328
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. APRIL 21, 1000.
to Robert Lauder the younger. The deed is written
in Norman-French, and, as the editor points out,
is on that account alone a great curiosity, as
Norman-French was never the legal tongue in
Scotland. The deeds, at least of the Lowlands,
were composed either in Latin or in the kindly
"braid Scottis," which was then the language
of literature and of the Court. Mr. Wallace-
James opines, as the document is dated at Berwick-
on-Tweed, a local scrivener may have drawn it ;
if so it would not have been unnatural for him to
use the language to which he was accustomed.
A notarial instrument of 1589 furnishes an illus- tration of the Scottish feudal law with regard to marriage, which was in some respects different from, and, as we think, even more fraught with mischief than, our own. Over the Border a superior lord had a right of nominating a spouse to his vassal, and though there were certain restrictions of this arbitrary power into which we cannot enter, the vassal was commonly bound to wed the woman provided for hirn or to pay a heavy fine.
There is a painfully interesting record of a trial of a woman for infanticide in 1612. A certain Margaret Alexander was charged with murdering her two illegitimate children. So far as we can gather from the evidence the poor creature was guilty. The punishment meted out to her was revoltingly savage. We should not have expected to come upon such refinement of cruelty at so late a date. This document is interesting not only as an illustration of manners, but also as a sample of the Scottish dialect when James VI. was king.
The documents which Mr. Wallace-James has collected contain two examples of brothers of the .same Christian name.
The Sources of Archbishop Parker's Collection of MSS. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. With a Reprint of the Catalogue of Thomas Markaunt's Library. By Montague Rhodes James, Litt.D. (Cambridge, Antiquarian Society.) THIS pamphlet is far more valuable than its title indicates. Catalogues of manuscripts are always to be treasured ; but in this case we have something more. Mr. James in his introduction points out how important it is that every one of our older manuscripts should be carefully examined, and the history of each traced, so far as possible. The monastic libraries were richly stored with books ; lout when the crash came they were scattered and, for the most part, destroyed. The commissioners sent out both to destroy the monasteries and to purify the universities were as reckless as the similar men employed on like errands in France at a later period, and the results have been much the same. Better times have come, and every intelligent person will now agree with Mr. James that no effort should be spared to find out, when possible, what were the original homes of the manuscripts we still possess. This is not a mere .sentimental inquiry, though from that point of view alone it is by no means to be despised. If we knew where was the first home of a manu- script, we might often make a shrewd guess, .and sometimes be quite sure, for whom or "by whose hand it was written. No. 46 of the Parker Collection is a copy of the ' Polycraticus ' and * Metalogicon ' of John of Salisbury, and Mr. James has proved almost to demonstration that it is the identical volume given by its author to Thomas a Becket, the murdered archbishop.
Every possessor of manuscripts or librarian having
the custody of such treasures should not fail to
study Mr. James's introductory pages. He will,
we are sure, rise from their perusal with an in-
creased love for his treasures.
King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream have now been added to the pretty and accurate "Chiswick Shakespeare" (Bell & Sons), to the graces and the merits of which we have frequently drawn atten- tion. They are, of course, up to the level of their predecessors, and worthy of their place in the brightest and most attractive of handy editions of Shakespeare.
AMONG the many articles of interest in the later numbers of the Intermediate are notes on mills worked by the flow and ebb of the tide, on the invention of battering-rams, and on the treatment of lepers in the Middle Ages. In the issue for 28 February is a question relating to the widespread custom of walling-up living creatures in the fabric of buildings. Among the masons of France in the olden days, it appears, cats were often thus en- closed in the stonework of dwellings. "Dried- up cats are frequently found in the demolition of houses in Paris." In the next number (col. 382) a note on the cult of Marat is given. After his inter- ment silk handkerchiefs, bearing the image of "1'ami du peuple," were sold in the streets, with silver rings, also bearing his image. A few pages further on is a list showing what churches of Paris were "debaptized" at the Revolution and turned into " temples." The Cathedral of Notre Dame for instance, became the Temple of the Supreme Being, St. -Nicolas -des- Champs was transforme< into the Temple of Hymen, and St.-Etierme-du Mont was dedicated to filial piety.
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COCKLE SHELL ("Poem on St. Christopher"). Shall appear soon.
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