ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. 295 In the volume of " Memorials of the Rehellion in 15G0," published in 1840, 8vo. at page 387, Sir George Bowes, who had commanded the Queen's forces, states, in a petition to her majesty, that " They [the rebels] have utterly defaced my principall house, pullynge downe and carrienge awaye the glasse and iron of the wyndowes, and all syelinge and doors, and some part of the coverynge, being leade." He also says, in a passage printed at page 101, from one of Sir George's letters, " I am utterly spoylled — my housses fully defaced, by pulling away off the dores, wyn- dowes, irons off the wyndowes, sylying, and all my brewe vessels and other vessels, and chymnees apperteyninge my kytchyn." Another notice occurs at p, 405 of this plundering, which chiefly occurred at Streatlam Castle, Durham, then Sir George Bowes' principal residence. The syelinge, or sylynge, here said to have been torn out of the rooms, undoubtedly refers to the wainscot panels with which the walls were lined. In the mason's lodge, this term might mean a lining of boards, either above or at the sides of the rooms. The word ceiling, which in modern usage refers only to the upper surface of a room, was formerly applied also to the sides. Instances of this usage occur in Gage's History of Hengrave, Sufl'olk, 4to. 1822, pp. 42, 43 ; where the learned author has mistaken the nature of a contract for wainscotting the rooms of Hengrave Hall, A. D. 1537. The seentrees were evidently the centres, as we are accustomed to call the frames used for supporting arches until the stones have all been fixed in their proper places ; and perhaps this old term may not be erroneously formed, though it does not agree with our scientific derivation of the modern word. The words abown or ahoon, for above ; ahoonsaid for abovesaid ; fro or fra, instead of from ; and several other old-fashioned words in the contract are still in common use in the northern counties. Fromity or frumcty, mentioned in note 7, p. 57, is a better word than furmity ; which is only one of the many instances in which our good old English speech has been corrupted by modern affectation. Frumety derives its name from the wheat (frumentum), which is the basis of this favourite dish ; one of the " country messes " we have inherited from our ancestors. E. J. WILSON.
- We were not aware, when this curious contract was communicated
by the kindness of Sir William Lawson, that it had been previously printed (in 1829) in that inexhaustible store-house of antiquarian information, the Gentleman's Magazine (Vol. xcix., part i., p. 394). A transcript, we have ascertained, had been given by the late Sir Henry Lawson to Mr. Clarkson, the historian of Richmond, who communicated it to Mr. Urban, under the signature of " Richmondiensis." Being there given without any illustrative comment, and from a transcript very deficient in accuracy, there can he no cause to consider its republication superfluous. It is singular that no sub- sequent writer on ancient architectural terms, appears to have noticed so curious a document. the " merrythought, a forhed bone in the have been tcnued hen-forked, as contrasted body of a fowl." — Ash's Diet. As children with sheds, having a lean-to roof, not forked, with narrow chests are familiarly called and called in Northern dialect, To-falls, or chicken-breasted, such a forked roofing may Tee-falls. — Ed.
