NOTES — ORlf.INAI. AND SELECTED. 183 



ones is about the eighth of an inch in diameter, and never (as in the forgeries) in 

 tlie middle of the stem, but almost always close to the top or bottom of it. 

 Forgeries — that is to say, modern pipes on this pattern — are very common, and 

 are better made as to the bowls. I may add that smoking these little pipes is 

 an acquired taste, for they are rather hot until they become seasoned, while they 

 hold so little that )-our tobacco pouch seems never to be out of your hands." — 

 R. G. Cole, Buckhurst Hill. 



The Common Seal of Colchester. — The well-known Esse.x: antiquary, 

 Mr. J. Horace Round, writes as follows to the " Essex County Standard " of 

 October 29th : — 



"Seven years ago (1885), there was exhibited before the Royal Society of 

 Antiquaries an impression of a common seal of Colchester till then virtually 

 unknown, attached to a deed of 1379. Dr. Percival, who wrote an account of it 

 (which Dr. Laver copied into our local Archaeological transactions), was of 

 opinion, from its rude workmanship, that the seal might date ' from the middle 

 or tnd of the thirteenth century.' As the impression exhibited was imperfect, 

 the ' legend ' has remained in doubt, antiquaries having failed to restore it, the 

 suggested reading ran : — 



' S Burg\_fnsium ville CJolcestrensis ' on one side ; and on the 



other : ' Ouam crux insignit Helenam (Z\_oicestriu g>g'\n\t.' 



I am now in a position to supply the true reading of this curious ' legend ' : — 

 COLCESTRENSIS SUM BURGI COMMUNE SIGILLUM 

 QUAM CRUX INSIGNIT HELENAM COLCESTRIA GINGNIT, 



Both lines, it will be seen, are hexameters, and both have a rhyming syllable 

 at the ccesura. They may be rendered thus : — 



i^A.") ' I am the common seal of the burgh of Colchester.' 



(^.) ' Colchester gave birth to Helen, whom the cross renders famous.' 



St. Helen is seen brandishing the cross accordingly on the seal. This ren- 

 dering assumes that the barbarous ' gingnit ' was used for ' genuit.' 



There was also, I think, a third seal, of small size, which appears to be wholly 

 unknown, but was in use in the sixteenth centur}-. It was of good design, and 

 was probably employed by the bailiffs." 



An Ancient MS. Recipe Book, — Our member, Mr. J. C. Shenstone, of 

 Colchester, has lately presented to the library of the Pharmaceutical Society of 

 London, an old manuscript recipe book of great interest ; and at the first ordinary 

 meeting of the Society for the session, held in London on November 9th, a short 

 account of it was, by request of the President, given by Mr. Shenstone. He 

 said that he had found the book in looking through some old business papers. 

 The first portion of it was in the cramped but neat writing of the seventeenth 

 century, but the first dated entry was : "John Richardson, his Book, July ye 30, 

 1713.' A recipe was given for Great's " Nost Vinum." Mr. Great was a Col- 

 chester apothecary of repute, and was maker of the " Candied Eringo," first 

 manufactured by his master, Thomas Buxton, apothecary, and Alderman of 

 Colchester at the time of the Civil War. Some of the recipes are curious, as, for 

 instance, the following : — 



" R. The parings of Stone Horse hoofs, rinds of Cheshire cheese, shreads of Scarlet cloth, 

 all these cut small and burnt in a chaffing dish, sett in a close stove, over the smudge. J'robatum 

 est Dr. .M." 



The miscellaneous recipes include: "To make a Girl or Maid a good colour," 

 " .A Fume against ye Plague," " Shoe Balls," etc. .Altogether the book gives a 



