April 12. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



291 



the purchase of freehold land of 1 20?. per annum 

 in or near Drax, to be conveyed to trustees to let 

 such land at the best improved rent, for the pur- 

 poses and uses mentioned in his will ; and he ap- 

 pointed the lord mayor and aldermen of York, 

 visitors of the school and almshouses. 



At the time of the inquiry by the charity com- 

 missioners, the estates purchased in pursuance of 

 the directions of I\Ir. Reacl's will amounted to .391 

 acres of land, let at 542/. per annum, and there 

 was an accumulation of stock of 12,700/. in the 

 Three per Cents, the whole income being 924/. 9s. 6d. 

 per annum. 



Mr. Dyson will find a copious account of this 

 school, &c., in the following Ile)K)rts of the Com- 

 missioners : XXI. p. 598. ; XXXII. part 2d. p. 

 828. ; and the latter gives a full detail of pro- 

 ceedings in Ch.ancery, and other matters connected 

 with the administration of the trust. 



Henry Edwards. 



Enigmatical Epitaph en the Rev. John Mawer 

 (Vol. iii., pp. 184. 243.). — Perhaps it may be of 

 service to J. H. to know that Arthur Lleiuelhjn 

 Tudor Kaye Mawer, referred to by J. T. A., was 

 a short time ago an assistant bookseller at Oxford, 

 and may be heard of by addressing a line to Mr. 

 Vincent, Herald Office, or Mr. Wheeler, bookseller, 

 O.xford. NiBOR. 



Treatise by Engelbert, Archbishop of Treves 

 (Vol. i., p. 214.). — Mr. Sansom may probably 

 find the information he desires in the reprint of 

 Bishop Gos'ins History of Popish Transubstantiation, 

 London, 1840, in which the references are verified, 

 and the quotations given in full length. T. J. 



King John at Lincoln (Vol. iii., p. 141.). — There 

 IS no question of Matt. Paris alluding here to the 

 old prophecy which forbade a king's wearing his 

 crown in Lincoln, or, as some think, even entering 

 the city. Although he makes John the first to 

 break through the superstition, yet the same 

 is attributed to his predecessor Stephen, who is 

 described by H. Huntingdon as entering the city 

 fearlessly — " prohibentibus quibusdam supersti- 

 tiosis." This was after the great disasters of 

 Stephen's reign ; but as the succession eventually 

 departed from his line, Lord Lyttleton observes 

 that the citizens might nevertlieless be strength- 

 ened in their credulity; and Henry II. certainly 

 humoured it so far as to wear his crov;n only in 

 the suburb of Wigford. John seems to have been 

 very partial to the place, and visited it repeatedly, 

 as dill many of liis successors. Many parallel su- 

 perstitions might, no doubt, be gatliered, as that 

 of Oxford, and Alexander the Great at Babylon, 

 &c. B. 



Lincoln. 



Uaybands in Seals (Vol. iii., p. I8U.). — In your 

 paper for March 8. 1 observe a Query by Ma. M. A. 



Lower respecting seals. It appears that Mn. 

 Lower has in his possession one or two seals, 

 temp. Henry VII., whicii are impressed on hay- 

 bands, that is to say, the wax is encircled by a 

 twisted wisp of h.ay, or split straw ; and, if I rightly 

 understand Mr. Lower, no device is apparent on 

 the wax, but some ends of the hay or straw pro- 

 trude from the surface of it. Under these circum- 

 stances Mr. Lower states his opinion that such 

 se.ils belonged to mediteval gentlemen who occu- 

 pied their lime in fattening stock, — simply graziers. 

 It may be interesting to some of your correspon- 

 dents, and especially to Mr. Lower, to know that 

 a few seals, both pendent and impressed on the 

 parchment itself, within haybands, may be found 

 of as early a date as the reign of Edward II. 

 From that time the fashion became very preva- 

 lent : in the reigns of Kichard II., Henry IV., 

 Henry V., Henry VI., and, indeed, down to the 

 period of Elizabeth, it was the common pr.actice 

 to secure the wax impression in this manner. 

 Almost all the impressions of the Privy Seal of 

 Henry V., called " the Eagle," are made on hay- 

 bands. It is needless to give further examples, as 

 they must be well known to all antiquaries who 

 have studied the history of seals. It is not from 

 the examination of a few specimens of early seals 

 that a general conclusion is to be rationally drawn ; 

 and it is to be hoped that Mr. Lower may, even 

 yet, be induced to abandon his singular theory of 

 graziers' seals. T. Hudson Turner. 



If your correspondents on this subject will refer 

 to the first volume of Kalendars and Inventories of 

 his Majesty^s Exchecjuer, published by the Com- 

 missioners of Public Records, they will find in the 

 Introduction, written by Sir Francis Palgrave, at 

 page cxlvii., a fac-simile representation of a letter 

 vipon paper from .Tames IV. of Scotland to 

 Henry Vll., dated July 12, 1502, showing the 

 seal encircled by a rush ring. At page cxxxvii. 

 it is stated that in the fifteenth century a rush 

 ring surrounding the fragile wax was not unfre- 

 quently used for the purpose of preserving it. 



o, J>. o. 



Aver (Vol. iii., pp. 42. 157.). — Spelman, in his 

 Glossary, diivlvc^ averia from averare prolaborare. 

 Averare he derives from the French ouvre and 

 ouvrage, " vel potius a Latino operare, o et p, ut 

 solent, in a et a, conversis." " Hence," he says, 

 " our ancestors called beasts of burden averia, and 

 the Scotch called them avaria." In Northumber- 

 land, he elsewhere adds, " they call a lazy, sluggish 

 horse ' a faulse aver,' or 'afer.' " 



Averum signified goods and chattels, and per- 

 sonal property in generid, and, in this sense, is 

 derived from the French avoir. It also signified 

 the royal treasure, as appears from the following 

 extract from the will of Philip Augustu.«, sub anno 



