should not have despaired of finding whatever I 

 could possibly have required. *. 



Richmond. 



Lepers' Windoivs (2"'^ S. v. 236.) —Mr. A. Holt 

 White asks, What was the real use of these (so- 

 called) windows ? If he will look into Rock's 

 Church of Our Fathers, t. iii. p. 118. &c. he may 

 find a ready answer to his question. 



LlTURGICUS. 



Tapping of Melons (2"* S. v. 316.)— Vide 

 Southey's Thalaba, book ii. stanza 32., 3rd edit., 

 and the note thereon from Niebuhr. 



W. J. Bebnhabd Smith. 



notes on books, etc. 



A new edition of Mr. Collier's Shakspeare is now before us 

 in six goodly octavo volumes. Those who know the un- 

 wearying industry and scrupulous care with which Mr. 

 Collier applies himself to editorial labour, will look with 

 confidence to an edition like the present for as accurate a 

 text of the author as a careful collation of the early edi- 

 tions will supply. We do not, however, intend to touch 

 upon the text. Mr. Collier's former labours brought upon 

 him such a host of assailants — some of whom, it will be 

 remembered, went so far beyond the limits of fair cri- 

 ticism as to render unavoidable an appeal to a court of 

 law — that one can scarcely be surprised, much as one re- 

 grets it, to find that the wounds thus inflicted still rankle, 

 and that their scars too often offend the reader's sight. 

 We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to a notice of the 

 new Biography — a work most creditable to Mr. Collier — 

 most satisfactory to those who would fain know all they 

 can of England's master-genius. How well this sketch, 

 proves the value of researches among our dusty and moth- 

 eaten records, is shown in the two or three new facts here 

 added to the poet's biography. If such additions as these 

 have been made within the last year or two, who can 

 doubt that further research will be rewarded ivith further 

 discoveries? First let us hear what Mr. Collier has to 

 say of Richard Shakspeare, the poet's grandfather, now 

 first identified : — 



" Little doubt can be entertained that he (John Shak- 

 speare) came from Snitterfield, three miles from Stratford ; 

 and upon this point we have several new documents be- 

 fore us. It appears from them that a person of the name 

 of Richard Shakespeare (nowhere before mentioned, 

 though the names have occurred as of Rowington) was 

 resident at Snitterfield in 1550 : he was tenant of a house 

 and land belonging to Robert Arden (or Ardern, as the 

 name was anciently spelt, and as it stands in the papers 

 in our hands), of Wilmecote, in the parish of Aston Cant- 



