142
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. VIL FEB. 23, 1901.
stand that men should have been taxed by
their pillars or "forks," we must remember
that these wooden posts were the most
striking, as well as the most costly, parts
of peasants' houses, the walls being composed
of sticks and mud, which could be removed
from time to time, like a worn-out coat, and
renewed.
I am tempted to suggest that the Latin stips, genitive stipis, a contribution in small coin a word which is only found in the oblique cases may be connected with stipes, stipitis, a post. It is a curious fact that the Late Latin stips and stipes both mean a fork or gibbet. For the former word Du Cange quotes a document of the year 627, and for the latter a document of the year 863. There seems to be an unmistakable connexion between the Roman columnarium and ostiarium and these later taxes. More- over, it is at least possible that pillar tax and door tax are older than the time of Cicero. I advance the suggestion about stips, however, with hesitation, because there seem to be philological objections to it, and because the opinion of an ancient writer is against it. In Smith's ' Dictionary of Greek Antiqui- ties ' it is said that columnarium, mentioned by Cicero, " was probably imposed by the lex sumptuaria of Julius Caesar, and was intended to check the passion for the building of palaces, which then prevailed at Rome." 'No authority, however, is cited in support of this opinion, nor is any proof given that the pillar tax mentioned by Cicero differed in any respect from the columnarium levied by Metellus Scipio in Syria, in B.C. 49-48.
At first sight gavelage seems to have been imposed on the houses of the Scarborough burgesses without regard to size. But it is possible that only a selda* or booth fronting the street, was intended to be taxed. In the borough of Whitby, in the same neighbour- hood, we read of a man granting an annual rent of 3s. out of the selda and the solarium (upper room) of his house towards the street, with power to distrain on the whole of his house (" per totam domum meam ") in case the distraint on the selda and solarium were not sufficient.t At Pontefract in 1258 there were 120 seldce.l And the Hundred Rolls of 1279
- A.-S. selde, a porch. Cf. winter sdd and sumor-
selde (Sweet). The mediaeval selda usually meant a shop. Cf. also the Lucken Booths or shops, which formerly stood in Edinburgh.
f " In selda et solario domus niece in Hakelsougate in Whiteby versus vicum." ' Whitby Chartulary' (Atkinson), i. 20.
' Yorkshire Inq.' (Yorkshire Arch. Society, Record Series), i. 50. For seldce in Winchester
show that there were many seldae in Oxford,
with or without solaria. Now if these seldce
were mere booths, consisting of a single bay
each, one can understand how gavelage would
fall on them with equal incidence. Equality
of taxation at Scarborough may thus imply
equality of size in the burgage tenements, but
it must be admitted that the point remains
obscure.
I have no direct evidence, either English or continental, showing that houses were taxed by the number of the " forks " or posts which they contained ; but it is improbable that such a cottage as the one described by Seneca would bear the same burden of taxation as a house supported by many "forks," or by many columns, either in town or country. In ancient Wales we have proof that houses were supported by rows of " gavaels, forks, or columns," and that such houses were valued by the number of gavaels which they contained.* S. O. ADDY.
EDMUND SPENSER, ' LOCRINE,' AND
1 SELIMUS. 5 (Continued from p. 103.)
"BATTAILOUS" is a word that occurs many times in Spenser, and the phrase " battailous array " is used by that poet three times in the first three books of ' The Faerie Queene I will quote one case only, and cite a passag under the phrase to show the exact meanin that Spenser attached to it : xlistring in armes and battailous array.
Book II. canto vii. stanza xxxvii. jlistring in armes and warlike ornament.
Book II. canto xi. stanza xxiv. Jompare : To toss the spear in battleous array.
' Selimus,' 1. 158.
Spenser constantly uses "vermeil" fo 'vermilion," and the passage in 'Selimus which follows suit is almost an exact repe bition of a line of ' The Faerie Queene ' : io\v oft that day did sad Brunchildis see The green shield dyde in dolorous vermeil.
Book II. canto x. stanza xxiv. And dye my shield in dolorous vermeil.
' Selimus,' 1. 744.
Even such a common word as " gushing owes its presence in 'Selimus' to Spenser : And made an open passage for the gushing flood. Book 1. canto ix. stanza xxxvi. Make thou a passage for thy gushing flood.
' Selimus,' 1. 253. "Gyre" has a peculiar meaning attached
vhere linendrapery was sold see Morgan's ' Eng
and under the Norman Occupation,' p. 166.
- Seebohm's 'English Village Community,' p. 239.
