Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/519

 10 s. vii. JUNE i, loo?.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

London, 1806, occur these words : " Except- ing from the Frittars or Greaves of the Whale (a very loathsome Meat)." A note on " greaves " says : " The scraps of the Fat of the Whale, which are flung away, when the Oil has been extracted." This may be worth recording as a supplement to the quotations afforded in the ' H.E.D.'

E. S. DODGSON.

ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER, AND BUCKINGHAM. The following information will be of interest to all those who know anything of, and have a regard for, this interesting Westminster parish. The Buck- ingham papers of the beginning of January record that while workmen were making some alterations to the staircase in an old house in Bridge Street of that town, they discovered a quaint will dated 1699. The testator was one Stephen Gorneller, of St. Margaret's, Westminster, mariner, in his Majesty's service ; and in this document he alludes to the perils and dangers of the deep, and some of the other uncertainties of life. He commends his soul to God who gave it, and his body to the earth or sea, as "it shall please God to order." He then leaves all his property to his " honoured father and mother," and appoints them sole heirs and executors. It may be possible in a little while to find out some particulars of this old-world sailor, and see what his connexion with this parish really was, and, perhaps, how he came to be at Buckingham.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

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

" POURCUTTLE " t " POURCONTREL."

These old names of the octopus, although apparently unknown to modern dictionaries, were very common in the seventeenth cen- tury, and are used in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society as late as 1758. Between 1591 (Sylvester) and that date I have before me no fewer than nine- teen quotations. The faculty which the pourcuttle has of changing its colour often afforded similes to the moralists. Is the name entirely obsolete, or does it still linger in any seaside village ? The two forms are puzzling, and there is nothing to show which is the original. Philemon Holland gives them

as synonyms to render Pliny's polypus. Pourcuttle obviously looks like a derivative of cutile(-fish), but if it was the original form it would be difficult to account for its corruption to pourcontrel ; whereas if the latter was the original, it might be assimi- lated to cuttle by ordinary popular etymo- logy, which makes 'bronchitis into brown Titus or brawn typhus. I find as yet nothing like the word in any other language, and no etymologists appear to have tackled it.

J. A. H. MURRAY.

SCHOOL FOR THE INDIGENT BLIND. Unfortunately, the earlier records of this charity, late of St. George's Circus, South- wark/ have been lost. The School was established in 1799, and remained in South- wark till 1902, when it moved to Leather- head, where it now flourishes, with some 215 male and female resident pupils. The history of the School is now being compiled, but there appears to be a hiatus in informa- tion as to its site, which others and myself have been unable to fill.

The point at issue is the following. At Midsummer, 1811, the School left its original premises at St. George's Spa, St. George's Fields, Southwark, and moved into tem- porary ones in St. George's Circus (vide following minute) until 1814, when it occu- pied a schoolhouse erected there, remaining in that building until 190.2.

I shall be glad of any information defining the premises occupied by the School from Midsummer, 1811, until 1814, when the schoolhouse was built and prepared for reception of the pupils, &c.

The following is a copy of the minute from the School records :

"8 Aug., 1811.

The Secretary reported that on Tuesday, the 23 July, all the pupils and all the articles belonging to the institution had been removed from the old school to the new premises in the Circus, St. George's Fields."

All I can say is that the premises must have been large and important to accommodate resident pupils who numbered at least 70 odd. EX-CHAIRMAN.

GRAHAM AND LITTLE PARENTAGE. In the edition of Burke's ' Landed Gentry ' for 1849, and in connexion with the family of Purdon of Lurgan Race, co. Louth, it is stated that their ancestor Thomas Little, of Thornhill, Cumberland, married Margaret Graham, a daughter of the Montrose family.

Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give me particulars regarding the parentage of this lady, or any proof of her marriage to Thomas Little ? WM. JACKSON PIGOTT.