Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/424

 416

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY 21, 1910.

Francis, born, baptized, and buried at Chelsea ; a daughter, who died single ; and another, his favourite child, who was married to William Morice, Esq., high bailiff of Westminster." Vol. iii. p. 83.

W. SCOTT.

BROKEN ON THE WHEEL (10 S. vii. 147, 292; 11 S. i. 255). Forms of this punish- ment, other than that mentioned at the second of the above references, doubtless can be found ; one such is described in the Roman Breviary, English version, under 25 Nov. :

" Then was Katherine brought out of ward, and a wheel was set wherein were fastened many sharp blades, so that her virgin body might thereby be most deadfully cut and torn in pieces ; but in a little while, as Katherine prayed, this machine was broken in pieces."

Such a wheel, depicted by sundry artists in different times and countries, is shown in The Open Court for 1907 (vol. xxi. pp. 674, 675, 730, 731, 732) in. a paper on St. Catherine of Alexandria. This gives other illustrations also, and attempts to connect her wheel-emblem with the myth of a solar bride. ROCKINGHAM.

Boston, Mass.

LIEUT. WILLOUGHBY : LADY EDWARDES (11 S. i. 287). Sir Herbert Edwardes married Emma, daughter of James Sidney of Richmond. In 1886 she was living at 41, Onslow Square, London. W. A. H.

" PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT " (10 S. x. 488 ; xi. 13, 54, 94, 138). The Guardian of 15 April, in noticing ' The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles,' ' Pro- phesy Pyxis,' &c., remarks :

" The jocular phrase ' the psychological moment ' originated hi a singular mistake by the translation into French of an article in a German newspaper of December, 1870, referring to the bombardment of Paris, where the word ' moment,' meaning momentum, was taken to intend a moment of tune, and ridicule, catching hold of the supposed pedantry, quickly gave currency to the notion."

To me " psychological momentum " is not less of a rune than is ' ' psychological moment " ; but it may be simple to the scientific. ST. SWITHIN.

" RASKE " (11 S. i. 206). In the Shetland Islands this is a luxurious growth of corn or grass. Hence, says the ' E.D.D.' (s.v. 'Rask'), raskit is an adjective of plants, meaning of rank, rapid growth: "Can ye tell me da raison ? at ane o* wir best tattie rigs is a' raskit ta da sho [shaw] ? n (Shetland News, 21 Aug., 1897).

I do not know whether Prof. Skeat goes- further into the word " rascal " in his larger ' Etymological Dictionary,' but in his- ' Concise' (1901) one gathers that "rasque" or " rask " and " rascal " may be related.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

Easke may possibly mean faggot or chip, as there is an almost obsolete word in the Gloucestershire dialect of the Forest of Dean, district, of similar sound. Rasp, rask, or raskings is used for dried chips, sawdust, filing, and small pieces of firewood ; raspings. is used in some places, and not confined to- Gloucestershire. Eascles = rustles, is applied to the crackling of Wood when it burns, or to any slight noise. SYDNEY HERBERT.

Carlton Lodge, Cheltenham.

FIRST ELECTIONS UNDER THE BALLOT- ACT (11 S. i. 268, 378). MR. SCOTT adds a word as to secret voting under the Educa- tion Act of 1870. But a more important precedent was that of the vestries under the Metropolis Local Management Act,, for these elections, when contested, were decided by secret ballot voting, long before the Parliamentary Inquiry of 1869. D.

ABBE COYER TO PANSOPHE (11 S. i. 367). Pansophe was Voltaire's nickname for- Rousseau. When Voltaire did not wish to acknowledge the ' Lettre au docteur Pan- sophe,' he attributed it, among others, to the Abbe Coyer. The matter is explained in Bengesco's ' Voltaire : Bibliographe ' (t. ii 179- 83 ; t. iii. 358).

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

191, Plymouth Grove, Manchester.

THE BTJCKLAND SHAG (11 S. i. 367). The story inquired for is one entitled ' The Bucklyn Shaig,' published in September,. 1865, in two volumes. It was written by the Hon. Mrs. Alfred Montgomery (a daughter of the first Lord Leconfield), who- in her later years joined the Church of Rome.. ' The Bucklyn Shaig ? refers to a wicked lord doomed to ride on horseback with the devil! behind him, and in the story the legend is- assigned to the Cliffords, an old Catholic- family. Mrs. Montgomery died in 1893.

R. B. Upton.

Mrs. Alfred Montgomery published in 1865 a novel, 'The Bucklyn Shaig;' After a description of the Bucklyn Shaig as a devil " for all the world like a very shaggy wolf,'" holding on to the haunted rider, a note on