F. WILLIAM COCK, M.D. P.S.-I would suggest, if it is possible, that the head should be submitted to a few recognised anatomical professors, who may be antiquaries but must be experts. This would give us a considered judgment from the scientific point of view. P.P.S.-With regard to Pepys's statement that he had seen the heads in Westminster Hall, is it not quite probable that they were set up inside the hall porarily so that people might see and recognize them before they were placed on the outside where they could not have been so closely inspected?

AMBLING

tem

F. W. C.

'The (cli. 27, 65).-In his Diary of William Silence' (a study of Shakespeare and Elizabethan sport) the Rt. Hon. D. H. Madden says (p. 259):

To the wayfarer who had to travel his weary miles under such circumstances (i.e., bad roads), a horse trained to the easy pace known as the amble was almost a necessity. Take away the ambling horse,' said Blundeville, and take away the olde man, the rich man, the weake man, nay generally all men's travels; for coaches are but for streets, and carts can hardly pass in winter.' The word amble did not then, as now, denote a slow and easy trot. It was an artificial pace, in which the horse moved simultaneously the fore and hind legs on each side, a mode of progress which may be now studied in animals differing as widely in other respects as the African camel and the American pacer. In teaching the horse to amble the legs on each side were attached by means of trammels. Some horses took more naturally to this pace than others, notably your Irish hobby, which was therefore in much request for ' an ambling gelding' (see Merry Wives' II. 2. 319).

In the Household Book of the 5th Earl of Northumberland, begun in 1512, we find that Lord Percy had

a gret doble trottynge hors, called a curtal, for his lordship to ride on out of townes. Another trottynge gambaldyn horse for his lordship to ride on when he comes into townes. An amblynge horse for his lordship to journeye on daily. A proper amblynge little nag for his lordship when he goeth on hunting or hawking. A gret amblynge gelding, or trottynge gelding to carry his male.

J. C. Whyte, quoting the foregoing in The History of the British Turf (a most inaccurate work as regards racing) gives a glossary, part of which runs :

A gambaldynge horse was one of show and parade; from the Italian word gamba (leg).

description, but whose more quiet ambling pace adapted him especially to the use of ladies. William Taplin, in 'The Sporting Dictionary' (1803) says under amble' :

HOLBORN: DERIVATION (cli. 46).—In Henry Morley's edition of Stow's Survay of London,' written in 1598, it is stated on pp. 42-43:

Anciently, until the Conqueror's time and two hundred years after, the city of London was watered, besides the famous river of Thames on the south part, with the river of Wells, as it was then called, on the west; with the water called Walbrook running through the midst of the city in [sic] the river of Thames, serving the heart thereof; and with a fourth water or bourn, which ran watering that part in the east. In the west within the city through Langbourne Ward, suburbs was also another great water, called Oldbourne, which had its fall into the river of Wells, etc., etc.

In the

same edition, p. 46, having described " Langbourne Water, so called of the length thereof," Stow says:

Oldbourne, or Hilbourne, was the like water, bars do stand, and it ran down the whole breaking out about the place where now the street till Oldbourne Bridge, and into the river of the Wells, or Turnmill Brook. This bourn was likewise long since stopped up at the head, and in other places where the same hath broken out, but yet till this day the said street is there called High Oldbourne Hill, and both the sides thereof, together with all the grounds adjoining that lie betwixt it and the river of Thames, remain full of springs, so that water is there found at hand, and hard to be stopped in every house.

In the New Picture of London for 1803-4,' by H. J. Sarrett, pp. 109-110, an interesting account of the state of things up to 1733 is worth repeating:

The end of Blackfriar's Bridge now fills up the mouth of what was called Fleet Ditch, which had its entrance from the Thames below Bridewell; it reached as far as Holbornbridge, at the foot of Holborn-hill,__and received into it the little river Fleet. Turnmill brook, and another called Oldbourn,

which gave its name to that vast street. The tide flowed up as high as Holborn-bridge, and brought up barges of considerable burthen. Over it were four stone bridges, and extensive quays and warehouses on each side. It was deemed of such utility, that it was kept open at a great expense, and in 1606, above twentyseven thousand pounds were expended for that purpose. Some years after this canal was filled up, and a sewer was formed beneath to

convey the water to the river; the market which extends the whole length of the old ditch, was erected in 1733; and in that year, an act was passed to empower the lord Mayor and citizens to fill up the ditch at their own expense, and to vest the fee simple of the ground in them and their successors for ever. HENRY CURTIS.

2, Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, S.W.

Johnson's Place Names of England and Wales' says this means hollow with the brook," "hollow bourne, or burn, or brook" or it may also be the "hole of the burn." Wagner's Names and their meaning and Harrison's Surnames of the United Kingdom,' both give it as the brook or stream in the hollow."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

KIRK, OR KIRKE (cxlix. 421; cl. 68).

Readers interested in this enquiry may be glad to know that the problem of the true derivation of the word Church "" is discussed with a wealth of detail in a delightfully written and beautifully illustrated series of chapters of a paper entitled 'The Circle and the Cross,' by A. Hadrian Allcroft, M.A., published in The Archaeological Journal, commencing in 1920 (the volume not appearing until 1923), and 1921, a further series being expected very shortly. HENRY CURTIS. OF SURNAME OF MUNDY, MUNDAY, ETC. (cl. 390, 448; cli. 34). In a section of Old Somerset (Folk Press, 1925), dealing with the manorial system and the necessity for tenants to spend a portion of their time in working on their lord's demesne, Mr. H. P. Palmer says:

DERIVATION

وو

The net effect of the system was that the more land a tenant held, the more work he was responsible for on the "demesne," and consequently the less time was at his command for tilling his own ground The surname Monday must have puzzled a good many enquirers; but if we remember that on 66 some manors there were Monday sible for working on the demesne on Mondays, men with small holdings only respon we see how the more prosperous villains obtained their help, and also find a clue to the origin of the surname. A. L. Cox.

men,

EFFILAGE"

AND "PARFILAGE"

(cxlix. 261, 301, 340).—I have at last which I was unable to give in my note in run to earth the references to the above, your issue of Oct. 10, 1925. A very full account of this tiresome and nefarious amusement " is to be found in the 'Memoirs of Karoline Bauer' (London, 1884, It Remington), vol. ii., pp. 117 to 124. was a disgraceful method for " bleeding young officers, and was first attacked by Mme de Genlis in her 'Adèle et Théodore (Paris, 1782). In her Memoirs she prides herself upon having in that work" put an effectual stop to that disgraceful fashion, and no lady has since been seen in society demanding gold for picking from a man.

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

MARBECK

JOHN (cl. 441; cli. 51).— Windsor who introduced negatives into the There was only one singing man at service (not into the Creed) and this was Robert Testwood. According to Foxe, he answered the O Redemptrix et Salvatrix of a brother singer in the choir of St. George's Chapel with "Non Redemptrix nec Salvatrix,' (C "the two striving there with O and Non who should have the mastery." The story is also told by Gairdner in 'Lollardy and the Reformation in England,' vol. ii., p. 389.

MICHELANGELO'S

W. A. P. MADONNA

AT

NOTRE DAME, BRUGES (cli. 27).There is an account of the above statue in J. A. Symonds' Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti' vol. i., p. 74, wherein Mr. Symonds quotes authentic contemporary documents to show that the Bruges "" Madonna to the order of the Bruges family of was executed by Michelangelo Mouscron. A letter dated 1506 states that arrangements had been made to ship the that it was despatched soon afterwards, some statue to Bruges, and it is quite probable little time before Henry VIII ascended the throne, and certainly some years before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. There is no mention in Symonds' book of the interesting legend quoted by your correspondent. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

Rookwood (1664-1696) was great-grandson of CONSPIRACY TO ASSASSINATE WILLIAM III (cl. 459).-Brigadier Ambrose the Ambrose Rookwood who was executed for the Gunpowder Plot, the descent being through the latter's elder son Robert, whose

son Ambrose (1622-1693) was the father of the Brigadier.

An account of the conspiracy is contained in Sir Richard Blackmore's A true and impartial history of the conspiracy against the person and government of King William III in the year 1695' (2 parts 1723). Lives of Prendergast, Barclay, Porter and Rookwood will be found in D. N. B.'

ARCHIBALD SPARKE. ΝΑΙ [APLES IN BECKFORD'S DAY (cl. 423).-Deamicis. Is this Anne Deamicis or Anna De Amicis, the Italian operatic singer. She was born at Naples about 1740, and attained fame in most of the cities of Italy. She appeared at Covent Garden in 1762, and the following year obtained a great success in a role specially written for her by John Sebastian Bach. See Burney's History of Music' for further particulars of her career, and also the 'Nouveau Larousse Illustré.'

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

CRISPIN AND SCAPIN (cli. 45). The

some

picture in the Louvre to which MISS ESTELLA WOLF refers was probably inspired by an "Imaginary Conversation" what in the style of the French Fontenelle (of the eighteenth century) and the English Savage Landor (of the nineteenth century). I have forgotten the name of the French author of Crispin et Scapin,' but his conversation," I understand, appeared in a volume published in Paris (about 1721) and Amsterdam (about 1730).

ANDREW DE TERNANT. 36, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W.

SIR FRANCIS MICHEL (cli. 29). Sir Francis Michel was a monopolistpatentee of gold and silver lace, and also, I think, of inns and alehouses. Your correspondent, MR. H. ASKEW, will find a most interesting account of this most unworthy knight in Ainsworth's romance, The Star Chamber.' He will also see references to Sir Francis and his partner in iniquity, Sir Giles Mompesson, in J. R.

Green's and S. R. Gardiner's Histories.

followed with draughts of boiling oil and molten lead, is then described, the hero only stopping at prussic acid because apparently none was ready at hand!

W. E. G.

BRITAIN'S SMALLEST HOUSE (cli. 44). -Conway's little house in Lowergatestreet has been described in Daily Chronicle, 19 May, 1922, and 15 Sept., 1924. Another very small building is in High-street, Wavertree, Liverpool. In London, "the smallest house in the world" is 2, Sherwoodstreet, Golden-square ('The Street of Faces' (Charles Vince) 1920, pp. 110-112). Other smallest houses are at the corner of Wood-street, Cheapside; 1, Hyde Park Terrace; Porter's Lodge, Clifford's Inn; Campden Hill; Wellington-road, St. John's Wood; 10, Hyde Park Place; Boundary House, near Notting Hill Sta.; 13a, Coulson-street, Chelsea; and "The Chocolate Box," Knightsbridge. No doubt in London the cost of ground has created many of these little residences, and has made us familiar with the notice-boards at the entrance to the mews: "These frontages for sale, suitable for conversion into bijou residences.' J. ARDAGH.

THE

CORONET OF A BARONET (cl. 352, 411). A case for inquiry was stated by a meeting of baronets held at the Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, London, on May 26,

1835, of which the fourth branch runs : "To show that the Baronetage are entitled to bear Supporters, Coronets, etc."

In the report of the College of Arms which considered the matter, given on Oct. 31, 1835, this question is dealt with in the following terms:

The assertion, in the case of the Petitioners, "that the Charters of the Royal Founders of their Order expressly and specially warrant and empower the King of Arms to assign

This rebuff did not deter the petitioners from pursuing the matter further. On July 15, 1840, "The Committee of the Baronetage for Privileges was founded. At a General Meeting of the Baronetage held on May 14, 1841, it was decided to empower the Committee for Privileges to compile a register of Baronets, and in accordance with this request the Committee issued certificates on vellum, in a form which had been approved, to each member of the Baronetage.

This set forth the privileges they contended they were legally entitled to, which included: (1) Coat, (2) Supporters, Two Equites aurati proper, (3) Crest, (4) Motto, (5) Coronet, Mantle, Helmet, Collar of S.S., Badge and Wreath as blazoned in the Atchievment.

An exhaustive report of the proceedings

can be consulted in "A History of the Baronetage' by Francis W. Pixley, Registrar of the Honourable Society of the Baronetage (1900).

H. ASKEW.

[We must not in this connection forget Sir Vavasour Firebrace and how in his vision of baronets in procession, he made them hold in their hand a "coronet of two balls."—“ - Sybil,' Bk. ii, ch. ii.]

YING FOR LOVE (cl. 390).-There is a well-rooted tradition in the County of Durham that Mary, only daughter of William Belasye, the owner of Brancepeth Castle, died for love of a neighbouring squire, Robert Shafto of Whitworth, on April 6,

1774.

This Robert Shafto, who is said to have wooed the Brancepeth heiress, threw her over for Anne Duncombe, the heiress of Duncombe Park, whom he married, thus bringing the name of Duncombe into the Shafto family.

It is further said that it is to Mary Belasye we are indebted for the well-known bishopric ballad of Bonnie Bobbie Shafto which ends with:

Bobbie Shafto's gone to sea,
Wi' silver buckles on his knee;
When he comes back he'll marry me,
Bonnie Bobbie Shafto.

Shafto squandered a good deal of the money which Miss Duncombe brought to him, and died in 1797.

Miss Belasye devised her property to her

branding, especially when the culprits beTowards the end of the eighteenth century longed to the better class, was only nominally carried out, a cold iron being used.

A young German, Charles Moritz, who visited England in 1782, mentioned in his diary the case of a clergyman who fought a duel in Hyde Park and killed his opponent. He was tried and found guilty of manslaughter, and as the German said, was burnt in the hand, if that could be called burning which was done with a cold

iron.'