118
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th B. in. FEB. n,
quote this sentence, which occurs on p. 304 of
'Mendizabal,' by Don B. Perez Gald6s (Madrid,
1898) : " Piisole delante Lopresti el tintero de
cobre con polvorera, y la negra carpeta sebosa
donde la seiiora escribia "; that is to say,
" Lopresti put the copper inkstand with
sand-box before her, and the black greasy
carpet [= writing-pad] on which the lady
used to write." The Walter Scott of Spanish
literature, whose novels are becoming more
and more on the carpet, is here referring to
events of the third decade of our century.
PALAMEDES.
'ECLECTIC KEVIEW' (9 th S. iii. 27). Some of the writings of Isaac Taylor may be found in 'Ancient Christianity,' referring to the 'Tracts for the Times,' published 1839. I do not know whether this will help MR. H. TAYLOK. J. C. P.
'THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN ' (5 th S. viii. 389, 515 9 th S. ii. 536 ; iii. 72). I notice that in the Bodleian catalogue this book is ascribed to Richard Allestree (1619-81), but appa- rently on insufficient grounds. See ' D.N.B .,' i. 325. Q. V.
MR. SIDNEY LEE'S ' LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE ' (9 th S. iii. 42). In connexion with MR. E. B. HARRIS'S remarks respecting the testerne, Shakespeare himself may be quoted in cor- roboration of the view that a testerne was equal in value to sixpence :
Sir Toby. Come on ; there is sixpence for you ; let 's have a song, Sir Andrew. There 's a testril of me too.
'Twelfth Night,' II. iii. 32-4.
Testril and testoon are variants of testerne. EDWARD J. W. JOHNSON.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Records of the Oust Family of Pinchbeck, Stamford, and Helton, in Lincolnshire, 1479-1700. Compiled by Lady Elizabeth Cust. (Mitchell & Hughes.) THIS is a carefully compiled, well-arranged, and beautiful book. We have examined by far the greater part of the histories of English families which have been printed during the last quarter of a century, and can honestly say that no one of them surpasses the volume before us in width of research and general literary merit. It is entirely wanting in that tendency to exaggeration which is the be- setting sin of so many of those who discourse on the history of the families with which they are con- nected. Here facts for which proof can be given such as would be accepted in the law courts are told as certainties, and things which are in them- selves probable, though still doubtful, are given as such. For instance, there is a tradition, which extends backwards more than two centuries and a
half, that the Gusts who were settled at Pinchbeck
in 1479 came of a Yorkshire race. This, which we
regard as probable, has not hitherto been demon-
strated, and will, we imagine, ever remain doubt-
ful ; it is given here as a surmise only, though in
certain popular genealogical compilations it appears
as an unquestioned fact. Though the pedigree only
begins in 1479, there were persons bearing the name
of Cust, or Coste, in various parts of Lincolnshire
at an earlier date. As the name is a very uncommon
one it is not rash to assume that some of these were
cousins, near or remote, of the family settled at
Pinchbeck. These Gusts, who are represented by
Earl Brownlow, were evidently substantial people,
farming their own land, or some of it, and marrying
well in their own rank of life. In their wills
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they
describe themselves as yeomen ; they were, however,
rising in the world, and in the seventeenth century
we find them among the armorial families. Their
arms do not appear, however, among those of the
Lincolnshire gentry figured by James Yorke in
' The Union of Honour,' which was published in
1640. Like some other old races which we could
mention, the Gusts have two different coats of arms ;
and as is usually the case when this occurs, the
older one is by far the more interesting, though we
believe it is now disused.
As the Gusts took the popular side in the war between Charles I. and his Parliament, they did not suffer from fines or confiscations, as was the fate of those who threw in their lot with the king. The period of the Restoration must have been a nervous time for those who had served in any capacity the Parliament or the Lord Protector, but the head of the Gust family does not seem to have suffered anything beyond temporary irritation. Knighthood and a baronetcy followed, to be succeeded as time went on by higher honours, which we may hope Lady Elizabeth Cust will expound to us when she deals with the lives of the more recent members of the house.
Much of the pleasure and no small part of the profit to be derived from family history depend on lucidity of arrangement. Here the authoress has not mixed up original documents with the text, as many of her misguided predecessors have done. Each chapter forms a complete picture in itself, followed by an appendix giving (nearly always in full^ the documentary evidence on which it is based. Some of these, the wills especially, are of wide interest and will appeal to many persons who care little for genealogy. In these wills of the sixteenth century we find the names of five mares. They were called respectively Bloume, Mop, Dund, Knepp, and Cade. The last had probably been brought up by hand. Blossom is in Lincolnshire at the present time a very common name for a cart-mare ; Bloume was probably its Tudor equivalent. Cherrie was at the same time the name of a red cow. There are also two or three bequests of swan-marks, which show that they were not regarded as having a strictly hereditary character. Lady Elizabeth has also given some highly interesting extracts from the diary of Sir Pury Cust during his travels on the Continent in the reign of Charles II. It seems that this journal is too long to be reproduced here in its entirety. Surely the whole might be issued in another form. It would have great interest for students alike at home and over-sea. It is pleasant to know that, notwithstanding the changes and chances of hard upon five hundred years, Lord
