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POTATO AND POINT. -In one of the Cumberland ballads by R. Anderson, whose Works have very lately been noticed in "N. & Q.," I find the following lines:

"Dinnerless gang ae hawf o' the week;

If we get a bit meat on a Sunday, She cuts me nae mair than would physic a sneype, Then we've 'tatey and point every Monday." This is a reference to a common expression, very much in use in the northern counties, and is sed figuratively to imply very scanty fare: "We shall have 'tateys and point to dinner." On making inquiry into the origin of the expression, I was told that it was the practice at a time when a duty upon salt made it much dearer than it is at present, and when that article got scarce in a household, for the persons round the table to point the potato at the salt, or salt-cellar, as if to cheat the imagination. Has the expression any other origin? And is it used in any of the other parts of England. I think I have heard of it being used in Ireland, but cannot quote the authority.

T. B.

BOYLE.-Mention is made in Debrett's Peerage, under the title "Glasgow," of Charles Boyle, the third son of the first earl; without, however, any particulars, save that he "died unmarried." I find it stated in the New York Council Minutes, Jan. 4, 1730-1, that the Honourable Charles Boyle petitioned for a grant of land at Oyster Bay, on Long Island, which had escheated to the crown in consequence of the previous proprietor having died without heirs; and that he subsequently did obtain a grant of said land. I presume he came to New York with Gov. Montgomerie, another Scotchman, about the year 1728. On the death of Gov. Montgomerie, in 1731, Mr. Boyle was one of the securities for Charles Home; who, as nearest of kin, was appointed administrator. He was appointed Justice of the Peace and Quorum for the county of Queens, April 6, 1738; and was still in the colony June 28, 1739, when he again made application for an additional grant of land. E. B. O'C.

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ARMY MOVEMENTS.-The "changes of base" of the "Army of the Potomac," and of the rebel Army of Virginia" during the past two years, remind one (says an American writer) of the Southern campaign of 1791, as described in a song which was popular at the close of the Revolutionary war: —

"Cornwallis led a country dance,

The like was never seen, sir;
Much retrograde and much advance.
And all with General Greene, sir.

"They rambled up and rambled down,

Joined hands, and off they ran, sir;
Our General Greene to old Charlestown,
And the Earl to Wilmington, sir."

ST. T.

REVALENTA. · A. -- The materials of this much-advertised article have excited some curiosity. I remember visiting Sir John Conroy's magnificent establishment for breeding and feeding pigs at Arborfield, near Reading. On asking about the food, I heard that the small African lentiles came into their diet. At my request a pint or two were given to me, and on my return home I had them ground in a coffee-mill, and made into porridge. According to my judgment, the taste very much corresponded with the article styled “Revalenta." It had a different appearance, being of a much darker colour. This appeared to be from the rind, which was not removed. This lentile had a reddish tint, reminding of "that same red pottage" (Gen. xxv. 30), that "pottage of lentiles" (v. 34) of which we hear in connection with Esau. I merely write this as fact, and as a matter of my own experience, and not the least in disparagement of Revalenta, which I have at times used with much satisfaction. FRANCIS TRench. Islip, Oxford.

AUTHOR OF GRANDSIRE BOB. Besides the mysteries of Treble Bob, and all the Bobs, it has been a mystery who was the first inventor of such peals.

The following doggerel lines throw some light on the subject. Though devoid of all elegance, they are interesting as a matter of history, and therefore may well be recorded in the world-wide pages of "N. & Q." They were first published in 1668 in the Art of Ringing by Fabian Stedmans, a work commended by Dr. Burney in his History of Music.

"Upon the Presentation of Grandsire Bob to the Colledge Youths by the Author of that Peal.

"Gentlemen of the noble crew,

Of Colledge Youths there lately blew
A wind, which to my noddle flew,
(Upon a daye, when as it snew,)
Which to my brains the vapors drew,
And there began to work and brew,
Till in my Pericranium grew
Conundrums, how some peal that's new
Might be compos'd; and to pursue
These thoughts (which did so whet and hew
My flat invention) and to shew
What might be done, I strait withdrew
Myself to ponder whence did accrue
This Grandsire Bob, which unto you
I dedicate; for there's but few
Besides, so ready at their Queue
(Especially at the first view)
To apprehend a thing that's new,
Tho' they'll pretend and make a shew,

As if the intricat'st, they knew,

What Bob doth mean, and Grandsire true,
And read the course without a clue

Of the new peal: yet tho' they screw
Their shallow brains, they'll ne'er unglue
The method on't: (and I'm a Jew
If I don't think this to be true),
They see no more on't than blind Hugh.
Well, let their tongues run Tityre tu,

Drink muddy Ale, or else French Lieue,
Whilst we our sport and art renew,
And drink good Sack till sky looks blew,
So Grandsire bids you all adieu.

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"R. R."

Grandsire Bob consists of 720 changes, which may be rung or set down 1440 different ways. H. T. ELLACOMBE, M.A. SELF-ESTEEM OF THE ENGLISH.- A passage from Hentzner's Travels, quoted at p. 429 of the present volume of " N. & Q." to the effect, that when the English see a foreigner very well made, or particularly handsome, they say it is a pity he is not an Englishman, is curiously illustrated by a remark in the Relation of the Island of England, written about 1500 by one of the Venetian ambassadors, and edited, with a translation, for the Camden Society, by Miss Sneyd. The writer says that he has understood that

"The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that he looks like an Englishman,' and 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishman.' And when they partake of any delicacy with a foreigner, they ask him whether such a thing is made in their country?'"-P. 21.

The account given of us by this noble Venetian is certainly not flattering; but it must be confessed that, as to the above point, the statements of these two travellers, at the interval of a century from each other, would probably even now, after the lapse of 250 years more, be confirmed in substance by most foreigners.

VEBNA.

BEDE AND DE MORGAN.-Most of your readers who are at all interested in chronology, will know that the last of these writers has published thirtytwo Almanacs; from which the student may turn out the Almanac of the year on which he is engaged, with the means of finding new moons, &c. Not having this book, but wanting the information it conveys, I found in the first volume of Ven. Bede's Works what he calls twenty-eight Circuli; will some one tell me how I can use these last, so as to do without the "Book of Almanacs?" Should this meet MR. DE MORGAN's eye, I have no doubt he will be much amused to find that he has been anticipated by Ven. Bede 1500 years ago. WM. DAVIS. Oscott.

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ANONYMOUS. -Who was the author of The Adventures of Naufragus, 1827 ? H.

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BLOTTING-PAPER. Can any one inform me when blotting-paper came into use? I have reason to believe, but the opinion requires confirmation, that it was known on the continent of Europe some time before it found its way into this country. I shall be glad to have instances furnished me of the use of the substance or the occurrence of the name, or its equivalents (such as chartabibula, Latin; papier-brouillard, French: cartasciuga and carta-sugante, Italian; Löschpapier, German) before the year 1600.*

GRIME.

ROBERT BURNS, JUN. — In Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, the following entry appears:

"Burns (Robert) son of the celebrated Scotch Bard. The Caledonian Musical Museum, a complete Vocal Library, 1809, 12mo."

Can any of your readers give me some information regarding this work? Scotus.

NATHANIEL AXTELL, ESQ. -Dugdale, in his MoCHARTULARIES OF CARROW ABBEY, NORWICH : nasticon Anglicanum, mentions some chartularies of Carrow Priory, which was a Benedictine convent at a short distance from the city of Norwich, as being in the possession of Nathaniel Axtell, Esq., who was living, I believe, in the year 1712. Of these valuable documents, I believe that all trace is now lost, but is anything known of Axtell? and what became of his papers? All that I can learn of him is that he presented to the united livings of St. Julian's and All Saints in Norwich, which were, during the monastic period, in the presentation of the prioress of Carrow. As I am gathering together all facts, &c., relating to this establishment, I should be glad if any of your numerous readers who may chance to know anything concerning it would be kind enough to communicate with me, either through the medium of your columns, or by letter to my address as under. EDW. A. TILLett.

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[* Fuller, who died in 1661, in his Worthies (Cambridgeshire) seems to allude to blotting-paper. He says, "There are almost as many several kinds of paper as conditions of persons betwixt the emperor and beggar: imperial, royal, cardinal; and so downwards to that coarse paper called emporetica, useful only for chapmen to wrap their wares therein. Paper participates in some sort of the characters of the countrymen which make it: the Venetian being neat, subtile, and courtlike; the French light, slight, and slender; the Dutch, thick, corpulent, and gross; not to say sometimes also charta bibula, sucking up the ink with the sponginess thereof." In an "Account of Stationery supplied to the Receipt of the Exchequer and the Treasury, 1666-1668," occur several entries of "one and two quires of blotting-paper." Vide "N. & Q." 1st S. viii. 104, 185.-ED.]

'Is this original, or transcribed from some

C. W. BINGHAM.

JOHN GUY, merchant of Bristol, in 1609, published a treatise on the plantation of Newfound-printed eulogies of that day? land, of which he subsequently became governor. There is extant a proclamation by him dated Cooper's Cove, August 13, 1611, against abuses and bad customs by persons who used the trade of fishing in those parts. He and his family remained there two years. He especially aimed at a trade with the Indians, and employed one Captain Whittington for the purpose. Mr. Guy, who was an alderman of Bristol, served the office of mayor of that city in 1618-19. (Purchas's Pilgrims, ii. 1875-1877; Stow's Chron. ed. Howe's, 943; Barrett's Bristol, 177, 178, 688; Seyer's Bristol, ii. 259, 260; Pryce's Bristol, 485, 620; Sainsbury's Cal. Col. State Papers, 20, 303; Green's Cal. Dom. State Papers, James. I. iii. 19.) We desire to ascertain the title of his treatise, and the date of his death.

"ORBIS SENSUALIUM VICTUS." Where can I procure reliable bibliographical information respecting the early editions of the Dano-GermanoLatinus versions of the Orbis Sensualium Victus? JOHN N. HARPER.

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C. H. & THOMPSON COOPER.
COLONEL AND MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON. At
the time of the publication of The "Memoirs of
Colonel Hutchinson, by Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson,'
there was in possession of Mr. Jones, a solicitor,
in addition to the Memoirs which were printed,
many other family papers, and also the portraits
of Colonel Hutchinson and his wife. Information
is desired as to where such portraits and papers
are now to be found.
S. N.

DAVID LAMONT, D.D., minister of Kirkpatrick,
Durham, in Kirkcudbrightshire, and author of
several volumes of sermons, was living in 1830.
When did he die?
S. Y. R.

BEQUEST FOR ROOD LOFTS.-William Bruges, Garter-King-at-Arms, London, by his will, dated 1449, left certain monies for "the complesshyng and ending of the church of Staunford, that is covering with lede, glassyng, and making of pleyn desques, and of a pleyn rode lofte, and in puying of the seyd church nowit curiously, but pleynly; and in paving of the hole chirch body and quere with Holland tyle." Is there any earlier instance than this of any one leaving a bequest for the making of a rood loft? Bequests for pewing, &c., JOHN BOWEN ROWLANDS.

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POMEROY FAMILY.-Richard Pomeroy, of Bowden, Esq., married Eleanor, daughter of John Cotter, Esq., Mapowder, Dorset, in the reign of Henry VIII., and left two sons-Henry and Johu. Can any of your readers inform me, if either of

them left descendants?

PROCESS AT BERNE.

W. S.

Bishop Burnet, in a letter from Zurich, dated September 1, 1685, states that he read at Berne the original process in the Latin record, signed by the Notaries of the Court of Delegates, that the Pope sent to try four Dominican friars accused of a blasphemous cheat, for which they were burnt in a meadow on the other side of the river over against the great church at Berne, May 31, 1509.

Query. Is the process referred to still preserved at Berne?

Kingstown.

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Can any of your readers tell me who is the author of the following? When at Rugby, I remember its being given as a subject for Latin verse; and I have now copied it from the flyleaf of a book, where I then wrote it :"Few the words that I have spoken, True love's words are ever few; Yet by many a speechless token Hath my heart discoursed to you; Souls that to each other listen, Hear the language of a sigh, Read the silent tears that glisten, In the tender trembling eye. When your cheek is pale with sadness Dimmer grows the light of mine, And your smiles of sunny gladness In my face reflected shine.

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"So it is with vulgar natures."

M. S. The following is quoted by a monthly periodical as an extract from "one of the Fathers:"

"Utilis lectio, utilis eruditio, sed magis utilis UNCTIO." I shall be glad to learn in what work of the Fathers this is to be found? GEORGE LLOYD.

Could any of your readers give me the name of the author of the following lines, and where I could find them?

"God and the doctor we alike adore,

But only when in danger, not before;
The danger o'er, both are alike requited,
God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted."

T. C. B.

"When Secker preaches, and when Murray pleads, The church is crowded, and the bar is thronged." OXONIENSIS.

ROLLO'S FIRST WIFE. Who was the father of Poppée, Poppa, or Popa, the first wife of Rollo, Duke of Normandy? Rapin (vol. i. p. 99) calls him Earl of Bayeux. Jules Janin (De la Normandie, p. 10), calls him Seigneur de Bayeux. What right had he to either of these titles? What became of his descendants? Did they ever become Viscomtes du Bessin ? MELETES.

J. SHURLEY.-I possess a small volume entitled Ecclesiastical History Epitomiz'd. The work is in two parts. On the title of part i. it is stated to be "collected by J. S. Gent. ;" and the introduction to part ii. is subscribed J. Shurley, but without any address or further reference. The first part was printed in 1682, and the second part in 1683, both parts being printed for William Thackeray, on London Bridge. To the second part there is a curious frontispiece, giving the fathers of the Reformation seated round a table, while a figure dressed in pontifical robes is attempting to blow out a candle which stands on the middle of the table, and this figure is supported by the Devil and other personages. I think it is very likely that the first part had an illustrated title or frontispiece. The work came into my possession in a very tattered condition, and possibly the frontispiece had been lost.

Who was this J. Shurley? There is no mention of him, nor of the work, in Bohn's edition of Lowndes, nor can I find any mention of either in any bibliographical work in my possession. It is a

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"Waffers, in his charming little poem, The Visitation, says, anticipating, Wordsworth's 'forty feeding like one': 'Unanimous in grief or fun,

Ten talk, and laugh, and weep like one."" P. 17. "No one has sketched the weakly and the kindly points of the clergy more delicately than Waffers.". P. 48. (Literary Recollections, by an Old Reader. London, 1825.)

Can you inform me who Waffers was, and where I can find The Visitation? O. A. E.

WALLOON CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON. In Mr. Burn's History of the Foreign Refugees (1846), I find, at p. 80, under the heading "Southampton:"

"At this town there was a settlement of the Wallcons, and also Refugees from the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark, and the Orkneys."

When, and under what circumstances, were these refugees driven from the islands here enumerated? How came any refugees from the Orkneys to have anything to do with a Walloon or French church at Southampton? MELETES.

WORKMAN'S MS., AND PONT's "BOOK OF BLAzONS.". Nisbet, in his well-known treatise on Scotch Heraldry, makes reference to a manuscript by some one of the name of Workman; and also to a Book of Blazons by Mr. Pont.† Will any of your Scotch correspondents kindly inform me if these still exist? In what form, and where deposited? FŒDUS.

Queries with Answers.

WASSAIL. - Would you kindly give me the old recipe for wassail? I want to revive it in my family this year, but want a good old English recipe. Is it still made in Norfolk? Is their recipe the same as the old?

A. W. TAYLOR.

[The ingredients of the earlier Wassail Bowl, it would seem, were not the same as those of a later period. In Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 164, is a curious account of a visit of King Edgar to the Abbey of Abingdon. It is there said that "the king was glad, and commanded that hydromel [metheglin] should be abundantly supplied for

[* His Ecclesiastical History Epitomiz'd, 1682-3, is neither in the Bodleian Library nor in that of the British Museum. The latter contains a copy of another work by him, entitled, The Honour of Chivalry, or the Famous and Delectable History of Don Bellianis of Greece. Translated out of Italian. In Three Parts. London, 4to, 1683. The preface to second and third parts is signed J. Shurley.]

[† Nisbet (vol. i. p. 263) states that "the most exactest copy he had seen of James Pont's MS. Collections of the Blazons of the Nobility and Gentry in Scotland in the year 1624, was in the House of Seton, where he died."ED.]

the visitors to drink. What followed? The attendants drew the liquor all day in full sufficiency for the guests; but the liquor itself could not be exhausted from the vessel, except a handbreath, though the Northanhimbri made merry, and at night went home jolly!" Leaving the miraculous part of the story out of the question, it appears (says Dr. Milner) that this was a true Wassailing bout, and that metheglin was the beverage made use of on the occasion (Archaologia, xi. 421.) The metheglin, or mead, is a fermented liquor, of some potency, made from honey. Hence from a metheglin jollification of thirty days after a wedding comes the expression so familiar to the friends of a newly-married couple-the Honeymoon.

In later times, however, the composition of the Wassail Bowl was ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples, which has also received the more comfortable name of Lamb's Wool. The contents of the bowl are specified in the first verse of "The Wassaillers' Song," still sung on New Year's Eve in Gloucestershire:

"Wassail! Wassail! all over the town;
Our toast is white, our ale is brown;
Our bowl is made of maplin tree,

We be good fellows all-I drink to thee."

In that pleasant brochure, Cups and their Customs, p. 36, occurs the following receipt for the Wassail Bowl:-"Put into a quart of warm beer one pound of raw sugar, on which grate a nutmeg and some ginger; then add four glasses of sherry and two quarts more of beer, with three slices of lemon; add some sugar, if required, and serve it with three slices of toasted bread floating in it."]

LAURENCE BRADDON. - I have a curious tract entitled

"Particular Answers to the most Material Objections Made to the Proposal Humbly presented to His Majesty, for Relieving, Reforming, and Employing all the Poor of Great Britain. 1722."

It bears no name upon the title, but the dedication to the king is subscribed "Laurence Braddon." The nature of the proposal made to the king may be gathered from this work, but the proposal itself is not given, nor have I been able to procure a copy.

A reference is made in Bohn's edition of Lowndes to Lawrence Braddon, who, besides other works, is represented to be the author of

"The Tryal of Laurence Braddon and Hugh Speke, Gent., upon an Information of High Misdemeanour, Subornation, and spreading false Reports. 1684, folio."

This would lead me to infer that the author of the tract is not the person referred to in Lowndes as the author of several works, and the spelling of the Christian name is different. Can any of your readers give me information on this head, and also say where I can obtain further particulars as to the Laurence Braddon who is the author of the tract in my possession? T. B.

[The author of the tract on "Employing all the Poor " is the same individual whose works are noticed by Lowndes. Mr. Laurence Braddon, a barrister, was engaged in industriously collecting evidence to prove that Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, had been murdered in the Tower of London on July 13, 1683. The tragical end of the Earl is an occurrence which has never been satisfactorily cleared up, and is one of those mysterious events

which has divided the opinions of historians. The evidence produced by Braddon will be found in the following pamphlet, "The Trial of Laurence Braddon and Hugh Speke at the King's Bench on Feb. 7, 1684, for a Misdemeanor in suborning witnesses to prove the Earl of Essex was murdered by his Keepers." This pamphlet is reprinted in Cobbett's State Trials, ix. 1127-1228. Braddon was fined 20007., and Speke 10007. His last work, although dated 1725, appears to have been printed just before his death, which took place on Sunday, Nov. 29, 1724. It is entitled, "Bishop Burnet's Late History Charg'd with great Partiality and Misrepresentations, to make the Present and Future Ages believe that Arthur Earl of Essex, in 1683, murdered himself. Lond. 8vo, 1725." This is also reprinted in Cobbett's State Trials, ix. 12291332. Braddon presented a copy of this work to Sir Hans Sloane as appears from a laconic epistle preserved in the Addit. MS. 4038, p. 334:

"To Sir Hans Sloane. I desire your acceptance of the booke herewith presented by your most humble and most obedient Servant, "LAURENCE BRADDON.

[Month torn off] the 25th, 1724."

See more respecting Braddon and his controversies in Ralph's History of England, i. 761-765; North's Examen, 1740, pp. 386-388; and Kippis's Biog. Britannica, iii. 229, 230.]

REV. JAMES STRUTHERS. - About the close of the last century there arose a class of distinguished preachers in Scotland; the first, and most eminent for eloquence, and whose manners and appearance were most captivating, was the Rev. James Struthers. He was admired and attended by all the higher classes of Edinburgh, and was contemporary with Dugald Stewart, that amiable man and philosopher, John Playfair, &c. &c. He officiated on the Sundays in what was on all week days an amphitheatre of horsemanship, situate in a curious and rather mean locality at the back of the "Black Bull Inn," formed by a nook of houses at the head of Leith Walk, in Edinburgh, and which was no thoroughfare to any part of the city. There was little or no transmutation of the interior on the Sunday; and I have attended the performances in equitation on a I have heard the most impressive addresses and Saturday night, and ten or eleven hours afterwards, prayers from Mr. Struthers; having been almost squeezed to death to get admission. I believe Mr. Struthers was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Chalmers and others, whose names it is unnecessary to recapitulate. I beg to know if there be any memoir extant of Mr. Struthers?

Σ. Σ.

[The following notice of the death of this popular preacher is given in The Scots Magazine, lxix. 560 "Died on July 13, 1807, the Rev. James Struthers, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, and sixteenth of his ministry in the Relief Chapel, College-street: a man whose sound judgment, extensive information, liberal sentiments, correct taste, impressive eloquence, elegant manners, moral worth, and unaffected piety, will be ever recollected with a strong mixture of pleasure and regret, by an uncommon number of friends and admirers." He has also a passing notice in Henry Lord Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, 8vo, 1856, p. 239: "Of our native

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