84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 222. 



that what he states to be " the question " has not 

 been at any time questioned. He has apparently 

 mistaken my meaning, and imagines that " about 

 the beginning of the seventeenth century" means 

 1704 (that being the date of the case cited by him). 



I beg to assure him that I intended the expres- 

 sion, " beginning of the seventeenth century," to 

 be understood in the ordinary acceptation. 



A. E. B. 



Leeds. 



Three Fleurs-de-Lis (Vol. ix., p. 35.). — I have 

 by me a MS. Biographical History of the English 

 Episcopate, complete from the foundation of every 

 See, with the armorial bearings of the several 

 bishops : the whole I have collected from the best 

 sources. I find among these, in the arms of Tril- 

 leck of Hereford, three fleurs-de-lis in chief; Stil- 

 lingfleet of Worcester, Coverdale of Exeter, North 

 of Winchester, three fleurs-de-lis, two in chief 

 and one in base; Stretton of Lichfield, three fleurs- 

 de-lis in bend. Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



Sir John Egles, who was knighted by King 

 James IT. in the last year of his reign, and was 

 Lord Mayor of London in 1688, bore : Argent, a 

 fess engrailed, and in chief three fleurs-de-lis sable. 



The family of France, now represented by 

 James France, Esq., of Bostock Hall, co. Cheshire, 

 bear : Ai-gent, on a mount in base a hurst proper, 

 a chief wavy azure, charged with three fleurs-de- 

 lis or. (The last are probably armes parlantes.) 



Halford of Wistow bears : Argent, a greyhound 

 passant sable, on a chief azure, three fleurs-de-lis 

 or. Lewis Evans. 



Devoniensis is informed, that the family of 

 Saunders bear the following coat of arms : viz. 

 Argent, three fleurs-de-lis sable, on a chief of the 

 second three fleurs-de-lis of the first. Also, that 

 the families of Chesterfield, Warwyke, Kempton, 

 &c, bear : Three fleurs-de-lis in a line (horizon- 

 tal) in the upper part of the shield. See Glovers' 

 Ordinary, augmented and improved in Berry's 

 Encyclopaedia Heraldica, vol. i. H. C. C. 



Newspaper Folk Lore (Vol. ix., p. 29.). — 

 Although (apparently unknown to Londoner) the 

 correspondent of 2 he Times, under "Naval In- 

 telligence," in December last, with his usual accu- 

 racy, glanced at the " snake lore " merely to laugh 

 at the fable, I have written to a gallant cousin of 

 mine, now serving as a naval officer at Portsmouth, 

 and subjoin his reply to my letter ; it will, I 

 think, amply suffice to disabuse a Londoner's, or 

 his friend's, mind of any impression of credence to 

 be attached to it, as regards the snake : 



" II.M.S. Excellent. — Jonathan Smith, gunner's 

 mate of the Hastings, joined this ship from the 

 Hastings in July ; went on two months' leave, 

 but came back in August very ill, and was imme- 



diately sent to the hospital for general dropsy, of 

 which he shortly after died, and he was buried 

 in Kingston churchyard, being followed to the 

 grave by a part of the ship's company of the 

 Excellent. 



" Shortly before his death a worm, not a snake, 

 came from him. It was nine inches in length ; 

 but though of such formidable dimensions, such 

 things are common enough in the East Indies, 

 where this man must have swallowed it, when 

 very small, in water. They seldom are the cause 

 of death, and, in the pi'esent instance, had nothing 

 whatever to do with it. The story of the snake 

 got into some of the papers, but was afterwards 

 contradicted in several." 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Nattochiis and Calchanti (Vol. ix., p. 36.). — 

 Your correspondent F. S. A. asks what " cum 

 g a nis et nattochiis" means, in a charter of the date 

 of Edward II. At that time nattes signified 

 reeds, and possibly withies : and the words quoted 

 I believe to mean, " with all grass and reeds (or 

 reed-beds)." He also inquires what is meant, in 

 a deed of grant of the time of Queen Elizabeth, by 

 a grant of " decimas calchanti," &c. ? It signifies 

 "tithes ways," &c. The original law Latin for 

 the modern phrase " all ways," &c, was calceata, 

 signifying "raised ways." 



This word has (at different periods) been 

 written, calceata, calcata, calcea, calchia, chaucee, 

 and chausse; all of them, however, meaning the 

 same thing. John Thrufp. 



11. York Gate. 



Marriage Ceremony in the Fourteenth Century 

 (Vol. ix., p. 33.). — If R. C. will refer to Palmer's 

 Origines Liturgica> (Rivington,1845, vol. ii. p. 214.), 

 he will find that the first part of the matrimonial 

 office was " anciently termed the espousals, which 

 took place some time before the actual celebration 

 of marriage." Palmer explains : 



" The espousals consisted in a mutual promise of 

 marriage, which was made by the man and woman 

 before the bishop or presbyter, and several witnesses. 

 After which, the articles of agreement of marriage 

 (called tabula matrimonml.es'), which are mentioned by 

 Augustin, were signed by both persons. After this, 

 the man delivered to the woman the ring and other gifts ; 

 an action which was termed subarrhation. In the latter 

 ages the espousals have always been performed at the 

 same time as the office of matrimony, both in the 

 western and eastern churches ; and it has long been 

 customary for the ring to be delivered to the woman 

 after the contract has been made, which has always been 

 in the actual office of matrimony." 



Wheatly also speaks of the ring as a " token of 

 spousage." He tell us that — 



" In the old manual for the use of Salisbury, before 

 the minister proceeds to the marriage, he is directed to 



