vol. ii. chap. vii.

,

several occasions, when the old year passed away, the door was thrown open, and the head of the house stood bareheaded in the doorway, the rest of us standing behind, while one of

the

"The wits and humorists, the distinguished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this hebdomadal festivity.” In the same chapter, a little later, I read :"As mine host's politics were of that liberal description which quarrelled with no good customer, his hebdomadal visitants were often divided in their opinion."

May not these associations of "hebdomadal" with festivity have impressed themselves on Stevenson's singularly receptive brain, and reappeared in the form above quoted? There is, of course, the "Hebdomadal Council" at Oxford, but Stevenson and Pinkerton were alike, I think, in knowing little of Oxford. The 'N.E.D. 'gives one only of the references for the word in Scott, and, instead of the passage in The Wrecker,' an allusion to it in The Speaker.

LOUDON DODD.

NEW YEAR LUCK.-Some peculiar things are still done with the incoming of the new year. To ensure luck to herself during the present year, and also to the house where for the time she lives, the servant of one of my neighbours tied a piece of string to a lump of coal just before midnight of the old year, laid the string across the doorsill, and afterwards, as the clock at the church was striking the hour of twelve, opened the door. As soon as the last stroke sounded, she pulled the piece of coal into the house, in this way making sure that something came into the house before anything was taken out of it. This bringing in ensured good luck all the year. If anything had gone out first-herself, for instance- the year would bring luck more or less of a serious nature.

An old man who was in service at one of the greater houses near here made it a practice for fifty years (up to the year of his death) to bring, on the last stroke of twelve as the year died, something into the housea log of wood, a bushel of corn, or a skepful of some farm produce; and, as my informant (a lady, by the way) said, there was always luck during the thirty years or so she had known that house.

I remember as a lad in Derbyshire how on

THOS. RATCliffe.

He

who first entered to come empty-handed. [In the West Riding it was unlucky for the person should not, moreover, bring anything that had been killed-as game. Oysters were permissible.]

BACTERIA EARLY NOTICE.-The following passage from Varro, ' De Re Rustica,' seems very striking in view of recent discoveries. He is speaking of the dangers of "loca palustria

possunt oculi consequi, et per aëra intus in corpus "Crescunt animalia quædam minuta, quæ non per os ac nares perveniunt, atque efficiunt difficiles morbos." HERBERT A. STRONG.

The University, Liverpool.

ELSDON. - The lines on Elsdon village quoted by MR. PICKFORD at 10th S. iv. 376, form the first of four stanzas of a rime by George Chatt, a Northumbrian verse-writer. The piece is to be found on p. 53 of his 'Miscellaneous Poems' (Hexham, 1866). Chatt was the son of a farmer, and was by turn agricultural labourer, private soldier, and journalist. He died at Cockermouth on 8 November, 1890, after having edited The West Cumberland Times for about sixteen years. A Hexham antiquary told me recently that a local vicar-new to the district -once gave great offence to the Elsdon folks by quoting the rime in his church magazine. This may be the source of MR. PICKFORD'S cutting. JOHN OXBERRY.

Gateshead.

'CHARLIE, HE'S MY DARLING.'-The alert and definitive authorities who furnish readers of the newspapers with literary information have just circulated a report that Mr. T. F. Henderson has traced "Burns's Charlie is my Darling"" to its source. Mr. Henderson, ever since he wrote with Mr. Henley regarding the Scottish poet, has been considered a leading factor in the movement by which Burns is to be proved merely an outcome, and not an original force. What he himself has intimated on the subject may probably come up for consideration hereafter; meanwhile, it may not be amiss to say a word on the misleading statement that has been widely published through the medium of the newspapers. In the first place, 'Charlie is

I understand the general was well treated, and lived in one of our Southern shires, and was on good terms with the gentry of the district. R. B. MARSTON.

"OCEAN, MID HIS UPROAR WILD."I am engaged in editing for the Archiv f. N. Spr. three of Coleridge's letters, which the poet wrote from Germany on his tour through the Harz mountains, and I find a quotation from a poet which I unable to trace. I have sought it in vain in the quotation books of Wood, Bartlett, Dalbiac, and Bohn. The quotation has a Byronish tinge; it runs :—

Ocean, 'mid his uproar wild, Speaks safety to his Island Child! The poet quotes these verses in comparing a "miserable post" with the words " Pays neutre" on it to the natural defence of England by the ocean. I shall be very grateful for information concerning their author.

DR. ERICH VOLLMER.

D. Wilmersdorf b. Berlin. [We recall two lines which somewhat resemble those quoted by DR. VOLLMER:

And never was heard such an outery wild As welcomed to earth the ocean child. They occur in Bryan Waller Procter's song beginning

The sea, the sea, the open sea.]

MESSENGER FAMILY, FORMERLY OF FOUNTAINS AND CAYTON.-I should be glad to have information about the above-especially from the date of Dugdale's Visitation, 1664, and the extinction of the family about 1806. R. TRAPPES LOMAX.

The Manor House, Chatburn, Clitheroe.

"JAMES" UNIVERSITY. - Can any reader inform me what is the University referred to under the name of "James" in the catch quoted below, which I have found in a col. lection called 'Catch that Catch Can,' by James Hilton, 1652 ?—

As there be three blew beans in a blew Bladdor,
And thrice three rounds in a long ladder;
As there be three nooks in a corner Cap,
And three corners and one in a Map;

Even so, like unto these, there be three Universities,

Oxford, Cambridge, and James.
S. F. HULTON.

10, King's Bench Walk, Temple. TOWER OF LONDON.-A friend of mine has diligently sought, with a view to purchase, a second-hand copy of Britton and Brayley's 'Memoirs of the Tower of London,' London, 1830, 8vo, 374 pp. Among the illustrations are representations of the execution of Lady Jane Grey, the moat, and the Traitor's Gate.

THE CONDADO.-In December, 1652, soon after the unfortunate battle off Dungeness, a cruiser attached to the Dutch fleet picked up, off Dover, "a flyboat of London coming from the Condado with figs, the merchant Condado, being named William Watts." which is also written Condate, seems to be the Spanish of the Italian contado and the English county, and in itself is a general and utterly vague term. A seventeenth-century Italian atlas which I consulted has, in the very neighbourhood of the Straits of Dover, Contado di Hollandia, di Flandra, and di Bolonia-probably also many others in many different neighbourhoods. All these appear to be outside the limit of inquiry; as well as the several inland towns of Spain called Condado. I take it that "the Condado " named was a maritime district-not a town from which figs were habitually brought, though not necessarily grown there. Will some one familiar with the history of the fig trade please help me to identify it?

I do not know whether the name William Watts may suggest anything, but in 1727 one Richard Watts was factor at Smyrna. J. K. LAUGHTON.

DURHAM GRADUATES.-I should be glad to receive information concerning the following: Anderson, Philip, L.Th., 1838. Dalton, Thomas. B.A., 1838. Davison, John, L.Th., 1836. Grieve, John, L.Th., 1836. Griffith, Henry Deer, B.A., 1837. Mackay, William, L.Th., 1838. Massie, Charles, L.Th., 1836. Pratt, Robert Forster, B. A., 1836. Robinson, Ralph, B.A., 1836. Watson, William Thomas, B A., 1836. W. C. BOULTER.

28, Queen's Road, Bayswater, W.

SIR GEORGE YONGE.-Can any of your correspondents give me particulars of Sir George Yonge, who is referred to in The Life of Sir John Beverly Robinson' (Chief Justice of Upper Canada), by his son, Major

SIR R. PEEL'S FRANKED AND STAMPED LETTERS.-In 1846 Sir Robert Peel wrote two letters to John Singleton, Esq., of Quinville, co. Clare, concerning the Irish famine. Both of the fine envelopes were franked as well as stamped. Is any other example of this philatelic curiosity known to exist? It seems that about 1838 Peel franked thousands of beautiful envelopes for himself and friends, not then anticipating the Act of 1840. His envelopes being the finest then known, he complied with the law by adding the penny stamp to the innocent .. frank." I believe that it is little known that he was most liberal with his franked envelopes, as I have seen some of them covering letters of his political opponents. JAS. HAYES.

Church Street, Eunis.

PORTMAN FAMILY.-From an article on the Portman family under Political Pen Pictures' in The King of 23 Dec., 1905, I cull the following extract:-

"Far more ancient than either of these [Somerset] families is that of the Portmans of Orchard Portman. The Men of the Gate' were already famous in the days of the warrior king Edward I. They have ever since, played an important part in

our national history." What authority is there for supposing that Portman the "Men of the Gate"? and what mention is there of them in history? K. T.

=

SIR GERARD (OR GARRETT) FLEETWOOD.He was of Crawley, Hants, the second or third son of Sir William Fleetwood, of Cranford, Middlesex, Receiver of the Court of Wards, by his wife Joan, sister to Gervase, Lord Clifton of Leighton Bromswold. He was knighted 14 July, 1603; Ranger of Woodstock Park, 1611; M.P. for Woodstock in 1625 and 1626. A Royalist in the Civil War, he compounded for his delinquency on 16 December, 1647, being fined 570. At the same time he was assessed at 4007.; but upon proving that his debts were more than

the total value of his estate, this assessment was remitted. He is said to have married Isabel, daughter of Hercy Neville, of Grove, Notts, and widow successively of Sir John Harper and Sir Peter Frescheville, Kt. (Hunter's Fam. Min. Gen.,' iv. 1235).

He

Isabel, lady fleetewood, wife of Sir Garrett fleete woode," was buried at Bath Abbey, 24 November, 1642 (Genealogist, vi. N.S. 94). When did Sir Gerard die? was still living on 6 May, 1651, when he was further fined 667. for a portion of his estate not previously compounded for, but must then have been in advanced years. He is said to have died without issue, but he had at least one son, Dutton Fleetwood, who matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, 11 October, 1639, aged sixteen.

Lowton, Newton-le-Willows.

W. D. PINK.

DEVONSHIRE FUNERAL CUSTOMS.-I have been spending Christmas at the vicarage of a small village in Devonshire, and noticed there two things which were new to me, but which I was told are the regular custom there.

1. On the morning of the day on which a funeral is to take place, one of the church bells is rung at eight o'clock for about five minutes.

2. On the following Sunday the mourners come to church, and together occupy the same seat, but take no part in the service, remain seated all through it, use no books, but frequently apply their handkerchiefs to their faces. Is this a practice followed in many English villages? THOMAS RUTT.

[Many articles on the observance of Mourning Sunday will be found in 9th S. ix., x., xi.]

MOTHER CHRISTMAS. It is somewhat strange that this expression is far from with children's pleasures the mother comes common-almost unknown. In connexion first, and father keeps a back seat, except at the Christmas season, when it is Father Christmas and Daddy Christmas from bottom to top of the house. At any rate, that was my experience when a lad, before my faith in the deeds of Father Christmas was broken. Now and then a child would ask about the Mother Christmas, but this was rare, and seems a bit surprising, since mother rules as the "angel of the house." As a lad I knew nothing about "Santa Claus," not then introduced into children's Christmas keeping. Father or Daddy Christmas was the one who carried the bountiful bag, and tumbled down the chimney into the hungup stockings the dear presents - precious

COLLINGWOOD'S DESCENDANTS. - In the Trafalgar Centenary celebrations it seems to have been assumed that there are now no living descendants of Admiral Lord Collingwood. He left two daughters to survive him, viz., Sarah, wife of George Newnham, barrister-at-law, and Mary Patience, wife of Mr. Anthony Denny, these ladies being also coheiresses to their mother, Sarah, daughter of John Erasmus Blackett, proprietor of a beautiful estate at Hethpool, in the Cheviots. George Newnham assumed the additional name of Collingwood, and published a biography of his distinguished father-in-law. He is stated to have died a disappointed man, owing to the refusal, or neglect, of the Government of the day to make him a peer— under the title of Baron Collingwood.

Both Mrs. Newnham Collingwood and Mrs. Denny left issue, and I have reason to believe that descendants of the latter are in existence. I shall be glad of information about them or about Mrs. Newnham Collingwood's children.

Alnwick.

J. C. HODGSON, F.S.A.

Beplies,

FAME. (10th S. iv. 249.)

in

To find Fame, in the sense of Renown, represented in the way MR. H. J. BARKER mentions is very common modern times; but I do not think she was ever so depicted by the ancients. Pun, as personified by Hesiod (Works and Days,' 760 sqq.), and Fama as personified by Virgil (En.,' iv. 173-88, and ix. 474), Ovid (' Met.,' xii. 39 sqq.), Valerius Flaccus (ii. 116 sq7.) and Statius (Theb,' iii. 426 sqq.), stand rather for Report or Rumour than for Renown, and in the above passages no mention is made of a trumpet or a wreath.

Fama does not seem to be frequently represented in works of art. Spence in his 'Polymetis' (I quote from the second edition) gives a representation of her as a nude winged figure, the upper portion of the wings being studded with eyes (pl. xxix. fig. 4), and with reference to it says (at p. 214):

"The only figure I have ever seen of her is the little one in brass in the Great Duke's collection at Florence, from which this was copied."

On p. 149, n. 67, he says:

"I have never observed any figure of Gloria among the antiques I have met with. The Roman poets speak of her sometimes in a good, and sometimes in a bad sense.

Of the bad sense-i.e, as equivalent to Jactantia-he gives as an example Horace, 'Epist.' II. i. 177. He might have added 'Odes,' I. xviii. 15, and 'Sat.,' I. vi. 23; and Vergil, En.,' xi. 708. As exemplifying the good sense he quotes Silius, xv. 98, and Valerius Flaccus, i 78 sqq.

fig. 2, a delineation of Honos, taken from a On the same page Spence refers to pl. xxiii. common medal of the reign of Titus, on which he appears partially draped, and holding a spear in one hand and a horn of plenty in the other, and adds:

"He is called Honos on a medal too, where you see him joined with Virtus; and they perhaps generally made a male of this deity, and called him by the name of Honos, rather than Gloria; because the latter was sometimes used in a bad sense (for Vain-Glory) among them."

"Honos et Virtus" are, I take it, approximately equivalent to "Fame and Valour," our more strictly ethical conceptious of Honour and Virtue being rather foreshadowed by the Roman ideas of which Fides and Justitia are the respective tallies. Temples of Honos and Virtus, so connected that the former was only approachable through the latter were vowed by M. Claudius Marcellus, and dedicated by his son about B.C. 204. C. Marius built another temple to these deities on the Arx Capitolina about B C. 101.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

Samuel Butler, who was Milton's contemporary, took another view of Fame (Hudibras,' Part II. canto i. 45, &c.). His Fame would seem to be Rumour rather than Renown; but, after all, what is Renown but established Rumour ?

There is a tall long-sided dame
(But wond'rous light) ycleped Fame,
That like a thin cameleon boards
Herself on air, and eats her words;
Upon her shoulders wings she wears

Like hanging sleeves, lined through with ears,
And eyes and tongues, as poets list,
Made good by deep mythologist;
With these she through the welkin flies,
And sometimes carries truth, oft lies.

Two trumpets she does sound at once, But both of clean contrary tones; But whether both with the same wind, Or one before, and one behind, We know not; only this can tell, The one sounds vilely, th' other well; And therefore vulgar authors name The one Good, th' other Evil Fame. There is a valuable note on the black and