258
NOTES AND QUERIES. BO- s. n. SEPT. 21, im.
births recorded at the last census, 4 per cent
were illegitimate, whilst in Ireland, mainly
Celtic, the rate of illegitimacy was littL
more than half, viz., 2 '6 per cent.
Carrying the inquiry further, we find tha in the four provinces of Ireland the corn parison of illegitimate with legitimate births was in Ulster, 3'4 per cent. ; in Leinster, 2'8 per cent. ; in Munster, 2'4 per cent. ; anc in Connaught, 07 per cent. Thus in Ulster, where the Celtic element is weakest, illegiti- macy most prevails, whilst in Connaught, where it is vastly in the ascendant, that failing diminishes almost to the vanishing point.
That a people the relative purity of whose lives is generally admitted should be more addicted to lying than the less moral Teutons, as alleged by X. Z., is at least open to doubt.
HENRY SMYTH. Edgbaston.
ANAHUAC (10 th S. i. 507 ; ii. 196). In my 1 Notes on English Etymology,' pp. 329, 334, I quote from Simeon's 'Mexican Dictionary': "Anahuac is the name of the province in which Mexico was situated. It means the country of lakes, lit. ' beside the water,' from ail, water, and nauac, near." Again : " In forming compounds, final tl is dropped ; thus from atl, water, and otli, a road, was formed aotl, a canal." Similarly, a-nahuac is from a(tl) and nauac. WALTER W. SKEAT.
PHILIP BAKER (10 th S. ii. 109, 177). The Cecil MS. cited makes it quite clear that the reference is to the Lancashire Win wick.
JOHN B. WAINEWRJGHT.
OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY (10 th S. ii. 188). The most sane and up-to-date com- mentary that I know is 'Hours with the Bible, the Scriptures in the Light of Modern Discovery and Knowledge' (6 vols.), by Dr. Cunningham Geikie. ERNEST B. SAVAGE.
S. Thomas, Douglas.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
Barnstaple Parish Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538 A.D. to 1812 A.D. Edited by Thomas Wainwright. (Exeter, Commin.) FOB works of this class, which form the basis of all genealogy, we have nothing but welcome, albeit the pressure upon our space of matter of more immediate, even though more temporary interest, leads to a delay in noticing them which is apt to look like neglect. It is only, indeed, when a holiday period is reached that we can deal with them as they merit. Then, even, it is difficult to do them full justice. Few of them
naturally have any special feature to distinguish
them from other works of the same class. It is,
however, a subject for congratulation that on&
after another of our great local centres places its
records beyond the reach virtually of destruction.
The preface to the present volume tells us little
concerning it, except that permission to Mr. Wain-
wright to extract the items was granted by Arch-
deacon Seymour, when vicar of Barnstaple, and
that the heavy cost of printing has been borne in
spirited fashion by the directors of the North
Devon Athenasum. Practically the work is in?
three volumes, containing respectively the births,
marriages, and deaths, each with a separate title..
The first, including the children born, but not
baptized, occupies 234 double-columned pages, with
an average of nearly 100 entries to a page. Mar-
riages occupy only 96 pages, and burials 182.
There is no index, a defect which one or other of
our index societies may perhaps see its way to
make good. Its absence renders difficult the task
of hunting after any separate name. In the case of
the burials we turn to the year 1685, the period of the
battle of Sedgemoor and that of the Bloody Assize,
but find no noteworthy increase in the number of
deaths. Under the date 27 November, 1685, comes
the statement, " [ And then the surplis ivas stollen
by John Freane of Tot en]" : and under 30 August,
1686, appears, " Thomas Rumsom, murdered at
Bickinton." "A mightie storm and tempest," ac-
cording to the witness of " Robte Langdon, Clarcke,"
on the "20 th Januarie, 1606/7," began at "3 of
clock " in the morning and lasted till " 12 of clock ""
of the same day, causing a loss of " towe thowsand
pounds" and the death of one James Froste and
"towe of his children." Frost is described as a
' tooker," whatever that may be. In the same
'Janurie" "the river Barnstaple was so frozen
hat manye hundred people did walk over hand in
land from the bridge unto Castell Rocke w thi
staves in their hands as safe as they could goe on the
drye grounde." In 1677, 19 February, John Sloley, the
clerk, enters the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Horwood,
widow, " and she gave me 20 shillings upon her will
'oralegasayandlhavereceaved it." This draws from
lim the naive and natural comment, " And I would
wish that all good Christians that are to be buried in
Barnestaple that the would doe the like to mee as
this woman did if the be abell." Another widow
seems to have taken the hint and left him 51. The
- own of Tiverton was twice burnt within fourteen
years, once in 1598 and once in 1612. A propos of
- he birth, on 26 May, 1656, of Joseph, son of Edward
rible, is the note, "Being the tenth soun and niver a daughter between." The restoration to lis living at Barnstaple of Mr. Martyn Blague Black) in 1659/60 is duly noted. In March, 1695, s mentioned, "Ye commencement of ye Kg's duty >n births." A comment on the birth, 12 December, L745, of a son of Grace Thorn shows a rather scan- dalous state of things, " Whose husband had been ibsent from her two years or more in the Kings Service in Flanders." A subsequent entry, in 1760, s "John, base child of Elizabeth Thorn." This opks as if Grace's propensities were trans- mitted to her offspring. Under deaths are given i few historical entries. One, on 1 July, 1643, ecords the wonderful preservation of the town rom the Irish and French. Between 1642 and 1647 he register was not kept. An asterisk is supposed o indicate those who died of the plague. Many vents connected with the Restoration are chro-
