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

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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,
And leaves both large and longe,

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

X

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 any reference to the quantity.

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 Ox, 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.