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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. XL F. 6, im

the girl of that time. The attack was fiercely repulsed by an article (I know not in what publication) under the heading ' The Girl of the Periodical.'

JOHN P. STILWELL.

DICKENS'S " KNIFE -Box " (10 S. xi. 8). On a sideboard of the upstairs room in the coffee-house in St. Paul's Churchyard, where David Copperfield had a memorable inter- view with Mr. Spenlow and Miss Murdstone, were " two of those extraordinary boxes, all corners and flutings, for sticking knives and forks in, which, happily for mankind, are now obsolete." See chap, xxxviii. (' A Dissolution of Partnership ') in the one- volume " Charles Dickens Edition," p. 332. These obsolete contrivances, which are to be met with in curiosity and second-hand- furniture shops, are, I believe, sometimes converted into stationery cases.

EDWARD BENSLY.

EDWARD BARNARD (10 S. xi. 28). Thomas Barnard, the officiating minister, was in all probability not the future Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, but Edward Barnard's brother who became Fellow of Eton in 1772, and was also Vicar of Mapledurham (' Registrum Regale,' p. 17).

Edward Barnard's wife is described in the Eton Parish Register (under notice of the birth of her son) as the daughter of Nathaniel Haggatt of Barbadoes. Cole says that Barnard, " while he was Master of Eton Schole, . .. .married a West Indian lady of a good fortune, but who lived with him not many years." There was one son by the marriage, Edward, born in 1763.

R. A. AUSTEN LEIGH.

" SPANISH STRAPPS " : " MORBTJS GAL- LICUS" (10 S. xi. 49). These are different names for that disease which each nation attributes to some other country. Accord- ing to a common account, the scourge was brought to Europe by one of the Spanish companions of Columbus in 1494, who had become infected in Haiti. The sufferings caused by it would afford an apt comparison for those due to the maleficent influence of witches. E. E. STREET.

THIMBLES (10 S. xi. 66). The story that thimbles were invented by the Dutch in or about 1690 is continually cropping up in newspapers, very often with the addition that one John Lofting manufacturec thimbles in London in 1695. No proof has ever been given of Mr. Lofting's existence As MR. PEACOCK says, thimbles are probably

of prehistoric date. I have a note that they lave been found in the disinterred dwellings at Herculaneum, but cannot give the autho- rity. The Shakespeare allusions should be ll known ; and mention of the thimble- n English literature can be traced back to Saxon times. The late Prof. Thorold Rogers, n his ' History of Agriculture and Prices im England,' shows that in 1494 a dozen jhimbles cost 4s. It is difficult not < to relieve that a thimble of some kind must lave been contemporaneous with the first needle ; and few things are more ancient than the needle. G. L. APPERSON,

Wimbledon.

FIELD MEMORIALS TO SPORTSMEN (10 S, x. 509). Does MR. ARCHER propose to .nclude mediaeval examples of accidental death in the chase ? If so, James Gray, ' Parke and housekeeper " of the town of Eunsdon, Herts, should be included. He was killed on 12 Dec., 1591, at the age of 69, by a shaft from a crossbow aimed at a deer. He is depicted on a brass as shooting at a stag while Death, as a skeleton, is stick- ing an arrow into him. The inscription states that he " Near to this Deaths-Signe Brasse doth lie." W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

'THE MILLENNIAL STAR' (10 S. xi. 69). This publication (rather a magazine than a newspaper) was first issued, I think, about 1838 at least I have vol. xi., dated from January to December, 1849. It appeared fortnightly on the 1st and 15th of each month, and consisted of about 16 octavo pages. It was edited and published by Orson Pratt, 15, Wilton Street, St. Anne Street, Liverpool.

I cannot say where there is likely to be a set of these volumes, unless there is one at the present head-quarters in Liverpool of the organization. Their address is " The Latter-day Saints, Printing, Publishing, and Emigration Office," 295, Edge Lane r Liverpool. A. H. ARKLE.

ROD OF BRICKWORK (10 S. x. 388 ; xL 77). The origin of the " rod, pole, or perch " as a lineal and superficial measure has been traced to the rod, pole, or goad used to urge and direct the team of plough oxen. It was found to be a convenient land measure in feudal times when the lords allotted plots to the villeins and others under them for agriculture. One rod wide and forty long built up the quarter-acre, a very usual-sized lot forty rods long being one furlong (" furrowlong," a convenient