be a slight
corruption of the Welsh words _Moel y Cop_, the mountain of the mound.
There is another lofty hill in Staffordshire called _Stiles Cop_. It seems
probable that on both of these hills mounds may have been made in ancient
times for the erection of fire-beacons. It would appear that Dr. Plot did
not understand the Welsh language, as he has stated that he thought, in
these instances, the word _Cop_ meant a mountain.

N. W. S. (2.)

_Chaucer_ (Vol. vii., p. 356).--No foreign original has ever been found for
Chaucer's "House of Fame." Warton fancied that it had been translated or
paraphrased from the Provencal, but could adduce no proof that it had. Old
Geoffrey may have found the groundwork somewhere, in the course of his
multifarious reading; but the main portion of the structure is evidently
the work of his own hands, as the number of personal details and
circumstances would tend to indicate. The forty lines comprising the "Lai
of Marie," which Chaucer has worked up into the "Nonnes Preestes Tale" of
some seven hundred lines, are printed in Tyrwhitt's Introductory Discourse
to the _Canterbury Tales_, and will be sufficient to show what use he made
of the raw material at his disposal. We may fairly presume that Emerson
never took the trouble to investigate the matter, but contented himself
with snatching up his materials from the nearest quarry, and then tumbling
them out to the public.

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

_Campvere, Privileges of_ (Vol. vii., p. 262.).--J. D. S. asks, "What were
these privileges, and whence was the term Campvere derived?"

In Scotland there exists an ancient institution called "The Convention of
Royal Burghs," which still meets annually in Edinburgh, under the fixed
presidency of the Lord Provost of that city. It is a representative body,
consisting of delegates elected by the town councils of the royal burghs
(not _boroughs_) of Scotland; and their business is to attend to such
public measures as may affect the general interests of their constituents.
In former times, however their powers and duties were of far more
importance than they are now. The Convention seems to have exercised a
general superintendence of the foreign trade of the kingdom. With a view to
the promotion of that trade, they used to enter into commercial treaties,
or _staple contracts_ as they were called, with the commercial cities of
the Continent; and I have now before me one of these staple contracts, mad