448 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 237. 



Publican's Invitation. — Amongst various other 

 ingenious contrivances adopted by the proprietors 

 of the rosoglio houses (anglice, dram-shops) in 

 Valetta, to attract the custom and patronage of 

 the gallant red-jackets that swarm in our streets 

 at this time, one individual has put forth and dis- 

 tributed among the soldiers the following puzzle, 

 which I send for the amusement of your readers. 

 A very little study will suffice to master the 

 mysterious document. 



" THE PUBLICAN'S INVITATION. 



Here's to Pand's Pen. DASOCI. 

 Alhou Rinha? R. M. (Les Smirt) 

 Ha ! N. D. F. Unlet fri. Ends. 

 HIPRE! ign. Beju ! Standk. 

 Indan ! Devil's Peako ! F. N. 

 (One.)" 



John o' the Ford. 

 Malta. 



Bishop Burnet again! — The following anec- 

 dote occurs in Mrs. Thistlethwaite's Memoirs and 

 Correspondence of Dr. Henry Bathurst, Lord 

 Bishop of Norwich, p. 7. : 



" I have heard my father mention the following 

 anecdote of my grandfather, Benjamin Bathurst, Esq., 

 and the Duke of Gloucester (Queen Anne's son), 

 during their boyhood. My grandfather and the Duke 

 were playfellows ; and the Duke's tutor was Dr. Bur- 

 net. One day, when the Doctor went out of the room, 

 the Duke having as usual courted him, and treated 

 him with obsequious civility, young Bathurst expressed 

 his surprise that his Royal Highness should treat a 

 person, whom he disliked as much as he did the 

 Doctor, with so much courtesy and kindness. The 

 Duke replied, ' Do you think I have been so long a 

 pupil of Dr. Burnet's without learning to be a hypo- 

 crite?' " 



J. Y. 



Old Custom preserved in Warwichshire. — There 

 is a large stone a few miles from Dunchurch, in 

 Warwickshire, called " The Knightlow Cross." 

 Several of Lord John Scott's tenants hold from 

 him on the condition of laying their rent before 

 daybreak on Martinmas Day on this stone : if they 

 fail to do so, they forfeit to him as many pounds 

 as they owe pence, or as many white bulls with 

 red tips to their ears and a red tip to their tail as 

 they owe pence, whichever he chooses to demand. 

 This custom is still kept up, and there is always 

 hard riding to reach the stone before the sun rises 

 on Martinmas Day ? L. M. M. R. 



English Diplomacy v. Russian. — A friend of 

 Sir Henry "VVotton's being designed for the em- 

 ployment of an ambassador, came to Eton, and 

 requested from him some experimental rules for 

 his prudent and safe carriage in his negotiations ; 

 to whom he smilingly gave this for an infallible 

 aphorism, — that, to be in safety himself, and ser- 

 viceable to his country, he should always, and 



upon all occasions, speak the truth (it seems a 

 state paradox). " For," says Sir Henry Wotton, 

 u you shall never he believed; and by this means 

 your truth will secure yourself, if you shall ever 

 be called to any account ; and 'twill also put your 

 adversaries (who will still hunt counter) to a loss 

 in all their disquisitions and undertakings." (Re- 

 liquice Wotloniance.) Alpha. 



toutxiti. 



ANCIENT TENURE OF LANDS. 



(Vol. ix., pp. 173. 309.) 



The following paragraphs, containing both Notes 

 and Queries, will doubtless interest your readers. 



At the last Kent assizes held at Maidstone (March, 

 1854) a case was tried by a special jury, of whom 

 the writer was one, before Mr. Baron Parke; 

 plaintiffs, " the Earl of Romney and others," trus- 

 tees under an act of parliament to pay the debts 

 of the borough of Queenborough, county Kent ; 

 defendants, " the Inclosure Commissioners of 

 England and Wales." Tradition relates that 

 Edward III. was so pleased with his construction 

 of the Castle of Queenborough, that he compli- 

 mented his consort by not only building a town, 

 but creating a borough*, which he named after 

 her honour.f The case, in various shapes, has 

 been before the law courts for some time, and was 

 sent to these Kent assizes to ascertain whether 

 Queenborough was either a manor or a reputed 

 manor. In the course of the trial Baron Parke 

 said, that, in despite of the statute Quia Emptores, 

 he should rule that manors could be created when 

 they contained the essentials. 



My first Query is, therefore, Have any manors 

 been created in England since the passing of that 

 statute ? In my History of Deptford I have 

 alluded to the manor of Hatcham as one of the 

 last manors I supposed to have been created. 



The Inclosure Commissioners, as the defendants, 

 had been prayed by the Leeze-holders J of Queen- 



* Parliamentary History, 1765. — On Wednesday, 

 Dec. 6, 1654, an attempt was made to disfranchise 

 Queenborough : the then member, Mr. Garland, sud- 

 denly and jocularly moved the Speaker that we give not 

 any legacies before the Speaker was dead. This pleasant 

 conceit so took with the House, as, for that time, Queen- 

 borough was reprieved, but was voted for the future 

 to be dismembered, and to be added to the county. — 

 Ap. Burton i. cxi. Archaeological Mine, i. 12. Queen- 

 borough was one of the victims included in Schedule 

 A of the act of parliament known as " The Reform 

 Bill." 



f In our own day Cove has been called Queenstown 

 in honour of Queen Victoria. 



| Leeze-holders, a right of turning on the common 

 or Leeze ( Celtic, Leswes) twenty-four sheep, which of 



