white loaf," and, in the North, is known by the name of, " Whitey-brown bread." REREDOSSE, a chimney-back, a fire-place.— The most common way anciently was to Nowe hath eche ryche a rule to eaten by himselfe, Or in chambre with a chimney and leve ye chief other where to slepe For thorw smoke and smothre, smerteth hus syghte Tyl he be blereyde other blynde, and the borre in hus throte Koweth and corseth that crist zyve him sorwe That sholde brynge yn bettere wode, other blowe til hit brente. The smoke was, however, supposed to harden the timber of the house, and to be good Physick for the family. Rere-dosse and Lar-dosse, which were synonimous, signified also Screens. And Srow, in his Annals, p. 380, says, that a Rere-dosse denoted the Screen which supported the Rood-loft. King HENRY the Sixth, in describing the dimensions of the Church of his College of ETÓN, says, "the body of the same church between the yles shall conteyn in breadth within the responders 32 fete, and in length from the Quier dore to the West dore of the said church 104 feete of assize; and so the said body of the Church shall be longer then is the Quier, from the Reredosse at the High Altare unto the Quier by 9 feete, which dimensions is thought to be a right, good, convenient, and due proportion."And again, when speaking of the dimensions of the Church of his College, at Cambridge, he directs that there shall be, "also a Reredos bearing the Roode-lofte departing the Quier and the Body of the Church, containing in length 40 feete, and in breadth 14 feete."-NICHOLS's Royal Wills, pp. 296, In the 21st of RICHARD the Second, the Lord of the Manor of Harrow-on-the-Hill had a custom, that, by summons of his Bailiff upon a general reap day, then called Magna Precaria, the tenants should do a certain number of days work for him,— every tenant that had a Chimney being obliged to send a man.-BECKWITH's Fragmenta Antiquitatis, p. 583. Dr. JOHNSON in a conversation on Gothic buildings, and of the form of old Halls, humourously observes, " In these Halls, the fire-place was antiently always in the middle of the room, until The Whigs removed it on one side."-BOSWELL'S Life, vol. i. p. 231. RIDDING, or RIDING, synonymous with essart, -refuse wood grubbed up in ridding or clearing an estate-See, RODE Land. RODE LAND, land which has been cleared or grubbed up,-land lately reclaimed and brought into cultivation. SELION OF LAND.-A Selion may be derived from the French Sillon, a furrow, or ridge of land between two furrows, and is of no certain quantity, but sometimes contains an acre, and sometimes half an acre, having no determinate measure,-which induces COMPTON, in his Jurisdictions of Courts fol. 221, to observe, that a Selion of land cannot be demanded, because it is a thing uncertain. It may not without some probability be deduced from the Saxon Sul or Syl, i. e. aratrum,-whence also the French Sillonner, arare, to plough or furrow.COWEL, and MINSHEU. In the Court Rolls of the Manor of Oldbury, in the County of Salop, it appears that EDMUND DARBY and three others, in 1659, among other premises, surrendered into the hands of the Lord, "seven Selions "of land, and two head Selions to the said seven Selions belonging, with their ap"purtenances, lying in Oldbury in a field, "called Swalter's Field," to certain uses. -And again," two Selions of arable land "lying in Swalter's Field, containing by "estimation half an acre.". Thus confirming the etymology of their name, and that Selions were those Lands, or well known plots belonging to individuals, which are promiscuously interspersed in uninclosed fields or commons.-Rep. v. p. 447. In the County of Salop, Selions and Butts of Land seem to be synonimous terms. In 1655, THOMAS CHAPMAN, in performance of the trust and confidence reposed in him by his father, granted to Trustees in fee for certain charitable uses, " three Selions or Butts of Land, lying in a field, called Greyscroft Field,"-three other Butts of land, lying in a field, called " The Parrowe Field," and two other Butts of land, lying in a field, called " Clocke Field.”—Rep. iii. p. 248.-And COWEL further says, that BUTTS, or BUTTES, are the ends, or short pieces of land in arable ridges and furrows, -whence "Abuttals," or "Head-lands." Or, the derivation may be from the French Bout, a boundary, the extremity. SHAW, a thicket, or small wood,— Whan Shaws beene sheene, and shraddes full fayre, Itt's merrye walkyng in the fayre forrest To heare the small birdes songe. RITSON'S Robin Hood, vol. i. p. 115. SHOTT OF GROUND, a nook, an angle, a field, a plot of land. SPINNEY, a thorney place, a thicket, a small wood,-in which sense it occurs in Domes |