_Judas' Bell, Judas' Candle_ (Vol. i., pp. 195. 235. 357.).--Some time
since I asked the meaning of a Judas' Bell, and your learned
correspondent CEPHAS replied that it was only a bell so christened after
St. Jude, the apostle. However, it may have been connected with the
Judas' tapers, which, according, to the subjoined entries, were used
with the Paschal candle at Easter. May I trust to his kindness to
explain its purport?
"_Reading Parish Accompts_.
"1499. Itm. payed for making leng' Mr. Smyth's molde wt. a Judas
for the Pascall--vJd."
"_St. Giles' Parish Accompts_.
"A.D. 1514. Paid for making a Judas for Pascall iiijd."
"_Churchwardens' Accompts of S. Martin, Outwich_.
"1510. Paid to Randolf Merchaunt Wex Chandiler for the Pascall,
the tapers affore the Rode, the Cross Candelles, and Judas
Candelles--viiijs. iiijd."
"_St. Margaret's, Westminster._
"1524. Item payed for xij. Judacis to stand with the tapers--O
ijd. O"
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A., Oxon.
_Dozen of Bread; Baker's Dozen._--In the _Chronicle of Queen Jane, and
of Two Years of Queen Mary_, lately printed for the Camden Society
(Appendix iv. p. 112.), it is stated that, amongst other particulars in
the accounts of the Chamberlain of Colchester, at which place Mary was
entertained on her way to London, there is:--"For xxxviii. _dozen of
bread_, xxxixs." In the language of the county from which I write, "a
dozen of bread" was (and I believe is yet) used to express either one
loaf, value twelvepence or two loaves, value sixpence each: and even
when the sizes and price of the loaves varied, it was used to express
the larger loaf, or the two smaller loaves. A dozen of bread was also
divided into six twopenny, or twelve penny loaves.
But in the quotation above, thirty-eight dozen of bread are charged
thirty-nine shillings; whereas the extra one shilling, cannot be divided
into aliquot parts, so as to express the value of each of the
thirty-eight dozen of bread.
What was a dozen of bread in 1553?
What is a _baker's dozen_, and why so called?