area.

In 1511-13 James IV. had gold mines worked "in Crawfurd Muir, in the upper ward of Lanarkshire," a peculiarly sterile tract, scarcely any part of which is less than a thousand feet above the sea. In the royal accounts for those years there are payments to James Pettigrew, who seems to have been the chief of the enterprise; to Simon Northberge, the chief refiner; Andrew Ireland, the finer; and Gerald Essemer, a Dutchman, the "milter of the mine."

In 1526 James V. gave a company of Germans a grant of the mines of Scotland for forty-three years, and they are said to have "toiled laboriously" at gold digging for many months in the surface of the alluvia of the moor, and obtained a considerable amount of gold.

In 1563-4 the queen granted to John Stewart, of Tarlaw, and his sons, licence "to win all kinds of metallic ore" from the country between Tay and Orkney. In the event of their finding gold or silver, "where none was ever found before," they had the same licence, paying one stone of ore for every ten won, and the arrangement to last for nine years, the first two of which were to be free.

In 1567 the Regent Murray granted licence to Cornelius de Voix, a Dutchman, for nineteen years to search for gold and silver in any part of Scotland; and he so far persuaded the Scots to " confederate," that they raised a stock of 5,000l. Scots (equal to about 4167. sterling), and worked the mines under royal privilege. He appears to have had "six score men at work in the valleys and dales." He employed "both lads and lasses, and the men and women who before went a-begging." He profited by their work, and "they lived well and contented." They sought for the metal by washing the detritus in the bottom of the valleys, and received a mark sterling for every ounce they realized.

One John Gibson survived so late as 1619 in the village of Crawford to relate how he had gathered gold in these valleys "in pieces like birds' eyes and birds' eggs, the best being found," he said, "in Glengaber Water, in Ettrick, which was sold to the Earl of Morton."

"Cornelius within the space of thirty days sent to the cunyie-house, Edinburgh, as much as eight pound weight of gold, a quantity which would now bring 4507. sterling."

The adventure was subsequently taken up by one Abraham Gray, a Dutchman, resident in England, "commonly called 'Greybeard,' from his having a beard which reached to his girdle." He hired country people at fourpence a day to wash the detritus round the Harlock Head for gold, some of which was presented by the Regent Morton to the French

In 1580 one Arnold Bronkhorst, a Fleming, and a group of adventurers worked gold mines in Lanarkshire, and one Nicholas Hilliard, goldsmith, of London, and miniature painter to Queen Eliza beth, is said to have belonged to the company.

1582-3. A contract was entered into between the king (James VI.) and one Eustachius Roche, "a Fleming and mediciner," whereby he was to be allowed to break the ground anywhere, and use timber from the royal forests in furthering the work, without molestation, for twenty-one years, on the sole condition that he "delivered for his Majesty's use for every 100 oz. of gold found 7 oz.," and "for all other metals (silver, copper, tin, and lead) 10 oz. for every 100 oz. found; and sell the remainder of the gold for the use of the state at 221. per ounce of utter fine gold, and of silver at 50s. the ounce." This must be, of course, Scots currency. (Privy Council Records.)

In 1596 an edict was issued to Robertson and Henderland forbidding them to continue selling their gold gotten in Crawfurd Muir to merchants for exportation, "but to bring it to the King's cunyie-house to be sold there at the accustomed price for the use of the state" (Privy Council Records).

In 1616 Stephen* Atkinson was licensed by the Privy Council" to search for gold, and the Saxeer, and Alumeer and the Salyneer stanes" in Crawfurd Muir, on conditions similar to the former grants; and in 1621 a similar licence was granted to a Dr. Hendlie ('Domestic Annals of Scotland').

During the eighteenth century there appears to have been a lull in gold seeking and finding in the North. In the Moffat Times, however, of July, 1859, it is stated that

"Mr. Griffin, a gentleman from Leamington, has this week passed through Moffat provided with all tools necessary for gold digging and washing, accompanied by two miners from Leadhills. The scenes of their explorations are to be the head of Moffat side and in the neighbourhood of St. Mary's Loch."

With regard to the finding of silver in England, the most interesting particulars are to be found in connexion with the well-known Combe Martin Mines, Devon. These are known to have been worked in or about 1300, in the reign of Edward I., and with great success during the French wars of his grandson and Henry V.

Circa 1587, in the reign of Elizabeth, a new lode was discovered here by Sir Beavis Bulmer, who was able to present Her Majesty with a cup made out of the ore. This cup, or one similar to it, was presented by the queen to W. Bouchier, Esq., of Bath, when lord of the manor, as appears by the inscription :

*This is elsewhere given as Samuel.

Some, at least, of the "Eccles silver pennies found in 1864, and evidently minted at Edinburgh, were no doubt of Scottish silver. They are of William I. ("The Lion") of Scotland.

May 8, 1608. "This day commenced an unfortunate adventure of the king [James I.] for obtaining silver in certain mines at Helderstone, in the county of Linlithgow. Some years before a collier named Sandy Maund, wandering about the burn sides in that district, chanced to pick up a stone containing veins of clear metal, which proved to be silver."

This he was advised to submit to Sir Beavis Bulmer at Leadhills, who was engaged gold seeking there. The consequence was that some very hopeful masses of ore were found, and

"a commission was appointed by the king, with the consent of Sir Thomas Hamilton, his Majesty's Advocate, the proprietor of the ground, for making a search for silver ore with a view of trying it at the mint."

In January, 1608, thirty-eight barrels of ore, weighing in all 20,220 lb., were packed and sent to the Tower of London. This ore is said to have

given "24 oz. of silver to every hundredweight," and some double the quantity. Samuel Atkinson, who was engaged working the mine, tells how "on some days he won as much silver as was worth 100%. The shaft, indeed, received the name of 'God's Blessing.' A result so favourable aroused the king's cupidity, and, advised by Hamilton, he purchased "God's Blessing" for 5,000l., and worked it at the public expense. Bulmer was its governor. A mill for refining the metal was established at 66 on the water Leith, and others, with workshops, running out of Linlithgow Loch." No substantial success, however, appears to have resulted.

The same mine was granted to Sir William Alexander, Thomas Foulis, and Paulo Pinto, a Portuguese, in 1613, "on condition of their paying a tenth of the refined ore to the crown." The scene of these mining operations is still to be found to the east of Cairn-apple Hill, four miles south of Linlithgow, and a neighbouring excavation for limestone is named from it the "Silver Mine Quarry." Many further particulars respecting these mines will be found in Chambers's 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,' and in extracts given from the Privy Council Records. It seems also that silver was discovered in Ireland as early as 1294.

There appears little doubt from the foregoing imperfect collection of notes that Mr. Calvert's surmise that the precious metals are to be found scattered in varying quantity over a large portion of the British Isles, and that their presence is not confined to Wales is correct; whilst in these days of closer scientific knowledge of the subject and of improved machinery and methods for winning the metals, Dr. Clark's belief, as expressed in the House, that if easy royalties were fixed and licenses for prospecting issued, a great deal of gold and silver would be found "all over the United Kingdom," would be realized.

R. W. HACKWOOD.

THE CANDLEMAS BLEEZE. -Saturday, Feb. 2, was Candlemas Day. I am reminded thereby of an old custom that I should be glad to have recorded in 'N. & Q.' My father, sometime Governor and Captain General of the colony of Sierra Leone, was born about 1804. As a very small child he attended a parish school in the 'Redgauntlet' country, hard by the Solway. It was then the custom, as I have been informed, on Candlemas Day for every scholar to carry, as an offering to the schoolmaster, a gift of peats, varying in number according to the distance to be traversed and the strength of the pupil. This duty was known by the name of the "Candlemas bleeze" (i. e., blaze). Any one acquainted with the incomparable nature of the peats from the Lochar Moss -that terror to English troops and sanctuary for Border reivers-cut from a jetty soil as black as ink and smooth and soft as butter, and, when dried

in the sun, the thin slices approaching coal in hardness, will understand what a welcome addition to the master's winter store of fuel was thus pleasantly provided.

Probably this was about the last of an ancient custom; for in looking over, many years ago, some old accounts of the expenses connected with my father's education, there occurs an item of money paid to the schoolmaster "in lieu of the Candlemas bleeze."

I have heard of a similar contribution being made to the parish schoolmaster in other parts of Scotland, where peat was not so common nor so good. It took the form of an offering of candles. I am sorry I can give no date for this latter instance of the survival of what was probably a custom dating from early Popish days.

ALEX. FERGUSSON, Lieut.-Col.

Lennox Street, Edinburgh.

ENGLISH CANTING SONGS.-W. Harrison Ainsworth, in his preface to 'Rookwood,' claims to have done more than his predecessors in having written a purely flash song-viz., "Nix, my dolly, pals, fake away"-of which he says:

"The great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany or Pedlar's French."

But he claims too much, since there is a canting
song in the first part of "The English Rogue:
Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty
Extravagant. Being
Being a Compleat History of the
most Eminent Cheats of Both Sexes. London,
Printed for Henry Marsh, at the Princes Arms in
Chancery Lane, 1665," reprinted by Chatto &
Windus, 1874, p. 45, beginning thus :-

Bing out bien Morts, and toure, and toure,
Bing out bien Morts, and toure;
For all your Duds are bing'd awast'
The bien Coves hath the loure,h

I met a Dell,' I viewed her well,

She was benship to my watch
So she and I did stall, and cloy,'
Whatever we could catch.

;

scribbler, whose name is now known only to bibliographers and to students of the 'Sindibád' cycle of tales from his translation of the French rendering of the 'Pitiable History of Prince Erastus' from the Italian. Part i. of "The English Rogue' was published, by Head, in 1665; parts ii. and iii., by Kirkman, in 1671 and 1674 respectively; and part iv., by Head and Kirkman, in 1680.

W. A. CLOUSTON.

233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow.

INDICTMENTS AGAINST GAMING DURING THE COMMONWEALTH.

"18 February, 1650/1.-Information, laid by William Lippiatt before Justices of the Peace assembled in S.P. day, against Thomas Leichfeild late of the parish of St. James Clerkenwell, for keeping in the said parish a common gaming house for dice, tables, and cardes, and a certain unlawful game called Shovegroate alias Slidethrift, and a bowling alley, and a certain unlawful game called Ninepins alias Cloiscailes, against the form of the statute.-S.P.R., 18 February, 1650/1."

at Hicks Hall in St. John's street Co. Midd. on the said

N.B.-In the informations of this period against keepers of gaming-houses shovegroate and ninepins are usually described with these aliases of slidethrift and cloiscailes.

"14 March, 1653/4.-Recognizances, taken before Richard Powell, Esq', J.P., of Timothy Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, gentleman, in the sum of forty pounds, and of John Thorner, of Barnard's Inn, London, gentleman, and Emma Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, singleappearance of the said Timothy Thorner at the next woman, in the sum of twenty pounds each; For the G.S.P. for Middlesex, 'to answer to Anthony Hynde, of London, baker, for cheating him by the new way called the Trepan.' Also, similar Recognizances, taken on the same day, for the appearance of Brace Wallwin, of Gyles the same Anthony Hynde 'for cheating him by the new in the feeldes, barber, at the same G.S.P., to answer to way called the Trepan.""

Both the above recognizances are copied from the 'Middlesex County Records,' vol. iii., edited by Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson. S.P. stands for Session of Peace; S.P.R., Session of Peace Roll; and G.S.P., General Session of Peace.

What was the unlawful game of Shovegroate or Slidethrift; and the new way of cheating called "trepan"?-and I have heard of ninepins, but not cloiscailes. W. BETHELL.

Rise, E, Yorks.

MRS. OR MISS.-It is stated on p. 505 of the last volume that "Mrs." was a common appellation of unmarried ladies in the days of Alexander Pope. This witness is true; nor are we ignorant that the alternative appellation, "Miss," was originally no better than it should be. "Miss," however, has long since passed from the ranks of vice to those of virtue, and now reigns there, sternly triumphant. Yea, and so completely hath she triumphed that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, her rival "Mrs." is among unmarried ladies no longer used at all. Looking

round upon my spinster acquaintance-a circle much diminished of late years by the fatal habit of marriage-I do not observe any who call themselves "Mrs.," or who would willingly be so called. Yet I can remember ladies of the last generation who were always called "Mrs." though they did not marry; two schoolfellows of my mother's, for instance, daughters of a General S- who were invariably styled Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Julia SThey died about the year 1860; but in a time remoter still, Miss Mitford and Miss Austen were never, I think, known as "Mrs.," so the practice cannot have been uniform. Am I right in supposing that now, in 1889, the practice is uniform in favour of "Miss," and that the equivalent "Mrs." is abolished, except as a crown of wedlock? One thing is certain, that, howsoever this may be among ladies, the title of "Mrs." is a distinction and an honour among unmarried female servants. My own housekeeper, for instance-of whom I am very proud, for she would do honour to any establishment has been "Mrs." for years, though she never was married, and though she looks with just scorn upon the inferior animal and all his works. And so it is, as a rule, in all households, small or great. Even here, indeed, there are exceptions: the Marquis of Bath's housekeeper at Longleat, who is one of the finest women of her class I ever saw, perfectly charming in her stately sweet simplicity of manner, is "Miss," and not " Mrs." But then she is well on the right side of forty. Youth, however, availeth not to lessen the honour of being "Mrs." Some years ago, in a country gentleman's house, a certain foolish maidservant of the lower rank was by pure favouritism suddenly promoted to "Pugs' Parlour"-that tertium quid of which neither the drawing-room nor the kitchen knows anything; in fact, she became a lady'smaid in the same house. Her highly appropriate name was Goosey; and the kitchenmaid, who hitherto had been her equal, was heard to complain bitterly of the change. "Why," she said, "I shall have to call her Mrs. Goosey!" A. J. M.

DUMMY.-The use of this word in the Times, Nov. 7, 1888, in thus designating a parliamentary document is, I think, worth a record in N. & Q' It is, so far as I know, the first time the word has ever been so used. The Times paragraph runs thus :

"The Board of Works' Commission. The first report of the Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Board of Works was laid in dummy on the table of the House of Commons last night, and ordered to be printed. The manuscript is in the printer's hands."

JOHN TAYLOR. Park Lodge, Dagnall Park, South Norwood.

BEARS COMMITTING SUICIDE.-Former numbers of N. & Q' have contained several paragraphs relating to animals committing suicide. It may

be well, therefore, to note that there is a notion prevalent in parts of Scandinavia that the bear will kill itself sooner than fall into the hands of its pursuers. See L. Lloyd's 'Scandinavian Adventures,' 1854, vol. i. p. 257. ASTARTE.

EPITAPH ON J. R. GREEN, THE HISTORIAN.The historian J. R. Green died at Mentone on March 7, 1883, and was buried in the cemetery of that place. Owing to some unavoidable causes, there was considerable delay before any memorial stone recorded the place of his interment. As a copy of the inscription has not, it is believed, appeared in any English literary work, the following will be welcomed by all who reverence the memory of this great Englishman :—

Here lies

John Richard Green
Historian

of the
English People

Born December 12, 1837, Died March 7, 1883.

He died learning.

The closing sentence is mournfully explained by his widow in the following extract from her preface to her husband's last work, 'The Conquest of England':

Many years before, listening to some light talk about the epitaphs which men might win, he had said half unconsciously, I know what men will say of me: He died learning'; and he made the passing word into a he said when he heard he had only a few days to live. noble truth......'I have work to do that I know is good,' I will try to win but one week more to write some part of it down." T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

Greville records, in his Memoirs,' that he visited ST. MARK'S, VENICE.-The late Mr. Charles St. Mark's in 1830, and says:—

"It is not large, but very curious, so loaded with Church. The pavement, instead of being flat, is made to ornament within and without, and so unlike any other

undulate like the waves of the Sea."

records not only his own impressions, but what he Mr. Greville was a very accurate observer, and learnt from able guides; yet some fifty years after church restorers proposed to level the pavement of St. Mark's, because it had given way in places, and was not flat. I trust this has not been done, but, as I have not been in Venice since 1879, I am not sure. When there, I went to Murano, and visited I believe they the cathedral, just then restored. had levelled its floor, which had very probably been "undulating" previously, a fine idea of the old architects. J. STANDISH HALY. Temple.

SLOYD.-The following deliciously inaccurate statement appeared in Chambers's Journal, Dec. 22, 1888, p. 815:"Slöjd, the Scandinavian word which