100 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 7. 
of Sir John Ashbornham, as appears by the follow- 
ing entry :— 
“1, January 1624, beeing Saturday, at sixe of y® 
*“clocke att night, atte Whitehall, in y® Duke of 
“ Buckingham’s lodgings, I married Anne Ashborn- 
“ham, third da of Sir John Ashbornham, late of | 
« Ashbornham, Kt,” 
In another entry we have — 
«, .. . Dee. 1626, being thursday, Elizabeth Lady 
«“ Ashbornham widor of S‘ Jno Ashbornham, was mar- 
“ ried in St Giles his Church in y® feildes, nere London, 
“to St Thomas Richardson, K+, then Lo. cheife Justice 
“ of ye comon pleas.” 
The day of the month is torn out. It would almost 
seem as if this was the wedding dinner, on the 
occasion of the marriage of the Chief Justice with 
Lady Dering’s mother; at all events the reunion 
of the family in London was caused by that event. 
was usually set out in another room. 
The large baking pear is still called warden in 
many counties. 
Appended to the above is a bill of the items of 
the “ banquet,” with the cost of hire for the glass 
plates; but it is so hopelessly illegible that I will 
not venture to give it. Many of the items, as far 
as Iean read them, are not to be found in“ the 
books,” and are quite new to me. 
Having had no small experience in deciphering 
hopeless seribblings, I think [ may pronounce this 
to be better left alone than given in its present 
confused state. 
Ryarsh Vicarage. 
MONETA SANCTZ HELEN. 
As a subscriber to your valuable publication, 
allow me to suggest that it might, from time to 
time, be open to contributions explaining obscure 
passages or words, which often occur in the works 
of medizval writers, and more especially in early 
English records. 
customs are concerned, the Glossary of Du Cange 
is of comparatively little value to the English 
student; many terms, indeed, being wrongly in- 
terpreted in all editions of that work. Take, for 
example, the word “ tricesima,” the explanation of 
which is truly ridiculous; under “ berefellarii,” 
the commentary is positively comic; and many 
other instances might be cited, At the same time, 
it would be presumptuous to speak otherwise than 
in terms of the highest respect and admiration of 
Du Cange and his labours. The errors to which 
I allude were the natural consequences of a 
foreigner’s imperfect knowledge of English law 
and English customs; still it is to be lamented 
that they should have remained uncorrected in 
the later editions of the Glossary ; and I take it to 
be our duty to collect and publish, where feasible, 
Lampert B. Larxine. | 
So far as English usages and | 
materials for an English dictionary of medieval 
Latin. It is in your power materially to advance 
such a work, and under that impression I venture 
to send the present “ Note.” 
In the Wardrobe Account of the 55th year of 
Henry the Third, it is stated that among the valu- 
ables in the charge of the keeper of the royal 
wardrobe, there was a silken purse, containing 
“monetam Sancte Helene.” It is well known that, 
during the middle ages, many and various objects 
were supposed to possess talismanic virtues. Of 
this class were the coins attributed to the mother 
of Constantine, the authenticity of which is ques- 
tioned by Du Cange, in his treatise “ de Inferioris 
@vi numismatibus.” He observes, also, that the 
same name was given, vulgarly, to almost all the 
coins of the Byzantine emperors, not only to those 
| bearing the effigies of St. Helena, but indeed to 
‘ - | all marked with a cross, which were commonly 
Banquet was the name given to a dessert, and it | 
worn suspended from the neck as phylacteries ; 
“hence,” he subjoins, “ we find that these coins are 
generally perforated.” It was quite in accordance 
| with the superstitious character of Henry the 
Third that coins of St. Helena should be preserved 
in his wardrobe, among numerous other amulets 
and relics. But what was the peculiar virtue 
attributed to such coins? Du Cange, in the same 
treatise, says, on the authority of “ Bosius,” that 
they were a remedy against the ‘ comitialem mor- 
bum,” or epilepsy. The said “ Bosius,” or rather 
“ Bozius,” wrote a ponderous work, “ de Signis 
Ecclesie Dei” (a copy of which, by the by, is not 
to be seen in the library of the British Museum, al- 
though there are two editions of it in the Bodleian), 
in which he discourseth as follows : — “ Monete 
adhuc aliquot exstant, que in honorem Helene 
Auguste, et invent crucis, cum hujusmodi ima- 
ginibus excusz antiquitus fuerunt.  Illis est pre- 
sens remedium adversus morbum comitialem: et 
| qui hodie vivit Turearum Rex Amurathes, quam- 
| vis a nobis alienus, vim sanctam illarum expertus 
solet eas gestare ; e morbo namque hujusmodi in- 
terdum laborat. Nummi quoque Sancti Ludovici 
Francorum regis mirifice valent adversus nonnullos 
morbos.” — Lib. xv. sig. 68. 
This mention of the sultan Amurath carrying 
these coins about his person as a precaution against 
a disease to which he was subject, and indeed the 
whole passage shows that a belief in their efficacy 
was still prevalent in the sixteenth century, when 
Bozius wrote. It only remains to add, that Du 
Cange, in his Glossary, does not enumerate the 
“‘ money of St. Helena” under the word “ moneta;” 
nor does he allude to the coins of St. Louis, which, 
according to Bozius, were endowed with similar 
properties. 
Having sent you a “ Note,” permit me to make 
two or three “ Queries.” 1. What is the earliest 
known instance of the use of a beaver hat in 
England? 2. What is the precise meaning of the 
