Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/50

 NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. JULY n, im.

into, and hence the direct course of many of them is blocked by the foundations of more modern erections. Only a few days ago (during the week ending June 20th) one was thus broken into by men carrying out exten- sions at the Post Office. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

"THE CROOKED BILLET" (10 S.ix. 190, 452). I am interested in H. G. P.'s communica- tion at the latter reference from the fact that I remember a similar crooked stick in use. A man used to call periodically at my father's house in Northamptonshire in my childhood's days, selling hosiery,, worsted, &c. He carried his wares in two bundles, which were suspended from his shoulder, one in front and one behind, by means of a crooked stick. This stick, which was a formidable piece of wood, had probably been bent by some means into the required shape, and was always an object of great interest to me. JOHN T. PAGE.

I remember that when a wood had been cleared of timber, men were set to work " stubbing." Scores of the roots taken out were " crooked billets " so called by the stubbers, and for weeks afterwards crooked billets were burnt on every cottage fire.

There was a pedlar who regularly came round, his wares in a couple of baskets slung over his shoulder by a crooked billet. A sandstone hawker Soft Sam we called him brought round his stones slung on the backs of two donkeys, crooked billets being used to support the rough shelves upon which the sandstones were piled on the flanks of each donkey.

When suitable crooked billets, naturally made, were not to be had, wood was boiled in iron pots until soft enough : then the "bents" were made, tied in position, and hung up to dry until the crooks were set. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

" WHAT YOU BUT SEE WHEN YOU HAVEN'T A GUN" (10 S. ix. 108, 217, 493). Here &u=only. The word is frequently used in that sense on this- side of the Atlantic, e.g., " If I could but get that I should be happy.'"' ST. SWITHIN.

HON. MRS. GORDON'S SUICIDE (10 S. ix. 449). The Hon. Mrs. Gordon who died at 39, Somerset Street, Portman Square, on 29 May, 1813, was Catherine, only sister of the second Earl of Portsmouth, and widow of the Hon. Lockhart Gordon, third son of the third Earl of Aboyne. By this, his

second marriage, the Hon. Lockhart Gordort had seven children, of whom two sons and. two daughters came of age. Which of the two daughters, Caroline or Catherine,, was it who was married to J. C. Williams, Esq. ? JOHN B. WAINEWKIGHT.

HOLBEIN SUBJECTS (10 S. ix. 449, 497). See ' D.N.B.,' xi. 33, for Margaret Clement. HARMATOPEGOS.

BEN JONSON'S NAME : ITS SPELLING (10 S. ix. 329, 431). I regret that at the second reference I inadvertently make Ben Jonson tell Drummond that his father, instead of his grandfather, " came from Car- lisle." This is the statement given in * Ben Jonson' s Conversations with William Drum- mond of Hawthornden,' chap. xiii. :

"His Grandfather came from Carlisle, and, he thought, from Aimandale to it : he served King Henry 8, and was a gentleman. His Father losed all his estate under Queen Marie, having, been cast in prisson and forfaitted ; at last turn'd Minister : so he was a minister's son."

Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781-1851), a Border man with special knowledge, thus comments on this passage :

" If Ben's grandfather went, as Jonson supposed, from Annandale to Carlisle, which lies very near it r he must have pronounced and written, if ne could write, his name Johnstpne. I believe there never was a Johnson heard of in Annandale or its vicinity ? but it was the nest of the Johnstones ; the lairds of the Lochwood, ancestors of the Marquises of Annandale, were the chiefs of Wamphray, !Sowdean r Lockerbie, Gretna, &c. I have examined as many of their pedigrees as I possess, in order to ascertain if Benjamin were ever a family name among them, but have not found it in Annandale." See Cunningham's edition of Gifford's ' Jon- son,' iii. 481. THOMAS BAYNE.

WILLIAM WINSTANLEY'S BIRTHPLACE (10 S. ix. 469). Henry Winstanley, cele- brated from his lamentable fate in the light- house erected by himself on the Eddystone^ Rock, was a descendant from an ancient family etablished at Walden (now Saffron Walden), of which William, although origin- ally a barber, was probably a member, and it is equally probable that he was born there. Be this as it may, Quendon is in the parish of Saffron Walden, so that in any case he- may be said to have claimed the latter as- his birthplace.

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

NURSERY RIME (10 S. ix. 408, 478). Is there any reference to the cadaver represented on tombs with worms crawling in and out ?

J. T. F.

Durham.