"CURSALS" (10th S. ii. 509).-The "farm of cursals" probably belonged to one of the "Cursal Prebends" of St. Davids. Why these were so called has not been quite satisfactorily explained. See 'N.E.D.'

Winterton.

J. T. F.

who had probably bought the property. This Alexander inarried, before 1657, a namesake, probably a relative, Grizel Bell, daughter of James Bell, Provost of Glasgow, whose wife was Isobel, sister of Campbell of Blythswood. Grizel was one of Provost Bell's three daughters and heirs-portioners. The Provost had a son Patrick, a merchant in Glasgow, PATRICK BELL, LAIRD OF ANTERMONY (10th who predeceased his sisters. He had married S. ii. 487). The estate of Antermony, or more Margaret, daughter of James Hamilton, of properly Auchtermony, originally belonged Dalziel. The Rev. Patrick married Annabella, to the Flemings, Earls of Wigtown, and was daughter of John Stirling, of Craigbarnet. probably acquired by Alexander Bell, the They had a son John and a daughter Grizel. father of Patrick, before the middle of the John was born in 1691, and passed as a physeventeenth century. Alexander was Suc-sician in 1713, and went into the Russian ceeded by his eldest son James. Patrick Bell, the second son, studied and held a bursary in theology in the University of Glasgow, 1678-83. He became minister of the parish of Port of Menteith, May, 1683; succeeded his brother in the paternal estate 1685; and was deprived of his benefice by the Privy Council in 1689, for not reading the Proclamation of the Estates, not praying for their Majesties William and Mary, and not observing the thanksgiving. As his successor in the parish was not appointed till 1697, it is probable that some understanding was arrived at whereby Bell continued his ministrations till

that date. When he left he carried off a

He

quantity of the session records with him, and
refused to give them up until legal proceed
ings were taken against him in 1706.
married Annabella, daughter of John Stirling,
of Craigbarnard, and died 4 July, 1722,
having had issue at least two sons: Alexander,
who died vita patris, and John, who succeeded
to Auchtermony. He was a merchant in
Constantinople and a distinguished traveller,
and was sent by the Emperor of Russia on an
embassy to Persia, 1715-18, and to China,
1717-22. He published Travels in Diverse
Parts of Asia, 2 vols. 4to, Glasgow, 1762-3,
and died 1780.
J. B. P.

The Rev. Patrick Bell, minister of Port of Menteith, born in or about 1660, studied and held a bursary of theology at Glasgow University from 1678 to 1683. He was presented by Higgins of Craigforth to the living of Port, to which he was admitted on 15 May, 1683. He was deprived of his benefice by the Privy Council on 3 October, 1689, for not reading the Proclamation of the Estates, not praying for their Majesties William and Mary, and not observing the thanksgiving. On 2 December, 1685, he was served heir to his brother James, who died without issue, in the barony of Antermony (not Autermony), in the parish of Campsie, Stirlingshire. They were sons of Alexander Bell, a writer in Edinburgh,

service, and accompanied einbassies from that
country to Persia and China. He was a keen
Asiatic traveller, and was for some years in
Constantinople. He wrote 'Travels from
St. Petersburg to Various Parts of Asia.' In
1746 he married Mary Peters, and settled at
Antermony, where he died, without issue,
Peters was Jane, daughter of Benjamin Vigor,
The half-sister of Mary
aged eighty-nine.
of Fulham, who married the last Earl of
Hyndford in the Scottish peerage, and died
in 1802, aged eighty-six. Dr. Bell sold Anter-
mony to Capt. John Lennox, reserving, how-
ever, his life-rent. His sister Grizel married

a Mr. Brown and had two daughters, who
the churchyard of Glasgow Cathedral. See
were both dead by 1766, and are interred in
further Scott's 'Fasti,' The Retours,' 'Scots
Lore,' and others there cited.

Edinburgh.

J. L ANDERSON.

Patrick Bell was educated at Glasgow University (1678-83), and was married (not born, as stated) in 1685. He was the last of the Episcopalian clergymen, and was deprived of his living (Port of Menteith) by order of the Privy Council, 3 October, 1689, for not reading the Proclamation of the Majesties King William and Queen Mary. Estates, and for refusing to pray for their Shortly after 1689 he was served heir, in succession to his elder brother, of the estate of Antermony, of which his father, Alexander Bell, was former proprietor. From what stock Alexander Bell first of Antermony the name of his wife, who, it is surmised, came would be interesting to hear; also with the Grahams of Gartur. was related to or connected by marriage

HENRY PATON. plied above by MR. ANDERSON.] [Information as to Alexander Bell's wife is sup

MRS. CAREY (10th S. ii. 449).-It is singular that two correspondents of N. & Q.,' at an

·

interval of fifteen years (see 7th S. viii.), should inquire for a "Mrs. Carey," although the lady referred to was well known at the commencement of the last century as Mary Anne Clarke. Huish, in his Memoirs of George IV.,' also calls her "Mrs. Carey." Did she ever adopt that name?

In the preface to the work 'Evidence and Proceedings upon the Charges preferred against the Duke of York,' by Col. Wardle, M.P., 1809, now before me, she is stated to have been the daughter of a Mr. Farquhar, and to have been married at the age of fifteen to Mr. Joseph Clarke, the son of a respectable builder of Snow Hill, London, the offspring being two boys and a girl then living. In 1802, in consequence of Mr. Clarke's dissolute life, she separated from him, and in the following year placed herself under the protection of the Duke of York. These particulars differ in every respect from those given in 1st S. iv., 4th S. xi., xii., 6th S. xi., 7th S. viii., 8th S. vii., 9th S. vii.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

"HE SAW A WORLD "" (10th S. ii. 488).-The lines quoted seem to be a confused reminiscence of a verse by William Blake in Auguries of Innocence,' a poem beginning

thus:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower:
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

See his 'Poetical Works,' edited by W.
Rossetti, p. 180 (Bell & Sons, 1891).
C. LAWRENCE FORD.

If the vessel belonged to the Royal Navy, her log should be at the Public Record Office or perhaps at the British Museum. If she belonged to, or was hired by, the East India Company, her log would be at the India Office, Whitehall.

The birth would not have been officially registered in England, as the Act 6 & 7 William IV., cap. 86, sec. 20, making a record. of births compulsory, did not come into force until 1 March, 1837. It is also impossible to say positively where it would be found, either as a birth or a baptism, in any ecclesiastical record in England, or even if But in any entered in any such record. case, if the name of the vessel be known, there can be no very great difficulty to find a record of the birth, especially if the ship's C. MASON. log or journal is extant.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

THE MUSSUK (10th S. ii. 263, 329, 371, 431). –

Olufsen, in 'Through the Unknown Pamirs," p. 44, writes :

"The chief means of water transport employed by the people is, however, the gupsar.' The word gupsar,' also called by its Turkish name of 'sanach,' is of Iranian origin, meaning 'ferry.' The gupsar is made of the entire hide of an animal, the skin of a goat or wolf being preferred. It is tanned quite smooth, the holes at the head and three of the legs are tied taut, while in the fourth leg is placed a wooden tap with a wooden stopple. Through the tap the skin is blown full by the native, who seizes the tap with his left hand, and with his left elbow presses the distended hide close up to his chest. He now throws himself into the stream, and whilst M. the hide keeps him above water, he, with his legs. and right arm, works slantwise across the river." There is more on the same subject.

H. A. ST. J. M.

If MR. RALPH THOMAS has not yet succeeded in procuring an illustration of the skin-boat from India, he may perhaps be interested to find an account, with a photograph, of the senai, as it is called on the Indus, in that of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highvery pleasant book Gore's Lights and Shades lands of the Punjab,' pp. 121 ff.

EMERITUS.

BIRTH AT SEA IN 1805 (10th S. ii. 448, 512). -Perhaps this birth may be entered in the records of the Royal Navy at the Admiralty in Whitehall, or at the Public Record Office. If the ports are known from which the vessel departed and at which she arrived in 1805, Lloyd's List and Lloyd's Register of Shipping (at the library of Lloyd's, Royal Exchange, London) would show the names of the vessels which left the port of departure in 1804-5, the ports they sailed for, the dates 'STEER TO THE NOR'-NOR'-WEST' (10th S. of departure from, and of arrival at each, | ii. 427, 490).—I shall be much obliged to any respectively, and their owners' names. The newspapers, gazettes, magazines, &c., of that time, both at the ports of departure and of arrival, would probably give the list of passengers embarked and landed. If the business of the then owners be traced down to the present time, it is probable that the log or journal of the particular vessel required may still be in existence, and contain an entry of this birth

one who will inform me who was the captain to whom this incident is said to have happened. My grandfather, the late John Matthews, of St. Ives, Cornwall, owner and master of the schooner Eldred, who died in Australia 1866, was a master mariner from about 1825 to 1850, and made several voyages across the Atlantic. Many years after his death, a reputable person informed the deceased's son that he (Mr. Matthews) had related the

"FORTUNE FAVOURS FOOLS " (10th S. ii. 365, 491).—It seems not unlikely that this proverb is an adaptation of an older one, viz., "Fortune favours the hardy man," in Chaucer's 'Troilus,' iv. 600. This may have been applied, in particular, to the fool-hardy man. Chaucer had it from Virgil's "Audentes Fortuna iuuat," ‘£n, x. 284. It also occurs in Terence, Phormio,' I. iv. 26.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

which I remember to have seen in use in the charity school here about forty years ago.

This note may not prove of much use as a reply to your correspondent's question, but the recorded price of school slates at the time named is not without value. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

RICHARD OF SCOTLAND (10th S. ii. 408, 449). By far the best account of this personage is to be found in a pamphlet of 96 pages, by the late Thomas Kerslake, called Saint Richard the King of Englishmen and his Territory, A.D. 700-20' (1890).

Mr. Kerslake was a careful and painstaking investigator who has left many valuable notes and papers on historical subjects. He BANANAS (10th S. ii. 409, 476).-In El Gráfico traces St. Richard's connexion with St. Boniof Madrid, Número 187, for 17 de Diciembre face and Willibald down to his burial at de 1904, MR. J. PLATT will see a confirmation Lucca, proving that he was "Rex Anglorum," of MR. JAGGARD's opinion as to the superiority as stated on his tomb in an epitaph of seven of the bananas grown in Las Canarias. On lines. The subject is led up to in a previous p. 8, in an illustrated article headed 'Los pamphlet, published in 1879, 'Vestiges of the Platanos de Canarias: Espléndida Exporta-Supremacy of Mercia,' &c. ción,' these words occur:

"El plátano es originario de Asia. de donde en tiempos remotos pasó al Africa, llevándolo después nosotros á América, y aun en el Mediodía de la Península pueden cultivarse con éxito, aunque nunca son tan sabrosos y tiernos como los canarios, y pocas plantas le igualan por la majestad y elegancia de su aspecto, la amplitud y la belleza de sus hojas, la riqueza de su floración, las cualidades de su fruto y las numerosas utilidades que de todo él se obtienen."

Slates to write upon" must have been in use long before Walpole's time (1781), for they are so described by Thomas Dysch, the author of the New General English Dictionary,' 1754, and by Dr. Ash in his 'New and Complete Dictionary of the English Language,' 1775. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

In addition to the Hodoporicon of St. Willibald,' the late Bishop Brownlow read papers before the Devon Association at Twerton in 1891, on 'The Brother and Sister of St. Willibald,' and at Plymouth in 1892, on 'St. Boniface in England.' Both papers are printed in the Transactions of the Devon Association for the years as above, and contain much matter of interest in connexion with St. Richard. F. T. ELWORTHY.

"

"STOB" (10th S. ii. 409, 495).-I see no reason why stob may not be the usual M.E. stob, which is the modern stub. Cf. A.-S. stybb, Icel. stubbi, a stump of a tree. It might easily have been the name for a 'clearing where the stubs had been left. I do not admit "corruption"; it is a word used in the interest of guessers who wish to infringe sound-laws. To me, Olive does not suggest "holy"; it rather suggests Olaf

WALTER W. SKEAT.

VINCENT STUCKEY LEAN (10th S. ii. 466).As bearing on the question raised at this reference it may be interesting to place on I have a small book of accounts connected record that "A Bill to enable Persons of with a night school carried on in this village Irish Birth or Extraction to adopt and use some eighty or ninety years ago. Under the Prefix O, or Mac, before their Surnames," date 5 November, 1820, is the entry 66 1 doz. was introduced into the House of Commons of slates, 4s. 6d." These would presumably by Mr. MacAleese and other Irish members be the small plain slates without frames in the session of 1898. The third section of

that Bill was as follows: "All ancient statutes and the last word altered. The words quoted prohibiting the use of O or Mac before Irish in the query were only an extract, ie, the surnames are hereby repealed." It is evident first two lines. The inscription as given by that the promoters of the Bill were under Chamberlayne in the 1723 edition of his the impression that the prefixes mentioned Magne Britannia Notitia,' to which referwere prohibited by law, although they were ence is made, is actually shorter than the apparently unable to refer to the particular existing inscription, in that JCOBUS appears statutes. When the Bill was in Committee instead of JACOBUS, and the date 1686 the Attorney-General for Ireland stated that (Arabic figures without "anno") is given, there was no statute or principle of common instead of "Anno M.D.C.LXXXVI (Roman). law to prevent any one taking the prefix O Also there are five commas and two full stops, or Mac." The Bill was afterwards dropped, which do not appear in the pedestal inscripand has not been reintroduced. It may, tion. On 11 August, 1904, in the House of therefore, be inferred that its promoters were Commons, Lord Balcarres, representing the convinced that the supposed ancient | First Commissioner of Works, replied to a statutes" have no existence in fact.

F. W. READ.

MR. ALASDAIR MACGILLEAN wishes to know if at any time the prefixes Mac and O were prohibited in Ireland. In 1465 (5 Edw. IV. cap. 3) a law was passed enacting

"that every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the County of Dublin, Myeth, Uriell, and Kildare......shall take to him an English surname of one town......or colour......or arte or science......or office."-Blue-book on Sur names in Ireland,' 1894, p. 15; Irish Penny Journal, 1841, p. 383.

I myself know that it was fashionable in Belfast forty years ago, and doubtless earlier, when a person came into town" to drop the paternal O or Mac. I have known persons named Connor, Allen, Waters, and Alexander, whose rural relatives still retained the original cognomens of O'Connor, McAllen, McWaters, and McElshender. Dr. Killen, in his ‘Reminiscences,' 1901, p. 172, says :

The Rev. Henry Cooke is by far the most celebrated name connected with the ministry of the Irish Presbyterian Church in the nineteenth century. When he entered College he was known as MacCooke, and is so designated in the earliest printed Minutes of the Synod of Ulster. He dropped the Mac from his name before he appeared as a

licentiate."

question drawing his attention to the error in the Latin inscription. He said :—

"The inscription is a facsimile of that on the original pedestal. When the statue was removed to be necessary to renew the pedestal, but it was some years ago from Whitehall-yard it was found thought best to make no alteration in the old inscription, which was probably contemporaneous. In the circumstances the First Commissioner of Works considers it would be preferable to leave it alone."-See Times, 12 August, 1904. There is no doubt that "gratiæ " for "gratia" was in the inscription on the old pedestal. I have seen at the Office of Works the rubbing taken from it.

One would think that a grammatical error was not worth renewing. If the mason had cut an extra c in the date, I suppose that the official mind would have thought it right to reproduce it. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

BENJAMIN BLAKE: NORMAN: OLDMIXON (10th S. ii. 447).-The 'D.N.B.,' under John Oldmixon (1673-1742), the historian and pamphleteer, says :

"In his History of the Stuarts' (p. 421), Oldmixon, speaking of the disinterment of the remains of Admiral Blake, a native of Bridgwater, says that he lived while a boy with Blake's brother Humphrey, who afterwards emigrated to Carolina. Mr. John Kent of Funchal has pointed out that Oldmixon was in all probability author of the History and Life of Robert Blake......written by a Gentleman bred in his Family,' which appeared without This publication is called by Prof. J. K. Laughton, under Admiral Robert Blake, "an impudent and mendacious chap-book."

date about 1740."

No doubt your correspondent has consulted MR. JOHN KENT's reference to the Norman family at 8th S. v. 149. A. R. BAYLEY. Could Oldmixon be Old Mike's son? Mike was formerly pronounced with an ee.

Berlin.

DR. GUSTAV Krueger.

TRAVELS IN CHINA (10th S. ii. 408).—Two "lists of works of various descriptions re

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. WHITSUNDAY (10th S. ii. 121, 217, 297, 352).We, too, call the first Sunday after Easter weissen Sonntag. This was, and with Roman Catholics is still, the day when children were confirmed, for which solemnity the girls were dressed in white. Catholics keep this up to the present day; with Protestants various customs prevail. In my part of the country the girls wore white dresses during the confirmation, but black ones when receiving the

Communion for the first time.

Berlin.

G. KRUEGER.

of the Opera Corps, who had agreed to settle some
difference in an honourable way in Hyde Park. On
being apprehended, they were brought before Mr.
A. at Bow-street, and persuaded to shake hands in
good fellowship."

The last duel of any note between English. subjects on English ground is said to have been in May, 1845, between two lieutenants, Hawkey and Seton, the latter being killed.. French duels may sometimes have a ridiculous ending, and Mark Twain did well to acquire a French duelling-pistol to hang on his watchchain as a charm, before they became extinct; but we also had our funny scenes. A droll occurrence

"took place at Venn (?) between the son of a respect-able chemist of Plymouth and the son of a retired gentleman. It appears that they had a slight quarrel about a young lady, and neither being disposed to relinquish his love for her, they decided on a duel. They fired two rounds each, neither wishing to hit the other, because they regarded their own lives better than to give them up for the person they were fighting for." Chemist and Druggist, 14 January, 1860.

The last duel in Scotland was, I believe,. between Mr. (afterwards Lord) Shand and another, when the seconds, however, loaded the pistols with a charge of powder only!

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

that the stoppage of duelling was brought. I was told by my father, seventy years ago,. about by an incident at Kingston-on-Hull,. when a young married officer, refusing on account of poverty to join the mess, received a challenge in the shape of a Round Robin from all his fellows, and was killed in the first encounter. Is any authority for this. story known to exist?

H. T.

SUPPRESSION OF DUELLING IN ENGLAND (10th S. ii. 367, 435). Other books on this subject are George Neilson's 'Trial by Combat,' 1884; L. Sabine's Notes on Duels and Duelling, Alphabetically Arranged,' 1855; Thomas Comber's 'Discourse of Duels,' 1687 ANGLES ENGLAND, ORIGINAL MEANING (not in Lowndes); Douglas's 'Duelling Days (10th S. ii. 407, 471).-In connexion with the in the Army'; Mackay's Extraordinary communications on the above subject, perPopular Delusions,' &c.; Belgian AntiDuelling Association,' in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 28 December, 1839; Old London Duelling Grounds,' in Chambers's Journal, 12 January, 1895; an account of De Boutteville, one of the greatest duellists of the seventeenth century, in Macmillan's Magazine, about September or October, 1903; In the Days of Duelling,' in Pearson's Magazine, 1900; Duels and Duelling,' a "turnover" in The Globe, 16 October, 1903.

Duelling was checked in the army in 1792. Soon after this an anti-duelling influence was beginning to be felt among civilians. In The Gazetteer for 2 April, 1796, it is said :

"Another duel has been prevented by the interference of Justice Addington, who, at the instigation of some friends to harmony, granted a warrant against Messrs. Didelot and Qnabatti, two

haps it may not be out of place to direct attention to the following statement, culled from that great work The Conquest of England,' by John Richard Green, M.A.,. LL.D. (Macmillan & Co., 1883):

"It may be well to note that the word 'Angul-Saxon' is of purely political coinage, and that no man is ever known, save in our own day, to have called himself an Anglo-Saxon. The phrase, too, applied strictly to the Engle of Mercia and the Saxons of Wessex, not to any larger area. For the general use of Engle' and 'Saxon,' I must refer my readers to Mr. Freeman's Norm. Conq.,'i. App. A. -Vide p. 193.

HENRY GERALD HOPE 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

PENNY WARES WANTED (10th S. ii. 369, 415, 456). 'Index to the Periodicals of 1891,' p. 127, has "Penny Dinners." Index to the

3