Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/261

190 Devon Notes and Queries. found as follows: R. A. et W. T. ceperunt et acciderunt unum boviculum cervi infra hundredum de Wytheruge infra regardum foreste predicte de luxemor 'quod quidem regardum unum est et se extendit tarn infra comitatum Somers* quam Devon', die Lune proxima post festum Omnium Sanc- torum anno predicto* . . . £t dicunt quod omnes ministri foreste predicte de comitatu Somers' omnino, licet dictum regardum pro parte est in comitatu Devon' se intromittant *' {For. Proc. Tr. of Rec. 309 shin. 10). There is a good glossary and index. In respect of the glossary may a suggestion be offered anent the words hersa^ bersare, and bersaior ? '* There is considerable doubt,*' says Mr. Turner, <^as to what bersa means, but it seems to be nearly synonymous with ' haya,* " Then he defines bersare as to shoot, and bersaior as properly meaning a person shooting and then a poacher. We venture to suggest that bersa or bursa is the same word which is fre- quently met with in Lyndwode's Provinciate^ meaning a pocket, and in the forest terminology = a hay or enclosure in the form of a pocket, into which a deer is driven and from which there is no escape. Bersare would then mean to pocket a deer, or drive it into an enclosure from which it cannot escape ; and bersator is one who resorts to this practice of pocketing deer instead of hunting them in the open, in other words a poacher. But probably bersa is none other than what is called a deer leap in the Charter of King John (Tram. Devon Association^ xxxiii., 605), the second part of which seemingly has nothing to do with leap, to jump, but is the Saxon equivalent of the High German lippe^ meaning an enclosure. Oswald J. Rbichbl. 148. Goldsmith in Devonshire. — In " She Stoops to Conquer," Act v. Scene 11, Tony Lambkin tells his mother that amongst other places they had driven to was the gibbet on Heavy tree Heath." Does this imply that Gold- smith ever was in Devonshire ? I have looked into Washington Irving's life of Goldsmith and cannot find that he ever was in these parts. We know that he was most intimate with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and it is possible that he may have heard of the gibbet from him. Perhaps some reader of Devon Notes and Queries may be able to elucidate this. F. D. FULFORD.