The disappointment of Mr. Brewer may not improbably be ascribed to the unfortunate fact, that in the English translation of Cosin's book, which is given by Mr. Brewer in the forecited extract, after the word fine are omitted the words Lit. O., which are found in the Latin original. This additional direction would have led to the passage which the editor was desirous of verifying. For, in the first edition of the Index referred to, that of 1584, the particular index at the end, under O, gives the fol. 182, 183 (falso 171), where the passage is found exactly as extant in the Latin of Cosin. The particular Expurgatory Index under view was printed in 1601 and 1611. In the first of the two, that printed at Saumur, the passage is found fol. 149. verso. I dare say it is so in the other entitled Duo Testes, &c., but that is of no moment. Bp. Cosin does not, as the note expresses, refer to any "other index." The British Museum is comparatively scanty in this class of books, but they are all to be found in the Bodleian Library.
At p. 163. the Discurs [us] Modest [us] de Jesuit. referred to, and occupying several pages of discussion in the "N. & Q." in the early volumes, is certainly the Latin version of A Sparing Discoverie of our English Jesuits, 4to., Franc. 1601, pp. 70, and to be found in the Catalogue of the British Museum, under "Jesu Societas."
Eupator.
ANCIENT GUILDHALLS IN ENGLAND.
If a history of the ancient Guildhalls of England could be compiled, it would form an interesting volume; as the ancient fabrics wherein our forefathers met to transact their civic affairs may almost be said to have symbolised the status of the municipalities in which they stood at various epochs of their history. Our old English boroughs cannot boast the possession of halls equal to the Hotels de Ville of Belgium or France, or the Rath-häusen of Germany. We cannot show in this country edifices equal to the Hotel de Ville of Brussels, or Aix-la-Chapelle, or Rouen, in point of architectural extent or beauty; or of Ratisbon, or other German towns, in point of venerable and antique interest. But we have buildings yet standing among us which, if less imposing in their exteriors, are nevertheless associated with historic memories of no common order, and secondary in this respect to none of the grander town-halls of ancient Flanders.
The guildhall of Leicester cannot boast of any outside show. It is plain to meanness in this respect; it is on one side a mere barn in appearance; yet it has its claim on the attention of the antiquary.
The first distinct mention of a guildhall in Leicester is in a small charter, executed in the mayoralty of Peter Rogerson. From this it appears that in 1250 William Ordriz, the son of Stephen, conveyed to the mayor and burgesses a building which became the guildhall. The deed is endorsed Charta de la Gild Salle. It contained three bays of buildings, was twenty yards in length, and about eight yards from front to back. It had solars, cellars, and dungeons. There was then an older fabric, known as the guildhall, which was conveyed to a private townsman in the year 1275. The hall, of which the corporation became the possessors in 1250, remained in use until the reign of Elizabeth, and even at intervals until the date of the Commonwealth, being sometimes called the old Moot Hall, and at others the "Old Shop."
Anterior to the Reformation two religious guilds had halls, known as St. George's and Corpus Christi Halls. When these fraternities were dissolved, the buildings remained; one near the east of St. Martin's church, the other near its western extremity. The first of these fell into entire disuse and decay; while the latter, Corpus Christi Hall, gradually superseded as a civic edifice the old Moot Hall. I have found in the hall books of the borough of Leicester entries as early as the 10th of Henry VIII., in which the hall of Corpus Christi Guild is referred to as the occasional place of meeting of the municipal body. A deed, bearing date the 5th of Elizabeth, states that the queen had conveyed the hall to Cecily Pickerell of Norwich, widow, who reconveyed it to the recorder of Leicester, Braham, evidently as the representative of the mayor and burgesses, not then formally incorporated.