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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vm. NOV. 29, 1913.

notorious William Dowsing, under a warrant from, the Earl of Manchester, who performed this office for Suffolk in the years 1643-4, boasts in his Journal of having destroyed 192 brasses in 52 churches of that county only. The Churchwardens' Accounts of Walberswick show entries relating to the same transactions ; and in the Church- wardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, West- minster, occurs the following : -

" 1644. Item, for 29 pound of fine brasse at 4d. a pound, & 96 pound of coarse brasse at 3d. a pound taken off from sundrie tombestones in the -church, 11. 13s. 6d."

A. R. BAYLEY.

"ANGELINA GUSHINGTON " (11 S. viii. 307, 358). Thoughts on Men and Things,' 1868, was written by Charles Wallwyn Radcliffe Cooke, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, B.A. 1864, M.P. for Newington 1885-92. Whilst at Cambridge he contributed articles to The Light Blue under the signature of " Angelina Gushington " (see Bowes's ' Catalogue of Cambridge Books,' p. 425). He also pub- lished (anonymously) ' The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq., while an Undergraduate at Cambridge,' 1864. Later he wrote ' Four Years in Parliament with Hard Labour,' a 'Treatise on the- Agricultural Holdings (England) Act,' and ' A Book about Cider and Perry.' I think he died only a few years ago. G. J. GRAY.

Cambridge.

WATTS'S CATECHISM (US. viii. 331) was used at the Giggleswick Grammar School when I was a boy there fifty-seven years ago, under the Rev. John Howson, M.A. (father of the late Dean of Chester), who was Usher Master, Dr. Butterton being Head, and Mr. Langhorne the Mathematical Master. The title of the Catechism was :

" A Short View of the whole Scripture History

represented in a way of Question and Answer,

Ac. By Isaac Watts, D.D."

I have a copy, ' Oxford, printed by W. Bax- ter, for T. & J. Allman, London, 1829." This had been my father's (Rev. S. Comp- ston, then Independent minister at Settle). Watts' s Catechism, was a standard work for generations. S. COMPSTON.

Rawtenstall.

SlMON DE MONTFORT AND LEWES (11 S.

viii. 308, 357). Your correspondent is quite correct in thinking that the proposal made in 1899 to erect an equestrian statue to Simon de Montfort at Evesham proved abortive. E. A. B. BARNARD.

SUPERSTITION IN THE TWENTIETH CEN- TURY (US. viii. 347, 393). A woman about thirty, speaking of the coal-pit disasters, railway collisions, and other serious accidents which have recently occurred, remarked a few days ago, "1913 must be revenging itself." '

Now that the population moves so easily and so frequently, superstitions which are purely local tend to disappear. New-comers do not feel any interest in a belief connected with a certain hill, lane, or spring. But the credulities common to the whole nation still flourish. Popular education does not destroy them. Sometimes advanced educa- tion fails to do the work. I have met a " coach " of fine mental capacities, which had been carefully cultivated, who dreaded the evil luck of Friday the 13th.

A. T. H.

TOFT OF LEEKE, co. STAFFORD (11 S. viii. 366). The Tofts who interest collectors were Thomas (1666) and Ralph (1677) of Tinkers Clough in the Potteries. Although captious critics speak of what is generally known as " Toft ware " (slip decorated ware, not all made by the Tofts) as being no better than " the barbarous work made by New Zealanders," one of the dishes signed by Thomas Toft is for the collector "a joy for ever." One of them sold recently for 190Z. The names of sixty Tofts appear in the ' Potteries Directory.'

Toft is a farm -name. Solon says it is common in Holland. The head of one of the present manufactories of Delft is M. Thooft.

B. D. MOSELEY.

HIGHLANDERS AT QUEBEC (11 S. viii. 308, 354, 397). In answering this query I ought to have mentioned my own privately printed pamphlet, ' The Duchess of Gordon as Recruiter : her Company in the Fraser Highlanders,' of which very few copies were issued. The Duchess's brother, Capt. Hamil- ton Maxwell, was one of the officers, hence her effort in 1775. The pamphlet gives a muster-roll of seventy-nine men, with their age, height, birthplace, trade, date and place of enlistment. J. M. BULLOCH.

ANCIENT WIT AND HUMOUR (11 S. viii. 289, 334). TRINCULO may find something to his advantage by looking into Dr. Chotzner's ' Wit and Wisdom in the Talmud,' a paper among his essays. The subject is far from being exhaustively treated, and awaits the leisure of some learned Talmudist with a sense of the humorous.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.