520 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 61. 



good one, and among other good qualities "she 

 never went caxiking into the neighboui-'s houses." 

 Unde derivatur " cauking ? " Chas. Paslam. 



THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM. 



(Vol. ii., p. 476.) 



The proverb, "As wise as the men of Gotham" 

 is given in Fuller's Worthies (ed. 1662, ]jp. 315, 

 316.). Ray, in his note upon this, observes 



" It passeth for the Periphrasis of a fool, and an 

 hundred fopperies are feigned and fathered on the 

 townsfolk of Gotham, a village in this county [Not- 

 tinghamshire]. Here two things may he observed ; 



" 1. JMen in all ages have made themselves merry 

 with singling out some place, and fixing the staple of 

 stupidity and solidity therein. So the Phrygians in 

 Asia, the AbdtritcB in Tlirace, and Bccotians in Greece, 

 were notorious for dulmen and hloekheads. 



" 2. These places thus slighted and scoffed at, af- 

 forded some as witty and wise persons as the world 

 produced. So Denwcritus was an Abderite, Plutarch a 

 Bceotian, &c. 



" As for Gotham, it doth breed as wise people as any 

 which causelessly laugli at their simplicity. Sine I 

 am Mr. William rle Gotham, filth Master of Michael 

 House in Cambridge, 1336, and twice Chancellor of 

 the University, was as grave a governor as that age did 

 aflFord." — 3d ed. p. 25S. 



InTlioroiou sNottiiigha7?is7i>re, vol. i. pp.42, 4-3., 

 the origin of the saying, as handed down by tradi- 

 tion, is thus given : — King Jolin intending to pass 

 through this place towards Noltinghain, was pre- 

 vented by tlie inhabitants, they apprehending that 

 the ground over wldcdi a king passed was for ever 

 after to become a public road. The king, incensed 

 at tlieir proceedings, sent from his court, soon 

 afterwards, some of his servants to intpiire of them 

 tlie reason of their inrivility and ill-treatment, 

 that he might punish tliem. The villagers hearing 

 of the approach of the king's servants, thought of 

 an expedient to turn away his majesty's displea- 

 sure from them. AVhen the messengers arrived at 

 Gotham, they found some of the inhabitants en- 

 gaged in endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool 

 of water; some were employed in dragging carts 

 upon a large barn, to shade the wood from the 

 sun ; and others were engaged in hedging a 

 cuckoo, which had perched itself upon an old 

 bush. In short, they were all employed upon 

 some foolish way or other, which convince<l the 

 king's servants that it was a village of fools. 



Should J. R. M. not yet have seen it, I beg to 

 refer him to Mr. HalliweU's interesting edition of 

 The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham 

 (Lond. IS 40) for fuller and further particidars. 



J. J3. Coi.MAN. 



MrpTtCi^ to d^inor ©ucn'cS. 



Master John Shame. — As neither Mr. Thoms' 

 Notes (Vol. ii., p. .387.) nor Mr. Wat's (p. 450.) 

 mention where this reputed saint lived, or speak 

 of him as connected with Buckinghamshire, 1 will 

 offer an extract from Lysons in the hope of cast- 

 ing some little light on the subject. 



" North Marston. — The church is a handsome Gothic 

 structure ; there is a tradition that the chancel was 

 built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, 

 a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, 

 who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290, 

 and it is said that the place became populous and 

 flourishhig in consequence of the great resort of per- 

 sons to a well which he had blessed. This story stands 

 upon a better foundation than most vulgar traditions ; 

 tlie great tithes of North Marston are still appropri- 

 ated to the dean and canons of Windsor, who, before 

 the Reformation might without difficulty have rebuilt 

 the chancel, as it is very probable they did, with the 

 offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, for we are 

 told that they were so productive, that on an average 

 thev amounted to 500^. per annum.* Sir John Shorne, 

 therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears 

 to have been a saint of no small reputation. The 

 common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his 

 memory by many traditional stories. Browne Willis 

 says, that in his time there were people who remem- 

 bcred a direction-post standing, which pointed the way 

 to Sir John Shorne's shrine."f 



North Marston, formerly Merston, is .about four 

 miles from Winslow. I visited it about a year 

 ago, and drank of the well, or spring, which is 

 about a quarter of a mile from the village; but 

 I know nothing of the traditions alluded to by 

 Lysons. Tlie chancel of the church is a fine spe- 

 cimen of perpendicular style, with a vestry of the 

 same date, and of two stories, with a fireplace in 

 each. I do not find North i\Iarston, in Bucks, 

 mentioned in Leland, Camden, or Defoe, nor can 

 I meet with any account of Sir John Shorne in 

 any books of En;rlish saints within my reach. A 

 copy of Browne Willis's MSS. may be seen in the 

 British Museum. W. H. K. 



For the information of those who may not have 

 the Norfolk Archceologtj to refer to, let me add 

 that John Shorne ajipears to have been rector of 

 North Marston, in Buckinghamshire, about the 

 year 1290, "and was held in great veneration for 

 his virtues, which his benediction had imparted to 

 a holy well in his parish, and for his miracles, one 

 of which, the feat of conjxiring the devil into a boot, 

 w.as considered so remarkable that it was repre- 

 sented in the east window of his church." E. S. T. 



Antiquity of Smoking. — The passage is in He- 

 rodian. In the time of Commodus there was a 



* History of Windsor, p. 111. 



f B. Willis's MSS., Bodleian Library. 



