[579]. Christopher Pigg was Mayor of Lynn Regis in 1742.
[580]. An old political poem says the Italians bring in
‘Apes and japes and mamusetts taylede,
Nifles, trifles, that litelle have avayled.’
[581]. Raton is still the term in the North. Langland uses it, and in Chaucer the Potecary is asked by a purchaser—
‘That he him would sell
Some poison, that he might his ratouns quell.’
[582]. ‘Some bileve that yf the kite or the puttock fle ovir the way afore them that they should fare wel that daye, for sumtyme they have farewele after that they see the puttock so fleyinge.’ (Brand, iii. 113.)
[583]. Our present Authorized Version retains the term in Deut. xiv. 13, where mention is made of ‘the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind.’ Locally it is found in ‘Gledhill’ and ‘Gladstone,’ or more correctly ‘Gledstane,’ that is, the hill or crag which the kites were wont to frequent. A ‘William de Gledstanys’ is met with in the Coldingham Priory Records of the date of 1357, proving its North English origin. ‘Hawkstone’ and ‘Gladstone’ are thus synonymous.
[584]. ‘Richard Sparhawke’ was Rector of Fincham in 1534. (Hist. Norf., vii. 358.)