162 Notes. 



Sunday morning it was gone. The violent gale had doubtless driven 

 it out of its course, which would have lain more to the west, or else 

 hindered its further progress towards Yorkshire, where the species is 

 locally not uncommon. It was a male bird. 



D. P. Harrison. 

 CrOld Biingf found at Grittleton. A massive gold signet ring 

 was found some time ago by a farmer at Grittleton and sold by him 

 to Mr. Horstmann, jeweller of 13, Union Street, Bath. It bears a. 

 shield of arms quarterly, and the following posy or motto is engraved 

 on the inside of the ring : — 



"Tried with the Giver's love 

 The Gould but drosse will prove." 

 The British Museum authorities assign it to the early part of the 

 seventeenth century, whilst the inscription may be a little later. 



I am indebted for the above' information to Mr. S. G. Perceval, who 

 also sent an impression of the seal. This I submitted to the Rev. E. E. 

 Dorling, F.S.A. He writes : " The first and fourth quarters seem to 

 be a ring in a border with molets. I can find no such coat either in 

 English or Scottish heraldry. If the second and third quarters are a 

 chevron- ermine between three cocks that may be the coat of Gokyn of 

 Bekesborne in Kent ; but I cannot distinguish exactly what the charges 

 are." 



Ed. H. Goddard. 



Xiicenses granted to open Barrows or " Howes " in 



the 13th century. In vol, xxxvi. p. 627 of this Magazine 

 mention is made of the fact that licenses were formally granted by the 

 Crown in the JM iddle Ages to dig for treasure in barrows, as possibly 

 accounting in many cases for the rifling of these sepulchral mounds, 

 before the archaeologist came on the scene. Mr. A. S. Maskelyne, of 

 the Record Office, has kindly given me the following copies of such 

 licenses to open " Howes " in Cornwall and the Isle of Wight : — 

 " De hogis in comitatu Cornubie fodendis. 



"Rex mandavit [comiti] Cornubie et Pictavie quod fodi faciat 

 hogas in comitatu Cornubie ad thesaurum in eis querendum, sicut' 

 mandavit fieri de hogis in insula de Wicht'. Teste ut supra [viz 

 apud Kenyt' {Kempton) xvij die Aprilis (21 Henry III.), 1237J." 



" De hogis in insula de Wyght'. Rex comiti Cornubie, salutem. 

 Quid datum est nobis intelligi quod quidam de insula de Wight 

 foderunt hogas quasdam ibidem pro thesauro ibidem querendo vos 

 attente rogamus quatinus f estinetis quantum poteritis accedere ad 

 partes illas et inquiratis diligenter de fossoribus predictis qui fuerint, 

 et si quid in hogis illis invenerint ; et illos attachiari faciatis ad 

 respondendum coram nobis de facto suo quando preceperimus. Hogas 

 • illas etiam que nondum sunt fosse ibidem fodi faciatis ad videndum 

 si thesaurus aliquis in eis absconditus, ut pro loco et tempore nos 

 possitis inde certificare. Teste ut supra. [As above.] 



Close Rolls. Printed. 

 Ed. H. Goddard. 



