204
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. I. MAR. 12, '98.
Mr. J. E, Green ('Hist, of Eng. People,' first
edition, vol. i. p. 576) says that "Edward's
herald counted more than twenty thousand
Lancastrian corpses on the field. The losses
of the conquerors were hardly less heavy
than those of the conquered, but the triumph
was complete."
That there was a terrible slaughter is cer- tain, but that the numbers have been exag- gerated does not, I think, admit of doubt.
ASTAKTE.
"SELION." At a Board of Trade inquiry into a proposed light railway for the Isle of Axholme, held at Crowle on 5 February, the chairman, the Earl of Jersey, asked the meaning of the word " selion," which had been used by one of the witnesses. I was not present at the meeting, but I understand that the suggestion was made that it signifies as much land as a man can plough in a day. This, of course, is quite wrong, at least as regards the present meaning.
Halliwell defines the word as
" a short piece of land in arable ridges and furrows, of uncertain quantity. It is sometimes defined to be a ridge of land lying between two furrows. See Carlisle's 'Account of Charities,' p. 305. 'A selion, ridge of land, porca.' Coles."
Littleton (1693) defines it as Coles, but under selio has "ex Cod. [Codex Theodo- sianus] Leyland." " Lay land" is fallow land, land lying un tilled. Bailey defines " selion" as " A Ridge of Land which lies between two Furrows," which is, I may say, exactly the meaning the word has in this neighbourhood, where it is still in common use. I should add, however, that here it is used only of lands lying in the unenclosed fields. I have before me now an auctioneer's bill of last year, in which the word is used nearly a dozen times :
" A selion of Arable Land on the Intake Furlong
containing 1 rood, 25 perches. A selion of
Arable Land on Pinfold Furlong containing
2 roods, 31 perches. Two selions of Arable Land, ploughed together, on Short New Edge Furlong containing 1 rood, 22 perches."
These instances are sufficient to show how the word is used. The selions are usually lands four yards in width, ploughed in ridges, with a double furrow between them, each selion being a separate property, and two con- tiguous ones are rarely occupied by the same person. They may be of any length com- patible with that of the furlong on which they are situate. A " flat " of land is usually a larger piece than a selion. There are three " flats " mentioned in the bill from which I have quoted, each of which is more than an acre in extent. These are, for convenience,
ploughed in " yokkings," that is, in such pro-
portions as can be done at one yoking, and
they are not usually so distinctly ridged as
the selions, since they only occur on the
lighter soils.
Knowing these facts, I am somewhat sur- prised to read in Mr. Maitland's ' Domesday Book and Beyond' that the word "selion" struck no root in our language. Mr. Mait- land's words are :
" In our Latin documents these ridges appear as selions (seliones). In English they were called ' lands,' for the French sillon struck no root in our language."
In a note, however, he quotes a passage from the Gloucester Corporation Records in which "selion" frequently appears. In Mr. Seebohm's 'English Village Community 'the word doesnot occur, but the Latin selio is used several times. Mr. Maitland, in th& note I have referred to, says that in Mr. Seebohm's book there seems to be some confusion between the selions and the acre or half -acre strips into which the I " shots " or furlongs were divided ; but so far I as I understand him Mr. Seebohm uses the term much as we do here. He says, indeed, that " the strips in the open fields are gener- ally known by the country folk as balks," which is not the case in this neighbourhood, where " balk " has a quite different meaning, that of an unploughed turf boundary ; and he makes no mention of the "flats" which sometimes occur on the same furlongs as the selions. It is probable, however, that these were originally selions that have been thrown together for convenience merely. C. C. B. Lp worth.
P.S. The definition of "lay land" as fallow land is Bailey's. We have in use here the term leyland, meaning land that has been sown with clover and left for grazing, some- times called "clover ley." This, however, can, I imagine, scarcely be what is meant by Littleton.
THE NIGHTINGALE'S SONG : S. T. COLEKIDGE AND JOHN SKELTON. Coleridge's beautiful address to the nightingale is deservedly a favourite with all lovers of poetry. We all know that Coleridge was a man of wide and various reading. I have recently acquired a copy of the ' Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry VIII.' (London, C. Davies, MDCCXXXVI.), and I must confess I have found a good deal to qualify the sweep- ing condemnation that has been passed by some critics on Skelton's productions. I mean, however, to confine myself on this occasion to a single quotation from each author. From the poem of the modern writer, who wrote it
