Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/524

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JUNE i, 1907.

now, a long row of them on the gallery, a well-known feature in the waterscape. Made too long, the galleries were a source of annoyance to the light craft which hugged the shore. If this explanation be correct, probably some of the old prints will show the gallery, pots and all.

DOUGLAS OWEN.

Might this term not apply to a fixed wooden gallery or double-decked stage used in olden days in tidal rivers or ports to moor ships to, for the convenience of passengers and goods at varying depths of the tide ?

The modern floating landing-stage accom- modates itself to all tides, and rendered the old structures obsolete. Examples of fixed pier-landings, with three decks constructed on the old plan, may be seen at Portsmouth, Ramsey, and elsewhere.

WILLIAM JAGGABD.

POT-HOOKS AND HANGERS (10 S. vii. 388). There were " pot-hooks " and " pot- hangers " in the chimney-place of the house-place of my first home in Derbyshire. These I can just remember, and how they were used. Since then I have seen none. In the chimney, about seven feet above the house floor, was " a galley-bawk " a stout flat iron bar fixed on edge in slots in the stonework of the chimney, across which it stretched. From this galley-bawk was hung the " hanger." The hanger had a broad hook at top, by which it was hung on the galley-bawk ; and at the lower end of the hanger was forged a plain hook. From the lower hook of the hanger, the " pot- hooks " were suspended. The pot-hooks were hooked at both ends just such hooks as are used by butchers for hanging meat. The pot-hooks were of various lengths, some long, others short, so that the sus- pended pot could be put at any distance above the fire. I might say that the pot was usually called " the iron-pot," and was of considerable size, though there were little and big pots, all having iron handles some with a loop in the middle by which the pot was hung on the bottom pot-hook. There was also a smaller hanger for suspen- sion from the lowest pot-hook. This was in two portions : a flat bar behind with round holes, and a round front bar with a hook at bottom, and a stud at top which fitted loosely the holes in the flat bar. By this extra appliance the whole apparatus could be still further lengthened or shortened as required. The pots were never hung high in the chimney, the distance above the fire being such that saucepans could be boiled

on the fire whilst the pot hung. This arrangement of the hanging pot was before there were boilers at one side of the fire- places.

The galley-bawk I am remembering had on it two hangers one carrying a short chain, the pot-hooks hanging from the bottom link. The galley-bawk, hanger, and pot-hooks were a cumbersome arrange- ment, which the addition of the boiler to fire-places seems to have brought to an end.

I hope this will afford DR. MURRAY some of the information he seeks.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

The arrangement in the house in which I was brought up was, to the best of my recollection, as follows. At the back of the fire-place, both in kitchen and brewhouse, there was an upright iron fixture with a swinging arm terminating in a horizontal hook. This was called the gate. From it there depended the pot-hook, a flat piece of iron which turned up hook-wise, and wa& pierced with holes, by means of which it could be hung from the gate-arm at any desired height. The hanger was a round piece of iron hooked at both ends, and was used to lengthen the " pot-hook " as required.

Pot-hooks in writing are strokes " hooked " at top or bottom only, like the first stroke of n or the last stroke of u ; hangers are " hooked " at both ends, like the last stroke of n. They thus resemble respectively the pot-hook and hanger in domestic use.

C. C. B.

The pot-hook, a kitchen fire utensil, is also called a " hook-and-hanger," because its upper end hooks on to the " crane," whilst its lower extremity is used as a hanger for pot or kettle. It is a single object. The form of the heading is misleading, inasmuch as it suggests two different things ; whereas the phrasal term merely describes two functions of one and the same object. The printed setting, therefore, would be clearer if it were " pot hook-and-hanger," instead of " pot-hooks and hangers."

The strokes and turns, in the large-hand practised by the schoolboy, have their names from this domestic implement. Up- stroke and " down-turn " (the first element of the letter n) show the " hook " ; down- stoke and " up-turn " (the second element of the letter u) resemble the " hanger " ; and " double-turn " (the last stroke in the letter ra) combines both features in itself, completing its similitude to a " hook- and-