[Footnote 5: [Both William Elstob and his learned sister were born at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of which place their father, Ralph Elstob, was a
merchant.]]
_Corporation Enactments_ (Vol. ix., p. 300.).--Your correspondent ABHBA
having omitted to mention where he found the curious piece of information
which under this title he supplied to you, I beg leave to supply the
deficiency. The same paragraph, nearly _verbatim_, has been long since
published in a book which is by no means rare, the _Dublin Penny Journal_,
vol. i. p. 226. (No. 29, January 12, 1833), where it appears thus:
"In the town books of the corporation of Youghal, among many other
singular enactments of that body, are two which will now be regarded as
curiosities. In the years 1680 and 1700, a cook and a barber were made
freemen, on condition that they should severally {554} dress the
mayor's feasts, and shave the corporation--gratis!"
Is not this the very paragraph which has been supplied to you as an
original? The attempt to disguise it by the alteration of two or three
words is below criticism. Surely, if passages from common or easily
accessible books are to occupy valuable space in the pages of "N. & Q.," it
is not too much to expect that reference be honestly given to the work
which may be cited.