April 22. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



371 



always specially enacted before the offender's 

 door. 



Another, and perhaps less objectionable, mode 

 of shaming men out of a brutal and an unmanly 

 practice, is to empty a sack of chaff at the 

 offender's door, — an intimation, I suppose, that 

 thrashing has been " done within." Perhaps this 

 latter custom gave rise to the term ■ chaffing." 

 Thirty years ago both these customs were very 

 common in this locality ; but, either from an im- 

 proved tone of morality, or from the comparative 

 rarity of the offence that led to them, both ridings 

 and chaffings are now of very rare occurrence. 



Can any reader of " N. & Q." inform me whether 

 these customs have prevailed, or still prevail, in 

 other counties ? Thomas R. Potter. 



Wymeswold, Leicestershire. 



Henry of Huntingdon's " Letter to Walter" — 

 Mr. Forester (Bonn's Antiquarian Library) de- 

 cides, in opposition to Wharton and Hardy, that 

 this epistle was written in 1135, during the life- 

 time of Henry I., and there can be no doubt that 

 the passage he quotes bears him out in this ; but 

 it is not less certain that, whether owing to the 

 death of the friend to whom the letter was ad- 

 dressed, or from a wholesome fear of the resent- 

 ment of that king who is so roughly handled in it, 

 the publication was deferred long enough for the 

 author to reinforce by a few " modern instances " 

 of more recent date, the " wise saws " which are 

 so plentifully diffused through it : for instance, at 

 p. 313. he mentions the death of Louis VI. of 

 France, which occurred 1st August, 1137, twenty 

 months after the death of Henry. And it is pro- 

 bable that a closer search than I have the means 

 of making, would reveal other instances of a like 

 nature, though this is sufficient by itself. 



After all, is it not possible that the worthy 

 archdeacon (like Bolingbroke at a future day) 

 may have antedated his letter to give himself an 

 air of boldness and independence beyond what he 

 really possessed ? This would account not only 

 for the references to later occurrences, but for the 

 accurate fulfilment of the prophecy which he 

 quotes about the duration of the reign of Henry I. 



J. S. Warden. 



Arthuriana. — List of places designated with 

 traditional reference to King Arthur. {To be 

 continued.) 



In Cornwall : 



King Arthur's Castle. Nutagel. 



King Arthur's Hall. An oblong inclosure on the 



moors, near Camelford. 

 King Arthur's bed. A slab of granite with pack- 

 shaped piece for bolster, on Trewortha tor. 



S. R. Pattison. 



Encyclopedia of Indexes^ or Tables of Contents. 

 — I should like your opinion, and that of the 



readers of " N. & Q.," as to the desirableness and 

 practicability of forming a collection of the indexes 

 of those books most commonly required to be re- 

 ferred to by authors and scholars. In reading up 

 on any subject, when it is wished to know whether 

 any author treats upon it, mainly or incidentally, 

 his works must be examined at a great expense 

 of time and labour. Perhaps some of your learned 

 readers will express their views as to the value of 

 such a thesaurus, and give suggestions as to the 

 principles which ought to regulate its execution. 

 Thinks I to Myself. 



Errata in Nichols 1 " Collectanea Topographica 

 et Genealogical — Works of this kind, unless 

 strictly accurate, cause great perplexity and con- 

 fusion, and are indeed of little use. I therefore 

 wish to note in your pages that at vol. viii. p. 38. 

 of the above work it is stated that Babington 

 " married Juliana, daughter of Sir Thomas Howe, 

 Alderman of London."" Harl. MSS. 1174. p. 89., 

 1551. p.28., 1096. p. 71., inform us that Julian 

 Rowe, daughter of Sir William Rowe, who was 

 Lord Mayor of London in 1592, married Francis 

 Babington. Sir William and Sir Thomas were 

 first cousins. In the same page Sir Thomas Rowe 

 is stated to have died in 1612; on his tomb we 

 are told that he died in 1570. Tee Bee. 



genesis iv. 7. 



Can any of your learned Hebraists elucidate the 

 passage in Gen. iv. 7., which called forth the fol- 

 lowing remarks from Bishop Sandford ? 



" As yet I cannot abandon the literal interpretation 

 of the words f21 DNJin nriSp, and I am much sur- 

 prised that, in all the criticism bestowed on this verse 

 by Davison and the authors whom he quotes, nothing 

 is said of the word nHD. I do not know of any place 

 in Holy Scripture where this word is used figuratively, 

 and unless this can be shown, there is no supporting 

 so strong a metaphor as the advocates of the figurative 

 meaning of the passage contend for. Davison takes 



no notice of the remainder of the verse Now 



the words are remarkable ; they are the same as those 

 in which the Lord declares the suhjection of Eve to 

 her husband, Gen. iii. 16. I have always thought this 

 passage (Gen. iv. 7.) to allude to Abel; and to pro- 

 mise to Cain the continuance of the priority of primo- 

 geniture, if he were reconciled to God." — Remains of 

 Bishop Sandford, vol. i. p. 13 J. 



With respect to the word nriQ, the literal inter- 

 pretation of which is a door, entrance, or gate, 

 Archbishop Magee renders the passage thus : "A 

 sin-offering lieth before or at the door," the word 

 f*2") implying to crouch or lie down as an animal ; 

 thereby alluding to the sacrifice which was ap- 



