50^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2na S. V. 129^ Joke 19. '58. 



with crimson silk ; that at Cambridge is, after five 

 years' standing, black silk without lining, the 

 wearer then becoming a member of the black- 

 hood house, or non-regent. 



The B. A, hood of Oxford is of black stuf-pro- 

 perly, not silk, and should be lined, not with ivhite 

 fur, I suspect, that being a distinction for the 

 higher degrees only, but (as at Cambridge twenty 

 or thirty years ago) with lamVs tvool. The white 

 /ur has been adopted because it is prettier. I 

 really believe that no better reason can be given. 

 The Oxford B.C.L.'s hood ought not probably for 

 the same reason to be edged with white fur, but 

 with lamb's wool. The Dublin M. A. hood is 

 lined, not with light blue, but with lilac silk. 



Of the other hoods of London, Durham, Dublin, 

 St. David's, and St. Bees, I cannot give any in- 

 formation. 



Now as to the form of the several hoods : those 

 worn at Cambridge and for the higher degrees at 

 Oxford are to be found in very ancient sculptures 

 and brasses, and are like those worn by several 

 monastic orders, particularly the Benedictines at 

 Catania in Sicily. The Cambridge tailors, how- 

 ever, try to spoil their form by rounding off their 

 corners, which, like the points of the sleeve of the 

 surplice, should be angular, and by a long neck- 

 strap, which causes them to hang too low down 

 the back. For the scanty M.A., B.C.L., and B A. 

 hoods of Oxford, I believe no ancient example 

 can be found. As hoods, or for a covering of the 

 head, in bad weather for instance, they are utterly 

 useless. 



As to the London robe-makers, they, / know, 

 adopt a cut of their own, and which is for the 

 most part quite different from the Cambridge 

 forms at least, from some of Oxford too. They 

 also substitute for the rose-colour of the higher 

 degrees of that University a very pretty shot 

 silk (light blue, shot with crimson, I think) without 

 the smallest authority. 



I have written this in great haste, but in sub- 

 stance I am sure that where I have given any new 

 information it is correct. D.C.L. Cantab. 



In the useful table compiled by Mr. Gutch 

 (p. 402.), he sets down the M.A. hood of Dublin 

 as "black silk, lined with light blue;" had he fol- 

 lowed the description given in my former con- 

 tribution (p. 324.), he would have more correctly 

 stated that the lining was dark blue, which is the 

 colour almost invariably used. The robe-makers 

 here (who have no such scruples as your cor- 

 respondent ascribes to the London ones) would 

 term it royal blue. 



It would be an improvement to transpose the 

 two first columns of Mr. Gbtch's table ; and I 

 should have been better pleased to see that the 

 compiler had the accuracy to place the University 

 of Dublin in its proper position next to Oxford 



and Cambridge, instead of after the comparatively 

 modern institutions of London and Durham. It 

 is too much the fashion to consider evei^hing 

 Irish as necessarily inferior. 



What hood is used at S. Aidan's, Birkenhead, 

 for the degree of B.D. which that college is em- 

 powered to grant ? Also some notice of the hoods 

 of the Queen's University, Ireland (if any), and 

 of the Cautuar degrees, concerning which " N. & 

 Q." has already given us some information. 



John Ribton Gakstin. 



Dublin. 



DIOCESAN REGISTRY, CORK. 

 (2"^ S. V. 394.) 



I have great pleasure in communicating the fol- 

 lowing account of the Records now preserved in 

 the Diocesan Registry of Cork for the information 

 of Mr. J. R. Garstin. The oldest document in 

 the registry is a book of copies of wills, inven- 

 tories, and a few presentations to livings of about 

 the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and 

 the oldest entry in this book is the inventory of 

 the goods of William Fitz-Edmund Roche : — 



" Qui 29" die Novembris in vigilia Sancti Andrias fluc- 

 tibus maris et tempestate oppressus submersusque est in 

 eundo seu navigando Flandriam usque A". Dni. 1547." 



These inventories generally contain an accurate 

 account of the merchantable commodities of that 

 period, and their value. The will of Nicholas 

 Rett, Provost-marshal of the province of Mun- 

 ster, which was proved Sept. 4, 1572, also contains 

 a very interesting account of his armour, &c. 

 This book was obtained from the executors of an 

 Archdeacon Roche by John Travers, the registrar 

 who was brought from England by Bishop Lyon, 

 and was brother-in-law to the poet Spenser. He 

 and h\^ two sons, Robert (afterwards Sir Robert 

 Travers, Vicar- General) and Zochary Travers, 

 Registrar, seem to be the first who placed the 

 records in a way of preservation. However, there 

 is no other record older than the first original will 

 (1606), from which the series is continued to the 

 present time with copies from 1750, and some 

 older copies of wills which were transferred else- 

 where. The inventories, administration bonds, and 

 marriage licence bonds, reach nearly as far back as 

 the original wills ; and from about the same time 

 (say 1625) a list of the clergy may be deduced 

 from the Visitation Books (a task which I com- 

 menced last winter), but the early appointments 

 of them are not forthcoming, though it is other- 

 wise in Cloyne diocese, where probably the Cork 

 appointments might be found ; as the two dio- 

 ceses were formerly united, and the records (on 

 the separation) very carelessly divided, as we now 

 possess in Cork some of the old Visitation Books 

 of Cloyne, I must not forget to mention another 



