out from the pulpit by some monk, to rouse the 233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow. BIRELEGIA: BYRLAW: BURLAW. On f. 296, and again on f. 185, of the Furness Cowcher Book stands the substance of the following sentence: "Et si averia nostra deliquerint in bladis vel pratis dicti Willelmi......sive sua in nostris, ex utraque parte fient emendæ secundum Birelegia, absque placito." For damage done in meadows or cornfields amends were to be made according to birelaw, without resort to a court of law. Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." throw any light on the said birelaw or burlaw, as to the circumstances or mode of its enactment, or as to the court in or by which it was administered? Jamieson defines byrlaw, burlaw, somewhat loosely, perhaps, as "a court of neighbours," quoting thereafter as follows from "Skene, Verb. Sign., in vo.":-"Laws of Burlaw, as maid and determined be consent of neichtbors, elected and chosen be common consent, in the Courts called the Byrlaw courts, in the quhilk cognition is taken of complaintes betwixt nichtbour and nichtbour. The quhilk men sa chosen, as judges and arbitrators to the effect foresaid, are commonly called Byrlaw-men." To this may be subjoined the following from Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary : "Búr (second sense). A neighbour. Hence a law term in the Icelandic commonwealth; a neighbour acting as a juror. The law distinguishes between neighbours of place and person: the number of the neighbours summoned was various; in slight cases, five; in cases liable to outlawry, nine. The standing Icelandic law phrase sem buar meta' reminds one of the English mode of fixing composition by jury. According to Konrad Maurer the jury is of Scandinavian origin, and first appears in English law along with the Normans after the Conquest, But this does not preclude an earlier usage in the Scandinavian parts of England." "Jura Johannem North et Robertum Phelipson." "Jura- Danby in Cleveland. THE FOLK-TALES OF THE LAPPS. II. THE SALMON AND THE PERCH, FROM TANEN. Early one spring a salmon swam up the river Tana just when the ice had broken up, and when it had gone some distance up the river it laid itself to rest under a large waterfall, and chose a fit place where it could spawn when the time came; but while it stood under the waterfall there came one day a sea perch or red-fish to it. "What kind of a fish are you?" asked the salmon. "Oh, I am The very noteworthy preponderance of the Norse a very beautiful red-fish. I am half brother to the element in the ancient common-field names pre-fresh-water perch," replied the red-fish, "and my served in the same series of documents which give fins are as sharp as needles." So saying the perch us birelegia as above would be quite sufficient to pricked the salmon in its side. "What are you give the Furness district a title to be considered doing here in the fresh water, you that have no fat one among "the Scandinavian parts of England," on you at all?" "I have more fat in my head than even had it no other claim; and I will now ap- many a hill Lapp has goods in his storehouse,” pend one or two other instances from the old answered the perch. "Will you swim for a wager court rolls of a manor in another, and one of the with me?" The salmon answered the perch carechiefest, among the said Scandinavian parts of lessly, because it knew very well that it was the England-I mean the district of Cleveland. "Jura- cleverest of all fish at swimming against the stream; tores elegerunt in officium de Birlawmen hoc anno but the perch would not leave it in peace, and pricked it in the side again with its sharp fins, and said, "Will you swim for a wager with me?" Then the salmon let itself drift down the stream a little, so as to get a good start, and so swam up the waterfall; but at that moment the perch caught fast hold of the salmon's tail. When the salmon had got to the highest fall it turned sharply round, and the perch, which was hanging at its tail, shouted, "Look, now I am higher than you. And you come here to swim for a wager with me, I whom folk can seldom catch. But you stand here and let yourself be caught by every old woman.' Cf. the hare and the tortoise. III. THE WILD AND THE TAME ANIMALS, without taking any notice of the lad's words. But There was once a priest who was going to be married, so he sent his servant round to invite all the wild animals to the wedding the bear, the wolf, the glutton, the fox, the white fox, the horse, the cow, the goat, the sheep, and the reindeer. First the bear went. On the road he met a lad. "Where are you going?" asked the_lad. "I'm going to the priest's wedding," answered the bear."Do not go," said the lad; "you have a beautiful skin, and folk will want to kill you and flay you." The bear did as the lad advised him: turned round and went back into the woods. Then there came the wolf. "Where are you going?" asked the lad. "I'm going to the priest's wedding," replied the wolf. "Do not go there," said the lad, "for you have such a beautiful skin that you will never return alive." The wolf did as the bear, and went back to the forest. Then came the glutton. "Where are you going?" asked the lad. "To the priest's wedding." "You must not go; you have such a beautiful skin that when you get there they will bind you and you will never get loose." "Oh, I am strong enough parson, what Prof. Skeat says in his Dict. concernto get loose when I like," said the glutton. He ing it is certainly true; but is it the whole truth? knew that he could both gnaw his way into a house I doubt it. Any one reading his article would and out again. However, he did as the lad advised him. Then came the fox. "Where are you going?" asked the lad. "To the priest's wedding." "Take care," said the lad; "you have PARSON AND PARSONAGE.-With regard to come to the conclusion that though in form * names the author of every quotation, and one ought to *This may at first sight seem easy, for Ducange be able to make out who this author was, and where he was born, and where he lived. But, unfortunately, many of these authors are not to be found in ordinary bioby Ducange is by no means always to be found in the graphical dictionaries, and the name given in the text index of the authors consulted by him, and it is there only, or chiefly, that dates are given. the same meaning is evident from Ducange (who gives examples, strangely overlooked by Prof. Skeat, who had manifestly consulted his article), Roquefort, La Curne, Burguy, and Littré. Mahn also (in Webster) was aware of this use. volume containing it was shown to me by Mr. W. H. Allnutt, of the Bodleian Library, a short time ago, and the credit of seeing the interest of it is due to him. It is marked in that library “Auct. vii. Q. vi. 41," and bears the title "Der And it is not even clear that the change of the Teutsch Psalter mit ander halbhundert Psalmen original e into a was first made in England. I und mit iren Rubricken auch mit etlichen pointed out in "N. & Q." (6th S. v. 150) that Psalmen die genennet werden Lobgesang," &c. ; parsonnes (=personnes) occurs twice in Molière's at end: "Gedruckt zu Augspurg. Von Hannsen Festin de Pierre, II.; and Littré gives parsoune Schonsperger. Anno M. cccc. XCVIIJ." On the as the pronunciation still to be heard in Berry. back of the title is pasted a slip of paper I also find in Roquefort parsonne and parsonnaige 3 in. wide by 2 in. high, bearing the following given as meaning "charge, dignité, emploi ; per-printed words: "SVM MAGI-STRI GEOR sonnage," &c. With regard to parsonage, Prof. Skeat calls it "a coined word with Fr. suffix"; but here he seems to me to be almost certainly wrong, for the word personage (also parsonnaige, as I have already shown from Roquefort) was used in Old French of the dignity of a curé, of his benefice or living, and also of the district under his charge, i. ., almost parish. See Ducange, personagium (s. v. persona), La Curne, Littré, &c. And in Mid. English personage (or parsonage) seems to have had more than one of these meanings, if we are to believe Ducange, loc. cit., and Sherwood (in Cotgrave), who defines parsonage as "l'Esglise, benefice, ou [he has "or"] charge spirituelle d'un curé, ou pasteur," and says nothing about its meaning the abode of a parson. This last meaning, then, which is now the only one,* seems to have come into use since Sherwood published his Dictionary (1632), and much later even than that. See note *. Parsonage, therefore, is no coined word, and the suffix age was not stuck on in England, as Prof. Skeat seems to think; the word has merely changed or extended its meaning. Comp. presbyter priest; presbyterium dignity of priest, part of a church (eastern end of choir, or whole choir), and house (or house and glebet) of priest (the mod. French presbytère). See Ducange. And a still better example is afforded by the Old Fr. prestre priest, prestraige, dignity of priest, prestrage, house of priest (Ducange and Roquefort), for here, as in our parsonage and hermitage (Fr. ermitage), the suffix age is used to denote a house or abode. F. CHANCE. Sydenham Hill. ANTIQUITY OF BOOK-PLATES.-Let me add two notes to the considerable amount of original information about book-plates now safely and conveniently stored in the pages of “ N. & Q.” The first note seems to me to supply nearly the earliest known date for a genuine example. The Webster says that it still means also "the benefice of a parish" (but does it?), and this is the only meaning given to the word by Johnson. In America parsonage still includes the glebe as well as the house (Webster). GII MAYRII MONACENSIS | [Melius est pro veritate pati sup- | [plic]ium, qua pro adulatione con[seq]ui beneficium." Now for the point. On the title, beneath the printed words of the title itself, is the following MS. note: "Sum magistri Georgij Mairij Monacensis parochus in Thegernsee. Melius est......beneficium. 15 13." There seems to me no doubt whatever that the writing is of the early sixteenth century, and that 1513 is, if not the latest probable date of the bookplate, yet at the least within the lifetime of the owner of it, and not far removed from the year of its printing and use. Both printed label and MS. note are erased by ink lines. Another sixteenth century book-plate is in "V. 2, 18 Th." in the Bodleian Library, a folio volume, pointed out to me by the Rev. W. D. Macray, containing several treatises printed between 1499 and 1529, the first being "En damus Chronicon.......eruditissimorum autorum.......ab ipso mundi initio ad annum......M.D.XII." (Basil, 1529). The binding seems to be sixteenth century work, and on the inside of the front cover is a large heraldic book-plate (12 in. by 8 in.) with the following engraved words at the foot: ". [some Hebrew] | IIA'NTA KAOAPA TOIS KAOAPOI OMNIA MVNDA MVNDIS | D. HECTOR POMER PRÆPOS. S. LAVR." The engraving is signed "R A 1525." See a description in the Hon. J. L. Warren's Guide to the Study of Book-plates (Lond., 1880), pp. 129, 202. FAMA. Oxford. OLD ENGRAVING.-Among a collection of old engravings I find one that has the peculiarity of being printed from three plates on one sheet of paper. Engravings printed in two or more sections and then pasted together are common enough, but the one I am now referring to is quite different. This is an engraving or etching by George Hawkins. The title is : "This view of the East end of Henry VIIth Chapel as restored in 1813 | taken from the House of Commons at an elevated station of 10 feet from the pavement is with permission humbly dedicated to the very Reva William Vincent, D.D., Dean of Westminster, by his much obliged and devoted servant, Geo. Hawkins." It is drawn and etched by Geo. Hawkins from actual admeasurement, and published by him October 14, 1814, at 11, Queen Street, Golden Square. The piece of paper on which the three copper- (?) plates bearing the design have been impressed measures 36 in. long by 23 in. high. The principal and central plate (as one can see by the plate. mark) measured 20 in. high by 15 in. wide, and the two side ones 21 in. high by 61 and 6 in. wide respectively. The side plates have evidently been printed first and then the centre one; the platemarks show this. The side plates were, I presume, the result of an afterthought, and were supplied for the purpose of adding dignity to the central design by introducing some of the surroundings. The paper is Whatman's, water-mark 1810. Ön closer examination it seems to me that the three plates have been inked and wiped separately, then placed in juxtaposition, and drawn through the press all together. W. H. PATTERSON. Belfast. NUTS AT FEASTS AND IN GAMES.-In the edition of Persius annotated by Isaac and Meric Casaubon, London, 1647, there are some curious notes about nuts, on i. 10, "nucibus relictis," p. 51: "Inter puerorum oblectamenta sunt nuces. in commentariis Rabbinorum legere nemini (?), patrisfamilias officium esse, die festo, hilaritatis instrumenta domesticis suis præbere, pro cujusq; persona: pueris vero jubentur The on the jury persons who were not of sufficient respectability" (Hone's Year-Book, 1317). This has been reprinted on several occasions. following jury list, although equally remarkable and of the same century, is not so well known. It appeared in Brome's Travels over England, &c. (ed. 1707, 279-80); and as the author was a Church of England clergyman (rector of Cheriton, in Kent) and a loyalist it will account for the tone of the introductory remarks: "I shall subjoin a Copy of a Jury return here [Rye, in Sussex] in the late Rebellious Troublesome Times...... and by the Christian Names then in Fashion we may still discover the Superstitious Vanity of the Puritanical Precisians of that Age. .amygdale, poma, muces קליות ומגדנות ואגיזים dari ......ludebant pueri nucibus variis modis, quorum nonnulli hodieque pueris in usu: ut cum in pyramidem quatuor nuces extruuntur: quam lusionem describit Philo in Kooμonota: in carmine veteri de nuce & hanc habes & alios multos modos." With much more about nuts. Compare Genesis xliii. 11. W. C. B. ASELF. This curious Anglo-Irish word is, I think, unknown in English. Its meaning will be made apparent in the following examples: (1) A guest who drops in to supper has no appetite and declines some cold beef. His host presses him to some lighter fare, with the words, "Take some apple-pie aself," i. e., at all events, at least take that, if nothing else. (2) A farmer's daughter expresses a hankering for a pair of silk stockings. Her mother ridicules her presumption with "Silk stockings, aself!" where the meaning is, "Silk stockings, forsooth! will nothing less fine suit you?" (3) "You ought to get a new dress, my dear, for the Smiths' party." "If I had it aself, I wouldn't wear it at the Smiths'," i. e., even supposing I had one. · A. SMYTH PALMER. Woodford. JURY LIST.-At the Huntingdon Assizes in 1619 a list of ordinary jurymen bearing aristocratic names was submitted to Judge Doddridge, as a rejoinder to his remarks at a previous assize, when " he reproved the sheriff for having returned Accepted Trevor, of Norsham. Stand fast on high Stringer, of Crowhurst. Called Lower, of the same. Fly Debate Roberts, of the same. Fight the good Fight of Faith White, of Emer. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Budleigh Salterton, Devon. CRICKET.-In Mr. Pycroft's Cricket Field (1882), p. 8, will be found the following paragraph: "I have many editions of Chamberlayne's State of England,' kindly writes Mr. T. B. Macaulay, 'published between 1670 and 1700, and I observe he never mentions cricket among the national games, of which he gives a long list.'" That this statement is misleading, a reference to Chamberlayne's eighteenth edition of the Angliæ Notitia (1694) will conclusively prove. On p. 52 it is stated that: "The natives will endure long and hard Labour; inasmuch that after 12 hours' hard work, they will go in the Evening to Football, Stool-ball, Cricket, Prison-base, Wrestling, Cudgel-Playing, or some such like vehement Exercise for their Recreation." G. F. R. B. KESTEVEN.-Lincolnshire is divided into three ridings, the parts of Holland, the parts of Lindsey, and the parts of Kesteven. The meaning of the first two of these names is clear. Holland is the fen district to the south, Lindsey takes its name from Lincoln, but Kesteven, which contains nine wapentakes, and gives a title to a peer and a name to two of the new electoral divisions of the county, has never yet been satisfactorily explained-Coedstephne, the "projecting forest," an impossible hybrid of Keltic and Danish, being as inadmissible lynage and surname, without p'judyce of the one to the other." It might be thought that the label was for cadency of birth; but it was not so. It did not apply to the position of the recipient in his family. It was certainly treated as a permanent charge, as seen more than a century after in a trick in the visitation book of Suffolk, where this branch of the family then lived. To return to the subject of wreaths. What should be the tincture of the wreath when the arms consist of colour or metal only without charges? Take these examples: Per bend azure and gules, for Wheler; and Per chevron argent and or, for Catalines. S. JAMES A. SALTER. as Stukeley's cavata avon, or a more recent derivation from a prehistoric kistvaen lately discovered within its bounds. Since Kesteven includes the greater part of the range of calcareous hills near Grantham, formerly unenclosed wolds and heaths, and still called "The Cliff," we might expect Kesteven to prove ultimately a hill-name, in distinction to the fens or parts of Holland. The Anglo-Saxon form is Ceostephne, which becomes Keestevene in the Hundred Rolls. The first part of the name might be the Anglo-Saxon ceó, a chough or crow, and the latter part the Anglo-Saxon stefn, which means (1) the stem of a tree, (2) the stem or prow of a ship, (3) a stem or race of people. None of these meanings is satisfactory; but we may possibly find a solution in the fact that numerous places in Germany bear the name Staufen, the MISLESTED.-A country woman in the Midlands cliffs, the castle of Hohen-staufen in Wirtemberg, for instance, being famous as the stamm-schloss of Wrote as follows, the other day, concerning one of the Swabian emperors. This extension of mean- mislested me. No, says I, nor fifty men wouldn't, her neighbours :-"He ax'd me if he had ever ing is explained by the obvious comparison of rocks to the stems of trees. Kesteven, whose not if they was to try it ever so." This admirable backbone is the range of hills called "The Cliff," word, mislested, is not, so far as I know, a dialect would thus bear a name analogous to that of Crow-word; it seems to be due to the unaided genius of borough, one of the highest hills in Sussex. ISAAC TAYLOR. CREST-WREATHS AND MANTLES.-This subject requires ventilation. Your correspondent SIR HERBERT MAXWELL remarks (6th S. xii. 415) that the principal tinctures of the field and charges on the escutcheon of a coat of arms 66 are invariably shown in the wreaths upon which the crest is placed." This certainly is the general rule, and should apply to the mantle also; but it is not invariable with either. In 1513 Garter (Wriothesley) and Norroy (Yong) granted arms for difference to Sir Thomas Salter, of Oswestry, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII., and in the grant the rule as to tincture is violated as regards both wreath and mantle. Two differences are assigned-a bordure engrailed argent, "hurted and turted" (sixteen hurts and torteaux alternate), and a "labell of iij pendant." The rest of the blazon is a recital of the arms of the house as borne by the head of the family, to which these differences are added. The arms are, Gules, ten billets or, 4, 3, 2, and 1. ແ Crest, a fesant's heade becked and billeted golde set upon a wrethe argent and azur. A mantell of gules lined with argent." Thus we have argent and azure in the wreath and argent in the mantle where, according to the general and accepted rule, they should be or and gules. There is another interesting point which arises in this grant worth recording. It is laid down as a canon that where arms are differenced there should be two differences : Basingfield, Basingstoke. the speaker. It is evidently a happy combina- BLOODY HAND.-In the Times of Dec. 8 Mr. "BEGGAR'S BARM."-This is the Derbyshire name given to the masses of dark, thick foam which collects upon the surface of brooks and dykes where there is a surface stoppage of water, |