Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/41

 10 s. XL JAN. 9, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

" CLASKET." I should be grateful for information concerning the origin of the word '' Clasket " as used in Clasketgate, a thoroughfare of Lincoln. The gate-house which formerly stood there was, it is thought, of Norman origin, and it was in the Clasket Gate-House that some of the Knights Templars were imprisoned. LTNDIMP.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

1. One smile can glorify a day,

One word true hope impart, The least disciple need not say There are no alms to give away

If love be in the heart.

2. O Christ, how beautiful Thou art ! Mine eye is overcome with light : 'Tis we are dead, not Thou.

A. J. DAVY. Torquay.

RICHARD THOMPSON, SURGEON R.N. I shall feel greatly obliged for information relative to the career of this naval officer, particularly the place and date of his death. He was living circa 1780-1800. Perhaps possessors of old Navy Lists will kindly help. Were there any contemporary Thompsons with the same Christian name in the Navy ? F. N. C.

VILLAGE NAMES FEMININE. When two villages of the same name lie near together they are frequently distinguished by the suffix Magna or Parva. Why the feminine gender ? The Latin vicus and pagus are masculine. Is the reference to urbs, which is feminine ? T. M. W.

CROSS AT HlGHAM-ON-THE-HlLL. At the

time of publication we had given to us The Leicestershire Architectural Society's Journal, vol. ix. part i., because it contained an account of a wooden cross that had been found buried under a mound in a field at Higham-on-the-Hill in that county. The tenant of the farm was desirous of moving this hillock to fill up a pit in another part of the farm. He was therefore requested by the rector to observe with care anything of interest that might be found during the work. He was careful to do so, and soon reported that he had found in the centre of the earthwork two pieces of wood in the form of a cross the longer measuring about 18 ft., the cross-piece about 2 ft. shorter. Both were believed to be oak. They were much decayed. The cross-piece, it would seem, had not been fastened to the stem, but merely laid across it. The stem was pierced with three oblong openings, and there were also two in the cross-piece.

It was lying east and west, which seems to indicate, but not to prove with absolute certainty, that it was buried in Christian times. Careful search was made for any trace of metal, but nothing of the kind was found. The mound was 8 ft. high, and about 60ft., in diameter. The tenant and others were of opinion that it was not composed of the same kind of soil as the other part of the field.

It would be very interesting to discover, if possible, the object for which this cross was made and why it was buried. Is it likely that it may be a survival from pre- Christian times ? This, in our opinion, is extremely improbable. Can it be a Christian cross of very early time, buried in a heathen mound for the purpose of recon- ciling it to the faith ? or may it be a cross perhaps deemed miraculous which was hidden in the hill to preserve it from destruc- tion when the ornaments and other trea- sures were removed from the churches in the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth ? Each of these interpretations has been sug- gested, but no one of them is, to our minds, entirely satisfactory. N. M. & A.

BUTTON SEAMAN, CITY COMPTROLLER. Button Seaman purchased on 11 June, 1740, for 4,000?., the office of Comptroller of the City of London. By his wife Elizabeth he had an only son, Button, of the Inner Temple and Rotherby Hall, Leicestershire. I desire to ascertain the maiden name of the Comptroller's wife. She was buried at Rotherby on 3 April, 1786.

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

THOMAS HAGGERSTON ARNOTT. I shall be glad if any readers of ' N. & Q.' can give me information concerning the family of Thomas Arnott of Sunderland, whose son Thomas Haggerston Arnott was appren- ticed to a master mariner in 1819. Thomas Arnott, sen., is believed to have married a member of the ancient Burham family of

Haggerston. GEO V W - J* 11 ^'

Junior Constitutional Club, Piccadilly, W.

BRITTEN. What was the situation of this East London burial-ground ? MEDICULUS.

CHANTREY AND OLIVER, MINIATURISTS. Is anything known of two miniature por- trait-artists, Chantrey and Oliver, about 1790-1800 ? Oliver probably contmu further into the nineteenth century. Both were in London; but Oliver came of a Shropshire family. E. M. BEECHEY.

Milverton, Somerset.