Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/290

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xii. SEPT. is, 1909.

Much information concerning this house will be found in Mr. Feret's * Fulham, Old and New,' with illustrations ; and I have unpublished photographs of the place, taken while it was in the hands of the house- breakers. FRED. HITCHIN KEMP. Clyderhous, 51, Vancouver Road, Forest Hill, S.E.

FLYING MACHINE IN 1751 : DR. JOHNSON (10 S. xi. 145; xii. 170). MR. JOHN H. DURHAM, in his reply from Bergamo "la bella," describes an early and successful attempt at aviation made in the year 1751, with a machine invented by Father Grimaldi, and inquires whether ' ' any contemporary English work or journal " makes mention of the event. I may say that, in view of the present bicentenary celebrations of Dr. Johnson's birthday, I was reading for the second time, after a lapse of fifteen years, ' The History of Rasselas,' by that famous writer, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the substance of chapter vi. is ' A Dis- sertation on the Art of Flying. ' A passage is worth quoting :

" I have been long of opinion, that instead of the tardy conveyance of ships and chariots, man might use the swifter migration of wings ; that the fields of the air are open to knowledge, and that only ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground. '

Bos well informs us that Dr. Johnson wrote this essay in 1759 "to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral." This year is only a little later than the one given by MR. DURHAM as that in which experi- ments on the art of flying were made, thus showing, I think, that Dr. Johnson's mind was still fresh from the impression of the attempts made in his time to solve the problem of aviation, which to his day had baffled the ingenuity of men of science.

I take the opportunity to call the attention of your readers to a very interesting article by Dr. Cossio, ' Leonardo da Vinci, a Pre- cursor of Aviation,' published in The Antiquary for September. ITALIANO.

Manchester.

" PLAINS " = TIMBER - DENUDED LANDS (10 S. xii. 81, 194). I agree with MR. G. H. WHITE that this sense of " plains " included treeless as well as timber-denuded lands, and regret not making this clear at the time of writing. I think, however, some of my quotations rendered this sufficiently obvious. But it seems fairly clear that the term was commonly used in contradistinction from woodland or wooded country, and hence is most likely to be found occurring in forest districts of England. All the Notts allusions I have observed conform to this rule. At

the time of the Conquest, however, it may be that forests were so general as to mark out for distinction treeless tracts like the Plain of Hastings. A. STAPLETON.

Nottingham.

PlNS SUBSTITUTED FOR THORNS (10 S.

xi. 508 ; xii. 158). Among the Zulus, the Basutos, and probably other tribes of South African natives, blankets, and other rudi- mentary garments are commonly held together by means of the thorns of the " wacht-een-beitje " (wait-a-bit) bush. These are long and sharp, and almost unbreakable, and are sometimes given a notch to act as a kind of barb, whereby they become almost a safety-pin. FRANK SCHLOESSER.

Kew.

PARODIES OF KIPLING AND THE POET LAUREATE (10 S. xii. 128, 177). In The Daily Chronicle in 1900 or the following year appeared a parody by G. H. P. on the Laureate's lines suggested by ' ^Eneid,* vi. 95, beginning :

When for a passing hour Rome's manly sway Felt the sharp shock of Cannse's adverse day.

The parody ends thus : Poor England, 'mid disaster and despair, Finds (in The Times) she 's something worse

to bear

Jejune as dust, insensible as Fate, The dismal twaddle of her Laureate.

FRED. G. ACKERLEY. Grindleton Vicarage, Clitheroe.

PENN OF KIDDERMINSTER (10 S. xii. 189). In Nash's ' History and Antiquities of Worcestershire ' MR. SPARROW will find many references to Penns of that county in past times. The family (whose name, as in other counties, was spelt indifferently Penn, Pen, and Penne) was one of repute, and was seated at Harborow and Hagley for about 400 years up to 1750. A reference to the calendar of Worcestershire wills shows the presence of families of the name in many

S laces round Hagley, such as Pedmore, Hales wen, Bellbroughton, Churchill, Bewdley, Kidderminster, &c., up to the present time. Probably they are offshoots of the old Hagley family. There is no known relationship between these and the Wilts family which produced William Penn of Pennsylvania.

FRANK PENNY.

V. DE Vos (10 S. xii. 127). Many well- known Flemish painters of this name flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, nearly all of whom were landscape, portrait, and animal painters ; and much