Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/351

 10 s. XL APRIL 10, i909.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

teresting memento " of the churchwarden's ! office which he gave to the Vestry, viz., ; '" a circular snuff-box in common horn, to j which was added silver ornaments and cases by the office-bearers." The total weight of this box is 56 oz. 6 dwts. Surely West- minster is honouring itself by honouring this old worthy.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

WILLIAM BLAKE. At 8 S. xi. 303 (17 April, 1897) I wrote about the illustrations to the book called Salzmann's ' Gymnastics ' illustrations which, I contended, were not by Blake (see also 9 S. i. 454). I can now .supplement my notes by adding that the illustrations to the English edition of the copies of those in the original German edition. The costumes are changed from the German to the then English dress.
 * Gymnastics ' (1800) are more or less

As to the attribution of ' Gymnastics ' to Salzmann, I may refer to DR. THOMAS WINDSOR'S note (10 S. ii. 383), in which he cleanly shows that the book is by Guts Muths, the attribution of the book, by the English translator, to Salzmann being en- tirely w-ong.

If your learned contributor MR. W. P. COURTNEY in his lately published book on the anonyma of English literature had bean in want of matter, instead of having to reject wholesale, this attribution of Gut Muths's book to Salzmann would have ben one of the most curious mistakes on whieh to comment.

RALPH THOMAS.

FUNERAL REFRESHMENTS AT GIGGLES- WICK. As it is the office of ' N. & Q.' to preserve records of old customs, the follow- ing from The Church Family Newspaper of 26 Tebruary, concerning " funeral baked meats," as Shakespeare calls them, may pro-SB interesting :

" funeral Cold Meats. Another curious custom .at tie burying of a well-to-do parishioner was wott to be observed. Giggleswick was a large parsh about 20,000 acres before the partition ; henJe the friends of the deceased coming from a disunce would need some refreshment, which wai dispensed at the inn abutting the churchyard, th< rule being that for one hour after the ' finish- in; ' bell the mourners would call for anything tc eat or to drink at the expense of the relatives o' the deceased. There was no idea of a ' wake ' a>out this refreshment. Further, this inn has a <5>or leading directly out of the churchyard jito the public -house ; in fact, the porch over his door is built positively on churchyard jroperty, and was primarily made for the con- venience of churchwardens when they went to

' diligently see that all the parishioners duly resorted to their church upon all Sundays and Holy Days,' as Canon XC. phrases it."

Giggleswick, it may be observed, is a large parish in Yorkshire, near Settle, with a population of 938, noted for its school, over which Paley's father presided for the long period of fifty-four years, dying in 1799. The church is dedicated to St. Alkelda, to whom, with the Virgin, Middle- ham Church is dedicated. There was in former years at the end of the north aisle of the latter church a lepresentation of St. Alkelda' s martyrdom by strangulation. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

THE WISDOM OF THE PRUDENT : SPEED ON RAILWAYS. Very delightful is the following passage, which I have found in ' The Jubilee Memorial of the Railway System,' p. 66 :

" Nicholas Wood, who was all along in the van of railway progress, and who could see further ahead than most men. declared, ' It is far from my wish to promulgate to the world that the ridiculous expectations, or rather professions, of the enthusiastic specialist will be realised, and that we shall see them travelling at the rate of twelve, sixteen, eighteen or twenty miles an hour. Nothing could do more harm towards their adoption or general improvement than the promulgation of such nonsense.' "

What would Mr. Nicholas Wood think of railway speed in these days, and of the " trains run wild," as some one has called them, which have brought horror to our streets and highways ? ST. SWITHIN.

" BLAZERS." I do not remember to have seen the origin of this now common word, and it may be well to put it on record.

In the late sixties, when flannel coats of club colours first began to be used, the coat adopted for Magdalen College, Oxford, both for the " eight " and the " eleven," was scarlet, trimmed with blue silk. This naturally created some sensation for its conspicuous colour, and was visible half way up the High Street. I think it was a Balliol man who first called these the " Mag- dalen blazers " ; but the name had just come into vogue when I was at Oxford, and has since been extended to colour coats of all kinds, however sombre their hue.

JOHN MURRAY.

50, Albemarle Street, W.

[PROF. SKEAT and D. both stated in ' N. <fc Q.' in 1887 (7 S. iii. 436) that " blazer " arose from the bright red jackets of the boat club of St. John's College, Cambridge, which were known as ' ' Johnian blazers."]