Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/375

 v. APRIL 21, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

307

Folkestone, but when first so called I do not know. The word occurs in the records of that town in 41 Eliz., in an order as to keeping watch in case of invasion :

"And it is also ordered that all persons inhabyt- ing within this towne shall repair to the place of randevowe in the towne uppon the ringing of the great bell."

There is a later use of the word in ' C.S.P. Dora.,' 2 Aug., 1666 :

" Sir Thomas Allin's lady is in South wold, hoping to see him, and entreats news of him, having heard that he is wounded ; she asks where the rendeztous will be."

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

[The earliest quotation in the 'N.E.D.'is 1591, followed by others from Lyly ia 1594 and Shake- speare in 159G and 1599.]

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

PISTOLE, SCOTTISH COIN. This coin of the reign of William III. is just mentioned by Cochran-Patrick in ' Records of the Coinage of Scotland,' 1876. 1 shall be glad to have any contemporary instances of the word (specially any that account for the name) sent to me direct. J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

WORDSWORTH ANECDOTE. A story goes that, when a party of tourists would call in passing at Rydal Mount, Wordsworth would seize an opportunity of slipping out during the visit to the avenue gate, and examining the books that lay on the seats of the car- riage, in order thus to ascertain the prevailing taste in literature. In nine out of ten cases, it is added, he found Scott's poems and romances. Where does this anecdote occur 1 ? If I recollect aright, Wordsworth told it himself to the relater. T. HUTCHINSON.

LA.DY COVENTRY'S MINUET. Philip Thick- nesse, the friend of Gainsborough, and the governor of Landguard Fort, on page 187 of the first volume of his entertaining * Memoirs' (London, 1788-91, 3 vols.), speaks of a lady who <; began to hum Lady Coventry's minuet." This, of course, must refer to Maria Gunning, the one and only Countess of Coventry. Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.,' which con- tains such a wealth of information respecting old ballads and songs, tell me if a special minuet was composed in honour of the beautiful Lady Coventry, and who wrote

the music ? Thicknesse must have known what he was talking about, and thus it may be presumed that there was a minuet with this title. HORACE BLEACKLEY.

Fox Oak.

HEADLESS DOLLS. I have read somewhere (but cannot remember where) that children in the Comoro Islands use headless dolls, the reproduction of human features being for- bidden by the Mohammedan religion. I am very much interested in the history of the doll, and shall be grateful if any one can kindly confirm or otherwise the above. The paragraph I saw made the statement very positively, but, although I have made a careful search in our local library, I have been unable to find any reference to the subject. A. J. GALPIN.

39, London Street, Norwich.

KIPLING'S ' TOMLINSON.' At a meeting of a society the subject for discussion was a poem of Kipling called ' Tomlinson,' which appears in the * Barrack-Room Ballads.' It was maintained by some speakers that Tom- linson was represented to be guilty of criminal conversation, whereas others held that he merely invented this story for getting admis- sion into hell. I shall feel much obliged if any of your readers will throw some light on this point. D. K. THAKOR.

Common Room, Lincoln's Inn.

FRANCES WRIGHT D'ARUSMONT. Did Mrs. d'Arusmont have a daughter ? Did she adopt her sister Sylvia's daughter 1 I read not long ago in an American paper a statement that has been printed a number of times, to the effect that Sylvia's marriage was unhappy. Is the statement correct? and, if so, why was the marriage unhappy ? The ordinary biographical dictionary does not answer the above questions. Where can I find an ex- tended and correct account of the two sisters I CHARLES ORMISTON CRANE.

Troy, N.Y.

[Drake's 'Dictionary of American Biography' (Osgood & Co., 1872) states, s.v. * Wright, Frances (D'Arusmont),' that she had a daughter, and that biographies of her were published by John Windt in 1814 and by Amos Gilbert in 1855.]

T. T. RUNKEL SALINGEN was an officer in the army of George III. Can any one tell me his rank and regiment ? F. E. F.

ABBE CAMPBELL AND MRS. FITZHERBERT'S MARRIAGE. In Mr. Walter Sichel's * Emma, Lady Hamilton/ it is stated (p. 278) that Abbe Campbell, when chaplain to the Nea- politan Embassy in London, "is said to have been the priest who secretly united the