Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/160

 128

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. ir. AUG. 13, i9ot.

FOTHERINGAY. Has any explanation ever been given of the name of Fotheringay 1 I see it is sometimes spelt Pother inghay. Which is correct? The unfailing interest connected with Mary Stuart makes everything related to her of note. HELGA.

SWAN-NAMES. Will some one kindly tell me the names of the male and female swan 1 I understand they are only mentioned in very old natural histories. E. W.

PSALM-SINGING WEAVERS. This quasi-pro- verbial phrase was familiar to me in my youth. I find that Tennyson uses it in * Queen Mary,' III. iv. :

Banner. I am on fire until I see them flame.

Gardiner. Ay, the psalm-singing weavers, cob- blers, scum.

But I am inclined to think this an ana- chronism. Does not the phrase refer to the French Huguenot weavers of Spitalfields, who had certainly not come thither in Mary's time 1 ? Can any one give some authentic account 1 The Indexes of * N. & Q.' fail me.

C. B. MOUNT.

PHRASES AND REFERENCE. What is the origin of "Queen Anne is dead," "The coroner's cup," "St. Giles's cup," "Brown and Thompson's Penny Hotels," " Wet and dry Quakers"? MEDICULUS.

[For Queen Anne see 4 th S. iii. 467.]

NINE MAIDENS. In Cornwall the stone circles are commonly known as "Nine Maidens." There are at least four of them remaining within five miles of Penzance. Edmonds, in his 'Land's End District,' says that they all consisted of nineteen stones or pillars, standing upright from 3ft. to 5ft. above ground, and he thinks that the term "Nine Maidens" is an abbreviation for " Nineteen Maidens."

Do the stone circles existing in other parts of the kingdom consist of nineteen stones 1 Edmonds points out that the inner circle at Stonehenge contains nineteen stones. Is this the case elsewhere? and if so, where 1 ? What is the signification of the number nineteen ? and what is the derivation of the word " maidens " in this connexion 1

W. G. D. F.

PARISH CLERK. The race of the old- fashioned parish clerk is fast passing away. Many stories of his quaintness, his curious manners and customs, still exist, and I am trying to collect these before they are quite forgotten. I shall be very grateful if any of your readers will kindly send me descriptions ot the old-fashioned services which existed in the middle of the last century, and per-

haps still linger on in obscure villages and country towns. The old clerk was often a very worthy person, who served God and did his duty according to his lights and know- ledge, and stories of his faithfulness, as weU as of his quaintness, would be very accept- able. P. H. DlTCHFIELD. Barkham Rectory, Wokingham.

" OUR ELEVEN DAYS." When O. S. reckon- ing ceased in England with 2 September, 1752, the sun rose next morning on the 14th :: the date was as it would have been if eleven clear days had actually intervened. How is it, then, that the calculations in Bond's 'Handy-Book for Verifying Dates,' relating, to subsequent years of the eighteenth cen- tury, allow for an interval of only ten com- plete days between Old Style and New 1 e.g., 1 March, O.S. 1799, is said to correspond with 12 March N.S. (p. 9). This view was also taken by the winner of the first prize in the competition lately instituted by the Times for the advertisement of the * Encyclopaedia Britannica.' I have a printed copy of his- answers before me now, in which it is asserted that 1 March N.S., 1765, corresponds with 18 February O.S., and 1 March O.S. with 12 March N.S.

I observe that the 'E.B.' says (vol. iv. p. 677) the legal year O.S. began on 25 May. This is surely a misprint for March.

ST. SWITHIN.

[Our friend ST. SWITHIN is under a misappre- hension. The statement quoted from Bond agrees with ST. SWITHIN'S own. ST. SWITHIN states in? the third line that 3 September O.S. was called 14 September N.S., as is generally agreed. Bond and the ' E. B.' competitor state that 1 March O.S- is 12 March N.S.^and consequently that 3 March O.S. is 14 March N.S., which agrees perfectly with ST. SWITHIN'S own instance. Bond omits eleven days (not ten, as ST. SWITHIN states above), for if the day following the end of February is called 12 March, eleven days have been omitted.]

SILK MEN : SILK THROWSTERS. I should be glad of any information as to the old guilds of "Silk Men," "Silk Women," and " Silk Throwsters," which flourished in the- early part of the seventeenth century.

S. GORDON.

" Loci TENENTES." This queer expression, meant as a plural of locum tenens, is used by a medical gentleman in the 'Editor's Post- Bag ' of the Daily News for Monday, 25 July. Is it an established locution in the medical profession ? I do not remember having seen it before. J. P. OWEN.

TALL ESSEX WOMAN, MRS. GORDON. Where can I find any mention of her except in th&