Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/25

 ii. JULY 2, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

17

p. 548 there is the conclusion of a judgment by Chief Justice Holt (given in the ' Reports,' 1028), in which he says :

"The Judges of the Common Pleas are of another opinion, but I cannot satisfy myself with their reasons. I think the better day, the better deed."

It is so given in his * Dictionary of Quota- tions,' 1893, by the Rev. James Wood, who ascribes it to Walker.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

The addition of " should be " is quite a departure from the usual proverbial brevity, and, to judge from the corresponding con- tinental forms, incorrect. The French say, " Bon jour, bon ceuvre," or rather " bonne -ceuvre"; the Spaniards, " En buen dia buenas obras": and the Portuguese, "Em bons dias bons ooras." Ray gives the Latin form as " Dicenda bona sunt bona verba die," and the English as " The better the day the better the deed." J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

TEA AS A MEAL (8 th S. ix. 387 ; x. 244 ; 9 th S. xii. 351 ; 10 th S. i. 176, 209, 456). Perhaps the following quotation from Fanny Kemble's Writing on 27 March, 1842, she says :
 * Records of Later Days' may be of interest.

"My first introduction to 'afternoon tea' took place during this visit to Belvoir, when I received on several occasions private and rather mysterious invitations to the Duchess of Bedford's room, and found her, with a ' small and select ' circle of female guests of the castle, busily employed in brewing and drinking tea, with her grace's own private tea kettle. I do not believe that now universally honoured and observed institution of ' five o'clock tea ' dates further back in the annals of English civilization than this very private and, 1 think, rather shamefaced practice of it."

EDWARD STEVENS. Melbourne.

Note may be made of the belief of "a leading journal of Bordeaux," which (as recorded by Mr. Bodley in his introduction to the recently published translation of M. Emile Boutmy's study of the political psy- chology of the English people) last autumn observed that no midday meal in England was complete without its proper complement of " whisky, tea, and porter." A. F. R.

POTTS FAMILY (10 th S. i. 127, 434). Pedi- grees of this family are contained in the following works : Burke's 'Extinct Baronet- cies,' p. 422 ; Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' eighth edition ; and Blomefield's ' History of Nor- folk,' vol. vi. p. 464. The first- mentioned authority states that this family, originally of the counties of Chester and Lancaster, removed into Norfolk in the sixteenth cen-

tury, and settled at Mannington. Sir John Potts, of Mannington, created a baronet in 1641, was, according to Burke, great-great- grandson of Sir William Pot, whose grandson in 1583 had arms granted him, Az., two bars ; over all a bend sa. The title became extinct on the death of Sir Chas. Potts in 1731-2, cet. fifty-six.

The name occurs in the church or church- yard at Ellough, Suffolk (see * Inscriptions,' by F. A. Crisp). CHAS. H. CROUCH.

5, Grove Villas, Wanstead.

OUR OLDEST MILITARY OFFICER (10 th S. i. 389). According to Hart's 'Army List' for 1904, there was still living on 31 December, 1903, General Charles Algernon Lewis, of the North Staffordshire Regiment (64th Foot), whose first commission was dated 13 October, 1825, as well as General Henry Carr Tate, of the Royal Marine Artillery, whose dates from 30 June, 1829 ; but it is possible that even these are not the oldest surviving military officers. In regard to the senior service, the 'Royal Navy ^List 3 for April, 1904, gives Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney as having entered the navy in August, 1826 ; Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe in September, 1828 ; and Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar Ommanney is specially to be noted as having taken part in the battle of Navarino in 1827.
 * on 13 March, 1829; and of these Admiral

Concerning the longest-service volunteer, as a kindred subject, it may be added that Lieut.-Col. R. Nunn wrote a few weeks ago to the Volunteer Service Gazette, pointing out that Col. Mitchell, C.B., now V.D., of Cannizaro, Wimbledon, was " sworn in " by him on 26 June, 1859, as a volunteer ; he had commenced drill a fortnight previously, he has remained in the regiment from that time to the present, and he is now in active com- mand of it. The regiment went away for its annual training in the autumn of 1859, and has continued to dp so every year since, Col. Mitchell invariably accompanying it. He is, undoubtedly, the longest - service volunteer living to-day, and completed his forty-fourth year of uninterrupted service last June a record unique.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

MOTHER SHIPTON (10 th S. i. 406). Like DR. FORSHAW, I have always been led to believe that Mother Shipton hailed from Yorkshire. The following interesting refer- ence is taken from Fletcher's 'Picturesque History of Yorkshire ' (1900) :

"With the Dropping Well at Knaresborough the name of Mother Shipton, the world-famous prophetess, wise woman, sibyl, witch, or fortune-