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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1901.

CONTENTS. — No. 198.
NOTES:-Merry Tales, 297 - The Turvin Coiners, 298 -
Privileges of the City of London-Knights made temp.
Charles I., 301-Science and Sorcery-Paying Rent at a
Tomb in Church-" Play the goat' -"Crooken,' 302-
"Expenditor"-Surrender of Land by a Straw-Bower-
Dickens and Tong-Leigh in Lancashire, 303.

QUERIES:- Arms of Fountains Abbey, 303-Motto on Bell
-Fleur de Marie - Cann Office-Spider-eating- Instru-
mental Choirs - Bibliography of the Bicycle - Frank
Foster, 304-Crouch Family of Wilts-Rowe of Cornwall-fist
Kell" or "Keld "-Spring-"Abacus"-Old English
Fishtraps-Arms on Drinking-cup-Whittington and his
Cat-Ancient Beacons, 305-Chewar-" You might ride to
Romford on it "—" Nang Nails": "Nubbocks "Kipling's

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'Fabliaux ou Contes,' third ed., 1829, vol. iv. p. 294; Montaiglon, Recueil Général et Complet des Fabliaux et Contes,' 1872, vol. i. p. 117; Barbazan-Méon, 'Fabliaux et Contes,' &c., 1808, vol. iii. p. 161). Similar are the fabliau called 'Romanz de un Chivaler et de sa Dame et de un Clerk,' published by Paul Meyer in Romania, vol. i. p. 69, and also in Montaiglon, vol. ii. p. 215, and that in Montaiglon, vol. iv. p. 133, 'De la Dame qui batre son Mari.' A somewhat similar story of having a lover beaten is told by the troubadour Raimond Vidal in Millot's Histoire Littéraire des Troubadours,' 1774, vol. iii. p. 296, of which an abstract is given in DunWartons of Beverley-Early Steam Navigation-"Bolten," lop's History of Prose Fiction,' 1888, vol. ii. 307-Poem Wanted - "Looks wise, the pretty fool' Huguenot -Harvest Bell - "Sod-Widow. 303-Pro- p. 25; Legrand, vol. i. p. 36; Raynouard's Choix de Poésies des Troubadours,' vol. iii. "Grin through "-Heraldic-Tall Leicestershire women" P. 398. The story is in the old German poem -Redmayne Family-Nineveh as English Place-name, 310 printed in Hagen's Gesammtabenteuer,' vol. -Capt. Jones-Man-of-War-Old original "-National ii. No. xxvii., called 'Vrouwen Staetikeit'; Peculiarities-Ugo Foscolo in London-Knifeboard of an Omnibus, 311-Isaac Family of Kent-Parish Registers-in Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, No. 2 of the third Wellsborn - Horse-ribbon Day - "Alright"=All right- day of his Il Pecorone'; in 'Les Contes Marengo, Napoleon's Horse-Smoking a Cobbler-Bruce d'Ouville,' 'D'un Homme qui fut cocu, battu, and Burns, 312-The Royal Standard, 313-Shakespeare the "Knavish" and Rabelais, 314-Delagoa Bay-Authors

Vampire,' 303.

REPLIES:-Frederick, Prince of Wales, 306-Cork Leg

viding" Provided - Comic Dialogue Sermon-" Mary's Chappel "The Lost Pleiad '- Sir Francis' Jones, 309–

Wanted, 315.

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NOTES ON BOOKS:-Prescott's History of the Conquest
of Mexico-Macray's 'Register of St. Mary Magdalen
College, Oxford' - Rowbotham's History of Rossall
School'-Magazines.
Notices to Correspondents.

6

Totes.

MERRY TALES.

,

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Ir may perhaps be interesting to some of the readers of 'N. & Q.' to give in a succinct form references to some of the various sources, imitations, and analogues of the stories or "facetia" contained in 'A 100 Mery Talys and Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres, which were edited by W. C. Hazlitt in 1881, and form the first volume of his 'Shakespeare Jest-Books.' It would take up too much space in N. & Q' to enter fully into the several variants, so I must content myself by giving references only to the works where the stories and other information may be found. For easier identification I take the headings of the stories in Hazlitt.

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et content' (vol. i. p. 161 of the edition by Brunet, 1883, in the series "Les Conteurs Français"); in Contes à rire et Aventures Plaisantes,' ed. Chassang, Paris, 1881, p. 111. It also forms an incident in several English plays. It is the first portion of 'The City Nightcap' (Hazlitt's 'Dodsley,' vol. xiii. p. 99), and, according to Langbaine's 'Account of the English Dramatick Poets,' 1691, it is found in Durfey's Squire Oldcap; or, the Night Adventurers'; in 'Love in the Dark; or, a Man of Business,' by Sir Francis Fane; and in Ravenscroft's London Cuckolds.' It is in A Sackful of Newes,' Hazlitt's 'Shakespeare Jest-Books,' second series, p. 169. Bédier, Les Fabliaux,' &c., 1895, p. 450, refers to Erzählungen aus altdeutschen Hss. gesammelt durch Adalbert von Keller,' Stuttgart, "Bibliothek des Litter. Vereins," t. xxxv. p. 289, 'Von dem Schryber'; 'Roger Bontemps en Belle Humeur,' Cologne, 1708, pp. 64-5; Nouveaux Contes à rire; ou, Récréations Françoises,' Amsterdam, 1741, p. 184, copied from Roger Bontemps' or some common source; Uhland 'Volkslieder: Der Schreiber im Garten', Kрvrтádia, vol. i., Contes Secrets Russes,' 77; the monograph by Mr. W. Henry Schofield, No. II. Of the wyfe who lay with her The Source and History of the Seventh prentys and caused him to beate her hus-Novel of the Seventh Day in the Decameron,' bande disguised in her rayment.' - This is the well-known story of Boccaccio's 'Decameron,' Day VII., No. 7, and La Fontaine's 'Le Mari Cocu, Battu, et Content.' It seems to be probably derived from the fabliau of La Bourgeoise d'Orléans, ou de la Femme qui fit battre son Mari' (Legrand,

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A 100 Mery Talys.'

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in Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature,' vol. ii., 1893; an episode in the romance of 'Baudouin de Sebourg'; and a legendary trait in the life of the Emperor Henry IV., taken into the 'De Bello Saxonico,' chaps. vi.-vii., and subsequently repeated, not without curious modifications, by different

chroniclers. A note in Dunlop, ii. 117, refers to 'Conti da Ridere,' i. 139, 'D'un Uomo che fu cornuto, battuto, e contento,' and compares Timoneda's 'Alivio de Caminantes,' p. i., No. 69, and the 'Romancero General, Madrid, 1614, p. ix., fol. 344, adding: "A cognate German ballad is given in Mone's 'Anzeiger für Kunde des deutschen Mittelalters,' iv. 452, 'Der Herr und der Schreiber.'" I do not give the numerous other references in Dunlop, Legrand, Montaiglon, &c., as they do not strictly refer to this story, but to the one generally called 'Le Mari dans le Columbier.' According to Rua, Novelle del Mambriano,' &c., 1888, p. 59, n. 6, the tale is told in verse in canto xviii. stanzas vii. -lxi. of 'La Corneide, Poema Eroi-Comico,' Livorno, 1781. Schmidt, 'Beiträge,' &c., says the story in the Decameron' is imitated in the Facetiæ Frischlini,' and also refers to an old Spanish romance in the 'Poesias escogidas de Nuestros Cancioneros y Romanceros Antiguos,' Madrid, 1796, t. xvii. 178.

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VII. Of hym that said that a woman's tongue was lightest of digestion.'-The only other place where I am aware this tale occurs is in Pauli's 'Schimpf und Ernst,' No. 137, p. 100 of the edition by H. Oesterley, Stuttgart, Litterarische Verein, 1866.

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XIV. 'Of the welche man that shroue hym for brekynge of hys faste on the fryday.' This is a mere translation of Poggio's 'De quodam Pastore Simulatim Confitente' (No. 71 of the edition of 1878, Paris, Liseux).

XVI. Of the mylner that stale the nuttes of the tayler that stale a shepe.'-Similar to the eighty-second of Pauli. Oesterley refers to Bromyard, 'Summa Prædicantium,' O. 2, 6; Scala Celi,' Ulm, 1480, fol. 101b; Legrand, iii. 77; Sinner, Catal. Cod. MS.,' iii. 379, 14; Hans Sachs,' Nürnb., 1591, 2, 4, fol. 73; Rollwagen,' 1590, No. 67.

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XVII. 'Of the foure elementes where they shoulde sone be founde.'-There is a somewhat similar story in Pauli, No. 4, where four women discourse as to where fire, water, air, and truth are to be found, the point being that the last has no abode. Oesterley refers to 'Hans Sachs,' 1, 3, p. 255; Veith, Ueber den Barfüsser Joh. Pauli,' &c., Wien, 1577, 4to, vol. i. p. 28; Nyerup, Almindelig Morskabslæsning,' Khoebenhaven, 1816, p. 254; 'Abraham a S. Clara, Lauber-Hütt,' Wien, 1826, 1828, 3, 86.

XXI. Of the mayde wasshynge clothes that answered the frere.'-In L. Domenichi, 'Detti e Fatti,' &c., Venice, 1614, p. 11 recto. XXII. 'Of the thre wyse men of Gotam.'This is the same tale as the first of 'The Mery

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Lay with your wife. "That's not a rime," says Sylvester. "No, replies Jonson, "but it's true."

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LVI. 'Of the wyfe that bad her husbande ete the candell fyrste.'-Analogous to the tale called by Clouston, 'Popular Tales and Fictions,' 1887, vol. ii. p. 15 et seq., 'The Silent Couple' or 'Get up and bar the Door.' Clouston quotes from an old Scotch song in the second edition of Herd's 'Scottish Songs and Ballads'; the song Johnie Blunt' in Johnson's 'Scots Musical Museum,' 1790, vol. iv. p. 376; a musical entertainment by Prince Hoare in 1790; Crane's Italian Popular Tales,' pp. 284, 285; the Arabian tale of 'Sulayman Bey and the Three Story-tellers,' Beloe's 'Oriental Apologues.' The story is also in "The Forty Vezirs,' by Sheykh-Zada, translated by E. J. W. Gibb, Redway, 1886. Clouston says, "It may have been taken from 'Le Notte Piacevoli' of Straparola......where the story forms the eighth novel of the first night." This is a mistake, the first night having only five tales. I cannot, moreover, find it at all in the French translation of Straparola by Louveau et Larivey, ed. "Bibliothèque Elzévirienne," Paris, 1857. It is, however, the third of the Novelle' of Sercambi, Bologna, 1871, edited by A. d'Ancona, who refers to the "novella in versi" of Antonio Guadagnoli entitled 'La Linga d' una Donna alla Prova,' and says it is probable that the witty Aretin had taken it from the Contes du Sieur d'Ouville,' i. 194, La Haye, 1703. A. COLLINGWOOD LEE.

·

Waltham Abbey, Essex.

(To be continued.)

THE TURVIN COINERS.
(Concluded from p. 259.)

MR. DEIGHTON's lavish offer of money not only proved successful in leading to the conviction of the prisoners, but served also the further end of sowing dissension among the coining fraternity. It appears that Broadbent, alluded to previously, who had been

trapped by the bait of the hundred guineas, mental in the apprehension and conviction afterwards regretted the part he had played of the culprits. in turning traitor to his comrades. He denied the truth of the charges he had made against Hartley and Oldfield. This was whilst they were in custody. He made two journeys to York to try to obtain their release, but no notice was taken of his retractation.

Another who proved false to his friends was David Greenwood, of Hill-top, in Erringden, the man who was also known as the "Duke of Edinburgh." In addition to being charged with the crime of high treason at the assizes, he was charged with that of fraud, having tried to extort from the widow of David Hartley the sum of 20%., which he asserted he had paid as a bribe or fee to Mr. Parker, the Crown solicitor, to obtain the acquittal of the prisoners. The "Duke" was condemned to be hung at York Castle, but died before the day appointed for his execution. One part David Greenwood had played in this coining business had been to find money for his accomplices, and it is said that at times he had been able to furnish them with more than a hundred guineas. This fact, that in one transaction alone so large a sum was handed over to the coiners, proves on how extensive a scale the undertaking was conducted.

After a time the authorities succeeded in capturing forty of the coiners. They were not treated with too great severity, as nineteen of them were liberated on finding sureties for their good behaviour and on promising to appear before the justices of the peace when called upon to give an account of themselves. They abused their liberty, however, and continued to practise their nefarious arts. Most of these nineteen were brought to trial a second time and convicted. Two of them, nevertheless, owing to some mistake in the indictment, managed to escape conviction. But after a few years they were tried once more and condemned. On this occasion it was merely a matter of a few shillings and halfpence. Imprisonment would probably be their only punish

ment.

Clipping and coining were bad enough, yet had these desperate Yorkshiremen steeped themselves no deeper in crime, the verdict of history would not have been so terribly, but justly severe on their deeds and character. As it is, we have unfortunately to record against them much weightier and more damnatory charges. These Turvin clippers and coiners resolved to have a deadly revenge. It was nothing less than to take the life of Deighton, the excise officer who had been chiefly instru

They set about and accomplished the fell deed with their accustomed determination and cunning. Deighton was induced by means of a forged letter to delay his return home, when engaged in business at a distance, till the night was far advanced. As he was wending his way along what was then a narrow country lane leading to his house he was met by two assassins, who fired upon him, and he fell. It was a fatal shot, and he lay dead. Thus perished one of the most gallant of excise officers, a man who had served his king and country with distinguished ability.

That was heinous enough; and would that the crime, as well as sympathy with the crime, had rested with the two assassins! When the reader is told that for this dastardly deed the miscreants received a reward of one hundred guineas, subscribed by their neighbours and friends, and were even welcomed with something like a public reception, namely, a supper to celebrate the event, it cannot but cause pain to reflect how widespread was the practice of clipping and coining, and how wickedly ill-placed was the sympathy that connived at and encouraged the perpetration of cruel and cold-blooded murder. The two assassins made no secret on their part of what they had done, but boasted of the murder in open day; and each one contended for the distinction of having been the chief actor in taking poor Deighton's life.

The two men who murdered the excise officer were Robert Thomas and Matthew Normanton, of Heptonstall. Whether they belonged to the village or the township I cannot say. The accounts of what took place after the murder of Deighton are not satisfactorily clear, and are sometimes seemingly contradictory. A reward of 2007. was offered for the apprehension and conviction of the murderers, which indeed appeared unnecessary, since the two men had made a parade of their crime, and everybody knew who were the actors in that tragedy. Be it as it may, some time elapsed before they were captured and brought to the bar of justice. At last, however, the whole affair obtained a more than local publicity, and the assassins were apprehended, tried, and executed. Their dead bodies were brought to Halifax and suspended in chains on the top of Beacon Hill, and for a long while the fleshless skeletons were left to bleach in the air, a warning and a terror to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

The record of bloodshed is not finished death with David Hartley, may not be with the death of Mr. Deighton. The uninteresting to the reader. James Oldfield, coiners were far from daunted, and wreaked executed at Tyburn, near York, 28 April, their revenge upon a Heptonstall man who had given information against the murderers of the excise officer. It is said that some of the gang thrust this poor fellow's head into the fire, burned his neck with a pair of redhot tongs, and put him to other frightful agonies, until he succumbed under their hands. That the man was murdered, and murdered barbarously, there is no doubt. But I am inclined to think that terrified imaginations over-coloured the picture, and that the story in passing from one to another was greatly exaggerated.

1770, was formerly clerk at Booth Chapel, in the valley of Luddenden. He was probably a man of some little importance, and his name appears second (next to the minister's) on a list of signatures in a petition the Congregationalists of that district drew up when they appealed to the public for funds to build a new place of worship. That he was one of the first to be apprehended and undergo execution with the leader seems to point to the probability that he had taken a prominent part in the proceedings of the clipping and coining confederacy. The Rev. The headquarters of the coiners were in James Crossley, of Saltonstall, preached a the township of Erringden, in those times sermon on the occasion of the execution of a locality sparsely inhabited, and wild and Oldfield. This sermon was afterwards pubwooded enough to shelter men engaged in lished under the title of 'God's Indignation such clandestine occupation. Sowerby comes against Sin, manifested in the Chastisement in for an equal share of notoriety and guilt. of His People.' Whether Oldfield was a Indeed, half a dozen neighbouring townships secret accomplice of the gang, and managed were more or less participants in both the to hold his clerkship up to the time of his risk and the profits. As for the head-apprehension, I do not know. Probably he quarters, I am disposed to conjecture that left the chapel years before. they were frequently shifted between Erring- One other incident may be mentioned. den and Sowerby in order to escape detection, The coiners used to hold an annual supper such policy being part of the tactics of these at Michaelmas, which was known as the criminals. This unquestionably they did after coiners' feast. They met in an inn at the the Government had so completely broken hamlet of Mytholmroyd. into the band. It is even said that when they were caught in the very act of coining they had skill and coolness to deceive or mislead the officers of the law. There is a tradition that the officers on one occasion came unexpectedly on the gang and found them busily at work making guineas. "Now then," said an exciseman, what are you doing here?" The reply was as clever as the action that followed: "We are making gold earrings"; and forth with these ready-witted, dexterous-fingered men twisted these would have-been coins into ladies' ornaments, which little bit of neat handiwork nonplussed the authorities. This tradition has come down among the descendants of the very men implicated. Sowerby has the reputation of having furnished the largest contingent of the fraternity. I have been informed, when making inquiries on this subject, that so recently as seventy years ago some coiners were apprehended at Straight-hey, in Langfield, and that about twenty years previously others had been taken at Lodge, in Erringden. According to tradition, Elphaborough Hall, at the entrance of Cragg Vale, was a haunt or residence of some of the fraternity.

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Some additional particulars respecting James Oldfield, who paid the penalty of

Few chapters of local history are more extraordinary and tragic than this of the Turvin coiners, and did we not possess wellauthenticated accounts, we should be almost inclined to question some of the details. The story is only too true, as printed documents prove beyond doubt. The coinersthe leaders at least-were clever and deftly skilled in their craft, the tradition of their ingenuity in that particular art being still a wonder and astonishment. The reader will very likely ask, How could all this take place in times so recent as the middle of the eighteenth century, when the arm of the law was strong to grapple with national calamities much more serious than this comparatively trivial affair on these hills? In reviewing the circumstances and the times we must bear in mind that Halifax, the nearest town, was ten miles distant, and that Turvin was far from the cultivated and inhabited country, having Blackstone-edge and Withens Glen on the west, a wide, bleak, and desolate barrier. Those were not the days of police and detective activity, and there was only here and there an excise officer to watch and expose illegal transactions. How could a few excise officers cope with this reckless

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