Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/385

 10 s. VIL APRIL 20, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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with iron, an iron chain as thong, and a wood or iron ball studded with spikes.

The Japanese have a flail of bamboo for threshing rice ; and both the war and peace implements seem to have belonged generally to Northern peoples, though there is some little indication that the flail may have come to Ireland from Spain.

As showing the local influence of the tool, one may refer to the custom in Yorkshire by which a girl, on being proposed to, took a piece of straw and broke it into two lengths (long and short), typifying the handstaff and swipple of the flail. If she gave the former to her lover, she accepted him ; but if she tendered the shorter piece, " she gav Mm 't swipple end," or rejected him.

Again, I believe the phrase " He 's not the man to set the Thames on fire " origin- ally referred to the flail thames being the Lincolnshire term for the thongs (interlinked there) of the flail. I should be glad to know if this is correct, and to hear of any other sayings connected with the tool.

T. M. ALLISON.

22, Ellison Place, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

[DR. ALLISON should consult 8 S. vi. 502 ; vii. (69, for " Set the Thames on fire."]

SERINGAPATAM: (10 S. vii. 230). The official report of the capture of Seringapatam by Major-General Baird, who led the assault, should give MR. GODFERY all the information he asks. Col. Malleson in ' Seringapatam Past and Present ' and the appendix to ' The Lives of the Lindsays ' both supply most interesting accounts of the final assault and the events that led up to it.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

Let me refer to the graphic description of Robert Ker Porter's painting of the ' Storming of Seringapatam ' which may be found in Bryan's ' Dictionary ' under the name of the artist ; in Dibdin's ' Remi- niscences of a Literary Life,' p. 143 et seq. ; and Chambers's ' Book of Days,' i. 592. This panoramic painting was executed in 1800 by Porter when he was only ninteen years of age, covered 120 feet of canvas, and was pronounced by Sir Thomas Lawrence to be "a wonder of the world." Unfor- tunately this picture was destroyed by fire, but sketches of portions exist, and many engravings of part of it are in existence. Sir R. K. Porter died in 1842. Dr. Dibdin observes in regard to this painting (p. 142) :

"The learned were amazed, and the unlearned were enraptured. I can never forget the first impression upon my own mind. It was as a thing dropt down from the clouds all fire, energy, in- telligence, and animation. You looked a second

time, the figures moved, and were commingled in hot and bloody fight. You saw the flash of the cannon, the glitter of the bayonet, the gleam of the falchion. You longed to be leaping from crag to crag with Sir David Baird, who is hallooing his men on to victory ! Then, again, you seemed to be listening to the groans of the wounded and the dying, and more than one female was carried out swooning."

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

A detailed account of the siege and storm of Seringapatam will be found in ' A History of the British Army,' by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue, 1906, vol. iv. part, ii, pp. 735-46. The maps and plans in the additional last volume also provide a map of Southern India in which there are two " insets " one of Ceylon, and the other of Seringapatam in 1799. This map is dated 1803.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. ^

The following volumes will no doubt give MR. GODFERY the information he requires :

Wilks's 'Historical Sketches of the South of India.'

Beatson's 'View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultan ' (the official history, written by Mornington's order).

Wilson's ' History of the Madras Army. '

Biddulph's ' The Nineteenth and their Times.'

'Wellesley's Despatches.'

' Despatches and Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington.'

Hook's ' Life of Sir David Baird.'

Lushington's ' Life of Lord Harris.'

Grant Duff's ' History of the Mahrattas. '

ALFRED SYDNEY LEWIS.

Library, Constitutional Club.

This question has already been asked twice in ' N. & Q.,' and accordingly a large store of information has been collected, for which see 6 S. xi. 208, 258, 330 ; 7 S. vii. 27, 113, 256, 312. W. C. B.

COURT ROLL TERMS (10 S. vii. 249). " Bregandiris," body-armour ; see " brig- ander " in ' N.E.D.,' where the first quota- tion is of 1420, " unum par de bregaunters."

" Cathen. ferri," i.e., catena, a chain.

" Gravell " may perhaps be for " gavel," for which see " gaff el " and kindred words in ' N.E.D.' ; a boathook ? Or it may be " grapnel " or " grapple," q.v. in ' N.E.D.'

" Orenzado," probably candied orange- peel : see " orangeade " in ' N.E.D.'

W. C. B.

"1 pec. de cabill" = l " pece " (piece) of rope or cable.

"1 par. Bregandiris " = (perhaps) one portion of a " brigandine," i.e., a jacket composed of small plates of metal, some- what in the style of the macled coats, and imbricated, which was worn by the archers