Feb. 22. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



153 



In the accounts rendered to the lord of these fines, 

 there was a distinct title, headed " Fines Vil- 

 larum " when these accounts were in Latin ; and 

 I think it cannot be doubted that the lands and 

 tenures under this title came to be currently called 

 Finevill lands from this circumstance. Hence 

 Fenvill, Fengfield, or Veuvill ; the last being now 

 the usual spelling and pronunciation. R. E. G. 

 may see a specimen of these accounts, and further 

 observations on them, in Mr. Howe's very in- 

 structive Perambulation of Dartmoor, published a 

 year or two ago at Plymouth. E. S. 



Cum Grano Salts (Vol. iii., p. 88.) simply nienns, 

 with a grain of allowance ; spoken of propositions 

 which require qu.alitication. I'lie Camliridije man's 

 explanation, therefore, does not suit the meaning. 

 I have always suppose<l that sails was added to 

 denote a small grain. I find in Forcellini that the 

 Romans called a small flaw in crystals sal. C. B. 



Hoops (Vol. iii., p. 88.). — The examples given 

 in Johnson's article Farthingale will sufficiently 

 answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned 

 in Latimer with much indignant eloquence : 

 " I trow Mary had never a verdiiigale." 



If the question had been, not whether they* 

 were in use as early as 1&51, but whether they 

 were in use in 16-51, perhaps there would have 

 been more difficulty, for they do not appear in 

 Hollar's dresses, 1640. C. B. 



Cranmers Descendants (Vol. iii., p. 8.). — It may 

 be of some interest to CD. F. to'be informed, 

 that the newspapers of the time recorded the 

 death of Mr. Bishop Cranmer of Wivelescorabe, 

 CO. Somerset, on the 8th April, 18.31, at the age of 

 eisjhty-eigbt. He is said to have been a direct 

 descendant of the martyi-ed archbishop, to whose 

 portraits he bore a strong personal resemblance. 



J. D. S. 



Shakspeares Use of the Word '■'■Captious" (Vol. 

 ii., p. .354.). — Why may not the word have the 

 same meaning as it lias now ? A captious person 

 is not primarily a deceitful person, but either one 

 who catches at any argument to uphold his own 

 cause, or, more generally, one who catches or 

 cavils at arguments or expressions used by another, 

 and f;ustens a frivolous objection on them ; one 

 wlio takes exception to a point on paltry and in- 

 suHicieiit grounds : 



" Yet in this captious and Inteiiible sieve 

 I still pour in the waters of my love." 



i. e. yet into this sieve, which catches at, an<l yet 



never holds them, I still pour the waters of my 



love. 



There seems to me a double mcanintr of the 

 ... ^ 



word captious, indicating an under-current of 



thought in the author; first, the literal sense, then 



the inferential : " this sieve catches at and seems as if 



it would intercept the waters of my love, but takes 

 me in, and disappoints me, because it will not up- 

 hold them." The objection to explaining captious 

 by simply fuUucions, is that the word means this 

 by inference or consequence, rather than primarily. 

 Because one who is eager to controvert, i. e. who 

 is captious, generally, but not always, acts for a 

 sophistical purjiose and means to deceive. Cicero, 

 I believe, usQsfallax and captiosus as distinct, not 

 as synonymous, terms. E. A. D. 



Boiling to Death (Vol. ii., p. 519.).— 

 " Impoysonments, so ordinary in Italy, are so abo- 

 minable amoi'.g p'ngllsh, as 'il Hen. 8. it was made 

 high treason, thoujjh since repealed ; after which the 

 punishment for it was to be put alive in a caldron of 

 water, and there boiled to death : at present it is felony 

 without benefit of clergy." — Chamberlayne's State of 

 England, — an old copy, without a title-page. 



Judging from the list of bishops and maids of 

 honour, I believe the date to be 1669. 



AVedsecnarf. 



Dozen of Bread (Vol. ii., p. 49.). — The Duchess 

 of Newcastle says of her Nature s Picture : 



" In this volume there are several feiened stories, 

 t'^c. Also there are some morals and some dialogues; 

 but they are as the advantage loaf of bread to the 

 baker's dozen." 1656. 



Wedsecnarf. 



Fridai/ Weather (Vol. iii., p. 7.). — A very old 

 friend of mine, a Shropshire lady, tells me that her 

 mother (who was born before 1760) used to say 

 that Friday was always the fairest, or the foulest, 

 day of the week. Wedsecnarf. 



Saint PauVs Clock (Vol. iii., p. 40.). — In reply to 

 Me. Campkin's Query, I send you the following 

 extract from Easton's Human Longevity (London, 

 1799): 



"James Hatfield died in 1770, aged 105. Was 

 formerly a soldier : when on duty as a centinel at 

 Windsor, one niglit, at the expiration of his guard, he 

 heard St. Paul's clock, London, strike thirteen strokes 

 instead of twelve, and not being relieved as he expected 

 he fell asleep ; in which situation he was found by the 

 succeeding gu.'rd, who soon after came to relieve liim ; 

 for such neglect he was tried by a court-martial, but 

 pleading that he was on duty his legal time, and assert- 

 ing, as a proof, the singular circumstance of hearing 

 St. Paul's clock strike thirteen strokes, which, upon 

 inquiry, proved true — he was in consequence ac- 

 quitted." 



J. B. CoiiMAN. 



Lunnrdi (Vol. ii., p. 469.). — I remember seeing 

 Lunardi's balloon pass over the town of AVare, 

 jirevious to its fall at Standon. I have seen the 

 moonstone described by your corrcs|)ondcnt C. J. F., 

 but all that I can remember of an old song on the 

 occasion is, "They thought it had been the man 

 in the moon," alluding to the men in the fields, 

 who ran away frightened. But a servant girl had 



