326 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 232. 



Gibbon remarks, " he shows a genuine knowledge of 

 antiquity very extraordinary for a monk of the four- 

 teenth century." In 1809, an edition was published 

 in London, entitled The Description of Britain, trans- 

 lated from Ricardus of Cirencester, with the original 

 treatise De Situ Britannia, with a map and a fac-simile 

 of the MS., as well as a Commentary on the Itinerary. 

 It has been reprinted in the Six Old English Chro- 

 nicles in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, but without the 

 map. The Itinerary contains eighteen journeys, which 

 Richard says he compiled from certain fragments 

 written by a Roman general, and from Ptolemy and 

 other authors. He mentions 176 stations, while An- 

 toninus has only 1 1 3.] 



Inscription on the Brass of Sir G. Felbrigge. — 

 Can any of your numerous correspondents afford 

 me an explanation of the following fragment of an 

 inscription from the brass of Sir George Felbrigge, 

 Playford, Suffolk? Each word is separated by 

 the letter iH, and a demi-rose conjoined. The 

 part enclosed in brackets is now lost, but was re- 

 maining in Gough's time : 



" Funda de per a dieu loange et dieu pur lalme de 

 lui al [dieu quil est pete ei(t) ceste]." 



This is the order in which the words now stand ; 

 but as they are quite unintelligible, and the fillet 

 shows evident signs of having been broken in 

 several places, we may reasonably suppose that 

 they were misplaced when the brass was moved 

 from its original slab. The principal word, about 

 which I am in difficulty, is pete. Can it be the 

 same as " pitie ?" If so, I venture to suggest the 

 following explanation, till some one may offer me 

 a better : 



" . . . jfils de pere qui funda ceste place, a dieu 

 est loange et qu'il eit pitie, priez pur l'alme de lui a 

 dieu." 



The words printed in Italics are supplied to com- 

 plete the sense. F. G. 



[Perhaps the following words in Italics may be sup- 

 plied for those obliterated : " Ceste Chaunterie estait 

 fonde de part de George Felbrigge, Ch r . A Dieu soit 

 loange et gloire . . . priez pur 1'asme de lui a Dieu quil 

 eit pite ..." 



The following notice of the destruction of this beau- 

 tiful brass is given in Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. 

 MSS. 19,086. p. 342. : " The brass in memory of Sir 

 George Felbrigge, which had for a long time been 

 covered by the pews, was three or four years ago, in 

 consequence of some repairs, uncovered, when the in- 

 cumbent and his curate had it torn from the stone, and 

 it was for some time lying in pieces at the mercy of 

 any pilferer. Mr. Albert Way, the Director of the 

 Society of Antiquaries in Feb. 1844, wrote to me, to 

 ask what was become of the figure ; and, in conse- 

 quence, as I had not an opportunity of visiting the 

 church myself, I wrote to Mr. Arthur Biddell for in- 

 formation ; and the following is a copy of his answer, 

 dated Feb. 23, 1844 : ' Felbrigge's monument was 

 removed, much against my wishes, from its former 



place in the N. E. corner of the church to the chancel 

 under the communion table, where it is fixed ; forming 

 part of the pavement. The broken pieces of brass are 

 again fixed in the stone ; but so many of the pieces 

 were long ago lost, and I think those which were 

 lately separated from the stone are not placed in their 

 original position : so, except the figure, there is little 

 remains to convey an idea of the ornamental and beau- 

 tiful work by which the figure was surrounded.' "] 



Skipwith. — 



" ' Here lyeth the body of William Skipwith, Ba- 

 ronet, who deceased the 25th of February, 1764, aged 

 fifty-six years. He descended from Sir Henry Skip- 

 with of Prestwould, in Leicestershire, created baronet 

 by King James I., was honoured with King Charles I.'s 

 commission for raising men against the usurping 

 powers, and proved loyal to his king, so that he was 

 deprived of his estate by the usurper, which occasioned 

 his and his sons' death, except Sir Gray Skipwith, 

 grandfather of the abovesaid Sir William Skipwith, 

 who was obliged to come to Virginia for refuge, where 

 the family hath continued ever since.' 



" Inscription copied from tombstone of Sir William, 

 who lies buried at Greencroft, near Petersburg, Vir- 

 ginia." — See South. Messenger, vol. ix. p. 591. 



I should be obliged for information as to Sir 

 Henry. T. Balch. 



Philadelphia. 



[Sir Henry Skipwith was created a baronet 

 Dec. 20, 1622, and in 1629 obtained, jointly with Sir 

 Thomas Walsingham, Knt, a grant of lands in the 

 counties of Leicester, Derby, &c. ; in 1631 a grant of 

 free- warren for his lands in Leicestershire; in 1636 

 was high sheriff for the county ; and in 1637 certain 

 amerciaments against him on account of that office, 

 which had been returned into the Court of Chancery, 

 were certified to the Court of Exchequer. Heartily 

 espousing the cause of Charles I., he was one of the 

 Commissioners of Array for this county, and on 

 May 28, 1645, had the honour of entertaining his so- 

 vereign at Cotes, after which he was fined 11147. by 

 the parliamentary sequestrators. He was the last of 

 the family who resided at Cotes ; and amongst his 

 poems is " An Elegy on the Death of my never enough 

 lamented master, King Charles I." The others are 

 chiefly of a melancholy turn. Sir Henry, his second 

 son, died soon after his father, unmarried ; whereupon 

 his title and estate went to his next brother Sir Gray, 

 who, after the death of the king, went with several 

 other gentlemen, to avoid the usurpation, over to Vir- 

 ginia, and there married, and left one son. — Nichols's 

 Leicestershire, vol. iii. p. 367., which also contains a 

 pedigree of the family. Consult also Lloyd's Worthies, 

 p. 649.] 



College Battel. — What is the derivation of a 

 word peculiar to the universities, battels : is it con- 

 nected with batten f S. A. 



[In Todd's Johnson we read, " Battel, from Sax. 

 taelan or tellan, to count, or reckon, having the pre- 

 fix be. The account of the expenses of a student in 



