than commonly his predecessors, received his commission by the
name of 'Master of the King's Pastimes.'"--_Strutt's Sports and
Pastimes_, 340.

"1578. Edward Baygine, cursitor, clerk for writing and passing
the Queen's leases, 'Comptroller of the Queen's pastimes and
revels,' clerk comptroller of her tents and pavilions,
commissioner of sewers, burgess in Parliament."--Gwillim,
_Heraldry_, 1724 edit.

A.C.


_Roland and Oliver_.--Canciani says there is a figure in the church
porch at Verona which, from being in the same place with _Roland_, and
manifestly of the same age, he supposes may be _Oliver_, armed with a
spiked ball fastened by a chain to a staff of about three feet in
length. _Who are Roland and Oliver_? There is the following derivation
of the saying "a Roland for your Oliver," without any reference or
authority attached, in my note-book:--

"--Charlemagne, in his expedition against the Saracens, was
accompanied by two '_steeds_,' some writers say 'pages,' named
Roland and Oliver, who were so excellent and so equally matched,
that the equality became proverbial--'I'll give you a Roland for
your Oliver' being, the same as the vulgar saying, 'I'll give
you tit for tat,' i.e. 'I'll give you the same (whether in a
good or bad sense) as you give me.'"

JARLTZBERG.