Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/335

 10 s. VIL APRIL G, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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<3ommunication if he had told us the nam< of the bookseller and the date of the cata logue. Lamb's joke about Thicknesse's ' Useful Hints to those who make the Tour in France ' has appeared elsewhere, but it is most interesting to learn that Lamb recordec it in the above-mentioned work, if it really is in his autograph.

It is just possible that some one, remember- ing the pun, may have thought that the boot which was the occasion of it was a suitable one in which to transcribe it, and may have added Lamb's name to show its authorship in the same way that one copies a favourite passage, with the author's name appended Should the happy possessor of the book be & reader of ' N. & Q.,' perhaps one's doubl may some time be set at rest. Booksellers are not infallible guides as to Charles Lamb's handwriting. S. BUTTERWORTH.

CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS (10 S. vii 189, 232). A "schrve-pin" (1614-15): most likely a screw-pin.

" Shadshovells " (1622-3), perhaps shod- shovels, of wood, shod with iron.

" Scizeing " (1661-2), doubtless fixing the assize of the faggots and billets.

W. C. B.

" Shadshovells " are (wooden) shovels shod with iron, and occur as "shode shovylle," " shodshovill," in ' The Mediaeval Records of a London City Church ' (E.E.T.S.).
 * ' Shewers " (1658-9) may be witnesses.

H. P. L.

The " grate " of St. Alphege (1612-13) and at Aldermanbury (1673-4) were pro- bably graffages, or watergates for the water- courses. J. P. STILWELL.

KIRBY HALL, NORTH ANTS (10 S. vii. 228). An illustrated article on ' Kirby Hall,' by Lady Constance Howard, occupied six pages of The Woman's World some twenty years ago. I possess a copy of the article, but unfortunately the date is not recorded thereon. Lady Constance Howard also contributed half a column of letterpress on ' Kirby ' to The Graphic of 4 Feb., 1882. It was accompanied by a full page of illus- trations.

A valuable article on Kirby Hall appeared in vol. v. of Northamptonshire Notes and Queries. It was written by Mr. J. A. Gotch, and fully illustrated. Another article on Kirby Hall, written by Edith Broughton, and illustrated from photographs by the author, appeared in The Sketch of 11 Jan., 1899. It bore the title of ' A Stately Home vof England that is in Ruins.'

Further articles relating to Kirby Hall will be found in The Builder (illustrated) of 27 Oct., 1888 ; The Daily Chronicle, 20 Oct., 1888 ; St. James's Gazette (' A Deserted Palace'), 20 Oct., 1888; The Kettering Observer (illustrated), 26 Oct., 1888 ; The Northampton Mercury, 27 Oct., 1888 ; and The Northampton Herald, 27 Oct., 1888. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

There is an interesting article on this old mansion at 5 S. xii. 122, written by Lady Alwyne Compton (signed FLORENCE COMP- TON). Some notes upon the house may be found in Murray's ' Handbook for North- amptonshire,' p. 193. It was built by Sir Christopher Hatton temp. Elizabeth, and is now in a woeful state of disrepair. It is in the parish of Deene.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND EUROPEAN POLI- TICIANS (10 S. vii. 165). That Lincoln's later addresses " are very far from being the utterances of a mere ' petty practitioner ' or ' village lawyer ' " will hardly be disputed by Americans. But the passage quoted at the above reference will not bear the inter- pretation placed upon it by MR. A. F. ROBBINS. Lincoln's letter to J. F. Speed of 24 Aug., 1855, is a long one. In it Lin- coln said :

"You inquire where I now stand. That is a dis- puted point. 1 think I am a Whig ; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist. When I was at Washington, I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty time* ; and I never heard of any one attempting to un- Whig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery. [ am not a Know-Nothing ; that is certain." 1 Writings,' 1905, ii. 246.

MR. ROBBINS quotes the words italicized Dy me, and says :

"A phrase which showed at least sufficient ac- quaintance with the by-ways of European politics is aptly to recall the story of the younger Pitt exclaiming to a friend concerning Fox during the debates on the Regency Bill of 1788, 'I'll un-Whig he gentleman for the rest of his life.' "

Now Lincoln was elected in 1846 a Repre- entative from Illinois to the Thirtieth Con- gress as a Whig. It was about 1835 that he word Whig came into use in the United States as the designation of a political party, ["he words " Whig," " Abolitionist," " Wil- not Proviso," and " Know-Nothing " prove onclusively that the above passage does not ontain the slightest allusion to " the by- vays of European politics," but refers wholly and solely to American politics. Indeed,