See note on line 17 taken from Whitaker's Craven:
"At the east end of the north aisle of Bolton Priory Church is a chantry belonging to Bethmesley Hall, and a vault where, according to tradition, the Claphams were buried upright."
F. W. J.
Strut-Stowers and Yeathers or Yadders (Vol. viii., p. 148.).—The former of these words is, I believe, obsolete, or nearly so. It means bracing-stakes: strut, in carpentry, is to brace; and stower is a small kind of stake, as distinguished from the "ten stakes" mentioned in the legend quoted by Mr. Cooper.
The other word, Yeather or Yadder, is yet in use in Northumberland (vid. Brockett's Glossary), and is mentioned by Charlton in his History of Whitby. The legend referred to by Mr. Cooper is, I suspect, of modern origin but Dr. Young, in his History of Whitby, vol. i. p. 310., attributes it to some of the monks of the abbey; on what grounds he does not say. The records of the abbey contain no allusion to the legend; and no ancient MS. of it, either in Latin or English, has ever been produced. The penny-hedge is yearly renewed to this day but it is a service performed for a different reason than that attributed in the legend. (See Young and Charlton's histories.)
F. M.
The term strut is commonly used by carpenters for a brace or stay. Stower, in Bailey's Dictionary, is a stake; Halliwell spells it stoure, and says it is still in use. Forby connects the Norfolk word stour, stiff, inflexible, applied to standing corn, with this word, which he says is Lowland Scotch, and derives them both from Sui.-G. stoer, stipes. A yeather or yadder seems to be a rod to wattle the stakes with. In Norfolk, wattling a live fence is called ethering it, which word, evidently with yeather, may be derived from A.-S. ether or edor, a hedge. The barons, therefore, had to drive their stakes perpendicularly into the sand, to put the strut-stowers diagonally to enable them to withstand the force of the tide, and finally to wattle them together with the yeathers.
E. G. R.
Arms of See of York (Vol. viii., p. 111.).—It appears that the arms of the See of York were certainly changed during Wolsey's time, for on the vaulting of Christ Church Gate, Canterbury, is a shield bearing (in sculpture) the same arms as those now used by the Metropolitan See of Canterbury, impaling those of Wolsey, and over the shield a cardinal's hat. This gateway was built in 1517; yet in the parliament roll of 6th Henry VIII., 1515, the keys and crown are impaled with the arms of Wolsey as Archbishop of York (see fac-simile, published by Willement, 4to. Lond. 1829), showing that the alteration was not generally known when the gateway was built.
Although the charges on the earlier arms of the See of York were the same as on that of Canterbury, the colours of their fields differed; for in a north window of the choir of York Minster is a shield of arms, bearing the arms of Archbishop Bowett, who held the see from 1407 to 1423, impaled by the pall and pastoral staff, on a field gules. The glass is to all appearance of the fifteenth century.