I regret to say that in these days of school-board "education" the children have often but a very imperfect knowledge of what they mean by this service beyond the collecting of pence, and they sometimes give very odd answers if catechized. For instance, I have known one of the dolls described as "Tichborne." I am not sure that the term "wessel" is generally understood. It is, of course, a form of "wassail," and probably derived from a custom of drinking healths ("Was hæl") from house to house. There is an interesting notice of the custom in Machyn's Diary (1555-6): "The xij even was at Henley a-pon Temes a mastores Lentall wedow mad a soper for master John Venor and ys wyff, and I and dyver odur neybors; and as we wher at soper, and or whe had supt, ther cam a xij wessells, with maydens syngyng with ther wessells, and after cam the cheyff wyffes syngyng with ther wessells; and the gentyll-woman had hordenyd a gret tabull of bankett, dyssyз of spyssys and frut, as marmelad, gynbred, gele, comfett, suger plat, and dyver odur."-Camden Soc., xlii. 99. "Wessells" is explained in the note as "visors, or masques.' J. T. F. Winterton, Brigg. ISAIAH XXII. 18.—"He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country." Many have, no doubt, wondered much as to what could be the physical fact intended by this simile, as they heard the above passage read in church on the morning of Monday, the 2nd ult. I used to wonder myself till I was a witness to the sight. I was in the island of Mitylene during a great storm of wind in winter. There is a plant, not unlike wormwood, which grows into a compact globular form, with very stiff stalks and branches. In winter it dies down to the ground, and in its dry and light condition is torn from its roots by the wind, and set bounding over the wide and unenclosed country. I have seen five or six of these coursing along at once-a vivid emblem of a man at the mercy of a higher power, helpless to choose his own course, or even to find rest. Plautus has, "Dii nos quasi pilas homines habent," but this refers to the game of ball. E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. AN HISTORICAL SLEDGE.-The following is taken from a Times telegram dated "Geneva, Dec. 30," printed in the Times of December 31, 1878: "During the late severe weather, wheeled carriages being almost useless, the demand for sledges was so great that many ancient vehicles, which had not seen the light for the greater part of a century, were brought into requisition, and the identical sledge, gaily painted, and its sides still ornamented with victorious eagles, in which Napoleon rode from Martigny to Bourg St. Pierre when he was preparing to cross the Alps before the campaign of Marengo, was seen daily driven about the streets of Lausanne. This interesting relic is now the property of a Vaudois voiturier, who lets it out for hire." H. W. H. THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.-At the present moment it may not be uninteresting to note that the electric light was patented in London in the winter of 1848-9. An account of it will be found in the Illustrated London News for January, 1849 (p. 58). The notice ends with a remark to the effect that "all hope of an extensive application of the electric light must now be abandoned; but we shall still rejoice if it can be employed as a special mode of illumination on great public occasions." E. WALFORD, M.A. Hampstead, N.W. THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ARCHERY.-To the series of lists under the above heading you may be willing to add the title of a little book which has come into my possession relating to a county society of the last century, of which a very aged relative of mine, now deceased, was a member in early youth. The book bears this title :-"Regulations for the Union Society, established at Harlow in 1790." The regulations conclude with the following:- "That the arms of the society be the arms of the counties of Essex and Herts united. crescent; motto, Archery, freedom, and love.'" Supporters, a bowman and cricketer; crest, a On the rose-coloured cover of the little book are depicted two shields with the arms of the counties, crest above and motto below, while the supporters exhibit two stalwart gentlemen, one in kneebreeches bearing a bat, the other in high boots and feather-crowned hat grasping a bow. The society was limited to fifty ladies and fifty gentlemen, and a president and lady president was appointed for each meeting. The list of members reads very much like a racing card, as each lady and gentleman assumed two or more colours, and each seems to have adopted two fanciful French designations, described as mottos." 66 record of the pastimes of a century ago worth I do not know whether you will think this adding to the "notes." I should be happy to send the list of the "names and colours" of the members should you or any of your readers desire it.. C. L. [For "The Bibliography of Archery" see "N. & Q.," 5th S. ix. 324, 383, 442; x. 102.] STROUD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.-There is certainly a great want of a "Handbook to Stroud and the neighbourhood," containing what a visitor to the place, anxious to become acquainted with its history and topography, would desire to have before him. There is nothing of the kind to assist one in his researches in this highly picturesque and important district. late Mr. Fisher's Notes and Recollections of Stroud I am well acquainted with the (1871); but the volume is too expensive for the purpose in view, and, besides, it is "out of print " and not easily procured. A small sized book, with a good map or two and a few illustrations, would be most acceptable to many, and I doubt not, from what I have heard, would prove a remunerative undertaking. But, unlike too many publications of the class throughout the kingdom, it should be strictly accurate in details, and not calculated in any way to mislead the reader. ABHBA. Queries. [We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.] WHO ILLUSTRATED LAMB'S "TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR"?-Bohn's Lowndes says "fourth edition, with twenty plates by William Blake, 1822." The catalogues of the best informed booksellers at the present day refine upon this, and describe the plates as designed by Mulready and engraved by Blake. Is there any authority for either statement? Gilchrist, in his Life, does not enter the Tales in his list of Blake's engravings. Lowndes is also inaccurate in limiting the twenty plates in question to the fourth, when they accompany the earlier editions of the Tales.* Now, Godwin was the publisher of the Tales; and Blake, we know, illustrated, in 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life. Charles Lamb, moreover, thought highly of Blake's artistic merit. Therefore it is likely enough that Blake may have had more or less to do with these illustrations; but I would gladly learn the extent of his co-operation, and where the fact of his or Mulready's employment on these designs is recorded. None of the plates, unluckily, are signed; and, to complicate the matter, they vary in merit so much that one would almost suspect the employment of two different engravers. For instance, it is difficult to ascribe to the same artist the fine plate of "Nic Bottom and the Queen of the Fairies" (which is quite Blakian) and the woodeny "Gratiano and Nerissa desire to be married." Excepting this last, the ten plates of the first volume are much superior to the ten plates of the second, in which the Othello, Comedy of Errors, and Hamlet illustrations are perhaps the worst. Blake could hardly have engraved so slovenly and unanatomical a skull as the gravedigger is holding. The "Advertizement to the Second Edition" in some measure apologizes for these shortcomings; * The bibliography is rather involved. Concurrently with this illustrated edition "for young persons appeared a plain edition "for the library," with merely a frontispiece of Shakspeare, engraved by T. Woolnoth after Zoust. Of this library edition the first impression appeared in 1807, the second in 1809, the third edition 1816. Of the illustrated edition appeared, first impression, 1807 (this I have not seen, but the "Advertizement to the Second Edition" establishes its existence); the second in 1808; the third, 1816; fourth, 1822. and, after premising that the illustrations were for them? The above extract rather favours the idea ENGLISH ENGRAVERS.-I have recently obtained I find very few of these names in Spooner's Dictionary, which, though an American compilation, professes to give all the facts to be found in previous books. I would ask, therefore, for the date of the publication of this book, and secondly whether this list has been used as a means of identifying or tracing English engravers. I take this opportunity also to inquire again if anything is known of the Peter Pelham mentioned above. See" N. & Q.,” 4th S. xii. 118, 179. Boston, U.S.A. W. H. WHITMORE. WHAT IS THE EXTENSION OF RETE CORVIL?— of Charles I., occurs the following phrase, "Item In a Court roll of the manor of Bibury, second year presentant (Juratores) quod inhabitantes de Bibury non habent nec utuntur rete Corvil ideo forisfecerunt." What is the extension of Rete Corvil, and why did they forfeit for not using it? I may add they suffer the same penalty for not using bow and arrows, or "Sagittar," as the roll has it. E. L. D. "And all persons, who should after the 1st day of September make, vend, or utter any other kind of pence, halfpence, or farthing, or other pieces of brass, copper, or other base metal, other than the coins authorized above, or should offer to counterfeit any of His Majesty's halfpence or farthings, were to be chastised with exemplary severity." Now, I have a considerable number of tokens, especially of Kent, Sussex, and the Cinque Ports, bearing dates of the latter part of the eighteenth century. I have not been able to find any work that alludes to tokens of a later date than the seventeenth century except the Numismatic Chronicle, which speaks of some issued in Ireland as late as the first part of the present century. Will some one kindly say whether the issue of these tokens went on for more than a hundred years in spite of proclamations, or was there any relaxation of the law on the subject? Or to what author can I refer? CLARRY. "LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL."-In Harold's Lay (canto vi.) these two lines occur : "And each St. Clair was buried there, With candle, with book, and with knell." Was the latter line ever corrected by Scott? Surely he must have written "with book, with candle," &c. He could not have meant to lay stress on with and and. Yet in all the editions I have at hand I find the passage printed as I have quoted it. JAYDEE. "MOKE" OR "MOAK."--MR. T. BIRD says (5th S. x. 521) that he has heard a donkey called in Essex and Herts a bussock. In Devonshire a donkey is generally called a moke. Is this name common in other parts of England? E. WALFORD, M.A. Hampstead, N.W. [The term is common in London.] MS. HISTORY OF FERMANAGH COUNTY.-This History, compiled by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Madden, of Waterhouse, co. Fermanagh, circa 1720, was in the possession of the late Ulster, Sir Wm. Betham. Where is it now? It is not amongst Sir William's MSS. in the Brit. Mus., nor in T. C. D. Library, nor in the Royal Irish Academy, nor in the Royal Dublin Society. C. S. K. Kensington, W. "THE LAST OF THE IRISH BARDS."-To whom does this designation properly belong? Certainly not to Carolan, though one may see in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, a fine bas-relief of this gifted harpist, which was executed in Rome at Lady Morgan's expense by Hogan, a son of the wellknown sculptor, and bears the following inscription : "By the desire of Lady Morgan. Carolan, The last of the Irish Bards. Obiit A.D. MDCCXXXVIII.; Etatis suæ An. LXVIII.' VARIA. Can any one kindly tell me, from personal knowledge 1. Where is a catalogue of esquires and gentlemen of Yorkshire (R. Gascoign; Sims, p. 328) to be found? 2. Where can the account of the family of Ogle, privately printed, Edin., 1812 (Sims, p. 268), be seen? 3. What lists of the royal household in the reigns of Hen. VI., Edw. IV., Rich. III., and Hen. VII. are there which can be consulted? T. W. CARR. Barming Rectory, Maidstone. MISS ANNE BORLEBOG, the oldest actress that ever appeared on any stage, died at Charleston, North America, in 1827, aged eighty-eight. She made her début fifteen years before Garrick, as Queen Katharine in Henry VIII. She continued to represent the younger class of matrons until she was seventy-eight, and she was sixty-six before she gave up playing the misses in their teens. Is there a published history of her life? St. John's Wood. GEORGE ELLIS. FRANKS.-A friend of mine wants to know where he can find information in detail as to the privilege of franking letters, which belonged to the members of both Houses of Parliament and to several official personages. R. DE PEVEREL. HERALDRY: THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.-A, who is not, so far as is known, entitled to bear arms, marries B, a daughter and co-heiress of C, who was entitled to bear arms. A and B have sons. What arms will the sons be entitled to bear? Will they be entitled to bear those of C? X. Y. Z. NORFOLK DRAUGHTSMEN AND PAINTERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.-I desire information respecting year 1750. J. Saunders. I have by his hand a set of family portraits in pastil, drawn about the T. Bardwell. I have portraits in oil by his hand, 1720-30. J. Bridges. I have similar works of the same period. Francis Cufande or Cufaude: he spells his name both ways. I have portraits and miniatures by him. He painted, about 1720, the Commandments and the altar-piece in Denton Church, Norfolk. A. H. Little Ealing. "LYING COLD-FLOOR."-In this part of Lincolnshire, close to the Norfolk border, the above expression seems to be commonly used of dead persons lying in the house before burial. Can any correspondent give an account of its origin, and also say whether its use is confined to this part of the country? Fleet, Lincolnshire. C. S. JERRAM. PRIVILEGED FLOUR MILLS.-In pursuing my History of Famines I met with an Act of Parliament, 32 Geo. II. c. 61, enacted 1758, and bearing the following title: แ Án Act for discharging the Inhabitants of the Town of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, from the Custom of fruiting their Corn and Grain, except Malt, at certain Water Corn Mills in the said Town, called the School Mills; and for making proper Recompense to the Feoffees of such Mills." This, although contained in the schedule of the Statutes at Large as a public, is really a "local and private" act, and its title alone is therefore printed; hence I have no means at hand of learning any further details from the measure itself. But my more immediate point is to inquire if there be any more flour mills in the country with such special local privileges. CORNELIUS WALFORD. Belsize, London. P.S.-Has or had the lord of the manor any control over or privilege in connexion with corn mills? mology of the word quintain, Mahn (Webster, A WELSH GAME.-In dealing with the etys.v.) compares it with "W. (Welsh) chwintan, a kind of hymeneal game." Will some native of the Principality, or some other scholar, kindly say any account of it is to be found? what the game in question is, or was; or where Hammersmith. D. F. THE REV. THOMAS HURST was Vicar of Exton, Rutland, in 1763. Was he the same man as the Rev. Thomas Hurst, Rector of All Saints', Stamford, and Vicar of Whissendine, Rutland, who died on Jan. 26, 1802? THOMAS NORTH. your THOMAS DIXON, NEWCASTLE.-Can any of Newcastle readers give me any information regarding Thomas Dixon, author of the Portrait of Religion in Newcastle, being a clerical, satirical, and allegorical drama, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1836, second edition, 8vo. Printed for the author by W. Fordyce, Dean Street? R. INGLIS. defeated Penda he would build and endow twelve KING OSWY.-This king made a vow that if he monasteries. "Twelve abbeys, with broad lands attached, showed the gratitude of Oswy for his unexpected victory," &c. St. Hilda's at Whitby appears to be the only one mentioned by name. eleven or with the locality in which situated? Can any reader oblige with the names of the other F. T. J. England in reference to his other queries.] [Our correspondent should consult the early history of work or biography relative to the above eminent EDWARD AND CHARLES DILLY.-Is there any publishers, friends of Johnson and Boswell, their frequent tioned so warmly in Boswell's Life of Johnson? guests in the Poultry and visitors at South Hill, Beds, and who are menPortraits of Edward and Charles, besides Jabez and Miss Dilly, are in the possession of my friends, but I am desirous of meeting with anything extant in the shape of anecdote or life beyond what is so well known in the Gentleman's Magazine and Boswell's Life of Johnson. Cape Town. W. LAYTON SAMMONS. "Nimrod" appeared in the Quarterly Review upon receive information respecting a work in two of | Astaroth | Banished from Hell. | A Satirical Ro"The Devil turn'd Hermit: or the Adventures mance, exposing with great variety of Humour, in a series of Con-versations between that Demon and the Author, the scandalous Frauds, lewd Amours, and T. Waller, at the Crown and Mitre, Fleet Street, 1751." AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.- Who dared Kildare to kill? Who dares kill whom he will." "O si, o si, otiosi?" Replies. ABHBA. P. J. F. GAntillon. EMBEZZLE. (5th S. x. 461, 524.) Permit me to say that I was well aware of the modern use of bezzle in the sense of "guzzle," and that I have a copy of Chambers's Dictionary, which I had consulted. But the modern use proves nothing whatever as to the history of the word in former times. I think my remark about Skinner's absurd supposition has been misunderstood. It is necessary to add: (1) that there is not, nor ever was, such a word as beastle, it being a pure fiction made for the occasion; (2) that, were there such a form, there is no reason why it should have the comprehensive meaning "to make a beast of oneself"; (3) that, even if there were, there would be no sort of reason for turning a significant word like beastle into an unintelligible bezzle; and (4) even if there were reason for this, there would still be no reason for putting a French prefix like em- before it. The whole series of suppositions, all purely gratuitous, are, when thus piled up, absurd in the highest degree, or, as I have ventured to call it already, "a joke." Why is it that in English etymology all sorts of gratuitous inventions are so easily current, whilst we play no such tricks with Latin and Greek? The answer is that Latin and Greek are far better understood in a really scholarly fashion. Of the history of our language there is too little study. A friend has kindly sent me a good new quotation. He writes: In a letter from Reginald (afterwards Cardinal) Pole to Henry VIII., dated July 7, 1530, he speaks of the consultation of divines at Paris in the king's "great matter," and says it was "achieved" according to the king's purpose. The adverse party, he adds, use every means to embecyll the whole determination, that it may not take effect. See Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII., ed. Brewer, vol. iv. pt. iii. p. 2927. Another friend tells me that he has often heard the word imbecile accented imbécile, which is much to the purpose. WALTER W. SKEAT. Cambridge. BRAHAM'S "ENTUSYMUSY" (5th S. xi. 8.)—I have heard a great deal of Mr. Braham from those who lived with him most intimately, and I knew him well myself in his latter years. He was a decidedly well-educated man, a great reader, and peculiarly impatient of blunders in pronunciation. I have never therefore believed it possible that, at a time when he was already middle-aged, he could have seriously pronounced "enthusiasm" in the fashion of Byron's story. It was probably some misunderstood joke or after-dinner "chaff." C. P. F. BACON ON "HUDIBRAS " (5th S. xi. 7.)—" Notes and Queries is a wonderful institution" was the greeting which I received one day, about ten years after "N. & Q." was started, from a clerical contributor whom I accidentally met. I thanked him for his good-natured banter. But he said, "I mean what I say. An interchange of correspondence between myself and a distinguished scholar on a matter discussed in it has ripened into a most agreeable friendship." And then he went on to tell that a brother clergyman had got a very good living in the same way. I now beg to say "Notes and Queries is a wonderful institution," and I say so advisedly. Last week I made in it some inquiries about Montagu Bacon on Hudibras. It was nothing wonderful that I should receive from MR. SOLLY, who is as ready to give information as he is rich in its possession, some most interesting particulars in connexion with my query. But all my readers will admit I am justified in the declaration that "Notes and Queries is a wonderful institution" when I tell them that before twelve o'clock on Saturday last, before half the habitual readers of this journal had seen the number containing my inquiry for a book which I had been looking after for upwards of forty years, I received by post what I supposed to be a bookseller's catalogue, but which upon opening proved to be a copy of the pamphlet in question! So determined is the generous donor to "do good by stealth," there is not to be found in it the slightest clue to the sender. I have a suspicion that it comes from a gentleman from whom I have before experienced similar marks of considerate kindness, although it is not my good fortune to be personally known to him. He will, if I am right, forgive my quoting to him "Age quod agis!" and let me thank him privately as earnestly as I now beg to do thus publicly. WILLIAM J. THOMS. |