Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/348

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. v. APRIL u, im.

farmer said it was hard lines, but in the end ^promised to bring the money.

The farmer appeared at the appointed time, and, threading hia way through the scrub, found the smuggler and his assistants .beside the kegs. " I shan't pay till I 've hed .a taste," said the farmer. The runner -replied, in tones which were afterwards thought unnecessarily gruff, " Nobody 's a-been asking you." When they had bargained as to the price, which, as usual on such occasions, was a lengthy process, the vendor took from his pocket a gimlet, and, making therein, saying at the same time, " Suck up." The buyer did as he was bid, and went on .sucking at the straw for a long time. The second keg was treated in the same manner. The gimlet holes in the bungs were carefully plugged, the money paid, and the farmer set off on his way home, highly pleased with his bargain, for the kegs were large, and the price somewhat less than usual.
 * a hole through the bung, inserted a straw

The kegs were at once taken into the cellar, and no time lost in tapping the brandy cask. The farmer's rage may be imagined when he found that the fluid which -ran through the tap was water only. The .same result followed when the Hollands gin was tested.

The explanation of the trick has probably already occurred to the reader. The "run- ner" felt sure he should never recover the money that was owing to him by fair means, so he had provided two casks filled with water, and inserted bladders containing a small quantity of spirits in each of the casks, the bladders being held in position by the bungs. B} T this device he recovered the money that was due to him.

In after days the smuggler frequently visited Bell Hole, but always took care to ^avoid the society of his former friend. The farmer, on the other hand, when his first fit of anger was over, as he had really lost very little by the trick, began to regard it as a good jest, and was fond of telling the tale to .his acquaintances. EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickeutree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL AND THE

'D.N.B.'

(See 10 th S. iv. 21, 101, 182, 244, 364 ; v. 22, 122.) HAVING dealt with the history of the 'School, I now begin my biographical anno- tations.

Allibond, John (1597-1658), schoolmaster. Chorister; Master of M.C.S. 1625-32 (suc- ceeding Samuel Barnard) ; lecturer on music ;

wrote Latin poems ; held three Gloucester- shire livings successively.

Aston, Sir Richard (d. 1778), judge. School not mentioned by 'D.N.B.,' but recorded in list made by Robert Bryne (Master 1752-76) as educated at M.C.S. together with his brother Sir Willpughby Aston, Bart. (d. 1772). Vide Bloxam, iii. 223. Lord Chief Justice of C.P., Ireland, 1761 ; knighted and transferred to KB., England, four years later ; one of commissioners entrusted with Great Seal, 1770.

Bickley, Thomas (1518 - 96), Bishop of Chichester. Chorister; Fellow, and chaplain to Edward VI.; retired to France during Mary's reign ; Warden of Merton 1569-85 ; bequeathed 40/. for ceiling and paving the School, which possesses his portrait; another portrait belonging to the College is similar to one in possession of Warden of Merton.

Bodley, Sir Thomas (1545-1613), diploma- tist and scholar. Has been claimed for this "schola celeberrima," as we find M.C.S. designated in his time ; in Mary's reign he joined his father at Wesel, Frankfort, and Geneva ; on Elizabeth's accession was sent to Magdalen College as a Commoner ; re- stored and refounded the Oxford University Library, which has since been called by his name, and which contains his full-length portrait ; his monument by Nicholas Stone is in Merton Chapel. No mention of the School in his autobiography.

Brasbridge, Thomas (fl. 1590), divine. Demy in 1553 aged sixteen ; Fellow, obtained living at Banbury, where he opened a school and practised medicine ; published miscel- laneous writings.

Brinknell or Brynknell, Thomas (d. 1539 ?), divine. Master of M.C.S. 1502 8 (between Richard Jackson and Burway or Borrow), where he "exercised an admirable way of teaching " ; Professor of Divinity on Wolsey's new foundation ; wrote against Luther.

Bull, Henry (d. 1575?), theologian. Demy in 1535, he may perhaps have attended the School ; vacated his Fellowship on Mary's accession ; translated Luther's 4 Psalmi Graduum. 3

Bunny, Francis (1543-1617), theological writer. Entered Magdalen 1558, Demy the next year; Archdeacon of Northumberland ; rector of By ton ; a strong Calvinist.

Butler, Charles (1561-1647), philologist, and author of ' The Feminine Monarchic ; or, a Treatise concerning Bees and the Due Ordering of Bees, 3 1609, thus correcting Shakespeare and anticipating Maeterlinck. Chorister ; Master of Basingstoke School and a Hampshire parson.