Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/620

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. n. DC. 2*. 190*.

George, or any other thing, to the pleasure of the mayor and worship of the town." Another order occurs, 24 Henry VII., speci- fying "that every one of the forty-eight should contribute towards the support of St. George's Guild ; those who had been chamberlains sixpence, and the others four- pence annually." In 15 Henry VIII., the master having neglected to notice or pro- claim this annual custom, an order was made, subjecting him to a fine of 5l. in default of appointing a day between St. George's Day and Whit Sunday. In the St. George's Chapel attached to the church the effigy of a horse harnessed, or decorated with gaudy church trappings, was formerly kept. After the Reformation, according to p. 133 of ' A Walk through Leicester,' 1804, this horse was sold for twelvepence.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Baltimore House, Bradford.

I have no acquaintance with the work from which ME. HAINES quotes, but I have on several occasions heard the proverb "Always in his saddle, but never on his way," used with reference to equestrian statues generally, especially where the horse's legs express movement. Perhaps this is the meaning in the passage quoted.

F. A. RUSSELL.

Catford, S.E.

RUSKIN AT NEUOHATEL (10 th S. ii. 348). I can recall no passage in which Ruskin gives an 'account of his receiving his first revela- tion of the beauty of nature when walking on the shores of the lake of Neuchatel, and I would suggest that MRS. STEPHENSON is under a misapprehension in the matter. If she will turn to ' Prseterita,' vol. i. c, vi. sees. 133, 134, and 135 (1899 edition), she will find an account of the author's sensations at his first sight of the Alps from a garden-terrace at Schaffhausen, which is probably the passage she is in search of. In the last-mentioned section Ruskin says that the sight of the Alps was to him not only the revelation of the beauty of the earth, but the opening of the first page of the volume, and that to that garden-terrace at Schaffhausen and the lake of Geneva his heart and faith constantly re- turned in every impulse that was nobly alive in them, and every thought that had in it help or peace. Vol. ii. of 'Prseterita' con- tains much about Geneva. J. COLES, Jun.

Frome.

BIRTH AT SEA IN 1805 (10 th S. ii. 448). At the date mentioned there was not any official registration of births in England. This was introduced by the Act 6 & 7

William IV., c. 86, which came into opera- tion on 1 March, 1837, and made provision by its 20th section for the registration of the birth of the child of an English parent born at sea on board a British vessel.

In 1805 the child, if its parents were members of the Church of England, would, if not baptized before its arrival in England, be no doubt baptized in some parish church in England. But there was no obligation to have it baptized in any particular parish. Search for a record of the baptism might be made in the register of the parish in which the Saracen's Head was situate, and perhaps in those of some of the neighbouring parishes,

E. T. B.

In sum, the Stepney parishionership legend can be accounted for by the fact that in the olden days Wapping was the common landing- place for seafaring folk, whence the nearest register (i.e., christening) would be used. Further, many sailor-fathers lived in Stepney until very recently. Is it a fact that a child born at sea cannot be charged as a passenger ?

MEDICULUS.

OXFORD ALMANAC DESIGNERS (10 th S. ii. 428). The first Oxford Almanac was drawn up by Maurice Wheeler, minor canon of Christ Church in 1673. Robert White en- graved the sheet almanac in 1674. The prints of forty-seven of the earlier numbers were mostly engraved by Michael Burghers, and those from 1723 to 1751 chiefly by Vertue. For fuller accounts of these almanacs consult Vertue's 'Anecdotes of Painting/ vol. v. 280; 'Oxoniana,' i. 178; Gentleman's Magazine, Ixi. 207 ; ' N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. i. 255.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

MAYERS' SONG (10 th S. i. 7). It does not seem as though any answer were forthcoming to the query at the above reference as to the melody. If, however, one does appear, may we hope to have therewith a pronouncement as to whether the version of the first versa there given from 3 rd S. vii. 373 is correct ? It differs from that set out in Brand's * Popular Antiquities ' (Bohn's edition), i. 230, and Hone's * Every-Day Book,' i. 567-8.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

PARISH DOCUMENTS : THEIR PRESERVATION (10 th S. ii. 267, 330,414, 476). A statement on p. 476 by MR. COLEMAN, referring to the- parish records in this Library, is likely to cause inconvenience and disappointment if allowed to pass uncorrected. The records deposited here do not contain a single parish register, as stated by him, but consist chiefly