Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/519

 10*8. ii. N,,V. 26.19W.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

derision. Is there any truth in the alter- native derivation from a 4< village named Spours " in the neighbourhood of St. Omer ?

J. DORMER.

'STEER TO THE XOR'-NOR'-WEST,' or *The Writing on the Slate,' begins with (or con- tains) the words, " It was a bark from Liver- pool." Is 'Steer to the Nor'-Nor'- West ' the title of a poem .' If so, by whom? Where could it be obtained 1 OXFORD.

"AND MORNING BRINGS ITS DAYLIGHT."

I should feel much obliged if you could help me to the author of the line :

And morning brings its daylight and its woe.

A. C. T.

THREE VOLUMES v. ONE VOLUME. " This volume in the usual form of three volumes," <fec. so runs the publishers' memoir of L. E. L. prefixed to a single- volume edition (1856) of When did the three-volume fashion, at thirty- one and sixpence (publisher's price), die out about 1880? What was the name of the last of these volumes ? Which the first bold six- shilling book 1 R. S.
 * Romance and Reality,' by Ward & Lock.

[A similar question was asked in 1900 (9 th S. vi. 369). The year 1894 would be nearer than 1880 for the disappearance of the three-volume form. Mr. Meredith's * Lord Ormont and his Aminta,'in three volumes, was reviewed in the AthtncKum of 14 July, 1894. Of eight novels reviewed in that paper on 13 October, four were three-volume novels ; but although ten novels were reviewed on 29 December, 1894, not one was in three volumes.]

"GIVING HIS SUPPER TO THE DEVIL." Campbell, in his interesting book on the 4 Superstitions of the Islands of Scotland,' makes mention of an awful ceremony known in that country as "Giving his supper to the Devil," which consisted in roasting cats alive on spits till the Evil One himself appeared in bodily shape, compelled to grant whatever wish the person who performed the ceremony desired.

Was this awful ceremony ever performed in any part of England at any time ?

JONATHAN CEREDIG DAVIES.

WESLEY FAMILY. In our parish registers there is an entry of a marriage between John Wesley and Pasque Sharman, on 12 May, 1794. Can any one tell me if this namesake was a relative of the founder of the Methodists? JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

WILLIAM ROBERTSON. There are recorded at Tayport, Fife, the marriage of William Robertson to Helen Miller, on 25 April, 1650, and the baptism of their son Arthur, on

27 April, 1651. Can any one tell me who William Robertson was, or give me any infor- mation about him ? I particularly wish to know who his parents were, and to which branch of the Robertson family he belonged.

J. C. ROBERTSON. 11, Fort Street, Dundee.

DUCHESS OF GORDON. Capt. William Gor- don, of the Abergeldie family, writing (3 June, 1785) from Little Gordon Castle, near Bromp- ton, to Sir Robert Murray Keith, our ambas- sador at Vienna (Add. MS. Brit. Mus. 35,534, f. 200), tells a salacious story about the famous Duchess of Gordon, the Prince of Wales, and the Due de Chartres. " After supper," he says, " she was taken ill and was obliged to go to bed : Aom peh ozaoxh soon after." What do the three strange words mean ?

J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mail, S.W.

PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, 1754-1816. Any clue to the surname of his wife, whose arms are shown on his book-plate, will oblige.

A. C. H.

GENEALOGY IN DUMAS. I shall be glad if any readers of *N. & Q.' can throw light on the supposed birth of the Vicomte de Bragelonne. Is Athos his real father? and who is his mother ? AMY TASKER.

PINKETT. " Pinkett's Corner" in a Wor- cestershire parish is a boggy place where the will-o'-the-wisp is sometimes seen. Is " Pinkett" current elsewhere in this sense ?

H. KINGSFORD.

REV. WILLIAM HILL. In the * History of the Chartist Movement, 1837-54,' by R. G. Gammage, published in 1894, there are several references to the gentleman whose name is prefixed to these lines, mentioning him as the editor of the Northern Star. Then, on p. 401, it is stated that he " became editor or some trade journal at Edinburgh." May I appeal for guidance to an obituary notice of him, or, at least, for a note of the date and place of his death ? CHARLES HIGHAM.

169, (^rove Lane, Camberwell, S.K.

CON- CONTRACTION. In manuscripts and books of the sixteenth century and there- about a mark of elision, known as C cursive or C reverse, was used at the beginning of a word to indicate the syllable con, e.g. : oclave = conclave. It was sometimes a reversed C, sometimes the figure 9. This statement can be verified by any dictionary of printing.

What I wish to know is this : Was there, in the printers' jargon of the time, any par- ticular name for this character, and especially