A PUZZLE SOLVED. It is well known that no adequate solution of the word puzzle has ever been offered. I now proceed to solve it. It occurs as a verb in Hamlet, III. i. 80, and in other passages; but it was originally a substantive. From its familiar use as a verb it seems to have been regarded as a frequentative form of the verb to pose, with the addition of the usual suffix -le; such, indeed, is Skinner's explanation, hitherto accepted only because no better one has yet appeared. The connexion with pose is right, as indeed our instincts assure us; but the suffix, though long regarded as verbal, is not really so, as will appear. Before proceeding, it is necessary to say a word as to the word pose itself. This is usually regarded as an abbreviation of appose, and this is true; but we must also go back a step further, and acknowledge appose to be a corruption of oppose. To appose or pose was to propose questions; examples are plentiful, especially in Richardson's Dictionary, Appose." But no such sense is commonly found in the French apposer or the Latin apponere. The true Latin word is opponere, which was a regular term in the schools; see Ducange. The old method of examination was by argument, and the examiner was really an umpire, who decided questions put by an opponent to the examinee, so that the old word for to examine was also opponere. Now it so happened that neat answers were called apposite answers; and between the opponent on one side, and the apponent (or neat answerer) on the other, a complete confusion easily arose, at any rate in English, as testified by numerous instances. We thus have, as the right order of things, first to oppose in the schools; secondly, to oppose or appose by asking questions; and finally to pose, by putting a hard question to a candidate. S. V. We have numerous words formed from verbs by a suffix -al, as in the case of deni-al, refus-al, and the like. Similarly, a hard question was an opposal, and this is the word which has now become puzzle. The whole of this would be but guesswork if it were not that I have been so fortunate as to find the necessary examples which support and elucidate the solution. We are really indebted for it to Dyce's Skelton, which (I say it advisedly) is one of the best edited books in our literature, and a great credit to the honoured name of Alexander Dyce. The references will be found in that book, at vol. i. p. 367 and vol. ii. p. 304, and here they are: In this last instance the "various reading" is opposelle (Dyce). In all these cases the sense is a question hard of solution, or, in modern language, a puzzle. WALTER W. SKEAT. NOTES ON CHICHESTER. The attention of local historians has not been given as yet sufficiently to the stores of information laid up and still unused among the wills of the Middle Ages. I therefore, in the way of illustration, give some notes which throw light on the fabric and ornament of Chichester Cathedral. "Volo quòd ij. pelves preciossime fabricate offerantur pro me ad magnum altare eccl. Cic." (Chichewell, Canon, 1368, Reg. Islip, fo. 153 b). "Do tabulam meam de auro Ecc. Cic. ponendam coram capellano celebranti ad magnam missam" W. Eston, canon, desires to be buried "in capella (Maydenhithe, 1407, Reg. Arundel, fo. 242). S. Anna" (1455, Wills Stockton, 4), and Ivo Darell, canon, "in capella S. Nicholai situata in parte boreali in ecc. Cic." (Wills Dogett, 4). This is the only notice of this chapel. There are many curious MS. notes in Browne Willis's copy of Le Neve's Fasti, now in the Bodleian. A quaint itinerary of 1634 mentions the so-called Arundel effigies. "There lieth a ward III.'s time, some report he was Lord Berkeley prince in armour, who lived in the woods in Edof Bosham. By the wall now nearer to the choir and cross aisle lieth the statue of an anchoress, near unto which is a pretty little room for such an one." Browne Willis, in 1723, gives another version of this local tradition :— "In the north aisle, under the wall near the transept, is a tomb of a to have founded an almshouse about three hundred years lady, the effigy of freestone. She is said gone or more, and below lie an Earl of Arundel and his lady on two altar tombs, their effigies in freestone, with a lion on his breast.” Gough, in his MS. Tour (xi. 15, Bodl. Lib.), mentions the appearance of the feretory in his day: Under each of these two westernmost arches is an altar tomb railed off, making an inclosure behind the altar." Now there is a void space, with the tombs standing bare. Here Adam Facete, canon, desired to be buried in 1513, “ante feretrum S. Ricardi ex parte australi," bestowing a suit "de blodio serico, Anglice, sarsenet" (Wills Fettiplace, 17), where we learn two synonyms, Latin and English. In another will the donor gives "j. annulus aureus in quo includitur, j. lapis albus de ierusalem in quo figurantur facies homiLydgate, Fall of Princes, ed. Wayland, num, et ij. alii annuli aurei cum lapidibus, ij. "And to pouert she put this opposayle." sig. Biii. leaf lxvi, "Made vnto her this vncouth apposaile, Why wepe ye so?" cum firmacula auri, j. rotundum in cujus medio est to draw attention to this earlier phase of provincial fairs. reverentiam S. Ricardi" (Reg. Chichele, fo. 275). How these morses were worn with a chasuble is not explained. The "Pardon door," mentioned in a Compotus of 1414, may be illustrated from a will relating to Pilton in 1509, "in the south part nigh the wall under the Pardon and Indulgences" Each mark-community, isolated and independent, there." The old muniments would reveal many interesting anecdotes of the state of the time. What would not the ecclesiologist give to find the missing book which Bishop Rede in 1402 ordered to be compiled, "Consuetudines Ecclesiæ circa divinum officium," from the relation of the ancients of the church (Reg., fo. xxxi). Does it exist? I printed the statutes from the original copy in University College Library, Oxford. How curiously sounds the account of the commune bread in the sixteenth century! The dean had 1,092 loaves yearly, and each residentiary 1,047, deducting twenty-nine for Venite loaves to the vicars for every holiday, and sixteen to Sherborne's clerks; four vicars choral had each 757 yearly. Altogether there were 12,496 loaves. Forty-two loaves were given to the poor every Sunday (Book B. 9, 15). Gough, in his Tour already quoted, mentions that the chasuble of Bishop Stratford's effigy was then of blue and gold. In 1456 W. Rowe, canon, desires to be buried below the rood "ante magnam crucem in navi ecclesie" (Wills Stockton, 5). Neal, a citizen, mentions in the directions for his burial a recluse priest in the cathedral who was to receive 6s. for saying a mass of requiem (Reg. Chichele, fo. 316 b). Your space is valuable at this time, so I draw my notes to a close, but with the earnest hope that they may stimulate others to make researches at Somerset House and in the muniment chambers of our cathedrals. What a boon an analysis of episcopal registers would be, even the list of their contents being of value! Who will edit the "Laudabiles Consuetudines" of Hereford, with illustrations from these sources ? MACKENZIE E. C. WALCOTT. [Who better than our learned correspondent?] PROVINCIAL FAIRS. The correspondence which has from time to time been going on in "N. & Q." on the above subject gives, as I venture to think, only one phase of the history of provincial fairs. Like all historical institutions, the provincial fair has (1) a history of its own, and (2) a history which belongs to the general history of institutions. I do not suggest that a hard and fast line can be drawn between these two divisions, but simply that the latter appears to me to be properly the end, and the former the means, to an historical inquiry of some importance. I desire, with the editor's permission, And first, as to their locality. Mr. Kemble's chapter on "The Mark," in his first volume of the Saxons in England, gives us the first clue. is surrounded by certain territory, separating it from other marks' (i. 48-9). Carried a step further, we come upon the Hindoo evidence on the subject. "At several points," Sir Henry Maine says (Vill. Com., p. 192)-" points, probably, where the domains of two or three villages convergedthere appear to have been spaces of what we should now call neutral ground." This neutral ground was the market territory. "These were the only places," continues Sir Henry Maine, "at which the members of the different primitive groups met for any purpose except warfare." They met for inter-tribal affairs, for the exchange of goods, and for feasts and rejoicings. As, however, independent communities became merged, either by conquest or by external political influences, the common meeting-place often became fixed in the centre of the new community, instead of outside all the old communities. In this way grew up (1) the provincial fair of modern times, meeting on common lands outside towns or villages; and (2) the regular marketplaces, generally in the centre of towns or villages. Thus both the market and the fair are historically of one origin. Secondly, as to the object of the fair or market. That it was a place for barter does not need any special comment Sir Henry Maine has struck the key-note of a great historical question by drawing attention to the association of markets and neutrality (Vill. Com., 192-3); also Sir John Lubbock (Origin of Civilization, p. 205). For by this association arises also their connexion with laws and law-making. They must have been the great centres of primitive legislation. In later times they retained a survival of their old functions. Among the Romans the people assembled at fairs to hear the laws propounded, and when a law had been proposed on three market or fair days it was proclaimed a law before the people (Archæologia, i. p. 192, quoting Macrobius, i., Saturn. c. 16). In Ireland, in addition to the promulgation of new laws and the proclamation of peace, the old laws were rehearsed at the senech, or fair (Sullivan's edition of O'Curry's Lectures, p. 256). In England the laws of every session of Parliament were proclaimed at fairs by the king's writ to the sheriff, which may be seen at the end of the Acts of 31 Edward III. These notes, already too long, perhaps, are intended merely to direct attention to, not to exhaust, a most interesting subject connected with the early history of mankind; and other corre spondents-perhaps Mr. Cornelius Walford-may be able to add further notes, and trace out the early history of the Piepowder Court, which Dr. Hyde Clarke reminds me is most likely a relic of a primitive village court of justice. G. LAURENCE GOMME. THE FIRST DRAFT OF COWPER'S POEM OF "THE ROSE."-I have in my possession the first draft of William Cowper's well-known poem of The Rose, in the poet's autograph. It is interesting, as it shows how much he altered and improved his poems : "The rose that I sing had been bathed in a show'r, Profusely and hastily shed, The plentiful moisture incumber'd the flow'r, The cup was all fill'd, and the leaves were all wet, To weep for the home it had left with regret Unfit as it was for the use of the Fair With foliage so dripping and drown'd, I shook it and swung it with too little care- And such, I exclaim'd is the pitiless part, Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart Already to sorrow resign'd. This Rose might have held, had I shaken it less, And the tear that is wiped by a little address, FRED. LOCKER. A SIAMESE FABLE.-With the New Year are born or resuscitated many tales inculcating charity, forgiveness, self-sacrifice. Let us take a Buddhistic one from Siam* by way of a change : A man, chased by a tiger in a forest one night, escaped by climbing a tree, on which lived a monkey and its family. The monkey received the man kindly, and refused to listen to the tiger, which advised it to fling him down while he slept. When the man awoke the tiger retired, and the monkey went to sleep. Presently the tiger returned, and recommended the man to fling the monkey down. The man pondered awhile, then gave the monkey a push, and it fell into the tiger's claws. Awakened by the shock and the pain, the monkey laughed aloud. "Wherefore laughest thou, when I am clawing thy body?" asked the astonished tiger. Because thou thinkest thy claws are near my heart, and thou art wrong,' replied the monkey. "Where, then, is thy heart?" "At the end of my tail." The tiger let go its hold, but before it could seize its victim's tail the monkey ran up the tree and was saved. * One of several fables extracted by Dr. A. Bastian from the Siamese Nonthuk Pakkaranam. Prof. Benfey has compared it with Panchatantra, ii. 208. 66 It knew who had pushed it over, but it uttered no angry word. When the day dawned the tiger disappeared, and the monkey went out to gather fruit for its guest. During its absence the man killed its mate and all its little ones, intending to take them home for his wife to cook; when the monkey came back with a throng of its kinsfolk, it found its home made desolate. Still it uttered no angry word-only offered to guide the man out of the forest. They set forth together, the man following the monkey. After a time the man struck the monkey over the head so hard that the blood gushed forth. "Why hast thou done this?" asked the monkey. "Because I wanted flesh for my wife to cook," replied the man. "But if thou hadst killed me," said the monkey, "who would have guided thee out of the forest? Now follow me at a distance; my blood-drops will show thee the way. And when thou art clear from the trees, then thou canst kill me without risk." The man did as he was counselled. When they came near the forest verge the monkey stopped for the man to come up and kill it. The man killed the monkey. But just as he was leaving the forest he tripped and fell, first into a hole, then headlong right into hell. But no sooner was the monkey dead than it was carried straight up into heaven. There, in a golden palace, it was joined by all its dear ones whom the man had killed. "But where is the man?" asked the monkey with anxious sympathy. "He is in hell," was the reply. "Your Highness must not think of him any more." W. R. S. RALSTON. "MAIDEN," IN BRITISH PLACE NAMES.Referring to my few words of reply upon Castrum Puellarum as a medieval name for Edinburgh (5th S. xii. 214), a correspondent of "N. & Q." has very obligingly sent me a newspaper cutting showing that the hill called Maiden Castle, on the south bank of the Wear, about a quarter of a mile south-east of Durham, is a place of considerable natural strength, rising precipitously in the midst of a lovely landscape. "The north-east side is flanked by a precipice almost perpendicular, 100 feet deep, whilst its other sides descend in a gentle incline." It has "views of the opposite woods, Old Durham, and the country round about, like a panorama." The top "presents a level area of about 160 paces by 45." This information is strictly ad rem, and fully meets my incidental expression of ignorance as to the surroundings of the spot. Unfortunately the paragraph so kindly sent is entirely void of further evidence drawn from history, or from remains of military defences, or any artificial features of the locality, tending to show whether it was ever occupied as a British, as distinguished from a Roman or other camp. I am myself prevented by want of opportunity or of leisure for reading from pursuing this inquiry, but shall peruse with interest whatever may appear in "N. & Q." upon the subject. I will only take the liberty of suggesting that it would seem desirable to have : 1. Dry evidence showing whether, as a matter of fact, Maiden Castle in the British Islands is, or is not, always, or often, the site of a Celtic stronghold, and at the same time possesses, or does not possess, natural characteristics rendering maidyn the fort of the field or plain ") an appropriate name, as in the above instance. 2. In each case a statement of the earliest recorded connexion of the term maiden (or of any term phonetically resembling this) with the locality in question. Should any correspondent suggest that our hills bearing the name of Maiden Castle or Maiden Bower were so called on the principle on which the town of Péronne was named "La Pucelle" (that is, from having for a long period from its foundation experienced sieges, but escaped capture), it would be desirable to have evidence either of this as a fact or of the existence of a local belief to that effect, with the grounds, if any are known, for such belief. JOHN W. BONE. 26, Bedford Place. Two WELSH-ENGLISH VERSIONS OF A POEM TO THE VIRGIN. Mr. Wm. W. E. Wynne, of Peniarth, Towyn, Merioneth, to whom the famous Hengwrt collection of MSS. was bequeathed by its late owner, Sir R. Vaughan, Bart., has kindly sent me a specimen of two versions of an Early English poem to the Virgin, written by a Welsh scribe. We hope to print the whole, by Mr. Wynne's leave, in the Early English Text Society. Mean time here is the sample :— version the transcriber has adopted Welsh spelling, or perhaps it was so in the original. Dd in Welsh has nearly the pronunciation of th, and w of oo." F. J. F. THE VISORS OF WONCOT.-It may interest some of your readers to hear that I have recently purchased a number of old deeds respecting this family, showing who the "William Visor of Woncot," mentioned by Shakespeare in the second part of Henry IV., really was, and the exact locality of his residence. It is something to know that the great dramatist was speaking of a veritable personage of his own day. J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS. WILLIAM JAY, OF BATH.-As one of your correspondents (5th S. xi. 245), is engaged on a bibliography of Bath, I send a few notes on this great ornament of the town : Autobiography of W. J., with reminiscences of some distinguished contemporaries. Edited by Dr. George 1854, 8vo. 12s.; third ed., 1855, cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Redford and the Rev. John Angell James. Portr. A sketch of the life and labours of W. J., with a sermon preached the Sunday after the funeral by Wm. H. Dyer, minister of Argyle Chapel. Bath and London, 1854, 8vo. 6d. Ministerial qualifications and success: a sermon preached at Argyle Chapel, Bath, Jan. 8, 1854, on the decease of W. J. By James Sherman. 6d. A portraiture of W. J., being an outline of his mind, character, and pulpit eloquence. By Rev. Thomas Wallace. 1854, 12mo. 3s. 6d. Recollections of W. J., of Bath, with glances at his contemporaries and friends. By his Son. 1859, cr. 8vo. three portraits. Memoir of W. J. By the Rev. S. S. Wilson. With an appendix, containing remarkable passages selected from his discourses. 18—, 12mo. portrait. Cf. Memorials of the Rev. Robert Bolton, Rector of Felham, U.S., and Chaplain to the Earl of Ducie, and Mrs. Bolton, by W. J. Bolton, M.A., London, 1860. Wilberforce regarded Jay as the best extempore preacher of his day (Moultrie's Memoir of W. S. Walker, p. lvi). See Wm. Jowett's Memoir of Corn. Neale (1833), 14. Add to Watt's list of Jay's works : Farewell sermon, 1789. : Token of respect to the memory of the Rev. T. Tuppen, 1790. Sermon on ministerial usefulness, 1791. See further T. S. Whalley's Memoirs, ii. 224 seq. Cambridge. JOSEPH HUME, M.P.-Not many months before the death of Joseph Hume, in 1855, at the close of a conversation which to me was full of interest, the old man said, lowering his voice and seeming for the moment to forget that any one was present, "And I shall soon be dead. I shall pass away and be forgotten. Some few will rejoice, perhaps, but the great majority will soon forget me altogether. I shall die a neglected and useless man, and the people for whom I have so long worked will think of me no more." I ventured to say, "Oh, sir, you should not say that! England owes you a large debt of gratitude; your country will never forget the good which you have done." Mr. Hume looked up at me intently for a moment, and then said, in his old incisive manner, "The good I have done, sir! You don't know what you are talking about. The good I have done! God knows I have done very little good in my time, and for that little I deserve no thanks, and expect no gratitude. But I'll tell you what-the country does owe me thanks, not for the good I have done, but for the evil that I have prevented! Year after year I have denounced every job which came before the House, till I became the terror of all corrupt place-seekers, direct and indirect. I know as a fact that millions have been saved to this country because, as ministers have often said, 'We dare not do this thing, for that fellow Hume is as sharp as a hawk, and he would be sure to expose it in the House.' As a characteristic memory of one who was a power in the state for many years, perhaps this little anecdote is not unworthy of being recorded. EDWARD SOLLY. AMERICAN SPELLING.-May I be permitted, dear Mr. Editor, to ask (as deferentially as possible), through you, all publishers and editors who reprint American books to leave us our native language? If Americans have a particular liking for coming to the defense of travelers in a wagon, who might have stayed there forever had not anyone helped them, by all means let them accomplish this eccentric feat; but do let us Britishers retain the correct spelling of the words in question. I cannot see where we are to land if we follow up such horrors as forever and anyone. In another ten years we shall have takecare and didntyou. Can't we stop? HERMENTRUDE. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ANTICIPATED.-In the 29 & 30 Vict. c. iii. sec. 8 (An Act to further amend the Acts relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England), Aug. 10, 1866, occur the following remarkable expressions :- MATTHEW CAREY, PHILADELPHIA, 1819.Having lately observed a notice of the death of Mr. Henry Charles Carey, at the age of eighty-six, in Philadelphia, who was a bookseller there until 1836, and had a great antipathy to this country, I am reminded of an extraordinary book which was written by Matthew Carey, possibly his father (who also had a great antipathy to this country), in a vigorous strain, respecting the treatment in times past of Roman Catholics in Ireland, from whence he had emigrated. As near as I can say, the title of the book was "Vindicia Hibernice; or, Ireland Vindicated. By Matthew Carey (a Native of Ireland), Member of the American Philosophical and Antiquarian Societies, &c. Philadelphia, printed for Carey & Hart, 1819," 8vo. The work may be rare in this country, but it surely cannot be so in America, for at the end of the preface of this edition, the dedication of which is dated Philadelphia, March 6, 1819, the following extraordinary notification is given: : "Pecuniary considerations have had no place among the motives that led to this undertaking. This edition consists of only 750 copies, of which 250 are intended to be gratuitously distributed to public libraries, reading rooms, and enlightened individuals, in order to afford the work a chance of perusal, and my calumniated country an opportunity of justification. While that number lasts, any library company sending an order for a copy shall be supplied without expense. Agents shall be appointed to distribute the books, on this plan, in Boston, New York, Baltimore, &c." of Can any correspondent furnish an exact copy the title-page? D. WHYTE. "Whereas certain portions of Lambeth Palace, namely the Lollards' Tower and Cardinal Morton's Tower, are MEYLER FITZ-HENRY.-Can you give me infornot necessary or useful for the enjoyment by the Arch-mation about Meyler or Myles Fitz-Henry, who was bishop of Canterbury of the palace as a place of residence, Chief Justiciary of Ireland in 1200? I am already whilst it is expedient that they should be preserved as monuments of historical and antiquarian interest," &c. acquainted with the brief notices of him in Mr. Here is a declaration by the legislature that Ireland in the Public Record Office, London, from Sweetman's Calendar of Documents relating to monuments of historical and antiquarian interest which I learn that "the King (by charter 2nd John, ought to be preserved. mem. 28 dors.) commits to Meyler Fitz-Henry the Chief Justiciary thereof. Mandate that the Archcare and custody of all Ireland, and appoints him bishops, &c., of Ireland be intentive to Meyler accordingly" (about October, 1200). Is anything known of Fitz-Henry's birth and family; and H. C. C. [We are sure the Primate's attention has only to be called to the unglazed casements in the Lollards' Tower, in order that an effectual remedy may be applied.] AMERICAN FOLK-LORE.-When a boy of about ten years of age, I saw in Burlington County, New |