Cards prohibited to Apprentices.
—When was the prohibition to play at cards or dice first introduced into apprentices' indentures? It occurs in the form of an indenture for an apprentice in A Book of Presidents, printed about 1566, and compiled by Thomas Phaer, who describes himself as "Solicitour to the King and Queenes Majesties."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Cursitor Barons.
—Can any of your correspondents guide me to a list of the Cursitor Barons, or refer me to any account of their origin and history? I find no such officer named up to the reign of Henry VIII., beyond which I have not yet inquired; nor does any notice occur of them in Madox's History of the Exchequer.
EDWARD FOSS.
Phelps's Gloucestershire Collections.
—The late John Delafield Phelps, Esq., who died in December, 1842, was well known among the literati as an ardent bibliophile, and a great investigator and accumulator of antiquities. He was one of the original members of the Roxburghe Club, established nearly forty years ago, and had devoted a long life to his favourite pursuits. Having been a native of Gloucestershire, he felt a particular interest in everything which regarded that county, and had in his lifetime collected a great mass of materials for the elucidation of its history, antiquities, &c., in every respect. It is understood that an ample catalogue (raisonné perhaps) was printed under his direction for circulation among his particular friends, giving great evidence of his assiduity and talents, and of the value of the collection. Participating to a great extent the interest which actuated Mr. Phelps to ascertain a local knowledge of Gloucestershire, I should feel obliged if any reader of the "N. & Q." could inform me what has become of Mr. Phelps's collection; if it remains entire, and if it be accessible by any recommendation to the present possessor?
Δ. (2).