The Parliament, on Oct. 30, 1651, voted a gratuity of one hundred pounds to his son William, who was, we presume the bearer of the joyful news of the capture of Jersey, and on Nov. 19 following, Colonel Heane had a vote of thanks for his services.

The following entry under date of Nov. 1, 1653, is curious:

"Mr. Moyer reports from the Council of State, that there is one Major Heane, by birth a Foreigner, who hath performed many eminent Services in the War of Scotland; hath very great skill in Fortifications, and also Matters relating to the Profession of an Engineer; and is of very great Use, at this Time, in Services of that Nature: That he is a person eminent for Godliness, and of undoubted affection to this Commonwealth: That the Parliament be humbly moved, from this Council, in Consideration of his many good Services, That Lands, to the Value of a Hundred Pounds per annum, in Scotland, may be settled upon him and his Heirs for ever, as a Mark of Favour, and Token of their good acceptance of the Services done by him for this Commonwealth; and for an Encouragement for him to settle himself and his family in this

Nation.

"The question being put, That Major Heane shall have a Hundred Pounds per Annum settled upon him and his Heirs, he remaining here during his Life;

"It passed in the negative."- (Commons' Journals, viii. 343.)

It is difficult to determine whether the person named in the preceding entry is the subject of this notice. On the one hand we know no one else to whom it could apply. On the other it is singular that he should be called Major after the Parliament had raised him to the rank of Colonel, and that no allusion should be made to his eminent service in the capture of Jersey. Moreover, we do not find any notice of him in Scotland.

On Dec. 7, 1654, the Protector issued a privy seal, granting Col. Venables and Col. Heane one thousand pounds by way of imprest.—(Fourth Report Dep. Keeper of Records, Appendix, ii. 189.)

By another privy seal, dated Feb. 16, 1654-5, Col. Heane and his partners were to receive two hundred pounds, the fifth part due to them as discoverers of the delinquencies of Geo. Pitt, Esq. (Ibid. 191.)

"Our word check,' so often recurring in the game at chess, is a remnant of schah-rendj (the distress of the shah), and testifies to the Eastern origin of the game; xaque, in Spanish, where xaque-mata is check-mate-the king is dead from the Arab mata (to kill). The French thence again our chess. échecs, again, came from the repetition of the word; And, on the other hand, the

black and white squares of the board gave to a similar pattern the name of cheque-work; whence the room thus lined where the court of the Duke of Normandy was held, was the echiquier, and crossed the sea to become our exchequer. Some etymologists, however, derive exchequer from schicken (to send) because the messengers from the court were sent throughout the duchy; but this cannot be established.

quers; and they enjoyed the privilege of licensing houses "The arms of the great family of Warrenne were cheof entertainment to provide boards where chess and tables might be played. It is very probable that their shield was assumed in consequence; at any rate the sign of such permission was the display of the said bearings on the

walls of the inn to which it was accorded, and thus arose that time-honoured sign of the Chequers, happily not yet extinct, though far from at present explaining its connection either with the stout earl whose tenure was his good sword, or with the king who lashed the ocean."-History of Christian Names, vol. i. part II. sec. 4, "Xerxes."

On Oct. 3, 1655, the council of state issued an order to the commissioners of the admiralty, to settle one hundred and fifty pounds a year on Elizabeth his widow (Sainsbury's Cal. Colonial State Papers, 431), and on Dec. 29 following the Protector granted her a privy seal for four hundred pounds. (Fifth Rep. Dep. Keeper of Records, Append. ii. 249.)

No little variety occurs in the orthography of

principle as the golden boots, the four feet high renne. They were probably used on the same hats, the painted representations of penny ices, &c., which grace the exteriors of our shops in the present day, informing passers-by of the nature of the purchases which may be made, and of the luxuries which may be enjoyed in the respective establishments over which they preside.

The De Warrennes were lords of Grantham, and in 1562, after the extinction of that noble family, Queen Elizabeth granted arms to the town. The shield, chequy, or and azure, within a bordure sa., charged with eight trefoils slipped az. Several

of the inn signs of this ancient borough have been identified with the heraldic bearings of former landed proprietors. The Rev. B. Street, author of Notes on Grantham, says:·

the lesser exchequer; which must have been, so to say, the cash department, in which the officials would probably retain the tally, or order, on the strength of which they paid out money as their authority for doing so. Such orders were, in course of time, given in writing; and perhaps the origin of "cheque" may be traced to "exchequer

rennes."

MR. SALA "cannot obtain a satisfactory solution of why the 'chequers' should have had anything to do with the royal treasury." I have seen it asserted, on the authority of Camden, that the black and white squares of the Exchequer table-cloth were useful to those who made up the king's accounts, and scored the amounts thereof with counters, a peculiar mode of registry; but taking into consideration the age in which it was used, not half so astonishing as the "tallies" with which Britannia's cashiers recorded monetary transactions as late as 1826.

ST. SWITHIN.

The scaccarium, in the reign of Henry II., was a rectangular table, ten feet by five, with a rim or ridge to prevent anything placed on it from rolling off. On this table was spread a black cloth, 'bought at Easter," with rods (or stripes, virga,) at intervals of a foot or thereabouts. Every Easter the Chamberlain's clerk, or "tally-maker," gave out to each of the sheriffs a tally, or stick marked with notches, representing the amount for which they were answerable. Every Michaelmas the sheriffs brought back their tallies, and paid in the money due; the "calculator" counting it by ranging it in heaps in the divisions of the cloth; pence to the extreme right, then shillings, pounds; twenties, hundreds, thousands of pounds, and so on if necessary. If the sum "tallied" with the amount notched upon the tally-stick, the tally was accepted by the Mareschal; the payment entered on the Roll, the sheriff's responsibility for the year ceased, and the cloth was swept for a fresh calculation. All debts to the crown being settled in a similar manner. The scaccarium, then, was the "calculator"- calculating board: the slate on which he added his sums, probably up acquiring its name from its similarity to a chessboard; though it seems very likely that in early days the same scaccarium may have served, especially with humbler individuals, for "doing sums upon as well as for playing at dice or chess. As at the coronation of Richard I., six earls carried the regalia and robes upon a scaccarium - hardly either a chess-board or the exchequer-table-I suspect that, at a certain period, many a chronicler would have Latinized any inlaid table by the same word.

There was also a lesser scaccarium, known as "the Receipt"-" quod et Recepta dicitur." Calculations were made in the greater, and paid into

banker as his authority for paying out cash committed to his charge.

The name of "exchequer"-"Court of Chequered-table, or Chequered Cloth," like "Board -was confined to Normandy and of Green Cloth"England. I suspect the "calculating board" was in use long before the existence of the Italian zecca, or mint. There were monayers scattered over the country, long before a single fixed mint was established. E. W. R.

A very strong argument in favour of the view that these words are derived, as indeed they are allowed to be by the best authorities,* from an Eastern original, is afforded by the comparison of the Eng. checkmate! which, with its equivalents in European languages, has absolutely no meaning, with the corresponding Arabic shah mặt, or ash'shāh māt, which has the very appropriate meaning of "the shah (or king) is dead!" Whether, however, exchequer was so called on account of the chequered table-cloth, as is generally believed, or because it has, or had, to do with royal treasures, is uncertain; though I think the former explanation the more probable. At any rate, the ex in exchequer (Mid. Lat. escacarium) is not the Lat. ex, but merely represents the e, which, in Prov., Fr., Span., &c., is so frequently added to the s at the beginning of Latin words (as in Fr. écrire, Prov. escrioure, Span. escribir, from scribere, &c., &c.),— together with the s of scacco, &c. F. CHANCE.

retired from the service; but on the breaking out of hostilities with France in 1794, when thirty regiments of Fencible Light Dragoons were raised (see "N. & Q." 2nd S. iii. 155; xii. 305), with extraordinary expedition, that Colonel Charles Rooke might have been selected for the command of the regiment, then levied in the neighbourhood of Windsor, and called the Windsor Foresters. His commission as Colonel was dated May 1, 1794, as was that of Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, Bart., the Lieut.-Colonel, who then resided at Stanlake Lodge, Berks. The commissions of these Fencible Cavalry were all signed by the King, on the recommendation, it was understood, of the Lords Lieutenants of Counties, which for Berkshire was then the Earl of Radnor. There was an Ensign Charles Rooke in the 3rd Guards in 1798, and later a H. W. Rooke in the same regiment. Were both these sons of Lieut.-Gen. James Rooke, who had the 38th foot? I may add that the Windsor Foresters, a year or two after they were raised, were ordered for Scotland, where they remained, I believe, three or four years.

DELTA. WALSALL LEGGED (3rd S. iv. 27, 77, 78.)— Formerly several years resident in various parts of Staffordshire, including the old-chartered town of Walsall, the epithet Walsall-legged I have repeatedly heard orally from persons Walsall-born, whose family, relative, and official positions for three generations in the locality rendered them tolerably well acquainted with its traditions; a hearty welcome and prolonged stay being often accorded to visitors or friends by saying, "till you begin to get Walsall-legged." The comparatively great elevation of the parish church at the head of the town, its foundations nearly on a level with adjacent house-tops, on the west entered by ascending a number of steps, and diverging from the main street, itself a tedious incline; on the south west its approaches, formerly rugged and dilapidated, being fragments of crumbled-out-of-the-hill sort of steps, partly earthen and partly hill-side shale, causing consequent exertion and precariousness of ascent, these are local traditionary particulars for the jocose saying, Walsall-legged. Recent years' improvements of the approaches by removal and otherwise of surrounding property, afford but partial evidence of its anterior tendency to leg-deformity of the natives, though its present considerable number of modern steps leading to the sacred edifice still frequently give rise to the old saying, "Don't get Walsall-legged."

A. GT.

Walsall parish church is built on a very steep hill, and there are many steps from the street to the church. "Black country" people affirm that Walsall men become "bandy-legged" through ascending and descending the hill and steps, hence

COWTHORPE OAK (3rd S. iv. 69.) — I am not positively able to answer C. J. ASHFIELD'S query, Whether the Cowthorpe Oak still exists? There is a print of it in Hunter's edition of Evelyn's Sylva, 1776; another in Strutt's Sylva Britannica, 1826, folio. Your correspondent had heard of it in 1843, and as the two prints, at an interval of fifty years, show little change, we may presume it still remains, as it long has been, the pride and admiration of the surrounding neighbourhood. I saw the oaks in Welbeck Park during the last autumn. Hayman Rooke, in his description of that place, published in 1790, considers the Greendale oak to be above 700 years old; the circumference of the trunk above the arch was then 35 ft. 3 in.; height of the arch 10 ft. 3 in., width 6ft. 3 in., height of tree to the top branch 54 ft. On the same authority the two trees called "Porters" measure, No. 1, 98 ft. 6 in. in height; No. 2, 88 ft. The circumference at base of No. 1, 38 ft., at one yard high 27 ft., at two yards 23 ft., and its solid contents 840 cubic ft. The circumference of No. 2, at base, 34 ft., one yard high 23 ft., two yards 20 ft., and 744 ft. solid contents. No part of England contains so numerous a collection of vast and ancient oak trees as the Nottinghamshire Dukeries, more particularly the adjoining parks of Welbeck and Thoresby; but the withered branches so generally found at the top of the larger trees, show that decay has commenced, and their vegetating vigour is on the decline.

THOMAS E. WINNINGTON.

lished by subscription twenty years since (the A full account of this remarkable tree was pubsecond edition, now before me, in 1842, and probably the first in the same year), and was entitled,

"The Cowthorpe Oak, from a Painting by the late George William Fothergill, from accurate Sketches made by William Monkhouse. With a Descriptive Account, by Charles Empson, Author of Narratives of South America,' &c., containing such Historical Memorials, Local Particulars, Botanical Characters, Dimensions, and various Information as could be obtained on the Spot, relative to this most famous Oak." London, Ackermann

on the Spot, expressly for this Work. Drawn on Stone

WALE (3rd S. iv. 26.)-The very short extract which MR. J. D. CAMPBELL criticises, from a paper in All the Year Round-of which he has, he says, seen only this extract-convicts him of singular obtuseness. The writer in All the Year Round cbviously uses the word "waling" in the sense of choosing a wife: for he says, "the heart of the Scotchman is full of tenderness"...“such a waling being the highest compliment he can pay her sex. MR. J. D. CAMPBELL is thus selfconvicted of ignorance; for he does not know that, although centuries ago "waled, or wailed wine," meant in England' choice wine, a "waled back" is one marked with wales. MR. J. D. CAMPBELL Confesses to his small knowledge of philology; but when he condemns a writer for using a word in the very sense which he himself proves to be a right one (as wale in the sense of choice), the deficiency he displays is the lack of the faculty necessary for understanding what he reads. JOHN ROBERTSON.

HOPTON FAMILY (3rd S. iv. 48.)-If F. will refer to the Pedigree of Hopton in Blore's Rutland, p. 133, he will obtain information which may lead him to the discovery of existing families connected with the Hopton family. Jos. PHILLIPS.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS.

Exotics; or English Words derived from Latin Roots. Ten Lectures. By Edward Newenham Hoare, M.A., Dean of Waterford, &c. (Hodges & Smith.)

These ten lectures, delivered by the Dean of Waterford before a select audience comprising the teachers of the various public and private schools in that city, are addressed to intelligent and educated persons, who have, however, little or no acquaintance with the classics, for the purpose of promoting the acquisition of that knowledge strongly commended by Locke, who tells us that, "if we knew the original of all the words we meet with, we should thereby be very much helped to know the ideas they were first applied to and made to stand for." The work will, however, be read with interest by those who do know something of Latin, and who cannot fail in the course of its perusal, to pick up some curious information on a subject of considerable interest and great practical utility. The book, which is appropriately dedicated to the Father of English Philologists, Dr. Richardson, is made yet more useful by capital Indices.

The Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, containing the names of the Officers in the Royal and Parliamentary Armies of 1642. Edited by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. (Hotton.)

If we concluded our Notice of Dean Hoare's book by stating how much it was increased in value by its In

dices, we may well say how greatly the present would have been improved by the like addition. But in spite of such want, the work is a most valuable contribution to the history of the eventful period to which it refers; and the brief biographical notes scattered over every page give promise of how much curious and interesting matter we may look forward to receive, when Mr. Peacock is able to give us his promised Biography of the Civil War.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—

The Forest of Arden, its Towns, Villages, and Hamlets: a Topographical and Historical Account of the District between and around Henley in Arden, and Hampton in Arden. Illustrated with numerous Engravings. By John Hannett. (Simpkin & Marshall.)

The Gossiping Guide to Jersey. By J. Bertrand Payne. With a Chapter on the Climate and Diseases of the Island, by Dr. Scholefield; and a Botanical Gossip, by Mr. C. B. Saunders. (W. Hughes.)

"London now is (going) out of town;" and Londoners who are inclined to take the advice of The Times, and these two Guides hints for two agreeable pleasure trips. confine their wanderings to the British Islands, have in Jersey has many points of interest; and the Forest of Arden may well invite to a pilgrimage all the admirers of him who has made Warwickshire famous.

A Discovery concerning Ghosts, with a Rap at the "Spirit Rappers." By George Cruikshank. (Arnold.)

Quaintly written and quaintly illustrated, this Discovery-which is, we believe, no discovery, for disbelievers in ghosts in red waistcoats have ever existed-will well repay perusal; as we are assured, and hope soon to prove, that a morning spent in the Gallery of the great Artist's Works, now exhibiting, will well repay the visit.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

Particulars of Price, &c., of the following Book to be sent direct to the gentleman by whom it is required, whose name and address are given for that purpose:

NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND UNDER CAPTAIN W. A. GRAAH. London: J. W. Parker, 1837. Wanted by Mr. Percy B. St. John, Southend, Essex.

Notices to Correspondents.

B. B. The French verses forwarded by our Correspondent are only a French version, from the ready pen of Father Prout, of the well-known "Monody on the Death of Sir John Moore." The lines were originally published in an early number of Bentley's Magazine.

MELETES. The authorised version of the Bible may be regarded as a revision of the Bishops' Bible, rather than as a new and independent work. See" N. & Q." 3rd S. ii. 371.

J. M. We quite agree with our correspondent respecting the growing inconveniences of the modern usage of the title Reverend, and which elicited from us some remarks nearly eleven years ago. See our 1st S. vi. 246.

R. G. The date of 1495, in one of Barker's Bibles, is evidently a mis

print for 1595. It is not an uncommon book. See our 2nd S. x. 170, 217,

316.

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