Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/372

 362

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL MAY s, 1915.

emblem rather with Hanover. It is, there- fore, to obtain the views of your readers interested in this equine question that the following passage, from an anonymous work (Paris, 1875) on the Duke of Brunswick of fantastic fame, is offered :

" Depuis pres de mille ans les Brunswick ont le monopole d une merveill euse race de chevaux a la robe a argent ; aux yeux, aux naseaux et aux sabots roses. C'est la poste"rit du fameux cheval de bataille que Charlemagne echangea avec leur ai'eul Witikind le jour de son bapteme, et que les descendants du heros ont pris pour blason."

Bournemouth. L * G> R *

HORNCASTLE. Can any reader inform me whence this surname is derived V There was a hamlet near Hems worth, Yorkshire, called Horncastle. Does the name appear in Harrison's ' Surnames of the United Kingdom ' ? Any information, however small, would be most gratefully received. Kindly reply direct.

REGINALD G. SMITH.

2, Manor Road, Brockley, S.E.

DEDICATION OF PRESTON PARISH CHURCH. It is stated in several local histories that the ancient parish church of Preston was dedicated (1) to St. Wilfred; and that (2) in 1581 Chadderton, Bishop of Chester, ordered that name to be discontinued, and that of St. John to be used. Any evidence of either or both these statements will be welcomed. MURAL BRASS.

LISTS or NONCONFORMIST MINISTERS, 1800-1900. In the case of a person with the prefix Rev. not found in the Church of England Clerical Directories, what lists of ministers of various denominations can I consult ? Failing published lists, to what central authorities can I apply for informa- tion ? L. A. DUKE.

Hornsey.

MONT ST. MICHEL. Will any one versed in the military history of the time of Wil- liam III. and Queen Anne say whether Mont Sfc. Michel was then besieged or assaulted by British troops or the Navy, and, if, so, when and what troops were engaged ? F. DE H. L.

PETER WALKER entered the Merchant Taylors' School in 1752 ; date of birth 9 Feb., 1741. I shall be glad if any one can give me information about him or his parents or descendants.

I am seeking for particulars of a Peter Walker who married a Rebecca Woolner about 1750. Their daughter Charlotte

married Lieut. Francis McLean, R.N., at St. George's, Hanover Square, on 25 Dec., 1802. Peter her father is described in her death certificate as teacher, Oxford College. Charlotte McLean had a daughter, Rebecca Chester, born at Orford, Suffolk, in 1806. A. H. MACLEAN.

14, Dean Road, Willesden Green.

PACK-HORSES.

(11 S. xi. 267, 329.)

ONE of Macaulay's graphic passages comes at once to mind. It seems to illustrate the subject appropriately. The following para- graph is found in his chapter upon ' The State of England in 1685 ' :

"On byroads, and generally throughout the country north of York, and west of Exeter, goods were carried by long trains of pack-horses. These strong and patient beasts, the breed of which is now extinct, were attended by a class of men who seem to have borne much resemblance to the Spanish muleteers. A traveller of humble condition often found it convenient to perform a journey mounted on a pack-saddle between two baskets, under the care of these hardy guides."

Cleland in his ' Statistical Account of Glasgow * gives details of two men named Thomson and Glassford who, in 1739, jour- neyed from Glasgow to London on horse- back. No turnpike road greeted their eyes till they came to Grant ham, which is within 110 miles of London. Up to that point they had travelled on a narrow causeway with an unmade soft road on each side of it. They met from time to time strings of pack-horses, from thirty to forty in a gang, transporting goods from one part of the country to another.

" The leading horse of the gang carried a ball to give warning to travellers coming in an opposite direction, and when the two wayfarers met these trains of horses with their packs across their backs, the causeway not affording room, they were obliged to make way for them and plunge into the mud at the side."

This passage is quoted from Cleland in Sydney's ' England in the Eighteenth Cen- tury,' vol. ii. p. 7.

At Helmstey in East Yorkshire it was the practice to range six horses in a line, tie them head to tail, and then load. Two of such lines, with two drivers, conveyed nine quarters of oats to Beverley (' Rural Eco- nomy of Yorkshire in 1641, being the Farm- ing and Account Books of Henry Best of Elmswell,' Surtees Society).