day-Book," Spineti vi ac., six acres of thorney ground."—KELHAM.

STAITH, an embankment,-a narrow road or lane, leading over the bank of a river to the water side.

STANG, or STENG, a perch, five yards and a half in length,—a square perch. It is uniformly understood in the County of York to mean, a rood, or one fourth part of an acre,—and it is likewise so used in the County of Lincoln. Before inclosures took place, Steng was the term in general use to designate, a rood, but where districts are become inclosed, it is now almost obsolete. A Land, between two balks, is sometimes called a Stang, in uninclosed fields, without

ference to the quantity.

any re

The word Stang is used by Dean SWIFT, -"These fields were intermingled with woods of half a Stang, and the tallest tree appeared to be seven feet high."

Stang is also the Saxon denomination for a Pole. And a custom is still prevalent in some parts of the North of England, and of Scotland, and may be traced to a very ancient origin, which is called " riding the

Stang." On this occasion, a person is seated upon a strong Pole, borne upon men's shoulders, and carried about the Village, -the rider representing usually a henpecked husband, and sometimes the husband who has been so unmanly as to beat his wife. This is considered, as a mark of the highest reproach,—and the person, who has been thus treated, seldom recovers his honour in the opinion of his neighbours. When they cannot lay hold of the delinquent himself, they put some young fellow upon the Stang or Pole, who vociferously proclaims, that it is not on his own account that he is thus treated, but on that of another person, whom he names, in doggerel verses, like the following,

'Tis neither for my shame, nor thy shame, that I ride the Stang,

But it is for JOHNNY THOMPSON's, who bang'd his good dame;

He neither took stick, stake, nor stowr,

But he up with his fist, and knock'd her backwards o'er,

Shout, lads, shout!

In the County of Durham it is used to appease, by the operation of shame, those

little family quarrels, which occasionally happen,

Here I ride the Stang to prevent future strife, For little GEORGE AYRE's been banging his wife; She spent two-pence halfpenny, he thought her a glutton,

And he rave all her face with his waistcoat button, — Shout, boys, shout!

The word Stang, according to RAY, is still used in some Colleges in the University of Cambridge,-to stang scholars in Christmas time, being to cause them to ride upon a pole, for missing of Chapel.

The word Stang is occasionally coupled with Or, as " Ox Stang," signifying the same as Ox-gate, or the pasturage for one Ox. But in all parts of the North of England, Stang is synonimous with Pole, or Stake. Poles put across a river are called Stangs, and frequent complaints are made after floods, of all the Stangs being washed away,

An inundation that o'erbears the banks

And bounds of all religion; if some stancks
Shew their emergent heads, like Seth's fam'd stone,
Th' are monuments of thy devotion gone.

FLETCHER'S Epigr. p. 167.

Mr. TODD is very copious in his explanation of the word Stang.

STOOP, or STULP, a short stout post, put down to mark a boundary, or driven into the ground for any purpose,

"Bridge-Warde Within, so called of London Bridge, which bridge is a principal part of that Warde, and beginneth at the Stulpes on the South end by Southwarke, &c."--Srow's London, p. 167.

This explanation of that honest old Chronicler is confirmed by the Will of Sir GEORGE BARNES, Knight and Alderman, who, in 1557, gave "two little messuages or tenements, at the farthest end of London Bridge, adjoining to the Great Stoop there, on the West side, and lying in the parish of St. Olave, in the Borough of Southwark," to the intent that the rents thereof should be bestowed in bread to the poor, and for the repairs of the Church.

It is Sir GEORGE BARNES, who is represented on his knees in HOLBEIN'S celebrated Picture in the Hall of Bridewell, as receiving from King EDWARD the Sixth the Royal Charter, by which he gave up and

erected his Palace of Bridewell into an Hospital and Workhouse.

Whan mark'd the ground, whan plac'd the stoop,

They made a proclamation,

That sic as for the prize had hope,

Soud tak the middle station.

NICOL'S Poems, ii. 15.

TACK, grass or clover for horses and cattle, hired by the week, month, or quarter. TEASEL, or TEAZEL, the Fuller's thistle, a kind of hard burr which is used by Clothworker's in raising the nap upon woollen cloth. TEMSE, a small sieve.-Temse-Bread, bread made of flour better sifted than usual.

Some mixeth to miller the rye with the wheat
Tems loaf, on his table, to have for to eat.

TUSSER'S Five hundred Points, p. 17.

TENSTREE, or TENSTREYE, several small sums given to charitable uses at Shiffnal, in Shropshire, are charged with the payment of 10s. for the Tenstree rent.-Rep. iv. p. 256.-Quære, Tenth-stress, a sum in aid of the levy of Tenths.

TOFT, a place where a messuage hath stood, a

messuage inferior to a farm house, and