Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/542

 448

NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. DEC. 7, 1907.

this interesting matter. It may be noted that the Arabs use kir (which is the Greek Kuptos) in the sense of " lord " ; Mr wa Jcir is a title of the Greek Patriarch, " your Reverence." A. L. MAYHEW.

" PASSEMENTERIE." On 25 May, 1615, before the authorities of Dundee,

" comperit Alexander blair Master vnder god of ane bark callit the grace of dundie And entered the said bark laitlie arryved from Roane in france Contenand the goods and geir vnderwrittin...viz. ... thrie doz of hattis 4 doz hat striugis 100 pasmentrie 2 gross silk poyntes ane gross pennaris & inkhornes 2 gross neidles cussew 2 doz abeill pasmenterie halif gross menis beltis," &c.- ' Shipping Lists of Dundee ' in ' The Compt buik of David Wedder- burne'( 1898), 255.

This instance of passementerie is con- siderably earlier than those given in the ' N.E.D.,' and suggests the inquiry how passementerie was then reckoned for the manifest. " A hundred passementerie " seems to convey no very definite idea. When these lists speak of things measured by ells, that word is used, or one might suppose this was a piece 100 ells long. And what was an " able passementerie " ? Q. V.

' A TRIP TO VOOLVICH.' I have some curious doggerel, written, I should say, about 1840, without date or printer's name, with the above title. It is a lumberingly humorous account of an early voyage on a Thames passenger steamboat. It is signed E. C., and I should be glad to learn if anything is known of this writer.

Here is the first verse of the " poem " :

Last Vitsimtide I vent a trip To Voolvich by the vater, And took my villing little vife, Vith Bess, my only daughter.

The party felt too ill on arriving to stay at Woolwich, and would not venture to return by boat, but hired a cab for the return journey. The last verse runs :

In loo of stopping there ve reach'd Our Tebbald's road instead, Vhere Bess retired to her roost, And vife and I to bed.

There are about twenty pages of this stuff, with four verses on each page.

WM. NORMAN. Plumstead.

ERLES OF COMPTON, NEAR WINCHESTER. Is there any pedigree of this family ? In 1436 John Erll of Compton entered Winchester College. He was Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1445-8. In the will of Edburga Stratford, formerly nun of St. Mary's Abbey, Winchester, dated 18 March,

1552, a legacy is left to John Erie, rector of Compton, formerly monk of Winchester. He compounded for the firstfruits as rector of Compton, 15 Jan., 1550/51, and was succeeded after deprivation in 1559. Hi& name occurs as a recusant in S.P. Dom. Add. Eliz. xi. 45. One of this name was- sent to the Gatehouse in November, 1595 (Cath. Rec. Soc., ii., 287); but this is probably another person.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

MEN OF FAMILY AS PARISH CLERKS. Canon Raine observes that in Northumber- land members of families of old descent and coat armour appear as parish clerks (Surtee& Society, vol. xxii. p. 45). He states that the same fact is not to be observed in the county of Durham. It should be noted, however, that in 1578 at least two members of Durham families of old descent, wnich were connected by marriages with families occurring in the Heralds' Visitations, are included among the parish 'clerks, William Shipherdson being parish clerk of Bishop- wearmouth, and George Dale parish clerk of Dalton. Can any one supply similar cases, either in co. Durham or elsewhere ? It is difficult to suggest a satisfactory ex- planation. Was money so scarce, in the north of England at least, as to make even a parish-clerkship desirable ? Or were no parishioners of a humbler class able to- read and write with sufficient correctness ?

TEMPLAR.

HANDKERCHIEFS AS RELICS. A writer in The Eetford Times of 27 September says, on the authority of a recent article by Mr. L. Brindle in Fry's Magazine, that when the celebrated Voltigeur won the St. Leger in 1850, after a dead-heat with Russborough, there was mad delight at his victory. " As many as could get near him would insist on wiping the sweat off him with their handkerchiefs, in order that they might keep the latter as mementoes."

Are such memorials of famous horses often, treasured by the populace interested in racing ? Every one is aware that hand- kerchiefs which have touched men or women of saintly reputation have often been pre- served as relics, but I know of no other instance in which handkerchiefs have been kept in commemoration of an animal.

A. L.

HAKE : CROMWELL. Wiliam Hake of Peterborough (M.P. for Peterborough 1593), in his will, pr. 14 Jan., 1625/6, appoints as one of his trustees " my loving brother