Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/430

 356

NOTES AND QUERIES, tio s. vm. NOV. 2, 1907.

In regard to the name of Buckworth, a great-granddaughter of Samuel Alavoine's, Mary Magdalen Russell, married Thomas Buckworth of Finsbury Square, and died, leaving issue, in 1847, at the good age of 89. She, having been brought up by her two maiden aunts who lived at Tottenham Anne Alavoine, who died in 1810, aged 79 and Esther Alavoine, who died in 1800, aged 64 may also have been buried there. But the husband, Thomas Buckworth, who died 25 April, 1803, aged 48, was interred at St. Olave's, Jewry. H. W.

It may be some consolation to W. C. J. to know that a great number of the M.I. have been copied, including the large vaults, armorial ledgers, &c. The shield on the vault referring to Delahaize, Alavoine, and Buckworth refers to the first name, and is to be found in Papworth's ' Dictionary.'

J. G. BRADFORD.

The inscription and arms on the tomb of Philip Delahaize, 1769, are given in F. T. Cansick's ' Epitaphs of Middlesex,' iii. 68 (1875). Mr. Cansick's intention was excel- lent, but his execution lamentable.

W. C. B.

The concluding scene of Walton's ' Com- plete Angler,' published originally in 1653, is laid at Tottenham High Cross. I have a nice copy of that celebrated work, published by John Major, Fleet Street, 1824. It is " embellished " with copperplate and wood- cut engravings, the latter remarkably well executed.

As a tail-piece to chap, xxi., p. 262, is a small woodcut thus described in a note on p. xliii. :

" Exterior view of Tottenham Clrarch, and Monuments, including the Mausoleum of the Cole- rane Family : from an Original Drawing made on the spot by John Capes, Esq., of Wai worth. Copied and Engraved by H. White."

The church appears as an antique struc- ture of considerable size, and in the church- yard are many gravestones, some sinking into the ground, and a large circular building which is, I suppose, the mausoleum alluded to, somewhat resembling that of Sir George Mackenzie in the Old Greyfriars' Churchyard at Edinburgh. What the connexion of the Coleraine family was with Tottenham I cannot say, but in the reign of Charles I. a peerage with this title was conferred on one of the Hare family. Several slabs covering their remains may be seen within the altar- rails of the parish church of Docking, Nor- folk, so polished with blacklead as to make

the footing unsafe. Coleraine was a title- borne by several families, and became ex- tinct in 1824. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

At the above reference a correspondent says that the churchyard of Tottenham Parish Church "is in a very ill-kept and desolate condition," and " in parts dis- graceful." I can only invite any of your readers to visit the churchyard, for I am convinced that every fair minded person would say it is in excellent order. We pay out of church collections 10Z. a year to a local nurseryman to keep it as is befitting God's acre, and have no reason to com- plain of the way in which he carries out his duties. The tomb mentioned by your correspondent was in a very ruinous con- dition, so, at my own charges, in order to preserve them from utter decay, I had the slabs with coat of arms and inscriptions placed as they at present stand, and shall be only too glad to hear from L. C. J. when he has discovered the owner. The church- yard is open to L. C. J. and " every idle person " no more and no less than church- yards generally are. DENTON JONES. The Priory, Tottenham.

" NOM DE GUERRE " AND " NOM DE PLUME" (10 S. viii. 248). It is surely a platitude of many years' standing that a nom de plume is no French expression. Nom d'un pipe is merely an expletive, and helps in no wise. H. P. L.

GOAT'S BLOOD AND DIAMONDS (10 S. viii. 270). This queer notion must be at least two thousand years old. It is noticed by Pliny in his ' Natural History,' book xxxvii. chap, iv., where Holland's translation has :

"For this inuincible minerallfthe diamond] is

forced to yeeld the gantelet and giue place vnto the blqud of a goat ; this only thing is the means to break it in sunder," &c.

Isidore copies the story in his book on ' Etymologies,' bk. xii. chap. i. sect. 14.. So does Philip de Thaun, in the twelfth century, in his ' Bestiary,' 1. 1421, written in Anglo-French. It was a very common belief in the Middle Ages. I suspect it to be much older than the first century.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

Sir Thomas Browne in his ' Pseudodoxia Epidemica ' discusses the statement that a diamond is " made soft or broke by the blood of a goat " (Bonn, vol. i. p. 166).

JOHN WILLCOCK. Lerwick.