Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/323

 n s. i. AP*. 16, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

315

Some years ago I was sent an extract from the Court Rolls of a manor in a neighbour- ing English county, showing that the Rev. Peregrine Ball held a copyhold there, and had a son named Thomas Bannister Ball ; but I have unfortunately mislaid this information. Further particulars concerning this family would be much appreciated.

H. HOUSTON BALL. 27, Glenmore Road, Haverstock Hill, N.W.

BEHEADING IN GERMANY (11 S. i. 149, 273). I was staying at Essen on the Ruhr, famous for Krupp's works, in the winter 1893-4, when a murderer was beheaded. The execution was carried out in the prison in the presence of a dozen or so of citizens, one of whom told me that the culprit's head was cut off with one sweep of a heavy two-handed sword. $ ^ L. L. K.

There is a great deal about an hereditary Scharfrichter in a novel of Maurus Jokai called, I believe, in German ' Der schone Michal.' It has been translated into English. WILLIAM BARNARD, LL.B.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE MOUNT JOYS (11 S. i. 204). In The Nation (New York) of 10 March, p. 235, a writer called attention to a blunder by Dr. Wallace that ought to be recorded in ' N. & Q.' This related to Dr. Wallace's statement that Shakespeare in ' Henry V.' raised his host, Christopher Mo unt joy, "to the dignity of a French herald, under his own name of Montjoy." Shakespeare, of course, merely followed Holinshed's ' Chronicle.'

ALBERT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S.

GENERAL IRETON'S DEATH (11 S. i. 86).

Carlyle, quoting Anthony Wood, gives 26 Nov., 1651, as the date of Ireton's death. In this most authorities seem to concur. ' Chambers's Encyclopedia ' (ed. 1895) is, however, responsible for the state- ment : "On 15th November, 1651, he died of the plague before the walls of Limerick." JOHN T. PAGE.

MAKING ONE'S PARISH (11 S. i. 206, 254).

ohn's case was not as R. S. B. supposes,

therefore the explanation does not fit.

e was a young man "hardly twenty-one,

i not out of his 'prenticeship," and bent upon

I'imony.

1 Tis time as 'prentice was nearly runned out

to was 'prentice to Squire Coles here to Drayford!

ne was sent up to Beechwood to work, 'cos

Bquire Coles owned a lot of property up

Vnd there I met with'un In they

days a man's parish was where he served out the last forty days of his 'prenticeship, and John he was going back to Drayford to make his parish, as they called it, and he was jealous of the groom to our place, not that he 'd no call to be jealous."

Perhaps John's Mary misunderstood the state of the law. ST. SWITHIN.

JACOBITE SONG (11 S. i. 248, 291). Three versions of the Jacobite song ' The Tartan Plaidie ' were given in ' N. & Q.' in 1865 (3 S. vii. 54, 121, 161), all differing in detail, but presenting certain features of resem- blance. In one of them it is said of Prince Charlie :

First when he came to view our land, The graceful look o' the princely laddie

Made all our true Scots hearts to warm, And blythe to wear the tartan plaidie.

Th.3 robust patriotism of Scottish poets is well known, but scarcely goes so far as to deny true-heartedness to any save the wearer of a tartan plaid. A modern Gaelic bard, Evan Mac Coll, who died, I believe, in Canada some years ago, presents the same sentiment as that embodied in the querist's lines, but in language to which no exception can be taken :

' Tis there 'neath the tartan beat hearts the most

leal- Hearts warm as the sunshine, yet firm as the steel ; There only this heart can feel happy or free ; The red heather hills of the Highlands for me !

W. SCOTT.

" MOTHER OF FREE PARLIAMENTS *' (11 S. i. 227). Mr. Bright in a speech which he made at Birmingham on 18 Jan., 1865, said :

"We have had here, with scarcely an inter- mission, Parliaments meeting constantly for six hundred years ; and doubtless there was some- thing of a Parliament even before the Conquest. England is the mother of Parliaments."

See ' Speeches of John Bright,' edited by Thorold Rogers, vol. ii. p. 112 (2nd ed.) ; also The Times of 19 Jan., 1865, p. 9, col. 4.

I have never heard this descriptive phrase attributed to any one else.

HARRY B. POLAND.

Inner Temple.

ALFRED AND THE CAKES (11 S. i. 129, 211, 250). PROF. SKEAT has now, I hope, put the legend on its proper basis for all time. It is really refreshing to find that there is some little foundation for it, after all. I thought it had been relegated to the region of myths, like that of William Tell and so many favourite stories of our youth. The circumstantial account in Asser's ' Life of Alfred,'- it seems, is only a new and