"Anno 1542, the thirty-fourth of Henry viii. _Imprimis_. For
watching the sepulchre, a groat."

"_Item_, for watching the sepulchre, eight pence."

The last entry occurs in "Anno 1554, Mariæ primo," but Fuller adds,
"though what meant thereby, I know not." Can any satisfactory
information be furnished which will explain the custom here alluded to?
{319}

2. In the same work, page 278., a passage occurs, which not only
explains the meaning of the term _factotum_, but furnishes matter for
another query. The passage is this; speaking of "eminent persons buried"
at Waltham Abbey, he says: "we spoil all, if we forget Robert Passellew,
who was _dominus fac totum_ in the middle--and _fac nihil_ towards the
end--of the reign of Henry III." Some parasites extolled him by allusion
to his name, _pass-le-eau_, (that is "passing the pure water,") the wits
of those days thus descanting upon him:

"Est aqua lenis, et est aqua dulcis, et est aqua clara,
Tu præcellis aquam, nam leni lenior es tu,
Dulci dulcior es tu, clara clarior es tu;
Mente quidem lenis, re dulcis, sanguine clarus."
_Camden's MSS._ Cott. Lib.

The learned Dr. Whitaker, in his _History of Whalley_, says, that "the
word Paslew was of Norman origin (Pass-le-eau), and afforded a subject
for some rhyming monkish verses, not devoid of ingenuity, which the
curious reader may find in Weever's _Funeral Monuments_, p. 645;" and a