Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/399

 i. APRIL 23, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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raised his head, down came the stick upon his pate ; and so they continued till the truth was struck out, in their ceredicliim, an excellent plan for expediting business."

ST. SWITHIN.

THE LOBISHOME. The following passage was written some years ago by the late Rev. John Mason Neale, warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead. He travelled in Portugal in 1853 and 1854, and no doubt made a record of this superstition on one of those occasions. We have just come upon it in the St. Margaret's Magazine tor July, 1893, which is, we believe, issued under the direction of the Sisters of the Anglican Convent of East Grinstead. It would be well to transfer it to ' N. & Q.' for several reasons, among others because it is probably the most western version of the werewolf story to be found in Europe :

" The lobwhome is a young man or girl (for they never live to grow old), only to be known in the daytime by their gloom and wretchedness, but under a spell which obliges them, at night, to take the form of a horse and gallop wildly over mountain or valley, without pause or rest till daylight. If the clatter of hoofs is heard through a village of Traz os Moutes at night, the peasant will cross himself and say, ' God help the poor lobishome ! ' The only cure is this. Advance boldly to such a miserable creature, and draw blood from its breast. The spell is broken, and that 'for ever."

N. M. & A.

JOHN ECTON, 'D.N.B.,' xvi. 353. Perhaps the following additional facts concerning the author of ' Liber Valorum et Decimarum ' are worthy of a note in these columns. In 1711 he gave a copy of his book to Winchester College, and his inscription on the fly-leaf shows that he had been educated at the college as a chorister. He was therefore, no doubt, the Ecton whose name is on the school rolls of 1688-93, and his education perhaps explains the collection of music and musical instruments which he bequeathed by his will to James Kent. On the recommendation of the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty he was appointed collector and receiver of the tenths of the clergy, with a salary of 3001. per annum, by letters patent dated 6 December, 1717 (Patent Roll, 4 Geo. 1., part 3) ; and he held the office until his death at his house at Turnham Green on 20 August, 1730 (' Historical Register, Chronological Diary for 1730,' p. 55). He was buried in Winchester Cathedral on 26 August, 1730 (Cathedral Register). His widow Dorothea, who is mentioned in the ' Dictionary ' as his executrix, was probably his second wife, as the Cathedral Register records the burial on 12 August, 1726, of " Mrs. Eliz. Ecton, the

wife of John Ecton, esq.," "brought from London and buried here." Is anything known of either lady 1 Mindful of certain discussions in these columns, I add that he was a genuine "esquire," being styled such in the above-mentioned letters patent. It appears from his will that he owned some freehold property at Fritham, Hants, and had a youthful kinswoman named Barbara Jones. H. C.

Wj must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

"A PAST." When did the modern phrase " a man " or " woman with a past " come into existence ? Who was its author ? Are there uses leading up to it ? J. A. H. MURRAY.

WOMEN VOTERS IN COUNTIES AND BOROUGHS. John Stuart Mill, in his speech on the admission of women to the electoral franchise in the House of Commons, delivered 20 May, 1867, said : "There is evidence in our con- stitutional records that women have voted in counties and in some boroughs, at former, though certainly distant, periods of our his- tory." Can any of your readers inform me where these instances are to be found or in what records they should be looked for ?

M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

Villa Julia, Hastings.

BIRDS' EGGS. Now that the season for birdsnesting has arrived, it may be amusing to some readers to notice the genuine and naive enthusiasm of the pure oologist, who is an egg-collector first and a student of natural history afterwards. Take the case of the eggs of the Limicplss, i e., the division of plovers, snipes, sandpipers, &,c. There are about fifty-five species of birds of this single class, all interesting to us whose lot is cast in "this sceptred isle ...... set in the silver sea,"

and the eggs of them all, except three, have been discovered and properly identified.

But the eggs of the sharp-tailed sandpiper, the curlew-sandpiper, and the knot are, or were very recently, unknown. To these three particular species the ardent egg-collector directs his special attention, and no doubt will continue to do so for many years. Mr. Seebohm and others have been very nearly successful with the second unknown egg, viz., that of the curlew sandpiper, but they have just failed under provoking circumstances, which they give us with the full details, and evidently con cwiore. Mr. Seebohm saw a