WINDSBRAUT (6th S. ix. 369)."Nos ancêtres primitifs ne comptaient pas par année, mais bien par hiver. Les géants et les nains ailés du vent, comme les hommes appartenant au ciel par leur père et à la terre par Hertha leur mère, s'emparèrent parfois des jeunes filles, en élevant d'immenses tourbillons. Cette idée s'est conservée parmi nous, et la paysanne brabançonne ne manque pas, lorsque de pareils tourbillons viennent la surprendre sur les champs, de faire le signe de la croix en disant: dat is de windbruyd! (la fiancée du vent). La franconienne, catholique ou protestante, attache aussi toujours quelque

Ger. windsbraut, Mid. H.G. windes brat, O.H.G. wintes brat, is compounded from M.H.G. and O.H.G. brut, a word probably related to M.H.G. brús, Mod.H.G. braus, a tumult (Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch). Thus windsbraut would stand for windsbraus, a wind-roar or hurly-burly (cf. brausen, to roar or bluster). On the other hand, Andresen (Volksetymologie) thinks the M.H.G.ch. windes brat was originally windes sprout, from spröuwen (= Mod.G. sprühen).

MINCE PIE MYSTERIES (6th S. viii. 485; ix. 158). As an additional mark of the Christmas symbolism connected with these dainties, I may note here that it has always been a tradition in our family that no mince pie should be eaten before O Sapientia (December 16), the first day in the cycle of Christmas-tide. PELAGIUS.

GRICE, SWINE, AND VENTRE ST. GRIS (6th S. vi. 537; vii. 274; viii. 216; ix. 156).-Your correspondent MR. POPE asks if "By the holy poker" does not mean "By the holy porker." I think not. It was originally "By the Holy Sepulchre," and is a relic of Crusading times.

STORY OF THE OLD EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE (6th S. ix. 249).-This story is incorrectly applied to the Eddystone Lighthouse. It is connected with the Longships Lighthouse, near the Land's "OWL" NEWSPAPER (6th S. ix. 308). End. Mr. James F. Cobb, the author of an interesting tale entitled The Watchers on the Long-complete set of the Owl can be seen at the British Museum. No. 1001 is the first and No. 1095 ships, thus alludes to the story in the preface to the last number which was published. that work:

"The light was first exhibited in the Longships Lighthouse on Sept. 29, 1795. That one of the keepers of early days, who was left alone there, and had not been informed previously of the horrible noises caused by the pent air in the cavern below, became so terrified that his hair turned white in a single night, is a well-known

In order to avoid such a catastrophe, some ingenious toper invented the following device. A pocket-handkerchief is passed round the back of the neck, and one end is held by a couple of the fingers of the right hand, whilst the remaining digits grasp the glass. The other end is then gently pulled by the left hand until the glass and its contents have safely reached the required altitude. The draught having been imbibed, the empty glass is then lowered to the table. The

(buried also at Peterborough Cathedral, Feb. 3, 1625/6), daughter of Oliver Warner, of Eversden, Cambs., and had issue two sons and three daughters. William, the eldest, knighted at Whitehall, March 23, 1623/4, married first Frances, daughter of William Downhall, of Peterborough (she was buried in the cathedral, Jan. 13, 1622/3), and had issue seven sons and two daughters. Thomas, the eldest son of Sir William Dove, born at the palace, Peterborough, Aug. 21, 1606, married first, in 1633, Frances, daughter of William Becke, of Castle-above is a fact, and being altogether so unique acre, Norfolk, Esquire (dead before May 17, 1648). He was buried at Castor, April 26, 1654, leaving by his first wife six sons and one daughter, Frances, who afterwards married Richard Verney, Baron Willoughby de Broke. JUSTIN SIMPSON. Stamford.

PETTY FRANCE: CROOKED USAGE: PIMLICO (6th S. ix. 148, 253, 295, 357).—I have little doubt that usage here stands for user, i. e., "right of way"; that is, it is equivalent to alley, from the French aller or allez, which is common enough in London and other great towns. The passage is straight from Lower Stewart's Grove to Britton Street. After that it makes an elbow and runs diagonally along the north-west side of Chelsea Workhouse into Arthur Street, King's Road. I suppose the right of way" originally included the whole thoroughfare, crooked and straight, as no doubt it does now. In Bacon's Ordnance Map it is named "Crooked Passage," which seems a pity, as the quaint old name is worth preserving. H. S. G.

and curious a proceeding, I consider it merits a place in the columns of " N. & Q.," even although it may have no connexion with the West African proverb in question. R. STEWART PATTERSON. Hale Crescent, Farnham.

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BROAD ARROW (6th S. ix. 206, 294). — Mr. Clode, in his useful work on The Military Forces of the Crown (1869), vol. ii. p. 222, speaking of the practice of the Board of Ordnance, says:

"The receipt and examination of the supplies rested with the......surveyor. It was his duty to make proof of them; if good and serviceable to mark them with the Crown mark, probably the same as that described in Rymer and now known as the Broad Arrow." And in the appendix, vol. ii. p. 678, he gives from Rymer, 18 Foed. 978, a copy of the order of Charles I. in 1627 for establishing a crown mark, by which it is appointed that "all muskets and other arms to be hereafter issued out of His with the mark of C. R., and, for sea service, with Majesty's stores, for land service, shall be marked the mark of C. R. and an anchor." The earliest use which I have yet found of the expression "the broad arrow is in the statute of 9 & 10 Will. III. cap. 41 (1697). This Act states a difficulty in obtaining convictions for stealing, &c., "His Majesty's stores of war, and naval stores," when there is no direct proof of the taking, &c., "but only that such goods are marked with the king's mark"; and it goes on to prohibit any person, other than authorized contractors, from making

It may be interesting to note that there is a hamlet named Pimlico in Oxfordshire, near Cottisford, and about four miles from the market town of Brackley. Pimlico House, situated here, was mentioned in connexion with Sir John Byron's any stores of war or naval stores with the marks affair in 1642. JOHN R. WODHAMS. usually used to and marked upon His Majesty's...... stores, that is to say [any cordage, &c., with a white The humorous poem, of which MR. H. SCUL-thread laid down the contrary way, &c., or any canvass THORP quotes the first four lines, is given in extenso with a blue streak in the middle], or any other stores in Elegant Extracts in Verse, edit. 1796, p. 773. with the broad arrow by stamp, brand, or otherwise." The title of the poem is "The Choice of a Wife by It is clear from the words of the Act that in 1697 Cheese," and the author is Capt. Thompson. "the broad arrow" had become a recognized expression, and meant "the king's mark," and I apprehend that, as suggested by Mr. Clode, it is the mark of an anchor, the crown mark ap

Ashford.

FREDK. RULE.

WEST AFRICAN PROVERB (6th S. ix. 188, 277). pointed in the ordinance of 1627.

"Disobedience will drink with his hand tied to his neck." In one of our colonies, which shall be nameless, it is the unfortunate habit of some to drink a great deal more than is good for them. This, of course, makes the hand shake very much, so that there is danger of the liquor being spilled.

Wallsend.

R. R. DEES.

CLERGY ORDAINED FOR THE AMERICAN COLONIES, 1699-1710 (6th S. ix. 221, 352).—As other persons may fall into the same state of dubiety as DR.

HYDE CLARKE through non-observance of the 1579, leaf 22b, Gosson speaks of "The Iew and wording of MR. MACRAY'S introduction, as well as Ptolome, showne at the Bull, the one representing of the known historical relations between the the greedinesse of worldly chusers, and bloody Church of England and the British colonies in minds of usurers: The other very liuely describing America before the Declaration of Independence, howe seditious estates, with their owne deuises...... I may, perhaps, take occasion to say that the & rebellions commons in their owne snares are clergy in MR. MACRAY's list were certainly and ouerthrowne." The precursor of The Merchant of necessarily Episcopalians. The American planta-Venice was then called The Jew. tions were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, hence the fact of the subscriptions being found in a register-book of that diocese. The Scotsmen in the list must either have been ordained in Scotland under the last Episcopal establishment there, or in England, or perhaps in Ireland, subsequently to 1689. It would throw some light on a difficult period if we could learn in which country these Scottish or Scoto-Irish clergy in America were mainly ordained.

P. ZILLWOOD ROUND. MILITARY MOURNING (6th S. ix. 388).-There are pictures of Wolf, 1759, with a crape armlet. HENRY F. PONSONBY.

LADY ARABELLA CHURCHILL (6th S. ix. 389).Why Lady Arabella? She was the daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, and married Col. Godfrey. HENRY F. PONSONBY.

There is a portrait of this lady among the Waldegrave family pictures, which are now at Dudbrook, near Brentwood, in Essex. C. P. F.

[By the kindness of a correspondent we are in a posi tion to procure R. a view of these pictures.]

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

History and Description of Corfe Castle, in the Isle of CORFE is one of the most interesting castles in England. Purbeck, Dorset. By Thomas Bond, M.A. (Stanford.) If it cannot compare with Pevensey, which stands beside, and may be said to grow out of, the walls of a Roman town, nor with the shell keep of Berkeley and the fortified hill of Pontefract in historic interest, Corfe has claims of its own which put it in the very first rank. Corfe alone of all the castles now remaining can show within its enclosure fragments which, without violence to the understanding, may be held to be of an earlier

BARBARA CHIFFINCH (6th S. ix. 328).-There date than the Norman conquest. This is a point on hangs at Middleton Park, Oxfordshire, the seat of Edward the Martyr was slain at Corfe in the year 979, which it behoves every one to speak guardedly. King the Earl of Jersey, in the passage leading from the but the account in the Saxon Chronicle gives no reason hall to the private apartments, a portrait of Bar- for believing, as some moderns have done, that the bara, first Countess of Jersey. It is by Kneller, murder took place within the castle. We cannot assume, and lettered outside on the canvas, "Barbara, indeed, that a castle existed here at the time, though it 1st Css of Jersey, d. of Wm. Chiffinch, Closet-natural advantages would be fortified by a stockade from is far from improbable that a position with so many Keeper to K. Car. II." The portrait of her hus- very early times. Three of the manuscripts of the band, Edward, first Earl of Jersey, by the same Chronicle tell us that the martyrdom took place at artist, hangs next to it. G. L. G. Corfesgeate or Corfgeate; the fourth does not mention Titsey Place. the name of the place. The castle does not come into the clear light of history until the reign of Henry I., when we find it used as the prison of Robert, Duke of Normandy.

SOURCE OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (6th S. ix. 387).-MR. BUCKLEY will find "Sed ad magna præmia perveniri non potest nisi per magnos labores" in S. Greg. M., In Evangelia Homilia, lib. ii. hom. xxxvii. § 1. If MR. BUCKLEY takes an interest in the notes to Hooker, he may see a list of references which have been given to supply those which are wanting in the Oxford Herald, Oct. 13, 1883. This is not one of them.

ED. MARSHALL.

LETTER-BOOK OF GABRIEL HARVEY (6th S. ix. 399). The reference which MR. SCOTT points out is not quite accurate. In The Schoole of Abuse,

We think that Mr. Bond has proved that the site of Corfe Castle was a possession of the Crown when the Domesday survey was made, although that record cannot be quoted in evidence. A record of the time of Richard

II. declares it to be an ancient demesne of the Crown. If

no mistake was made-and we do not see that there is any reason whatever for imagining that there was any we cannot but believe that in very early Norman times a fortress would be built here, if one was not there already. That the Saxon castles were commonly, if not universally, mounds fortified with timber fences is now acknowledged; but Corfe may have been an exception, or the stockade, if there were one, may have contained buildings of stone and lime inside. There are within