1787. Nov. 21. Jas. Townsend, 1 doz. Sparrows

1750.-GREAT MORTALITY AND DISTRESS IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 1729. (See Nos. 255, 316.) We have a melancholy account from Gloucestershire, that a contagious distemper rages there, which kills people very suddenly, and sometimes whole families die together, some by swellings in the throat and other parts of the body, which, except they break, take people off in 24 hours. They have buried in the village of Ashton Underhill (near Tewkesbury) above 45 persons since Christmas last, and of the inhabitants, whose number did not exceed 100, there are found to be more than have dy'd in that place in twenty years past. Most of the other neighbouring villages are in the same miserable condition, and what with poverty and sickness, the people are in the most deplorable circumstances; few labourers are able to work, and those that do have double wages; poor's rates are excessive, being above seven shillings in the pound in several parishes, which, together with the scarcity of corn, has drove the farmers to such despair, that several farms in that rich country are left on the gentlemen's hands, and very few are able to pay any rent.-Brice's Weekly Journal, May 9, 1729. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Budleigh Salterton.

1751.-A PLAGUE OF COCKCHAFFERS, A.D. 1574.-(Reply to No. 1716.) I would refer your correspondent to my Records of the Seasons, etc., p. 132, under February 24, 1575, where he will find an extract from Holinshed to this effect:-After a flood which was not great at Tewkesbury, there came down the Severn great numbers of flies and beetles a foot thick above the water. The mills thereabout were dammed up with them for the space of four days after, and then were cleansed by digging them out with shovels. From whence they came is yet unknown, but the day was cold and a hard frost. THOS. H. BAKER,

Mere Down, Mere.

1752.-DERIVATION OF THE NAME "BLANKET.”—(Replies to No. 1718.) The following communications have lately appeared in Notes and Queries, 7th S. vii. 238:

(1) Thomas Blanket was one of three Flemish brothers, clothmakers in Bristol, and was in 1340 ordered by a local court to pay a heavy fine "for having caused various machines for weaving and making woollen cloths to be set up in his houses, and for having hired weavers and other workmen for this purpose." And in a licence to the officers of the port of Bristol permitting the Pope's collector to export certain household goods in the year 1382, are enumerated "duos blanketos pro uno lecto." But we find the word in different forms before the fourteenth century. Ducange gives a quotation from a monastic rule of 1152, where certain clothing is ordered to be made "de blancheto." In an article in the Quarterly Review for 1846 the idea that blankets take their name from one Thomas Blanket is ridiculed.CONSTANCE RUSSELL, Swallowfield, Reading.

(2) The derivation of this word is generally attributed to the name of the first manufacturer of the article, who is sometimes said to have been a Flemish weaver settled in Bristol. In an article on this city in the Saturday Review recently this latter derivation was given, but Blanket was a surname in England as early as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so it is not necessary to search beyond our own country for the name.-B. FLORENCE SCARLETT.

(3) I have always understood that these articles of creature comfort were named after the man who first manufactured them, a native, or at all events a parishioner, of St. Stephen's parish, Bristol.-E. WALFORD, M.A., 7, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

(4) The date of the supposed Thomas Blanket, of Bristol, is 1340, and it would probably be difficult to get behind that. The name, however, was formerly applied to white garments and to a white pear (Pyrum subalbidum in Littleton), from which it would appear that blanc is the root, as Murray, Skeat, and other modern etymologists tell us.-C. C. B.

This

1753. THE JEWS' BURIAL-GROUND AT GLOUCESTER. "quiet resting-place" opens out of Organ's-passage, Eastgate-street, by a door in the wall. On entering, we find ourselves in a plot of ground of about 14 by 11 paces in extent, and almost wholly occupied by headstones bearing Hebrew inscriptions. By the wall next to Organ's-passage has been a fireplace, the brickwork of which remains, the survival of a watchhouse for protection against 'body-snatchers," and for the washing of bodies previous to interment. The case of Dorcas (Acts ix. 37) is familiar to us all. But it is not so generally known that in London in the 13th century there was a special public provision for this purpose. In an article on "Ancient London Cemeteries" by Mr. M. D. Davis, in the Jewish Chronicle of Nov. 16, 1888, we find that at the sale of Jewish properties which took place at the expulsion in 1290, amongst

other matters sold was "quædam petra [super] quam Judei ante humationem eorum post eorum obitum erant lavati appreciata est ad quatuor solidos," (a certain stone on which dead Jews, before their interment, were washed, was valued at four shillings.*) Mr. Davis, in a letter to me in answer to an inquiry about the Gloucester fireplace, says, "No doubt the fireplace was used to wash the dead.”

The inscriptions are mostly in Hebrew; but there are two or three in English, and about thirty-five in all. The earliest date I made out corresponds with A.D. 1785; the latest with 1886. Some of the persons buried had been brought from Ross, Stroud, and other places. I was told that the nearest Jewish burial-ground is at Cheltenham. What seemed to me to be the earliest inscription is in the south-east corner, and I read it thus:

פייט

הילד אורי המכונה

פייס בר יעקב הלוי שנפטר ביום

שק" פרשות + בראשית

ונקבר ביום אחת

מרחשון בראשוני

בבית עלמן זאת

תקמה לפק"י

תנצברח עם

שע שבגן ערן

אמן

A literal translation may be as follows:

"Here is buried the child Uri surnamed Feiss, son of Jacob the Levite, who was released on the Holy Sabbath, section In the beginning, and was buried on the first day of Marcheshvan, among the first in this long home, '545 by the short number [i.e., 5545 Oct. 1784]. May his soul be bound in the bundle of life [1 Sam. xxv. 29] with the rest of the righteous who are in the Garden of Eden. Amen."

The latest inscription is in memory of the "old Gloucester Jewess," about whom there is a note in the present volume, p. 163. There is also a small footstone inscribed "A.A. 1886." The headstone has two inscriptions, one in Hebrew and one in English,

the latter being in black-letter; and both the stones are Gothic in design. The Hebrew inscription is :

:

טוב שם משמן טוב

פייט"י

בתולה מיכלה בת ר" ישעיהו צו גלאסטר נולד * בא' אב תקנב" שבקה חיים ביום ד' אב והובאה למנוחת" ביום

ו' אב תרמו" בת צב"

שנה במותה ת"נצ"בה"

This may be translated as follows:—

"Better is a name than good ointment.

Here is buried the

virgin Amelia, daughter of R. [Mr.] Isaiah of [German zu] Gloucester. Born on the 1st of Ab, 552 [1792]; departed life on the 4th day of Ab, and brought to her resting-place on the 6th day of Ab, '646 [1886]. A daughter of 92 years in her death. May her soul be bound in the bundle of life."

The following is the English inscription :—

"Sacred to the memory of Amelia, youngest daughter of the late Israel and Sarah Abrahams, who departed this life August 4th, 5647,+ 1886, aged 92 years. May her soul rest in peace. She was the last surviving member of the Gloucester Jewish Congregation. A good name is better than riches."

It may be noticed that the father of the deceased is called "Isaiah" in the Hebrew inscription, and "Israel" in the English. The Jews have each two names, the shem haqqodesh, or holy name, given at circumcision (or to a girl when her mother first goes to the synagogue), and under which they perform any religious acts, and the duplicate name, called kinnui, or surname, by which they are known in the world. The former would more fitly appear in the Hebrew inscription, and the latter in the English.

The note on Amelia Abrahams, p. 163, was what directed my attention to the burial-ground. J. T. FOWLER, M.A., F.S.A.

Durham.

1754.-STRANGE DISCOVERY IN ST. MARY-LE-PORT CHURCH, BRISTOL, 1814.-On the 15th instant, on breaking up a vault in the north aisle of St. Maryport Church, Bristol, a leaden coffin

נולדה Should be *

+ Should be 5646.

was discovered about 15 feet below the surface, without any inscription. It was taken up and examined next morning in the presence of several gentlemen. The leaden coffin contained a thick shell of red deal; when the lid was lifted up, some gas of a soapy odour escaped, and the whole became perfectly inoffensive. A very interesting spectacle now presented itself. There lay, in a most perfect state of preservation, the body of a robust man, measuring 6 feet 2 inches. The flesh in some parts resembled supple brown leather; in others it was white, and bore a natural appearance. The features were perfectly distinct, the teeth regular, the nose projecting, the eye so little injured, that the transparent part was still pellucid, like horn. The hands, in admirable preservation, rested upon the upper part of each thigh; and scarcely a bone of the toes was wanting. The throat was swollen very much under the lower jaw, giving the idea of strangulation. The hair was cut off in a ragged manner over the whole head, and was not to be found at all. The body was wrapped up in a quilted counterpane, blue outside, and worked within, curiously, with red roses in bud. Under the counterpane was a wove doublet, buttoned down in front with small wooden buttons worked with thread; with long skirts, and an over flap collar, in the costume of Oliver Cromwell's time. Under this was a fine linen shirt with a worked neckpiece. The body was minutely examined by two professional gentlemen; the lungs were found to be shrivelled and black; but the heart was in such a perfect state, that its vessels, cavities, and valves would have admitted of an anatomical demonstration as easily as a recent one. The muscles were converted into a brown fatty substance. The gristles were elastic; and the bones quite firm, fresh, and sound. The weight of the body had been apparently a good deal diminished, although the limbs had yet considerable plumpness. The high state of preservation of the body and garments has created great astonishment, as no wax, gums, spices, or embalming materials appear to have been used. There is, however, an oblong hole, 10 inches by 4, in the wooden shell, closed by a piece of wood, which has led to a conjecture, that some ardent spirit had been poured upon the corpse; this opinion was strengthened by its flexibility, as, when raised forward, it retained the sitting posture. Very great curiosity is excited respecting the history of this body, but at present it remains in total obscurity.-Trewman's Exeter Flying-Post, March 31, 1814. Budleigh Salterton. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

1755.-A SINGULAR WEDDING IN CHEDWORTH CHURCH, 1815. -On the 24th ult. was married at Chedworth, Gloucestershire, by the Rev. T. Nutt, Mr. George Payne, late of the parish of Terrington, to Unity, second daughter of Henry Locke, a gypsy. An immense concourse of spectators of all ranks assembled from the neighbouring villages; and during the performance of the