NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
183
ones is about the eighth of an inch in diameter, and never (as in the forgeries) in
the middle of the stem, but almost always close to the top or bottom of it.
Forgeries—that is to say, modern pipes on this pattern—are very common, and
are better made as to the bowls. I may add that smoking these little pipes is
an acquired taste, for they are rather hot until they become seasoned, while they
hold so little that your tobacco pouch seems never to be out of your hands."—
B. G. Cole, Buckhurst Hill.
The Common Seal of Colchester.—The well-known Essex antiquary,
Mr. J. Horace Round, writes as follows to the "Essex County Standard" of
October 29th :—
"Seven years ago (1885), there was exhibited before the Royal Society of
Antiquaries an impression of a common seal of Colchester till then virtually
unknown, attached to a deed of 1379. Dr. Percival, who wrote an account of it
(which Dr. Laver copied into our local Archaeological transactions), was of
opinion, from its rude workmanship, that the seal might date 'from the middle
or end of the thirteenth century.' As the impression exhibited was imperfect,
the 'legend has remained in doubt, antiquaries having failed to restore it, the
suggested reading ran :—
' S......Burg[ensium ville C]olcestrensis' on one side ; and on the
other : ' Quam crux insignit Helenam C[olcestria gig]nit.'
I am now in a position to supply the true reading of this curious 'legend' :—
COLCESTRENSIS SUM BURGI COMMUNE SIGILLUM
QUAM CRUX INSIGNIT HELENAM COLCESTRIA GINGNIT.
Both lines, it will be seen, are hexameters, and both have a rhyming syllable
at the caesura. They may be rendered thus :—
(A.) 'I am the common seal of the burgh of Colchester.'
(B.) 'Colchester gave birth to Helen, whom the cross renders famous.'
St. Helen is seen brandishing the cross accordingly on the seal. This ren-
dering assumes that the barbarous 'gingnit' was used for 'genuit.'
There was also, I think, a third seal, of small size, which appears to be wholly
unknown, but was in use in the sixteenth century. It was of good design, and
was probably employed by the bailiffs."
An Ancient MS. Recipe Book.—Our member, Mr. J. C. Shenstone, of
Colchester, has lately presented to the library of the Pharmaceutical Society of
London, an old manuscript recipe book of great interest ; and at the first ordinary
meeting of the Society for the session, held in London on November 9th, a short
account of it was, by request of the President, given by Mr. Shenstone. He
said that he had found the book in looking through some old business papers.
The first portion of it was in the cramped but neat writing of the seventeenth
century, but the first dated entry was : "John Richardson, his Book, July ye 30,
1713.' A recipe was given for Great's "Nost Vinum." Mr. Great was a Col-
chester apothecary of repute, and was maker of the "Candied Eringo," first
manufactured by his master, Thomas Buxton, apothecary, and Alderman of
Colchester at the time of the Civil War. Some of the recipes are curious, as, for
instance, the following :—
" R. The parings of Stone Horse hoofs, rinds of Cheshire cheese, shreds of Scarlet cloth,
all these cut small and burnt in a chaffing dish, sett in a close stove, over the smudge. Probatum
est Dr. M."
The miscellaneous recipes include : "To make a Girl or Maid a good colour,"
"A Fume against ye Plague," "Shoe Balls," etc. Altogether the book gives a