280
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 a. n. SKPT. ao. wie.
0n 38 oaks.
Calendar, of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public
Record Office: Henri/ VII., Vol. II., A.D. 1494-
1690. (H.M. Stationery Office, 20s.)
THE text of this volume was prepared, under the supervision of Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, by Mr. J. O. Black, who also made the Index. The material does not afford so much picturesque detail as we have sometimes lingered over in these Calendars, but it includes particulars of the doings and of the estates of several very interesting persons, and the text of several good Plantagenet charters, as well as here and there a document of considerable historical importance. On Dec. 9, 1502, the King granted to Hugh Elyot and Thomas Asshehurste, merchants of Bristol, and to John Gunsalus and Francis Pernandus of " the islands of Surrys," licence to sail on a voyage of discovery under his banners with as many ships as they pleased. The conditions and provisions of this grant are set out at great length as compared with a grant more or less to the same effect made two years before and allow to the fortunate discoverer advantages which might well tempt him. No less interesting is the text of the commission to the great Earl of Kildare to summon a Parliament to take into consideration ten matters and no more concerning the government of Ireland. One of these is the enforcement of a rule that every lord spiritual or temporal of a certain standing within the precinct of the English pale shall ride " in a sadyll after the English gyse," in order to increase English manners and diminish Irish usages ; and another provides for the cleansing of the towns in Ireland. A very delightful item is the long list of the household goods of Walter Herbert, Knight, forfeited by reason of outlawry. In 1503 we have a pardon granted to Roger Vernon for the abduction of Margaret Kebull, with whom are pardoned his aiders and abettors, to the number of well over a hundred, which in the first place suggests a considerable adventure of a romantic sort, and in the next gives a good list of names of yeomen and labourers.
We have here the licences to Lady Margaret Tudor, the King's mother, for her university foun- dations and some others : in 1497 the " perpetual lectureships of sacred theology " at Oxford and Cambridge ; in 1505 the refounding of " Goddes house," Cambridge or Christ's College, as it was renamed the following year. On p. 433 in one of these licences " Henry VII." is a slip for Henry VI.
Of matters in which our correspondents have been recently interested we noted one or two allusions to treasure-trove or hidden treasure ; particulars concerning Christopher Urswick and his divers appointments ; and concerning Cecily, Duchess of York. In the way of smaller curious matters we noticed a grant specifying the dwelling- places within Westminster Palace known as Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell, and a regulation with a tremendously wordy preamble providing that no singers should be taken from Westminster, whilst Westminster might take them from any- where, excepting the King's own chapel. There are several interesting " denizations " of foreigners ; the licence to the Bishop of Ely for the expulsion of the nuns of St. Radegund, Cambridge, because of the ruinous effect upon the convent of the
vicinity of the University : a commission to two
justices of pleas before the king to examine and
con-eel an error in the record and process of a
suit ; the mention of Honfieur as Humflewe ; and
one or two accounts of murder or manslaughter
which furnish unusual incidents.
Wace, and the ' Roman de Ron.' By de V. Payen-
Payne. (The Jersey Society in London,
Occasional Publications, Xo. 4.) IT is surprising that there is neither a " definitive " edition of Wace, nor any translation of his work as a whole into English or modern French. We echo Mr. Payen-Paj ne's hope that both these enterprises may ere long be undertaken and if by a man of Jersey so much the better. This brochure might well serve as the effective incite- ment. It brings together in a delightful way the little that is known of Wace and the facts and circumstances surrounding him.
There is matter for a good essay in the subject of " vulgarization " before the invention of printing. The known workers in that field, if not numerous, show a fail variety of rank, capa- city, and learning, and, taken altogether, seem two or three degrees more able and entertaining than the body of corresponding workers in our day. Their methods and diction, which to the ordinary reader may appear merely fortuitous and quaint, are really worth some consideration on their own merits : modern hackwork being done neither for the King nor for the Church, but for a publisher has certainly dropped some of the cleverness and verve which are apt to come from direct contact with those whom one is writing for. Here our good Wace not an impressive figure among chroniclers and historians proper shows himself a prince.
Mr. Payen-Payne gives a reproduction of about a score of lines from the text of the ' Roman de Rou ' in the thirteenth-century MS. in the Britis.h Museum the passage where," " se Ton demands qui co dist," Wace explains who he is. He quotes the. text of the well-known Taillefer story, and the description of the comet, as well as the last lines of the ' Roman de Rou.' A good bibliography is supplied, and two appendixes the one on the name Wace, the other a genealogical table of the Dukes of Normandy. A drawing by Millais of Maistre Wace sitting absorbed in his writing forms an attractive frontispiece.
The Athenceum now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made whereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks in ' N . & Q.'
pottos to
EDITORIAL communications should be addressed
to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Adver-
tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub-
lishers " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancerv
Lane. E.C.
CORRIGENDA. Ante, p. 242, col. 1, 1. 8 from foot, for " Saffron Waldron " read Saffron Walden ; col. '2, 1. 11 from foot, for " indique " read indigne, and for "nasitur" read nascitur. P. 253, col. 1, 1. 33, for " et " read ex.
