Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/329

 ii. OCT. i, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

269

relics found in a supposed cemetery at Upton Snodsbury, in Worcestershire. They consisted of beads, spear-heads, a sword, ana fibulae. Are they preserved in any local museum ? T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.,F.S.A. Lancaster.

FONT CONSECRATION. I shall be much obliged if MR. HOBSON MATTHEWS (see ante, p. 171) or some other contributor will state where a description of the ceremony of the consecration of a font is to be found.

Q. W. V.

CHIRK CASTLE GATES. Can you inform me who made the wrought-iron gates before Chirk Castle, Denbighshire? 1 believe the

Elace is at present occupied by the Biddulph mrily. ERNEST WEBB.

CONDITIONS OF SALE. What is the earliest known form of conditions of sale on auc- tioneers' catalogues of live and dead stock, furniture, and so on ? I do not refer to land or house property, which varies very con- siderably. One dated 1809 is less in detail than present-day conditions.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Work sop.

COL. SIR JOHN GUMMING. Can any reader kindly furnish information as to the parentage of Col. Sir John Gumming, Knt. 1 He was in the service of the East India Com- pany, and married at Calcutta, on 22 June, 1770, Miss Mary Wedderburn, of Gosford, dying at St. Helena on 26 August, 1786.

HENRY PATON.

120, Polwarth Terrace, Edinburgh.

SEMI - EFFIGIES. In Lich field Cathedral are preserved several monuments which are spoken of as "semi-effigies," and are attri- buted to the thirteenth century. They con- sist of separate sculptures of the head and shoulders and of the feet of recumbent figures, each sculpture recessed in the main wall of the church. The recesses, usually square or oblong, have sunk edges, as if formerly fitted with a shutter or door, although no hinges or staples are now visible. The space between the head and feet (placed at their natural distance apart) is, in one instance at any rate, occupied by a shield in stone for an inscription or heraldic device. What was the object of this form of monu- ment ? Was it general in the thirteenth cen- tury ? and are other examples still extant ? H. W. UNDERDOWN.

ACQUA TOFANA. Is there any trustworthy account of the composition of this poison ? ' Chambers's Encyclopedia,' in its article on

poisoning, adopts without question the sug- gestion of arsenic ; but it is difficult to accept this. I believe I have seen in some French work the statement that the principal con- stituent was powdered glass, which would act as recorded of this poison, and which I am told is still used as a method of assassination in China. Lucis.

ANNA CATHERINA LANE. Can any one inform me of her parentage 1 A licence of marriage was issued by the Vicar-General, 26 April, 1749 : " John Coulson, of St. Mary Magaalene, Bermondsey, Surrey, bachelor, to Anna Catherina Lane, of the same parish, spinster." In the Gentleman's Magazine mention is made of the marriage as having taken place 29 April, 1749. A search among South London parish registers has been with- out result. Possibly a collector of Lane wills might be able to furnish the information.

J. C.

LORD KELVIN ON THE TIDES. Where could I find the work, or paper, by Lord Kelvin in which he states that " the rise and fall of the tides cannot be economically utilized as a power " ? MASONICUS.

BLIND FREEMASON. I have taken the fol- lowing item from * Biography of the Blind,' by James Wilson, published at Birmingham by J. W. Showell in 1838 :

"Though blind from hi8 birth, Mr. Francis Linley became a most excellent performer on the

organ he went to London, and was the successful

candidate among seventeen competitors for the place of organist of Pentonville Chapel, Clerken- well He died at his mother's house at Don- caster, on 13 September, 1800, at the age of twenty- nine. Being a Freemason, by his own request he was attended by the master and brethren of St. George's Lodge in that town."

Can this latter statement be correct 1

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

KIPLIN OR KIPLING FAMILY. Can any one check the following arms, borne by my great- great-grandfather Kiplin, circa 17251 Er- mine, on a chief azure three griffins' heads erased or ; crest, a griffin's head ; motto, "Vincitveritas." W. B. H.

St. Martin's Lane, W.C.

"APPLE" IN MANY LANGUAGES. Will one or more of the polyglots who read * N. & Q.' be so good as to let us know whether in any language, other than Baskish, Heuskara, or Vascuense (=Vasconense), there is a word equivalent to apple, but meaning heavy ? If it could be shown that pomum is related to pondus, my theory that sagar (the Baskish