Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/220

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NOTES AND QUEEIES. [ii s. i. MAR. 12, 1910.

Winchester. See ' John of Wallingford,' Gale, i. 535, et seqq. ; Asser, ' Mon. Hist. Brit., 1 481 ; Lingard, i. 189 ; and E. A. Freeman, ' Old English History, 1 122. Prof. Freeman says : "Most likely the whole story comes from a ballad.' 2 A. R. BAYLEY.

[MR. W. SCOTT also thanked for reply.]

ROKEBY HOUSE, WEST HAM : CLOWES FAMILY (11 S. i. 108). An account of this house is given in Fry's ' History of East and West Ham, 1 which says that it was "in former years the residence of the Rokeby family after the sequestration of their old property, " and that it bore "evident signs of the times of James I." The arms over the mantelpiece in wood were " a chevron between three unicorns 1 heads, three crescents." A photograph of the arms recently hung in the Reference Library at Stratford.

In connexion with your correspondent's suggestion that the house was owned by William Clowes, 'Chambers's Biog. Diet.,* referring to a Wm. Clowes (1540-1604), says : ' ' He became surgeon to the Queen, and after a prosperous practice in London, retired to Plaistow in Essex." G. H. W.

The subject seems, in part at least, to be dealt with in an article entitled * Rokeby House, Stratford, 1 contained in Cotgreave's ' Souvenir of West Ham Libraries,* 1898. The book is in the British Museum and West Ham Libraries. W. SCOTT.

ST. GRATIAN'S NUT (11 S. i. 10, 77). If it is the case that the nut popularly called by this name is the fruit of a Trapa, it may be worth noting that these nuts under the name " water- chestnut " were a regular article of food on stalls at a great fair in full swing at Laval, Mayenne, on 16 Septem- ber last. Although Trapa natans does not seem to occur so far west as Laval, they were evidently that season's nuts, and were being sold in a freshly boiled state. In flavour they were virtually indistinguishable from the sweet chestnut. W. P. D. STEBBING.

'THE ABBEY OF KILKHAMPTON* (10 S. xii. 323, 450 ; 11 S. i. 76). May I correct an error which appears twice, viz., at last two references concerning p. 92 of ' The Abbey of Kilkhampton l ? Catharine Macaulay's second husband was not Dr. Graham. She married, 17 Dec., 1778, William, a younger brother of James Graham, the quack doctor, of the " Temple of Health, 11 Royal Terrace, Adelphi. When William Graham, aged 21, married Catharine Macaulay, aged 47, he

was a "surgeon's mate. 11 He became eventually the Rev. William Graham, M.A. of Misterton in Leicestershire. * ' Dr. 11 Graham treated Mrs. Macaulay medically, and presumably introduced his brother to her.

For other articles on * The Abbey of Kilkhampton l see 3 S. viii. 455 ; 4 S. i. 353, 467 ; 9 S. xii. 381, 411, 488 ; 10 S, i, 12. ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

"PROUD PRESTON n : LEATHER SHOES (11 S. i. 66). The earliest impression of the arms of Preston is attached to the Guild Roll of 1415, and it shows clearly that there are three P's, which at once refutes the idea that their meaning is " Princeps Pacis. 11 Perhaps I may be allowed to quote from my ' History of Preston, 1 p. 37 :

" There can be little doubt but that the letter P simply stands for Preston, and is repeated for ornamentation or to render the design more artistic. In later years the third P was disused, and the remaining two were sometimes said to stand for ' proud Preston,' a joke which was probably justified by the fact that in the seven- teenth century many of the tradesmen in the town were junior members of old county families, and, claiming the right to bear arms, entered their pedigrees at the heralds' visitations."

HENRY FISHWICK.

The Preston phrase is echoed in an ancient borough in Hampshire in this form : " Poor, proud Lymington,' 1 where the epithet ' ' poor " helps to a clearer signification.

TOM JONES.

CLOTHES AND THEIR INFLUENCE (10 S. xii. 468 ; 11 S. i. 76, 152). Some think that clothes have very little influence. Rudolphe Rey, in a book on Italy, says that when King Bomba was a prince, he asked his father's permission to alter the uniform of the regiment of which he (the prince) was colonel. The old king answered : ' ' Dress them as you like ; they will always run

away.

M. N. G.

PENZANCE MARKET CROSS (11 S. i. 69). I think that MR. SCARGILL will find some particulars of the Penzance Market Cross in the Transactions of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society ; but my set is imperfect, and wants those issued (luring the last twenty years. If the inscrip- tion was deciphered at its removal in 1900, it is certain that a transcription of it would have been printed in either The Cornishman or The Cornish Telegraph, and I remember reading something on the subject in one of those papers at the time. W. ROBERTS.