Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/457

 10 s. XIL NOV. 6, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

377

theme. Later he painted many portraits and classical pictures. Clement IX., one of his sitters, appointed him overseer of the Vatican gallery, where he restored the works of Raphael, as he did those of the Caracci at the Farnese Palace. He etched, among other subjects, the life of Mary, in ten parts. His best works are, I believe, in Rome, where he died. Richardson styles him the last of the Raman school, though several of his pupils gained good repute in the art world. A life will be found in Bryan's ' Painters.' HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

[CoL. FISHWICK and MR. F. HITCHIN-KEMP also thanked for replies.]

MILITARY CANAL AT SANDGATE : MAR- TELLO TOWERS (10 S. xii. 228, 334). To COL. R. J. FYNMORE'S interesting reply as to the Royal Military Canal may be added the following from the ' Diary ' of Mr. Thomas Pattenden of Dover, as to the date and the original armament of the Martello towers connected with the same system of defence :

"25 September, 1805. I went to the pier and saw them there landing at the crane, out of a sloop from Woolwich, many guns, 24 and 12 pounders with carriages. Mr. May told me that they were for the different Martello Towers building from Eastware Bay along to Dungeness."

JOHN BAVINGTON JONES.

Dover.

There is an amusing reference in ' The Ingoldsby Legends ' (Mrs. Botherby's story, 4 The Leech of Folkestone ') to Pitt's " Military Canal." BENJ. WALKER.

Gravelly Hill, Erdington.

"DisH OF TEA" (10 S. xii. 287). My father, Lord Charles Russell (1807-94), spoke of " a dish of tea " to the end of his life ; but I think he said it in a quasi- humorous way, as he used many other quaint phrases of his youth.

G. W. E. RUSSELL.

No doubt the expression " dish of tea " arose from the practice of drinking tea from the saucer, and not, as usual now, from the cup. Some fifty years ago I saw ladies in a high class of life drinking their tea from the saucer. There used to be engravings on the backs of old copybooks, and one represented 'Taking a Dish of Tea.'

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

When in Nova Scotia in 1879 I heard the expression " dish of tea " often used.

J. BROWN.

This expression is still a common one in rural parts of Cornwall. W. ROBERTS.

USHER OF THE GREEN ROD (10 S. xii. 208). The Usher of the Green Rod is an officer of the Order of the Thistle. I do not know whether Sir Thomas Brand was the first to hold the office, or the date of his original appointment, but he was certainly appointed or reappointed on the accession of George I. in November, 1714. He died 7 Nov., 1761, having been knighted 1 Jan., 1718. His successors have been -

1762, March. Robert Quarme (1) (died 29 April, 1787).

1787, June. Matthew Robert Arnott (died 24 April, 1800).

1800, May. Robert Quarme (2) (died 28 June, 1842.

1842, July. Frederic Peel Round (died 18 May, 1884).

1884. Sir Duncan Alexander Dundas Campbell, Bt.

1895, March. Hon. Alan David Murray. ALFRED B. BEAVEN.

Leamington.

[MR. ALAN STEWART also thanked for reply.]

THE WHITE TREE OF CROCKERTON HILL (10 S. xii. 247). The evidence which follows is negative. In the Rev. W. C. Plender- leath's book ' The White Horses of the West of England, with Notices of some other Ancient Turf-Monuments ' (no date, but 1885), no mention is made of this White Tree. On p. 41, last paragraph, the author says :

"We have now come to the end of the Turf- Monuments of this country. We are unaware of the existence of any similar memorials in any other of the countries of Europe."

S. L. PETTY.

" COFFEE " : ITS ETYMOLOGY (10 S. xii. 64, 111, 156, 198, 232, 318). Those interested in this subject would do well to consult Count Landberg's ' Etudes sur les Dialectes de 1'Arabie Meridionale,' vol. ii., 'Datfnah,' pp. 1055-78. J. STUART KING, Major.

Southsea.

MRS. AND Miss VANNECK (10 S. xii. 188, 251, 318). MR. JAMES TALBOT'S reply is calculated to create confusion. The wife of Sir Joshua Van Neck (who was created a baronet 14 Dec., 1751) was Marianne, daughter of Stephen Daubuz ; but, as she died 1 Dec., 1750, she was never Lady Van Neck, and could not have been the lady referred to in the query. So far as I can make out, the only Mrs. Van Neck existing in 1788 was the wife of Joshua Van Neck, who succeeded his brother as third Baronet 23 May, 1791 ; and the only Miss Van Neck