Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/185

 io s. x. AUG. 22,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

149

about forty years his junior) survived till 1788, aged 97, and with her two sons above mentioned is, I understand, buried at Ken- sington, where there may be a memorial stone. Possibly there is one at Kingston also. Perhaps some of your correspondents will oblige by inserting a reply in 'N. & Q.'

P. GBAY. Blackness Avenue, Dundee.

DEAD ANIMALS EXPOSED ON TBEES AND WALLS. It is well known that the Teutonic races, and as I believe the Celtic also, were in the habit of hanging up sacrificial beasts on trees (Grimm, ' Teutonic Mythology,' trans. Stallybrass, i. 47, 77, 78). It is also the custom at the present day for game- keepers to nail up such creatures as are held to be destructive to the animals it is their duty to protect. Thus they gibbet cats, stoats, and birds of prey on prominent trees and the walls of buildings stables and barns are favourite places. How old the latter custom may be I do not know, but should be glad of references to it as existing in the eighteenth century or earlier, as I think it not impossible that it may have been handed down from the days of heathen- ism. The motive gamekeepers assign for it nowadays is that the dead creatures by their presence testify to their masters that their work is being carried on with due vigilance.

The bodies of moles, when taken out of traps, are subjected to a parallel fate. They are hung on the branches of the willow. I have seen scores of them thus exhibited on the low lands beside the Trent, but never, so far as I can remember, on any other tree. EDWABD PEACOCK.

WOOLLEN GOODS FROM FRANCE. Was the prohibition of the importation of woollen goods ever formally withdrawn by Act of Parliament ? and, if so, when ? By the Commercial Treaty of 1786, France could export here under a 10 per cent import duty. That treaty expired on war breaking out in 1793. Afterwards prohibitive import duties were levied for many years ; but I can find no evidence of formal withdrawal of prohibition against importation.

T. X. S.

ROBERTS FAMILY. Information wanted about place of origin and descent of William Lewis Roberts (captain 2nd Ceylon Regiment) born 1771. He is described as the son of E. Lewis Roberts and Mary Ensor, his wife, who belonged to the Willencote branch of the Ensor family. Capt. Roberts had

several brothers, mostly in the army ; William was a captain in the R.A. The family arms were Per pale arg. and gu., a lion ramp. sa. Crest, an antelope's head erased per fesse or and gu. These are identical, I notice, with those confirmed to Sir Wm. Roberts of Sutton Chainell, Leics., in 1614. Capt. Roberts married Nancy Hamilton Lever, who is supposed to have been descended in the fourth degree from the third Duke of Hamilton, through Lord Basil Hamilton. Please reply direct.

W. ROBERTS CROW. Fenchurch House, E.C.

THOMAS HARRY HEARSEY (? 1752-1812 ?). He was in the service of some Indian prince. Any clue to his ancestors will oblige. A. C. H.

MATTHEW ARNOLD ON PIGEONS. What is the meaning of the following words in Arnold's essay on ' The Function of Criti- cism ' ? Speaking of the attack on Bishop Colenso, and the excuse made for him that he was after all in search of truth, he con- cludes ironically : "Be silent, therefore ; or rather, speak, speak as loud as ever you can, and go into ecstasies over the eight hundred and odd pigeons."

LAWRENCE PHILLIPS.

Sibson Rectory, Atherstone.

WILLIAM CROWMER : WATTS FAMILY or SUSSEX. ' Notes on the Church of St. John Baptist, Aldenham,' by K. F. Gibbs, contains the following :

"The most beautiful monuments in the church are the recumbent effigies of the wife and daughter- in-law of William Crowmer, sometime Lord Mayor of London. The dress of the ladies is said to be of the end of the fourteenth century, but Crowmer was not Lord Mayor till the year in which Henry V.

came to the throne William Crowmer was a

contemporary of the well-known 4 Dick ' Whit-

tington and Crowmer himself held the office a

second time in 1423 A.D."

I should be much obliged to any one who

could tell me anything of the family of

Crowmer, and from what source to obtain

the tinctures and the names of the bearers

of the various arms placed upon the above

tombs.

I should also like any particulars with regard to the family of Watts in Sussex before 1800. H. WHISTLER.

Battle, Sussex.

" PARTHENOPJEUS HERETICUS." What is known of this writer, whose name was William Gordon, and who published a pamphlet, ' Popery against Christianity,' in 1719 ? I am acquainted with Wodrow's