Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [us. vm. NOV. is, 1913.

of Dort in gazetteers ; the latter I have consulted scores of reference works without being able to find mentioned. No account of Aries mentions it, though the old councils there are always referred to, and save from this pamphlet I could not have known that there ever was a synod of the Reformed Churches there. Can any one give me a reference for a notice of it ?

FORREST MORGAN, Hartford, Conn.

BIRD ISLAND : BRAMBLE CAY. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' furnish me with infor- mation as to the latitude and longitude of these two islands, their size, physical features, population (if any), &c. ? They are not mentioned in any gazetteer to which I have been able to refer, and 'The Ency- clopaedia Britannica ' merely mentions them as appendages of the British Empire in the Pacific Ocean.

THEODORE W. JACKSON.

Elba, Fox Hill, Natal.

MR. STEWART (LIEUT. STUART) OF SCIN- DIAH'S SERVICE. Am I right in identifying this officer (' Wellington Despatches,' ed. 1837,' vol. ii. pp. 434, 445, 480, 554) with Daniel Stewart, born 1777. eldest son of Thomas Stewart, Town Clerk of Montrose, who, after some years' in native service, re- ceived a commission in H.M.'s 24th Dragoons in March, 1808, and died at Meerut on 12 Dec., 1811 ? Inquiries at the War Office and Army Head- quarters in India leave the matter in some doubt. There was a " Capt. D. Stewart " in Scindiah's service, who received the pension secured by Lord Wellesley's proclamation in August, 1803. This officer's name appears in the Pension Lists till 1817, in which year Daniel Stewart's family left India.

LIEUT. JAMES STEWART, R.N., son of Capt. Charles Stewart of the Trinity House, and first cousin of Daniel Stewart, 24th Dragoons, married Harriett Hazlitt (see * Memoirs of William Hazlitt,' by W. C. Hazlitt, Bentley, 1867, .vol. i. p. 262). They had a son James Stewart, born 1820, believed to have been an artist. Is anything known of him ?

C. S.

The University, Brisbane.

THE PRICE OF CANDLES, c. 1735. In the early minutes of St. George's Hospital occur numerous entries of payments for rush -lights and cotton -lights, and, in addition, for "10 dozen candles," averaging in price from 4s. to 4s. 6d. " per dozen." Sir Wil- liam Church, referring to similar entries in

the minutes of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, opines that these candles were made of tallow (they were supplied to Bart's by tallow-chandlers) ; and argues that since " they could not cost more than 4c?. apiece, the words ' per dozen ' must mean per dozen pounds."

But is it certain that tallow-chandlers did not then supply wax candles ? And, since three candles in winter and two in summer were the usual allowance for each ward per night, is it not probable that these candles were of wax rather than tallow, and that they cost from 4c?. to 4^c?. apiece ?

Can any reader tell me the price of wax candles per pound at or about the date m question ? That each candle weighed a pound is a by no means improbable solution* An answer direct would oblige.

GEORGE C. PEACHEY.

11, Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, N.W.

ORIGIN OF RIME WANTED. I shall be glad to know the source and correct version of a rime relating to prehistoric man, one verse of which runs like this :

They lived in a wood,

Or wherever they could, For they didn't know how to make beds.

They hadn't got huts,

And they dined upon nuts,

Which they cracked upon each other's heads- Can any of your readers help me ?

JOHN W. SINGLETON, Librarian, Public Library, Accrington.

ENGLISHMAN WHO DISCOVERED THE TIN MINES OF BOHEMIA. According to the enlarged edition of Robert Johnson's ' Rela- tions of the Most Famous Kingdoms r (London, 1630), the tin mines in Bohemia were first found by an English (probably Cornish) tinner, who fled thither for debt (p. 277). Has his name been recorded any- where ? L. L. K.

FAGGOTS TO BURN HERETICS : OSIDGE. Osidge, originally Huzeseg, the southern portion of the great forest which at one time enveloped Barnet, and the property of the Abbey of St. Alban, has now become the estate of Sir Thomas Lipton. In ' A Chat about Barnet and its History,' 1912, I find (p. 48) :

" It would be interesting to record in this connection [the martyrdom of William Hale iu Barnet market-place] that Osidge is still held on condition that the woods supply faggots for the burning of heretics."

Is this statement verifiable ?

W. B. GERISH. [See 9 S. ii. 169, 378 ; v. 269, 326, 401 ; vi. 15.]