in the sun, the thin slices approaching coal in hardness, will understand what a welcome addition to the master's winter store of fuel was thus pleasantly provided. Probably this was about the last of an ancient custom; for in looking over, many years ago, some old accounts of the expenses connected with my father's education, there occurs an item of money paid to the schoolmaster "in lieu of the Candlemas bleeze." I have heard of a similar contribution being made to the parish schoolmaster in other parts of Scotland, where peat was not so common nor so good. It took the form of an offering of candles. I am sorry I can give no date for this latter instance of the survival of what was probably a custom dating from early Popish days. ALEX. FERGUSSON, Lieut.-Col. Lennox Street, Edinburgh. ENGLISH CANTING SONGS.-W. Harrison Ainsworth, in his preface to 'Rookwood,' claims to have done more than his predecessors in having written a purely flash song-viz., " Nix, my dolly, pals, fake away"—of which he says :— "The great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany or Pedlar's French." But he claims too much, since there is a canting Bing out bien Morts, and toure, and toure, For all your Duds are bing'd awast' I met a Dell,' I viewed her well, She was benship to my watch; So she and I did stall, and cloy,' This Doxie Dell can cut bien whide,TM All the Deusea-vile° within. scribbler, whose name is now known only to bibliographers and to students of the 'Sindibád' cycle of tales from his translation of the French rendering of the 'Pitiable History of Prince Erastus' from the Italian. Part i. of 'The English Rogue' was published, by Head, in 1665; parts ii. and iii., by Kirkman, in 1671 and 1674 respectively; and part iv., by Head and Kirkman, in 1680. W. A. CLOUSTON, 233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow. INDICTMENTS AGAINST GAMING DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. "18 February, 1650/1.-Information, laid by William Lippiatt before Justices of the Peace assembled in S.P. day, against Thomas Leichfeild late of the parish of St. James Clerkenwell, for keeping in the said parish a common gaming house for dice, tables, and cardes, and a certain unlawful game called Shovegroate alias Slidethrift, and a bowling alley, and a certain unlawful game called Ninepins alias Cloiscailes, against the form of the statute.-S.P.R., 18 February, 1650/1." at Hicks Hall in St. John's street Co. Midd. on the said N. B. In the informations of this period against keepers of gaming-houses shovegroate and ninepins are usually described with these aliases of slidethrift and cloiscailes. "14 March, 1653/4.-Recognizances, taken before Richard Powell, Esqr, J.P., of Timothy Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, gentleman, in the sum of forty pounds, and of John Thorner, of Barnard's Inn, London, gentle man, and Emma Thorner, of Andrew's, Holborne, singlewoman, in the sum of twenty pounds each; For the G.S.P. for Middlesex, 'to answer to Anthony Hynde, of appearance of the said Timothy Thorner at the next London, baker, for cheating him by the new way called the Trepan.' Also, similar Recognizances, taken on the same day, for the appearance of Brace Wallwin, of Gyles the same Anthony Hynde 'for cheating him by the new in the feeldes, barber, at the same G.S.P., to answer to way called the Trepan.' Both the above recognizances are copied from the 'Middlesex County Records,' vol. iii., edited by Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson. S.P. stands for Session of Peace; S. P. R., Session of Peace Roll; and G.S.P., General Session of Peace. What was the unlawful game of Shovegroate or Slidethrift; and the new way of cheating called trepan"?-and I have heard of ninepins, but not cloiscailes. W. BETHELL. 66 Rise, E, Yorks. MRS. OR MISS.-It is stated on p. 505 of the last volume that "Mrs." was a common appellation of unmarried ladies in the days of Alexander Pope. This witness is true; nor are we ignorant that the alternative appellation, "Miss," was originally no better than it should be. "Miss," however, has long since passed from the ranks of vice to those of virtue, and now reigns there, sternly triumphant. Yea, and so completely hath she triumphed that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, her rival "Mrs." is among unmarried ladies no longer used at all. Looking round upon my spinster acquaintance-a circle much diminished of late years by the fatal habit of marriage-I do not observe any who call themselves "Mrs.," or who would willingly be so called. Yet I can remember ladies of the last generation who were always called "Mrs." though they did not marry; two schoolfellows of my mother's, for instance, daughters of a General S- who were invariably styled Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Julia S. They died about the year 1860; but in a time remoter still, Miss Mitford and Miss Austen were never, I think, known as "Mrs.," so the practice cannot have been uniform. Am I right in supposing that now, in 1889, the practice is uniform in favour of "Miss," and that the equivalent "Mrs." is abolished, except as a crown of wedlock? One thing is certain, that, howsoever this may be among ladies, the title of "Mrs." is a distinction and an honour among unmarried female servants. My own housekeeper, for instance-of whom I am very proud, for she would do honour to any establishment has been "Mrs." for years, though she never was married, and though she looks with just scorn upon the inferior animal and all his works. And so it is, as a rule, in all households, small or great. Even here, indeed, there are exceptions: the Marquis of Bath's housekeeper at Longleat, who is one of the finest women of her class I ever saw, perfectly charming in her stately sweet simplicity of manner, is "Miss," and not "Mrs." But then she is well on the right side of forty. Youth, however, availeth not to lessen the honour of being "Mrs." Some years ago, in a country gentleman's house, a certain foolish maidservant of the lower rank was by pure favouritism suddenly promoted to "Pugs' Parlour"-that tertium quid of which neither the drawing-room nor the kitchen knows anything; in fact, she became a lady'smaid in the same house. Her highly appropriate name was Goosey; and the kitchenmaid, who hitherto had been her equal, was heard to complain bitterly of the change. "Why," she said, "I shall have to call her Mrs. Goosey!" A. J. M. DUMMY.-The use of this word in the Times, Nov. 7, 1888, in thus designating a parliamentary document is, I think, worth a record in N. & Q.' It is, so far as know, the first time the word has ever been so used. The Times paragraph runs thus: "The Board of Works' Commission. The first report of the Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Board of Works was laid in dummy on the table of the House of Commons last night, and ordered to be printed. The manuscript is in the printer's hands." JOHN TAYLOR. Park Lodge, Dagnall Park, South Norwood. BEARS COMMITTING SUICIDE.-Former numbers of 'N. & Q.' have contained several paragraphs relating to animals committing suicide. It may be well, therefore, to note that there is a notion prevalent in parts of Scandinavia that the bear will kill itself sooner than fall into the hands of its pursuers. See L. Lloyd's 'Scandinavian Adventures,' 1854, vol. i. p. 257. ASTARTE. EPITAPH ON J. R. GREEN, THE HISTORIAN.The historian J. R. Green died at Mentone on March 7, 1883, and was buried in the cemetery of that place. Owing to some unavoidable causes, there was considerable delay before any memorial stone recorded the place of his interment. As a copy of the inscription has not, it is believed, appeared in any English literary work, the following will be welcomed by all who reverence the memory of this great Englishman : Here lies John Richard Green of the Born December 12, 1837, Died March 7, 1883. He died learning. The closing sentence is mournfully explained by his widow in the following extract from her preface to her husband's last work, 'The Conquest of England': "Many years before, listening to some light talk about the epitaphs which men might win, he had said half unconsciously, I know what men will say of me: He died learning'; and he made the passing word into a he said when he heard he had only a few days to live. noble truth......I have work to do that I know is good,' I will try to win but one week more to write some part of it down." T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Budleigh Salterton, Devon. Greville records, in his Memoirs,' that he visited ST. MARK'S, VENICE.-The late Mr. Charles St. Mark's in 1830, and says:— "It is not large, but very curious, so loaded with Church. The pavement, instead of being flat, is made to ornament within and without, and so unlike any other undulate like the waves of the Sea." records not only his own impressions, but what he Mr. Greville was a very accurate observer, and learnt from able guides; yet some fifty years after church restorers proposed to level the pavement of St. Mark's, because it had given way in places, and was not flat. I trust this has not been done, but, as I have not been in Venice since 1879, I am not sure. When there, I went to Murano, and visited I believe they the cathedral, just then restored. had levelled its floor, which had very probably been "undulating" previously, a fine idea of the old architects. J. STANDISH HALY. Temple. SLOYD.-The following deliciously inaccurate statement appeared in Chambers's Journal, Dec. 22, 1888, p. 815:"Slöjd, the Scandinavian word which quette, that is, blanc, white, with the diminutive suffix ette, and he adds that "the Thomas Blanket to whom gossip attributes the origin of the name, if he really existed, doubtless took his name from the article." I am of opinion that the dictionarymaker is correct and the biographer has made a slip; but in such matters mere opinion ought to go for nothing. Can absolute proof be furnished one way or other? What evidence have we that Thomas Blanket is not a mere creation of the fancy? ASTARTE. is termed sloyd in English for convenience, means Blanket, "a wealthy clothworker and shipowner." originally cunning, clever, handy." Here "Scan- Dr. Murray, on the other hand, informs us that dinavian" is slipshod English for Swedish. Scan-blanket comes from the Old French blankete, blandinavian is the name of a group of languages, not of any one language. For" termed" read" spelt"; and why it cannot be spelt sloid, it is hard to see. We do not write boyl, toyl, voyd, in modern English. Thirdly, " means" is false grammar for "meant." Lastly, the assigned sense is all wrong, for the word is not an adjective at all, but a substantive. Let us put it right. The Swedish word is slöjd. English people pronounce it sloid, as if it rhymed with void, because they cannot give the true sound. Silly people will persist in writing sloyd with a y, merely to cause more confusion in our confused system. Lastly, the word is merely the same as our word sleight, the substantive formed from the adjective sly; it originally meant sleight or dexterity, but is now applied to woodcarving in particular. But for this it should have been called sleight in English. WALTER W. SKEAT. FOTHERINGHAY CASTLE AND KING JAMES I. -The writer in the Athenæum, Dec. 29, 1888, on 'The Stuart Exhibition,' says :— "The relics of the Queen of Scots will appeal to all, whether they belong to her gayer hours, or to the sad periods of detention at Tutbury, Chartley, Chatsworth, and other places, or to the grim hall at Fotheringhay Castle, which James razed to the ground long before he found money enough to complete his mother's monument in Westminster Abbey "(p. 888). If the writer of the article can give the date of King James's razing of Fotheringhay Castle he will greatly oblige. CUTHBERT BEDE. FOLK-LORE IN THE AZORES. — The peasantry firmly believe that the last twelve days of December are the faithful forecast of the twelve months of the ensuing year, and that the events of the new year will be regulated by the way the wheat, maize, and beans shall germinate. These, at Christmas time, they place in dishes of water for that purpose; should the prognostic be unfavourable they go about their fieldwork in a half-hearted way, and without faith in the future year."The Azores,' by Walter K. Walker, 1886. LIP-BRUIT. In the October number of the Bookworm Mr. C. A. Ward uses this word thus: "So strange a thing is fame; and the lip-bruit of contemporaries, how apt it is to err!" Is this a new coinage? If so, it deserves a notice in 'N. & Q' Whether old or new, the word is not an unwelcome addition to our vocabulary. J. B. S. Manchester. 'COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS.'-A series of articles with the above title, by W. 0. Tristram, illustrated by H. Railton and H. Thomson, lately appeared in the English Illustrated Magazine. The articles are amusing, but relate chiefly to very early times, and throw very little light on what are usually meant by "the coaching days," viz., the period of the perfection of roads and road travelling, from 1784 (the year of the introduction of mail-coaches) to the final breaking up of the system by the introduction of railways at the beginning of the present reign -a breaking up which I, for one, most sincerely regret. I write this note, however, to draw attention to two noteworthy mistakes in the illustrations of the coaches, which render them historically inaccurate, and tend to show how untrustworthy are accounts of events or pictures of objects written or drawn but a few years after date. Mistake No. 1 is that in these illustrations the leaders' reins are depicted as being drawn through rings on the wheelers' cheeks, as in modern fourin-hands, instead of over the heads of the wheelers, as was invariably the case in the old coaches. Mistake No. 2. Two persons are always depicted on the box-seat beside the coachman, whereas invariably there was but one. The box-seat was the coveted place, for which usually a small extra fare was demanded. W. R. TATE. Walpole Vicarage, Halesworth. interior of the Hofkirche at Bruchsal sometimes appears to be brilliantly lighted after it is locked up at night. Once when it was thus illuminated a sexton peeped through the keyhole and saw the dead Prince-Bishop von Hutten saying mass at the altar, EYELASHES SUDDENLY BECOMING WHITE.-The CHOPNESS.-'Goody Two Shoes' (reprint, 1882, p. 149) has, "Then, getting a Chopness (a thing like a spade) and digging, he discovered a copperchest, full of Gold." Is chopness a real word; and is anything else known of it? The modern dictionaries appear to take it from this passage. Will any one kindly hunt up the matter for the 'Dictionary'? Oxford. J. A. H. MURRAY. have to be accounted for. The question is only started here in the hope that the students of Old English, formerly called Anglo-Saxon, may offer what light they have. In quoting Old English it will be helpful to be chronologically precise, and to indicate exactly where and when the words Angle, ing, English, and England were first used. Even Dr. Henry Sweet will admit that the peculiar pronunication of the word English makes it hard to derive it from Angle, and easy to connect it with ing meadow, and Eng-er= meadow dweller. C. W. ERNST. Boston, U.S. But when Blomefield edited his 'History o. Norfolk,' the foundation of which work seems to have been laid by Guy bon Goddard, of Brampton, the register was extant, and some curious extracts are printed. Possibly these and other contents may have caused the register to wander into private hands. I have an impression that ' N. & Q.' has been the means of bringing about the restoration of at least one register book to its rightful place, and crave a corner for this note, in hopes some reader may know whether the book still exists. Should it be restored I will pledge myself to print it. MEDAL OF THE PRETENDER. (See 1st S. xi. 84; 2nd S. v. 417.)-In 1858, as is shown by a discussion in N. & Q.' under the above heading, it was not known that the Pretender came to England in 1752. The catalogue of the Stuart Exhibition, Medals, 295, states that he visited London in 1752, and that his visit was known to George II. Where is this proved? M. O. P. PARISH REGISTER MISSING.-The early Register ENGLISH.-May I ask the question whether the Book of Brampton, in Norfolk, has long been lost Angles of the Venerable Bede and of common-in fact, for fifty years no parishioner has heard of tradition are really responsible for the word Eng-it. lish? Bede accounted for his plausible guess by thinking that all the Angles had deserted their home in what is now called Holstein. But there is no reason to think that the Angles would exchange a rich home for a relatively poorer country beyond the sea. Nor is there any evidence for the belief that the Angles ever lived along the German sea, If the Angles ever went from Germany to England, they must have sailed or rowed through the Baltic. Is it not possible that England is named after the Eng-er folk, who lived on both banks of the Weser and along the Elbe, and were named after eng or ing, which means meadow ? These Eng er folk were true Saxons, and lived in the meadow lands between hilly Westphalia and the heath or sandy plains of the Eastphalians. Their chief river, the Weser, means meadow river; and the word ing, meaning meadow, is still used in Lincolnshire and other northern counties (see Halliwell, Richardson, Latham, &c.). The Eng-er folk (the ending er is the same as in the word Londoner) controlled the mouth of the Elbe, whence it was easy for them to sail to England, especially north and south of the Wash. At any rate, there is no clear proof that the Angles ever emigrated to England, as did the Saxons, of whom the Eng-er folk, the Ing-vones of Tacitus, was the principal tribe. The guess that England is named after the Angles, started by Bede, is not supported by history. The suggestion that English, Eng-er, ing, and Ing-avones all represent the same word, meaning meadow, is at least in harmony with history and topography, and does not violate the laws of philology, although the in English will A. T. M. JAMES GRIGOR wrote the Eastern Arboretum ; or, Register of Remarkable Trees, Seats, Gardens, &c., in the County of Norfolk,' London, 1840-1, with fifty etched plates, issued in fifteen numbers. Is anything known of this author's life? BIOGRAPHER. CASA DE PILATOS.-Twenty years ago, on a hurried visit to Seville, I was conducted through a splendid building there which was called Casa de Pilatos. The reason of its bearing this name I would gladly learn. I have an impression I saw "Entered Jeruan inscription near the entrance, salem on," with a day and year following. should this building bear the name of Pilate? Madison, Wisconsin. Why JAMES D. BUTLER. 'CORN-LAW RHYMES.'-What was the date of the first and second editions of Ebenezer Elliott's celebrated Corn-law Rhymes,' if indeed, these editions had any real existence ? The "third edition," reviewed by Carlyle, bears date 1831; and 1831 is the only date I can find assigned to the Rhymes.' The fact that his 'Vernal Walk' was published as early as 1801 seemed to have escaped the notice of the writers in the Encyclopædia Britannica,' Ward's 'English Poets,' and the Dictionary of National Biography,' as also of Elliott's biographers, John Watkins and "January Searle" (the latter, by-the-by, the pseudonym of George S. Phillips). What, too, was the date of Elliott's marriage? It must have been quite early in the century. F. HINDES GROOME. 339, High Street, Edinburgh. THE PELICAN.-What was the origin of the legend about the pelican feeding its brood with its own blood? I quote three out of the many passages where it is mentioned : "A Pelican turneth her beak against her breast and therewith pierces it till the blood gush out, wherewith she nourisheth her young."- Eugenius Philalethes, 'Brief Natural History,' 93. Then said the pelican when my birds be slain with my blood I will them revive. Scripture doth record the same did our Lord and Rose from Death to life. Skelton, 'Armoury of Birds,' circa 1585. And like the kind life-rendering pelican 'Ham.,' IV. 5. LAELIUS. [See an interesting paper, 4th S. iv. 361, by MR. J. C. GALTON, F.L.S., who points out that there is some kind of foundation for the legend.] WINTER OF HUDDINGTON, CO. WORCESTER. Can any one kindly tell me where to find a pedigree of this family? I wish to ascertain the parents, wives, and children of the three brothers Winter who were involved in the Gunpowder Plot, and also their exact relationship to Anne Winter, who was the wife of Thomas Underhill of Honyngham, and mother of the " Hot Gospeller." The Harleian and Cottonian calendars, the Worcestershire county histories in the British Museum, and Bridger's 'Index to Printed Pedigrees' have been already searched, HERMENTRUDE, REFERENCE WANTED.-Can any of your correspondents kindly supply me with a lost reference? I have noted down for use the following passage, but the heading has been inadvertently torn off:"She is likewise tender-hearted and benevolent, qualities for which her mistress is by no means remark able, no more than she is for being of a timorous dis position, and much subject to fits of the mother." HOLCOMBE INGLEBY. BYRON'S 'MONODY ON THE DEATH OF SHERIDAN.'-I should be glad if some reader of 'N. & Q' could inform me whether the first edition of Byron's CAPT. JOSEPH GARNAULT.-A volume of the London Chronicle of 1797 says that on Jan. 23 of that year the Council of the East India Company, assembled at the East India House, appointed Capt. Joseph Garnault to the command of a ship, newly built, and fitted out as a man-of-war and as a merchantman. Was it in honour of that captain that Garnault Place, Clerkenwell, London, E. C., received its name? M. S. S. DOMESTIC HISTORY: COURT OF KING CHARLES II., CIRCA 1677-8-9.-Can any of my fellow readers refer a perplexed student to any diary or compilation of contemporary letters (the latter preferably) where a description, as of an event coming under the writer's own observation, is given of the murder of a page of the backstairs by a nobleman and a gentleman (subsequently ennobled) at Whitehall some time about the above period? If you will kindly allow me to enumerate the works I have consulted I can spare some of my anticipated kind Pepys (does not extend to the date required); correspondents some trouble in suggestions:Luttrell, Brief Relation'; Evelyn; Rereseby's Letters of Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney'; Life 'Memoirs'; 'The Ellis Letters'; 'Diary and of Algernon Sidney' (Ewald); 'The Sidney Diary and Correspondence (Blencowe); The Sidney Papers' (Collins); Mr. Justice Bramston's 'Diary'; Mr. Justice Rokeby's 'Diary'; and Teonge's and Lake's 'Diaries.' "In my mind's eye, Horatio," I tion a day, or a day or two, after the occurrence, can see the account now, given fresh from observaby one I should fancy an eye-witness, in familiar colloquial language. It is on the right-hand page |