other under wheat, and a third under Lent grain; the Odd-Mark particularly applies to the fallow, as under preparation for wheat.-DUNCUMB.

PARROCK, a Paddock, a small inclosure,-the diminutive of Park,-a field adjoining to, or surrounding a house.

Piddle of GROUND, a corruption of Pightel. PIGHTEL, or PICLE, a small parcel of land in

closed with a hedge, which, in some parts of England, is called a " Pingle,"—a small meadow near a house.

PINGLE, a small croft, or Picle, that is, a field, -which, in Lancashire, is called a "Pingot."

PROCTOR, a person appointed to beg, or collect

alms for Leprous or bed-ridden persons, who could not go out for themselves. By an Act of EDWARD the First such persons were allowed to appoint these Proctors, or Procurators, provided not more than two were appointed for one Lazar House. But by an Act of the 39th of ELIZABETH, such "Proctors, Procurers, or Patent gatherers, for goals, prisons, or hospitals," were declared Rogues and Vagabonds. Hence they were excepted against in the Regulations

of WATTS's Almshouses at Rochester; and
not to be received as Travellers,-

You're best get a clap-dish, and say
You are a Proctor to some Spital-house.

Archæologia, vol. xviii. p. 9.

PULVERING DAYS, any days when the Community assemble to let to farm the Town Lands, but the contract was always confirmed on a particular day, as at Southwold on the 6th of December, being St. Nicholas's day.

PYKE of LAND, the same as PIGHTEL, or PICLE. QUILLET OF LAND, a small parcel of land.—An annuity, issuing out of a barn and Quillet of land, is payable to the Poor of Great Torrington.-Rep. xi. p. 67.67. Quillet, a subtilty, which seems to have originated among the Schoolmen of the Middle ages, by whom it was called a "Quidlibet."— DOUCE.

-crack the lawyer's voice,

That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly,-

Timon of Athens.

RAVEL BREAD, bread of a middle sort, between white and brown. This term is in use in

Kent. It is in some places called, “Black

white loaf,”—and, in the North, is known by the name of, "Whitey-brown bread." REREDOSSE, a chimney-back, a fire-place.

1

The most common way anciently was to
have a large hearth in the middle of the
room, on which was made the fire, the
smoke ascending and passing through a
large hole at the top of the building,-
the unwholesomeness and inconvenience
of such fires may well be imagined,—and
we need not wonder that HOLINshed
should esteem the making and increasing
the number of Chimneys an advantageous
and noble improvement,―

Nowe hath eche ryche a rule to eaten by himselfe,
In a privie parler for poore men sake,

Or in chambre with a chimney and leve ye chief
halle.
Pierce Plowman, fol. xliii.
This old author gives us a ludicrous and
diverting description of the evils of a smoky
house,-

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
Pierce Plowman, p. 337. 1.7.

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 ETON, 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,

302.

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