Oct. 19. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



profits as the religious persons did possess them, I 

 conceive they are to this day paid as an appendant to 

 the said manors, by the name of Smoke Money. 



J. B. 



Smoke Money ("Vol. ii., pp. 120. 269.). — I do 

 not know whether anj additional information on 

 smoke money is required ; but the following ex- 

 tracts may be interesting to your Querist : — 



" At this daie the Bp. of Elie hath out of everie 

 parish in Cambridgeshire a certeine tribute called Elie 

 Farthings, or Smoke Farthings, wliich the church- 

 wardens do levie, according to the number of houses, 

 or else of chimneys that be in a parish." — MSS. 

 Baker, xxix. 326. 



The date of this impost is given in the next 

 extract : — 



" By the records of the Church of Elie, it appears 

 that in the year 11 54, every person who kept a fire in the 

 several parishes within that diocese was obliged to pay 

 one farthing yearly to the altar of S. Peter, in the same 

 cathedral." — MS-S. Bowtell, Downing Coll. Library. 



This tax was paid in 1516, but how much later 

 I cannot say. 



The readers of Macaulay will be familiar with 

 the term " hearth-money" (^History, vol. i. p. 283.), 

 and the amusing illustrations he produces, from the 

 ballads of the day, of the extreme unpopularity of 

 the tax on chimneys, and the hatred in which the 

 " chimney man" was held (i. 287.) : but this was a 

 ditTereut impost from that spoken of above, and 

 paid to the king, not to the cathedral. It was 

 collected for the last time in 1690, having been 

 first levied in 1653, when, Hume tells us, the king's 

 debts had become so — 



" Intolerable, that the Coinmons were constrained 

 to vote him an extraordinary supply of 1,200,000/., to 

 be levied by eighteen months' assessment, and finding 

 upon eiKjuiry that the several branches of the revenue 

 fell much short of the sums they expected, they at last, 

 after inucli delay, voted a new imposition of 2s. on each 

 hearth, and this tax they settled on the king during his 

 life." 



The Rev. Giles Moore, Rector of Ilorstead 

 Keynes, Sussex, notes in his Diary (published by 

 the Sussex Arciiajological Society), — 



" August 18. 16G3 — I payed fore 1 half yearcs 

 earth-money 3». 



Other notices of this payment may be supplied 

 by otlier correspondents. E. Venables. 



Holland Land (Vol. il., p. 267.). — Holland 

 means hole or hollow land — land lower than the 

 level of contiguous water, and protecteil by dykes. 

 So Holland., one of tlie United Provinces ; so Hol- 

 land, the southern division of Lincolnshire. C. 



Caconac, Caconacqueric (Vol. ii., p. 267.). — 

 This is a misprint of yours, or a missi)eUing of 

 your correspondent's. The word is cacouac, ca- 

 couacqurie. It was a cant word used by Voltaire 



and his correspondents to signify an unbeliever in 

 Christianity, and was, I think, borrowed from the 

 name of some Indian tribe supposed to be in a 

 natural state of freedom and exemption from pre- 

 judice. C. 



Discourse of National Excellencies of England 

 (Vol. ii., p. 248.). — A Discourse of the National 

 Excellencies of England was not written by Sir 

 Rob. Howard, but by Richard Hawkins, whose 

 name appears at length in the title-page to some 

 copies ; others have the initials only. P, B. 



Saffron Bags (Vol. ii., p. 217.). — In almost all 

 old works on Materia Medica the use of these bags 

 is mentioned. Quincy, in his Dispensatory, 1730, 

 p. 179., says: — 



" Some prescribe it (saffron) to be worn with cam- 

 phire in a bag at the pit of the stomach for melancholy ; 

 and others affirm that, so used, it will cure agues." 



Ray observes {Cat. Plant. Angl., 1777, p. 84.): 

 " Itenique in sacculo suspenditur sub mento vel 

 gutture ad dissipandam sc. materiani putridam et vene- 

 nattim, ne ibidem stagnans, inilammatiouem excitet, 

 a;giotum(]ue strangulet." 



The origin of the " saffron bag" is probably to 

 be explained by the strong aromatic odour of 

 saffron, and the high esteem in which it was once 

 held as a medicine ; though now it is used chiefly 

 as a colouring ingredient, and by certain elderly 

 ladies, with antiquated notions, as a specific for 

 " striking out" the measles in their grandchildren. 



N. n. 



Milton's "Pe7iseroso" (Vol. ii., p. 153.). — 

 H. a. B. desires to understand the couplet — 



" And love the high embower'd roof, 

 With antique pillars massy proof." 



He is puzzled whether to consider "proof" an ad- 

 jective belonging to '" pillars," or a substantive 

 in apposition with it. All the commentators seem 

 to have passed the line without observation. I am 

 almost afraid to suggest that we should read 

 "pillars' "in the genitive plural, "proof" being 

 taken in the sense of established strength. 



Before dismissing this conjecture, i have taken 

 the pains to examine every one of the twenty-four 

 otlier passages in which Milton has used the word 

 "proof." 1 find that it occurs only four times as 

 an adjective ; in all of which it is followed by some- 

 thing dependent upon it. In three of them thus : 



" not proof 



Against temptation." — Pur. L. ix. 298. 



" proof 'gainst all assaults." — 76. x. 88. 



" Proof .-igainst all temptation." — Par. R. iv. 5^3. 



la the fourth, which is a little difl'orent, thus: 



" left some part 



Not proof enough such object to sustain." 



Par. L. viii. 535. 



