256
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. APRIL i,
his father had used, but it could not be for the
same reason as that which influenced the French
monarch, because the English coins were almost
universally stamped with the head of the King."
Ruding's ' Annals of the Coinage,' vol. i.
In addition to the common teston (current at sixpence), there was in 1551 a teston at ninepence. This coinage was very unpopular, and became so debased that in 1560 the value of the teston at sixpence was fourpence half-
Eenny, and in some cases only twopence irthing. In the proclamation (or rather in the " reasons " that led to the proclamation) issued in that year we read of foreign testons introduced " after the rate of twelve-pence a teston, and after that for sixpence, where the same was not indeed worth two-pence." In 1601, however, the name must have applied to a piece worth about sixpence. In that year were coined East India pieces of eight testernes, equal to the Spanish pieces of eight rials, worth about five shillings. The term probably came to be used for sixpence, just as the groat signified fourpence ; though in 1551 the groat was coined at twelve pence and represented a shilling.
GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool.
York did not think Cade an Irishman, for he says :
I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,
John Cade of Ashford.
'2 Henry VI., 'III. i.
As Ashford is in Kent, there cannot be much doubt about the matter, though there is also an Ashford in Ireland. Cade, at the end of the fourth act, when he is dying, says : " Tell Kent from me that she hath lost her best man." E. YARDLEY.
' THE EOMANO - BRITISH CITY OP SIL- CHESTER' (9 th S. iii. 100, 177). Mr. Da vis's book provides interesting reading, especially for those who have had an opportunity of visiting the famous site ; but it is unfortu- nately marred by some exceedingly loose remarks on place-names which are likely to lead the unwary astray. The author says that " the Saxon name Selceaster may, with very little risk of error, be translated 'the dwelling-house city'; the prefix being the Anglo-Saxon word sel a seat, a dwelling, a mansion, a palace, a hall ; and the postfix, the Anglo-Saxon word ceaster a city, a town, a fort." He adds that he gives this ety- mology _with some confidence because the foundations of nearly forty houses have been disinterred at Silchester, "thus amply con- firming the fitness and relevancy of the defi- nition " ! This is peculiar reasoning. What
on earth does the word " city " mean if it does
not in itself imply the existence of dwellings
for its inhabitants 1
The fact is that, as in the case of most of the other chesters and cesters in this country, the first element of Silchester is beyond all reasonable doubt a relic of Celtic nomencla- ture, and probably not unconnected with the old name Calleva (Attrebatum). If caslra can become cester it is clear that under- certain circumstances there is nothing to prevent call (Welsh cell-i, Gaelic coill, "a wood ") becoming cell, i. e., sell, especially when there is reason to think, as Prof. Rhys pointed out years ago, that confusion has here arisen with Lat. cella, " cell," or perhaps with Lat. silva, " wood." " The town of the wood," corresponding to Woodchester in Gloucestershire, is, I venture to suggest, the only reasonable etymology that can be put forward for Silchester. It remains to be added that visitors to Silchester at the present day almost invariably comment de- lightedly upon the size, beauty, and number of the oak trees in the vicinity.
As to Mr. Davis's extraordinary assertion that " not a single Roman place-name has survived " in this country, there is (inter alia) the classic instance to the contrary almost within gunshot of Silchester of Speen, Lat. Spince, " The Thorns." HY. HARRISON.
The Earl of Verulam takes his name from the ancient " Verulamium," now called Verulam. ANDREW OLIVER.
'AYLWIN' (9 th S. iii. 124, 174). In 'Patrony- mica Britannica' Mr. Lower wrote of Alwyn :
" It has taken the various forms of Aylwin, El win, Alwine, Aylen, &c. &c. Fitz Alwyn was the first Lord Mayor of London from 1189 to 1212."
I dare say Alleyne, Allen, and Ellen should sometimes be ranged under this "&c. <fec."
Alwyn is said to be a survival of Alcuin. If it be so, it is rather interesting to know that about five-and-twenty years ago the head master of St. Peter's School, York, was Mr. (afterwards Canon) El win. I know of two people in that city who are baptized Alwyn perhaps one of them may bear a final e and the Compton family keep the name alive else- where. I have lately stumbled on the follow- ing note of Leland touching the old bridge at Wensley, Yorkshire :
" The fay re bridge of four arces that is on Ure at
Wencelaw was made about 200 years ago and
more, by one caullyd Alwine, parson of Wencelaw."
ST. SWITHIN.
THE NUMBER OP GRAND JURORS (5 th S. ii. 408 ; iii. 13). I have long understood that in England a grand jury consisted of twenty-
