1807.] L£xriracts from the Port-folio of a, Man of Letiers. 463 
instead of egg we find ey, eye, aie, and 
ay; and eyren, ayren, or eyryn, was the 
ancient plural. “ A merchant at the 
North Foreland, in Kent, asked for eggs, 
and the good-wyte answered that she 
could speake no Frenshe ; another sayde, 
that he would have eyren, then the good- 
wyfe sayd that she understood him wel.” 
Caxton’s Virgil, Lewis’s Lite of Caxton, 
p. 61. 
GUILLOTINE. 
The guillotine, with the axe falling in 
a groove, occurs among the old prints en- 
graved by Albert Durer, in the represen- 
tation of the death of the son of Titus 
Manlius, dated 1553. 
HOUSEHOLD EXPENCES IN’ THE TIME OF 
. HENRY THE EIGHTH. . 
Among the more interestring entries in 
the Northumberland household: book, 
1512, we find the following, of servant’s 
waces yearly :— 
‘“« Furst, every rokker inthe nurcy, 20s. 
Every chaplayn graduate, 5 mare. 
Fvery chaplayn not graduate, 40s. 
Every Fawconer, if he be yeoman, 40s. 
and if he be grome, 20s. 
Every huntte, 20s. 
Every footman, 40s. because of the 
moch wervnge of his stuffe with labour.” - 
In another part of the same work the 
following prices are fixed for different 
articles, and more ordered not to be 
given :— : : = 
“ Capons, 2d. 
Pygves, 3d. or 4d. a piece. 
Geysee the same.:” 
Chekyns, one ob. a pece. : 
Hennys, 2d. 
Cunys, 2d. 
Pluvers, 1d. a pece, or 1d. ob. at 
moste. 
Cranys, 16d. a pece. 
Hearonsewys, 12d. 
Mallardes, 2d. 
Teylles, 1d. 
es a a id. or 1d. ob. a-pece. 
Sea culles, . 
Styntes, 6 a peny. 
naylles, 2d. a pece at moste. 
Snypes, 3 a peny. 
Pertryges, 2d. a pece, yffe they be 
foode. 
Redeshankes, 1d. ob, the pece. 
Bytters, 12d a pece, so they be goode, 
Fesauntes, 12d. 
Reys, 2d. 
Kyrlewes, 12d. 
Pacokes, 12d. 
Wezgions, 1d. ob. 
Larkys, 12 for 2d. _ 
“Trem. It is thought goode that all 
manar of wyld fewyll be bought at the 
fiyrst hand, where they be gottyn, and a 
cator to be upoynted tor the same; for it 
is thought that the pulters of Hemmyng- 
burghe and Clyf hathe great advantage 
of my lord yerely of sellynge of cunys and 
wylde fewyll.”. 
SITIPs. 
‘Tn our old poetry and romanees we fre- 
quently read of ships superbly decorated. 
Tis was taken froin real life. Froissart, 
speaking of the French fleet in 1387, pre- 
pared for the invasion of England under 
the reign of Richard the Second, says, 
that the ships were painted from top te 
bottom, glittering with gold. The ship 
of Lord Gay,ot ‘Tremoyli, was so sump-= 
tuously garnished that the painting and 
colours cost 2000° French’ franks, mora 
than 222 pounds of English currency at 
that time (see Graftou’s Chron. p. 364). 
At his second expedition into France, in 
1417, King Henry the Fifth was in a ship 
whose sails were of purple silk, most 
richly embroidered with gold (Speed’a 
Chron. b. ix. p. 636, edit. 1611). Many 
other instances might be brought from an- 
cient miniatures and illuminations, 
EPITAPH QN THE POET COLLINS, IN Ciil- 
CHESTER CATHEDRAL, 
He is represented in a bas-relief above, 
in a reclining posture, just recovered 
from a fit of phrenzy,.and apparently. 
seeking refuge from his misfortunes in the 
consolations of the Gospel, while his 
lyre, and one of the first of his poems, lie 
nevlected on the ground. “The bas-re- 
lief is by Flaxman: the epitaph by Mr, 
Hayley. ° 
Ye who the merits of the dead revere, 
Who hold misfortune sacred, genius dear, 
Regard this tomb, where Collins? hapless 
name 
Solicits kindness with a double claim, 
Tho? Nature gave him, and tho Science 
taught, , 
The fire of fancy, and the reach of thought, 
Severely doomi’d to Penury’s extreme, 
Fie pass’d in madd’ning pain life’s feverish 
dream ; , 
While rays of genius only serv’d to shew 
The thick’ning horror, and exalt his woe. 
Ye walls that echo’d to his frantic moan, 
Gaard the due records of this grateful stone 
Strangers to him, enamour’d of his lays, 
This fond memorial to his talents raise ; 
For this the ashes ofa bard require, 
Who, touch’d the tenderest notes of Pity’s 
¢ lyre > 
Who joined pure faith to strong poetic pow’rs, 
Who, in reviving reason’s lucid hours, 
Sought an‘one Book his troubled mixd to rst, 
And rightly deem’d the Book of God the 
pest. . ; 
4 The 
