parcels put over the wall at the back of the house, and these were placed in coffins, directed to a mutual friend, who was in the secret, who forwarded them to their various destinations. This went on for some time, until the neighbours were at a loss to make out the continued exit of these coffins always at a particular hour each week. The stratagem was discovered, Cleave was imprisoned, and the paper died a natural death. At one time for a short period several papers published a stamped and an unstamped edition, the latter to be forwarded in parcels, the former free by post. This occasioned a great amount of trouble to newsvendors, and frequent blunders were made. The view then taken was that it would be better to keep the penny stamp on all; but further thought convinced me that freedom from the tax altogether was the right step. I am glad to see that in Mr. Collet's book recognition is paid to the valuable service rendered by my old friend John Francis in the fight for the freedom of our Press. I knew him from his boyhood when he was an apprentice at Marlborough's newspaper office in Ave Maria Lane, and remember his becoming the publisher of the Athenaeum, and was present at his funeral, when I rode in the same carriage as Mr. Collet. James Grant, in his Newspaper Press,' vol. iii. p. 306, refers to Cleave, and frequent mention is made by him of John Francis and the part he took in the agitation against the Advertisement and Paper Duties. I have maintained, and always shall main tain, that more credit is due to Francis than has ever been given for his exertion and toil in bringing about the abolition of the taxes on the Press. PETER TERRY. Hornsey Rise. THE NEW CENTURY. When the sixtieth minute is ended WALTER W. SKEAT. Christ. Now the date of the Christian era as we actually use it (a use which cannot now he displaced, though it is not the actual date of the birth of Christ) is 31 December, B.C. 1, or a week after the traditional Christmas Day. It follows that the year B.C. 1 (the year immediately preceding A.D. 1) is the first year before the Christian era, and B.C. 100 the hundredth, so that the first century before Christ began on 1 January, B.C. 100, and terminated on 31 December, B.C. 1, just as the first century after the Christian era began on 1 January, A.D. 1, and terminated on 31 December, A.D. 100. In like manner the second, third, fourth, &c., centuries before the Christian era began on 1 January, B.C. 200, 300, 400, &c., and terminated on 31 December, B.C. 101, 201, 301, &c., and the second, third, fourth, &c., centuries after the Christian era began on 1 January, A.D. 101, 201, 301, &c., and terminated on 31 December, A.D. 200, 300, 400, &c., till we come to the nineteenth, which began on 1 January, 1801, and will terminate on 31 December, 1900, so that the twentieth will begin on 1 January, 1901. W. T. LYNN. P.S.-In my former note (ante, p. 41, col. 2) it would make the meaning clearer to insert after the words "years more" (15 of second paragraph) "from the date of the Incarnation." [We can insert no more on this subject.] THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS.-An article in the English Illustrated Magazine (Christmas number) in praise of the Royal Dublins is to some extent misleading. It quotes from Macaulay the well-known passage: "At this moment the valour and genius of an obscure English youth [meaning Clive] turned the tide of fortune"; and then it adds that the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were the chief instrument by which Clive turned it. This passage leads one to suppose that Clive had with him an Irish regiment known as the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. But this was not the case. Further on, speaking of the gallant act of self-sacrifice THE BEGINNINGS AND THE ENDS OF CEN- by which Clive's life was saved at Arcot, it TURIES.It will be noticed that in my note says: Lieut. Trewith, of the 102nd, (ante, p. 41) on The Beginning of the Twen- deliberately leaped forward and received in tieth Century,' col. 2, 1. 21 from bottom, I his own heart," &c. This passage leads one inadvertently wrote A.D. 1 instead of B.C. 1. to suppose that Clive had with him at Arcot I profit by the opportunity of correcting this a king's regiment known as the 102nd. But to offer a few remarks on the dates of the this was not the case. The European soldiers beginnings and ends of earlier centuries. As that Clive had with him belonged to the there has been so much extraordinary mis-old Madras European Regiment, whose disunderstanding about the date of the end of tinguished history was written by one of its the present century after the Christian era, officers, Brigadier-General Neil, who was in it may be well to define also those of the command of the 1st Battalion--the celebrated beginnings and ends of the centuries before | Madras Fusiliers-when the regiment was ordered to Bengal in 1857. This book, the full title of which is 'The History of the Madras European Regiment by a Staff Officer,' may doubtless be consulted at the British Museum. The original Madras European Regiment consisted of three battalions, which were entirely in the service and pay of the Honourable East India Company. The 1st Battalion were the Fusiliers; the 2nd Battalion was the European Light Infantry, and was generally known as the 2nd E.L.I.; the 3rd Battalion was known as the 3rd Europeans. In 1859 these three battalions were transferred from the service of the Honourable E.I. Company to the service of H.M. the Queen. The 1st Fusiliers became the 102nd; the 2nd E.L.I. became the 105th; and the 3rd Europeans became the 108th. The old Madras European Regiment was not an Irish regiment, though it had a good proportion of Irishmen in it. It was principally recruited in London; men from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland knew where to go if they wanted to enlist for Indian service. Nearly thirty years later the 102nd and the 103rd, e, the old Madras Fusiliers and the old Bombay Fusiliers, were linked together and called the Royal Dublins. Fort St. George. FRANK PENNY, LL.M. "MANATEE.”—It is curious to find in so exact a work as the 'Encyclopædia Bri; tannica' the statement, sub voce Manatee,' that the name of this animal is derived from the Latin manus, "in allusion to the handlike use which it makes of its fore-limbs." This vulgar error was exposed last century by Father Gili, whose judgment upon it has been confirmed by such philologists as Humboldt (in his 'Travels') and Von Martius (Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde America's,' Leipzig, 1867). The Encyclopaedic Dictionary' was misled by the 'Britannica,' but the 'Century' adopts the more scientific theory of the word, viz., that it is Haytian, and adds, I do not know on what authority, that it means "big beaver." Von Martius makes it signify Weiberbrust, "woman's breast," which one would prefer to believe, because it fits in with the mermaid fable. JAMES PLATT, Jun. ROBERT BRUCE.—This, from a letter dated Cape Town, 6 December, 1899, and published in the Daily Telegraph on 26 December, seems worth preservation:— "An interesting Scottish relic was produced at the Cape Town banquet. Capt. Bruce, of Her Majesty's ship Monarch, now at Simon's Bay, sent a locket containing a piece of the cloth of gold and a fragment of the coffin in which King Robert the lockets are extant to-day. Her Majesty the Queen Bruce was enshrouded in 1327. Three only of these possesses one, Lord Elgin, also a Bruce, another, and Capt. Bruce, a lineal descendant of King Robert, the third." It is almost needless to say there are no legitimate male descendants of King Robert Bruce, nor, indeed, of his grandfather the "Competitor." JAMES DALLAS. THE WORDS "GAVEL" AND "SHIELING."-I beg leave to enter a protest against at least two of the assumptions made in MR. ADDY'S remarks on 'The Origin of the English Coinage' (see ante, p. 29). It is much to be wished that he would let philology alone, and allow his arguments to rest upon historical facts only. There is no connexion at all between A.-S. gafol, tribute, a derivative of the verb to give, and A.-S. geafel, gafel, a fork, which is allied to our modern E. gaff. The former is neuter, and the latter is feminine. All the arguments based upon this supposed identity of two wholly unrelated words are not only worthless, but make the reader suspect that there is too much special pleading. But our So, again, we are told that a shieling is "usually of one bay," which has nothing to do with the matter. Shieling is obviously related to Icel. skjōl, Dan. skjul, and means precisely "shelter," from the Idg. root skeu, to cover, the - being a suffix. shilling is from a root skil, where the 7 is radical. They are totally different words, involving different gradations, and that is why the vowel-sounds are different. Bad philology ought to be a thing of the past. WALTER W. SKEAT. EPITAPH "THIS MAID NO ELEGANCE." The late Bishop Fraser seldom visited Warrington without asking to see the epitaph of Margaret Robinson, who died December, 1816 : This maid no elegance of form possess'd; SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF BYGONE BLACKBURN.-In the Blackburn Times for 2 December, 1899, there was published an account of a long interview which a representative had with an old Blackburnian, and two or three of the latter's recollections seem to me worthy of being repeated in 'N. & Q.' The school which he attended, now over seventy years ago, was situated in Chapel Street. It seems to have been built on a graveyard, for not infrequently the flooring was removed and graves dug, even while the children were at their lessons. At the funerals, however, the scholars were not present. The church-tax, first levied for the building of the parish church, was a great hardship to the poor people, many of whom did not earn more than five or six shillings a week by hand-loom weaving. Of course it was very unpopular, and numerous attempts were made to evade it; but the authorities were obdurate, and many a poor man was "sold up." Dr. Whittaker was vicar at the time of the Chartist agitation, and a Chartist named Preston challenged him to preach from a certain text. The doctor accepted, and a great congregation assembled to hear him. The sermon is supposed to have been one of the finest ever delivered in the church, and it amazed and confounded the Chartists, their principles receiving a blow from which they never recovered in Blackburn. It was the custom in those days for many of the congregation, after leaving the church, to assemble outside the neighbouring "Old Bull" Hotel to listen to the clerk of the church, who, standing on some riding stones, would announce the cattle sales fixed to be held in the locality during the coming week. When a funeral was about to take place some intimate friend of the bereaved family would, on the previous day, go round the neighbourhood inviting friends and acquaintances to attend the obsequies. Consequently large numbers of people were generally present, and on assembling at the house of mourning, each one, on being admitted, would slip a shilling into the hand of the nearest female relative of the dead person. This custom was known as "presenting." Before proceeding to the churchyard a great quantity of spiced ale would be consumed, and, as hearses were very seldom used fifty or sixty years ago, it was quite a familiar sight to see the coffin-carriers staggering along in a state of intoxication, scarcely able to support their burden. CHARLES H. STIRRUP. CINDERELLA.-According to a note in the 'Reminiscences of an Old Bohemian,' the absurd notion of [a glass slipper did not originate with Perrault (or his son) : "Vair is the word in Perrault's tales, not verre. Glass slipper is simply a blundering translation. Yet learned men have been found, who, upon the assumed existence of perfectly flexible glass that could be woven into shoes and garments, have victoriously shown, to their own satisfaction at advanced than it was in the dark ages. It is to an least, that the glass industry in our days is far less unlucky substitution of Kaunλos for Kápidos in the Greek text that we owe the spoiling of one of the most obviously intended and most beautiful similes in the New Testament." The latter reading was given by Fielding in one of his novels (Amelia'?). B. D. MOSELEY. Burslem. CAMPBELL AND KEATS.-I am not aware whether any one has pointed out a singular resemblance between a passage in Keats's 'Lamia,' part ii., towards the end, and some well-known lines in Campbell's 'Rainbow.' Keats writes:Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given To the dull catalogue of common things. Who does not at once recall Campbell's two stanzas?— RUSKIN ON TASTE.--In 'Modern Painters,' vol. i. part i. sec. i. chap. vi., we read : "This, then, is the real meaning of this disputed word. Perfect taste is the faculty of receiving the greatest possible pleasure from those material in its purity and perfection. He who receives little sources which are attractive to our moral nature pleasure from these sources wants taste; he who receives pleasure from any other sources has false or bad taste." Ruskin's definition of perfect taste is excellent; but in the next sentence he stumbles over the very thing he is trying to avoid, namely, the vulgar distinction between so-called good taste and bad taste. If there were a man who had perfect taste, it is probable that he would not receive pleasure from any but the proper sources. But such a being would sit apart on a mountain top, while his most daring mortal emulator could climb only a short distance above the plain. According to Mr. Ruskin, therefore, as they cannot but receive pleasure from sources other than those specified by him, men are at the same time endowed with good taste and bad taste, This, of course, may be explained by saying perfection. So when the new moon appears sources. Glasgow. "HURGIN."-In Mrs. Ewing's 'Lob Lie-bythe-Fire' the expression is used "like a great hurgin bear." In the north of Yorkshire people speak of "a great orgin lad," the epithet implying that the lad is fat and unwieldy. Can anybody suggest an etymology? A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford. CLASSICAL WORD FOR "HEADSORE."--What is the word (Greek or Latin, I think) used, with metaphorical application, to signify the reverse of a plague spot in the human body, i.e., a headsore into which all that is pernicious and evil in it flows of organic necessity? I think it occurs in some Greek play to express the term and "finis" of every kind of evil in some connexion or other. J. M. Oxford. Shropshire,' vol. iii. p. 103, mentions the ARMORIAL.-Eyton, in his 'Antiquities of following coat of arms as having been in existence in the church of Claverley, Shropshire, at the end of the seventeenth century: "Gules, on a fesse between three bucks' heads Can any of your readers say to what family cabossed or, three bugle-horns strung sable." these arms belonged? G. S. PARRY, Lieut.-Col. DEPRECIATION OF COINAGE.-Can any of your correspondents inform me at what date and in what country the earliest depreciation of the coinage took place in medieval Europe? Oresme writing in 1373 describes coins as something "noviter adinventa." Our earliest depreciation in England was in the reign of Edward I. W. W. C. SIR HENRY CAREY, KNT., afterwards first Lord Falkland, was M.P. for co. Hertford from 1601 to 1622. In the Parliament 1604–11, when certain vacant seats were under discussion, we read, "9 Nov., 1605. Sir Henry Carey-Captive. To stand still as a Burgess. "HUN-BARROW."-In the addenda to Dart-Journals'). Where and by whom was Sir Resolved, not to be removed ('Commons' nell and Goddard's 'Glossary of Wiltshire Henry Carey taken prisoner? How long did Words' the word hun-barrow is said to have his captivity last? He was present again in been used in the sense of a tumulus in the the House before the close of the session of south part of the county. I should be glad to hear of any other instance of the use of the word in England. We may perhaps compare E. Fris. hüne (a giant) and hünen-bed (a barrow or cairn); see Koolman's Dictionary, and Grimm's Teutonic Mythology' (tr. Stallybrass), ii. 522. A. L. MAYHEW. 1607. Leigh, Lancashire. W. D. PINK. LADY SHOEMAKERS. In Mrs. Gaskell's pretty character sketch 'My Lady Ludlow,' at the beginning of chap. ii., we are told that my lady "would not sanction the fashion of the day, which, at the beginning of this cen- Norwich. CARD-MATCHES. - Review of 13 January of Mr. M. H. SpielWHISKERS.-In a notice in the Saturday mann's work, The Hitherto Unidentified Contributions of W. M. Thackeray to Punch,' it is said : On one very trifling point we think that Mr. Spielmann is under a misapprehension. 'It is curious and My Lord Temple, as vain as if he was descended Thackeray, who illustrates his own text' (in which characteristic,' he says. 'that from the stroller Pindar, or had made up card- there is mention of whiskered guardsmien), has matches at the siege of Genoa, has resigned the drawn the warriors with moustaches only. Now, Privy Seal, because he has not the Garter. an old dictionary defines a whisker as What is the meaning of these mentions of hair on the upper lip of a man,' and we take it that a tuft of Pindar and of the siege of Genoa? The senthese terms were not properly differentiated even tence occurs in Horace Walpole's letter to generic signification. We still keep the old nomenas late as 1846. 'Beard' used to be a word of quite Montagu of 17 November, 1759 (Cunning-clature when we speak of the whiskers of a cat." ham's ed., vol. iii. p. 266). The 'H.E.D.' gives: With the note that in ' Pendennis,' which was "Card-match a piece of card dipped in in course of publication in 1849-50, the immelted sulphur." H. T. B. mortal Major certainly indicates that he knows what a moustache means-and that in ask whether anywhere outside the Saturday the sense in which it is used to-day-I would Review's "old dictionary" whiskers have been considered the equivalent. A. F. R. = MEN WEARING EARRINGS. explain why some working-men, especially Can any one navvies, wear earrings? W. CURZON YEO. Richmond, Surrey. [Is there not a belief that earrings are good for the sight?] POND FARM, LEICESTER, AND WHITEBROOK FAMILY.-William Whitebrook, who was born about 1716 and married about 1750, was in the last-named year in possession of a farm known as Pond Farm, near Leicester. I shall be glad of any information upon the following points: (1) The exact location of Pond Pound) Farm, which was the largest in the southern vicinity of Leicester; (2) the name of the parish in which it was situated; (3) the dates the exact dates, for those I give are only approximate of the birth and marriage of the William Whitebrook named; (4) whether he was its tenant or owner. "EVERY BULLET HAS ITS BILLET."-In what song do these words occur? E. MEIN. viii. 68. We have before us a copy of the song A.D. 1750. 66 Bayswater. [See 1st S. vii. 11; 5th S. x. 115, 417; and particularly 7th S. vii. 491.] W. "JESSO."-What are the meaning and origin of this word, and what books give an account Hants,' 1795, vol. i. p. 88, I find, "Beezeley BEEZELEY.-In Warner's 'Collections for of "the lands of Jesso" mentioned in Bar-five miles East from Petersfield clay's 1808 Dictionary' in connexion with the word 'Continent'? H. J. B. DR. JAMES GORDON MORGAN.-Could any of your correspondents give information regarding the descendants or family of Dr. James Gordon Morgan? He took the degree of M.B. at Cambridge (St. John's College) in 1806. He afterwards practised medicine at Barnstaple, in Devonshire. He married an heiress, Ann Douglas, by whom he had a numerous family. The eldest son is registered as baptized there: "William Archibald Morgan, 23 Dec., 1813"; and a daughter Jean, 14 May, 1823, also born at Barnstaple. ALEX. FORBES. -no more. I presume this must have been a Sussex Fern Hill, Oxton, Birkenhead. your readers if any of them have yet come OLD WOODEN CHEST.-I should like to ask across an old chest cut from a length of solid founded opinion. Along with St. Augustine's tree trunk about whose age there is a wellchair there was found at Stanford Bishop such a chest, but I have not seen any account of it from which its age has been gathered. Is it, or may it with the chair be, assigned to the seventh century? In our parish church here |