E. G. R.
[The extracts from our early writers given by Brand and Nares furnish some clue to the origin and character of the game of the whetstone; when the social and convivial combatants sharpened their wits to see who could gain the satirical prize of the silver whetstone by telling the greatest lie. In Lupton's Too Good to be True, p. 80., is the following passage, somewhat illustrative of the game:
"Siuqila. Merry and pleasant lyes we take rather for a sport than a sin. Lying with us is so loved and allowed, that there are many tymes gamings and prises therefore purposely, to encourage one to outlye another.
"Omen. And what shall he gaine that gets the victorie in lying?
"Siuqila. He shall have a silver whetstone for his labour."
William Lambarde was born October 18, 1536. He was the eldest son of John Lambarde, alderman of London. In 1570 he resided at West Combe, near Blackheath, a manor he then possessed. He purposed publishing a general account of Great Britain, of which his Perambulation of Kent was but the specimen; and he was only deterred by learning that Camden was engaged on a similar task. His materials were published from the original manuscript in 1730, under the title of Dictionarium Angliæ Topographicum et Historicum, to which is prefixed a portrait of the author, engraved by Vertue. His first work was Archaionomia, sive de priscis Anglorum legibus libri, 1568, 4to. He also wrote Eirenarcha; or, the Office of the Justices of the Peace, and Duties of Constables: Archeion, a Discourse upon the High Courts of Justice. In 1600 he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth Keeper of the Records in the Tower; and in the following year he presented her Majesty with an account of them, under the title Pandecta Rotulorum. He died at his residence at West Combe, August 19, 1601, and was buried in the Church of St. Alphege, Greenwich, where a monument was erected to his memory. In after days this mortuary memorial was removed to the Church of Sevenoaks, in which parish the family now possesses a seat. Lambarde was the first Churchman after the Reformation who founded a hospital. It was called "The College of the Poor of Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich, Kent," and was opened in 1576.]
Meals.—On the N.W. coast of Norfolk are certain sandbanks so called. Brancaster Meals, Blakeney Meals, and Wells Meals are among those most dreaded by the mariner.
In Bailey's Dictionary occurs,
"Meales, Malls. The shelves or banks of sand on the sea-coasts of Norway."
Can Norway be a misprint for Norfolk? It occurs Norway in ten or twelve editions of Bailey which I have examined. I can find no mention of "meals" or "malls" in any map of Norway,