2>-d S. VI. 142., Sept. 18. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



233 



Earliest Stone Church in Ireland. — Where in 

 Ireland was tlie first stone ecclesiastical building 

 erected ? Abhba. 



Degrees of D.C.L. and LL.D. — Are these de- 

 crees (and in like manner, those of B.C.L. and 

 LL.B.) quite the same in all respects, so as to be 

 interchan<i;eably and indifferently used ? I had an 

 idea that D.C.L. (and B.C.L. with it) was pecu- 

 liar to Oxford ; but according to some of your 

 coiTespondents, it would seem to be erroneous. 



Akchd. AV'eir. 



Showing the Way to Reading. — In Madame 

 Knight's Journal I find a passage that I would 

 like to learn the meaning of. She speaks of a 

 tavern keeper's daughter, who, to use her words — 



" Drew a chair, bid me ."iitt, And then run up stairs and 

 putts on two or three Rings (or else I had not seen them 

 before,) and returning sett herself just before me, showitig 

 the way to Reding, that I might see her Ornaments, per- 

 haps to gain the more respect." 



Is this expression of English origin? and, if so, 

 how did it originate ? Metacom. 



Roxbury, Mass. U.S. 



Complutemian Polyglot Bihle. — When and 

 whence was the Complutensian Polyglot Bible 

 now in the British Museum obtained ? "What 

 was the history of the copy which it displaced, and 

 is that copy anywhere described in detail ? Where 

 is it now ? Joseph Rix. 



St. Neotg. 



Alfreds Jewel. — Is not this jewel the head of a 

 sceptre, as indicated by a kind of ferule beneath 

 it ? end if so, should it not be among the regalia of 

 England, the most precious of royal relics ? I 

 have a faint recollection that this suggestion has 

 already been made by some learned antiquary. 

 Let the question be ventilated in " N. & Q." 



L. B. L. 



Marquis of Granhy. — What are the best au- 

 thorities to consult for an account of the public 

 and also private career of the celebrated John, 

 Marquis of Granby, who died in 1770 ? Any one 

 answering this as fully as possible will oblige 



Henry Kensington. 



^{H0r ©ucrtcd JnttTj ^niioevi. 



Rev. Mr. Wihon, a.d. 1641. — I should be much 

 obliged by any information respecting the life and 

 doctrinesof Mr. AV'ilson, who, in the year 1641, had 

 a church at Stow, described at the time as being 

 two miles from Maidstone. Meletes. 



[The minister inquired after is most probably the Rev. 

 Thomas VViUon of Otliam [not Stow], and afterwards, 

 in IGd.l, Pcr|)etual Curate ot Maidstone cliurch. ^V'hiI3t 

 he wsH rector of Otham, he was prosecuted for the dilapi- 

 dations of his parsonage-house, and, for his contumacy, 



was suspended by the High Commission, and his parson^ 

 age sequestered. He was liltewise called to account at 

 the Archbishop's visitation for not reading the prayer 

 appointed on occasion of the King's Northern expedition, 

 and the Declaration then called TIte Booh of Sports. By 

 the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons for calling the 

 Assembly of Divines, 1G43, he was appointed one of them ; 

 and he also appeared as a witness at the trial of Abp. 

 Laud. He died about 165L His Life by the Rev. George 

 Swinnock has passed through two editions, 1672, 1831.] 



Horse-courser. — Can any of the numerous 

 readers of " N. & Q." give the strict interpretation 

 of this term ? It is used in an Act of 29 Charles 

 IL c. 7. passed in 1676, among other things to 

 prevent horse-coursers from travelling on Sun- 

 day. In some of the dictionaries of modern date 

 the term is defined as " one who keeps horses or 

 keeps horses for the race, a dealer in horses;" but 

 it seems questionable whether horse-dealer was 

 one of its significations at the time the Act was 

 passed in 1676. II. S. 



[Nares has the following explanation of this word: — 

 " HoRSE-CouESER, properly Hokse-Scourser, a horse- 

 dealer. Equorum manc/o. Coles. Junius was wrong in de- 

 riving it from the Scotch word cose ; it is from the Eng- 

 lish word scorse, to exchange, and means literally a 

 horse-changer. Hence Coles has also horse-coursing, 

 equorum pernmtatio. Abr. Fleming thus defines it: 'Man- 

 go equorum, a horse-scorser ; he that buyeth horses, and 

 putteth them away again by chopping and changing.' 

 JVomencl. p. 514. The horse-courser in Ben Jonson's 

 Barthohmeio Fair, and that described in Overbury's 

 Characters, 51, are evidently horse-dealers, and nothing 

 else. From Whalley's note on Earth. Fair, Act iii. Sc. 4, 

 it appears that the word was familiar to him in this 

 sense, though now quite disused. See Johnson, who in- 

 stances the word from Wiseman and L'Estrange."] 



A Commoner's Private Chapel, Sfc. — There is 

 some useful information in your paper as to who 

 have a right to have chaplains, &c., but I wish to 

 put this case. I am a commoner who have repre- 

 sented a county for some years ; one of my resi- 

 dences is two miles from the nearest church, and 

 I wish to build a chapel in my pleasure-grounds, 

 and to pay a clergyman to come there on Sunday 

 and do the duty tor the benefit of my household 

 and persons living on the estate near at hand. 

 We should form a congregation of between two 

 and three hundred persons, but no one could 

 come there except by my permission. It appears 

 to me that the act called Lord Shaftesbury's Act 

 would allow of this (18 & 19 Vict. cap. 86.). I 

 presume it is not necessary that the chapel should 

 be joined on to the house, but that the Law Courts 

 would consider that by this act the pleasure 

 grounds were a part " of the premises belonging 

 thereto." X. Y. Z. 



[Any commoner is at liberty to erect a private chapel 

 upon his estate for himself and family, or for himself and 

 his neighbours, and to nominate, &c. liis preacher, who 

 will be wholly independent of the parish minister. Such 

 chapels and their ornaments are maintained, of course, at 

 those persons' charges to whom they belong. It is 



