See also Walter Pelham's Illust. Journ., Oct. 18, 1897, pp. 1 and 3; Moonshine, Jan. 7, 1888, p. 1; Chambers's Journ., May 4, 1895, pp. 283-284, and Variety Theatre, Aug. 4, 1905, p. 28. Any other references would be valued. J. ARDAGH. General information about Blondin should be easy to come by, but in case MR. DICKINSON may be writing in detail about him I write to say that on at least two occasions Blondin performed on the tightrope as far north as Aberdeen. The first occasion was in September, 1861, in " Sir Alexander Bannerman's Garden "- -a pleasure-ground on the town-house property in Union Street, Aberdeen, of Sir Alexander Bannerman of Crimonmogate (father of the present Countess of Southesk). Newspaper accounts of the affair indicate that it was a highly popular exhibition. The next occasion of Blondin's visit to Aberdeen was in June, 1870, when he walked on a tightrope in the grounds of Bridewell-the west prison of Aberdeen, opened, 1809, and named from Bridewell, of London. It was discontinued as a prison in 1868, and for some years thereafter the grounds were used as a pleasure - garden. Many thousands turned out to see Blondin on that occasion. I remember being taken, as a very small boy, to see the great spectacle-as we thought and had a fearful shock at one point when Blondin, blindfolded, made a feint of missing his foothold, and came down slightly on one leg. He was a great hero then. G. M. FRASER. Public Library, Aberdeen. Jean-François Gravelet, whose professional name was Blondin, because of the colour of his hair, was first heard of as a gymnast, in America in 1858. His fame began with a rope-walk over the Falls of Niagara in 1859. A repetition of this dar ing feat, in the presence of King Edward (when Prince of Wales), in 1860, led to Blondin coming to England, a decision he had no cause to regret. His earliest show was at the Crystal Palace on June 1, 1861. He was also something of an actor, appearing as a monkey in a ballet entitled The Child of the Wreck.' The poetry-jobber couldn't miss the hero of Niagara, and thus delivers himself: Of all the sights in England now, With Blondin can compare. [MR. T. W. TYRRELL mentions an illustrate interview to be found in Cassell's Famil Magazine, December, 1896; and MR. ARCHIBALI of SPARKE says that a portrait will be found the Illustrated London News, vol. cx. (18 ta p. 227.] THE OLD AND NEW STYLE (cl 423, 46 to he The astronomers of Julius Caesar's ti made their calculations on the supposition" that the Solar year (with which it wai Cæsar's desire that the civil year shou' accord) consisted of 365 days and 6 hou and omitted to take into account the dif ence between that amount of time and tr true time of the sun's course, which differ ence, in each year, amounted to 11 min utes and 12 seconds; consequently, the year 1582 there was difference of abo 10 days, made up by the accumulation the odd minutes. : he In the Bull of Pope Gregory XIII., 24 Feb. 1582, the New Calendar was definitely in troduced; the correction being effected i the following manner. Ten days were omit ted by calling the day following the 4th October, 1582, the 15th of October, 1582, (the 5th to the 14th of October inclusive being unwritten). Other alterations, besides the omission of the ten days, were ordered to take place after the year 1582; viz., that of the hundredth years then to come only the fourth hundredth years were to be bissextile or leapyears, having 366 days (whereof the year 1600 was the first); other hundredth years, not being fourth hundredths, to be considered common years, having 365 days, the 29th of February being unwritten. The Historial Year had long been in comhon use, in almanacks and in the calenars in Prayer-books, e.g., in those of King ward VI and Queen Elizabeth. There is a curious survival of the English Style Year in the Financial Year, which B fore 1752 began on March 25th. When the eleven days were struck out of the calendar, e 25th March O.S. the 5th April N.S., ich ought now to be 7th April, N.S., ich would be a date even more aggravatg to tax-payers than 5th April. Most of what I have written above is ken from the Handy-Book of Rules and ables for Verifying Dates,' by John J. Bond, Assistant Keeper of Her Majesty's Pecord Office, fourth edition, George Bell Ad Sons, 1889, a very useful book. b 58 ཥ 11 It is impossible to reconcile the dates, cited in the query as given in Mr. Hilaire Belloc's Eye-Witness,' as they are all three incorrect. See MR. BELLOC's reply at the second reference. CHAN ROBERT PIERPOINT. CHANGE OF BAPTISMAL NAMES (cl. 353, 431, 443). It is customary (though not universally so) for Catholics to take an additional Christian name at confirmation; but this is not subsequently used in signing one's name. In most religious orders a new name is assumed on reception of the habit: it is an addition to, not a substitute for, the baptismal name; and the recipient is usually known by it. French and Italian Benedictines, however, are addressed by their surname, with the prefix of Dom as Dom Cabrol, Dom Pitra, etc. th According to Cripps, 'Law relating to the Church and Clergy,' the change of baptismal names at confirmation is ordered only when "wanton names which being pro"have nounced do sound to lasciviousness been given at baptism. FONCHY is probably aware that a registered Christian name can be formally altered after baptism. I have more than once issued certificates for this. purpose. H. L. "GERMAN LEGION" AT COLTHE CHESTER (cl. 351, 431).—Full particulars are given in Lieut.-Colonel Whitton's 'The Prince of Wales's Leicester Regiment, Royal Canadians,' Gale and raised in 1855 largely from Germans who Polden, pp. 246, et syg, of a German legion, had emigrated to Canada and the States, for service in the Crimea. One training centre was Colchester. After the conclusion of the war many of the legionaries were established as military colonists in KaffraOn the outbreak of the ria, Cape Colony. Indian Mutiny, over 1,000 of these settlers volunteered for service in India, and a battalion was formed, but landed in Calcutta too late to be employed actively. Five hundred and sixty of these gallant fellows, took permanent service under the Crown in the 3rd Bombay European Regiment, which became, in 1861, the 109th Bombay Infantry, and, in 1881, the 2nd Battalion of The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regt. (Royal Canadians), the first Battalion of which had been raised in Canada for service in the Indian Mutiny. J. S. The The King's German Legion was a large Corps in the pay of Great Britain, and incorporated with the British Army, from 1803 until its disbandment in 1816. various regiments of which it was composed until 1816 when the Legion was disbanded, appear in the Official Army Lists from 1805 all the officers being then placed upon halfpay, with effect from 24 Feb. At the time of its disbandment it consisted of four Regiments of Cavalry; eight Companies of Artillery; Engineers; two Battalions of Light Infantry; eight Battalions of Infantry of the Line. H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge was its Colonel-inChief. Its history (two vols.), written by Lieut.colonel N. L. Beamish, was published in London in 1832-7. J. H. LESLIE. GORDON'S ITINERARIUM SEPTENU TRIONALE' (cl. 424).—In a long paper communicated to the Soc. Antiq. Scotl. (Proceedings Dec. 8, 1873 vol. x., pp. 363-382), David Laing quotes from a letter of Gordon's (1731), as follows: now Some lovers of antiquity in Holland, being printing a Latin edition of 'Itinerarium Septentrionale,' are desirous to know if I could transmit to them any additions and corrections for the original in English. In response to this desire, Gordon issued his Supplement, published by Vandendhoeck, Dutch printers in London, in 1732. Dr. Laing, in a note to Gordon's letter, expresses a doubt whether the proposed Latin edition ever appeared in Holland, as he had never seen it, or any mention of it in a catalogue. Mr. Gordon Goodwin makes no reference to it in his article on Alexander Gordon in the 'D.N.B.' (vol. xxii.). Allibone, however, states quite definitely that, a Latin version of both the book and the Supplement was published in Holland in 1731; but he names neither the place nor the publisher. D. O. HUNTER BLAIR. Fort Augustus Abbey. man named Parmentier had planted these 23, Weighton Road, Anerley. ORIGIN OF UPPER CLASSES": my EXPRESSION (cl. 406).—The interesting story of the word "class "" should be read at large in the New English Dictionary,' the part edited by Sir James (then Dr.) Murray in 1889. Servius Tullius, the last but one of the kings of Rome (578-534, B.C.), reorganised the Roman army by dividing all the available men (apart from the equites or cavalry) into five divisions on a property qualification. The Latin word for such a division, classis, was borrowed into English before 1600; it appears in its English form, spelt classe, in a dictionary of the year 1656 (Thomas Blount's Glossographia') defined as an order, or distribution of people according to their several Degrees. In Schools (wherein this word is most used) a Form or Lecture restrained to a certain company of Scholars." Dr. Murray remarks: The phrases Higher (Upper), Middle, Lower, Classes, Working Classes appear to be of modern introduction. The Dictionary's earliest quotations are dated as follows:-lower classes of the people, 1772; working classes, 1816; upper alasses, 1826; upper classes (of a school), 1740; middle classes, 1830; lower classes, 1832; the classes (Gladstone's antithesis to "the masses"), 1886; the lower order of Britons, 1712; lower orders of the English Gentry, 1749; lower orders, 1822; middle orders, 1823. THE POTATO IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (cl. 424).-As the potato was introduced into Europe before the end of the sixteenth century, there are naturally plenty of references to it in the literature of the seventeenth. MR. SIMMONDS will find many, s.v., in such easily accessible works as the 'N.E.D.' and the Encyclopædia Britannica.' But as Louis IV. of France died in A.D. 954, it can hardly have been the flower either of Batatus edulis or Solanum tuberosum that he wore in his royal button-hole. D. O. HUNTER BLAIR. Fort Augustus Abbey. Messrs. Erckmann-Chatrian, in their novel Les Etats-Généraux,' give a graphic account of the introduction of the potato into Lorraine in the eighteenth century, under Louis XVI. The seed is described as "" Hanoverian roots,' "" but is said to have been brought from the Palatinate, where several persons had grown them for some time." A later passage, at the end of the same chapter (iv.) implies that the potato was then unknown even in Paris. I have not the original here, but in the translation (The States-General'-Ward, Lock and Tyler, n.d.), it reads: "The following spring we read in the gazettes that a brave Lord North on Feb. 8, 1778, having accompanied Sir John Day, Advocate-General of Bengal, as secretary. Col. Love quotes from Hicky's Bengal Gazette, July 29, 1780, Popham, formerly a member of the Irish Parliament, is said to have been appointed by Whitehill to be his Private Secretary.' He was a brother of Sir Home Riggs Popham, consequently a son of Joseph (not Stephen) Popham. See 11 S. v. 136, in reply to a former query of G. F. R. B.'s. George Munro Popham (also an Old West minster) and Stephen Popham, Capt., R. N., were sons of the Madras solicitor by Anne his wife, sister of Sir George Thomas, 3rd Bart., of Yayton. AR V. H. RMS FOR IDENTIFICATION (cl. 441). -1. This coat probably belonged to a branch of the Tirrell family. The arms as blazoned by Papworth are, Gules, a fess between three crosses-crosslet argent, on a chief of the second a demi-lion rampant sable. 2. There is no coat in Papworth with an embattled fess between either lozenges or mascles (lozenges voided). H. J. B. CLEMENTS. 43, Egerton Gardens, S.W.3. THE FIFTH DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (cl. 209, 250, 284, 412).-Though scarcely relevant to the enquiry it seems worth while to mention that claims to descent from Gundreda (de Warenne) have been made by certain Gundrys (and, perhaps, Grundys). There is possibly some slight basis of fact for such an assumption, inasmuch as this was once a favourite name to bestow upon girls, and in certain instances, may have survived as a metronymic. But even so, it is still a very far cry from establishing a descent from the countess whose remains lie at Southover. F. GORDON ROE. The Clerestory, 18, Stanford Rd., Kennington Court, W.8. child." Nodal and Milner's Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect' (Manchester, 1875) has:-" Scopperel, a round flat piece of bone with a hole in the middle, frequently made into a spinner or teetotum; also applied metaphorically to a young rascal. Icelandic skoppa, to spin like a top; skoppora-kringla, a top [the toy]." Wick," the same word as quick the phrase the quick and the dead," is in frequent use in the dialect in this neighbourhood. " in WM. SELF-WEEKS. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BICYCLE (9 S. viii. 304, 490, 530).-Mr. Charles Nowell, F.L.A., compiled a bibliography of the bicycle which he published in No. 4 of the Readers' Bulletin, the magazine of the Coventry Public Libraries. Littlehampton. A. H. W. FYNMORE. WILLIAM BROMLEY (cl. 442).—Wil liam Bromley, of Baginton, Warwickshire, M.P., eldest son (by his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Stawel), of 1725, Lucy, Speaker Bromley, married, daughter and heiress of Sir Clement Throckmorton of Hawley, Warwickshire. She was born in 1707. By her William Bromley had issue. I should be very glad if G. F. R. B. could give me further information relating to this William Bromley. EVELYN NEWTON. A PROBLEM OF EARLY ENGLISH HISTORY (cl. 383).-Mention is made in this article of the Arosate, and it is surmised that they were in Mercia, and at a centre where some river-name would account for the nomenclature. When investigating and preparing the history of Wymeswold, recently mentioned CHR HRISTMAS AS A PLACE-NAME (cl. 442).-In order to make a reply to your correspondent of interest to other readers, perhaps the various places in the world called Christmas could be given. Christmas Common is a tiny hamlet in the Chiltern Hills, about two miles from Watlington in Oxfordshire. There are three "Christmas Islands recognised by geographers: one on the Indian Ocean; another in the Pacific; and the third is situated in the Little Bras d'or, one of the salt-water lakes of Cape Breton Island. The South Pacific Christmas Island was so called because it was first discovered on Christmas Day, 1777, by Capt. Cook. There is Christmas Harbour in Kerguelen Island, and another Christmas Harbour at Kotzebue in the Pacific Ocean. Christmas cataracts are on the Berbice River in British Guiana. In South America there is Christmas Sound, lying between Tierra-del-Fuego and Waterman Island, and discovered on Christmas Eve, 1724. Christmas Hill is the name of a farming district in Evelyn County, Victoria, twenty miles out of Melbourne, and the only place on the Australian Continent named after the festival. H. PROSSER CHANTER. There is a Christmas Street at Kirkdale, Liverpool. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. Common in Westwood, Clitheroe. There is Christmas a Oxfordshire, on the north western escarpment of the Chilterns, about 11⁄2 miles out of Watlington on the Turville road. (Ordnance Survey, one inch sheet, No. 106, Large Sheet Series.) Christmaspie is the name of a farm about one mile north of the Hogs Back, it is about mile S. W. of Wanborough Station on the Farnham and Alton Branch of the old L. & S. W. Railway, some four miles west of Guildford. A. R. Christmas Common is a hamlet and small village on the Chiltern Hills in the parish of Watlington from which place it is distant two miles in a south-easterly direction. Its situation is in the south-east portion of Oxfordshire. H. ASKEW. There is a street called Christmas Street off Brasenose Road, Kirkdale, some two and a half miles north of the Liverpool Town Hall. Sir A. Picton, F.S. A., in his history of Liverpool streets, does not mention it. It is a cul-de-sac, only ten houses in the street. ANDREW ARICKE. FAMILY OF FORTH (cl. 405.)-Burke's 'General Armory' gives four families of Forth bearing arms, namely: Forth of London, azure, a rose between two martlets in pale between as many flaunches or each charged with a rose, gules. Crest: A hind's head couped vert guttée or collared and lined of the last. Forth.-Gules, a lion rampant, or supfolk).-Gules, two bends vairé or and sable, on a canton of the second a demi greyhound couped courant of the third. Crest: A bear's head sable muzzled gules. Forth, gules, A lion rampant, or. supporting a staff raguly of the last (no crest given). Forth (Rickmondsworth, Co. Herts), Registered Ulster's Office, temp. William III. to Captain Samuel Forth) of Colonel Wolseley's regt. of horse). Ermine, an Irish harp or between three martlets gules. Crest. A cubit dexter Arm embowed, naked, and encircled with a ducal coronet, the hand grasping a broken sword all proper. LEONARD C. PRICE. |