quality ; whence siminellus, put for similellus (a theoretical form).
The word occurs in the form, simnellus in the Annals of the Church of Winchester under the year 1042, " conventus centum simnellos " (quoted by Cowell). It fre- quently occurs in the household allowances of Henry I., e.g., " Cancellarius v Solidos in die et i Siminellum dominicum,"' &c. ('Libr. Nigr. Scaccarii,' p. 341 ; quoted by Dyer, op. eft., p. 114). WM. SELF -WEEKS.
Vstwood, Clitheroe.
Regarding the custom of children taking
to their mothers frumenty or simnel cakes on
Mid-Lent Sunday, it is interesting to note
that Wheatly on the Common Prayer
(1848, p. 221) says that Bishop Sparrow
and some others term the fourth Sunday
in Lent
Dominica Refectionis, the Sunday of Refresh-
ment, the reason being that the Gospel for the
day treats of our Saviour miraculously feeding
five thousand, or else perhaps from the first
lesson in the morning, which gives us the story
of Joseph's entertaining his brethren.
He is of opinion that the appointment of these Scriptures upon this day might probably give the first rise to a custom, still retained in many parts of England, and well known by the name of Mid-Lenting or Mothering, As to the derivation of " simnel, ' : the dictionaries give it as from the old French simenel and ultimately from the Latin simila=fi.ue wheaten flour.
Regarding the line " Carling, Palm, Pase- egg day" in Randal Holmes' s 'Academy of Armory and Blazon' (1688, iii. 3, p. 130) the following appears : " Carle Sunday is the second Sunday before Easter, or the fifth Sunday from Shrove Tuesday." Marshall, in his observations on the Saxon Gospels, elucidates the old name "Care" of this Sunday in Lent. He tells us that it is derived from "karr" or "carr"—"a satisfaction for a fine or penalty," and states that Care or Carr Sunday was not unknown to the English in his day. Pase- or Pasche-egg Day was of course Easter Day. ROBERT GOWER.
Neither the ' N.E.D.' nor the ' Dialect Dictionary ' yields any quotation earlier than Herrick's ' To Dianeme ' (1648) : He to thee a Simnell bring, 'Gainst thou go'st a mothering;, Mrs. Wright, ' Rustic Speech and Folk- lore ' (Oxford, 1913), p. 291, points out that the old north -country saying, " Tid, Mid, Misera," &c., begins with the second Sunday in Lent (and of course ends with Easter Day). " Carlings," she says (ibid., p. 292), are the grey or brown peas which are fried and eaten on the fourth Sunday in Lent. The usage is by some supposed to oom- memorate the plucking of the ears of corn by the disciples. " Simnel" is derived from the old French simenel, which is apparently related in some way to Latin simila or Greek vefjiiSaXis* "fine flour" ('N.E.D.'). From the same source come " semolina " and the German semmel, " a roll." L. R. M. STRACHAX. Birminghan University.
'THE FLY-FISHER'S ENTOMOLOGY ' (12 S.
x. 270). G. F. R. B. asks if any further
evidence as to the identity of " Piscator,"
who edited the fifth edition of 1856, is to
be had. The evidence, so far as it goes,
as I stated in my Introduction to the latest
edition (1921), seems conclusive that " Pis-
cator " was " the Rev. Bd. Smith," for the
house of Longman paid 10 to that gentle-
man for doing the work and has the fact
duly recorded in its archives. My suggestion
that this Mr. Bd. Smith was the mathe-
matician M 7 as based on a process of elyiiina-
tion. I had the privilege of examining all
the " Crockfords " that covered the period
and could find no other Bd. Smith except
the mathematician himself. With G. F. R. B.
I should welcome any further details as to
the tastes and recreations of that distin-
guished teacher and (I trust) angler. Can
G. F. R, B. tell us whether Westminster
boys ever caught fish from the Thames
near the Abbey in old days ? There must
have been fish there in the early years of
" Water." H. T. SHERINGHAM.
The Field.
THE WIDTH OF CHEAPSIDE ( 12 S. x. 290).
It may be inferred from MR. LANDFEAR
LUCAS'S inquiry that the statement that
Cheapside in Tudor times had greater
width than at the present day was un-
supported by any authority. If this be so,
it is probable that the lecturer drew his
inference from La Serre's k Entree de la
Reyne Mere du Roy,' of 1638 (reproduced
in Walford's 'Old and New London,' vol. i.
at p. 307, and in H. C. Shelley's ' Inns and
Taverns of Old London ' at p. 57) and from
' Cheapside Cross as it appeared at the
Coronation of Edward VI.' (Walford, p. 313).
In each case the painter, in order to include
the many personages and enhance the
ceremonial values, has greatly exaggerated
