NOTES.

P. 3. Berset, Basset.—It is known to most of my readers that from the quarries of the Duke of Leeds and of Charles Wright, Esq., adjoining the village of North Austan, in the west riding of the county of York, and touching each other, was obtained the stone with which the new Houses of Parliament were built, and that it is beginning to perish. Mr Wright gave me recently, on the spot, the following explanation of this fact. In the first place the contractors took stone from quarries of the Duke which was visibly unsound and of inferior quality, although soft to work. 2. They won stone too near the basset-edge—to use Mr. Wright's own expression—that is, they won it from the surface forwards, driving, so to speak, the quarry before them, instead of working deep from the first: and 3. The quarries of the Duke were, in several instances, marked by fissures which had become filled with soil, and the consequence was, that the stone in contact with these fissures was soft and bad. Mr. Wright's quarries were deep, perfect, and sound, and the stone thence taken good. This explanation of a practical man, in itself interesting, will, I think, answer the purpose for which I give it, and elucidate the word berset, basset. It must mean sloping, and this interpretation corresponds with the actual character of our Bassetlaw.

P. 7. The name of Lincoln.—The former part only of this word of course must be understood as being stated to be of indigenous origin.

P. 19. Since my account of Tickhill was written I have been induced to make another and a very careful examination of the remains of Tickhill Castle. The mound upon which the keep was built is a natural rock of new red sandstone, as is distinctly proved by excavations made a few years ago by Mr. Lumley, of Tickhill Castle, the father of the present Earl of Scarborough. This mound was strengthened by two or three concentric bands of strong masonry, of the lowest of which a very distinct portion remains to the north-west, in continuation of, but projecting beyond, the outer wall of the castle. At the summit of all, at a height probably of sixty or seventy feet above the moat, are the foundations of a wall very nearly twelve feet thick, built in the form of a regular figure of ten sides, each of which is somewhat more than twelve feet in length, and supported with buttresses at every angle about five feet wide These are clearly the foundations of the keep, which must have possessed marvellous strength and security, and have commanded a perfect view of the country around. So that Camden's description of it is substantially correct, "a, round citadel on an elevated mound," for it would appear round from beneath or at a distance; and it must have borne a strong resemblance to the keep of Durham Castle before the recent alterations—I do not say improvements—by that failing body the University of Durham, I have only to add, that 1 think the gateway of Tickhill Castle a portion of De Builli's work, the room over it being much later.

P. 40. On the subject of these "honorary associates," as he terms them, see Lingard, "Hist. and Antiq. of Anglo-Saxon Church," ii. 63-67.

P. 54. A noble tower was in like manner inserted in the fifteenth century by the monks of Furness, in the west end of the nave of their church—fine portions of which, especially the deep and niched buttresses, still remain.

P. 55. I have here made a distinction between a guild or fraternity and a chantry. The common religious obligation of the former (for they had various secular objects) was "that of accompanying the bodies of the deceased members to the grave, of paying the soul-shot for them at their interment, and of distributing alms for the repose of their souls." Vide Lingard, "Anglo Sax. Church," ii. 62. A chantry properly implies a foundation bequeathed by the donor with a view to secure after his death the benefit of prayers and other religious offices for his soul. The two are not always, either in name or object, kept distinct from each other.bVide p. 177.

P. 86. I ought to have mentioned here that a school for infants and girls, which is open to the parish, was built a few years ago by H. F. Walker, Esq., of Blyth Hall; and is maintained at his sole expense.