138
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. AUG. 17, 1907.
worthy clergyman. The first time I saw
him was in the year named, when I was
eight years old, and was taken by my father
to the church of North Petherwin for the
funeral of Jacob Brooks, a former resident
of my native parish of St. Thomas-by-
Launceston who, by the way, had had
eight sons, seven of them living in the same
parish, and, by his request, they were the
bearers of his coffin to the grave. When I
went into the church, I was much struck
with Parson Meyrick's eccentricity of dress
and appearance, and especially with his
wig ; while, to complete the strange picture,
the parish clerk, his head covered with a
handkerchief, stood by his side.
Afterwards I came to know more of him, when he had left North Petherwin, and had gone to reside at Carthamartha, in Lezant, with his elder sister, the younger sister going to Holsworthy. He lived on the commonest diet, though he was a wealthy man, and would partake of no luxury unless it was given to him. As a consequence, his sister, in order to get him to take anything like the comforts of life, would tell him that Mr. So-and-so had sent him a gift, and of this he would eat most freely. She spent, indeed, nearly the whole of her income upon him ; but, when he died in May, 1841, he left, I have been told, nearly all his money to Exeter College, Oxford, where he had matriculated on 10 Nov., 1792, at the age of eighteen.
But, whether that be correct or not, there is no doubt as to the " Pretty Maid's Money " bequest, which is described in the following terms (for which I am indebted to The Cornish and Devon Post of 12 July in its account of the latest presentation, made, according to custom, on the first day of St. Peter's Fair) in his will, dated 19 Nov., 1839, and proved 21 June, 1841 :
" I give in like manner the sum of 100Z. in the new 3/. 10s. per cent annuities in trust to pay the dividends 3/. 10s. on July 5th annually to the churchwardens of the parish of Holsworthy, in the county of Devon, who shall on the Monday following openly give 2/. 10-s. of that sum to the young single woman resident in that parish being under 30 years of age and generally esteemed by the young as the most deserving, and the most handsome and most noted for her quietness and attendance at church, and on the next day shall openly give the remainder of that sum to any spinster not under 60 years of age and noted for the like virtues, and not receiving parochial relief. These donations shall be made to the same women being single once only, and at noon, and their names and "ages and abodes and the sums given to each not receiving parochial relief, and the dates shall be duly entered in a book to be kept safely by every successive churchwarden, who shall sign and deter
mine each payment under this title: 'Donations:
made to maintain peace on earth and goodwill'
imongst men.' Ana may this well-meant example-
ead rulers to see and know that subjects are better
directed and led by harmless amusement and by
"udicious reward than by the fear of punishment."
Curiously enough, while we regularly lear, and even see, pictures, of the maid under thirty who receives money, there is not the same record of the maid over sixty.
R. BOBBINS.
" HEREFORDSHIRE WINDOW" (10 S. viii. 8). This is not an accepted architectural -erm. HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
"MiTE," A COIN (10 S. viii. 69). With eference to the question of the mite raised
- >y MR. LYNN, I was informed not long ago-
at the Coin Department of the Museum hat there was no such coin or ever had jeen, I understood. It is probable that your correspondent was thinking of the lalf -farthing, which I learn by Mr. L. Jewitt's landbook of English coins was struck in L 827-8 for Ceylon, and one, a third of a "arthing, for Malta. The writer adds that
- hey are rare ; but the Museum must have
lad them, though they might not have- aeen known by the English word "mite," about which I inquired. The dictionaries differ as to its name, but seem to agree that there was such a coin. An excellent small dictionary, Chambers's ' Twentieth Century,' tias it : " Mite, the minutest or smallest of oins, about one-fourth of a farthing : any- thing very small."
Smith in the " Dictionary of the Bible ' enlarges on the value of the small Greek copper coin called a lepton, but does not try to explain why our translators called it a " mite." I think the term is used in a translation anterior to the Authorized Version, but not in Wycliffe's. Pv. B. S.
Small copper coins were passed about' but not as a value tender, of the half -farthing value, and these, I remember, were called " mites " and " the widow's mite." This was fifty years ago, and I have some saved at that time. I have quite " a little handful' ' of them, with the dates 1843, 1844, and 1845. They are beautifully struck little coins, most of them in Mint conditions. These and third and quarter farthings were struck for colonial use only. The latter two seem to be scarce, but I have a few. The coin known as " mite " and " widow's mite " seems to be the one MR. LYNN: is inquiring about. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
