At what office and to what quarter is one to apply for the purpose of discovering the _Muster Roll_ made upon that occasion? There must be some documents, bills, letters, &c., relating to that expedition, the object of the querist being to ascertain whether his own name, "Jackson," can be found in any of these documents, as he has reason to think that any ancestor of his was one of the battle-axe guards in Dublin at that period.
147. _Decretorum Doctor._--Is this title given at either of our universities? And what is its precise meaning? It not uncommonly occurs in the documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and that it is not the same as Doctor of Laws may be concluded from the following examples:--The publication of a Pope's Bull by the Bishop of London, in the chapel of his palace in London on May 16, 1503, is stated to have been made "Præsentibus tunc ibidem, Venerabilibus viris, Willielmo Mors, et Johanne Younge, _Legum_, et Thoma Wodyngton, _Decretorum_, Doctoribus, Testibus," &c. (_Rymer_, xiii. 61.) And in Wood's _Athen._, 1845 (ii. 728.), we find the same "Tho. Wodynton, decr. doctor," collated to the church of St Mary le Bow, on the resignation of the same "Joh'is Yonge, LL.D." on May 3, 1514.
148. _Grimsdyke or Grimesditch._--If you do not deem the following Query too trifling for your most invaluable publication, I should be much obliged if you would insert it, in hopes some of your antiquarian correspondents may find something to say on the point.
From near Great Berkhampstead, Hants, to Bradenham, Bucks, about fifteen miles (I write from memory), runs a vallum or ditch, called Grimsdyke, Grimesditch, or the Devil's Dyke: it is of considerable boldness of profile, being in some places twelve or fourteen feet from the crest of the parapet to the bottom of the ditch; it keeps within two miles of the crest of the Chiltern Hills, and is passingly mentioned in Lipscombe's _History of Bucks_, and in the commencement of Clutterbuck's _History of Hertfordshire_. Are there other earthworks of the same name (Grimsdyke) in England; and what was their former use? This one in question, from its total want of flank defence, could hardly hold an enemy in check for long; nor does it seem to have been a military way connecting detached forts, as, though there are earthworks (camps) on either side, it seems to hold a tolerably straight course independent of them. And, lastly, about the etymology of the word:--I find, in Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_, among a host of other meanings: