Notes and Queries, No. 179. Saturday, April 2, 1853. | Page 8

S. R.
Tombstone in Churchyard.--Does any one know of a legible inscription
older than 1601?
A. C.
Argot and Slang.--I shall be much obliged by learning from any
correspondent the etymons of argot (French) and slang, as applied to
language; and when did the latter term first come into use?
THOS. LAWRENCE.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Priests' Surplices.--Will some of the readers of "N. & Q." favour me
with a decision or authority on the following point? Does a priest's
surplice differ from that worn by a lay vicar, or vicar choral? I have
been an old choir-boy; and some few years since, as a boy, used to
remark that the priests' surplices worn at St. Paul's, the Chapel Royal,
and Westminster Abbey, were, as a sempstress would term it, gaged, or
stitched down in rows over the shoulders some seven or eight times at
the distance of about half an inch from each other. In the cathedral
churches of Durham, York, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and
Oxford, I have remarked their almost universal adoption; but, to the
best of my belief, I have never seen such a description of vestment in
use among parochial clergymen, above half-a-dozen times, and I am
desirous of knowing if the gaged surplice is peculiar to cathedrals and
collegiate churches (I have even seen canons residentiary in them,
habited in the lay vicar's surplice), or is the surplice used by choristers,
undergraduates, and vicars choral, which, according to my early
experience, is one without needlework, the correct officiating garment;
the latter is almost universally used at funerals, where the officiating
priest seldom wears either his scarf or hood, and presents anything but
a dignified appearance when he crowns this négligée with one of our

grotesque chimney-pot hats, to the exclusion of the more appropriate
college cap.
AMANUENSIS.
John, Brother German to David II.--Can any of your readers solve the
problem in Scotch history, who was John, brother german to King
David II., son of Robert Bruce? David II., in a charter to the Priory of
Rostinoth, uses these words: "Pro salute animæ nostræ, etc., ac ob
benevolentiam et affectionem specialem quam erga dictum prioratum
devote gerimus eo quod ossa celebris memoriæ Johannis fratris nostri
germani ibidem (the Priory) humata quiescunt dedimus, etc., viginti
marcas sterlingorum, etc." Dated at Scone, "in pleno parliamento nostro
tento ibidem decimo die Junii anno regni sexto decimo."
The expression "celebris memoriæ" might almost be held to indicate
that John had lived to manhood, but is perhaps only a style of royalty;
nevertheless, the passage altogether seems to lead to the inference, that
the person had at least survived the age of infancy. King Robert's
bastard son, Sir Robert Bruce, had a grant of the lands of Finhaven, in
the neighbourhood of Rostinoth.[6]
DE CAMERA.
[Footnote 6: Dr. Jamieson has a note on King David II., brother, in his
edition, of Barbour's Bruce; but does not quote the words of the charter
so fully as they are here given.--The Bruce and Wallace, 4to., Edin.
1820, vol. i. p. 485.]
Scott, Nelson's Secretary.--Can any of your readers give me
information as to the pedigree and family of John Scott, Esq., public
secretary to Lord Nelson? He was killed at Trafalgar on board the
Victory; and dying while his sons were yet very young, his descendants
possess little knowledge on the subject to which I have alluded. He was,
I think, born at Fochabers, near Gordon Castle, where his mother is
known to have died.
A SUBSCRIBER.

{332} The Axe which beheaded Anne Boleyn.--A friend of mine has
excited my curiosity by stating, that in his school-boy readings of the
history of England, he learned that the axe which deprived Henry
VIII.'s second wife (Anne Boleyn) of her head was preserved as a relic
in the Northgate Street of Kent's ancient citie, Canterbury. I have
written to friends living in that locality for a confirmation of such a
strange fact; but they plead ignorance. Can any of your numerous
readers throw any light relative to this subject upon the benighted mind
of
PHILIP WEST.
Roger Outlawe.--A friend of mine in Germany has met with some
ancient rolls, said to have been from the Irish Court of Common Pleas,
chiefly of the time of Edward III., and headed thus:
"Communia placita apud Dublin coram fratre Rogero Outlawe priore
hospitii sancti Johannis de Jerusalem in hibernia tenens locum Johannis
Darcy le Cosyn Justiciarii hiberniæ apud Dublin die pasche in viiij
mense anno B. Etii post ultimum conquestum hiberniæ quarto."
Can any person state who this Roger Outlawe was? And is it not
singular that a prior of a religious and military establishment should be
qualified to sit as locum tenens of a judge in a law court?
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George.
"Berte au Grand Pied."--I should be glad