Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/90

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ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.

ment. He alludes to the prevalent practice of giving a gown, a consideration in addition to money payments, very frequently mentioned in ancient fabric accounts.[1] It is not stated whether any mason's marks were noticed on the ashlar of the church. On the bridge they are still very distinct, and we are enabled by the kind assistance of Sir William Lawson to give, as it is believed, the complete series of marks. These symbols are not, indeed, considered by some antiquaries as of any great importance, their forms being regulated probably by individual caprice, but in researches of this nature trifling details may sometimes acquire a value, as a clue to more material points. Some notices of marks of this kind have been published, amongst which may especially be cited Mr. Godwin's curious memoir in the Archaeologia,[2] and a few singular examples published in Germany by Heideloff, some of them very similar to the marks of which representations are here given.

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MASONS' MARKS, CATTERICK BRIDGE, SCALE, ONE-THIRD ORIG. SIZE.


NOTE ON TERMS OCCURRING IN WELSH LEGAL DOCUMENTS.

We have received the following observations from Mr. Smirke upon the Welsh documents communicated by Mr. W. W. Wynne:—

"The word pridare or appridare, i. e. ad pridam recipere, to lend on mortgage or pledge, is new to me, and is, I presume, peculiar to Welsh instruments of impignoration. I profess no knowledge of Welsh, but I find

  1. See also the notices of works of building at Durham, in Mr. Raine's interesting "Brief Account of Durham Cathedral," 1833.
  2. Vol. xxx., p. 113, with five plates of marks found in England, France, and Germany. See a curious mason's mark on a column in a Roman villa in Shropshire, Archæol., vol. xxxi., pl. 12.