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REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Cavell_.--In the time of Charles I., a large tract of land lying
south-eastward of Doncaster, called Hatfield Chace, was undertaken to
be drained and made fit for tillage and pasture by one Sir Cornelius
Vermuyden, a celebrated Flemish engineer of that day, and his
partners, or "participants," in the scheme, all or most of them
Dutchmen. The lands drained were said to be "_cavelled and allotted_"
to so and so, and the pieces of land were called "_cavells_." They
were "scottled," or made subject to a tax or assessment for drainage
purposes. Two eminent topographical writers of the present day are
inclined to be of opinion that this word _cavell_ is connected with
the Saxon _gafol_, gavel-tributum--money paid--which we have in
_gavel-kind_ and _gavelage_. One of them, however, suggests that the
word _may_ be only a term used in Holland as applicable to land, and
then introduced by the Dutch at the time of the drainage in question.
I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me if the word
"cavell" is so used in Holland, or elsewhere, either as denoting
any particular quantity of land, or land laid under any tax, or
_tributum_, or otherwise.

J.

[Our correspondent will find, on referring to Kilian's