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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JAN. 9, 1909.

of whistles from the enginemen. Most companies supplied them with a pilot cloak and goggles, as they ran serious risks of being blinded by the sparks and pieces of coke emitted by the engine fiery particles which also constantly set fire to the pas T sengers' luggage carried on the roofs of the vehicles.

The next refinement was to provide brake-vans for storing the luggage, and to make the guard ride inside. In order that he might still keep a look-out along the top of the train, the roof of those vans was furnished with a raised glass-hutch. At the time of writing, the fusion of the London and North- Western and North London Railways is announced. An interesting feature of the North London trains consists of the retention of the raised guard's look-outs of olden days, which are seldom to be met with now on any other railway. The Great Western was one of the first railway com- panies (if not the first) to introduce regular brake-vans. In October, 1847, however, in consequence of the great speed of the broad-gauge express trains, the directors considered an additional precaution necessary, so an iron box was provided at the end of the engine tender for a " travelling carriage porter," whose duty was to keep a steady and vigilant look-out on both sides and along the top of the train, so that in case of any accident to any of the carriages, or of any signal from the guards or passengers, or any apparently sufficient cause that might come to his observation, he could at once communicate with the engineman, and, if necessary, stop the train.

Of course, the lot of the " travelling porter," seated in a snug shelter, with his back to the engine, and deriving a certain amount of warmth from the proximity of the engine, was far happier than that of the " guard aloft."

The narrow-gauge exponents, however, at once claimed this innovation on the part of the Great Western Railway as a confession of weakness regarding the safety of the broad-gauge trains, while they refused to own that the " Man in the Iron Coffin," as they nicknamed him, was better protected than the wretched guard perched on the top of the carriage on the narrow-gauge trains.

The " travelling porters," who were picked men, and who received 25s. a week, were not withdrawn until many years later, when an efficient system of communication between the guards and the enginemen had been evolved. The beautiful models of broad

jauge locomotives to be seen at the principal Jreat Western stations, where they are smployed to collect money for railway Charities, are invariably equipped with the ran sentry-box at the end of the tender.

H. G. ARCHER.

On freight trains in the United States it is a regular custom for guards to be stationed, on the roofs of covered luggage wagons ; but. although I have seen them perched in that apparently perilous position hundreds of imes, I have never noticed any wearing masks or goggles such as ST. SWITHIN mentions.

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

"SHIBBOLETH" (10 S. x. 408). Another listorical instance is the legend that some authors on Frisian history attach to the defeat of the army of William IV., Count of Holland, Sealand, Hengau, &c., near Sta- voren (1345). The Frisians, aware of the- difficulty a Hollander had in speaking their language, compelled all who were escaping to pronounce their own sentence by speaking .he following lines :

Butter, bry, yn greane tchease Hwa that net sizze kan Is nin uprjuchte Fries.

That test had promptly the desired effect.

A. M. CRAMER. Amsterdam.

CHARLES CROCKER, POET (10 S. x. 489). According to the autobiographical details in the preface to the first edition of his- poems, Charles Crocker was born in Chi- chester on 22 June, 1797. I have been told that his parents were then living in the street called Little London, in the parish of St. Andrew. He was educated, he says, at the Grey Coat School, of which there is now no trace, but of which Hay ( ' Hist, of Chichester,' p. 392) says : " There is also a charity school, for cloathing and educating twenty-two poor boys, whose uniform is grey ; and twenty-two poor girls in blue."

Crocker was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and worked as such for many years. He was for a time employed by Mason, the printer and publisher. In 1845 he was appointed sexton of the Cathedral, and subsequently received in addition the office of Bishop's verger, a capacity in which I knew him well. He was twice married. His daughter by his first wife married a green- grocer named Benford, who subsequently settled down as a publican at Compton. By his second wife he had a daughter Mary, who died unmarried, and a son Charles W.