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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io<" s. v. APRIL 28, im.

in its literal sense, viz., *' Corso d'acqua im- petuoso che corre per le strade, cagionato da piogge di rotte." But Mortiilaro's * Dizionario Siciliano-Italiano ' (Palermo, 1838) describes our term lava only in its figurative sense, viz., "Materia strutta simile al vetro opaco, la quale nel tempo dell' eruzione d' un yulcano, ne esoe, e scorre a guisa di torrente infuocato, ed indi s' indura come pietra."

HORNBY AND FEILDEN M.P.s. Now that the political complexion of the new Par- liament has been analyzed thoroughly, one of its personal aspects invites attention. Reference has been made in more than one quarter to the breach of historic continuity by the loss of the seat for South Monmouth- shire by Col. Morgan, one of a family which seemed almost to have established a pre- scriptive right to represent that county ; but note has not been taken of the fact that, by the retention of the seat at Blackburn, Sir William Henry Hornby has preserved an historic continuity which, as far as the past three-quarters of a century are con- concerned, is even more remarkable and complete. A John Hornby, an E. K. Hornby, and another William Henry Hornby, had been chosen for this Lancashire borough before there was first returned the present Conservative member, who is the son of the last named and brother of the second. So clannish has Blackburn proved, indeed, that a Hornby or a Feilden, and sometimes one of ach, has represented it in every Parliament from 1832 to 1880 ; and when in 1868 William Henry Hornby the elder and Joseph Feilden were re-elected, even in that time of Liberal victory elsewhere throughout the country, but were unseated on petition, the local Tories ran a son of each E. K. Hornby and H. M. Feilden and triumphantly returned them both, defeating Mr. John Morley, himself a Blackburnian by birth, in his first fight for Parliament. Mr. E. K. Hornby sat in only that House of Commons, but Mr. H. M. Feilden was re-elected in 1874 ; and, though there was no Hornby for Blackburn in the Parliaments of 1874, 1880, and 1885, the present member was sent to Westminster in 1886 ; and when ten years later he stated his determination to withdraw from parliamen- tary life, the local pressure put upon him to stay proved too strong for his resolution, and at Westminster he still remains.

A. F. R.

STEWART OF LORNE EFFIGY. Culross Abbey, on the Forth, is undergoing restora- tion at present, and on 19 March an ex-

quisitely carved figure was unearthed. The correspondent of The Glasgow Herald who announced the find describes the figure as that of a " recumbent naval warrior," led to do so, doubtless, because there is "a full- rigged ship of Roman build, having the head of a dragon for a figure-head," over the right thigh. The vessel has "also a cross at its mainmast, and Hies a pennant, whilst on the left thigh there is what might represent a strip of tartan. It is in the form of twelve raised squares in three rows, suspended from a hand."

The correspondent in question is evidently no herald. Had he been one, he would at once from these symbols have identified the effigy as representing a Stewart of Lome, not improbably the " Black Knight" himself, the second husband of Queen Joan Beaufort, widow of James I. of Scotland. What is described as a ship of Roman build is the galley of Lome; the "strip of tartan," or twelve raised squares, the well-known fesse cheque of the Stewarts, their paternal coat. The said galley and fesse the Stewarts of Lome bore quarterly, first and fourth and second and third respectively. The Black Knight of Lome had estates close to Culross, and his father's brother was the founder of the branch known as the Stewarts of Rosyth (the new naval base), a place a few miles distant from Culross.

That the effigy represents one of the above Stewarts does not admit of doubt, and I was the first to express that opinion in writing. The truth was obvious as I read. It is said the workmanship is almost as perfect as when it left the sculptors hands. Every- thing about this knight clad in double armour is richly adorned, and the whole re- presents a person who was a man of mark in his day a Stewart of Lome, I firmly believe. W. M. GRAHAM EASTON.

"HOMINY": ITS ETYMOLOGY. This is by way of being a household word, but its origin has never been satisfactorily settled. The suggestion made in the 'N.E.D.' merely amounts to this, that one of the elements of which it is composed may be the Algonquin min, which means grain. Dr. Murray makes no mention at all of rockahomonie, which occurs in several of our older authors in the same sense, and to my mind supplies the key to the riddle. Mr. Craigie will presumably deal with it under R, so I venture to draw attention to it here, as being in all proba- bility the full form, of which hominy is merely an abbreviation. I need hardly say that many American terms in English have become