Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/285

 10"- S. I. MARCH 19, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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condemned his personal demeanour and his political action. One anecdote of the Duke of Gloucester occurs to me. He was being shown over a lunatic asylum, and was inspecting the inmates through the windows of their cells. One of them, when he saw the face of the inspecting visitor, cried out, "Hallo! there's Silly Billy." " Ah," said the Duke, withdrawing from the window, "I see that he has his lucid moments."

W. P. COURTNEY.

That nephew of King George III. who was known in his youth as Prince William of Gloucester, and subsequently became the second Duke of Gloucester, was nicknamed " Silly Billy," as I have heard from the lips of a still surviving godson of H.R.H. H.

William IV. was a popular king during his short reign. John Mitford (a man of birth and abilities, who had served under Hood and Nelson, and was the author of 'Johnny Newcome in the Navy') wrote a once very popular song, ' The King is a True British Sailor.' See Hpwitt's 'Visits to Remarkable Places,' vol. ii. p. 394.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

SALEP OR SALOP (9 th S. xii. 448 ; 10 th S. i. 97, 138). I. B. B. is right when he says that salep is not always obtained from the ore hid - tuber. Indeed, if my last note on the subject gave this impression it should not go un- corrected, for the preparation of salep from the common meadow and male orchis, and some other species of British orchids, made it only an imitation of the genuine Oriental article, which consists almost entirely of a peculiar gummy substance called bassorin and starch, and was considered to be more nutritious than either sago or arrowroot. The method of concocting the English saloop is described by Mr. Moult in the Philosophical Transactions :

" The best time to gather the tubers is when the seed is formed, and the stalk is going to fall, for then the new bulb of which Salep is made, is arrived at its full size. The new roots are washed in water, the outer skin removed, and then set on a tin plate, in an oven heated sufficiently to bake bread. In six, eight, or ten minutes they will have become semi-transparent, like horn, without any diminution of size. Then remove them from the oven and place them in a room to dry and harden, which they will do in a few days ; or this process may be effected by the application of a slow heat in a few hours. The roots should then be powdered or ground in a mill, and put into canisters, and so kept dry."

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

FEBRUARY 30 (10 th S. i. 166). Cards at a cost of one penny each are to be bought at

Otley and some of the adjacent villages con- taining the following :

A CURIOUS GRAVE-STONE.

The following appears on a grave-stone in the

church-yard of the picturesque village of Fewston,

in the Washburn Valley, near Otley, Yorkshire :

To the memory of Joseph Ridsdale of Bluberhouse r

who died Febuary the 29th, 1823, aged 79 years.

Also Elizabeth his wife, March the 18th, 1813,

aged 59 years. And William their son, died Febuary the 30th,

1802, aged 23 years.

It will be seen that the letter " r " is omitted from "February" in each case; that it is impossible to- have " February the 29th, 1823," or " February the 30th, 1802," as the former is not a leap-year, and the latter is quite out of the question ; and that the order of the dates when death occurred is reversed.

Of course, every one knows that Julius Csesar reformed the calendar by establishing, the system of three years of 365 days, followed by the leap year of 366 days, and that this- division gave February 30 days, the general idea of Csesar being that the months should alternate 31 and 30 days respectively.

The month of Quintilis, afterwards altered to Julius in honour of Csesar, contained 31 days, and his successor the Emperor Augustus changed the name of the month Sextilis to- August, and took one day from February to make it of equal length to the month named after his predecessor, thus breaking up the regularity of Caesar's arrangement altogether.

CHARLES F. FORSHAW, LL.D , Editor Yorkshire Notes and Queries.

Bradford.

In Adderbury Church, Oxfordshire, there is, just within the chancel, a small brass on the floor inscribed :

" Here lyeth Jane Smyth sometime the wyfe of | George Smyth of Adderbury the whiche dyed | the- xxx day of ffebruary in the yere of our Lord 1 MV^VIII on whose soule Ihu have mercy ame."

J. ASTLEY.

Coventry.

EARL OF EGREMONT (10 th S. i. 148, 192). I remember seeing the issues of the Daily Western Times, but cannot give their date.

In Petworth House there is a picture bearing on the frame the endorsement "Elizabeth, Countess of Egremont." I believe it is by Romney. She is represented in a reclining attitude on a sofa-cushion placed on the ground, and about her stand her two- sons and two daughters (all born before the following recorded ceremony); the eldest son holds a bow and arrow. These sons were the progenitors of the present important families of Leconfield and the Wyndhams of Sussex. In a register belonging to Petworth Church is the following entry :