Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/357

 us. XL MAY i,i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

347

The Visitation of 1634 was printed by- the Harleian Society in 1871, vol. v. pp. 240-337, of its Visitation Series. The Preface to the volume mentions that the Visitation of 1668 is probably of no ver^? great genealogical value; permission to print a list of names of such of the gentry as were capable of bearing arms, and had been entered, could not be obtained from the Heralds' College. A Supplement to the Visitation of 1634 was announced in 1909 as a " prospec- tive publication " of the Society, but has not yet been printed.

There is not a comprehensive history of Oxfordshire. Vol. ii. in the " Victoria County Histories " has been published ^1907), but deals only with the religious houses, industries, agriculture, earthworks, and sport. Of the histories of portions of the county, consult Blomfield's * Deanery of Bicester' (1882-94); Kennett's 'Parochial Antiquities .... Counties of Oxford and Bucks' (1695, and new edition, 1818); the Transactions of the Oxfordshire Archaeo- logical Society ; and, publications of the Oxford Historical Society.

ROLAND AUSTIN.

Your correspondent will doubtless find the following of interest : ' Antiquities of Oxfordshire,' Joseph Skelton, Oxford, 1823 ; and High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire, 1086-1868,' John Marriott Davenport, Oxford, 1869 ; ' History of Oxfordshire ' (" Popular County Histories "), John Meade Falkner, London, 1899. JOHN HARRISON.
 * Oxfordshire Annals : Lords Lieutenant

Nottingham.

SCHOOL FOLK-LORE (11 S. xi. 277). There is an amount of school folk-lore and custom, which is, in fact, disappearing, that might usefully be recorded in ' N. & Q.' "by those who can speak of it from their own personal recollection. For instance, there is the recurring cycle of school games, which had their regular " seasons " before the time of the modern higher athleticism marbles, peg-tops, whipping-tops, hoops, and such like, which formed the amusements of schoolboys after school hours nofc only at -elementary schools, but grammar schools and even higher places of education.

To come back, however, to the matter more especially before us that most ob- jectionable form of punishment, striking the palm of the hand with a cane or ferrule. In the Victorian era the cane more especi- ally was in the hands of almost every peda- gogue, and the myth that a few hairs from

the head not necessarily from one's own head laid upon the palm of the hand before receiving the chastisement, would be effectual in mitigating the punishment, was almost universal. Not, however, quite in the way your correspondent suggests. It was sup- posed that the hairs had'the effect of splitting the cane, and thus making the punishment ineffective. The belief was common, and reference to it as acting in this way as an anodyne will be found in several stories of school life of the last century.

F. A. RUSSELL. 116, Arran Road, Catford, S.E.

In my boyhood the cane was the instrument of physical punishment. We believed that if a hair was inserted in one of the little canals which run from one end to the other of a cane, a smart blow would split the cane and probably hurt the master's hand. There may be some connexion between this belief and the two beliefs recorded by MB. FRANK WARREN HACKETT. JOHN R. MAGRATH.

Queen's College, Oxford.

SIR HOME RIGGS POPHAM (US. v. 70, 1 36). Lest any future inquirer should be misled, it would be as well to state that the Mrs. Popham whose death is recorded at the latter reference was the second wife of Joseph Popham, and was not the mother of Sir Home Riggs Popham. G. F. R. B.

AUTHOR WANTED (11 S. xi. 299). S. Butler's ' Satire upon our Ridiculous Imitation of the French,' 11. 127-30, which runs thus :

For though to smatter ends of Greek Or Latin be the retoric [sic] Of pedants counted, and vainglorious, To smatter French is meritorious.

R. A. POTTS.

[PROF. BENSLY thanked for reply, which notes that the ' Satyr ' may be found in vol. i. of Butler's 'Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose,' 1759.]

" RENDERING " (11 S. xi. 266). This word occurs several times in the Eton Time-table, 1530, which is quoted by Miss Parker ('Dissenting Academies in England') from ' Educational Charters,' by A. F. Leach,

E. 451. For instance, on Friday for the ixth Form is specified " at after none renderyng of rul[y]s lernid the hole weke," and on Saturday " repetyng of latyns and Vulgars lernyd all ye weke." At the foot of the table* is the general rule, " Every Quarter one f ortenyght every forme rendryth all things lernyd that quarter."

CHARLES MADELEY. Warrington.