Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s. XL JA N. in, 1915.

in 1335, the Trinity, of two hundred tons, was prepared for war with an ' ofcastle, topcastle, and forecastle ' ; the ' ofcastle ' being the aftcastle, and the ' topcastle ' the ' top ' or stage at the top of the mast.... The forecastle was then, as since, the place where the crew usually assembled, whether for consultation or amusement. Speaking of a person on board a ship, Chaucer says ' he danced for joy on the forestage.' "

That the aftcastle was the most honourable position, and one in which saluting would be the order of the day, Mr. John Hewitt <' Ancient Armour,' vol. ii. p. 335) affords an instance :

" A passage of D'Orronville seems to point out these castles as the station of the more dignified portion of the army : ' Le due et les autres barons entrerent es chasteaux des nefs et gallees, et es souverains estages ; et les chevaliers, les hommes .d'armes, et les sergens ou leur estoit ordonne.' "

That flags adorned with representations of saints and also images were borne on ships ,nd held in veneration Sir H. Nicolas is .again the authority. It will be seen that .a captured image was considered of such importance as to warrant its presentation to the King :

" In 1337 the St. Botolph and the Nicholas carried streamers with the images of the saints of those names. Before the battle of ' Espagnols sur Mer ' in 1350, two standards and two streamers were issued to all the King's ships, those called .after saints having their effigies .... Besides streamers containing a representation of the saint after whom a ship was named, his image seems to have been likewise on board. When Edward the Third embarked in his cog the Thomas in 1350, before the battle with the Spaniards, an image of St. Thomas appears to have been made for that vessel ; and an image of our Lady, which had been captured in a ship at sea by John cle Byngeborn, was carefully conveyed from West- minster to Eltham, and there delivered to the King, in February, 1376."

Mr. F. T. Bullen (' A Sack of Shakings ') is of the opinion that it is the invisible presence of the sovereign that is saluted.

Mr. Robert W. Neeser, Secretary Naval History Society, New York, replying to a similar query that appeared in The Mariner's Mirror for October, 1913, gives the present U.S. Navy Regulation :

" All officers and men, whenever reaching the quarter-deck, either from a boat, from a gangway, from the shore, or from another part of the ship, shall salute the national ensign. In making this salute, which shall be entirely distinct from the salute to the officer of the deck, the per son making at shall stop at the top of the gangway or upon arriving upon the quarter-deck, face the colours, and render the salute, after which the officer of the deck shall be saluted. In leaving the quarter-deck, the same salutes shall be rendered in inverse order. The officer of the deck shall return both salutes in each case, and shall require that they be properly made."

It seems probable that the practice is a survival of pre -Reformation times, but that now, as Mr. Bullen says, it is an honour paid to " the invisible presence " of His Majesty.

AITCHO.

" King's Parade, The quarter-deck of a man- of-war, which is saluted on stepping on it, in honour of the King." Ansted's ' Dictionary of Sea Terms,' 139.

S. A. GKUNDY- NEWMAN.

AUTHOR WANTED (11 S, x. 488; xi. 13). ' Hair-splitting as a Fine Art ' was pub- lished by Tinsley Brothers, Catherine Street, Strand, in 1882. G. W. E. R.

BORSTAL (11 S. x. 488 ; xi. 13, 35). I should think the reference in ' A Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect,' by W. D. Parish and W. F. Shaw, is more reliable than the other suggestion of MR. BLISS. The situa- tion of Borstal is on the heights overlooking the valley of the Medway, and is visible from the train approaching Rochester from Lon- don, and even more so on the Strood-Maid- stone branch. REGINALD JACOBS.

6, Templar's Avenue, Golder's Green, N.W.

EIGHTEENTH -CENTURY MURDER (11 S. vi. 249). This crime of 1765 is surely the crime made use of by Bulwer Lytton in his famous scientific ghost -story, ' The Haunted and the Haunters,' published in BlackwoocTs Maga- zine, and is generally considered to have had its scene in Bloomsbury, the villain of the piece presumably being a sort of reincarna- tion of Cagliostro, or some one similar. I think the site of the crime has been cleared for British Museum alterations.

C. V. M. OWEN.

"KULTUR" (11 S. x. 331, 377, 412, 452, 517). May I add to my former reply on this subject that in Eckermann's ' Con- versations of Goethe ' " culture " is used, I believe invariably, in the large and liberal sense it has in the passage I quoted ? I am speaking of Oxenford's version, not having the German by me, but I take it for granted that, as in the case I verified, so in all, Eckermann has Kultur. One or two in- stances of the use of the word are sufficiently interesting to be quoted :

" We Germans [it is Goethe who speaks] are of yesterday. We have, indeed, been properly cultivated for a century ; but a few centuries more must elapse before so much mind and ele- vated culture will become universal amongst our people that they will appreciate beauty like the Greeks, that they will be inspired by a beautiful song, and that it will be said of them, ' It is long since they were barbarians.' " 3 May, 1827.