Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/377

 io s. XIL OCT. 16, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ARROWSMITH, DEVONSHIRE ARTIST. Is anything known of a painter of this name who, I am told, nourished in the West oi England about the beginning of the last century ? HORACE BLEACKLEY.

HIGH CONSTABLE : LINCOLN. Can the readers of N. & Q. throw any light upon the office of High Constable, which is the title enjoyed by the retiring Sheriff for one year after he has vacated the office in some English cities for instance, Lincoln. His duty in former days was to fix the dates for holding the annual statutes for hiring servants on May Day, and he also had the duty of billeting on licensed houses all soldiers who might be passing through the city.

The High Constable's office was abolished in 1869 by the High Constable's Office Abolition Act ; but section 2 said that the act should not apply where any High Constable was a returning officer at any Parliamentary or municipal election, or was charged with the supervision of the register of electors, or was vested, by virtue of his office, with any real property (32 and 33 Vic., 1869, cap. 47). I should like to know :

1. What were the duties of the High Constable previous to 1869.

2. Whether there are any other cities still enjoying the title.

3. If so, what duties appertain to such office.

4. How it came to pass that Lincoln was reserved when the office was abolished.

HAROLD G. DANIELS. National Liberal Club.

JOHN SMITH, 1679-80. I read recently the ' Narrative ' of this man, who had been confessor and chaplain to the Jenison family at Walworth Castle, co. Durham. He con- cocted his ' Narrative ' in support of the Popish Plot. Is anything known of his subsequent career ? He seems to have been as great a scoundrel and liar as Titus Gates. The ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' gives a brief reference to him in vol. xxix. in the notice of Robert Jenison the younger, his cousin. MAY.

ALVARY OR ALVERY, CHRISTIAN NAME : DODSLEY FAMILY. Light on the subject of the origin or history of this name would be welcome. Its principal interest is perhaps in connexion with the Dodsley family, as it will be remembered that it was borne by a brother of Robert Dodsley the publisher. Since the latter' s time the name has remained current in every generation of the descendants

of the Dodsley s down to the present day. It has been suggested that it is perhaps of Spanish origin. One curious circumstance is that the name is said to be in use among the French Canadians in the neighbourhood of Quebec.

Fortunately, it is at least possible to trace it some way backwards in the Dodsley family by means of our local records. An Alvery Dodsley, surgeon, was married at St. Peter's, Nottingham, in 1726, evidently a second marriage. A Latin inscription dated 1720 formerly commemorated the first wife. In 1711 was baptized there " Allueary, Son of Allueary Dodsley, Gentt." The latter was possibly a son of the John Dodsley who married Mary Pepper at the same church in 1667. The peculiar interest of the last event is that the bride was a daughter of one Alvery Pepper of Nottingham, thus clearly revealing how this uncommon name was introduced into the Dodsley family.

Recently, while perusing the last-issued volume of ' Notts Marriage Registers,' I came across the following entry, which represents the furthest point to which I have been able to trace the name : Married at Calverton, Notts, 21 April, 1589, " Avray Pepper and Margaret Chatwyne."

A. STAPLETON. 39, Burford Road, Nottingham.

LORRAINE OR TOURAINE. In the first edition of Mrs. J. R. Green's ' Henry II.,' in the " Twelve English Statesmen " series, published in 1888, 1. 16 of p. 10 says, " At nineteen his father's death made him Count of Anjou, Lorraine, and Maine." [ take it that the word Lorraine should be Touraine. Has this apparent slip been noticed ? and if, as I think it to be, an error,

s it been set right in recent editions of this excellent little work ?

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

GRAY'S ' ELEGY ' AND PLOUGHING CUS- TOMS. As every one knows, the third and burth lines of this poem are :

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Is this accurate from an agricultural point of view ? A few days since the wife of a abouring man ridiculed the custom of speaking as if evening were the time when Dloughmen leave off ploughing. " They nostlin's come home about half past two."

Was it otherwise when the ' Elegy ' was written ? Has any. student of folk-custom noted the hours at which workers on the and go to different kinds of labour, and when