No doubt (I think) the term senege is derived from these courts being termed "Senes" and "Seens."
G. H. I.
Norwich, July 5. 1851.
Early Visitations (Vol. iv., p. 8.).
—Your remark that Mr. Noble's statements "are extremely loose" is, generally speaking, very just; although in the particular instance referred to there is some foundation for his statement, as in the 12th Henry VI. commissions were issued into the several counties, not merely to collect the names of the gentry, but to administer an oath to the gentry and others for conservation of the peace and observance of the laws. The returns containing the names of the parties sworn in all the counties (except twelve) are printed by Fuller in his Worthies from records in the Tower, which are probably yet extant. See Rotuli Parliamentorum, iv. 455.; v. 434.; Fuller's Worthies of England, chap. xiv.; Grimaldi's Origines Genealogicæ, 68, 69. I do not understand that all the parties who were sworn were accounted gentlemen, although Dr. Fuller's and Mr. Grimaldi's impressions on this point appear to have been similar to Mr. Noble's.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, July 5. 1851.
Rifles (Vol. iii., p. 517.).
—I am neither Mr. Gordon Cumming, nor an officer of the Rifle Brigade; nevertheless, I have seen much of rifles and rifle-firing; and I think I can assure your correspondent A. C. that "We make the best rifles" is rather an assumption. That the Americans make most excellent ones, there can be no doubt; but I question whether they ever turned out a rifle which, either for finish or performance, would bear comparison with those made by Purdey, Lancaster, and others. As an example of what an English rifle will do, I subjoin the performance ——[4] of one made by Beattie of Regent Street on Minie's principle for an officer in the artillery now going out to the Cape. At one thousand measured yards, sixteen balls out of thirty were put into the target; and at four hundred yards, balls were driven through four regulation targets, each of two inch oak, placed six inches apart from one another; and into the earthen mound behind them ten or twelve inches. If the Americans can beat that, either for precision or force, they may claim to make the best rifles.
[4] In Woolwich Marshes.