Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/233

 10 s. XIL SEPT. 4, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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graphical details are that the writer's birth- day was 25 April (fol. 558), and that he was elected president (rector of "nation"?) of Bologna University in 1574 or 1575 (fol. 86). But in 1574 Nicolas Audebert, the son of the poet Germain, would have been only eighteen years old. Is there, any means of identifying the writer ?

E. S. BATES.

PENN OF KIDDERMINSTER. My grand- mother was Charlotte Penn, daughter of William Penn of Kidderminster. The Penns were descended from William Penn of Pennsylvania, but I cannot find the link, although my father showed me the genea- logical tree years ago, but this has been lost.

William Penn (1840), his father (1795), and uncle Edward (1803) were buried in the family vault in Kidderminster old church- yard. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' help me to connect the Kidderminster Penns with those of Pennsylvania ?

JOHN E. SPARROW. Ashford House, Talybont-on-Usk.

" LE " BEFORE TRADES. In records of the seventeenth century the article " le " is occasionally used before certain trades, as, for example, " the art, mystery, or occupa- tion of le grocer." Can any correspondent give the explanation of this ? C. N.

PAWLET OF PAULTOONS, HANTS. William Pawlet, son and heir of William Pawlet (died 1596) by Dowsabel Pagett, married Frances, daughter of Edward St. Barbe (of Ashington, Somerset) by Frances Fleming of Broadlands, Hants. Frances St. Barbe was aged two years when her father made his will in 1592 (P.C.C.). Is she identical with " Frances, wife of the Right Worshipful William Pawlet," who was buried at Hursley (near Winchester) on 4 Oct., 1621 ? On that day also her infant " Susanna " (who cost her mother her life) was baptized.

Is anything further known of William Pawlet, who is said by the Hampshire pedi- grees to have been father of William Pawlet who married Deborah Dogget in 1670 ? And is it recorded when the Pawlets parted with Paultoons ? CROSSLET.

Hursley.

" AN OLD EWE DRESSED LAMB FASHION."

This saying, of a somewhat proverbial character, has been known to me from childhood, and may be, probably is, of con- siderable antiquity. It is generally applied to any woman of uncertain age who by her over-youthful style of dress desires to be

thought young, It would appear to have originated from the practice of some butchers of dressing mutton so as to be easily mis- taken for lamb. Is anything known of its origin ? Is it a provincialism ? and, if so, from what county did it come ?

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. What is the history of the curious lock of hair pendent from this queen's left ear ? Is it mentioned in any book ? if so, where ?

What became of the portrait of this queen once at Hampton Court ? What other portraits of her are known ?

(Mrs.) HAUTENVILLE COPE. 18, Harrington Court, S.W.

VILLAGES AND MANSIONS : THEIR DIS- APPEARANCE. In an article in Country Life for 26 June it is stated :

4 'At the present moment the ploughshare passes regularly over villages that were standing m the middle of last century, and whoever has conversed with old inhabitants during the years between, say, 1860 and 1885 or 1890, must have heard how, in their operations, they have frequently laid bare the foundations of houses and the remains of whole villages that have passed utterly out of existence. To say that these places have no records may be true, but it does not justify scepticism. It would be easily possible to point to an exceptionally beau- tiful avenue that starts from one of the main roada going North, and apparently ends at an open field. For years people who did not give the matter much thought conjectured that it was an avenue leading to a comparatively modern hall that is standing now. A moment's thought would have shown that this could not be the case, because the avenue goes straight past the structure. It was only through the owner of the land causing a pit to be dug for purposes of his own that the discovery was made of the foundations of the walls of what must nave been a great house. Yet, although books, ancient and modern, have been searched, there is, so far as we can learn, no record whatever of that mansion."

Can the statement as to the disappear- ance of villages be substantiated ? And where is the " exceptionally beautiful avenue " on a road going North ?

F. H. C.

SPANISH PRIESTS IN ABYSSINIA. When at Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, in 1830, the Rev. Samuel Gobat was told that four Spanish priests came into the country five years before that time (i.e., about 1825), but they disappeared immediately. (See his ' Journal of a Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia,' 1834, p. 184.) Is anything known of these Spanish priests ?

FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

JO, Agate Road, Hammersmith, W.