Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/306

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. SEPT. 26, im.

("statesman") described as "of Craighall* near Penrith, Cumberland." No such farm exists at the present day. I shall be glad to hear of any pedigrees of this family, and particularly of the antecedents of the above Thomas. PHILOSYRUS.

MONASTIC ESTATES. A statement js con- stantly made that the monastic estates in England before the fall of the religious houses extended over something like a third of the land in the kingdom. On what authority does this rest ? It seems to us an exaggeration. By what means has the calculation been arrived at ? N. M. & A.

KING EDWIN'S DWARFS. In Goethe's description of the siege of Mentz at the time of the French Revolution there occurs an allusion to King Edwin and his army of dwarfs coming forth from a mountain. Who was this King Edwin ? T. F.

Brooklyn, N.Y.

FLYING MACHINES : " AVIATION."

(10 S. x. 186.)

THE following occurs in The London Journal of 18 Oct., 1851 :

"'It is announced,' says The Sheffield Inde- pendent, 'that "the latest scientific improvement of our age is about to be verified," and the objects of the society are thus set forth : " This society is instituted for the purpose of aiding and carrying out improvements of a purely scientific character. Illustrations will be given in diagrams upon aerosta- tion by wings, which will enable an athletic person to fly, by a simple piece of mechanism, over hill and dale, through the air [sic], at great velocity, without the aid of steam or other but mechanical contrivances." Mr. G. Cavill is secretary, and a Mr. Miers Hind, engineer.'" P. 106. Upon this (p. 222 of the same London Journal) comes the description of an experimental flight actually achieved by a Mr. Thomas d'Arville, by birth a Frenchman, in November or December, 1851 :

" Mr. d'Arville sent written invitations to several scientific men and members of the press, including

7 J 1 ' ~-.^*-wy VA VA.IV/ ^C/C^l/O, JLUUIJ.J.V

Fontaine and Duport, of the Union; Ludovic Charreau, of the Estafette ; E. Taxier, of the Siecle. The Journal des Chemins de Per was represented by Mr. Mires; the Charivari by Mr. Cham; the Gazette de France by Mr. Durbin ; the Evenement by Mr. Costa; the Messager by Mr. Garcin. Mr. Gozlau brought with him an English traveller, Mr.

William Watson At five minutes to four we saw

a travelling carriage appear, containing three per- sonsMr. d'Arville and his two assistants, Messrs.

Pierre Doulley and Jules Flamund ; two wooden cases; containing the wings and machinery, being

placed on the top of the carriage The adjustment

)f the pieces did not last longer than five minutes. Vtr. d'Arville then said : ' Gentlemen, I am going to make the experiment ; rely on my success, and allow me a fair proportion of room to enable me to start securely.'

" Having placed himself in the flexible machine, Mr. d'Arville then said : * I am ready ! ' and press- ing his feet on two pedals in the foot-board, he rose majestically through the air in a perpendicular ine. He was furnished with a cord measuring a lundred yards, having at the end a leaden bullet. By this means it became apparent in about a minute that he was 300 feet above our heads.

" Nothing can paint the astonishment, or rather
 * he terror, of us all ; and the most tremendous

cheering and applause testified our wonder. Then Mr. d'Arville through the medium of a speaking trumpet-j-said : ' I will now proceed to the oblique and continuous flight.'

" Accordingly, with a change of pedals, he directed his flight whichever way he wished, with- out the least sign of a jerk, and we must say without any apparent peril. After having traversed a space not less than the vast square of the Champ de Mars, Mr. d'Arville came and alighted at our feet, taking no more time in his descent than a sheet of paper thrown out of a window when the air is still. Paris Paper."

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

Deene Streatham.

TURSTIN DE WlGMORE ! TlJRSTIN FLAN-

DBENSIS (10 S. x. 205). I am not. responsible for the Domesday article in the ' Victoria History of Shropshire,' which is by Prof. Tait ; but if MR. WIG MORE will refer to my Domesday article in the ' Victoria History of Herefordshire ' (vol. i. pp. 303-4), he will find that I have there forestalled him in his statements and in the evidence on which they are based. J. H. ROUND.

INFERIOR CLERGY, THEIR APPELLATIONS : SIR" (10 S. ix. 286, 454; x. 175). The prefix " Sir " or " Schir " to denote an ungraduated cleric was in very common use in Scotland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the early part of the sixteenth, and the circumstance has given rise to some confusion in historical and ballad literature, it being often taken for granted that a person bearing the title " Sir " was a knight. On this subject Pinkerton has an interesting note in ' The Bruce,' to the lines

And amang others off the Douglase Put in presourie Wilyam wase, That off Douglase was Lord and Syr.

The note says :

" There was no Earl of this great family till 1357, 'Annals of Scot.,'^ ii. 224. Barbour uses 'Syr' for ' Lord ' by a contraction of Seigneur. Our applica- tion of ' Sir ' to knights only is of modern date, and