(See the Bodmin Register, collected by the Rev. John Wallis, of Bodmin, and printed at Bodmin, 1827-1838, p. 303.)
I presume that bag wood is such wood as can be cut with a hook or crook, and bunched. In another nearly contemporary petition (Ibid. p. 306.), the same identical privilege is described by the townsmen as a right to lop and crop with a hook and crook, and to carry away on their backs, and "none other ways." This explains the former passage, and shows that the wood was probably carried away on the back in a bag.
The woodward, who carried a bill for such purposes, would also carry a bag, or poke, and might therefore be very appropriately called a poker.
It will be seen in Halliwell's Dictionary, verb. "Bag" and "Bagging," and in the Hereford Glossary (London, 1839), verb. "Bag," that bagging is sometimes used to signify cutting; and, more particularly, cutting for burning.
I mention this, because it may be thought pertinent to the present inquiry; but as this use of the word has been plausibly supposed to be derived from the Welsh Bach, a hook, it seems to have nothing to do with a poke.
E. Smirke.
Querela Cantabrigiensis (Vol. ii., p. 168.).—J.M.B. inquires whether anything is known of the authorship of the Querela Cantabrigiensis? The tract in question appears to have been "written by Bruno Ryves," the author of Mercurius Rusticus, and some few other treatises, in connexion with which it is commonly bound. Ryves is described by Watt as "a loyal divine," who was "born in Dorsetshire," and "died 1677." His Querela was first printed at Oxford in 1646. There was a second edition in 1647.
In case J.M.B. do not himself intend to send out a new edition of this tract, it is to be hoped that his Query may induce some one else to do so. Indeed, a reprint of several similar pamphlets and short treatises, belonging to the same period, might be brought out with great advantage at this crisis. The series might begin with
"The Answere of the Vice-Chancellour, the Doctors, both the Proctors, and other the Heads of Houses in the Universitie of Oxford:
"(Agreeable, undoubtedly, to the joint and uniforme opinion of all the Deanes and Chapters, and all other the learned and obedient Cleargy in the Church of England:)
"To the humble Petition of the Ministers of the Church of England, desiring Reformation of certaine ceremonies and abuses of the Church. At Oxford: Printed by Joseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Paule's Church Yard, at the sign of the Crowne, by Simon Waterson, 1603."
J. Sansom.