when the name of Mr. James Russell Lowell figures in the introduction; but it is nevertheless a fact. W. F. PRIDEAUX, Calcutta. MS, SERVICE BOOK: HYDE FAMILY. Amongst the advantages enjoyed by those who take an interest in tracing out their pedigree are the kindness and courtesy it developes in friends and others who become aware of the object of the search. A friend, knowing my hobby, informed me that he had seen in the City an ancient Missal, in which were recorded many particulars respecting persons of the name of Hyde. In a very short time afterwards I had the pleasure of calling upon the Rev. John C. Jackson, 11, Angel Court, E. C., who most courteously allowed me to inspect the MS. I wanted to see. It far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. It was the Great Antiphoner of Salisbury and Norwich, being the entire Breviary, with all the musical notes, the Kalendar being in the middle. It consists of 359 large folio leaves, and is written on vellum, apparently about the beginning of the fifteenth century. It had evidently been the service book used in Denchworth Church, Berkshire, and had been in use in the reign of Henry VIII., because the word "Pope" was erased, in compliance with his orders, and also the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury, whom the king considered to have been a traitor. In addition to these, several erasions have been made by a line ruling through the words, which does not interfere with their legibility. Written upon blank spaces in the Kalendar were the dates of the birth and death of many members of the Hyde family, who lived for centuries at Denchworth, and built the church. These are the most numerous. There are, however, several other names mentioned, and in addition is a memorandum, copied below, which seems of earlier date than 1135, when the death of John Hyde, Esq., is recorded in the last year of Henry I. Written in a blank space in January, evidently by a regular scribe, is : “Mem. quod etiam tenentes hujus ville de Denchworth tenentur tenere anniversarium cujusdam Johannis Bernardi proxima dominica Post Festum Epiphaniæ pro quo tenendo predicti tenentes habebunt unam vaccam ex ordinatione predicti Joh. Bernard et predicti tenentur solido le belman id, ibidem qui pro tempore fidit annatim et cuicumque vicario ibidem qui pro tempore fidit dicenti placebo et dirige iid. ac clerico ibidem pulsanti le Knylle annatim id. ac offerandum dominica die predicta ad altam missam ibidem pro anima dicti Johannis ac aliorum benefactorum Suorum iiid. Pro hac materia quære si vis in le Courte Rowll de tenura de Denchworth Secunda linea post conquestum." The book being a large folio, and a page given for each month, frequent blank spaces occur between the days, some of the lines being only partly filled. In these spaces were entered the births and deaths which the church desired to remember on their particular days. The Kalendar, being in the centre of the book, could be easily turned to by the priest when performing the service. The entries are made sometimes between the lines, rendering it difficult to determine whether they belonged to month is given in the entry. They come accordsay the 11th or 12th; in such cases the day of the ing to the days of the month; in the following list I give them chronologically :— Henrici primi Anno Millmo Cmo Trigism Vo." 13 July. "Obitus Johannis Hyde Armiger. ultimo Sept. 9. "Obitus Rodulphi Hyde Armigeri Ano D'n Millis Co Lo vio a Reg. Reg. Henrici 2ndi 30.5 Jan. 11. "Obitus Richardi Hyde Militis Millmo como Septisago viii Anno Regni Regis Edwardi 1mo Septimo." May 13. "Obitus Johannis Hyde anno domini Mill ccccxvi et anno Regis Henrici quarti post Conquest quarto." July 21. "Obitus Johannis Hyde Armiger anno domini Millmo cccc xlvii anno regni Regis Henrici Sexti post conquestum Angliæ vicessimo sexto litera dominicalis F." May 29. "Obitus Agnetis Hyde anno dom' M. cccclxviii anno regis Edwardi quarti post conquestum Angliæ xviii." Sept. 18. "Obitus Johnnis HydeArmiger A° Do' Millimo cccclxxxvii et anno regni Regis Henrici Sept' post conquestum Angliæ 3 Litera Domin. G." October 4. "Obitus Oliveri Hide Armiger. A' D'ni Mil'imo vmo xyto et an° Regni Regis Henrici Octavi Septimo Vidt quarto die Octobris Litera Domin G." April 2. "Willmus Hyde filius et Heres Wylli Hyde Suam Accipit peregrinationem in hunc mundum anno nostre salutis M Vcento xviii et anno Regni Regis Octavi 9mo videlicet 2nd die mensis Aprilis." Feb. 29. "Obitus Bartholomie Yate mercatoris Ville Stapule Calisie an° Dni. M ccccc vicessimo viz. ultimo die mensis Februarii Cujus Anima propicietur Deus. Amen litera dominicalis H [sic]." May 5. "Obitus Agnetis Hyde anno domini M° cccccxxiii et anno regis Henrici Octavi XV Videlicet quinto die mensis Maii tunc litera Dominicalis D. Cujus Animæ propinetur Deus. Amen." The last entry with a date is :— ccccclvii anno regni Maria tercio Videlicet tercio die May 3. "Obitus Willmi Hyde Anno D'ni Msmo mensis Maii tunc litera dominicalis D." There are several births registered of Hyde children; and also, but without date other than that of the month : 24 Jan. "Obitus Wilhelmi Wyblyn et Marion Uxoris Suæ et Solutum pro dirige et Missa." 26 Jan. "Obitus Johannis Wyblyn et Willi Marcer et dirige et Missa." On a tombstone in Denchworth Churchyard it is stated that the Wyblyns were in that parish for five hundred years. 15 Oct. "Will' Yong obitus." A man of that name witnessed one of the Hyde deeds mentioned in Clarke's 'Hundred of Wanting,' p. 98, A.D. 1398. "12 Maij. Obitus Rogeri Merlow xii Mayi anno Regis Edwardi quarti post Conquestum 200 [1462].” He witnessed a deed at p. 99 of Clarke's 'Hundred of Wanting,' A.D. 1448. The church registers commence with 1538, between which date and 1557 no entry has been made. Probably the book was brought into use again in Queen Mary's reign, and was not used afterwards. It seems as if when this new book was purchased the entries up to 1446 were copied into it from the old book, and that the subsequent records were written as they occurred. Bartholomew Yate, merchant of the Staple of the town of Calais, was probably father or uncle of the Rev. Peter Yate, M.A., the vicar, who was instituted on May 16, 1514, and resigned, his successor being instituted on January 2, 1521. I presume that this service book would still be legal evidence of the facts it records. It is not often that men can see the actual entries recording the death of ancestors up to twenty, and probably twenty-five generations, as in all likelihood John Hyde (1135) and Rodolph Hyde (1156) were ancestors of Sir Richard Hyde, whose descendant I am. If any of your readers can give me information respecting John Bernard, John Hyde (1135), and Rodolph Hyde (1156), I shall be greatly obliged. HENRY BARRY HYDE. 5, Eaton Rise, Ealing, W. 'THE DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY." (See 6th S. xi. 105, 443; xii. 321; 7th S. i. 25, 82, 342, 378; ii. 102, 324, 355; iii. 101, 382; iv. 123, 325, 422.) If your correspondent W. C. B. will be good enough to look again at my article upon Crabbe, he will see that I have mentioned the poet's father, George Crabbe, who was the saltmaster at Aldeburgh. I must confess, however, that the passage is a little obscure, owing to the identity of name between the poet, his father, and his grandfather. Whilst I am writing, may I say that I am much obliged to W. C. B. and to other correspondents who have pointed out errata or omissions in the 'Dictionary'? The errata shall be put right at the first opportunity. In regard to the omissions, I would make another suggestion. It is very difficult to make sure that one has noted all the passages bearing upon any life to which a reference might properly be given. I will confess, for example, that I was not aware that Watts had said anything about Cowley; though I may add that, had I known it, I am not sure that I should have thought it worth mentioning. It would be a great advantage to us if gentlemen would send us beforehand any references which are likely to be overlooked. I would take care they should be properly attended to. We are now employed upon the letter G ; but there would also be time to insert references for F, E, or the greater part of D. If, therefore, any one who can give us hints for lives in that part of the alphabet would communicate them to me, or (if you would allow it) to you, for publication in your columns, it would make the book more perfect, and do us a real service. If I remember rightly, PROF. MAYOR made such a suggestion in your pages when we were starting, and I should be very glad if it could be taken up. LESLIE STEPHEN. 15, Waterloo Place. TREES AS BOUNDARIES.-In the museum at Carlisle is a small piece of wood labelled "Piece of the last tree of Inglewood Forest, a noble old oak which for upwards of 600 years was recognized as the boundary mark between the manors of the Duke of Devonshire and the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, also the parishes of Hesket and St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle." In the same collection there is also a sketch of the capon tree, a branchless trunk, perfectly bare, and without a twig or leaf. It was situate near to Brampton, and in olden times it was customary for the High Sheriff of Cumberland to meet the Judges of Assize, when they partook of a luncheon beneath its spreading branches. The sketch of the old tree was taken so long since as the year 1833, by the Rev. W. Ford, B. A., the author of Ford's Guide to the Lakes.' There can be little doubt but that this practice of defining boundaries is a surviual, or rather a continuation, of customs introduced into this country by the Roman colonists. There is ample testimony in authenticated writings of their surveyors to this fact. Trees were among the objects frequently devoted to terminal uses, and were naturally selected from those in the immediate neighbourhood; for example, at Constantinople, date, almond, and quince were the trees planted, and in Carthage and its vicinity the olive and elder are among those selected. The oak, the yew, and others indigenous to the soil would naturally be those devoted to such a purpose in the province of Britain. An isolated tree would form a terminus; this circumstance would of itself give to it a distinct appropriation. worshipping by the Romans is referred to by many writers of olden time; the superstition has descended, and finds an illustration in the yew tree, so common in the churchyards of our own day. It was ever associated with death and the passage of the soul of the departed to its new abode. The oak is thoroughly our own. It is referred to, with others, in the laws of the Christian emperors. Statius, too, writes Tree Nota per Arcadias felici robore sylvas Quercus erat, Triviæ quam desacraverat ipsa.* It would be extremely interesting to have a record of other illustrations in this country of the application of trees to such a purpose, for there are doubtless many. JOHN E. PRICE, F.S. A. *Theb,' lib. 9, v. 585, THE SILVER CAPTAIN.-The following story has been authenticated by the present Lord Digby, and seems to me to be well worthy of a corner in 'N. & Q.' On October 14, 1799, Admiral Sir Henry Digby, commanding the frigate Alomene, shaped his course for Cape St. Vincent, and was running to the southward, in the latitude of Cape Finisterre. At eleven o'clock at night Sir Henry rang his bell, to summon the officer of the watch, and asked him, "How are we steering?" "South-south-west, sir," was the reply. "What sort of weather?" "The same, sir, as when you left the deck; fine strong breeze; starlight night." "Are we carrying the same sail as at sunset?" "Yes, sir. Double-reefed topsails and foresail." Digby looked at the officer of the watch attentively for a moment, and then asked him whether, to his knowledge, any one had entered the cabin. "I believe not, sir," was the reply; " but I will inquire of the sentry." "Sentry!" exclaimed the officer of the watch, "has there been anybody in the captain's cabin ?" "No sir-nobody." Very odd," rejoined Digby. "I was perfectly convinced that I had been spoken to." The officer of the watch then left the cabin, and returned to the quarter-deck. At two in the morning the captain's bell was again rung-the same questions repeated, and the same answers given. "Most extraordinary thing," said the captain. "Every time I dropped asleep I heard somebody shouting in my ear, 'Digby! Digby! go to the northward! Digby! Digby! go to the northward!' I shall certainly do so. Take another reef in your topsails-haul your wind, tack every hour till daybreak, and then call me." The officer of the watch acted in strict accordance with these strange orders. When relieved, at 4 A.M., by the officer of the morning watch, that officer expressed great astonishment at finding the ship on a wind. service. According to Lord Digby-the son of the Silver Captain-the prize was so valuable that each midshipman's share of the prize-money amounted to 1,000l. In C. D. Yonge's 'Naval History' (p. 646) I find a slightly different account. It is there stated that there were two Spanish frigates laden with treasure. These were first engaged by Capt. Young in the Ethalion, and, when the day broke, Capt. Gore, in the Triton, and Capt. Digby, in the Alomene, came up from different quarters." It appears that the treasure was so weighty that sixty-three artillery waggons were employed to convey it to the Plymouth citadel. Each captain received 40,000l., and each seaman 2001. gives some idea as to the value of the prize which was captured on October 15, 1799. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Mount Edgcumbe, Devonport. This WAG.-It was suggested by Wedgwood that Three things there be that prosper all apace, And when they meet, they one another mar. CELER. COCO-NUT, NOT COCOA-NUT.-It may interest readers of N. & Q.' to know that a recent "What is the meaning of this?" he exclaimed. number of the new quarterly, Annals of Botany, "Meaning!" said the other. "The captain has contains a short article by Prof. Bayley Balfour gone stark, staring mad, that's all"; and he told upon the correct spelling of this word. He shows his story, at which they both laughed heartily. that etymology and early authority alike make There being no help for it, these strange orders" coco-nut" the correct form for the fruit of the were strictly obeyed, and the frigate was tacked at four, at five, at six, and at seven o'clock. She had just come round for the last time when the man at the masthead called out, "Large ship on the weather bow, sir!" On nearing her, a musket was discharged to bring her to. She was promptly boarded, and proved to be a Spanish vessel laden with dollars, and a very rich cargo to boot. By this prize the fortunate dreamer secured a large portion of the great fortune which he had amassed in the naval coco palm, and that "cocoa-nut" is merely a relic of the ignorance of those who supposed cocoa and chocolate to be obtained from the coco-nut. This "ignorance, madam, pure ignorance!" was unfortunately shared by Dr. Johnson at the time when he prepared his 'Dictionary,' and although he afterwards learned otherwise, and in his 'Life of Drake' correctly wrote coco, plural cocoes, this was after the publication of the last edition of the 'Dictionary' in his lifetime, so that he had no opportunity of correcting his unfortunate and mis leading error. Botanists, however, long continued to use the correct form-some have never ceased to do so and Prof. Balfour now calls upon them to unite in banishing the blundering "cocoa-nut," and in putting an end to a mischievous confusion between coco, cocoa, and coca, which are the three entirely distinct vegetable products. For coco he is able to cite not only Dr. Johnson's own use as opposed to his 'Dictionary,' but the use of the Laureate, who in 'Enoch Arden' writes: The slender coco's drooping crown of flowers. Dr. Murray is also quoted as writing, "I shall SPARABLE.—A sparable, i.e., a small nail used by shoemakers, is said to be a corruption of sparrow-bill. The following quotation helps to prove it : Hob-nailes to serve the man i' the moone, CELER. Vincentio Saviolo, then one of the three most esteemed masters of fence in England, in his treatise fully and several times confirms the conclusion arrived at from this passage of Ben Jonson, and G. Silver, another master of fence, in his Paradoxes of Defence,' 1599, writes similarly. BR. NICHOLSON. EFFECTS OF ENGLISH ACCENT. (See 7th S. i. 363, 443, 482; ii. 42, 236.)-Prof. Skeat in his most useful book 'Principles of English Etymology' devotes a chapter (xxv.) to the consideration of the effects of the English accent, and refers to a controversy between Dr. Chance and himself on the subject which appeared some time ago in the pages of N. & Q. I beg to offer a remark on the form of the two rules which appear to be the result of this amicable conflict. ing to these formulas, the same result, namely a shortening of the vowel, is produced by a specific cause, namely "accentual stress," and likewise by the absence of that specific cause- by the want of stress." This does not appear to me to be quite a complete account of the matter. 66 Rule 1 (in the shortened form) asserts that, "in words of augmented length, an original long vowel is apt to be shortened by accentual stress"; compare, for example, goose (A.-S. gós) and gosling. Rule 2 asserts that, "in dissyllabic compounds accented on the former syllable, the vowel in the RAPIER-By this is now understood a sword latter syllable, if originally long, is almost invariably adapted and used for thrusting only; and very shortened by the want of stress," the example given naturally, and generally at least, the same is un-being Dunstan, A.-S. Dúnstán. So, then, accordderstood of the rapier that in Elizabethan days succeeded the sword and dagger. But, on consideration, the transition is too abrupt, and the change of weapon a change to a less efficient one. It is impossible to suppose that Bobadil and Brainworm, the professing soldiers in 'Every Man in his Humour,' could have ever set forth their exploits The fact is the shortening of the vowel, as in the with either a Toledo or poor provant rapier, if case of gosling, is not due to accentual stress by these were only slender thrusting weapons, without itself; another condition is required. In dissyllabic exciting risible jeers from every bystander. When, words the tone vowel is shortened, as a rule, only too, we investigate the subject further, we find when it is stopped by the suffix beginning that the sword then called a rapier was a cut-and-with a consonant; when the suffix begins with a thrust sword. Thence, in 'Every Man out of his vowel or the aspirate h, the original quantity of the Humour,' IV. vi., we find that Fastidius, when de- tone vowel persists. For instance, from dún are scribing his duel, speaks thus: "Now he comes derived Dunbar, Dunstan, but Downham; from ác violently on, and withall advancing his rapier to the names Acland, Acton, but Oakham; from hwit strike, I thought to have tooke his arm......Sir, I the words Whitby, Whitstable, but whiting; from mist my purpose......rasht his doublet sleeve......stán the names Stanton, Stanstead, but stony, StoneHe againe lights me here [showing his hat],......cuts my hatband (and yet it was massie, goldsmith's worke), cuts my brimmes, which by good fortune [by their gold embroidery, &c.] disappointed the force of the blow: Neverthelesse, it graz'd on my shoulder......wee both fell out and breathed......Hee making a reverse blow, falls upon my emboss'd girdle......strikes off a skirt of a thick-lac't sattin doublet I had, cuts off two panes embroydered with pearle, &c." My italics, perhaps, make more plain what is plain without them--especially the sequence of the blow that cut the hatband, then, descending, cut the brimmes, and lastly grazed the shoulder that here cuts and thrusts are intermingled. ham; from east come Essex, Eston, but eastern; from héah is derived heifer, but Higham; from has comes Heathcote, but heathen. Apparent exceptions, such as heath-er, south-ern, Ston-ham, Stanhope, may be accounted for as comparatively modern shortenings, as the spellings in many cases show. In this connexion it is strange that the Cambridge professor should not have noticed the apparent exception to his first rule, the name of his own university-Cambridge. Here we have an instance of the very reverse of that which is asserted in that formula, for in this case an originally short vowel is lengthened or diphthongized, although it bears the accentual stress. It is lengthened, too, although it is stopped by the second element of the compound beginning with a consonant. This phenomenon is, of course, to be explained by the influence of the following nasal; compare, for instance, the pronunciation of the Romance words chamber, cambric, angel. A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford. JOHN DROESHOUT, ENGRAVER.-No particulars of his life are recorded. As "John Droushout of the parish of St. Brides in fleetstreete, London, Ingraver, being very sicke and weake in body but of sound and perfect minde and memory," he made his will January 12, 1651/2, and it was proved in the Prerogative Court by his widow Elizabeth on the following March 18. He there mentions his nephew Martin Droeshout, his son-in-law Isaac Daniell, and another son-in-law, Thomas Alferd. L. I. L. A. LEADEN FONT.-In 'N. & Q.,' 5th S. xii. 443, a correspondent has published a list of baptismal fonts made of lead. Those who are interested in this subject may like to know that in Dawson Turner's Tour in Normandy, vol. ii. p. 97, there is an engraving of a leaden font which exists (or did exist in 1818) at Bourg-Achard, in Normandy. It seems to be of twelfth century date. ANON. THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. It is, perhaps' worth while to "make a note" of the recent craze about the reappearance of the Star of the Magi. Persons completely ignorant of astronomy (and it is melancholy to find how many there still are of these) have apparently taken the planet Venus at her recent season of greatest brilliancy for a new or unusual star. MR. HYDE CLARKE's informants, however (7th S. iv. 506), were wrong in supposing that it could be seen even in November so early as one o'clock in the morning. A writer in Nature for Dec. 22 has suggested that though Venus is not the Star of Bethlehem, the Star of Bethlehem was Venus; in other words, that the Magi were attracted by a very briliant appearance of that planet in the morning, similar to that which we have had recently. Surely in this he does not give them sufficient credit for the knowledge of planetary appearances which they, in all probability, possessed, making them aware that there was nothing particularly unusual in the phenomenon. Moreover, is it possible to conceive that they, accustomed as they were to watch the heavens, would be so surprised to catch sight of the planet again after leaving Jerusalem as to rejoice "with exceeding great joy"? It may be added that Venus was not at greatest morning brilliancy in any part of the autumn or winter of B.C. 5, when the Nativity probably took place. But if this writer attributes too little knowledge of astronomy to the Magi, one in the Standard THE GURGOYLES.-In creating, as he has done, an imaginary society of Gargoyles, Mr. Punch has unwittingly committed an act of lése majesté against the real society of that name, which flourished at Lincoln's Inn and the Temple between the years 1855 and 1875, and which has never been formally dissolved. This company of Gurgoyles, affectionately termed "The Gurgs," was a revival of the old Cambridge Shakespeare Society, and it consisted mainly of Oxford and Cambridge men, with one brilliant member of the London Universitythe Right Hon. Henry Matthews, and one foreigner, an accomplished and energetic Neapolitan. Nearly all the Gurgs have belonged to their brotherhood from the first, and in more than thirty years there have been only two death vacancies. Taking the names as they now stand, they include one Secretary of State, as aforesaid; one of Her Majesty's judges-Mr. Justice Mathew; one colonial judge, who was also an "Essayist and Reviewer "; two thriving Queen's Counsel, and several other more or less successful barristers; one university professor, an Oxford man; one eminent Russian scholar; two fellows (one of them a distinguished fellow) of the Society of Antiquaries; two able editors of London journals; one clever and original artist; and at least one full-grown specimen of the genus irritabile. Besides all these, a certain popular novelist (I could not mention his name without pain) did earnestly desire to be enrolled among the brethren, and was enrolled accordingly; but showed his animus soon afterwards by describing them, and describing them inaccurately, in his very next novel. Mr. Punch will observe that a society of this kind is not to be parodied with impunity; and he should further note that the Gurgoyles still occasionally affirm their existence, subject to the claims of matrimony and politics, by that truly British sacrament which is familiar to him-the sacrament of dinner. A. J. M. THE DEVIL'S PASSING-BELL.-A very interesting custom obtains observance in this district every Christmas Eve, or rather morning, for so soon as the last stroke of twelve has sounded, the age of the year-as 1887, 1888-is tolled, as on the death of any person. This is termed "The Old Lad's, or the Devil's, passing-bell." I do not know date of |