July 12. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



29 



" There goes out yearly in Proxage and Senage 

 3Ss. 6d. Perhaps senege may be money paid for 

 Synodals, as Proxyes or Procurations." " Proxyes 

 are yearly payments made by parish priests to their 

 bishop, or arclideacon, in lieu of victuals for the visitor 

 and his attendants" (which it was formerly the custom 

 to provide). 



" Senage. The Senes be only courts to gather 

 Senage and Proxye. The bishop should hold a Synod 

 or Sene twice a year." — Becon's Reliques of Rome, p. 2 1 .S. 



" The priests should come to the Sene as they were 

 wont to do." 



The senes, courts, or ecclesiastical councils, were 

 held for the purpose of correcting any neglect 

 or omissions of the Church Reeves (as thej were 

 called), and fining them for such omissions, as well 

 as receiving the usual and accustomed payments; 

 and sometimes they were fined for having secreted 

 some Catholic reliques, which were discovered by 

 the visitors (of course after the Reformation), as 

 I have found entries of fines having been paid ; 

 and more frequently are entries of " Payd for the 

 withdraft" of the charge for some neglect in not 

 providing articles necessary for the performance 

 of divine worsliip. 



In Sir Thomas More's Works, folio, 1557, 

 pp. 909., 991., '"Senes or Indightments" (perhaps 

 Citements or Citations) are mentioned. 



No doubt (I tliink) the term senege is derived 

 from these courts being termed " Senes" and 

 " Seens." G. H. I. 



Norwich, July 5. 1851. 



Early Visitations (Vol. iv., p. 8.). — Your re- 

 mark that Mr. Noble's statements "are extremely 

 loose " is, generally speaking, very just ; although 

 in the particular instance referred to there is 

 some foundation for his statement, as in the 12th 

 Henry VI. commissions were issued into the 

 several counties, not merely to collect the names 

 of the gentry, but to administer an oath to the 

 gentry and others for conservation of the peace 

 and observance of the laws. The returns con- 

 taining the names of the parties sworn in all the 

 counties (except twelve) are printed by Fuller in 

 his Worthies from records in the Tower, which 

 are probably yet extant. See Rotuli Parliamen- 

 tnrum, iv. 455. ; v. 434. ; Fuller's Worthies of 

 England, chap. xiv. ; Grimaldi's Origines Genea- 

 logiccB, 68, 69. I do not understand that all the 

 p:irties who were sworn were accotmted gentle- 

 men, although Dr. Fidler's and Mr. Grimaldi's 

 impressions on this point appear to have been 

 similar to Mr. Noble's. C. H. CoorEK. 



Cambridge, July 5. 1851. 



Rifles (Vol. iii., p. 517.). — I am neitlier Mr. 

 Gordon Cumming, nor an officer of the Rifle 

 Brigade ; nevertheless, I have seen much of rifles 

 and rifle-firing ; and I think I can assure your 

 correspondent A. C. that " We make the best 



rifles" is rather an assumption. That the Americans 

 make most excellent ones, there can be no doubt ; 

 but I question whether they ever turned out a 

 rifle which, either for finish or performance, would 

 bear comparison with those made by Purdey, 

 Lancaster, and others. As an example of what an 

 English rifle will do, I subjoin the performance* 

 of one made by Beattie of Regent Street on 

 Minie's principle for an officer in the artillery 

 now going out to the Cape. At one thousand mea- 

 sured yards, sixteen balls out of thirty were put 

 into the target ; and at four hundred yards, balls 

 were driven through four regulation targets, each 

 of two inch oak, placed six inches apart from one 

 another ; and into the earthen mound behind them 

 ten or twelve inches. If the Americans can beat 

 that, either for precision or force, they may claim 

 to make the best rifles. 



E. N. W. 



Southwark, June 30. 1851. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



A Glossary of Terms used for Articles of British 

 Dress and Armour, by the Rev. John Williams (ab Ithel), 

 classifies alphabetically the several names which our 

 British forefathers applied to the different portions of 

 their garments and military weapons, and supplies the 

 reader with their English synonymes ; and, in the 

 majority of cases, cites corroborative passages from 

 documents in which the original terms occur. Its 

 value to the antiquaries of the Principality is suf- 

 ficiently obvious; and as Celtic elements may still be 

 traced in our langu.^ge, it will clearly be found of 

 equal utility to their English brethren. 



The Golden and Silver Ages. Two Plays by Thomas 

 He.;wood, with an Introduction and Notes by J. Payne 

 Collier, Esq. (which form the last work issued by the 

 Shakspeare Society), will be read with great interest 

 by the members; and, as completing the second volume 

 of the collected edition of the works of Thomas Heywnod, 

 will give great satisfaction to those who urged upon 

 the Shakspeare Society the propriety of printing an 

 edition of the works of this able and prolific dramatist. 



In his Afanual of the Anatomy and Physiology of the 

 Human Mind, by James Carlile, D.D., the author has 

 undertaken to write a popular treatise on an abstruse 

 subject; and though he exhibits pains and method, 

 yet we can hardly think that he has succeeded in his 

 difficult task. One mistake he has evidently made. 

 He seeks his illustrations too much from recent events, 

 the Gorham controversy, the presidency of Louis 

 Napoleon, and the like ; references which are more 

 calculated to degrade a great subject than to popu- 

 larise it. 



In The Genilcmaifs Magazine for the present month 

 our readers will find a very able article, to which we 

 beg to direct their attention, on the present state of 



* In Woolwich Marshes. 



