Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/141

 ii. AUG. 6, loo*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tershire, where it remained and was used as a font for twenty-five years. Finally, the stem was found near the Severn, and then the font was restored to Deerhurat. See 1 Deerhurst,' by Rev. G. Butterworth, second ed., 1890, pp. 115 et seq. W. CROOKE.

WHITTY TREE (10 th S. i. 469). This is possibly one of the many variants of the whitten-tree, witch-tree, mountain ash, or rowan-tree, also called witchen-tree, witch- bane (&?ie=harm, Anglo-Saxon bana, a mur- derer), witch-wood, wise-tree, wickersbury, quickenberry, wicky, quicken - tree, quick- beam, whighen-tree, wiggen, wild ash, wild- service, mountain-service, bird-service, wild sorb, and fowlers' service-tree, because the berries are used by fowlers, whence it derives its specific name Pimis aucujxiria, from the Latin auceps, a fowler. The word " service," however, has nothing to do with theuse of the fruit, nor with the ordinary sense of that word, but is from the Latin cerevisia or cervisia, beer, the berries of all the group having once been largely used in brewing. Place-names like Whitty-Tree occur in Mountain Ash in Wales; Thirsk, from the Norse Thor and askr, an ash-tree ; Ashiesteel (Melrose), which is thought to be the "place of the ash-trees," from the O.E. steall, steel, a place, then the stall of a stable (J. B. Johnston's 'Place- names of Scotland ') ; Lasham in Hampshire ; and Witchingham in Norfolk = Wiccan-ham, the witch's village, or the village near some (supposed) bewitched tree (Flavell Edmunds's ' Traces of History in the Names of Places '). The hundred of Brocash, in Herefordshire, was so called from a great ash under which meetings of the hundred were held (Nash's as is well known, hivit is the Anglo-Saxon for white, as Whitchurch, Hants, this sense in Whitty-Tree would appear to be meaning- less. J. HOLDEN MACMIC'HAEL.
 * Hist, of Worcestershire,' vol. i. p. lix). While,

DOCUMENTS IN SECRET DRAWERS (10 th S. i. 427, 474). A singular instance of the dis- covery of a secret drawer happened to a cousin of mine now dead. He had not long left school, and was residing with his father, whose old house and estate had been possessed by the family through successive generations from 1300. The estate not having been mortgaged, the title-deeds and family papers of the owners had been kept in an ancient oak muniment chest from time immemorial. The chest was deep and massive ; the bottom of it slightly raised at each corner from the ground. My cousin at the time I mention had been trying to decipher some of the documents in the chest which had interested

him. Not being an early riser, he often noticed the chest, which stood in his bed- room. From frequent examinations as he lay in bed before getting up, he became convinced that there was more space in the chest than he was acquainted with. After some days of persevering search he found at the bottom of the chest a secret drawer, which opened from the outside, but so ingeniously concealed that it had escaped discovery since the time of the Civil Wars. The secret drawer, when opened, was found to contain some deeds and family documents, some old trinkets, a pair of old-fashioned gauntlet gloves, and an ancient snuff-box,, probably belonging to the Royalist ancestor who placed the relics in the secret drawer. A portrait in profile of Charles I., in silver, adorned the snuff-box lid. There were some other relics which at this period of time I do not remember. HUBERT SMITH.

Brooklynne, Leamington Spa.

A few years ago a Bull of Pope Nicolas V., settling some disputes among the religious orders in Spain, was discovered in a secret drawer in a beautifully carved mediaeval wooden cabinet, which was soon after ex- ported, unluckily, to Mexico. The text of the Bull, which had lain hidden and forgotten for over four hundred years, was published in the Boletin of the Real Academia de la Historia of Madrid ; but it was not pointed out whether the document had been written in Rome, or whether it was a copy made by a Spanish scribe. E. S. DODGSON.

THOMAS PIGOTT (10 th S. i. 489). In a little pamphlet published this year, 'Parishes of Mountmellick and Rosenallis,' compiled by W. R., B.D., M.R.I.A., among the rectors is. given the name of Thomas Pigott, " 1812,. Jan. 20th, instituted, B.A.Dublin Oct., 1791, youngest son of Thomas Pigott, of Knapton,. Queen's Co., and brother to Sir George Pigott, Baronet; died in 1834." The Rev. Peter Westenra (married to Elizabeth Pigott) isr given in a list of Rosonallis curates in 1766, but must have resigned in 1780, as the Rev. John Baldwin (sen.) was appointed that year. The old name of the conjoint parishes- of Rosenallis and Mountmellick was Oregan. Near where I write this there is a ruined building, destroyed by fire, I believe, about fifty years ago Kilcavan House. The land was sold by a Mr. Pigott a few years ago.

FRANCESCA.

BEATING THE BOUNDS : ITS ORIGIN (10 th S. i 489). The Rogation processions (three days before Ascension Day, and following Rogation Sunday) were instituted by