Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/567

 10 s. VIL JUNE is, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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not used for private occupation, it could be adapted for a school, private hotel, or public institution, while some portion of the valu- able return frontages might be advantage- ously developed for building purposes, without detriment to its value as a whole.

JOHN HEBB.

MBS. HANNAH GLASSE. I have been for a considerable time trying to find out some- thing substantial as to Mrs. Glasse's name and nationality, as the columns of ' N. & Q.' will show. I have succeeded with respect to both, and wish to record the facts in 4 N. & Q.'

Turning to the Report on the MSS. of the Earl of Egmont, vol. i. part i., p. 2 (5 Nov., 1574), we find that Hugh McMourghe {McMurrough) Glasse and several others, natives of co. Wicklow, appeared before the court at Dublin Castle, and were sentenced William Ashpoole (their chief) to pay a fine of '201. Irish, and the other defendants 40s. each for riot.

Hugh McMurrough's name is given in 7 rish (Aodh MacMurchadha Glas (in English characters), but the attempt at phonetic spelling is primitive indeed. McMurrough is made M'Mourghe, and the adjective glds, signifying green or grey, is made Glasse a surname. The spelling of the Irish word is partly adopted, but the pronunciation of it in Irish is entirely ignored.

JAS. HAYES, M.R. S.A.I.

Ennis

" THUMB - HAND SIDE " = RIGHT - HAND SIDE. This remarkable expression is now and then heard in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, as, for instance, in the sentence, " Ye mun go down there, and keep to t' thomb-hand side." It is not in the 4 English Dialect Dictionary,' or, so far as I know, in any other. It is strange that the right hand should be called the thumb hand, as if the thumb on the left were useless. What the phrase seems to imply is that the thumb of the right hand was exclusively used in grasping implements, such as hammers, so that the right hand came to be known, par excellence, as the thumb hand. S. O. ADDY.

MASONRY AND RELIGION. The religious basis of English Masonry is well known, and historically and politically interesting. The controversy between Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient of France has been the subject of much public notice, and rested on the exclusion by the Grand Orient, from the " rites," of all religious forms, and all

references to the " Grand Architect of the Universe." Its result has been that English Masonry is in communion with the Rite ficossais in France, the ancient Masonry founded at the Court of St. Germain by the Jacobites, but has not any relation with the Grand Orient, to which most French Masons belong. On a recent occasion the Dean of Gloucester appears to have preached a Masonic sermon in which he treated the religious basis of Masonry as equivalent to a Christian basis ; but all documents avail- able to the public upon the subject seem to show that Masonry is only Deistic, and not Christian. The admission of Mohammedans and other non-Christians to lodges under Grand Lodge confirms this view.

M. A. R.

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

CHANTRIES AND CHURCH STORES. In preparing for publication some old church- wardens' accounts I meet with allusions to pre-Reformation usages of which I feel that I ought to obtain a fuller understanding before completing my remarks thereon. To this end I venture to solicit authoritative answers to any of the following questions.

In many churches we find that there existed an altar at the east end of each aisle. Does the erection of a side altar imply the endowment in perpetuity of a priest distinct from the incumbent of the parish ? or might an altar be installed without any such provision for its services, the expense being met by single or combined voluntary effort on the part of parishioners ?

Bequests for the " foundation of a chantry " (a very loosely applied term) or "for the maintenance of a chaplain" are frequently so meagre as to have been quite inadequate to the entire subsistence of a man for the space of time covered by them. This and the fact that they were often only for a few anniversary obits or a few " month's minds" imply that (1) a priest and (2) an altar, not already monopolized or fully engaged, were available. Would an altar or a priest endowed by the founder of a church, or by a lay patron, or by a guild (let us say for the celebration of a daily mass for the benefit of the founder's soul), be open to such extraneous demands upon it or him ?