2nd s. No 106., Jan. 9. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



2d 



Loudon informs us, in his Arboretum et Fruti^ 

 cetum Britaunicum, that the most valuable of all 

 the English willows is the Salix caprea (goat wil- 

 low, grey withy, also called palm-sallow). This 

 tree, lie adds, " is distinguished by loading itself 

 with handsome yellow blossoms. Its catkins are 

 broader and shorter than in most of the species, 

 with .crowded flowers. The flowering branches of 

 this species are called palms, and are gathered by 

 children on Easter Sunday," [Palm Sunday, says 

 Halliwell], " a relic of the Catholic ceremony in 

 commemoration of the entrance of our Saviour 

 into Jerusalem." 



All this may serve to explain why Chaucer 

 should make special mention of the palm- willow, 

 willow-palm tree, or whipultre. And as, accord- 

 ing to Loudon, the wood of the palm-willow is 

 far superior to that of all willows besides, and 

 particularly serviceable for many agricultural 

 purposes, answering excellently for poles, handles 

 of axes, &c., the term whipultre may be the ori- 

 gin of another word of difficult derivation, " whip- 

 ple-tree," which has been already mentioned. 



" Poudre Marchant." — 



Poudre Marchant has generally been taken as 

 signifying some culinary substance. "What sort 

 of ingredient this was, I cannot tell," says Tyr- 

 whitt. 



" A coke they hadden with hem for the nones, 

 To boile the chickenes and the marie bones, 

 And poudre marchant, tart, and galingale. 

 Well coude he know a draught of London ale." 



Cant. Tales, 381—4. 



*' Poudre marchant," according to Speght, was a 

 sort of powder whereof gingerbread was made. 



Now i{ poudre marchant was really, as here as- 

 sumed, a substance used for culinary purposes, let 

 us ponder the construction of the sentence. The 

 coke was " to boile the chickenes and the marie ' 

 bones," he was to boil the " poudre marchant," to 

 boil the ''tarts," to boil the "galingale." Did 

 " tarts " include puddings ? For that I can find 

 no authority. But, if not, how were they to be 

 boiled f 



But let us take another look at Chaucer's lines. 

 I think it will become obvious, on considering 

 them attentively, that poudre, after all, is not a 

 noun, but a verb. The coke was to " boile the 

 chickenes and the marie bones," and [to] poudre 

 the three things which follow, viz. marchant, tart, 

 and galingale. 



To poudre meant in old English to salt. But 

 poudre stood also for various condiments, e.g. for 

 a certain mixture of warm spices, pepper, ginger, 

 &c. "To malce wardens In conserve :" first, make 

 the "^yrope," then prepare the wardens, then add 

 the " syrope," " and then cast in the ponders, as fine 

 caney, cinnamon, pouder of jinger, and suche." 



(Boohe of Cookery, 1575.) And again: for "fresh 

 laprey," dress " with red wine and pouder of sina- 

 mon." (Book of Carving, 1640 ?) " Pouder of 

 synamon and ginger." (lb.) 



I would therefore take the verb to poudre, in 

 the above lines of Chaucer, as signifying to season; 

 that is, by sprinkling some such condiments on 

 the articles to be served up. The corresponding 

 term of modern cookery is to dust. 



In a separate paper I hope to give a good ac- 

 count of " marchant." Thomas Bots. 



AUDEBMEN IN LIVERY. 



The exemption claimed for the Men of Kent by 

 some writers from the bondage of the feudal sys- 

 tem, which, if not first organised by our Norman 

 conquerors, was by them consolidated and greatly 

 extended, appears to be more apparent than real. 



The old Custumal of Kent declares, " All the 

 bodies of Kentishmen be free ;" but a reference to 

 Domesday Book shows that at the time of the 

 Survey, about twenty years after the Conquest, 

 the Villeins and Servi formed seven-twelfths of 

 the whole population of Kent, — a proportion 

 even greater than that of the average of England 

 itself. 



Territorial influences probably as extensively 

 prevailed in this county as in most others, and 

 we find that even the title of alderman, once so 

 honoured among the Anglo-Saxons, soon lost 

 under the new hierarchy much of its dignity and 

 importance. 



Originally conferred upon the noblemen to 

 whom the charge of a shire was intrusted, al- 

 though sometimes the distinction indicated the 

 Prefect or Praeposltus of a hundred, it subse- 

 quently became a mere civic office. 



Our remarks, however, apply more especially to 

 Canterbury. In this city the office, which dated 

 its introduction into the municipality from the 

 time of Richard II., If not earlier, was at first 

 hereditary and devisable by will : Alderman Gar- 

 nate, a. d. 1386, having bequeathed the alder- 

 manne of Westgate, one of the wards of the city 

 of Canterbury, to Sarah, his wife. The dignity, 

 which conferred magisterial functions upon its 

 possessor, subsequently became elective, and we 

 have now evidence of the territorial and other 

 influences which had an effect upon the members 

 of corporate bodies, in the jealousy with which the 

 municipality itself sought to protect its members 

 from dependence and degradation. 



In confirmation of these views, we find in the 

 records of the city of Canterbury several curious 

 entries among the Burghmote decrees. From 

 these it appears evident that some of the principal 

 citizens, including the aldermen themselves, were 

 desirous two or three centuries since of entering 



