Howard, Earl of Surrey.-Dr. Percy is said, in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, to have prepared an edition of the poems of the Earl of Surrey, the whole impression of which was consumed in the fire which took place in Mr. Nicholls's premises in 1808. Can any of your readers say whether Dr. Percy had a copy of the sheets, and whether he had prefixed thereto any life of the Earl of Surrey? or did Sir Egerton Brydges ever print any account of Surrey amongst his numerous issues from the Lee or other presses?

G.

Bulls called William.-In looking into the notes in my Provincial Glossary, I find that bulls are in Somersetshire invariably called William. Is this peculiar to that county? C. W. B. Bawn. Mutual.-In vol. iii. p. 506. of Hallam's Constitutional History of England, there occurs the following passage in reference to the colonisation of Ulster in 1612, after Tyrone's rebellion:

"Those who received 2000 acres were bound within four years to build a castle and bawn, or strong courtyard; the second class within two years to build a stone or brick house, with a bawn; the third class a bawn only."

What was this bawn, which was equally indispensable to the grantee of 2000, 1500, or 1000 acres? Richardson variously describes the term as almost any kind of dwelling, or "an enclosure of walls to keep cattle from being stolen at night;" in fact, a court-yard. This, however, conveys a very unsatisfactory idea, unless I am justified in supposing that a court-yard was insisted upon, even when a house could not be built, as insuring a future residential settlement, and thereby warding off the evils of absenteeism.

At page 514. of the same volume, I read,— "Wentworth had so balanced the protestant and recusant parties, employed so skilfully the resources of fair promises and intimidation, that he procured six subsidies to be granted before a prorogation, without any mutual concession from the crown."

Will Dr. Kennedy, or any other strict verbal critic, sanction this use of the word "mutual?" ALFRED GATTY.

of the following versicle and its response, which occur in both Morning and Evening Prayer? "Give peace in our time, O Lord,

"Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God!"

Surely the "because " &c. is a non sequitur! ALFRED GATTY.

April 6. 1850.

[In Palmer's Origines Liturgica, vol. i. p. 241. (2d edit.), we find the following note on the response, "Quia non est alius," &c.:.:-" Brev. Eboracens. fol. 264.; Brev. Sarisb. fol. 85." Bishop Lloyd remarks on this verse and response as follows:-"I do not know what Burnet means by stating that this response was made in the year 1549, on the occasion of political occurrences, for this answer is found in all the foreign breviaries, in the Salisbury primer, and in the primer of Hen. VIII. See Burnet's Hist Ref. p. ii. b. 1. anno 1549."]

Yeoman. This word, the origin of which Dr. Johnson says is much doubted, in the general acceptation of its meaning signifies a small farmer; though several authorities quoted by Johnson tend to show it also signifies a certain description of servants, and that it is applied also to soldiers, as Yeoman of the Guard. It is not, however, confined to soldiers, for we hear of Yeoman of the Chamber; Yeoman of the Robes; Yeoman of the Pantry; Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod.

I should be glad if any of your readers can give an explanation of the word as used in the latter instances. P. R. A.

Pusan.-Iklynton Collar.-Among the royal orders issued on the occasion of the marriage of Henry VI., contained in the fifth volume of Rymer's Fadera, p. 142., occurs the following:

"We wol and charge you, that ye deliver unto oure trusty and well-beloved Squier, John Merston, keeper of our Jewell, a Pusan of golde, called Iklynton colar, garnished with iv Rubies, &c., &c."

What is the meaning and derivation of this word Pusan, and why called Iklynton collar? E.V.

Who was Lord Karinthon, murdered, 1665 ?— ¦ Can any of your readers inform me who was the English lord, murdered in France by his Flemish valet, in March, 1665, as stated in the following passage of Gui Patin's Letters, tom. iii. p. 519,

ed. 1846:

"Hier, ce 18 Mars, je vis sur le pont Notre Dame, mené à la Grève, un certain méchant malheureux coquin, natif de Flandre, qui avoit poignardé son maitre dans Pontoise; c'étoit un seigneur anglois, dont il vouloit avoir la bourse.... Ce seigneur anglois qui fut poignardé dans son lit avoit nom de Milord Karinthon.... Dans le testament de ce bon mais malheureux maître il se trouve qu'il donnoit à ce pendard

C.

From the Table, pp. 36, 37, it appears, that whilst the population (estimated) in the thirty years 1600-1630 increased upwards of 16 per cent., in the forty years 1630-1670 it increased a mere trifle over 3 per cent. only. In no fewer than twenty English counties, the population, estimated as before, was absolutely less in 1670 than in 1630; and in Kent, the county in which Chart is situate, the decrease is striking: population of Kent in 1630, 189,212; in 1670, 167,398; in 1700, 157,833; in 1750, 181,267; and in 1801, the enumerated population was 307,624.

Your correspondent might also find it useful to consult Sir William Petty's Political Arithmetic, the various documents compiled at the different censuses, and the Reports of the Registrar-General.

ARUN.

PARISH REGISTER STATISTICS.- -CHART, KENT. Your correspondent "E. R. J. H." (No. 21. p. 330.) inquires whether any general statistical returns, compiled from our early parish registers, have been published. It must be a matter of regret to all who are acquainted with the value of these national records - which for extent and antiquity are unequalled in any other country. that this question cannot be answered affirmatively. By the exertions of the late Mr. Rickman, their importance, in a statistical point of view, has been shown, but only to a very limited extent. In 1801, being entrusted with the duty of collecting and arranging the returns of the first actual enumeration of the population, he obtained from the clergyman of each parish a statement of the number of baptisms and burials recorded in the register book in every tenth year from 1700, and of marriages in every consecutive year from 1754, when the Marriage Act of George II. took effect. The results were published with the census returns of 1801; but, instead of each parish being separately shown, only the totals of the hundreds and similar county divisions, and of a few principal towns, were given. In subsequent "Parish Register Abstracts" down to that of 1841, the same meagre information has been afforded by an adherence to this generalising system.

In 1836, with a view of forming an estimate of

the probable population of England and Wales at certain periods anterior to 1801, Mr. Rickman, acting upon the result of inquiries previously made respecting the condition and earliest date of the register books in every parish, applied to the clergy for returns of the number of baptisms, burials, and marriages registered in three years at 1670, 1700, and 1750. The clergy, with their six irregular periods, viz. A.D. 1570, 1600, 1630, accustomed readiness to aid in any useful investi gation, responded very generally to the application, and Mr. Rickman obtained nearly 3000 returns of the earliest date required (1570), and nearly 4000 (from not much less than half the parishes of England) as far back as 1600; those for the more recent periods being tolerably complete from all lected have not been published; nor am I able the counties. The interesting details thus colto say where the original returns, if still extant, are deposited. In pursuance of this design, however, Mr. Rickman proceeded with these materials to calculate the probable population of the several counties on the supposition that the registered baptisms, &c., in 1570, 1600, and at the other assigned periods, bore the same proportion to the results are embodied in a table which appears actual population as in 1801. The numerical the Census Enumeration Abstract for 1841 (Pre

in

face, pp. 36, 37.), and it is stated that there is reason for supposing the estimate arrived at to be an approximation to the truth.

During the Civil Wars and the Protectorate, few parochial registers were kept with any degree of accuracy; indeed, in many parishes they are altogether defective at that period, owing to the temporary expulsion of the clergy from their benefices. It is not improbable, therefore, that the remarkable decrease of baptismal entries in the register book of Chart next Sutton Valence may have arisen partly from imperfect registra tion, as well as from the other causes suggested. But the trifling increase observable after the Restoration undoubtedly points to the conclusion arrived at by your correspondent- that a great diminution had taken place in the population of the parish: and Mr. Rickman's estimate above referred to gives a result for the entire county, which, if it does not fully establish the supposed decrease, shows at least that the registers of other Kentish parishes were affected in a similar man

ner.

The following is the estimated population of Kent, deduced from the baptisms, burials, and marriages, by Mr. Rickman: A.D. Population.

A. D.

1670

1700

1750

Population.

167,398

157,833

181,267

The population enumerated in 1801 was 307,624, which had increased to 548,337 in 1841. Applying the average of England to the parish

of Chart, the 120 baptisms in the years 1640-1659, if representing the actual births, would indicate a population of about 200 during that period; while the 246 entries in the previous twenty years would give upwards of 400 inhabitants. According to the several censuses, Chart contained 381 persons in 1801, and 424, 500, 610, 604, respectively, at the subsequent decades.

While on the subject of parish registers, I may add, that a scheme has been propounded by the Rev. E. Wyatt Edgell, in a paper read before the Statistical Society, for transcribing and printing in a convenient form the whole of the extant parish register books of England and Wales, thus concentrating those valuable records, and preserving, before it is too late, their contents from the effects of time and accidental injuries. The want of funds to defray the cost of copying and printing is the one great difficulty of the plan.

April 2.

JAMES T. HAMMACK.

EARLY STATISTICS.-PARISH REGISTERS.

In reference to the observations of your cor

respondent “E. R. J. H.," he will find, upon closer examination, that no comparison approaching to accuracy can be made between the population of any place at different periods of the seventeenth century, founded upon the entries in parish registers of baptisms, births, or marriages. In 1653 the ecclesiastical registers ceased to contain much of the information they had before given. In that year was passed, "An Act how Marriages shall be solemnised and registered, and also for a Register of Births and Burials;" which first introduced registers of births and not of baptisms. The Act treated marriage as a civil contract, to be solemnised before a justice of the peace; and it directed that, for the entry of all marriages, and "of all births of children, and burial of all sorts of people, within every parish," the rated inhabitants should choose “an honest and able person to be called The Parish Register,' sworn before and approved by a neighbouring magistrate. Until after the Restoration, this Act was found practicable; and in many parishes these books (distinct from the clergyman's register of baptisms, &c., celebrated in the church) continue to be fairly preserved. In such parishes, and in no others, a correct comparative estimate of the population may be formed.

The value of the parochial registers for statistical and historical purposes cannot be overrated; and yet their great loss in very recent times is beyond all doubt. It was given in evidence before the committee on registration, that out of seventy or eighty parishes for which Bridges made collections a century since, thirteen of the old registers have been lost, and three accidentally

burnt. On a comparison of the dates of the Sussex registers, seen by Sir W. Burrell between 1770 and 1780, and of those returned as the earliest in the population returns of 1831, the old registers, in no less than twenty-nine parishes, had in the interval disappeared; whilst, during the same half-century, nineteen old registers had found their way back to the proper repository. On searching the MSS. in Skelton Castle, in Cleveland, a few years since, the first register of that parish was discovered, and has been restored.

These changes show how great the danger is to which the old registers are exposed; and in many instances it saves time and trouble to search the Bishop's transcripts before searching the original registers. WM. DURRANT COOPER.

81. Guildford Street, March 25. 1850.

BYRON'S LARA.

I cannot agree with your able correspondent "C. B." (No. 20. p. 224., and No. 17. p. 262.), that Ezzelin in "Lara" is Seyd of the "Corsair." My interpretation of both tales is as follows:-Lara and Ezzelin both lived in youth where they afterwards met, viz. in a midland county of England-time about the fourteenth century. Ezzelin was a kinsman, or, more probably, a lover of Medora, whom Lara induced to y with him, and who shared his corsair life. When Lara had returned home, the midnight scene in the gallery arose from some Frankenstein creation of his own bad conscience; a "horrible shadow," an "unreal mockery." Kaled was Gulnare disguised as a page; and when Lara met Ezzelin at Otho's house, Ezzelin's indignation arose from his Ezzelin in this quarrel; and, when Kaled looks recollection of Medora's abduction. Otho favours down upon the "sudden strife," and becomes Ezzelin the champion of Medora, her own rival deeply moved, her agitation was from seeing in in the affections of Lara. Ezzelin is murdered, probably by the contrivance of Kaled, who had before shown that she could lend a hand in such an affair. After this, Lara collects a band, like what David gathered to himself in the cave of Adullam, and what follows suits the mediaval period of English history.

I will briefly quote in support of this view. Otho shows that Lara and Ezzelin had both sprung from one spot, when he says,

"I pledge myself for thee, as not unknown,

Though like Count Lara now return'd alone From other lands, almost a stranger grown." The 9th section of canto 1. is a description of Byron himself at Newstead (the two poems are merely vehicles of their authors' own feelings), with the celebrated skull, since made into a drinking cup, beside him. The succeeding section is a pic

ture of our own dear lake." That Medora was a gentlewoman, and not from the slave-market, is shown by Conrad's appreciation of her in the 12th section of the first canto of the "Corsair;" and why not formerly beloved by Ezzelin, and thus alluded to by him in the quarrel scene?

"And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again!
At least thy memory was not given in vain.
Oh! never canst thou cancel half her debt,
Eternity forbids thee to forget."

The accents, muttered in a foreign tongue by Lara, on recovering from his swoon in the gallery,

"And meant to meet an ear

That hears him not-alas! that cannot hear"were addressed, I think, to Medora; and I am only the more disposed to this opinion by their effect on Kaled. (See canto 1. sec. 14.)

I quite agree with "EMDEE" in esteeming "Lara" a magnificent poem. A. G. Ecclesfield, March 18, 1850.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

Dr. Whichcot and Lord Shaftesbury.-Your correspondent "C." (No. 24. p. 382.) will find in the Alumni Etonenses, by Harwood, printed at Birmingham by Pearson, and by Caddell, jun., and Davies, Strand, 1797, at p. 46. in the account of Whichcot, under the head of "Provosts of King's College," the following passage :— "A volume of his sermons was published in 1628, from copies taken in short-hand as they were delivered from the pulpit, with a preface by Lord Shaftesbury." In a MS. account of the provosts it is stated, "the first volume of his discourses, published by Lord Shaftesbury, 1698;" and that one of his brothers was alive in 1749, at Finchley, aged 96.

A letter from Lord Lauderdale to Dr. Whichcot is in MS. Harl. 7045. p. 473. I take the figures from a printed, but not published, account of some of the proceedings relating to Dr. Whichcot's deprivation of his provostship at the Restoration, in which Lord Lauderdale says, "For I took an opportunity, in the presence of my Lord Chamberlain, your Chancellor, to acquaint his Majesty with those excellent endowments with which God hath blesst you, and which render you so worthie of the place you enjoy, (which the King heard very graciously); afterwards he spoke with my Lord Chamberlain about your concerns, and he and I are both of opinion there is no fear as to your concerns." Was Shaftesbury ever Chancellor of Cambridge? or who was the Lord Chamberlain who at that time was Chancellor of the university? I have no means of referring to any University History as to these points.

COLL. REGAL. SOCIUS.

Old Store Shops; but you did not insert my Query, which curiously enough has since been alluded to by Punch, as a mystery only known to, or capable of being interpreted by, the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES." A. C.

[We are obliged to our correspondent and also to our witty contemporary for this testimony to our omniscience, and show our sense of their kindness by giving them two explanations. The first is, the story which has been told of its originating with a person who kept a house for the sale of toys and rags in Norton Falgate some century since, to whom an old woman brought a large bundle of rags for sale, with a desire that it might remain unopened until she could call again to see it weighed. Several weeks having elapsed without her re-appearance, the raginan opened the bundle, and finding in it a black doll neatly dressed, with a pair of gold ear-rings, hung it over his door, for the purpose of its being owned by the woman who had left it The plan succeeded, and the woman, who had by means of the black doll recovered her bundle of rags, presented it to the dealer; and the story becoming known, the black doll was adopted as the favourite sign of this class of shopkeepers. Such is the romance of the black doll; the reality, we believe, will be found in the fact, that cast-off clothes having been formerly purchased by dealers in large quantities, for the purpose of being resold to merchants, to be exchanged by them in traffic with the uncivilised tribes, who, it is known, will barter any thing for articles of finery, — a black doll, gaily dressed out, was adopted as the sign of such dealers in old apparel.]

Journal of Sir William Beeston.-In reply to the inquiry of "C." (No. 25. p. 400.). I can state that a journal of Sir William Beeston is now preserved in the British Museum (MS. Add. 12,424.), and was presented to the national collection in 1842, by Charles Edward Long, Esq. It is a folio volume, entirely autograph, and extends from Dec. 10, 1671, when Beeston was in command of the Assistance frigate in the West Indies, to July 21, 1673; then from July 6 to September 6, 1680, in a voyage from Port Royal to London; and from December 19, 1692, to March 9, 1692-3, in returning from Portsmouth to Jamaica; and,

lastly, from April 25 to June 28, 1702, in coming home from Jamaica to England. By a note written by Mr. Long on the fly-leaf of the volume, itzed appears that Sir William Beeston was baptithe Dec. 2, 1636, at Titchfield, co. Hants, and was in second son of William Beeston, of Posbrooke, the same parish, by Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Bromfield. (See Visit. C. 19. Coll. Arm.) His elder brother, Henry, was Master of Winchester, i and Warden of New College; and his daughter and heir Jane married, first, Sir Thomas Modyford, Bart., and, secondly, Charles Long, to whom she was second wife. To this may be added, that Sir William received the honour of knighthood at Kensington, October 30, 1692, and was Governor of Jamaica from 1693 till 1700. In the Add. MS.