Nov. 29. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



425 



audience bursting into roars of laughter upon her 

 quoting Professor Walker as an authority ibr some 

 statement. The roars redoubled upon her de- 

 claring her belief that Professor Walker was a 

 most respectable and trustworthy person. Can 

 any one explain the origin of the joke that lies 

 in the name " Walker ?" ^Vhy do people say 

 " Walker" when they wish to express ridicule or 

 disbelief of a questionable statement ? Davus. 



[The history of the renowned " Hookey Walker," 

 as related by John Bee, Esq., is simply this: —John 

 Walker was an out-door clerk at Longman, dementi, 

 and Co.'s in Cheapside, where a great number of per- 

 sons were employed; and "Old Jack," who had a 

 crooked or hooked nose, occupied the post of a spy 

 upon their aberrations, which were manifold. Of 

 course, it was for the interests of the surveillants to 

 throw discredit upon all Jack's reports to the heads of 

 the firm ; and numbers coidd attest that those reports 

 were fabrications, however true. Jack, somehow or 

 other, was constantly outvoted, his evidence superseded, 

 and of course disbelieved ; and thus his occupation 

 ceased, but not the fame of" Hookey Walker."] 



See of Durham. — Can any of your readers in- 

 form me of "The privileges of, and the ancient 

 customs appertaining to, the See of Durham?" 



H. F. 



Clapham, Nov. 3. 1851. 



[These relate most probably to the palatine rights 

 of the Bishops of Durham, granted by EgtVid, King of 

 Northumbria, in 685 ; when he gave to St. Cuthbert 

 all the land between the Wear and the Tyne, called 

 "the patrimony of St. Cuthbert," to hold in as full and 

 ample a manner as the king himself holds the same. 

 This donative, with its ancient customs and privileges, 

 was confirmed by the Danes, and afterwards by William 

 the Conqueror; in addition to which, the latter made 

 the church a sanctuary, and the county a palatinate. 

 Its bishop was invested with as great a power and 

 prerogative within his see, as the king exercised with- 

 out the bounds of it, with regard to forfeitures, &c. 

 Thus it was a kind of royalty subordinate to the crown, 

 and, by way of eminence, was called The Bishoprick. 

 For an account of the ancient customs connected with 

 the cathedral, our correspondent is referred to the 

 curious and interesting work of Davies of Kidwelly, 

 entitled. The Ancient liltes and Monuments of the il/o- 

 naslical and Cathedral Church of Durham, i2mo. 1G7'2, 

 which has been republished by the Surtees Society.] 



iUpIteS. 



CONVOCATION OF YORK. 



(Vol. iv., p. 368.) 



This body (of which I am a member) ought to 

 meet on the same occasions with tliat of (janter- 

 bury; but owing to the neglect or the wilfulness of 

 its oflicials, many omissions and mistakes occur. 

 I have heard a commission io further adjourn tiie 

 Convocation, from a day to wliich it previously 



stood adjourned, read the day after that on which 

 it ought to have assembled, but which day had 

 arrived and passed without any one recollecting 

 the fact ! Our Convocation appears at no time to 

 have acted a very prominent part, though its con- 

 stitution is far better fitted lor a working synod 

 than that of the southern province. In the latter 

 the parochial clergy are so inadequately repre- 

 sented as to be much outnumbered by the dignitaries 

 appointed by the crown and the bishops ; but in 

 York there are two proctors chosen by the clergy 

 of each archdeaconry and peculiar jurisdiction, 

 and two by each cjithedral chapter ; thus aifording 

 a complete counterpoise to the deans and arch- 

 deacons who are members ex officio. Anotlier 

 peculiarity in the Convocation of York is, that it 

 assembles in one house, the bishops commonly 

 appearing by their proxies (priests), and the arch- 

 bishop presiding by his commissioner, who is al- 

 ways the dean, or one of the residentiary canons 

 of York. 



In 1462 (temp. Archbishop Booth) the Convo- 

 cation of York decreed that such constitutions of 

 the province of Canterbury as were not preju- 

 dicial to those of York should be received, incor- 

 porated, and deemed as their own (VVilkins's Co7i- 

 cilia, vol. iii. p. 580.). Under Archbishop Grenefeld 

 it was decreed that since the Archbishop of York 

 hath no superior in spirituals except the Pope, no 

 appeals should be sufFered to the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury (p. 663.). At an earlier period the 

 northern metropolitan laid claim to all England 

 north of the Ilumber, with the whole realm of 

 Scotland (Wilkins, vol. i. pp. 325. 479. &c.). In 

 a provincial council at London, a.d. 1175, his 

 jurisdiction was denied over the sees of Lincoln, 

 Chester, Worcester, and Hereford, upon which he 

 appealed to the Pope. With the exception of 

 Chester, however, none of those sees were finally 

 retained in the province. 



The next year we are told that, in a (national) 

 council at ^Vestminster, the Pope's legate pre- 

 siding, the Archbishop of York, "disdaining to sit 

 at the left hand of the legate, forced himself into 

 the lap of the Archbishop of Canterbur}', but was 

 immediately knocked down by the other bishops 

 and clergy, severely beaten, and thrust out of the 

 council ! " (Hoveden ap Wilkins, vol. i. p. 485.) 

 How far the Northern Convocation supported 

 their burly prelate in these claims I do not know; 

 but I 7iote that in those days the disorderly con- 

 duct of the clergy was not made a pretext for the 

 indefinite suspension of synodical functions ; and 

 I (]ue)-i/ wlietiicr the clergy might not be trusted 

 to hcliave cpiite as well in the nineteenth century. 



But to return to the Convocaticm of York. 

 There is a curious letter, A.n. 1661, from Accepted 

 Frewen, Archbishop of York, to the Convocation, 

 desiring them to send up to London some of their 

 members duly commissioned on their part to sit 



