Feb. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



127 



OXFORD JEUX d'eSPBIT. 



(Vols. X. and xi.) 



As several of your correspondents have lately 

 been inquiring about some of the so-called Ox- 

 ford jevx (Tesprit, it has occurred to me that it 

 might be well if some person qualified for the 

 task would undertake to make a permanent^ col- 

 lection of those amusing but perishable articles. 

 They contain a great deal of humour, some salt 

 and spice, and 7io malice ; and in many of them 

 will be found valuable allusions to men and things 

 connected with Oxford and its institutions, which 

 are now fast wearing out of memory, yet do not 

 deserve to be utterly forgotten. 



My idea is, that any collection of those pieces 

 ought to begin with the Visitatio fanatica of the 

 University by the Commissioners under the Com- 

 monwealth, an excellent edition of which was 

 published about thirty years ago by a gentleman 

 who is still living within fifty miles of Oxford. 

 This ought to be followed by Thomas Warton's 

 admirable squib. The Companion to the Guide, and 

 Guide to the Companion. Selections ought to be 

 added from The Oxford Sausage, and possibly 

 from Huddesford's Salmagundi, and his Whimsical 

 Chaplet. And all these ought to be edited cum 

 notis Scribleri et variorum. These pieces would 

 bring us down to the productions of the present 

 century, which are pretty numerous, both in 

 Greek, Latin, and English. Those of their authors 

 who are living should be requested to permit their 

 effusions to be printed, and to accompany them 

 with such short explanatory notes as the subjects 

 may require, coupled with a due regard to the 

 feelings of all parties concerned. 



I trust that there will easily be found, among the 

 present residents of the University, some hel esprit 

 willing to undertake the binding of this faggot. 

 Of course the little volume would not be a book 

 for the 01 TToWol ; nor would it be bought by the 

 ol ^pSviixoi (the dons') ; but still I think that some 

 fifty or sixty kindred spirits will be found ready 

 to subscribe freely for such a souvenir; or per- 

 haps they would prefer to divide the labour, the 

 cost, and the copies among themselves. 



I throw out these loose hints for the consider- 

 ation of your Oxford readers. If the idea should 

 be taken up upon the foregoing plan, or anything 

 like it — but not as a bookseller's speculation, I 

 shall beg to be allowed to become one of the sub- 

 scribers, undertakers, proprietors, or whatever 

 they may choose to call themselves, in return for 

 these suggestions. X. E. D. X. T. I. 



WILL AND TESTAMENT. 

 (Vol. X., p. 377.) 



One of your correspondents, William S. 

 Hesleden, of Barton-upon-Humber, forwarded 

 you, a short time since, a very interesting speci- 

 men of the manner in which a " Will and Testa- 

 ment" was made in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 The will is dated in 1535, and made by one 

 " Robert Skynner, of the parish of St. John in 

 Wykeford, in the citie of Lincoln;" and Mr. 

 Hesleden seems desirous of obtaining such in- 

 formation as may enable him to correct the pedigree 

 of that very ancient family. 



Your correspondent says : " We have often 

 heard of a distinction without a difference ; and 

 as an exhibition of the distinction between the 

 will and the testament, I send you a copy of the 

 will and testament of one of the Skynner family." 

 Also another of your correspondents, Ovns, takes 

 the same view as Me. Hesleden ; and considers 

 that the will is intended for real, and the testa- 

 ment for personal property. Now I take leave to 

 differ with both your correspondents on that i)oint, 

 as I do not consider there is the slightest differ- 

 ence between the "will and the testament" in 

 the sense your correspondents understand it. 



It was a very common practice, at the period 

 referred to, the making a marked separation be- 

 tween real and personal property, and conse- 

 quently the division into two parts ; but by no 

 means universal. I have now before me several 

 wills of that period, some of which make the entire 

 separation, as in the case before us of Robert 

 Skynner ; while others make no difference in the 

 form of the will and testament. One of the latter 

 kind is that of one of the Vice-Chancellors of 

 Cambridge University. And I have also another 

 one before me, which most clearly and strikingly 

 shows the sense and true meaning of the phrase 

 alluded to. After the usual preliminary descrip- 

 tion, the will proceeds : 



" Beinge sicke in body by the visitation of God, but in 

 good and perfecte remembrance, lawde and praise be unto 

 Hym, do make this my presente testamente, coteyningc 

 therein my last wyll, in manner and forme followinge.' 



Perhaps it will not be impertinent my remarking, 

 that the word testament simply means the witness- 

 ing by a writing, that which the individua,l de- 

 clares to be his last will ; and which is sufficiently 

 apparent by the Latin word testamentum, which is 

 evidently the testatio montis. 



In reference to the remark of Mb. Hesleden, 

 that he has reason to think that the Robert Skin- 

 ner, who makes the will with a copy of which he 

 has favoured the readers of " N. & Q.," was the 

 grandfather of Sir Vincent Skynner of Thornton 

 College, in co. Lincoln, I believe there is no 

 question that that learned man was a member of 



