448 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 84. 



and 2. In what parish of each of these places, in- 

 eluding Norwich, was the mint situated ? 



And now let me add a sentence or two respect- 

 ing the compiler of the above-named chronicle, 

 which I am induced to do, as his name is closely 

 connected with that of one of the most celebrated 

 controversial writers of the Augustan age of Anne 

 and George I., the friend of Whiston, of Newton, 

 and of lloadley, and the subject of Pope's sar- 

 castic allusion : 



" We nobly take tlie high priori road, 

 And reason downwards till we doubt of God." 



It appears, on the authoi-ity of a MS. letter be- 

 fore me, dated Aylsliam, Norfolk, Jan. 25, 1755, 

 and addressed to Mr. Nehemiah Lodge, town 

 clerk of Norwich, by Mr. Thos. Johnson, who 

 was speaker of the common council of that city 

 from 1731 to 1736, that Nobbs 



" Was many years clerk of St. Gregory's parish in 

 Norwich, where he kept a school, and was so good a 

 scholar as to fit youths for the university, amongst 

 whom were the great Dr. Samuel Clarke, and his brother, 

 the Dean of Salisbury." 



The old man's MS. is very neatly written, and 

 arranged with much method. It was made great 

 use of, frequently without acknowledgment, by 

 Blomefield, in the compilation of his history; and 

 besides the chronicle of events immediately con- 

 nected with the city, there are interspersed through 

 its pages notices of earthquakes, great famines, 

 blazing stars, dry summers, long frosts, and other 

 similar unusual occurrences. The simplicity, and 

 grave unhesitating credulity, with which some of 

 the more astonishing marvels, culled, I suppose, 

 from the pages " of llolinshed or Stow," are re- 

 corded, is very amusing. I cannot refrain from 

 offering you a couple of examples, and with them 

 I will bring this heterogeneous "note" to a close. 



" In the eighth year of this king's reign (E. II.) it 

 was ordained by parliament, that an ox fatted with 

 grass should be sold for 15s., fatted with corn 20s., the 

 best cow for l'2s.; a fat hog of two years 3s. 4d. ; a fat 

 sheep shorn 14rf., and with fleece '20d.; a fat capon 2d., 

 a fat hen Id., four pigeons Id. And whosoever sold 

 for more, should forfeit his ware to the king. But 

 this order was soon revoked, by reason of the scarcity 

 tliat after followed. For, in the year following, 1^15, 

 there was so great a dearth, that continued three years, 

 and therewith a mortality, that the living were not 

 sufficient to bury the dead; horses, dogs, and children 

 were eaten in that famine, and thieves iu prison plucked 

 in pieces those that were newly brought in, and eat 

 them half alive." 



But, again, sub ann. 1349: 



" This year dyed in Norwich of the plague, from the 

 first of January to the last of June, 57,374 persons, 

 besides religious people and beggars ; and in Yar- 

 mouth, 7053. This plague began November the first, 

 1348, and continued to 1357, and it hath been ob- 

 served that they that were born after this had but 

 twenty-eight teeth, whereas before they had thirty-two." 



This latter notice refers to the first of those 

 three destructive epidemics which visited Europe 

 during the reign of our Edw. III., and are so fre- 

 quently mentioned in ancient records. It is styled 

 the " Festilencia Prima et Magna, Anno Domini 

 1349, a festo Staa. Petronillae usque ad festum 

 Sti. Michaelis." (Nicolas, Chrou. of Hist., p. 345.) 



COWGIU/. 



Minor CSuEitcS. 



Gillivgham. — Can you, or any of your corre- 

 spondents, furnish me with any historical or local 

 dala that may tend to identify the place where 

 that memorable council was convened, by which 

 the succession to the English crown was trans- 

 ferred from the Danish to the Saxon line ? Hut- 

 chins, in his History of Dorset (Edw. II., 1813, 

 vol. iii. p. 196.), says: 



" Malmsbury * mentions a council held at Gil- 

 lingham, in which Edward the Confessor was chosen 

 king. It was really a grand council of the realm; but 

 the generality of our historians place it with more 

 probability at London, or in the environs thereof" 



I am not aware of anything else that can be 

 advanced in support of the claims of the Dorset 

 shire Gillingham to be the scene of this event 

 e.xcept it be the fact that a royal palace or hunting- 

 seat there was the occasional residence of the 

 English kings early in the twelfth century, and 

 subsequently. I do not know whether its existence 

 can be traced prior to the Conquest ; and unless 

 that can be done, it is obviously of no iTiiportance 

 in the present inquiry. Now it had occurred to 

 me that, after all, Gillingham, near Chatham in 

 Kent, may be the true locality; but, unfortunately, 

 my knowledge of that place is limited to the fact, 

 that our London letters, when directed without 

 the addition of " Dorset," are usually sent to rus- 

 ticate there for a day or two. Perhaps one of 

 your Kentish correspondents will favour me with 

 some more pertinent information. Quidam. 



" We hope, and hope, and hope" — I wish to dis- 

 cover the author (a disappointed courtier, I be- 

 lieve) of a poem ending thus : 



" We hope, and hope, and hope, then sum ' 

 The total up — Despair ! " 



C. P. Ph***. 



What is Champah ? — In Shelley's " Lines to an 

 Indian Air," I read — " The Champak odours 

 fail." Is it connected with the spice-bearing 

 regions of Cliampava, or Tsiampa, in Siam ? 



C. P. Ph***, 



Encorah and MilUcent. — These are very com- 

 mon baptismal names for females in this parish, 

 and I should be very much obliged to any one 



• Book ii. c. 12. p. 45. 



