9 th S. X. AUG. 2, 1902.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
87
puzzle (further complicated by Burton, see
below), and say where the Compotus, "a
folio of a thousand pages," now is,* and
whether any parts of it have been printed
in full beyond the above account, and that
for the year ending Michaelmas, 1325, in John
Burton s ' Monasticon Eboracense ' (1758,
pp. 121-33). Is it known when and why
the end of the financial year was changed
from Martinmas to Michaelmas ?
ROBT. J. WHITWELL. C.C.C., Oxford.
GENERAL EDWARD MATHEW. In Sargent's ' Life of Major Andre ' reference is made to this officer in these words : "the Antipodes, where the brave Mathew, a brother soldier in the American war, had already found a death so horrid that Andre's was an enviable fate." Who can inform me of the time, place, and manner of General Mathew's death ?
W. A
New York.
BLACK AS A BADGE OF MOURNING. Will you kindly inform me when and why the early Christians first adopted black as a badge of mourning ? I have been unable to find any account whatever of the subject, and was told that if any one could tell me anything relating to the same, you could.
BLANCHE ST. MARTIN. [See 1" S. viii. 411, 502.]
RACE OF THE GYBBINS. I have a copy of Childrey's 'Britannia Baconica,' 1661, which contains many notes written in a hand of the seventeenth century. On p. 28 is the sentence: "Devonshire abounds with Wool, Kersies, Sea-fish, and Sea-fowl [and Gub- bins]," the words in brackets being written and the rest printed. On the next page I find, written in the same hand : "Inquire concerning the Race of the Gybbins in this County, a people that live promiscuously, and know not difference between wife and daughter." It is possible that the notes were written by Childrey himself.
Without assenting to the truth of this statement, or believing what Caesar says about the marriages of the ancient Britons, we may at all events believe that at least one endogamous aboriginal race continued to
- Burton (op. cit., 121 note) describes it as " a
manuscript book on vellum, containing the account fo all the revenues of the abbey, whence they arose, and how disbursed, from A.D. 1287 to 1355, inclusive. Penes comitissa de Burlington." The book is not described among the papers of the Duke of Devon- shire in the Third Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, where one .night naturally look for some mention of it.
exist in this country to a late period. Is any-
thing known of this race of the Gybbins or
Gubbins 1 S. O. ADDY.
MRS. JANE BARKER, NOVELIST. Can any reader supply any particulars relating to the life of this writer? 'Poetical Recreations' (London, 1688) appears to have been her earliest published work. She also wrote 'Exilius' (1715), 'A Patch-work Screen' (1723), ' The Lining of the Patch- work Screen ' (1726), and ' The Novels of Mrs. Jane Barker ' (third edition 1736). In the last-named book she is described on the title-page as of Wills- thprpe "in Northamptonshire." Should not this be "of Willsthorpe, near Stamford, in Lincolnshire " ? The parochial registers at this place appear to afford no information on the point. LINCOLN'S INN.
JAMES ANDERTON. On 21 August, 1705, the Scottish Parliament ordered thanks and 400Z. to Mr. James Anderton for answering Mr. Attwood's book called ' The Superiority of England over Scotland,' which they ordered to be burnt by the common hangman (Lut- trell's ' Diary '). Who was this James Ander- ton] W. D. PINK.
FLINT : FERREY. Jn getting gravel from a brook (which, by the way, is the boundary of Wales) a peculiar piece of iron was found. An old workman, who found it, was able to explain its use and to give it the name it bore fifty years ago, when it was still used by the poor. It is what we should call a steel for striking a flint with ; but in this neighbourhood it appears that they always spoke of "a flint and ferrey," and this was a "ferrey." The spelling is my own. It is evident that the name " ferrey " must be derived from ferrum or fer. Was the name " ferrey " for a steel common to all parts of England, or was it restricted to the border of Wales 1 As there are so many Latin words in Welsh, and here, though we are English, some Welsh words still linger, this may be the survival of a Welsh word. This "ferrey" will be placed in the new Whitchurch Museum, if it is accepted.
PHILIP T. GODSAL.
Iscoyd Park, Whitchurch, Salop.
" NONESOPRETTIES " : " SPINNER" I have in my possession several copies of an adver- tisement of a draper's shop or warehouse in Drury Lane, owned by my great-great-great- grandfather, Mark Gregory, born 1698, died 1738. They are printed in fours on a sheet of rough paper 14 in. by 10 in., two and two, back to back. The actual advertisement
