century took advantage of the posting-house letters by Parliamentary soldiers and others such system, which had originally been organized like, as by Mr. Hearne's account may appear." for the convenience of the king's messengers, I should be glad of further illustrations of and especially for those carrying letters or the subject. briefs. These houses-at first only on the ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES. main roads between large towns, but later Regulations for posting were made in the on branch routes also were granted the reign of Elizabeth by Thomas Randolph, monopoly of supplying relays of horses for Master of the Posts. In 1603 it was ordered the king's service, and for the carriage of by the Privy Council that in all places where letters for the public, and finally for the use posts are laid for the packet (that is, for of general travellers. The "postmasters conveying letters on the king's business) received fixed wages from Government, and to supplement these were allowed to charge 24d. a mile for one horse or 5d. a mile for two horses, with a mounted attendant, who was always to accompany the party when as many as two horses were hired.

In Charles I.'s time, Thos. Withering endeavoured to render the postal system selfsupporting by imposing a fixed charge for private letters of 2d. for a single or 5d. for a double one for a distance not exceeding 80 miles, 2d. or 4d. for 140 miles, and so on, this scale being a modification of that already obtaining in certain local post services, notably in Devonshire, where several towns (e.g., Barnstaple) kept horses at the expense of the corporation, and undertook to convey private letters at regular times to meet the king's post on its way to London. That the same arrangement held good for travellers is not explicitly stated, but may perhaps be inferred.

In the South Tawton churchwardens' accounts I find the entry, in 1557, "Pd for the shoying of the horse for the Poste, xijd. I should have thought that, as the old "Posting Road" from Exeter to Oakhampton ran through this parish, its people would have caught the post on the wing, and not have needed to keep post-horses of their own. Was there, perhaps, not any Government post-house at Oakhampton so early If a royal post-horse cast a shoe in any place it passed through, did the cost of reshoeing fall on that parish or on the king?

At Leicester, says Joyce, in 9 Eliz., the members of the corporation bound themselves under penalty to keep four post-horses in constant readiness for their sovereign's use; but this " can hardly have been a common practice." Where horses were not provided voluntarily, the magistrates and constables had orders to seize them wherever they could be found. But did they pay for them? Wright's (Fothergill's) History of Okehampton, Devon,' among extracts from Rattenbury's Journal,' has the following:

1644...This year the town was put to great costs for free quarter post-horses, and convoys of

'they also, as persons most fit, shall have the appointing of horses to all riding post, that is to benefit and pre-eminence of letting, furnishing, and say, with horn and guide, by commission or otherwise."

The postmasters were required to keep furniture. Persons riding with commission sufficient post-horses with the necessary and certain officials going to or from the Court were to pay 24d. a mile for each horse, and a groat to the guide for each stage. No horse was to be ridden beyond the stage for which it was hired, except with the owner's consent, was not to carry more than 30lb. weight besides the rider, nor to travel more than seven miles an hour in summer and five in winter. Persons riding in post on their own private business were to arrange the prices with the postmasters. This proclamation was signed by the king, and countersigned by Sir John Stanhope, Master of the Posts.

tion of the Post Office, 12 Ch. II. c. 35, proThe first Act of Parliament for the regula vided (s. 2) that the Postmaster-General and whatsoever, shall prepare and provide horses his deputies, and no other person or persons and furniture to let to hire unto all through posts and persons riding in post by commission or without, from all and every the parts and places of England, Scotland, and Ireland where any post-roads are or shall be established. (A list of the English postroads and stages will be found in 9th S. i. 121.) The charge for each horse was fixed at 3d. a stage. This Act remained in force until the mile, and the guide was to have 4d. for each end of the seventeenth century and later. It was repealed by the Post Office Act, 9 Anne, c. 11; but section 2 of the original Act was re-enacted.

travelling in England in the third chapter of There is a good deal of information about Macaulay's History.' Macaulay appeared Post Office was derived from the letting of to suppose that a part of the revenue of the post-horses on hire; but this is incorrect, as the profit derived from letting post-horses belonged to the postmasters who owned them.

J. A. J. HoUSDEN.

"SATURDAY" IN SPANISH (10th S. v. 388).The use of the term Sabado for Saturday by the Spanish Christians does not connect them with the Jews any more than a similar use does any other Christians. Sabbath is the ordinary liturgical term for the day before the Lord's day in the Roman and Greek Churches, and always has been. Like our Amens and our Alleluias, it may serve to remind us of "the rock whence we are hewn, the hole of the pit whence we are digged," as Burgon remarks in his 'Letters from Rome.' It may be found throughout in any Roman Missal or Breviary, or in the Greek service-books, eg., Office for the Lord's Day,' translation published by Hayes in 1880. Unfortunately it was not retained in our Prayer-Book, hence the Protestant misapplication of the term to the Lord's day. J. T. F.

66

Would it not be more correct to look upon the Spanish use of Sabado for Saturday as early Christian rather than as Jewish? In most European languages some form of Sabbath" is used for Saturday. The Germans have Samstag, the French Samedi, the Catalans Dissapte. In Italian it is Sabbato, and in Roumanian Simbată. The Slavonic forms are still more interesting, as the stress in some of them is upon the first, and in others upon the second syllable. Thus the Bulgarians say Sábota, and the Servians Súbota; on the other hand, the Russians say Subbóta, and the Slovenians Sobóta, while the Lithuanians say Subatá. All these words mean Saturday, and not Sunday.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

Surely the mere fact that the Spanish for Saturday is Sabado proves nothing as to a special influence of the Jews in Spain. For the Italian for Saturday is Sabbato; the Portuguese is Sabbado; the French is Samedi (sambati dies); the German is Samstag, O.H.G. Sumbats-tac; the Old Provençal is Dissapte (dies sabbati); the Roumansch is Sonda; and the Wallachian is Sumbutů. We have to deal with the more general question as to the transition from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Lord's day, which it is extremely difficult to date exactly.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

I do not think Sabado in Spanish can have much to do with the Jews in Spain, any more than Sabbato, the Italian word for Saturday, is to be connected with the Jews in Italy. Both are derived from the Latin Sabbatum, which comes through the Greek raßßatos from a Hebrew word meaning rest. Dies Sabbati is the ecclesiastical term for

Saturday (see the Roman Breviary). The
Order Paper and Journals of the House of
Lords still describe Saturday as Dies Sabbati;
and formerly this practice obtained in the
Order Paper and Journals of the House of
Commons.
J. A. J. HOUSDEN.

is not, as H. W-B seems to think, peculiar
The use of the term Sabbath for Saturday
to Spanish, but was the universal practice of
the early Church, Latin, Greek, and Eastern,
and survives in the majority of languages at
Sabbath with Sunday is, 1 believe, peculiar
the present day. The identification of the
to the English-speaking peoples.

E. W. B.

[MR. J. B. WAINEWRIGHT is thanked for a reply.]

412). It may interest DR. MURRAY to hear "PLACE" (10th S. v. 267, 316, 333, 353, 371, that the word "Place" is in common use at Stonyhurst to designate distinct divisions of the house. Thus we find "Study-Place," "Shoe-Place," "Washing-Place," "Strangers' Place" (or guest-rooms), "Tailors' Place," &c. (even, and this is to be whispered, the lavatory is called the 'Common Place"). The origin of the phrase is found in the records of Stonyhurst's life across the seas, at St. Omer, "in which district we are told that the word is still used in the same promiscuous way" (cf. 'Stonyhurst College, Centenarary Record, 1904, by Gerard, chap. ii. p. 29).

B.

"POUR" (10th S. x. 261, 329, 392).—I am surprised to find that PROF. SKEAT still thinks that it is possible to derive the verb seem to see that such a derivation is impospour from F. purer, L. pūrāre. He does not sible because it contravenes the laws of Anglo-French pronunciation. Can he produce a single instance of an English word ending in our and riming with hour which can be equated with a French word ending in urer, from a L. uräre, and directly derived therefrom? I am sure he cannot. The verb scour is not to the point, as that word comes to us through a Scandinavian channel.

We shall before long see what Dr. Murray makes of the word " pour" in N.E.D.' I shall be very much surprised if that careful lexicographer should equate pour with F. purer. I think PROF. SKEAT and I should be willing to abide by Dr. Murray's decision. I appeal unto Cæsar.

A. L. MAYHEW.

COLERIDGE AND NEWMAN ON GIBBON (10th S. v. 387).-Perhaps the allusion to Gibbon, in J. H. Newman's 'Lectures and

of the duel and the cause thereof, which differs from that given in The Times and in the Dictionary of National Biography.' Although Major Truman does not give his authority, the story of the cause is possibly worth reproducing (p. 186):—

"Camelford and Best had always been close friends......Early in the month above named [March, 1804] they had spent a few hours one evening at Hammond's, a noted gaming-place, when Camelford retired and left his companion at play with one Symons, who had already commenced to fleece Best [ie, Best] shortly afterward caught the sharper just through the medium of marked cards. The Captain as he was about to introduce sonie extra cards from within the sleeve of his coat; and, jumping up, seized Symons by the throat, and hurled him violently to the floor, and then kicked his face into a jelly, and otherwise so bruised the cheat that his wife hardly recognized him when they met. Mrs. Symons......promised her husband that he should be avenged......She wrote to Camelford as follows: I beg you to be strictly on your guard in your

"PIT" COCKPIT (10th S. v. 407).-The lines future dealings and associations with Captain Best, inquired after by DR. MURRAY,

And make him glad (at least) to quit
His victory, and fly the pit,

occur in Hudibras,' Part II. Canto iii. 11.
1111-12.
CONSTANCE RUSSELL.
[Two other replies have been forwarded to DR.
MURRAY.]

DR. RICHARD GARNETT (10th S. v. 367). The following cutting from Light of 12 May is, I think, worthy of being reproduced in 'N. & Q.':

--

who speaks of your lordship in disrespectful and disdainful terms, especially when he is beside himself with wine.' There,' she murmured,...... is your death warrant, my noble Captain.'

Then came the quarrel, Camelford declining to give up the name of his informant. COL. PRIDEAUX (ante, p. 162) says that Camelford fired first. The book from which I am quoting says:—

66

They took their positions at fifteen paces; and at the drop of a white hankerchief......and the words 'One-two-three-fire!' both gentlemen discharged their weapons simultaneously."

Major Truman says (p. 480) that Best "never recovered from the shock he felt at seeing his antagonist fall mortally wounded." No moment of my life has been entirely a happy one,' ," he once said, "since I killed that man. I often see poor Camelford standing up before me." It is added that he died of delirium tremens at the age of forty-eight. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

Dr. Richard Garnett and Astrology. SIR,-The facts mentioned in Light last week, which were not generally known, prove, without doubt, that the late Dr. Richard Garnett was a believer in astrology. Those who feel any desire to become acquainted with his reasons cannot do better than read his article The Soul and the Stars,' published under the name of A. G. Trent,' in The University Magazine for March, 1880, and reprinted in Wilde's Natal Astrology.' Meanwhile, it may interest students to note that the very date of his death is a proof of the principles of the science. The terminus vite was reached on BURY FAMILY (10th S. v. 349, 396).Good Friday, April 13th, and the ephemeris will" Thomas Bury, of Colleton, county Devon," show that at that time Saturn was transiting the was returned to the House of Commons at place of the moon in A. G. Trent's' horoscope (as the general election of May, 1741, for Newgiven in Natal Astrology,' p. 183), and the sun was exactly in opposition to Saturn's place in the port (Cornwall), a pocket borough of Sir horoscope. The former coincidence only happens William Morice, of Werrington, who had once in thirty years, the latter once in a year. The married, as his second wife, Anne Bury, of simultaneous affliction of sun and moon is perfectly Berry Narbor. Presumably, this was the significant of the event, and I have found that Thomas Bury referred to in a petition presome such testimonies commonly occur at death.sented to Parliament very early in the same

Yours, &c.,

GEORGE FRANCIS GREEN. 62, Auckland Road, Upper Norwood.

JULIAN E. O. W. PEACOCK.

348, Moss Lane East, Manchester.

LORD CAMELFORD'S DUEL (10th S. v. 162, 218). In 'The Field of Honor,' by Major Ben C. Truman, New York, 1884, is an account

century regarding the estate of Humphry Bury, of Collaton, deceased, father of Thomas, then (March, 1701/2) aged ten, and given in the 'Commons' Journals,' vol. xiii. p. 780. Thomas Bury was re-elected for Newport after the dissolution of July, 1747; but Sir William Morice died in 1750, and

the Werrington estate and influence having passed to his cousin Humphry Morice (for whom see 'D.N.B.,' vol. xxxix. pp. 44-6, and N. & Q.,' 2nd S. ix. 486; 3rd S. i. 422; 9th S. iii. 241), Bury did not offer himself at the general election of April, 1754. He can scarcely have been the Thomas Bury who died in 1802, as noted ante, p. 396, but was DUNHEVED. most probably his father.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

History of the Lands and their Owners in Galloway.
By P. H. M'Kerlie, F.S.A.Scot. 2 vols. (Paisley,
Gardner.)

IN presence of these two handsome, well-illus-
trated, and painfully erudite volumes, with their
twelve hundred compact pages, it is easy to accept
the statement contained in the preface to the first
volume that, considering the labour involved in
compilation and the private expenditure incurred
in excess of the sum realized, "such histories can
only be written by those whose time is not money.
From the appearance of the first volume in 1870
until death interrupted the labours of the author,
the work had been gratuitously accomplished by Mr.
M'Kerlie, who had declined to have anything to do
with the publishing or to receive any share from
the sale of the work. Six years have elapsed since
the death of the writer, by whose daughter the
whole is now given to the public. The most im-
portant and valuable portion of the work is genea-
logical, which fact, to those acquainted with the
difficulties of Scottish pedigrees and the niceties of
Scottish heraldry, will tell how thankless as well
as arduous a task has been accomplished.

Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots, Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groats. With the account of the McDowalls or McDoualls, reputed owners of Kirkmaiden from the earliest time, begins the controversial matter which constitutes the most valuable portion of the book. Under Agnew, Dalrymple, and other names of the class, information of the most interesting and not seldom the most disputatious kind is conveyed. It is impossible, in anything short of a quarterly review, to do justice to contents so varied and so numerous as are herein given, or to afford an idea of the task that has been discharged in the compilation.

A change of creed is announced on the part of the lady by whom the finishing touches have been supplied. Since the points at issue have nothing to do with theology, this is a matter practically of no importance.

The Assemble of Goddes. By John Lydgate.
Printed at Westminster by Wynkyn de Worde
about the Year 1500. (Cambridge, University
Press.)

THE work here reprinted in facsimile by M. Dujardin is one of the most interesting and the rarest in the University Library. It formed a portion of the famous volume of black-letter tracts given, with the rest of the library of John Moore, "Bishop of Ely, by King George I. in 1715. So far as records extend, it is unique. The types employed are Caxton's type 3 for the title, and Wynkyn de Worde's type 3, with final m and n, &c., from type 1, in the rest of the book. On the title-page, and again below the colophon, is given a rough woodcut illustration, taken, says Mr. Sayle, from Caxton's second edition of The Canterbury Tales,' and showing Jupiter presiding over a crowded and uncomfortable banquet of the deities. On the recto of the last page is Caxton's printer's mark. In a dream the poet is taken by Morpheus to the assembly of the gods, where he sees, next to Dyana "in a mantell fyne,"

It is, of course, superfluous to say that Galloway, though not civilly recognized as a division of Scotland, comprises the modern Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire, and at one time included portions of Ayrshire and Dunfermline. Its history in Roman times is that of the south of Scotland, and the opening pages relate to the various occupants of the district from the Goidels, the Cymri (sometimes called the Brythons). the Picts, and others; and it is not until p. 265 that, with an account of the parish of Kirkmaiden, the history of the lands and their owners begins. Till the tenth century Galloway_formed a portion of the Strathclyde kingdom. It then came under Norse rule, and it was not until the twelfth century that it became a portion of the kingdom of Scotland. Fergus, the first Earl of Galloway under David I., married Elizabeth, illegitimate daughter of Henry I., King of England. Alan, the last of the Lords of Galloway of the first line of rulers so styled, and Constable of Scotland, died in 1234. The present Earls of Galloway obtained the lands of Garlies about the beginning of the fifteenth century." With the lordship of Galloway they are said to have had

no connexion.

Kirkmaiden, the parish first named, is, as the southernmost point of Scotland, mentioned by Burns under the name Maidenkirk :

the god Jupyter in his demenynge. Full sad and wyse he semed sykerly. A crowne of tynne stood on his hede. Neither for its poetry nor for its display of classic lore is the Assembly of great importance, and the chief interest of the book is bibliographical Two hundred and fifty copies have, it is certified, been printed, the impressions of the plates have been rubbed off, and the negatives destroyed. These facsimile reprints constitute a delightful experiment of the University Press, and are worthy of hearty approval and encouragement.

The Magazine of Fine Arts. (Newnes.) THE latest number of this brilliantly executed periodical has an article by Mr. Percy Bate on The Chalk Drawings of William Strang,' with thirteen illustrations, of which one is a beautiful lithograph. Among those of whom portraits are supplied are Dr. Story (Principal of Glasgow University), M. Alphonse Legros, and Dr. Furnivall. The other contents comprise an essay by Sir James Linton on the sketches of John Constable, with eight plates, including one reproduced in colour; some curious Japanese masks; and 'The Portraits of Nattier,' with eleven plates, of which one is exquisitely reproduced in tints. The execution of the whole is marvellous.