certain interest. The lenders are distributed into classes by their ages: all of thirty in one class, all of thirty-one in another, and so on. The whole annual fund of each class is divided among its members. As they die out, the survivors continue to receive the same equally divided among them, so that their gains keep increasing, till at last the whole annual fund falls to one survivor; and upon his death, it reverts to the originators of the tontine. So that the scheme is merely an annuity to a number of persons instead of one, constantly diminishing till the whole is payable to a single one. F. C. H. DEFECTS IN MARRIAGE REGISTERS. 66 (4th S. ix. 277, 345, 434.) Only yesterday, on my return to town, had I an opportunity of reading the Act referred to by E. V. and the one as amended, 1 Vict. c. 22, 1837; and I find nothing there which makes a clergyman liable for entering the age in years; on the contrary, a clause specially exonerates him from blame for making all the inquiries required by the Act. The Registrar-General's circular probably not one clergyman in a hundred has seen; and "not required to enter the precise age," i. e. date of birth, is a different matter from saying that registering the years is a breach of the law. A great number of marriages take place just about the time when minors are verging on full age," and yet are ignorant of the fact, or what "full age" legally means; and thus there is reason to fear that through the careless entering of "full age" in doubtful cases, to save trouble, many false entries have been made in large parishes. The same inquiry, as to age, has to be made, very pointedly, at every census, and a penalty attaches to anyone returning a false answer; and on other occasions women as well as men have to state their ages; and it is for their own interest to do so correctly at marriage, as the register, even if one statement only be correct, the other approximate, will serve as moral, if not as collateral legal evidence, of identity, relationship, and other points of interest and moment to their families, friends, or descendants. In large parishes, couples of the same name are sometimes married nearly at the same time,-two or three John Smiths to as many Mary Browns, all of "full age"; and the ages in years, even approximate, would afterwards serve to determine who's who. In the interests of the public I trust more clergymen than ever will, as the majority probably already do, enter the ages in years whenever no reluctance is shown by the persons concerned. An occasional source of error which those who may be engaged in tracing pedigrees and genealogies in parish registers would do well to bear in mind, is the misspelling of names occasioned by the difference of pronunciation between parishioners and their clergyman, which the latter sometimes forgets to allow for; e. g. Shaw, in Yorkshire or Derby, is pronounced "Show "; but Moule, in parts of Somerset, is called "Maule." So in many other cases there is a difference of pronunciation in Norfolk, in Cheshire, in Cornwall, and Somerset; and I remember seeing surnames of the same family spelt in different ways from this cause. FRANCIS J. LEACHMAN, M.A. Compton Terrace, Highbury. SIR JOHN DENHAM'S DEATH. There is not the slightest doubt as to the date of the death of Sir John Denham. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, March 23, 1668-9. His will, dated on the 13th of the same month, was not (from some unknown cause) proved until May 9, 1670. Pepys, therefore, was correct in this instance. I wish, however, to take advantage of the question thus raised by referring to another matter in which Pepys's accuracy has been lauded unduly, to the discredit of another diarist of still greater eminence. Pepys, under date of August 10, 1667, stated that he was that day informed by the bookseller at the New Exchange that Cowley was dead. To this paragraph Lord Braybrooke appended the following foot note: "We have here a striking instance of the slow communication of intelligence. Cowley died on the 28th of July, at Chertsey; and Pepys, though in London, and at of August that so distinguished a person was dead. all times a great newsmonger, did not learn till the 10th Evelyn says that he attended Cowley's funeral on the 3rd of August, which shows that he did not keep his diary entered up as regularly as our journalist, for the interment is thus recorded in the register of Westminster Abbey-On the 17th of August, Mr. Cowley, a famous poet, was buried at the foot of the steps to Henry VIII's chapel.' Although Lord Braybrooke appears to hav quoted the Abbey register, it is clear that he really quoted from the version of it printed in the Collectanea Top. et Gen. vii. 374. In order to comprehend fully my further remarks, I give two consecutive entries from the burial register of the Abbey, under the year 1667 :— "Aug. 3. Mr. Cowly, a famous Poet, was buried neere Mr. Chaucer's monument. 66 Aug. 17. The Countess of Clarendon was buried at the foot of the steps ascending to K. H. 7ths Chapel." It will be seen that in the Collectanea these two entries were jumbled together, the name of the Countess of Clarendon being omitted altogether. This instance shows pointedly the necessity for a revision of that portion of the Abbey register printed in the Collectanea, and the importance of the work in which I have so long been engaged. This mutilated entry misled the learned editor of Pepys into making a charge of inaccuracy against Evelyn, who, it now appears, was strictly correct. On the other hand, however, Pepys only learned on August 10 that Cowley was dead, and for this information he had to make a pilgrimage into the City, although he had been buried, almost before his own eyes, and in great state, a full week before! JOSEPH LEMUEL CHESTER. CHRISTIAN NAMES. (4th S. ix. 423, 510.) There is no reason why Clare or Clara should not have been a woman's Christian name in this country from the thirteenth century downwards. Saint Clare, the friend of Saint Francis and foundress of the Poor Clares, was a popular saint in England. Her name occurs in many of our medieval kalendars, and is to be found under her feast-day (August 12) in Queen Elizabeth's Latin Prayer was introduced here by Blanch of Navarre, the wife of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, about 1293. They had houses at Aldgate, Waterbeache, Denny, and Brusyard (Monast. Anghc., 1846, vi. 1548). According to August Potthast's Bibliotheca Medii Evi, two other Clares are commemorated in the Acta Sanctorum. His references are August, iii. 676; April, ii. 507. FLORENCE. Book. The monastic order that bears her name Allow me to thank MR. PEACOCK and P. P. for their kind response to my suggestion, and to say that to " go on and on producing still earlier instances," is precisely the state of affairs which I desired to evoke. I never meant arrogantly to assert that the instances which I gave were the earliest which could be found, but merely that they were the earliest I had found-two very different statements; and I also intended to intimate-"if any one else should find earlier ones, please make a note of'." Within the last few weeks I have met with evidence that Clare is earlier than I previously knew. I beg to assure MR. PEACOCK that I had not forgotten "Clara de Clare, of Gloster's blood," and that I did not doubt that Scott had authority for his use of the name, i. e. for Clare: for be it remembered that his use of Clare or Clara depends on his metre. But I have now the pleasure of adding that two Clares, of the Reformation period, appear in the Post-mortem Inquisitions :1. P. M. Clara Nevyll, 21 Hen. VIII.; and I. P. M. Clare North, viduæ, 1553. I say advisedly, Clares; for they are only Claras because their names are in Latin. : Avice is the same as Avis, or Hawise, all being derived from Hadewisa, and related to the German Hedwiga. I am glad to hear that Avice, Idonia, and Muriel, are not obsolete. I should date the disuse of a name from the period when it ceased to be employed previous to the modern revival. HERMENTRUDE. The name of Muriel has certainly not become obsolete; there is a very respectable surgeon in Norwich of that name, who is well known; but I am unable to furnish any particulars of his family, or to give any idea of the extent of his connexions. F. C. H. "Ere while he honoured Bertha with his flame, And now he chants no less Louisa's name," are lines occurring in "A Familiar Epistle to Mr. Julian, Secretary to the Muses," one of the list of satirical poems in the MS. volume which I have ascribed in a former communication to Dr. Donne, chaplain to Charles II. HERMENTRUDE'S prima facie an evidence in favour of any suppofirst public record (1694) of Louisa, therefore, is sition that the work referred to was never published, while on the other hand the MS. proves a pre-existence for Louisa, inasmuch as the first line later in the volume, runs thus:— of "The Sham Prophecy," which is 121 pages "In sixteen hundred seventy-eight." But possibly the register of St. James's, Piccadilly, may refer to the marriage, though rather late in life, of the same Louisa, and indeed to Julian, whose very amorous feelings towards her may be judged from the following additional reference to have merited such a consummation: "For when his passion has been bubling long, A hasty glance through the volume also reveals these Christian and nicknames:-Lory, Ephelia, Franck, Julia, Betty, Lucy, Cary, Harriatt, Nancy, Patty, Nan, Nelly, Mall, Nanny, Ned, Dick, Tom (Thumb). "Can two such pigmies such a weight support, Two such Tom Thumbs of Satyr in a Court." Proverbs. Some "Select Sentences," gathered from the best English writers, and included in The Speaker (Enfield's, Warrington Academy, Oct. 1774) have since passed into proverbs, as for instance : "Prosperity gains friends and adversity tries them." "By others' faults wise men correct their own." 66 To err is human; to forgive, divine." "A friend cannot be known in prosperity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity." O. B. B. (Rot Pat., 1 H. IV., Part 1; 5 H. IV., Part 1; 14 H. IV.; 4 H. V.; 1 H. VI., Part 1; Rot. Ex., Pasc. 2 H. V.; I. P. M. 13 H. VI. 35.) Certain offices are alluded to (but not defined) which Thomas Chaucer held "ex concessione Johannis Ducis Aquitanie et Lancastrie, Mar. 20, 1399." (Rot. Pat. 22 R. II., Part 2.) While I believe Thomas to be Geoffrey's son, I must honestly own that I have never found any allusion to him as such in the public records. HERMENTRUde. Since penning my former note (4th S. ix. 468) I have met with the following extract:— "The King committed to Thomas Chaucer, Esq., the custody of the manor of Adington in Com. Bucks, which John Burton, Sen., lately deceased, held for life by de myse of Wm. Molyns, Sen., deed [1380], and which after the death of the said John Barton [or Burton] fell into the king's hands by reason of the minority of Alianor, dt. and h. of Wm. Molyns, Kt. [dec. 1428?], sone of the foresaid William, who held in capite, and for that reason came into the king's hands." [No date, p. 622.1-White Kennett's Parochial Antiquities. Oxford, 1695. This will serve fully to identify the "genty Molyns" of Lydgate's Chaucer ballad (see " "N. &Q." (4th S. ix. 381) with Dame Alianore Molines as suggested. Í may add that the Molines family were very closely related to the Burghershes, so that Maud Burghersh, who married Thomas Chaucer, was cousin to Sir Wm. Molynes, who died 1428, or 1424-5, as some say. A. HALL. MISS STEELE (4th S. ix. 476, 521.)-She wrote a number of hymns, remarkable for piety of spirit and good versification. DR. DIXON calls her Mrs. Steele, but she was never married. Her poems were collected and reprinted in America in 1808. EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. MISERERE CARVINGS (4th S. ix. 405, 471, 517.) In reply to the query whether documentary evidence exists to show that such a penance for incontinence (as is believed to be represented by the miserere carving at Worcester) was ever instituted or undergone, see Blount's Jocular Tenures (ed. 1679, pp. 144 and 149). A. B. MIDDLETON. The Close, Salisbury. I do not know whether F. C. H.'s note is meant for a reply to my query as to the name Miserere, but if so, it is no answer at all. Of course we know all which F. C. H. says about the thing. F. C. H. My question had reference to the name. says of the upper seat in the stalls, that "it was called miserere as being a merciful contrivance to relieve fatigue." If for miserere he had written misericordia I should have agreed with him; but then, as now, there would still remain the original question-namely, what is the origin, meaning, and date of first use of the word miserere as applied to these seats, or, if F. C. H. prefers to call them so, these "small shelves"? J. T. MICKLETHWAITE. 3, Delahay Street, Great George Street, S.W. EDWARD UNDERHILL, THE "HOT GOSPELLER (4th S. ix. 484.)-Though unable to supply the information asked for by HERMENTRUDE, I offer the following particulars concerning the "Hot Gospeller," in the hope that they may be of some use in aiding her researches. He was born about 1520, and was the eldest son of Thomas Underhill, of a family originally of Hunningham and embraced a martial life. He from Wolverhampton. In 1544 he sold the manor "followed the wars" in Hainault and France, and being at once valiant and accomplished, was speedily admitted into the band of gentlemen-atarms. About this time he married Joan Perrins, the daughter of a citizen of London, and by her had eleven children, of whom one received the name of Guilford, and was the godson of Lady (Narratives of the Reformation, Camden Society.) Jane Dudley, better known as Lady Jane Grey. of his brother Ralph in 1556, he succeeded to his According to the inquisition taken at the death wickshire), and in subsequent years exercised the lands at Stoneleigh and Baginton (both in Warright of patronage of the living at the latter place. By an entry in Machin's Diary it would seem that his wife died in 1562, and was buried at Aldgate "with a dozen of scutcheons of arms." In 1563 (the year of the heralds' visitation), he was resident at Hunningham. With the close of his autobiography all trace of him and his descendants is lost, and an inquiry made some years ago through "N. & Q." failed to elicit any information. The name as a name lingered for some time at Baginton; for we find that in 1628 the parson there had permission to reside in a house on "Underhill's Farm," and to enjoy the buildings and close thereto belonging." (Thomas's Continuation of Dugdale.) WM. UNDERHILL. Kelly Street, Kentish Town. TREYFORD: ELSTED (4th S. ix.. 486.) The dedication of the old church at Treyford, Sussex, was to St. Mary; the new church, consecrated in 1849, was dedicated to St. Peter. (Lower's History of Sussex, ii. 208.) The saint to whom the church at Elsted was originally dedicated does not appear to be known. No information on the point is given in Bacon's Liber Regis, nor in the histories of the county by Dallaway and Horsfield. E. H. W. DUNKIN. Kidbrooke, Blackheath. MONASTIC INVENTORIES (4th S. ix. 360, 432, 487.)—“Open and spar the book." Spar is here clearly in one of the senses of the German v. a. sperren, to open out widely and place something in the opening to prevent shutting. Das Buch aufsperren is exactly in the sense of the English phrase. C. D. A. "STAND ON SYMPATHY," "RICHARD II.," ACT IV. Sc. 1 (4th S. ix. 462.)-Sympathy equality, is not uncommon in Shakespeare— "A sympathy in choice." = Midsummer Night's Dream, I. 1. "Be what it is, The action of my life is like it, which I'll keep, if but for sympathy." Cymbeline, V. 4. See also Falstaff's letter, Merry Wives, II. 1— "A message well sympathized." Love's Labour's Lost, III. 1. JOHN ADDIS, M.A. FORTUNE'S SPINNING-WHEEL (4th S. ix. 339, 465)"Fortune (who slaves men) was my slave; her wheel Hath spun me golden threads." The Roaring Girl, Dodsley, vol. vi. p. 14, ed. 1825. Rustington, Littlehampton, Sussex. REV. THOMAS ROSE, temp. EDW. VI. (4th S. ix. 484.)-Lysons says (Environs of London, iv. 265) of him : "Upon Queen Elizabeth's accession he returned, and took possession again of the vicarage of Westham, which he resigned in 1563 for the living of Lutenhoo in Bedfordshire, where he died at a very advanced age." S. K. "Oss" OR "ORSE" (4th S. ix. 404, 492, 524.) I have often heard this word used in Lincolnshire; it appears to me to be a corruption of " offer," e. g. "it's ossing to rain,” ¿. e. “it is offering to rain." E. L. BLENKINSOPP. 66 Printers are sometimes asked why various kinds of paper obtained the peculiar names they bear. Here is the reason:-In ancient times, when comparatively few people could read, pictures of every kind were much in use where writing would now be employed. Every shop, for instance, had its sign, as well as every publichouse; and those signs were not then, as they are often now, only painted upon a board, but were invariably actual models of the thing which the sign expressed-as we still occasionally see some such sign as a beehive, a tea canister, or a doll, and the like. For the same reason, printers employ some device, which they put upon the title-pages and at the end of their books. And papermakers also introduced marks by way of distinguishing the paper of their manufacture from that of others; which marks becoming common, naturally gave their names to different sorts of paper. A favourite paper-mark between 1540 and 1560 was a jug or pot, and would appear to have originated the term 'pot paper.' The fool's cap was a later device, and does not appear to have been nearly of such long continuance as the former. It has given place to the figure of Britannia, or that of a lion rampant supporting the cap of liberty on a pole. The name, however, has continued, and we still denominate paper of a particular size by the title of foolscap.' Post' paper seems to have derived its name from the post horn, which at one time was its distinguishing mark. It does not appear to have been used prior to the establishment of the General Post Office (1670), when it became a custom to blow a horn; to which circumstance, no doubt, we may attribute its introduction. Bath post is so named after that fashionable city."-Engineer, March 17, 1871. Hulme. S. "Here lies a marksman, who, with art and skill, This epitaph was made some time before the hero's death, and so delighted was he with it that he had it graven upon a stone in anticipation of his demise. He died in 1752, in his seventyfifth year. THOS. RATCLIFFE. "MAKE A BRIDGE OF GOLD," ETC. (4th S. ix. 397, 492.)-This proverb, or something similar, is put by Brantôme (born about 1547, died 1614), in his Mémoires (tom. ii. p. 83), into the mouth of Louis XII. (succeeded 1498, died 1514). I quote from Le Roux de Lincy (ii. 178): — "On lit dans Brantôme, au sujet de l'accord fait par M. de la Trémouille avec les Suisses après la déroute de Novare et dont le roi Louis XII blâmait beaucoup les conditions: Toutesfois après avoir bien pesé le tout et que pour chasser son ennemy il ne faut nullement espargner un pont d'argent, quoi qu'il aille un peu de l'honneur."" But it was also known in Spain at the period when Brantôme lived, in the precise form of a "bridge of silver," as Cervantes, who published the first part of Don Quixote in 1605, says (ii. 58): "Que al enemigo que huye hacerle la puente de plata ""Make a bridge of silver for a flying enemy." Can it be traced to a classical source? C. T. RAMAGE. "WHEN ADAM DELVED," ETC. (4th S. ix. 415, 476, 517.)-The engraving of F. C. H. corresponds in part remarkably with some painted glass in a window in the parish church of Halam, near Southwell, Notts. The upper half only of the window, which is square-headed and of two lights, is filled with painted glass, containing in each light two compartments. The two upper represent S. Christopher and S. Blasius (the name of the latter is visible across the picture, though his emblem, the wool comb, has been replaced with a triangular piece of white glass). The two lower contain Adam digging with a long crutch-handled spade, and Eve, sitting on a tree-stump spinning. The compartments are edged along the sides with a border of "popinjays." In the triangular space between the heads of the arches of the tracery is a shield bearing a chief indented (tincture not recognisable), and a chevron gules. The shield, I think, must have been or, as there seems to be too much discoloration for it ever to have been meant for argent. R. F. SMITH, Vicar of Halam. FAMILY NAMES AS CHRISTIAN NAMES (4th S. ix. 506.)-NEPHRITE has started an interesting question, parallel with my own. May I, how ever, be permitted to suggest that a distinction should be drawn, in strict accuracy, between Christian names originally surnames, such as Percy, Sidney, &c., and names which, though now used as surnames, were Christian names originally, and have never entirely ceased to be so? Herbert and Cecil are of the latter class, and were Christian names long before any one thought of using them as surnames. HERMEN TRude. DRAUGHT = MOVE (4th S. ix. 483.)-MR. ADDIS, in his note on this subject, writes-"Thogh ye hadde loste the ferses twelve,' has no definite meaning, I suppose; merely signifying, if your loss had been. twelve times as great.' The fers, in medieval chess, was the piece equivalent to the modern chess queen, but with power much more circumscribed, its range being limited to medieval form of chess, developed into the modern one square diagonally. When the Shatranj, or phase of the game, the fers became the queen, and from the rank of a minor piece was elevated to that of the most potent on the board, combining in her own person the powers of rook and bishop. The Earl of Surrey wrote a graceful little poem called The Lady that scorned her Lover, which turns upon the similarity between the game of chess and the game of life. It contains these lines: SIR JOHN VANBRUGH (4th S. ix. 499.) — In Robinson's History of the Priory and Peculiar of Snaith, 1861, it is stated at p. 77 that Henrietta Maria, first child of Colonel Yarburgh of Heslington, was married at St. Lawrence, York, Jan. 14, 1718-9, to John Vanburgh, Esq., of Castle Howard. They had an only son Charles, an ensign in the army, who died in 1745 from wounds received at the battle of Tournay. Lady Vanburgh, who was left a widow March 25, 1726, died April 22, 1776, aged eighty-six. Her will bears date June 15, 1769. Lord Carlisle was certainly a member of the Kitcat Club, his portrait being one of the most spirited in that series; and Hunter, on the |