304 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 231. 



Degrees in Arts. — In the diploma of Master of 

 Arts which I obtained from the University of 

 Edinburgh, occur the words : 



" Cunctaque consecutum esse Privilegia, Immuni- 

 tates, Jura, quae hie aut usquam alibi Bonarum Artium 

 Magistris concedi solent." 



What are (or rather were, for I suppose they do 

 not now exist) these privilegia, immunitates, and 

 jura ? Annandale. 



" Goloshes" — " Kutchin-hutchu" —What is the 

 origin of goloshes, as the name of water-proof 

 shoes ? It is, of course, of American derivation. 

 But has it any connexion with the tribe of North 

 American Indians, the Goloshes ? They are the 

 immediate neighbours of those tribes of Esqui- 

 maux who form water-proof boats and dresses 

 from the entrails of the seal ; and a confusion of 

 names may easily have occurred. 



The expedition of Sir John Richardson to the 

 Arctic shores, which suggests the above Query, 

 -also gives rise to another. , Did any of your 

 readers ever amuse themselves, as children, by 

 "performing the dance known as hdchin kutchu-ing ; 

 which consists in jumping about with the legs 

 bent in a sitting posture ? If so, have they not 

 been struck with a philological mania, on seeing 

 his picture of the Kutchin^Kutcha Indians dan- 

 cing ; in which the principal performer is actually 

 figuring in the midst of the wild circle in the way 

 described. Is not the nursery term something 

 more than a mere coincidence ? Seleucus. 



Cornwalls of London. — Perhaps some reader of 

 "N. & Q." may be able to inform me what were 

 the arms, crest, and motto of the Cornwalls of 

 London ? One of the family, John Cornwall, was 

 a Director of the Bank of England in 1769. F. C. 



Beverley. 



Flashs for Wine-bottles. — When, and under 

 what circumstances, did the common use of flasks 

 in this country, for holding wine, go out? Hogarth 

 died in 1764, and in none of his pictures, I believe, 

 is the wine-bottle, in its present shape, to be seen. 

 On the other hand, I have never found any person 

 able to remember the use of flasks, or indeed any 

 other than the wine-bottle in its present shape. 

 The change must have been rapidly effected be- 

 tween 1760 and 1790. Of course I am aware that 

 certain wines, Greek, I believe, are still imported 

 in flasks. Henry T. Riley. 



Froxhalmi, Prolectricus, Phytacus, Tuleus, Can- 

 dos, Gracianus, and Tounu or Tonnu. — Can any 

 of your correspondents suggest the meaning of 

 these words, or either them ? They are not in 

 the recent Paris edition of Ducange. 



Henry T. Riley. 



#Ktt0r eautt'terf tot ft 3n£tocr«?. 



Postmaster at Merton College. — Can you tell 

 me whether there is any known derivation for the 

 term "Postmaster," as applied to part of the mem- 

 bers on the Foundation of Merton College, Ox- 

 ford? Also, What connexion there is between 

 this word and the Latin for it, which is seen on 

 the college plate, in the words " In usum Por- 

 tionistarum ? " J. G. T. 



Ch. Ch. 



[It. seems probable that these postmasters formerly 

 occupied one of the postern gates of the college. Hence 

 we find Anthony a Wood, in his Life, August 1, 1635, 

 says, " A fine of 30/i. was set by the warden and fel- 

 lowes of Merton College. When his father renewed his 

 lease of the old stone-house, wherein his son A. Wood 

 was borne (called antiently Portionists' or Postmasters' 

 Hall), for forty yeares," &c. Again, April 13, 1664: 

 " A meeting of the warden and fellowes of Merton 

 College, where the renewing of the leases belonging to 

 the family, concerning the housing (Portionists' Hall 

 and its appurtenances) against Merton College, was by 

 them proposed." Fuller, in his Church Hist, book in. 

 cent. xiii. sect. 8., has given the origin of postmasters. 

 " There is," says he, " a by-foundation in Merton Col- 

 lege, a kind of college in the college, and this tradition 

 goeth of their original: — Anciently there was, over 

 against Merton College, a small unendowed hall, 

 whose scholars had so run in arrears, that their op- 

 posite neighbours, out of charity, took them into their 

 college (then but nine in number) to wait on the fel- 

 lows. But since, they are freed from any attendance, 



and endowed with plentiful maintenance 



Bishop Jewel was a postmaster, before removed hence 

 to be fellow of Corpus Christi." Consult also Oxo- 

 niana, vol. ii. pp. 1 5-22. The Portionistce, or Post- 

 masters, did not reside in the college till the latter end 

 of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in a hall opposite 

 to it, which had been provided for the use of the col- 

 lege by Peter de Habinton, or Habendon, the first 

 warden. It afterwards became the property of the 

 father of Anthony a Wood, and beneath its roof that 

 distinguished antiquary was born, December 17, 1632. 

 The second brother of Anthony became one of the 

 postmasters of Merton College. ] 



" Lyra Apostolica." — Can you inform me who 

 were the writers in the Lyra Apostolica who 

 assumed the letters o, 0, y, 5, e, f ? Tyro. 



[We have heard the initials attributed to the follow- 

 ing writers: — a, Bowden ; 0, R. H. Froude ; y, John 

 Keble ; 8, J. H. Newman ; e, Isaac Williams ; f, Wil- 

 berforce.] 



East Dereham Manor. — Is it true that " the 

 manor of East Dereham of the Queen" was 

 wrested from the See of Ely by Queen Elizabeth's 

 celebrated threat of " unfrocking ? " S. Z. Z. S. 



[The memorable unique epistle from the maiden 

 Majesty of England only deprived Dr. Cox, at that 

 time, of his town-house and fair gardens, called Ely 



