as late as the days of the Jameses, though the members usually adjourned to a neighbouring village for the transaction of business. This pit still remains, and though much effaced by long ploughing, is yet a remarkable spot. It is on very high ground, sunk to a depth of about twelve or fourteen feet deep, and forms a complete amphitheatre of about eighty yards across. It goes by the name of the Moot House Pit; a phrase that points to the original meaning of the expression still in use, to moot or debate a point. It would be interesting to find out whether the ancient synod called Clovishou was held in some such pit, and perhaps there may be yet a legendary trace of it in the neighbourhood which might elucidate the matter and support my theory, that hou simply means hole. M. E. M.

ENGLISH WOOL IN 1682.

Subjoined is an earlier testimony to the excellence of English

wool and cloth:

"Colles passim multi, nullis arboribus consiti, neque aquarum fontibus irrigui, qui herbam tenuissimam atque brevissimam producunt, quæ tamen ovibus abundè pabulum suppediat; per eos ovium greges candidissimi vagantur, quæ sive cœli, seu bonitate terræ, mollia, et longè omnium aliarum regionum tenuissima ferunt vellera. Hoc vellus verè aurum est, in quo potissimum insulanorum divitiæ consistunt; nam magna et auri et argenti copia à negociatoribus ejusmodi imprimis coëmendæ mercis gratiâ, in insulam quotannis importatur."

Again :

"Notissimum est et illud, pannos Anglicos ob materiæ bonitatem valdè commendari, et in omnia Europæ regna et provincias importari."-From the Itinerary of Paul Hentzner, 1568. (See "N. & Q." 3rd S. iv. 428.)

JOB J. B. Workard.

THE GOLDEN DROPSY. -This was, perhaps, a well-worn phrase when Arthur Dent wrote of some, "These men are sick of the golden dropsy, the more they have the more they desire." A very good illustration hereof is supplied by Garth in The Dispensary:—

"Then Hydrops next appears amongst the throng;
Bloated and big she slowly sails along :
But, like a miser, in excess she's poor,

And pines for thirst amidst her watery store."
B. H. C.
PRESTER-JOHN IN THE ARMS OF THE SEE OF
CHICHESTER. - Mr. Boutell, in his book on
Heraldry, says (p. 436), that he has never seen a
satisfactory blazon of these arms, and suggests
that Prester-John is intended to represent St.
John the Evangelist.

I saw, some time ago, an instance of the figure being drawn rather differently from the usual manner: the sword being represented, not as piercing the mouth, but as proceeding from it (the hilt, and not the blade, being between the lips), and the blade extended towards the sinister. To my mind it is perfectly clear that the figure re

presents neither Prester-John nor the Evangelist, but our Blessed Lord Himself, seated, and in the act of benediction. The reason of His being represented with a sword proceeding from His mouth will be clear to any one who refers to the Book of Revelation, i. 16; ii. 12; xix. 15. JOHN WOODWARD.

New-Shoreham.

[Mr. Dallaway's remarks on the arms of the diocese of Chichester and its ancient seal, upon which was engraven the figure of Christ, may be found in our 1st S. x. 186.]

MISAPPREHENSION OF A TEXT. - A curious instance of a mistaken reference to Scripture is found in Gesner's edition of Horace. Commenting on the words, "sagittas et celerem fugam Parthi" (Carm., ii. 13, 18), Gesner refers to Psalm lxxvii. 9-"Filii Ephrem intendentes et proof of the Parthian mode of fighting being pracmittentes arcum conversi sunt in die belli "—as a knows, has nothing whatever to do with this tised by the Jews. The passage, as every one

matter.

W. J. D.

"The winds were hushed, the waves in ranks were cast
As awfully as when God's people passed;
Those, yet uncertain on whose sails to blow;
These, where the Wealth of Nations ought to flow."

Such an instance as Douglas Jerrold's taking a title from Shakspeare's words –

"Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more Cukes and Ale?"—

is not much in point; but I should think that, when Prof. G. L. Craik wanted a title for his book called The English of Shakspeare, he must have had some latent memory of Wordsworth's words"We must be free or die who speak the tongue That Shakspeare spake.

By-the-bye, may not Leigh Hunt's volumes Men, Women, and Books-be somewhat indebted to the same writer's

being copied into your widely-circulated columns. The subject to which it relates is now an old one, viz. the trials which took place in Scotland in 1793 and 1794, of Thomas Muir and others, on the charge of sedition; but though old, it has not yet entirely lost its interest, and public attention has been recalled to it in the Memoirs of Lord Cockburn. The sentence of transportation for fourteen years, which followed on the convictions, has generally been thought very severe-even after making allowance for the excitement of the times; but it now appears to have been utterly illegal. Lord Colchester's words are:

"The Act, 25 Geo. III. cap. 46, for removing offenders in Scotland to places of temporary confinement, was suffered to expire in 1788, when the Act 24 Geo. III. cap. 56, for the removal of offenders in England, was continued by Stat. 28 Geo. III. cap. 24. And this accidental expiration of the Scotch Act was so much unnoticed, that Muir and Palmer were actually removed from Scotland, and transported to Botany Bay; though there was no Statute then in force to warrant it."-Vol. i. p. 50.

That this outrage on the law (for it deserves no milder term) should have been permitted, seems equally discreditable to the court, the public prosecutor, and the legal advisers of the accused. J. R. B. Edinburgh.

Bourchier, M.A., is much desired. He was Rector of Bramfield, Herts, from 1740 to 1755; Vicar of All Saints, and St. John's, in Hertford; Justice of the Peace for Herts; died Nov. 17, 1755, aged sixty-eight, and was buried in Brantfield church. The arms on his monument there are those of the old Earls of Ewe and Essex; from which it may be inferred that he was of the same stock. Can any reader of "N. & Q." say how he derived from them? His brother, Charles Bourchier, "went to Ireland after the Revolution with the Hon. Gen. Villiers, his (Charles's) wife's uncle;" was M.P. for Armagh at the time of his death, in 1716; and father of Charles Bourchier, sometime Governor of Bombay.

EDWYN AP GRONO.

CHAPERON.-Will some of your French correspondents, with an authority which I cannot pretend to, inform the British public that this word does not assume a feminine form, when applied to a matron protecting an unmarried girl?

It signifies "a hood;" and, when used metaphorically, means, that the experienced married woman shelters the youthful débutante as a hood shelters the face. But almost all our authors, especially our novelists, write the word "chaperone," when used metaphorically.

One is reminded of the British female at Calais, who, on being asked by the blanchisseuse whether a certain piece of linen was not sa chemise, replied with dignity: "Non, c'est le chemis de mon mari." STYLITES.

SIR JOHN DE CONINGSBY.-I should feel obliged if any of the numerous correspondents of "N. & Q." could give any particulars respecting the lineage of the Sir John de Coningsby, who was slain in the Barons' Wars at Chesterfield, temp. John, 1266. G. J. T.

Leeds.

COWPER. I should feel obliged if some correspondent of "N. & Q." would kindly furnish me with a complete list of the Biographies of Cowper, and Sketches of his Life. Exclusive of the admirable productions of Southey, Grimshaw, Taylor, &c., I believe there are other publications extant which appeared shortly after his demise.* I should also feel thankful for a list of the various lectures which have been given on the life and genius of the poet. C. K.

JOHN CRANIDGE, M.A.-This gentleman published:

"A Mirror of the Burgesses and Commonalty of the City of Bristol, in which is exhibited to their view a part of the great and many interesting benefactions and endowments of which the City hath to boast, and for which the Corporation are responsible as the Stewards and Trustees thereof. Correctly transcribed from authentic documents. Bristol, 8vo."

[* Vide Bohn's Lowndes, art. "Cowper," p. 541.-ED.]

There is no date on the title-page, but the Dedication is dated Upper Easton Row, Nov. 20, 1818. The work, including index, contains 296 pages. It would seem to have been published in numbers. I desire to know more about this author. S. Y. R. DE FOE AND DR. LIVINGSTONE. I think it nearly certain, from a perusal of De Foe's Life of Captain Singleton, and Dr. Livingstone's late travels, that the former must have been acquainted with some traveller who had crossed the southern part of the African continent, and had seen the Victoria Falls. I remember having once met with an old map on which, and nearly in the latitude of Livingstone's discoveries, was marked the track of a Portuguese traveller who had crossed the continent, but I forget in what book. Can any of your readers remind me?

H. C.

GUSTAVE DORE.-Will some French reader of "N. & Q." put on record in your pages a list of the books illustrated by that wonderful artist Gustave Doré, who has gained world-wide fame by his Danté and Don Quixote? I have seen cheap French novels, containing woodcuts by him, which are unsurpassed by any of his later works.

HEATHER BURNING.-In The Field newspaper of April 12, 1863, I find, in a letter signed "Pharos," on the subject of burning the heather, or muirburn, as it is called in Scotch law phraseology, an inquiry implying something like an assertion: "If there was not a convention between France and Scotland, sometime before the Union, which limited the burning of heather, owing to the injury occasioned by the process to the vineyards of France."

"Pharos" suggests some other curious speculations as to the contingent effects of burning the heather, but I would only ask, whether there is any foundation for the above, or whether it can be answered in the affirmative? J. C. H.

THE ORDER OF VICTORIA AND ALBERT. — Can any of formation about this order, said by the Court your correspondents oblige me with inNewsman to have been worn by two of the Royal Princesses on the occasion of the baptism of the infant Prince Victor Albert? I should be glad to learn the date of its institution, the number of its members, and the character of the decoration. J. WOODWARD.

PARIETINES.

DR. THOMAS FULLER. - Can I be informed where I can consult a copy of The Life of that Reverend Divine and learned Historian, Dr. Thomas Fuller, published anonymously, in 12mo, in London, 1661? Has it ever been republished? and who of his many friends is supposed to have written it? I have recently been compiling a life of this quaint and witty author, but have never been able to come across the Life referred to. I may perhaps have read most of it second-hand, because being the only authentic narrative of this noted writer, it has frequently been quoted from by the old authorities. Oldys, in the article in the Biographia Britannica, seems to have quoted most liberally from it, and the articles in recent cyclopædias, &c., have been compiled, for the most part, from this and not the former authority.* May I also ask if any of your Cambridge correspondents can inform me whether it was Mr. Fuller who buried old Hobson, the University carrier, who for the mercy shown towards his beasts, still lives in a well-known proverb, and who "sickened in the time of the vacancy, being forbid to go to London by reason of the plague?" He died in the parish of St. Ben'et, at a time when Fuller was the curate thereof. J. E. B.

[* Two copies of the Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller are in the British Museum. Only one edition was printed, although it appears with two different titlepages, one dated "London, 1661;" the other "Oxford, 1662." A copy, with the autograph of Bishop Kennett, was sold among Dr. Bliss's books.-ED.]

PARSON CHAFF. —

"But, if some poor scholar, some parson chaff, will offer himself; some trencher chaplain, that will take to the halves, thirds, or accept of what he [the patron] will give, he is welcome..."-Burton, Anat. Mel. 1, 2, 3, 15.

What is the exact meaning of this? Does chaff refer to talk (our modern slang, literally jaw, among bits of slang), or to chaffering = selling or bargaining, or what? J. D. CAMPBELL.

-What are the allusions, either

political or historical, in the following passage in Rob Roy?

"Our allies,' continued the duke (i. e. of Montrose), have deserted us, gentlemen, and have made a separate peace with the enemy.'

"Its just the fate of all alliances,' said Garschattachin: the Dutch were gaun to serve us the same gate, if we had not got the start of them at Utrecht.'

You are facetious, sir,' said the duke, with a frown, which showed how little he liked the pleasantry; but our business is rather of a grave cast just now."-Rob Roy, ii. 251, edit. 1830.

OXONIENSIS.

A GENTLEMAN'S SIGNET.-A gentleman's signet, pendent from a watch-chain, has recently been picked up here. Crest: a horse's head, and motto ÆGRE DE TRAMITE RECTO. A couple of advertisements have failed to find an owner for it, and I shall be glad if some correspondent will indicate the family, and supply the full Latin phrase. H. M.

"THOU ART LIKE UNTO LIKE, AS THE DEVIL SAID TO THE COLLIER."-In a deposition made before the magistrates of this borough, in the year 1603, in a case of riot respecting the cutting down of a Maypole, the original MS. of which is now before me, the witness deposed that one Agnes Watkin, the wife of a shoemaker, railed against the witness and Mr. Gillott (one of the magistrates who was ordering the removal of the Maypole), saying, "Thou art like 'unto like, as the Devil said to the coilier." I do not find this proverb in Kelly's Proverbs of all Nations, or Bohn's Handbook of Proverbs. The latter work has, "Like to like, as Nan to Nicholas." Butler, however, in his Hudibras (canto ii. 1. 350), clearly refers to it when he says,—

"As like the devil as a collier."

Paisley as having been in his own day one of the richest and most respected of its community."

The lack of information regarding Mr. Wilson's family exhibited in the above extract is very remarkable; especially when so many allusions are made to his mother's connexions, and none whatever to his father's, excepting to his brother, through whom the nephew lost his patrimony, and whose name is not even given. Surely something more might have been given to the world relative to the progenitors of so remarkable a man as Christopher North. It would be interesting to know something of his pedigree, so as to account for the remarkable physical peculiarities of the man. Can nothing be learned of his descent from sources outside of the family circle? Did the professor never say anything regarding his grand

Leicester.

WILLIAM KELLY.

TURNER'S MISCELLANEA CURIOSA.-There have been several works bearing this title, or with some trifling specific addition; as, for instance, the Miscellanea Scientifica Curiosa, by Wales and Green. In Gent's Life, p. 183, under the date A.D. 1734, it is stated,

"I printed Miscellanea Curiosa for Mr. Thomas Turner, a work which got credit both to the author and to me, for the beautiful performance thereof. It was published quarterly; but, for want of encouragement, the work ceased in less than a year's time, when the mathematic types ceased to be of any use to me."

I have never seen a copy of the work, nor have I been able to find any other notice of its editor. Can any of the correspondents to "N. & Q." supply further particulars? T. T. W.

VALUE OF MONEY, 30 EDW. III. - Pote, in his History of Windsor, p. 33, says that

"William de Wyckham (who afterwards attained to the dignity of the Bishop of Winchester) had a Surveyor's place granted to him by Letters Patent, bearing test at Westminster the 30th of October, Anno 30 Ed. iij. He had a grant of the same fee as had been formerly allowed to Robert de Bernham-viz. one shilling a day while he stayed at Windsor in his employment; two shillings a day when he went elsewhere about that business; and three shillings a week for his Clerk: which

allowances had been first of all made to Richard de

Rochell."

would doubtless be difficult to get what might be called a history of the Wilson family, but certainly something more might have been procured than is to be found in the above extract.

Leith.

Queries with Answers.

T. G. D.

JOHN LUND OF PONTEFRACT, A HUMOROUS POET.-In that inaccurate and most unsatisfactory work, Boothroyd's History of Pontefract, is the following passage:

"The author of the Newcastle Rider and other poems, merits notice, as an instance of native genius, without the advantage of a literary education. His name was Lun, and his occupation that of a barber. The first attempt to obtain the freedom of the borough brought his poetical talents into exercise; and his various squibs and effusions obtained considerable applause. These productions were collected together, and published under the title of Duniad. Some of the pieces in the collection, for keenness of satire and justness of sentiment, would not disgrace the pen of a Churchill."-P. 495.

want of a Christian name and of a date is obvious, The obscurity in this account, arising from the though it may perhaps be inferred from another part of the book, that "the first attempt to obtain the freedom of the borough" really means 1768 or thereabouts. The collected poems being called Duniad, induced a suspicion that "Lun might be a misprint for "Dun."

On looking at Lowndes's Bibliographers' Manual (ed. Bohn, 1413), I discovered the following work:

"LUND, Jo., Original Tales in Verse, and Oddities in Prose and Verse." Doncaster, 8vo, 2 vols. Wrangham, 8s. From this I concluded that Lund was the real surname of him whom Boothroyd has called Lun. The "Jo" left me doubtful as to the Christian name being John, Joseph, or Jonathan; but on referring to Richardson's Borderer's Table-Book (vi. 169), I found The Newcastle Rider; or, Ducks and