Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/527

 10* s. i. MAY 28, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

435

As to the origin of the name, it is probably so called from a coarse linen, formerly imported from Holland, which was known as "barras," but the origin of the word seems to be very obscure. I am not certain that I have got the correct spelling of this well- known article of a baby's layette.

ALF. GARDINER.

Leeds.

I have an impression that a long flannel coat worn by infants is sometimes called a " barrow" by old-fashioned people. Having written this sentence,! turned to the 'E.D.D.,' and there found confirmation. Barrow is (1) an infant's flannel swathe or pilch ; (2) an infant's first underdress ; a child's flannel petticoat or nightdress, besides being the flannel in which a newly born infant is re- ceived from the hands of the accoucheur. No doubt " barrar " is a phonetic rendering of "barrow." ST. SWITHIN.

Flannel barrows are still in constant demand, and may be obtained at any draper's shop which has an underclothing department." E. G. B.

Barusley.

A "barrar," or "barra," is the long flannel garment put on infants in arms, and turned up over the feet. I have never heard the word in the South of England, but it is of common use in the North and in the Midlands. BLANCHE HULTON.

Astley House, Bolton.

The 'English Dialect Dictionary' gives " barrow " as used in Ireland and six English counties, to which I am able to add a seventh, namely, Bucks. KICHD. WELFORD.

[Other replies acknowledged.]

DRYDEN PORTRAITS (10 th S. i. 368). Kneller painted several portraits of the poet the finest of which is at Bayfordbury Hall, Herts. The whereabouts of another, given by Dryden to his cousin John Driden, of Chesterton, is not now discoverable. The earliest portrait is said to be that in the picture gallery at Oxford, dated on the back 1655, which is probably an error for 1665. The Bodleian also possesses a copy after Kneller, once thought to be an original. There are two portraits of Dryden at the National Portrait Gallery : one by Kneller, the other attributed to James Maubert. Malone mentions another Kneller as being in the possession of Mr. Sneyd, of Kiel, {Stafford- shire, one of whose ancestors married a daughter of Sir John Driden in 1666. Closterman painted a portrait of the poet about 1690. A crayon drawing was (1854) in

the possession of Sir Henry E. L. Dryden at Canons Ashby. Robert Bell, in 1854, describes another portrait by Kneller, then in the possession of Charles Seville Dryden, at his residence in Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park. This picture was a half-length, in' a Court costume of French grey silk, with gold ornamental studs in the place of buttons, laced cravat, plain ruffles at the wrist, wig and sword, and a wreath of laurel in the left hand. A. R. BAYLEY.

I saw a portrait of the poet at Canons Ashby some years ago, when visiting the late Sir Henry Dryden. No doubt it is there still. L. L. K.

THE SUN AND ITS ORBIT (10 th S. i. 329). The theory that Alcyone, the leading brilliant in the Pleiades, is a central sun round which our solar system is revolving was put forward by Wright in 1750. It was revived by Madler in 1846, but is not held by any modern astronomer with whose works I am ac- quainted. Flammarion, in 'Les Etoiles,' Paris, 1882, writing of the slow movement of the stars in this group, adds :

" C'est cette lenteur dans leur mouvementpropre, c'est ce repos relatif qui avait conduit Tastronome allemand Madler al'hypothese que cette importante agglomeration de soleils pourrait bien etrele centre, le foyer sideral, autour duquel notre soleil gravite. Mais il n'y a la qu'une hypothese, assez peu pro- bable meme, car les- Pleiades ne se trouvent pas juste a angle droit avec la ligne que nous suivons dans 1'espace."

The great conception of Sir William Her- schel that the solar system is bound upon a stupendous voyage through space towards a certain point in the constellation Hercules still holds the field. ' RICHARD WELFORD.

FOOTBALL ON SHROVE TUESDAY (10 th S. i. 127, 194, 230, 331). At Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, the Shrove-tide "Grand (Foot- ball) Matches" were, until quite recently, one of the red-letter events of the year. These matches were played on the Thursday preced- ing Quinquagesima Sunday, and on the Mon- day and Tuesday following. Technically, the game was known as "Stonyhurst football," a species of football that allowed some sixty or seventy to play in one match. j; The opposing sides were known as "English" and ' French " ; during the match great enthu- siasm always prevailed ; flags were flying and cannons firing. At the "Lemonade" on Shrove Monday or Tuesday, extra pancakes were provided for such of the players as had especially distinguished themselves. " Stony- hurst football " is now, alas ! being super- seded by the more up-to-date "Association