Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/65

 10 s. xii. JULY 17, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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FORD FAMILY AND ARMS. To which family of Ford does the crest of a lion rampant and a demi-lion rampant belong ?

I shall be glad if any one can give me the pedigree of the family of Richard Ford, genealogist, born in or about 1776 (probably at Somerset). He died at the Vicarage, Kew, in 1842, having previously resided at Worcester Park House, Surrey, and 5, Ladbrooke Terrace, Notting Hill. He had a large family.

My grandfather Dr. Alfred Ford had the pedigree when he was living at Pimlico about 1856.

Please reply direct.

ARTHUR NAPIER FORD. Homestead, (Jxondge Road, Surbiton.

LORD BYRON AND CAPT. CRAWLEY. I shall be much obliged for a reference to the original of the following story, which I take from ' A Treatise on the utility of Swimming,' by H. Kenworthy, 1846, p. 21 :

" Capt. Crawley of the Philomel British brig ot war and Lord Byron, after a merry day spent on shore at the island of Solmondrachi, were returning on board the brig, when the boat was upset by a squall of wind. His lordship saved Capt. Crawley's

life by pulling him on the keel of the boat

[Byron] swam to an Italian vessel three miles dis- tant, from whence a boat was sent for his companion, who but for this act of high intrepidity must have perished."

RALPH THOMAS.

FREEMASONRY : W. GORDON. An alleged exposure of Freemasonry appeared in the eighteenth century in a book entitled ' Every Young Man's Companion,' of which the author or editor was a W. Gordon. The British Museum Library has a copy of the third edition, dated 1759. Can any reader give me the date of the first edition ?

LATHOMTJS.

PIG GBASS : FIONING GRASS. This is a weed which grows in some cornfields, and runs to a great length along the ground. The commonest name for it amongst farm- ing men is "pig-grass," and they consider it quite useless.

What may be the allusion to Richardson in the following lines ?

Haste, Richardson, and with thee bring

The very longest of fioning string.

I see thee coming ; thy fame it spreads around ;

But oxen they will rue the day

When they gave up turnips for the best of hay. The lines were given me by an old lady who first heard them about 1815-20, and were, she thought, from a political broadsheet of that time, i THOS. RATOLIFFE.

Worksop.

NUNS AS CHAPLAINS. In an article on Kirklees Priory, by S. J. Chadwick, F.S.A., in The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, part 63, p. 325, 1901, it is stated in a note that

"the chaplains ot nuns were sometimes women. See Jessopp's 'Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich (Camden Society), p. 291, and Eckenstein's ' Women under Monasticism,' pp. 376-7. Chaucer's Prioress had with her a nun * that was her chapleyne. See prologue to the ' Canterbury Tales,' lines 163-4. The lines of Chaucer referred to are : Another Nonne also with hire hadde she, That was hire chapelleine, and Preestes thre, upon which the editor of my edition (1853) observes in a note :

" These and the following lines have been con- demned by Tyrwhitt as spurious. See his Dis- course, p. 78."

Upon what authority does Tyrwhitt call them spurious ? What is to be thought of Dr. Jessopp's and Eckenstein's views ?

J. B. McGovERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

ST. DUNSTAN'S-IN-THE-WEST : ITS CLOCKS. The famous projecting clock and its two figures have been lost to Fleet Street for nearly forty years. Their cost and date of erection are well known :

"On the 18th of May, 1671, Mr. Thomas Harrys, then living at the end of Water Lane, London, made an offer to build a new clock with chimes, and to erect two figures of men with pole-axes,

whose office should be to strike the quarters .The

whole of this he proposed to perform and to keep it in order for the remuneration of 80 and the old clock." Denham's 4 St. Dunstan-in- the- West. It is on record that the vestry finally agreed to give the sum of 35Z. and the old clock " for as much of his plan as they thought proper to adopt, and on the 28th October, 1671, the work was completed."

Is anything known about this earlier clock ? With respect to the " two figures of men to strike the quarters," is it possible that Harrys was replacing earlier figures, or improving upon an Augsburg clock used in the church before 1671 ?

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

ENGRAVING BY J. G. WILL AFTER TOCQUE. I wish to learn the name of the original of an engraved portrait. Size of plate, 7 Jin. by 6 Jin. Full face, half-length, tie wig, dress coat and waistcoat ; curtain Behind drawn back to show books on shelves. The portrait is within oval. The shield Dears : Per chevron and pale arg., gu., and azure ; a chevron chequy arg. and gu. ,* n chief a pale or charged with three hurts Between 2 stags' heads vert and or ; in base