Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/303

 10 s. XIL SEPT. 25, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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with a blazing sun and not a breath of wind stirring, we being rather tired and hungry, sat down to lunch, after which, feeling drowsy, a death-like silence prevailing at the time, we were almost m a state of doze, when suddenly a noise as of a j, mi Pr y whirlwind fi lled the air ; then, with the tv/itHhot an express train dashing through a station, a flight of a thousand golden plovers rushed by and

were out of sight in an instant After all, I was

much pleased with Dozmare Pool, and the sight of the golden plovers alone would have fully repaid roy visit. I have an idea that the supposed noise ot the hell-hounds might be caused by the flights of wild geese over the moor at night."

K. F, D. E.

WE must request corresppndents desiring in- tormation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

LADIES AND SIDE-SADDLES. In a long memoir concerning the Celtic goddess of horses, Epona, which I published in 1895, I studied a great number of monuments representing that goddess on horseback, almost always seated to her right, and with her feet resting on a little board. I tried to discover at what precise date the board had been abandoned and when the saddle with a fork had come into use. The earliest instance quoted in France is that of Cathe- rine de Medicis, about 1533-1540 ; the authority is Brantome (ed. Lalanne, t. vii., p. 345). But it seems impossible that ladies could have followed the chase in the Middle Ages without some contrivance to secure their side-seat on the saddle. The informa- tion given by Gay, ' Glossaire archeologique,' a.v. ' Equitation,' is very poor. Could any of your readers supplement it ? There is a note on the subject in U Intermediate (1885, p. 207), but it gives no references, and simply states that side-saddles are believed to have been used in England as early as 1380. SALOMON REINACH.

Paris, 4, Rue de Traktir.

SIR JACOB JACOBSEN. I shall be much obliged if any reader of ' N. & Q.' can tell me whether Sir Jacob Jacobsen, who married a daughter of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Lord Mayor in 1710, was a director of the South Sea Company and was fined for his con- nexion with the " Bubble." Dr. J. M. Lappenberg asserts this in his account of the London Steelyard, but I have not been able to verify his statement from other sources of information. PHILIP NORMAN.

BISHOP ERNEST WILBERFORCE. A Life of Bishop Ernest Wilberforce is in prepara- tion, and will be published next year. Mrs. Wilberforce would be grateful if any one who possesses letters written by her late husband would entrust them to her at Dray ton Hall, West Dray ton. They will be kept in safe custody, and returned with as little delay as possible.

SMITH, ELDER & Co,

THE WHITE TREE OF CROCKERTON HILL. At one of the sales at Sotheby's of Phillipps MSS. I purchased some years ago a 4to volume of 93 pages in the writing of Joseph Ames. It contains his records, in a beautiful hand, of his journeying in England, 1747-55, rincipally in the company of his friend ir Peter Thompson, and is fully illustrated by drawings of the various objects of anti- quarian interest which attracted his attention on the way. On p. 61, under date 19 Oct., 1752, occurs the following note :

"A very high Hill calld Crockerton Hill, over ag 8t the Hill with the shape of a tree in Chalk is very round, high & something like a Tumulus, seen a great way of, and this ab* a mile west of Warminster. Having read Mr. Wise's account of White Horse Vale made me take the more pleasing notice of it. The root of the white Tree lies nearest the Road we went by to Bath cross the Country from Pool."

A sketch of the hill and the tree accompanies the memorandum. I should be glad to learn whether this object is elsewhere noticed. J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

REV. BROOKE HECKSTALL. I shall be greatly indebted to any correspondent who can add to my store of information relative to this eighteenth-century divine, as sum- marized in the subjoined paragraph :

Born 22 April, 1724 ; admitted to Mer- chant Taylors' School, 1736 ; of Emanuel College, Oxford, LL.B., 1747 ; curate of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside, 1754-68 ; Rector of SS. Anne and Agnes with St. John Zachary, 1764-80 ; died 5 April, 1780, and buried with father, Rev. Abraham Heckstall, M.A., in Lewisham Churchyard. Will (at P.C.C. 190 Collins), dated 10 Aug., 1779, contains no family references.

I am wondering whether Mr. Brooke Heckstall-Smith, editor of Kemp's ' Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing,' can possibly add to my knowledge if this inquiry comes to his notice. * WILLIAM McMuRRAY.

TURNSPIT DOGS. In Campbell's * Life of Mrs. Siddons ' (1839) these animals are spoken of as still in use. A correspondent furnishes him with a description of the