WILLIAM POPPLE.-I wish farther particulars of him. He was a nephew of Andrew Marvell, and the author of The Rational Catechism, London, 1697, 12mo (reprinted at Amsterdam, 1712, 12mo). He translated Locke's first published work, the Letter on Toleration, printed in Latin at Gouda 1689, and the translation appeared in London, both in 4to and 12mo, the same year. He was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade in 1696, and filled that post for many years. Locke was one of the commissioners from 1696 to 1700, and seems to have been on intimate terms with Popple, as I find in his MSS. letters and diaries frequent notices of Popple's visits to Oates, &c. There was another William Popple, who I take to have been a son. He was appointed solicitor and clerk of reports to the Board of Trade 1737, and died in 1764, as the Governor of the Bahamas. He was the author of two comedies, The Lady's Revenge, 1734, and The Double Deceit, 1736; contributed several songs and verses to Richard Savage's Collection, 1726; published a translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and was associated with Aaron Hill in a periodical called The Prompter. B. R. L.

OLD SANDWICH.-In some novel or serial tale, I met, not less than eighteen or twenty years ago, with a striking and picturesque description of Old Sandwich. Will any reader kindly inform me where this description may be found, and help a failing memory? SCHIN.

SABINE QUARTERING. I have a seal of the Sabine family, on which the arms-arg. an escallop gu., on a chief sa. two mullets pierced of the first-are quartered with sa. three bees.

I am desirous of learning to what family this latter quartering belongs, and by what match it was brought into the Sabine family. Any correspondent able to inform me will greatly oblige. J. WOODWARD.

Queries with Answers. SUBSIDIES.Upon what principle were the "subsidies" levied in respect to lands? I find as late as Henry VIII. the assessment upon lands in large and wealthy parishes was trifling, as compared with the assessment upon goods, no more than one or two individuals being assessed at all upon lands, and those of very small value, even assuming that the basis of assessment, or assessable value, was fixed-as was, I believe, the case-in the time of Edward III. Were any lands exempt from the charge? If so, what description of lands? I have heard that peers of parliament and lords of manors were exempt. Was this the case? Were all lands held in capite exempt? or were lands held in capite, not being manors, chargeable? And were lands held in socage, or by baser

tenures, of manors free in respect to the privileges of manors as suggested above? I cannot account for the disparity in the assessments upon lands and goods or personal estate, and shall be greatly obliged for information. JOHN MACLEAN. Hammersmith.

[Subsidies and "tenths" or "fifteenths" were originally assessed upon each individual, but subsequently to 8 Edward III., when a taxation was made upon all the towns, cities, and boroughs by royal commissioners, the "tenth" or "fifteenth" became a sum certain, being a tenth or fifteenth part of their then existing value. After these had been granted by the legislature, the inhabitants rated themselves. The subsidy never having been thus fixed, continued uncertain, and was levied upon each person in respect of his lands and goods. But it appears that a person paid only in the county in which he lived, even though he possessed property in other counties; and, as Hume has remarked, probably when a man's property increased he paid no more, though when it was diminished he paid less. The subsidy continuing to decrease in amount, a land-tax was eventually substituted for it.

From the time of Ethelred II., A.D. 991, when the danegeld or Danish tribute was imposed (viz. 1s. for each hide of land), to that of Henry II., A.D. 1174, all lands, with the exception of the king's, were subject to this charge (usually 4s. in the pound); only prior to the last-mentioned date (the 20th Hen. II.) its imposition seems to have been at the sovereign's discretion. The Normans and their successors perpetuated it under the system of aids, fines, &c. Neither feodum nor allodium was exempt; because, according to that dominium directum, dating from the Conquest, "all lands and tenements

in England in the hands of subjects are holden me

diately or immediately of the king." (Coke). In me

dieval days, immunity from taxation was claimed by the nobles of France, but by no class of society here; nor was the burthen in question remitted on any occasion, or was it evaded on any pretext whatever.]

QUOTATIONS.-1. Whose is the poem "Widow and Cat," quoted under the word "Perfidy" in the London Encyclopedia, 1829, and where shall I find all the verses?

2. A great many years ago, say upwards of forty, I met with some lines from America, copied into an album, which struck me as novel in their construction, and full of feeling, contrasting age with youth, written by some senior. They went in this fashion:

"Days of my youth! ye have glided away;

Hairs of my youth! ye are frosted and gray," &c. D. B. [1. "The Widow and her Cat" is one of Matthew Prior's Fables.

2. The lines on "Days of my Youth" are by Mr. St. George Tucker of Virginia, U.S., and are printed in "N. & Q." 1st S. viii. 467, and in Gent. Mag. lxxxvi. (ii.) 448.]

in which it is written; its last note but one is the dominant, and its last note the final.

If MR. SOMERVELL requires further information, I may inform him that the great Latin authorities on the subject of plain song are-Guidetti (Directorium Chori ad Usum Omnium Ecclesiarum Cathedralium et Collegiatarum, Rome, 1582); Alfieri and Berti, an abstract of whose works is given in A Manual of Instructions on Plain Chant or Gregorian Music, by the Rev. James Jones (London: Dolman, 1845); and the Service books with musical notation published at Mechlin under the editorship of M. Edmond Duval, which can be obtained of any Roman Catholic bookseller. For its revived use in the Church of England, the chief authorities are-the Rev. T. Helmore, A Manual of Plain Song and The Hymnal Noted (Novello); and the Rev. J. W. Doran and Spencer Nottingham, Esq., The Canticles Set to the Gregorian Tones for Festal and Ferial Use; and The Psalter Set to Gregorian Tones (Novello, 1865): from the prefaces to which works MR. SOMERVELL will gain considerable information.

SARISBURIENSIS.

The music referred to by R. SOMERVELL, written on four lines in square-headed notes, is of course the ancient Gregorian, or plain chant. The best and clearest book on the subject, that I know of, is A Manual of Instructions on Plain Chant, or Gregorian Music, by Rev. Jas. Jones. (London: Dolman, 61, New Bond Street, 1845.) Another very useful compilation, which may be consulted, is A Choir Manual, in three parts, which contains every thing to be desired on Gregorian music, and was published in Dublin, by John Coyne, 24, Cooke Street, 1844.

The words in neumes are no doubt of the same signification as the word neupma, or pneuma, which is so often met with in old church music. It means that the music is sung all upon one note. The Promptuarium Parvulorum explains it as"Cantus sine vocis modulatione"; and Du Cange calls it a chant, "quo vocum tonus longius cantando producitur et protrahitur." Hence it was called pneuma, from the same note being held out as with a long breath.

F. C. H.

There is no great difficulty in the four-lined stave if we remember that the clef is movable. It must be noticed at the beginning of each fresh line where the clef is put, as it was indifferently placed on any of the four lines to suit the height or lowness of the note to be sung. The clef was ordinarily of two kinds, either the C or Do clef, or the Fa (F) clef. This was noted usually by a couple of dots placed after it.

The neumata (neumes) are those curious signs, not unlike shorthand, that were placed above the words before the invention of the stave. Some

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S MISQUOTATIONS.
(4th S. v. 486, 577; vi. 13, 85.)

As the readers of "N. & Q." seem to be in the vein for finding out poor Sir Walter Scott's real or fancied misquotations, I may as well point out what might be termed a flagrant one, which I discovered in reperusing The Heart of Midlothian in the new centenary edition (vol. vii.) At p. 475 it is thus written:—

"The least of these considerations always inclined Butler to measures of conciliation, in so far as he could accede to them without compromising principle; and thus our simple and unpretending heroine had the merit of those peacemakers, to whom it is pronounced as a benediction, that they shall inherit the earth."

Now, on turning to the Gospel of St. Matthew, v. 9, we find that the benediction our Lord pronounced upon peacemakers was-" that they shall be called the children of God."

C. W. BARKLEY intimates (vi. 13) that Sir Walter parodied or misquoted fragments to suit him; but I do not think this can be looked upon as one, but rather in the light of a bona fide misquotation, inasmuch as the worthy baronet has accorded to the peacemakers the blessing pronounced upon the meek (ver. 5.)

I entirely agree with your correspondents that to alter such as these would be most inappropriate. J. S. UDAL. Park Street, Grosvenor Square, W.

C. W. BARKLEY is perhaps on the whole right in asserting that an author's misquotations should be corrected in foot-notes rather than in the body of the text. The greatest writers occasionally misquote their brother authors. Wordsworth was annoyed at Scott, in his notes to Marmion, quoting the appropriate epithet "still Saint Mary's Lake" as "sweet Saint Mary's Lake." Even Lord Macaulay's celebrated schoolboy, with all his

The best moves are here given, but if the man had placed his Z in any other unoccupied point than 2 | or 9, the automaton would have won each game with a first move, instead of with a second move; and with the greatest certainty, as the positions of the pieces on the diagram would show, were the games to be actually played.

As it is not incumbent further to remark on uncertain moves, it may nevertheless not be out of place to state in conclusion, that the best moves depend on the first player securing with his firstplaced piece the point 5, and so placing his second piece as to cause the second player to place his first and second pieces on points next to each other, to prevent the first player winning the game by merely placing his third piece, as the playing of the two games already outlined would evidence to be practicable.

The issue, therefore, to any first player, using the best moves, would always be direct and certain victory. J. BEALE.

Spittlegate, Grantham.

It seems to me, though I am not a scientific player, that your correspondents have failed to give the simplest and most unanswerable reason why a truly automatic chess-player cannot be constructed.

Granted, for the sake of argument, that it might be possible to make a machine that will play a perfect game, it will be necessary to the performance of the machine that its adversary be also a perfect player; for every mistake of the living player implies a new starting point, and would necessitate a new adjustment of the machinery. Now it is obvious that, if fresh adjustments are permitted, the machine ceases to be automatic.

VIRION NIGHTON.

"PIERS PLOUGHMAN": DIAPENIDION (4th S. vi. 111.)-By the kindness of Professor Morley, I have been referred to James's Medicinal Dictionary (1745), in which the term Penidium saccharum is explained. The word diapenidion is, in fact, a compound, in which each part is significant. The term dia was applied to any remedy by which relief was sought, and is used by itself by Langland in another passage, as

"And dryuen away deth with dyas and dragges." Piers the Plowman, B. xx. 173. Here dragges, our drugs, is the French dragées, sweetmeats.

The compound word is never spelt otherwise than diapenidion, diapenidioun, or diapendion in the MSS., and the explanation suggested by MR. BUCKTON is not to the purpose, as the root is not Tívw, to drink, but hη, thread, whence visoμai, to wind thread. I find the Lat. penidium, and Ital. penidio, quoted in the Vocabolario Universale Italiano, and there is a capital explanation of the French pénide in Bouillet's Dictionnaire Universel des Sciences. Penidion is in fact nothing but barleysugar, and the name is derived from its shape, it being twisted like a rope. Diapenidion, in the passage quoted, simply means an expectorant; and hence even Bailey's Dictionary (very bad as it is) is not wrong in giving "Penidium, & medicine for all distempers of the lungs."

I believe that almost every other term occurring in the prologue and first seven passus of Piers the Plowman is explained in my small edition of that portion of the poem as published in the Clarendon Press Series. The explanations of words in the rest of the poem will be given in my complete Glossary to the whole poem, to be printed some years hence by the Early English Text Society. My great anxiety at this moment is to find more manuscripts of the third or latest text, as there surely must be more somewhere. My last appeal for help resulted in the finding of a really good MS., and I still hope to hear of more. There are probably some in private hands of which the world knows nothing; it seems a pity that the time for printing the third text should arrive before any news is heard of them. Up to the present moment I know of forty-three, but most of the latest-text ones are poor. WALTER W. SKEAT.

1, Cintra Terrace, Cambridge. Diapenidion was a well-known medicine in times past. Nicholas Culpeper tells his readers how it is to be compounded:

"Take of Penids two ounces, Pinenuts, Sweet Almonds blanched, White Poppy seeds, of each three drachms and a scruple (Cinnamon, Cloves, Ginger, which three being omitted, it is a diapenidion without spices), Juyce of Liquoris, Gum Tragacanth and Arabick, White Starch, the four greater cold seeds husked, of each a drachm and an half, Camphire seven grains. Make them into a Ponder It helps the vices of the Breast, coughs, colds, hoarseness and Consumptions of the Lungs, as also