Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/11

 io s. viii. JULY e, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Also a Report and Survey of a Line, which may be continued from Marybone to the said Proposed Canal,' &c., London (1773 ?). The Regent's Canal Act, 1812, reprinted in 8vo, does not contain a single reference to the railway scheme.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

" TOTTER-OUT. ' In " The Virgins " Inn at Kenilworth (there is no apostrophe on the signboard) there is a portrait of " William Taylor the worthy totter out of our birth- night Society setat 61. Oct r 1848." He is represented holding a decanter in one hand, and a small wineglass in the other. It is explained that it was his duty to fill the glasses of the boon companions. This noun " totter-out " does not appear to have entered the dictionaries. In the ' Shrop- shire Word-book,' by G. F. Jackson, tot is defined as " a small drinking cup," and Dr. Wright's ' Dialect Dictionary ' concurs. E. S. DODGSON.

[Tot, a small drinking cup, is also in Annandale's four-volume edition of Ogilvie.]

JOHN JAMES, ARCHITECT. Walpole had no notes by Vertue to assist him with regard to this architect, and consequently fell into error. He says :

"John James, of whom I find no mention in Vertue's notes, was, as I am informed, considerably employed at the works at Greenwich, where he settled. He built the church there, and the house for Sir Gregory Page at Blackheath, the idea of which was taken from Houghton. James likewise built the church of St. George, Hanover Square, the body of the church at Twickenham, and that of St. Luke [Old Street], Middlesex, which has a fluted obelisk for its steeple. He translated from the French some books on gardening."

Wyatt Papworth in the ' Diet. Arch.' says : " Sir Gregory Page's house at Blackheath was sold by auction to John Gator to be pulled down (Woolfe and Gandon, 'Vit. Brit.,' i. 64-5). St. Luke's, Old Street, is by G. Dance, sen. James died 1746 (Gent. Maff., xvi. 273). By his will he directed a house at Groom's Hill to be sold for the benefit of his widow Mary."

Miss Porter in the ' D.N.B.' says James added the new steeple to St. Alphage's Church, Greenwich, in 1730. The design of the church (built in 1711) is frequently attributed to James, but is more probably by Hawksmoor (cf. plate by Kip, 1714).

JOHN HEBB.

COMMUNION TOKENS IN NEW ENGLAND. The following extract is from Lawrence's ' New Hampshire Churches,' 1856, p. 94 :

"The Lord's Supper was celebrated but twice in the year, spring and autumn, and it was then kept with almost the solemnities of the Jewish

Passover. All secular labor was laid aside by all the inhabitants, and it was a .time of holy convo- cation. Besides the Sabbath, all day Thursday, Saturday afternoon, and Monday forenoon were spent in public religious services, and as strictly

poserved as holy time Previous to the Sabbath

it was the usiial custom to give out the ' tokens,' with one of which every communicant was required to be furnished. These were small pieces of lead of an oblong shape, and marked with the letters L.I). On the Sab oath the great day of the feast tables stretching the whole length of the aisles were spread, at which the communicants sat and received the consecrated elements. The tables were ' fenced/ which was a prohibition and exclusion of any from communicating who had not a 'token.' It was in the power of the Elders who had the distribution of the tokens to withhold one from any professor whose life had been irregular or scandalous. Un- leavened bread, prepared in thin cakes of an oval form, has always been used in this ordinance. The giving out of the tokens, and the Halfway Cove- nant, though now dispensed with, were both continued into Dr. Dana's ministry."

This Dr. Dana was the minister from January, 1822, to April, 1826. He was much scandalized by the heavy drinking of his people, one of whom (p. 92) said, " I do not see how I can worship God acceptably when I feel so very thirsty." On the Doctor's installation a hogshead of rum appears to have been consumed (p. 91). The early settlers of the town came from the Irish Londonderry.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

CORNISH VERGERS : CARNE FAMILY. I think the following instance of longevity and of one family continuing for so long a time to hold one office ought to be preserved in ' N. & Q.' It is taken from The Morning Post of 2 May, p. 3 :

"A CORNISH CENTENARIAN. Mr. James Carne, verger of the Church of St. Columbia, and parish clerk of St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, celebrates his 101st birthday to-morrow. Three generations of the Carne family have held the same office during the past 167 years. The grandfather, John Carne, who died in 1801, aged 80, served 50 years as verger, and was followed by his son John, who died at the age of 84, after a service of 54 years, retiring in 1843 in favour of the present verger, who, until seven years ago, never missed a service, the death of his wife then causing a break in his record."

ASTARTE.

" BLADUM " : " SILIGO." To the usual translation (" corn") of bladum Du Cange's k Glossary ' adds a secondary meaning, " manipulus frumentarius," an armful, bundle, or bottle, the latter being usually applied to hay as measures. In Lincoln- shire in 1297, as will be seen from the follow- ing extracts, it was used as a measure of oats, the same as a quarter. A valuation for the collection of elevenths was made at