236 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 15. 
Fairholt (Costume in England) says, the earliest 
notice of it is in the reign of Elizabeth, and gives 
the following quotation from Stubbes’s Anatomy 
of Abuses, 1580 : — 
« And as the fashions be rare and strange, so is the 
stuff whereof their hats be made divers also; for some 
are of silk, some of velvet, some of taffetie, some of 
sarcenet, some of wool, and, which is more curious, 
some of a certvin kind of fine haire; these they call 
bever Auttes, of xx, xxx, or xl shillings price, fetched 
from beyond the seas, from whence a great sort of 
other varieties doe come besides,” GaASTROs. 
Meaning of “ Pisan.” —Mr. Turner (No.7. p. 
100.) asks the meaning of the term pisan, used in 
old records for some part of defensive armour. 
Meyrick (Ancient Armour, vol. i. p. 155, 2d 
ed.) gives a curious and interesting inventory of 
the arms and armour of Louis le Hutin, King of 
France, taken in the year 1316, in which we find, 
“Item 3 ccloretes Pizanes de jazeran d'acier.” 
He describes pizane (otherwise written pizaine, 
pusen, pesen) as a collar made, or much in fashion, 
at Pisa. The jazeran armour was formed of over- 
lapping plates. In the metrical romance of Kyng 
Alisaunder, edited by Weber, occur the lines — 
« And Indiens, and Emaniens, 
With swordes, lances, and pesens.” 
Weber explains the pesens here as gorgets, ar- 
mour for the neck. 
In more recent MSS. pisan may be a con- 
traction for partisan, a halberd. 
I cannot agree with your correspondent “ A. F.” 
(p. 90.), that the nine of diamonds was called 
“the curse (cross) of Scotland” from its resem- 
blance to the cross of St. Andrew, which has the 
form of the Roman X; whereas the pips on the 
nine of diamonds are arranged in the form of the 
letter H. ‘ Mend the instance.” 
Erratum. P.181. col. 2. line3., for obscurities, 
read obscenities. 
Cambridge, Jan. 31. 1850. GastTRos. 
Pokership — God tempers the Wind.—I am 
disposed to think that Parkership will turn out to 
be the right explanation, because almost every 
forest or chase contained a fenced park, in which 
the deer were confined; and the charge of the 
woods and park might be consigned to the same 
person ; and the error in spelling the word was 
probably copied from one genealogist to another. 
Nevertheless, Mr.Corney’s conjecture may be 
right, as Forby (Vocabulary, vol. ii. p. 258.) men- 
tions Poke-Day as the day on which the allowance 
of corn is made to the labourers, who, in some 
places, receive a part of their wages in that form. 
Now the Pokerer might be the officer who dis- 
tributed the grain on these occasions. 
I open my note to add, that Mr. Gutch (No. 14. 
p- 211.) will find, in Sterne’s Sentimental Journey 
—“ God tempers the wind,” said Maria, ‘to the 
shorn lamb.” 
The words which I have underlined are printed 
in Italics in my edition of the work (London, 
12mo. 1790), which may indicate that they are 
quoted from some other author. BRAYBROOKE. 
Audley End, Feb. 2. 
Walewich or Watewich.—I have made the re- 
ference suggested by “ W. B. M.” 
Canute was residing at Walewich, and the 
Abbot of Ely was consecrated there by the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. This “‘ Walewich” can be 
no obscure place, and we need not look for it in 
Cambridgeshire. 
Iam inclined to think that the word ought to 
have been written Warewich, 7. e. Warwick. 
Soham Mere (Mare de Soham) once covered 
13693 acres. — Lyson’s Cambridge, 254. 
Portum Pusillum, if not Littleport, was a place 
upon the Cam or the Ouse, within sight of Ely 
Minster. 
Does your correspondent suppose that North- 
muth was among the fens? If so, he may consult 
Inquisitio Eliensis, or Dugdale’s Map of the Bed- 
ford Level, which is in the Museum. J.F.M. 
Dec. 22. 
Madoc's Emigration to America. — “ ANGto- 
CamBrian” (No. 4. p. 57.), in contradiction to 
the occurrence of Madoc’s emigration, has ad- 
duced what he supposes to be a gross anachronism 
in the words “ Madoc was directed by the best 
compass, and this in 1170!” Now, unfortunately 
for this opinion, the passage on which it is founded 
will not allow of his interpretation. The original 
words are in Sir Thomas Herbert's Travels, and, 
in his expressive language, they are as follows :—- 
“ By Providence, the best compass, and benefit of 
the pole-star, he returned safely to his own 
country.” Most certainly this cannot imply that 
Madoc was acquainted with the mariner’s com- 
pass. 
“J. M. T." also seems to give great weight to 
the fact of a “ Welsh-Indian vocabulary ” having 
been formed, containing no trace of any Celtic 
root. This seems conclusive, yet it is not so; for 
I have some words, extracted from a vocabulary 
of the Mandan (Indian) language made by Mr. 
Catlin, during his sojourn among them, all of 
which, with very slight allowance for corruption, 
are clearly Welsh. Mr. Catlin believes the 
Mandans to have been descended from the fol- 
lowers of Prince Madoc, from the strong evidence 
which he considers his stay among them afforded 
him, and detailed in his work on the Indians. I 
regret to add, that the Mandans have been ex- 
terminated by the small-pox and the weapons of 
their enemies. Ihave long taken a deep, because 
a national, interest in this question, and have en- 
deavoured to examine in the spirit of that noble 
