Clyst St. George.
_Cross and Pile_ (Vol. vi., pp. 386. 513.).--The _pile_ is invariably on
the obverse or _head_ side of a coin; and _pile_ or _poll_ both mean the
head, from whence the "poll tax" and "poll groat"--a tax paid by the head,
or a personal tax, of which we have an historical example of its collector
in the case of Wat Tyler.
Ruding, in _Annals of the Coinage_, vol. ii. p. 119., 8vo., edit. 1819,
states that Ed. I. A.D. 1304, in the delivering out the stamps for the
coinage, orders that three _piles_ and six _crosses_ shall be given. It is
well known to all numismatists that all, or most early coins, both Saxon
and English, had a head on the obverse and a cross on the reverse--the
latter being placed on the coins as symbolical of Christianity.
_Pile_ also means the hair, or any filament: as the "pile of velvet, the
nap of woollen cloth," &c. And Jamieson, in his _Scotch Dictionary_, says:
"PILE. The soft hair which first appears on the chins of young men."
Coles, Ashe, Webster, and others give the same meaning.
The superstitious effect of the cross as a charm or amulet is well known;
from whence the saying:
"I have never a cross in my purse to keep the Devil away."
Again:
"Priests were coin-proof against the Devil, they never being without
money; of course, always had a cross in their pocket."--Gilpin's
_Beehive of the Romish Church_, 1636, p. 251.
And Nash, in the Supplication of Pierce Penniless to the Devil, makes
Pierce to say:
"Whereas your impious excellence hath had the poore tenement of my
purse anytime this half year for your dancing schole, and he,
notwithstanding, hath received no penye nor crosse for farme," &c.
And the poet Skelton says:
". . . . . . . . and in his pouche,
The Devil might dance therein for any crouche."
P. 71.
Trusting the above will be satisfactory to D. W. S., I beg to conclude,
thinking, you will say I have already made "much ado about nothing."